Another PCAT Thread - Honest Analysis

[GenesToPharm]

I registered for my PCAT in mid-July, bought the Kaplan book and 3 Pearson practice tests, and I've studied almost daily ever since. 3 hours per day. I finished the Kaplan book in entirety, took notes from the important sections, and did ALL of the practice problems in each section, excluding a few of the Ochem chapters. I took each Pearson practice test as honestly as I could and with enforced timing, the score reports from Pearson had me scoring between 80-99th percentile. After all of this, I used an old Barron's book for some supplemental studying/reviewing, mainly for the practice problems. I took one of the Kaplan practice exams and bombed the practice exam which really worried me, but I stuck to my reviewing and focused on the sections in the practice tests that I did the worst on.

Here are my results:
Biological Processes - 85
Chemical Processes - 86
Critical Reading - 98
Quantitative Reasoning - 67
Composite - 91

The math section was, logistically, the hardest part about the PCAT. It is set up to make you rush and miss questions, and you will miss questions. At least I did. I felt prepared well enough for the types of questions asked, just not quick enough to finish 48 within 40 minutes. Regardless, I highly recommend the Kaplan book for a solid foundation. I would also study some biochem separate from Kaplan, knowing your amino acids and their chemistry will certainly help. I only did well in the Bio and Chem sections because I have my undergraduate in molec bio and I currently work in genetics.

I hope this helps anyone studying in the future.

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