Retirement of the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT)
Important PCAT Announcement for Future Cycles: The final PCAT testing cycle will be offered during the 2023–2024 admissions cycle on the following dates: July 6, 2023; October 16–27, 2023; and January 3–9, 2024. No PCAT testing dates will be offered during the 2024–2025 admissions cycle or beyond. Applicants who have previously taken the PCAT will not be affected. All test-takers may continue to request Official Transcripts and Personal Score Reports through the Pearson website until February 2026. Please visit the PCAT and Other Tests page to determine whether a school will consider the PCAT in the current admissions process.
PCAT Resources
The current PCAT Technical Manual and PCAT Score Interpretation Quick Reference are available to AACP member institutions in the Student Services SIG community of AACP Connect.
- Current PCAT Test Blueprint (PDF)
- History of PCAT Blueprint Changes (PDF) (2004–2018)
- PCAT Requirements for Schools: Visit the PharmCAS School Directory
- Pearson Report on "Test Bias, Fairness and Standardized Admission Test" (PDF): In a current climate of declining applicant pools and increasing competition among schools for applicants, many programs in higher education generally and pharmacy schools in particular are considering holistic and test-optional admission policies. Relevant to this reality are questions sometimes raised regarding whether admission tests such as the PCAT contain structural elements that are biased against candidates from certain demographic groups and whether test scores unfairly penalize such candidates. These questions are addressed by reviewing the recent trend toward test-optional admission policies in higher education and in pharmacy schools, by describing the rigorous procedures used by Pearson to construct PCAT test forms that are valid and fair for all candidates, and by presenting evidence that score differences between demographic groups are not attributable to inherent unfairness in the test or in how the scores are reported.
PCAT Research
- Predicting Performance in the First Year of Medical School - Donald G. Meagher, EdD, Tianshu Pan, PhD, and Christina D. Perez, MS, MEd. Predicting Performance in the First-Year of Pharmacy School. Am J Pharm Educ. 2011; 75 (5) Article 81.
- A Meta-Analysis of the Validity of the Pharmacy College Admissions Test (PCAT) and Grade Predictors of Pharmacy Student Performance (PDF)- Kuncel NR, Credé M, Thomas LL, Klieger DM, Seiler SN, Woo SE. A Meta-Analysis of the Validity of the Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) and Grade Predictors of Pharmacy Student Performance. Am J Pharm Educ. 2005; 69(3):article 51.
- PCAT Predictive Validity Study (PDF)- D. Meagher, A. Lin, C. Stellato; Harcourt Assessment. (September 2005) Members-only access.
- Preadmission Predictors of PharmD Graduates' Performance on the NAPLEX- KL McCall, EJ MacLaughlin, DS Fike, B Ruiz. AJPE 2007; 71 (1) Article 05.
- Understanding and Interpreting Pharmacy College Admission Test Scores - Meagher D. Understanding and Interpreting Pharmacy College Admission Test Scores. Am J of Pharm Educ. 2017; 81 (5): article 17.
PCAT Overview for Students
View general information about the PCAT test format, PCAT code for PharmCAS, Kaplan PCAT Test Prep, and PCAT requirements by school geared for current and prospective students.
