Will the biology section have this difficulty?

Started by Knickerbocker
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Amino acid derivatives are generally covered in biochemistry and won't be on the PCAT. Heck, I would have to review my upperclassman biochem materials to learn that stuff. That question is beyond the scope of the MCAT too.

The activated carrier question is beyond the scope too. Though I would expect better answer choices for the Hardy-Weinberg question, all the other ones are familiar PCAT-like questions.
 
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Should I be concerned about intricate details of the Calvin and Citric Acid Cycles?

I was kind of expecting stuff like "Net ATP for fermentation vs respiration," but that quiz has me worried.
 
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Knickerbocker said:
Should I be concerned about intricate details of the Calvin and Citric Acid Cycles?

I was kind of expecting stuff like "Net ATP for fermentation vs respiration," but that quiz has me worried.
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I remembered a question about how many FADHs and NADHs come from the Citric acid cycle, but nothing hardcore such as precursors and intermediates. Basically, glycolysis and cycle details would be covered by a nice general biology book with some more in-depth details. Regardless, don't get a biochemistry book to learn the truly intricate details of these processes.

You should be able to reproduce each process on paper with the necessary components. That should go far to answering the related questions on the PCAT.
 
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omnione said:
Not really more difficult to solve, but there is often a few questions on the PCAT that come from some paragraph in a general biology book that sounds more like random trivia than central biology concepts.
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am just trying to memorize and brush my mind from kaplan book..am not using my bio books coz if i do i will need year to read and study...but after the new changes occured on the exam everyone seems to be worried...
 
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manutdmax said:
am just trying to memorize and brush my mind from kaplan book..am not using my bio books coz if i do i will need year to read and study...but after the new changes occured on the exam everyone seems to be worried...
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To be honest, I was a little surprised that more organic wasn't on the PCAT I took. So the expanded organic questions should be stuff any pharmacy student ought to know. The math questions will be more difficult with more calculus, but geometry was never my strong suit so I would have benefited from more stat problems. The writing section is still the least significant portion of the PCAT, and I honestly don't think a 1 or a 2 can really keep a pre-pharmacy student out alone.
 
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omnione said:
To be honest, I was a little surprised that more organic wasn't on the PCAT I took. So the expanded organic questions should be stuff any pharmacy student ought to know. The math questions will be more difficult with more calculus, but geometry was never my strong suit so I would have benefited from more stat problems. The writing section is still the least significant portion of the PCAT, and I honestly don't think a 1 or a 2 can really keep a pre-pharmacy student out alone.
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how do u know there is more organic now,,,what do they mean by basic math?
 
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manutdmax said:
how do u know there is more organic now,,,what do they mean by basic math?
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Well, just from comparing old pcat prep materials, there has been an increase in the percentage of organic included in this year's PCAT's. If you got the free PCAT test booklet in the mail you can compare it to Barrons prep material and see for yourself how these percentages have gone up.
 
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Bonbon2007 said:
Well, just from comparing old pcat prep materials, there has been an increase in the percentage of organic included in this year's PCAT's. If you got the free PCAT test booklet in the mail you can compare it to Barrons prep material and see for yourself how these percentages have gone up.
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how do i get the free booklet by mail...i am using kaplan book...
 
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manutdmax said:
how do u know there is more organic now,,,what do they mean by basic math?
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Actually, that was a rumor I've heard that may or may not be true given the lack of an announcement on the same page about the "Exciting News" page of the official PCAT site. I have read some second-hand reports about that possibility, but it may not come to fruition for you. I don't want to lead you down the wrong path but I do want to alert you to that possibility😀

I have no idea what they mean by "basic math problems" as I highly doubt a question will be:

What is x if 1 + 1 = x?:

A) 11
B) 2
C) I didn't know answers could be a letter
D) 1 + 1

It's a vague description. If I had to guess, and this would be my guess based on my experience with basic versus advanced math, is that "basic math problems" will involve using basic math skills from each math subject tested in a more straightforward way, maybe a story problem perhaps.

Now that I think about it, I'll post a discussion thread after this upcoming PCAT about the changes to see what everyone thought about this "new" PCAT.
 
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If you don't have problems with doing those questions in the link, then your knowledge base is plenty enough for the exam. You should focus on working on the timing of finishing each section accurately and confidently. On the exam date, the sections will seem to go by much more quickly, and you'll feel much less secure about your answers because you won't have time to double check (unless you have practiced enough that you are accustomed to giving yourself extra time in the end for that purpose.) For the most part, I haven't really heard anyone complain about the difficulty of the actual problems on the PCAT; they've mainly complained that they didn't have enough time or felt pressured that they couldn't concentrate as well on the problems to answer them accurately. Hopefully that tells you what the area of focus on the exam should be.
 
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guys.. how many questions am i allowed to get wrong in order to get over 90%in each section...i m talking about chem.bio.math (since the new pcat is 48 questions)
 
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UBCvan said:
guys.. how many questions am i allowed to get wrong in order to get over 90%in each section...i m talking about chem.bio.math (since the new pcat is 48 questions)
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It varies per test since there tends to be a scale for each administration. Generally, it doesn't vary too much. I don't have a good estimate since Harcourt is more secretive about their scales. Strangely, I got a 96 on the math section though I had to fill in bubbles randomly for about four to five questions. Either most of the questions were experimental questions, or I was a really good guesser.😀 Since the PCAT is better know for people not being able to finish its sections, I suppose its possible that you could miss more than 10% of the questions and still get a 90th percentile because everyone else had the same trouble. However, the test will be shorter than ever, so its possible that more people get finished because there's less burnout at the end.


Do remember that only 40 questions will be scored since 8 are experimental.
 
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pharmgal2006 said:
Will biochem or micro be covered at all on the PCAT? Or just Gen. Chem, Org. Chem, Bio, Calc, verb.

Thanks!
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Microbiology is on the exam. You should see one or two questions if I am guessing correctly.

Biochem is not on the exam. However, your familiarization with photosynthesis and cellular respiration could be tested. That means that you need a good understanding of glycolysis and the calvin cycle.
 
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Bonbon2007 said:
Microbiology is on the exam. You should see one or two questions if I am guessing correctly.

Biochem is not on the exam. However, your familiarization with photosynthesis and cellular respiration could be tested. That means that you need a good understanding of glycolysis and the calvin cycle.
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Okay, thanks for the help. That doesn't sound too bad.
 
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