How Hard was the PCAT For you?

[MadeInHouston]

I'm just a high school grad going on pre-pharm and exploring this wonderful vast forum, wondering how hard the PCAT were for some people.
I know everyone is different, but I'm surveying trying see how hard the PCAT really is; and hoping this might help out others.

• On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it?
• What was your score?
• How hard did you study?
• How long did you study?
• What was the hardest subject on the test?
  

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[pharmschooler]

I'm just a high school grad going on pre-pharm and exploring this wonderful vast forum, wondering how hard the PCAT were for some people.
I know everyone is different, but I'm surveying trying see how hard the PCAT really is; and hoping this might help out others.

• On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it?
• What was your score?
• How hard did you study?
• How long did you study?
• What was the hardest subject on the test?
  

This is really subjective. It was harder when I took it because it was only offered hours from my home, at 8 am, so taking the PCAT involved travel, hotels, and finding an early breakfast. I think this will be easier for people in smaller communities in the future because it will be offered on the computer now rather than only in large cities. I'd say an 8, partially because it was a pain in the butt to actually get to take the PCAT, and learning how to take the test was a pain in the butt, too (mostly the little things...like prepping your mind to take a long exam).

I scored in the 90s. I studied all the subjects in classes fairly soon before the exam. You should probably take the PCAT after your first or second semester of organic chemistry (as long as you've finished the other subjects covered by then), since it will be most fresh in your mind then. It wasn't that difficult to study at that point. I spent a bunch of time studying the first time I took it, with little effect. I spent less time the second time and did much better. Some of this is based on outlook, and some is based on effectiveness of study methods.

The hardest subject for me was math. You have to be able to quickly determine the wrong answers and choose the most realistic answer. I love to work through a whole math problem, which is time consuming, so I had to retrain myself to work within the short timeframe of the test.

 

[WhiteSnows]

I would say 7.

 

[Notecard]

On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it?
5
What was your score?
77
How hard did you study?
Not hard lol
How long did you study?
2 hours a week or so for 3 weeks
What was the hardest subject on the test?
Reading, but only because it was the last part and my attention span wasn't capable of reading those boring stories at that point. If I could do it again I'd bring a togo coffee and down it during the second break.

 

[lilsweetpea01]

On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it?
7.5
What was your score?
47 lol standardized testing is not my thing
How hard did you study?
Pretty hard
How long did you study?
6 hours for 2 months
What was the hardest subject on the test?
Reading comprehension is a beast.

I'd do so well on the Pearson practice tests but when it came to the real thing I bombed it. I think most people don't do that great on RC just because there are those 3 or 4 kids that get pretty much all the questions right, and since scoring is based on how well everyone does, if a majority of the students get 99 percentile with one or two questions wrong, those that get more than 3 wrong are automatically in like the 60th percentile.

PCAT is not a good way of testing one's capabilities in pharmacy school..some people are good at it and some people aren't.

 

[DH1987]

On a scale of 1-10, how hard was it?
5
What was your score?
77
How hard did you study?
Not hard lol
How long did you study?
2 hours a week or so for 3 weeks
What was the hardest subject on the test?
Reading, but only because it was the last part and my attention span wasn't capable of reading those boring stories at that point. If I could do it again I'd bring a togo coffee and down it during the second break.

Really? 2 hours a week isn't very much at all, and 77 sounds really good for studying so little. How long ago did you take the Biology/Chemistry/Org Chemistry classes before doing that, and how well did you do in those classes? What material did you study with?