Customer Reviews

Kaplan PCAT: 2004-2005 Edition

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Using Kaplan's PCAT Review, as well as Barron's PCAT Review, as a study guide for the November PCAT, I believe I faired well. Kaplan's review offered an actual "REVIEW" of the materials covered on the PCAT, as opposed to Barron's, which gave only an outline of what to study. The Kaplan's Biology portion was probably the most comprehensive section - as it railed through a broad spectrum of concepts in only 233 pages (a big thanks to Kaplan for making my college expenditures go down the drain – just kidding, but they did do an excellent job). Another useful portion was Chemistry, which nailed a lot of the concepts needed to do well on the test. While the practice questions were relatively more difficult than on the actual PCAT, Kaplan failed to include a thorough organic chemistry review; the people at Kaplan only concocted little more than a surface-skimming synopsis of two semesters worth of “organic blood, sweat and tears.” So a warning to all pharmacy neophytes, know your organic chemical reactions - with reactants, products, and all! The Quantitative section was probably represented in the Kaplan book the best, with the Final Exam at the end -- time allotted and difficulty -- matching fairly well with what you’re up against on the actual exam day. If you’re a little rusty on your calculus though, dust off the cobwebs on your calculus textbook because the PCAT does a good job disseminating varies calculus type questions throughout the section (remember, time is pivotal in this section, so there’s no time to be tentative about your answers).

Despite not releasing their print in time to include reviews and practices reflecting the latest PCAT updates and changes, I would give Kaplan an above average rating on their attempt to produce a calculus, as well as a sentence completion online review - which is the other big change to the PCAT (replacement of analogies with sentence completion).

Although I feel that their is not a good systematic way to study for the Verbal and Reading sections, I would definitely take Kaplan's advice on learning root words to build your vocabulary and reading a lot more on medical topics and natural science subjects (i.e. National Geographic, Science, and Scientific American). This will help you be more familiar with the passage topics on the PCAT, but I found a lot of the questions dealt with organization and development of the passage, so read more actively, and be prepared for those.

I didn't take the online practice test offered by the Harcourt Assessment, Inc. on their PCAT website for $17, but I found one question on the PCAT Candidate Information Booklet that showed up on the actually exam; so it might behoove future test takers to go ahead and pay for that online practice exam.

The only big qualm I have about the Kaplan PCAT Review is that it is filled with typos and misprints. Come on editors, you get paid for this, at least do your job and proofread what you wrote -- or copied from your other review materials (wink).

Overall, this book was a pretty sound investment, but don’t think one book is going to get you into pharmacy school. Use this book, along with notes from your classes, and even MCAT review materials, and you should be well on you way to being a “legal drug dealer” in no time. Good luck you guys and wish me luck as the results are pending -- and my fingers are crossed.

I took the March 27th, 04 PCAT, and I prepared for it by literally getting my hands on every PCAT prep. book the university book store had in stock. Lemme tell ya, by FAR, this book best represents the material you'll encounter on the test. Firstly, verbal section: waaaaaay more difficult that the actual words and analogies you'll have to understand, so don't panic if you don't understand what "dawdry" means. Next, bio: this book provides the BEST bio12 coverage compared to other review books that only give you a rough guide (outline) of what to expect (don't spend so much time on taxonomy). Reading Comp: expect these kinds of questions on the exam instead of the elementary level questions you find in Barron's or PCATSuccess. Quantitative: Most representative - content and difficulty wise (UNDERSTAND YOUR FRACTIONS MAN!!!!) (not so much on the trig tho). Lastly, Chem: actually, I think you're better off to go with Barron's actual practice exam for this one since the material in the Kaplan is a little higher (but hey, better it being harder than easier right?) The study content in the Kaplan Chem is pretty inclusive of all the material you'll need to know. Well, that's it. Hope this helps and wish ME luck when I get my results back. Later

Well, I got my score as everyone else did on 12/3 for the

10/23 test. I bought and borrowed from the library about

5 different study guides to prep for the test. The 6 months

leading to the test seems like a long time but I felt it

would take that long to really master all of the subjects.

I would say this book is one of the better ones out there and

Barrons is probably the easiest and therefore the worst one.

