July 20 PCAT

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ThugMotivation

ThugMotivation

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Post your thoughts on the PCAT and how y'all did in it. Good Luck!
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Alright here are my prelim scores:

VA: 427/86
Bio: 430/88
RC: 435/90
QA: 416/69
Chem: 422/77
Comp: 426/87

I'm a conditional student at Pitt, we were told the minimum is 70% but they wanted us to shoot for 80s. My GPA is borderline for the minimum (3.25) so I'm hoping this PCAT will help me keep my seat.

As for the RC, I'm really surprised that many people were having difficulty with it. I guess I just read a lot?

The QA was brutal though!
 
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pharmschooler said:
Seconded.

If you read all the time, RC will be second nature. You can finish this section with 10-15 minutes left if you are a solid reader.
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Absodamnlutely. I've been reading everything I could get my hands on since I was little, and I cleaned up on the verbal/reading sections. From what I see on here, most people seem to have relatively little trouble with the 'science' sections... a little preparation on the soft subjects will make a lot of composite scores skyrocket.

I always recommend something like Scientific American - not so dense as to be dull, but definitely written for intelligent people.
 
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for those of you who used the kaplan self-review guide, how did you feel the kaplan test compared to the actual test?

i'm taking the test on the 27th and i felt the kaplan test was much more challenging than the pearson tests (also reflected in my scores).
 
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Yesterday's PCAT was my first, and I'm more than disappointed with my preliminaries. Had I but known Dr. Collins is the only worthwhile material out there, my time and money wouldn't have gone to waste on Barron's (2008), McGraw-Hill (2009), or Kaplan (2011). REA (2010) and Kaplan's GRE Advanced Verbal (2009), however, helped my biology, verbal ability and reading comprehension scores, respectively. Writing was cake, but my chemistry and quantitative ability scores could definitely use a curve right about now...... a September re-test is, unfortunately, a must at this point. (I can't see a 41 composite ever being accepted.)

Anyway, I hope my first post is worthy of a reply or two!

:thumbup:
 
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drdivasays said:
for those of you who used the kaplan self-review guide, how did you feel the kaplan test compared to the actual test?

i'm taking the test on the 27th and i felt the kaplan test was much more challenging than the pearson tests (also reflected in my scores).
Click to expand...

As far as gen chem and bio, it was pretty spot on. Larger focus on microbio, and less on A&P and plant bio and do not trust Kaplan's O-chem for a split second. I found horrible errors and way too little info.

I think Kaplan's test was great, but as for practice problems to get you ready?
REA's Flashcard book is BY FAR the best bang-for-your-buck in terms of similarity to actual questions on the real PCAT and having nice detailed explanations as well as helpful tips and quirky little factoids sprinkled throughout.

LESS THAN $10 @ amazon!!! -> http://www.amazon.com/PCAT-Flashcard-Book-Flash-Books/dp/0738607959/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
Honestly, I don't think you can find a better value anywhere. And they were pretty spot on. Same difficulty level, same focus areas. It's not so much for review as much as it is for drilling yourself into test readiness. But I would reccomend it to every single person considering taking the PCAT.
 
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Incitatus said:
As far as gen chem and bio, it was pretty spot on. Larger focus on microbio, and less on A&P and plant bio and do not trust Kaplan's O-chem for a split second. I found horrible errors and way too little info.

I think Kaplan's test was great, but as for practice problems to get you ready?
REA's Flashcard book is BY FAR the best bang-for-your-buck in terms of similarity to actual questions on the real PCAT and having nice detailed explanations as well as helpful tips and quirky little factoids sprinkled throughout.

LESS THAN $10 @ amazon!!! -> http://www.amazon.com/PCAT-Flashcard-Book-Flash-Books/dp/0738607959/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
Honestly, I don't think you can find a better value anywhere. And they were pretty spot on. Same difficulty level, same focus areas. It's not so much for review as much as it is for drilling yourself into test readiness. But I would reccomend it to every single person considering taking the PCAT.
Click to expand...

I think that the most important thing that you should ask yourself before studying for the PCAT is: Do I need to re-learn the material or do I need to review the material/drill questions? There are certain tools which will help you re-learn material (your textbook/notes) and there are certaint ools which will help you review material/drill questions. Once you determine what you need for the exam, the rest is simple ... Just doing the work necessary to get the score that you want.
 
