How did the test go everybody?

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omnione

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I felt like I did outstanding on the biology and chemistry. The math seemed MUCH harder this time around though I have no idea why. I felt like I struggled a lot more than I normally do. I got an 82 and 87 on the math the last two times I have taken it and I feel there is no way I got an 87 this time around. Hopefully everyone else had just as hard of a time lol.

The writing and verbal is always hit or miss for me. The passages were identical to last time but since you can never see your answers it doesn't really matter, because you might put something diff. down this time.
 
the verbal i thought was easy which means I did bad. Math, bio, chem were ok, reading eh hit or miss and the essays i think I gave a basic answer but who knows what I think is an awful essay professors and whatnot don't
 
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everything was fine except for chem and math. but that's bc i haven't taken organic. but math was the worse part!!
 
[sigh]

I felt prepared the night before, and I was hardly stressed, but now....eh...

-The verbal wasn't too great. Some of the words I had never even seen before.
-The biology was really tough. Some of it went into so much detail, I thought it was a little ridiculous. I probably just didn't prepare well enough for it.
-The rest was cake. Actually, math had a couple of tricky questions, but nothing horrible. I had about 20 minutes to spare for the reading comprehension section.

Now the wonderful 4 to 5 week wait.
 
hmmm chem was a lot of organic chem...i thought more than 50% or about that much
anyways i think i did pretty good on the chem...bio was so many diseases. and what not...i cant say anything abt that section...

verbal and reading...i have no idea i guessed on alot so its either good or bad in these two sections for me..
math was kinda hard...i had to guess like 10 qs
i think there was alot of problems which wasted time on reading alot to get to a simple answer...
overall ...i have no idea im glad its over...and i prayed to God so i hope he is happy with my and gives me a decent score:)
 
I did pretty well on the June one, but was already signed up for this one too, so I didnt go into it being stressed and I think that helped a lot. And also, there were quite a few questions that were the same from June.

I think my essays were pretty terrible, and Math was hard, but besides that i feel like I did ok... I felt like I did horrible though last time and came out with a 85 composite, so I guess I will see!
 
I felt i ddid pretty well, but i hope my feeling is correct! Math was not too bad like everyone said:)
 
The math was a nightmare. It was way harder then last time I felt. Other than that it was fine.
 
oh my god...what diseases you guys saw on the exam, was it related to microbiology..it seems there were many org chem questions....i will take the exam in january and i feeel stress from nowww
 
oh my god...what diseases you guys saw on the exam, was it related to microbiology..it seems there were many org chem questions....i will take the exam in january and i feeel stress from nowww

Ya man I felt the test was very hard this time around. I am upset about the chem and bio especially. Bio had all this detailed stuff about bacteria and all this plant stuff about absorbing minerals. Also, chem had soooooooo much ochem on it. Math was really tough as well, but I always suck at times math sections. Overall I feel :(. Good luck to everyone.
 
Maths is so hard at this time. There were some questions I had to skip to catch up the easy one. Bio is neutral , chem is so easy, verbal is average, reading is not sure. Overall, :confused:
 
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I am glad everyone else had a hard time with the math. I am very good at math and for some reason this time around it seemed twice as hard. I paced myself well last test and got an 87 on math and had time to spare, this time around I felt like I didn't have enough time and things weren't really going my way, which is strange.
 
Math was a lot harder than expected - alot of calc questions ugh, and having it at the very end was way tiring. Bio had a lot of micro but it wasn't too bad. Chem seemed easier? And reading haha had 2 same passages from the last october test so that was easy. Hopefully I did better this time around... oh yes, verbal wasn't too bad either, easier than expected although there were some weird analogies!
 
Verbal, bio, chem not bad. Verbal and bio are my strongest and chem was what i expected, however, i'm sure i screwed up some simple stuff (needed to manage my time a bit better). However, i completely bombed math and mismanaged the whole section. There was stuff i did not know but lost track of time and didn't even have a chance at the easier ones. I also blew the writing which is odd b/c i usually write well enough. With that said, upon getting, i immediately registered for the Oct test. At least i don't have to travel a few hours this time and can stay at home. 2 months of writing essays and practicing math. Wish it had gone well this time but i got one more shot.
 
