What Pcat books to Buy?

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Athom1994

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Hi, this will be my first post on the forum and I will be taking the pcat sometime during this year and I am getting very nervous about it and actually losing some sleep from, sadly.
My question was on what books to buy to prep for Pcat. From what I have read from other posts, I will be definitely buying Dr. Collins, but other than that I do not know what else to buy. I really do not remember much Biology and Chemistry from my freshman year of college, so would Dr. Collins help with those two subjects? What other books should I buy to help supplement Dr. Collins or will also help me prepare for the Pcat?

Thanks for taking the time to read my questions :)

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Crack the PCAT and buy the pearson practice tests. Collins covers and sums up the bio that is on the pcat. As for the chem part of collins, it is pretty long and spotty. Register for kaplan and they give free practice tests throughout the upcoming months. Just type in kaplan pcat practice test free.
 
Save your money. Only get Dr. Collins and then buy pearson practice tests if you need too. I made a post on this previously discussing how having Collins available is basically cheating. So use Collins!
 
You are much better off buying collins and the Kaplan book for math section. I just took the PCAT in September and thank GOD i had the newest updates for Collins. The exam was completely switched from what it used to be as in they added sections and made certain ones way more detailed. There were a lot of passages in the organic chemistry and biology sections. They also added a lot of microbiology. If it wasn't for Collins I wouldn't have scored in the 98th percentile so i would highly suggest buying it. I am selling mine so if you're interested you can message me. I can also offer you advice and general tips. I was accepted into pharmacy school this past fall so I can share with you my recent experience.
 
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You are much better off buying collins and the Kaplan book for math section. I just took the PCAT in September and thank GOD i had the newest updates for Collins. The exam was completely switched from what it used to be as in they added sections and made certain ones way more detailed. There were a lot of passages in the organic chemistry and biology sections. They also added a lot of microbiology. If it wasn't for Collins I wouldn't have scored in the 98th percentile so i would highly suggest buying it. I am selling mine so if you're interested you can message me. I can also offer you advice and general tips. I was accepted into pharmacy school this past fall so I can share with you my recent experience.

Hey , I'm having my PCAT next week Wednesday, I have only been studying Collins 2016-2017 , and I have been devoting an approx.10 hours per day. Do you think I'll be able to score in the 90th percentile, I have been bitting my nails about not knowing enough :nailbiting: also, for the Quantitative part, do you think Collins was enough?
Thanks in advance if you replied:) and congrats btw;)
 
Ummm the math section is all over the place.. its hard to do well because they give you so many questions and so little time to answer them. I would suggest the kaplan book for math as additional practice. i wouldn't waste your time though-- just look over the concepts and make sure you know how to solve. the most important sections are bio, microbiology, gen chem and orgo. for those, focus on what is in collins packet and go over as many practice tests as you can. also, if you haven't received the july update you need it now!!!
 
Ummm the math section is all over the place.. its hard to do well because they give you so many questions and so little time to answer them. I would suggest the kaplan book for math as additional practice. i wouldn't waste your time though-- just look over the concepts and make sure you know how to solve. the most important sections are bio, microbiology, gen chem and orgo. for those, focus on what is in collins packet and go over as many practice tests as you can. also, if you haven't received the july update you need it now!!!
Yeah I have the latest update, thank you
What about critical reading do you think the latest update prepares you well to tackle the real PCAT questions ?
 
i wouldn't spend time on reading at all-- everyone scores super low on that one and it doesn't affect your score. just worry about the sciences and do math problems. and read the kaplan book for how to write a good essay.
 
i wouldn't spend time on reading at all-- everyone scores super low on that one and it doesn't affect your score. just worry about the sciences and do math problems. and read the kaplan book for how to write a good essay.
Thanks for the advice :)
 
i wouldn't spend time on reading at all-- everyone scores super low on that one and it doesn't affect your score. just worry about the sciences and do math problems. and read the kaplan book for how to write a good essay.

I disagree, I scored a 98% on reading comprehension. As an applicant you also want to be well balanced. There's nothing more off putting than having an applicant (especially an American born natively in the US) who has good scores across the board and a 30 something % RC.
 
I disagree, I scored a 98% on reading comprehension. As an applicant you also want to be well balanced. There's nothing more off putting than having an applicant (especially an American born natively in the US) who has good scores across the board and a 30 something % RC.
True I'll do my best to getting a balanced score for all the sections, btw how did you practice for RC?
 
True I'll do my best to getting a balanced score for all the sections, btw how did you practice for RC?

I did not practice for RC, or at least, prepare by studying a PCAT book. I had spent my childhood reading lots of books and newspapers, and it came naturally to me.
 
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with the increased number of passages, regular Collins multiple choice practice can guarantee 50-60 % for sure. But I think taking upper classes like molecular biology and biochemistry can help significantly help with these passages in bio; and taking organic chem 2 for chem passages.
 
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I disagree, I scored a 98% on reading comprehension. As an applicant you also want to be well balanced. There's nothing more off putting than having an applicant (especially an American born natively in the US) who has good scores across the board and a 30 something % RC.
True, but a lower CR score can be offset by a higher writing score IMO since they are both language/comm areas...I scored 97th percentile but my CR was 74, with a writing of 4.5.
 
True, but a lower CR score can be offset by a higher writing score IMO since they are both language/comm areas...I scored 97th percentile but my CR was 74, with a writing of 4.5.
True and not true. As we read here and there good score can beat low on reading doesn't work for all school. You never know what they look at. I had highest in schience, I had great GPA. But I got denied from low score on reading. They required at least 30 to be competitive, I couldn't even get that :(. My 99 in bio and chem didn't help, even though they raised compositor score significantly.
Unfortunately, I didn't know how to prepare for it
 
Get a Dr Collins version either 2016 edition or newer that has the new passages in each chemistry and biology tests. It is very similar to the real PCAT and that's what I love about Collins material. Tons of practice questions and is very concise. Pearson is also amazing as it is the true replica of the difficulty of the PCAT you will be taking. Both these materials saved me alot of time from studying because I also worked 30 hrs a week and had 12 hr of schooling. Math destroyer (any edition) is great in covering all quantitative topics on the PCAT. My method: take a practice test from all of them, review the questions/materials you got wrong using old notes/textbook/youtube, and repeat. It just let me cover topics/gaps I didn't know in a timely manner with a sense of direction. Good luck to you new pre-pharmers!!
 
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For the essay portion can you just throw in random stats like "60% of North American kids eat unhealthy foods" for essays that score a 6 it always has a random stat in the first paragraph but you can't even research for the essay portion so???
 
For the essay portion can you just throw in random stats like "60% of North American kids eat unhealthy foods" for essays that score a 6 it always has a random stat in the first paragraph but you can't even research for the essay portion so???
At first I thought to know how to structure the essay is good to go. Like do intro, thesis, body, conclusion. Not enough, they test your knowledge also in the topic they give. I don't think you need to worry about exact statistics. In my essay statistics was given, for ex: "according to X, number of ...". Propose solution
 
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