- Joined
- Apr 7, 2011
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 7
Hey guys,
First off I want to thank everyone in the past who have contributed advice and tips, which pretty much allowed me to get the score I obtained. So now it's my turn to give back in anyway i can. This is my 2nd time taking the DAT. First time I made a 20AA 15 PAT, so as you would have guess my below cutoff PAT gave me no chances for interviews.
The biggest difference between then and now in terms of studying was doing timed practice test, which in this case was the 3X achiever edition and 2007 ADA test. The first time I took it, I never did any practice test. After realizing around Dec, that I wouldn't be getting any interviews, I knew I had to retake the DAT as well get ready to apply for this
new cycle.
I started studying again in late Jan., with a target test of around April so I could be early for apps. However I had work fri/sat/sun along with volunteering
and took 9hrs of classes to finish my Bio degree, so I focused hardcore 10-12 hour a day during tues/wed/thurs which was my only real free time. I highly recommend not taking as long as I did in going from late Jan to May to study for the test, since I forgot alot of info I learned in the beginning stages. This is why I went through the same
material atleast 5x times. Another mistake I made the first time was getting only an hour sleep before the exam, which threw off my concentration bad. This time I got about 5 hours as well as eating lite before and listening to pump up music. Some guy posted his pre exam playlist a few days ago in a breakdown, so heres mine.
Over - Drake, Forever- Drake, Remember the Name- Fort Minor, 9am in Dallas- Drake,
Rihanna- Stay, and Lupe Fiasco- Superstar
Scores.
PAT 19 (62.7%)
QR 20 (88.3%)
RC 22 (85.9%)
Bio 24 (99.1%)
GC 24 (96.1%)
OC 25 (96.6%)
TS 24 (98.6%)
AA 23 (98.1%)
Bio: (Cliffs AP 9/10, some KBB 6/10, Craig Savage and other youtube vids 10/10, wikipedia 8/10, destroyer 9/10, chads quizzes 8/10, achiever 9/10)
I used Cliffs mainly to first get started, but still reread the book continously even including a few hours before the exam as I forget Bio info easily. So in total i probably read cliffs about 8 or 9 times no exagerration. Cliffs is essential. KBB was helpful on some stuff that wasn't covered in Cliffs such as eye/ear anotomy, more indept on hormones (even though I was taking endocrinology class), and marine biomes. Didn't discover craig savage until a few weeks ago, but he was a life saver. His videos are so simple and consise along with some very helpful diagrams he adds in. Stuff that I struggled on like immune system, nehphrons, angiosperms life lifecycle, and animal evolution
was cleared up easily by watching his and other youtube vids. I probably did destroyer like 5 times. A BIG habit that I did this time in doing destroyer was pretty much googling every answer choice on a question even if it wasn't the correct answer. I did chad quizzes a few days before my test, even though it's incomplete.
Luckily the questions he has so far such as immune system and respiration where the ones that I needed practice on. My test exam was pretty diverse. I had only a couple taxonomy questions and they were simple stuff that destroyer regurgitates reinforces. There were a good amount of easy questions, along with some that were more difficult. I probably marked like 7/8 questions. Make sure you know your blots and bio lab questions as I had a question like that come up and it isn't covered much in my study materials. My score was a big surprise as I had to make educated guesses on a few...
GC: ( chads 10/10, chads quizzes 10/10, destroyer 9/10, achiever 7/10)
Destroyer is great, but many of the questions were more in difficulty/similar to Chad's quizzes. I did Chads quizzes in complete the day before. Make sure you're exceptional with concepts, as I had a lot of conceptual questions. Section was pretty easy for the most part except some for calculation questions that weren't necessarily hard, but were time assuming to set up like balancing redox. Achiever was not as helpful in this section since the actual test didn't require complex calculations or test over ridiculous stuff.
OC: (Chads 10/10, chads quizzes 10/10, destroyer 9.5/10, achiever 8.5/10,)
Same as with GC. Roadmaps helped alot, and more than enough needed. I'm pretty good with rxns so I went through this section pretty quick. I had a good amount of rxn questions but they were all pretty simple. Make sure you know your acid chloride derivative stuff. Had quite a few concept questions over it. One thing I might stress
is to focus somewhat on mechanism/intermediates because I had some questions I got stuck on due to not knowing the exact mechanism.
RC: Nothing accept for one achiever test
I didn't want to do search and destroy, but after reading the first passage (a difficult one) and really not gaining anything from it, I went screw it and did S&D on the next 2, which i got lucky on because they were easy articles where s&d helped. I did one practice with achiever, but it was so hard so I never touched RC stuff again and hoped I could wing it on the real thing. I am a slow reader, but I feel anyone else could have easily gone through the section the normal way and be fine. The last 2 articles were really straight forward luckily for me.
QR: Math destroyer 9/10 DAT destroyer 9.5/10
The questions on my DAT were defintely more simpler than math destroyer and more in diffculty to DAT destroyer math section (the 150 quesiton one). Time is a huge factor, so "mark" is your best friend. Do the easy questions first. I suck with algebra, so a lot of the questions that involved it, I backwards solved it. Definitely know your common right angles, such as the 3-4-5 and 5-12-13 ones because it saved me on 3 or 4 questions.