Man! Math was like "what the hell??"
I did really good on math last year but it seemed like today's was triple as hard as last time and I had to guess a lot of them :(
I was never good at chem, but didn't expect to see so many ochem questions!
Other things were all right I think, just math and chem were bit unexpected.
 
3rd time taking it...Jan, June, and now.

4 of 6 reading passages were repeats...3 of them were in all 3 exams!! I can practically quote them and the questions verbatim.

Chem and Bio seemed much easier than June.

Math much more difficult than June.

Writing topics - one hard, one easy.

Verbal was cake.

And um...harcourt has on their website that chem section is 50-50, so why are people surprised by the amount of OCHEM in there?

Good luck all.
 
It wasn't too bad. I expected to do horrible because I didn't really study until last night. I got lucky, I guess. Math kind of sucked though.
 
I feel like I did well enough in everything but the math (as many have said). Too much trig and calc for my tastes!

Really glad I studied for the chemistry, though. It would have been incredibly difficult if I hadn't reviewed organic.
 
I feel like I did well enough in everything but the math (as many have said). Too much trig and calc for my tastes!

Really glad I studied for the chemistry, though. It would have been incredibly difficult if I hadn't reviewed organic.

HOW DID U STUDY FOR ORGANIC AND BIOLOGY..AM USING KAPLAN IS IT GOOD FOR THE REAL EXAM
 
Wow. Well, I can say that for me verbal was good, writing was fair, and reading was good. Bio was in some ways easier than I expected, but at the same time, the micro questions were really out of left field for me. I knew there were changes made to the PCAT, but I wasn't anticipating there to be micro...Of course if it was on the test all the time, then Kaplan just sucks, but oh well. I haven't had micro, but the questions at least seemed guessable. We'll have to see if that's true.

For chem, I was entirely grateful to see the amount of o chem favored over the laborious physical chem-type questions I had using the Kaplan book. I appreciated that their questions were much more concept-based. On the other hand, I wish I had known to study more detailed stuff...I was always under the impression that o chem was meant to be basic and there was one question in particular that I just didn't remember from o chem anymore and didn't know to study. :-\

But math? :confused: OMFG. What was that??? :bullcrap: Harcourt saying that they added a little stats here and a bit more calc there was a gross misrepresentation. WOW, I was not expecting that at all. I guessed a lot, a lot, a lot, partly because I ran out of time and partly because I had no idea what I had coming to me, and that freaked me out because other than that I felt okay about the rest of the test. Now I am banking on everything else to compensate for the math portion for me. :-\

I wish I could decide with a clear head if I should register for the October test now...I hate that it's impossible to wait for your scores first. BUT!!! It's over. :) *Deep breath*

(Wheee, this is my first post.)
 
I smoked the bio and reading, bombed the math. The rest was ok. Regarding the verbal analogies, why do they choose such superfluous words? Obviously I can't give examples but on a couple of them I was like, "what the hell?" haha
 
HOW DID U STUDY FOR ORGANIC AND BIOLOGY..AM USING KAPLAN IS IT GOOD FOR THE REAL EXAM


I would have to say a resounding no. If it is all you have for bio like I did, I would say skip the general bio chapters like classification, ecology, and perhaps animal behavior...things like that. It seems those topics were chucked out the window. I would look for a micro review, too...Although the questions seemed kind of specific...I'm not sure what I would have done for that had I known it was going to be on the test, but Kaplan didn't really touch on the topic at all. Maybe the next edition of the book will reflect those changes?

As for o chem, I would recommend getting the REA Essentials study guides. They're quick, to the point, and cover (obviously) things that Kaplan doesn't. Then from there you could look up what you need more coverage on.

But those are just my 2¢.
 
On the math section, I kept waitin and waitin for stats questions...TWO!! LITERALLY TWO of them show up!!! The entire freakin test was calculus..and certainly NOTTT the calculus I studied. I was expecting derivatives and integrals. I have NO IDEA where they took the test questions from. Something we probably covered once in calculus.

And biology!!! Am I suppose to know all those bacteria? I have taken microbiology and aced that class too but I had no idea where they got the names from on the pcat.

Chemistry and verbal were fine, easier then I expected. Organic chemistry was pretty easy if you've taken the first organic class.

