Great review for the PCAT
I used this book as my primary PCAT study guide and scored above a 90th percentile on my first try. I did, however, use 3 or 4 other books to cover materials that weren't covered well in this book but overall, this book did the best in preparing me for the actual test. The Kaplan book doesn't do a very good job in covering the organic chemistry portion of the test. That may be attributed to the fact that the chemistry section requires a more advanced knowledge of general chemistry than organic chemistry. In addition to organic chemistry, the book also does a fairly poor job covering the verbal portion of the test. The book does, however, cover too much of the biology section but if you look at the Kaplan materials for the DAT, OAT, and MCAT, they tend to be very similar.
Lastly, and I can't stress this enough: DO NOT sign up for the expensive Kaplan class!! This book does more than enough to provide a comprehensive overview of the PCAT itself and from what I hear, the Kaplan classroom material is very similar to what you'll find in this book.
Too many typos and errors
While I agree that this is the best PCAT review book available, I have to say that is not saying much. As someone who worked as a technical writer (writing manuals just like this one) for over 10 years before deciding to change careers to pharmacy, I am appalled by the amount of ridiculous typos and errors in this book. And considering that this book was written by Kaplan, a company that prides itself on preparing students for standardized tests, and charges nearly $1500 for their review class, I feel that the amount of errors are completely unacceptable.
For instance, in the QA final test at the back of the book, there are at least 8 - 10 typos in the questions that made me question if the problem was something new I had never seen before and hadn't practiced for the test. Two or more questions ask functions of f of theta? What is that? It's a typo! Or the questions where we should be given a quadratic and instead we are given a number 4 where the - sign should be. It's ridiculous and it blows your confidence in yourself and the integrity of the study guide.
Since most of the PCAT reviews out there are not comprehensive enough to really help you with the actual test, I do recommend that you use this book, but be sure to use other methods of study - particularly the Harcourt practice tests available through the Pearson site (these are easier than the real test, too - but are a good guage of what to expect.) Good luck.
Amazingly Awesome!
This book is awesome! It sums up every subject so well and the tests in it are very very useful! Compared to the real test it was very accurate on what was going to show up. I'm going to keep this around because it is just full of information even if it isn't need for the PCAT.
Kaplan PCAT Review
The biology review is missing a lot of important basic information and the calculus review doesn't cover what was on the real PCAT test.
My recommendation is to take the practice pcat test from the pearson website. It was very similar to the real test. Then after that, you'll know what you need to review.
This Kaplan test was helpful, but the material wasn't quite the same as what pcat tested on. My weak spots were chemistry and calculus and I don't feel the Kaplan review improved either for me. Vocab review was ok, and essay section didn't give any practice subjects, only tips on how to write an essay. That info could be found online for free...
Overall, I think this review may have been helpful if you are taking a test from 4 years ago, but things have changed. The review is no longer current.
Needs more info
This book needs more information on the "tough stuff". There's not nearly enough review on calculus or advanced chemistry. The english review sections (reading comp and verbal) were pretty decent. I absolutely hated the practice tests in this book for several reasons. First, they were full of errors; I answered questions correctly in the final practice test and the answer key had the incorrect answer letter (correct answer was B and key said it was C, but had the correct information with it). Second, the practice tests had five answer choices, whereas the actual PCAT only had four. Third, the answer sheet for the test had four bubbles (A through D) and five answer choices (A through E). I got a much better test review by paying for a practice test from the company that writes the PCAT. I would not buy this book again.
(16 reviews)
