PCAT Entrance Examination 2011
The Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) is accredited by American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). It has been declared as official and the most preferred admission test for entrance to pharmacy college. All the developments made in the exam are the responsibility of Psycho Corp and it is a part of Pearson. 
The main aim to conduct this exam is to examine whether the students being enrolled for the exam for pharmacy courses have due knowledge and skills which are required to complete the course successfully.
In July, 2011 Pearson has introduced a new computer-based test (CBT) version of the PCAT and all the candidates will have to take the test via computer.
Testing Items of PCAT:
- The primary testing item is multiple-choice questions and it will have 240 multiple-choice questions on which 5 subtests are based. Every question is followed by 4 answer options.
- The second type of testing item is Essay Writing. In this you have to write essays on given problems and two subtests are based on this type of testing item.
Note: The entire testing session lasts for 4 hours.
Experimental Items:
There is availability of 48 multiple-choice questions in each of the five subtests; 40 of these are scored while the other 8 are experimental items. The purpose of offering experimental items is to judge whether these items shall be suitable for future administrations of PCAT.
Pattern of Items
| PCAT Subtest | No of Test Items and Approx % of Item types or content areas in each subtest |
| 1. Writing (30 minutes) | 1 Writing Topic |
| a) Conventions of Language | |
| b) Problem Solving | |
| 2. Verbal Ability (30 minutes) | 48 items |
| a) Analogies | 60% |
| b) Sentence Completion | 40% |
| 3. Biology (30 minutes) | 48 items |
| a) General Biology | 60% |
| b) Microbiology | 20% |
| c) Anatomy and Physiology | 20% |
| 4. Chemistry (30 minutes) | 48 items |
| a) General Chemistry | 60% |
| b) Organic Chemistry | 40% |
| 5. Writing (30 minutes) | 1 writing topic |
| a) Conventions of Language | |
| b) Problem Solving | |
| 6. Reading Comprehension (50 minutes) | 6 Passages and 48 items |
| a) Comprehension | 30% |
| b) Analysis | 40% |
| c) Evaluation | 30% |
| 7. Quantitative Ability (40 minutes) | 48 items |
| a) Basic Math | 15% |
| b) Algebra | 20% |
| c) Probability and Statistics | 20% |
| d) Precalculus | 22% |
| e) Calculus | 22% |
PCAT Test Analysis
This test is divided into 7 sections and the details are mentioned below:
- Verbal Ability: It is a multiple-choice subtest which is to be completed in 30 minutes and the items are based on knowledge of non-scientific general words and their usage. The questions are based on analogies and sentence completion.
- Biology: It contains questions that test your understanding of concepts that are basic to Biology including microbiology, general biology, human anatomy and physiology. You will be allotted 30 minutes to complete this subtest.
- Chemistry: this multiple-choice subtest should be completed in 30 minutes. The questions of this subtest judge your capabilities related with inorganic and elementary organic chemistry through multiple-choice questions.
- Reading Comprehension: In this questions are based on 6 passages that contain content related with science. The multiple-choice questions that follow determine how well you can comprehend and analyze given information. 50 minutes are allotted for this section.
- Quantitative Ability: The multiple-choice items in this section are to be completed within 40 minutes. It will test your mathematical abilities of understanding and reasoning. This part includes basic mathematics, algebra, probability and statistics, pre-calculus and calculus.
- Writing: There are two subtests based on writing. Every subtest has an essay to be written in 30 minutes. This essay is based on a problem and you are judged for your ability to use conventional language to convey your ideas.
Scoring Pattern of PCAT
Every multiple-choice subset is provided with a scaled score and a percentile rank. A composite score for the complete multiple-choice portion is also taken into account and this composite score is the average of all the scaled scores of the five subtests. A percentile composite rank is also taken into account.
PCAT Centers in India
- New Delhi
- Hyderabad
- Bangalore
- Mumbai
- Chennai
Dates scheduled for the Test
It is conducted thrice in the year i.e. July, September, and January.
- 14th September 2011
- 19th September 2011
- 21st September 2011
- 26th September 2011
- 28th September 2011
-
Good Luck!
Source: Richha Bhatnagar (Shiksha Team)