Like someone said, 6 wonderful weeks ahead of us:rolleyes:
 
It went ... urg!

... All I can do is wait. Hopefully I'll have a good enough score, otherwise, hellooo Mr. October the 20th. :scared:
 
HOW DID U STUDY FOR ORGANIC AND BIOLOGY..AM USING KAPLAN IS IT GOOD FOR THE REAL EXAM

I used several review books, but mostly Kaplan. Kaplan was horribly deficient in math and organic chemistry. I didn't study for the verbal or reading sections, so I don't know if it helps with those. It was vaguely helpful for biology, but knowledge I retained from taking AP Bio seven years ago was more helpful.

I studied o-chem using websites whose links were posted on this forum to make up for the lack of it in the Kaplan book. I wish I had reviewed more math.

My background, so you know where this is coming from: I am a non-science major who hasn't taken a math or science class in five years.

parabolic

PS, I sure hope you don't plan to write the two essays in all capital letters...
 
why is everybody saying KAPLAN is good?
i just dont understand.....it's so awfulllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll......time wasted...money wasted.....the math is not related to pcat at ALL...the chem doesnot have any organiccccc(and 50% of the chem is orgo)...the bio does not have any MICRO(the test has 30% micro)and what the bio kaplan talks about is just not related to what we should know.....

it's awwwwfffffuuuuuullllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll...
--------------------------------------------
so back to the todays pcat:)

math was horrible...i guessed half of it
chem wass good and the orgo in it was not hard(needed more time)
bio was good(needed more time)
verbal wasnt bad
reading was good
writing i did so well
 
This is so funny to read the math responses in here because it seems like EVERYONE including myself had a hard time. The damn calc problems were pretty weird, a lot of them I felt like I was doing right but would come out to the wrong answer. I didn't pace myself very well and had to guess on 3 or so problems, which I wasn't happy with. I guess it's all relative though since everyone did bad haha.

Bio was cake this time around as was the chem.
 
The PCAT went really well for me, thanks to Dr. Collins material. Almost 85% of each session excl. the reading comprehension was found in this material. Unfortunately, i had to guess on 5 ques from the math because i run out of time although i knew how to solve those problems. Mad at that!!!
 
The PCAT went really well for me, thanks to Dr. Collins material. Almost 85% of each session excl. the reading comprehension was found in this material. Unfortunately, i had to guess on 5 ques from the math because i run out of time although i knew how to solve those problems. Mad at that!!!


Please dont mention Dr. Collin here, It is not a right place to bring his name up.
 
Please dont mention Dr. Collin here, It is not a right place to bring his name up.


uh...why not??? All other forms are study guides are being mentioned in SDN. If his material is really that helpful, then I WANT TO KNOW about him just in case I need to retake in October. (And since I have to sign up for the next exam by Sept 7, and I'm preparing as if I need to retake, then PLEASE...I want MORE INFO about Dr. Collins!!):p
 
uh...why not??? All other forms are study guides are being mentioned in SDN. If his material is really that helpful, then I WANT TO KNOW about him just in case I need to retake in October. (And since I have to sign up for the next exam by Sept 7, and I'm preparing as if I need to retake, then PLEASE...I want MORE INFO about Dr. Collins!!):p

He is my father .
 
The PCAT went really well for me, thanks to Dr. Collins material. Almost 85% of each session excl. the reading comprehension was found in this material. Unfortunately, i had to guess on 5 ques from the math because i run out of time although i knew how to solve those problems. Mad at that!!!

From my time here and on other blogs and boards, people have a greater tendency to vent about something (in this case, the stress) as opposed to saying everything was normal. I figured this thread would be good for that instead of punching a wall.:D
 
I thought the verbal was odd too, you know what I am talking about.
the reading comp was easier than what they had us do in kaplan.

I thought math and chem were really hard, I needed a lot more time, it was mostly the time issue, not so much the difficulty.
there was definately a lot of orgo.
online it says orgo is 40% of the exam, not 50%. I thought it would be basic as well but it wasnt, i needed a lot more time to think about the questions!
:confused:

but at least its over.;)..and I can start my real classes and some more studying for them...:p
 
He is my father .