Since every PCAT test is different, the 10/23 test may not be

representative of future tests. So it's hard to give advice to

you all. If you want to guarantee a good score, you'll just

have to master all the subjects. THE way to do it is to use

your text books to relearn it all then take as many sample tests

as you can get your hands on and identify where your weak areas

still are. Then study those areas again and again. Don't study

the areas that you are already good at! Classic mistake. Make

sure you cover A&P as well as Biology. Yeah, also your calc and

org chem as many have told you already. Also learn techniques

of how to take std tests. Constantly review the stuff until

couple of days before the test. Turn off the TV, radio, and

those games for a couple of months to totaly focus on getting

ready for the test. You have to realize that your biggest

challenge is getting into Pharm school, not graduating once you

get in! It is SO competitive now that only less than the top

10% of the students get in. You've got to take it seriously

for you to even have a chance. I'm hoping my 3.8 GPA and the

94 percentile on my 10/23 PCAT is good enough. Good luck.

I took the PCAT in October and November. For the 1st exam, I used the Barron book only and got 63% overall. Then I found out about the Kaplan book and studied it for the 2nd exam and got 83% overall this time.

Kaplan offered online updates for recent PCAT changes for free. I took them and found them very helpful.

On the other hand, Barron didn't even have an update on math & verbal ability changes.

The biology material in Kaplan is also much more accurate and relevant.

I would recommend the Kaplan book.

I thought this book was great. If you know the content and the concepts covered in this book you will do well on the test. The chemistry, biology, verbal, and reading comprehension sections in the Kaplan book are a little harder that the actual test which I thought was helpful to be fully prepared. The math section is pretty accurate to the actual test. I just took the March PCAT and every question on the test was covered in this book. Anyone who says this book isn't helpful probably just wasn't prepared enough! Yes, this book is similar to Kaplan's MCAT book, however the PCAT and the MCAT have similar content in some sections. I used a lot of my old MCAT study materials to prepare for the PCAT. I don't know why other reviewers see this as a problem. The only complaint I have is that there were some typos in the book.

I haven't yet taken the pcat. But my friends are recommending this book to prepare for it. I have already read more than half of the book and they did explained knowledges that I need to prepare for pcat very clearly. It was good starting from the beginning up to the Bios section. I did not regret getthing this book. However, I found this book have many typos and stupid major mistakes onces I got to the Chem section. (ex. in the organic chapter, carbon suppose to have no more than 4 bonds, but they showed a carbon with 3 single bonds and one double bonds. Then they asked a question "what is the hybridization of the carbon atom labeled", which they labedled the H atom instead. This book could be way better if they correct all these stupid mistakes.

First I had to wait over a month to get this book while they "updated" it. The update was a couple lines inserted in the book saying "go to our website for the new stuff on the test." The website lessons were very short and perfunctory, especially the calculus. There was more complicated calc on the test than Kaplan indicated there would be. Plus their calculus internet lesson had many mistakes, some of which made it impossible to answer the questions as written. One even included a solution that was just flat out wrong!

My biggest problem with the book is the chemistry section. It is way too heavy on complicated calculations that I spent hours working over. The real test didn't have a single chemistry calculation that I couldn't do in my head. The verbal section was not very useful, although it's not easy to study for this section anyway. But a list of high occurence words would have been nice. There were many typos throughout the book, which just made it seem poorly written. If you're collecting study guides, you might want to include this one. But if you're only getting one, don't get this one.

The Kaplan book is very good as other reviews have said....but it does not include the latest changes. Calculus questions are throughout the math section and quite a few organic chemistry reaction are in the chem section. Review your textbooks and don't rely only on the Kaplan book for those. Otherwise the review was fine, especially the Biology and general Chemistry sections. I just wish I didn't have to wait 4-6 weeks to find out what I go on the test!

This seems to be a very good review for the PCAT. However, I have not yet taken the PCAT so I still have to see how well it prepared me for it. The only beef I have with this edition is that it does not contain info on the changes in the test. They refer you to a website to cover the new material. Also the book contains info that isn't on the test anymore. I think they should have redone the book and included the new material and got rid of the old.

This book is okay. Nothing more or out of this world. The editors definitely do not double check the text because there are A LOT of errors.