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pharm313 said:
For those of you who purchased the practice exams from Pearson, how similar was the PCAT to the July 20th exam?
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My Practice Test Scores from Pearson were all very similar and showed me as:

VA: 80-99
Bio: 78ish-98ish
Chem: 65ish-85ish
Quant: 55ish-75ish
Reading: 80-99
Composite: 80-99

My preliminary score report for the Jul 20th was:

VA: 95%
Bio 51% (Very surprised by this based on the practice tests. I was very confident with the questions on the practice tests, but felt lost while taking the PCAT)
Chem: 72%
Quant: 71%
Reading 89%
Composite: 82%

With the exception of Bio (which is still blowing my mind!) The practice tests matched up very well.
 
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pharm313 said:
For those of you who purchased the practice exams from Pearson, how similar was the PCAT to the July 20th exam?
Click to expand...

Pearson Practice Test
80-99 Verbal
80-99 Chemistry
80-99 Biology
55-75 Reading Comprehension
80-99 Math

Composite 80-99

Preliminary
48 Verbal ( I don't even understand how that was possible because it was my most confident section)
95 Chemistry
96 Biology
82 Reading Comprehension (I was stunned because this is the section I thought I failed.
94 Math

Composite 93 ( First time was 79)
 
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Awesome scores, congrats to you both!! Thanks for posting your stats, I will post mine after my July 27th exam!
 
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Notice:
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Get the most current information about the PCAT at PCATweb.info.
 
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First time:

VA: 92
Bio: 88
RC: 94
QA: 88
Chem: 98
Comp: 97

I thought I was most prepared for the bio and quant sections but they ended up being my lowest subscores. Funny how things work out on the actual exam haha. Congrats to everyone who took the exam btw. We all deserve a little break :cool:
 
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@MonkeyKing - Congratulations on the great scores:) How did you prepare for the exam if you don't mind me asking? Thanks!
 
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Pharmrx12 said:
@MonkeyKing - Congratulations on the great scores:) How did you prepare for the exam if you don't mind me asking? Thanks!
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Thanks! I took a kaplan prep course but overall it wasn't worth the money. Granted, kaplan provided a ton of practice problems, which helped me get a feel for how much time I would get for each question under timed conditions. On my own, I studied some prep books (one of which was kaplan's and it was decent).

For the verbal section, I learned the types of analogies and ways to create strong bridges from kaplan/pearson p exams. Also, looking over a vocab list from GRE/kaplan helped immensely. However, as is apparent from the pearson practice exams, some analogies are a test of knowledge accumulated over a lifetime (geography, important people, etc.)

For chem and ochem, I studied material from kaplan, but any pchem/orgo classes you've taken should provide the necessary info. Just focus on the important concepts (ideal gas law, colligative properties, etc.) and practice your mental math. It speeds things up. Also, I found it helpful to know the first 3 rows of the periodic table and the fundamentals of electron configuration. Memorizing the entire periodic table is unnecessary but knowing the first 3 periods can help you quickly identify atomic number, the most likely oxidation states, reactivity of elements, valence electrons, etc.. For ochem, kaplan provided a list of general reactions and reagents that I found quite useful.

Doing well on RC is a matter of reading often. I grew up as an avid reader, so I barely had to prepare for the reading section.

For math, I went over important concepts and practiced my mental math. It saves a ton of time.

For bio, I used a prep book and learned the important concepts . However, the microbio sections in those books did not seem to be enough and I think a microbio/disease class would have worked wonders for me.
 
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@MonkeyKing - Thank you for the suggestions. I have taken most of the pre-req courses already thus reviewing the material has been less complicated. I am reviewing concepts based on Kaplan and Dr. Collins material with videos online. I also have the REA flashcard book which is also very helpful with practice. I am planning to purchase the pearson practice test to get a better idea of the real test.
 
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Which one of the 3 pearson tests is the test most similar to? I've done all 3 and I feel the latest 2010 pearson test is the most challenging..
 
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CR9 said:
Which one of the 3 pearson tests is the test most similar to? I've done all 3 and I feel the latest 2010 pearson test is the most challenging..
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I totally agree. I did the first two tests and thought I was in pretty good shape, but then that 3rd one kinda kicked my ass lol
 
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gotchya - unfortunately i don't have time to go thru REA since my test is in 3 days!! but did anyone use the cliff notes tests? if so, how were they compared to the actual test? i am working thru some of the sections now (math,chem,bio)
 
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drdivasays said:
gotchya - unfortunately i don't have time to go thru REA since my test is in 3 days!! but did anyone use the cliff notes tests? if so, how were they compared to the actual test? i am working thru some of the sections now (math,chem,bio)
Click to expand...

