I have asked several other students, who have received a 90+ composite score on the PCAT, what books they used in preparation for the PCAT. I have compiled the following list of books that were most used by those students: KAPLAN 2008-2009: Pharmacy College Admission Test (2010-2011 edition will be released on June 2nd), Cliff’s Quick Review Biology, Cliff’s Quick Review Chemistry, Baron’s Essential Words for the GRE, and The Wall Street Journal (newspaper). Using your original textbooks, notes, and previous exams from the courses was also highly recommended as studying material.
I wanted to start studying for the PCAT today, but still haven’t had the time. I am still in the middle of taking Human Anatomy and Physiology 2, Introduction to Biology 2, and Microbiology. I plan on starting to study on the 5th or 6th of June for a few hours a day. I have a few textbooks and notes piled up on my desk already in preparation to begin studying for the June 20th test date. It is a lot of material. I still have yet to purchase Cliff’s Quick Review Biology and Cliff’s Quick Review Chemistry, but I plan on purchasing them this weekend.
Good luck to everyone in their last month of studying.
Ahhh... The PCAT. I pretended to start studying in June for the August 2008 test date. I mainly used the Kaplan 2008-2009 book. I basically read through the entire thing from front to back and tried to answer some of the questions at the end of each chapter. The math, from what I remember is harder than it needs to be. Other than that, I worked through some chemistry problems with my old chem book since I'd been out of college for two years. I also ended up paying for The PCAT Professor so I could sit and just do a bunch of questions. In the week leading up to the test, I took one of the official practice tests and then went back to work on my math and chem skills. Time goes by super fast. The Monday before the test I took the other official practice test. More math and chem practice, for speed. Tip: Seriously skip a question if you don't know the answer immediately. Come back to it, even if it's just to randomly guess.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if my strategy was the best (probably not), but it worked for me. I got a 99 on verbal and biology, a 95 on reading comprehension and quantitative, a 96 on chemistry, with a 99 overall.
The Kaplan book was great for me. What I did was take the quick quizzes for each section first, to see what areas I was weakest in, then read the entire section and take the quiz again. Make sure you time yourself on all this, because the time constraints are the hardest part of the test. If you can't answer a question right away, circle it (in the test booklet) and come back at the end. Pay special attention to Kaplan's test taking strategy tips, like making sure you guess for every question.
ReplyDeleteAfter I'd been through the whole Kaplan book as described above, I took the full-length practice test in a single sitting to simulate the test environment. Then I looked at what I got wrong and made sure I understood why I did, and what I needed to learn to avoid such a mistake next time. The Kaplan book won't help you learn anything you haven't seen before, so be sure to go back to your original notes and/or textbooks when you don't understand what they're talking about.
As far as the writing topics go, they're confidential and (I think) new every test. The sample in the Kaplan book was pretty good for understanding the format. What they're looking for is your ability to formulate an argument and defend your position on the point. You won't really need any outside knowledge for this; it's all about how you think and how you explain yourself.