Pcat 411

[bringinit247]

Hey everybody...I am going to have to take the PCAT to get into pharmacy school as a post-bacc transfer student...Does anybody know alot about this exam? I know that it covers five areas (what they specifically are I forget right now)...For anybody who has taken the test or is informed about the test, how hard is it? How much test prep time goes into it? What are the score ranges...what percentile will get me into the school of my choice? How in depth does the test go into core science knowledge? Is studying for the PCAT as involved as studying for the MCAT? Any answers to these and other questions about the PCAT would be greatly appreciated....Thanks...

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[dgroulx]

Originally posted by bringinit247
For anybody who has taken the test or is informed about the test, how hard is it?
How much test prep time goes into it? What are the score ranges...what percentile will get me into the school of my choice? How in depth does the test go into core science knowledge? Is studying for the PCAT as involved as studying for the MCAT?

I bought the PCAT Audio Learn tapes. They were great for biology, but not for the chemistry portion. I listened to the tapes about 3-4 times. For the chemistry, I just reviewed my problem set notebook from general chemistry and reworked different types of problems. I started seriously reviewing about 1 month before the test.

The test scores vary. You are ranked against everyone else in the country who took the test on that day. For example, I took my test last October and I know that I had to guess on two of the verbal questions. I ended up with a 98th percentile score in verbal. That means some people got all the questions correct, but many more people did worse. I could have had a totally different score, if I took the test in March. Schools that use the PCAT want to know where you are ranked in the applicant pool for the coming year. Some schools use the score more than others. I was told by most schools that you need to score at the 85th percentile or above.

The test is not involved. It's mainly general biology, general chemistry, some first semester organic, basic math skills + geometry, reading comprehension and verbal analogies (like an IQ test).

The MCAT is much harder and much more involved. All my classmates want to go to med school and looked at their study material. There was no comparison.

I hope this helps.

 

[Iryna]

Hi everyone!
I've got a question about PCAT as well.
If someone took the test or knows about it a lot, I'll appreciate your help. I'm now trying to review math skills part, and there seems to be a section on Operations concerning the conversion of basic units of measure. Do we actually have to learn these basic weights, measures, etc. or will they be given to us?

Thank you.

 

[dgroulx]

I don't remember having any unit conversion problems on the test. Try to learn geometry formulas for things like surface area, volume, etc.

 

[Iryna]

Originally posted by dgroulx
I don't remember having any unit conversion problems on the test.

good news, thanks!

 

[badxmojo]

yeah pcats is no where near as intensive as mcats..(if they are then I'm a genius) I would just start about 2 months ahead of time however..cause it covers alot of material..but its not to indepth...the questions are almost all answerable.. however on the math section time is very short.. if you study diligently.. you'll prob do fine (90+ percentile)