Waste of time. The questions were not indicative at all compared to the PCAT.

Besides, if enough people have said that the REA is worthwhile (Yes, enough people have said that they are worthwhile) ... Frankly, you should spend time going through that instead of going through a study guide that people don't think it pertinent to the actual exam.
 
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First time taking the PCAT. I have not had OChem yet, in preparation I self taught some basic nomenclature which paid off. The QA section was more difficult than any of the practice tests that I had taken, and I ran out of time on the section, being forced to guess on about the last 10.

Verbal Ability - 97
Biology - 71
Reading Comprehension - 87
Quantitative Ability - 48
Chemistry - 62

Composite SS - 422
Composite PR - 83
 
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I took the PCAT on July 20 as well. Here are my results

Verbal Ability-77
Biology-96
Reading Comp-65
QA-52
Chemistry-58
Composite-77

I don't think I did "bad" in any specific area, but by QA and chemistry scores seem to be a tad low to be considered competitive. I'm fairly pleased with a composite score. Would anyone advise that I should take the PCAT again?
 
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Yep! Guess am keeping my 79 composite and 3.0/3.5 score for essays...am happy....

Here is the rest of my Pcat stats in-case everyone is wondering.....

Verbal Ability 427 86
Biology 435 91
Reading Comprehension 386 24 (BANE of my existence) :mad:
Quantitative Ability 412 62
Chemistry 434 88
Composite 419 79
 
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officials are out- I found my scores to be the same as the preliminary one :/

88 composite and 3/3 for writing. If anyone is applying to UIC COP, please comment if this is enough. I have enough extra curriculars and pretty good gpa!
 
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Seems like alot of people here done well or at least decent in chemistry section!!!! any tips for studying there...Were there alot of VESPR questions?
 
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xtsukiyox said:
Bell curve, baybee.
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I don't know where you are getting the idea that the grading of the essay is somehow calculated using a Gaussian distribution. That is not what the Pearson essay rubric states. Clearly they are not following the rubric that was posted, however. I scored a 99th comp, which I may add is not determined using a true Gaussian grading metric. I thought my essays were the BEST part of my exam, hands down. And somehow they appropriated me 3/3. Absolute balderdash if you ask me. :mad:
 
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sde780 said:
Bio - 54
Chem - 48
Composite - 79

Should I retake for WVU?

3/3 essay
Click to expand...

You have a good composite.. but I would say retake it.. I'm retaking the PCAT in sept and I got CHEM 88; BIO 80 but 65 Composite because of low verbal and reading ..

=))
 
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chemguy79 said:
Good composite, but the low Bio and Chem subsections could hurt you. What's your GPA in those classes?

Furthermore, http://www.pharmcas.org/collegesschools/schoolWestVirginiapage.htm

The average GPA is a 3.65, so while you have the PCAT minimum (they prefer 60th percentile or higher), your GPA plays a large role as well.
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I had a B in Bio115, A in Bio116. B in both Chem 115 & 116. Haven't taken Organic yet.

Cumulative GPA is 3.4x and science is a little under that. I'm a resident of WV though, I heard that helps. My only worry is if I retake in January and do worse, it'd be hard to explain that. I got a 92 verbal, 85 quant - not sure if I can do that again.
 
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sde780 said:
I had a B in Bio115, A in Bio116. B in both Chem 115 & 116. Haven't taken Organic yet.

Cumulative GPA is 3.4x and science is a little under that. I'm a resident of WV though, I heard that helps. My only worry is if I retake in January and do worse, it'd be hard to explain that. I got a 92 verbal, 85 quant - not sure if I can do that again.
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Meh ... them's the breaks.

I can't help but wonder if the school will hold off on an admissions offer until you finish your Organic sequence since you have a very small sample size of course work and your GPA is a bit below the average.
 
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chemguy79 said:
Meh ... them's the breaks.

I can't help but wonder if the school will hold off on an admissions offer until you finish your Organic sequence since you have a very small sample size of course work and your GPA is a bit below the average.
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PM'd you so we don't derail this thread :)
 
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