Great for you. But what does that have to do with him being mentioned in here? There's no 'conflict of interest' or anything of that nature. Nada. If he is, let me know where I can go to get access to his information as I am very interested.

I'm assuming you must have done extremely well then...?:D
 
I agree with almost everyone on the math and it was rather difficult. Kaplan fooled me as they failed to even put such practice problems in their study guide. Those questions were hard to work on due to the time restraint.

Overall, the test didn't seem all that bad. After the test was done some girl asked me if I wanted to have a beer. :rolleyes:. I think I need some rest :sleep:...

Hope everyone did well!:D
 
To be honest, I thought the math wasn't too bad. I had a good 5 minutes, maybe more, to go back over and look at my answers (found a wrong one and fixed it too :)). Same with the chem. There was a ridiculous amount of time for reading comp...I finished almost 20 minutes early lol

The verbal sucked butt tho. I felt like I didn't know half of the words in the analogies...
 
Didn't some of you feel that there weren't enought hard words. I was expecting GRE words all over the place, so I studied the GRE words specifically. But the analogies seemed to be more about if you knew the relationship rather than trying to confuse you using the GRE words.
 
Didn't some of you feel that there weren't enought hard words. I was expecting GRE words all over the place, so I studied the GRE words specifically. But the analogies seemed to be more about if you knew the relationship rather than trying to confuse you using the GRE words.

Yeah, I felt the same way. I didn't know max 2 words on the entire thing. Moolman, I think we just got lucky with our version of the test (we had the same one).
 
Hello.

Glad I did not show up for the August 2007 PCAT today. Sounded like everyone bombed the test. I am preparing for the October 2007 one after I finish halfway through my Microbiology course and Organic Chemistry II course. I really dislike taking the PCAT for the third time. What is everyone's strategy for the reading comprehension?

Thanks.
 
hehe... yeah, for October, I'm going to review the GRE words everyday. It seems they change things around every test, so I bet next time, we get a bunch of hard words. I circled every word I didn't know on the test and there were only 5-6 but even out of those words, I had a good idea what they meant. My vocab isn't stellar so that means they just didn't use hard words.

I thought the analogies were more tricky since you know the meaning of all the words, they have to make the relationship more obsure or else everyone would get it right, hence my other post about the analogy question. Hard words have easier relationships in general so it cuts both ways. But next time, I guess we should expect the whole GRE word list to be on there.:D
 
hehe... yeah, for October, I'm going to review the GRE words everyday. It seems they change things around every test, so I bet next time, we get a bunch of hard words. I circled every word I didn't know on the test and there were only 5-6 but even out of those words, I had a good idea what they meant. My vocab isn't stellar so that means they just didn't use hard words.

I thought the analogies were more tricky since you know the meaning of all the words, they have to make the relationship more obsure or else everyone would get it right, hence my other post about the analogy question. Hard words have easier relationships in general so it cuts both ways. But next time, I guess we should expect the whole GRE word list to be on there.:D

GRE words will not be on Pcat, but it is good to learn vocabularies
 
GRE words will not be on Pcat, but it is good to learn vocabularies


you could be right but that's what I was expecting because that's what I was told in my useless Kaplan course. They gave us a list of 1600 words that might appear and then another couple hundred on flash cards. Most of the words are GRE type words, ie. abase, abate, abdicate, those are the first 3 on the GRE list. Not to say there weren't any words on the PCAT on the GRE list there were, but not enough compared to the amount of time needed to study all of them.
 
you could be right but that's what I was expecting because that's what I was told in my useless Kaplan course. They gave us a list of 1600 words that might appear and then another couple hundred on flash cards. Most of the words are GRE type words, ie. abase, abate, abdicate, those are the first 3 on the GRE list. Not to say there weren't any words on the PCAT on the GRE list there were, but not enough compared to the amount of time needed to study all of them.

am studying my gre words too,,if the the PCAT dont have the same words in the list..what we should do..oh my god am getting confused already
 
Well, I am not sure math e how I did. The math section kicked my butt!! Ridiculous! I wish I'd studied more O-chem concepts since it's been so long since I've taken chemistry. Now, I'm debating whether to register for the October test... Glad to see that most people are in agreement on the math. Hope everyone did well.
 
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