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Pharmacy or Pharmacology is one of the oldest and most essential professions of the world. It dates as far back as the Indus Valley Civilization period. Pharmacy is a branch of Science. It comprises of the study, the manufacture, the preparation, the research, and the development of various medicines and drugs. It is a profession that works in parallel with the medical profession and the former also assists the latter in several ways and forms the base of the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Pharmacy has always been a popular profession in the United States of America (US of A). It is considered to be an extremely important and respectable occupation and many students aspire to become Pharmacists or Druggist as the profession is more commonly known. The Pharmaceutical Industry is quite a prominent industry of the US.
To select students eligible enough to pursue a course in Pharmacy/ Pharmacology in the United States of America, a test referred to as the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) is conducted across all the important cities of the US as well as many other countries.
It tests the test- takers’ knowledge of various fields ranging from Science subjects like Biology and Chemistry to general subjects like Quantitative Ability, Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, Conventions of Language, Composite and Problem Solving.
It is a filter through which those who aspire to study Pharmacy or Pharmacology are passed to assess their eligibility and aptitude for the same. The duration of the PCAT is four and a half hours which is divided suitably among all the sections. It comprises of two essay- type Writing topics and 240 multiple- choice questions. There is no negative- marking for questions that are answered wrong.
The various Pharmacy Colleges across the USA admit students on the basis of the scores acquired by the latter in the Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT). Each college specifies a certain cut- off that the applicant to that college must attain. Those who are successful in doing the same are called for further testing procedures like interviews, etc. by the colleges.
Psych Corp (PC), which is a subsidiary of the Pearson Group (PG), first developed the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) and it is now conducted by the Harcourt Assessment, Inc. (HAI). It is endorsed by the American Association of the Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).
Anyone who has taken up Science with Physics, Chemistry and Biology at the class 12 levels is eligible to sit for the PCAT.