As a statistics major with a biostatistics concentration (Masters degree), I have the following opinions:
The quantitative section should be primarily calculus and basic differential equations (elementary techniques such as separation of variables) along with trigonometry. The calculus should test your integration and differentiation skills. These are the skills needed in some of the pharmacokinetics classes. (Maybe I am thinking PhD class in pharmaceutics, not PharmD class), but there is no reason why a pharm student should not learn this and take pharmacokinetics classes at the same difficulty level as a PhD student.
The chemistry section should emphasize organic chemistry and biochemistry. These are the skills needed to succeed in pharm school. Hence general chemistry should not really be that much of a player on the exam.
The biology section should stress Anatomy and Physiology and genetics. Pharmacogenomics is an important point of pharmacy since this is the way many of the generic drugs are manufactured. As brand name prices go way up, many customers look toward these generic drugs. Again Biology II (ecology) should not be asked much (maybe 2-3 questions). The molecular side of biology is much more important than the ecological side.
The verbal sections (I only have a Barron's and Arco book from 3 years ago) should be comparable to the difficulty of the GRE. Verbal ability and reading comprehension should be moved into one section simply called "verbal" as in the GRE. When I took the GRE, I had to study a lot for the verbal and received 670/800 (94th percentile). I have a feeling that the PCAT sections are relatively easier, while the MCAT reading is relatively harder. But this is only what I heard from some other people who took the test.
The essay section should be done over the computer. I actually hate writing out essays (my handwriting is very hard to read) and what I liked about the GRE was that the writing was done by typing on a computer. I type very fast, so I could write a lot in a short period of time, something I could not do if the exam was written. I received 6.0 / 6.0 on this section (95th percentile).
So I think that people should be given the option of a computerized PCAT or a written PCAT. Unfortunately, the computerized PCAT, unlike the computerized DAT or GRE, has not been setup yet. Also the scoring should be done, like the GRE on a scale of 0-6 on half-point increments. 0-5 without these half-point increments make the exam too subjective. Also, content should play more of a role in the score than minor grammar mistakes, that is, unless there are so many mistakes that it impairs the reader's understaning.
In my new format, we would have quantitative, verbal, essay, chemistry, and biology. The quantitative and verbal sections would each be worth 20% of the total score. And the chemistry and biology sections would each be worth 30% of the total score. The essay would be a separate grade.
So the prereqs added to accommodate this new format would be:
Biochemistry (1 semester), genetics (1 semester)