Pat: 7/10 CDP, 10/10 Achiever
This is the section that screwed me up last time, so I bought CDP and eventually started avg like 21-22's on it. I was feeling good about this section about a month ago until I heard achiever was more similar to what was on the actual test. Boy were those people right. Keyholes were defintely harder than CDP and only a notch below diffculty than achiv. I marked or left blank pretty much all of them. TFE was similar to achiv as well. CDP's TFE are a joke compared to my test because line counting for the most part will not work, and you actually have to imagine the figure which is pretty hard for me. Angle ranking was lame like always but easier than CDP and on par with achiv. Paper folding was similar to both materials and if you can do line of symmetry method, then you're fine no matter what.
Cube counting was really easy... Pattern folding was also easy, comparable to CDP and easier than achiv. So yea... CDP is a good intro, but achiv is more represented
of the real test, so I advocate achiv unless you're good with 3d stuff. I just realized this right now, but during the review option in the menu, I only clicked review for "marked" questions instead of for "incomplete" questions. So I left a few incomplete without realizing to go back to do them even though I had a few spare minutes at the end. dammit
All in all, I cannot believe the score I got since I barely finished any sections in time while also having a lot of marked questions. I honestly felt like I did worst than last time. My highest AA on achiever was an 18, so practicing that helped in building endurance and preparing for the worst even though the scores I received on it discouraged me so bad. I know this is the biggest cliche saying on the forum, but if I can do it, then seriously anyone who studies hard can. I probably have the worst memory as far as retaining info goes, but I studied my butt during that time frame. It's all about how much work you put it and being dedicated. In my case, I also got lucky with my guesses on marked problems.
It is the biggest relief in the world to get this over with and to get back to life playing basketball and watching Ironman. I have 3.5 GPA, so hopefully these scores can balance that out and get me interviews at a Texas school. Also another crazy thing is my friend from school who was in the same boat and also helped me with stuff during my studies took the test a couple days ago and got a 23 . His name is DATking. If anyone has any questions at all, I'm more than happy to help. So PM me or reply. Also, sorry for the bad grammar lol.
First off I want to thank everyone in the past who have contributed advice and tips, which pretty much allowed me to get the score I obtained. So now it's my turn to give back in anyway i can. This is my 2nd time taking the DAT. First time I made a 20AA 15 PAT, so as you would have guess my below cutoff PAT gave me no chances for interviews.
The biggest difference between then and now in terms of studying was doing timed practice test, which in this case was the 3X achiever edition and 2007 ADA test. The first time I took it, I never did any practice test. After realizing around Dec, that I wouldn't be getting any interviews, I knew I had to retake the DAT as well get ready to apply for this
new cycle.
I started studying again in late Jan., with a target test of around April so I could be early for apps. However I had work fri/sat/sun along with volunteering
and took 9hrs of classes to finish my Bio degree, so I focused hardcore 10-12 hour a day during tues/wed/thurs which was my only real free time. I highly recommend not taking as long as I did in going from late Jan to May to study for the test, since I forgot alot of info I learned in the beginning stages. This is why I went through the same
material atleast 5x times. Another mistake I made the first time was getting only an hour sleep before the exam, which threw off my concentration bad. This time I got about 5 hours as well as eating lite before and listening to pump up music. Some guy posted his pre exam playlist a few days ago in a breakdown, so heres mine.
Over - Drake, Forever- Drake, Remember the Name- Fort Minor, 9am in Dallas- Drake,
Rihanna- Stay, and Lupe Fiasco- Superstar
Scores.
PAT 19 (62.7%)
QR 20 (88.3%)
RC 22 (85.9%)
Bio 24 (99.1%)
GC 24 (96.1%)
OC 25 (96.6%)
TS 24 (98.6%)
AA 23 (98.1%)
Bio: (Cliffs AP 9/10, some KBB 6/10, Craig Savage and other youtube vids 10/10, wikipedia 8/10, destroyer 9/10, chads quizzes 8/10, achiever 9/10)
I used Cliffs mainly to first get started, but still reread the book continously even including a few hours before the exam as I forget Bio info easily. So in total i probably read cliffs about 8 or 9 times no exagerration. Cliffs is essential. KBB was helpful on some stuff that wasn't covered in Cliffs such as eye/ear anotomy, more indept on hormones (even though I was taking endocrinology class), and marine biomes. Didn't discover craig savage until a few weeks ago, but he was a life saver. His videos are so simple and consise along with some very helpful diagrams he adds in. Stuff that I struggled on like immune system, nehphrons, angiosperms life lifecycle, and animal evolution
was cleared up easily by watching his and other youtube vids. I probably did destroyer like 5 times. A BIG habit that I did this time in doing destroyer was pretty much googling every answer choice on a question even if it wasn't the correct answer. I did chad quizzes a few days before my test, even though it's incomplete.
Luckily the questions he has so far such as immune system and respiration where the ones that I needed practice on. My test exam was pretty diverse. I had only a couple taxonomy questions and they were simple stuff that destroyer regurgitates reinforces. There were a good amount of easy questions, along with some that were more difficult. I probably marked like 7/8 questions. Make sure you know your blots and bio lab questions as I had a question like that come up and it isn't covered much in my study materials. My score was a big surprise as I had to make educated guesses on a few...
GC: ( chads 10/10, chads quizzes 10/10, destroyer 9/10, achiever 7/10)
Destroyer is great, but many of the questions were more in difficulty/similar to Chad's quizzes. I did Chads quizzes in complete the day before. Make sure you're exceptional with concepts, as I had a lot of conceptual questions. Section was pretty easy for the most part except some for calculation questions that weren't necessarily hard, but were time assuming to set up like balancing redox. Achiever was not as helpful in this section since the actual test didn't require complex calculations or test over ridiculous stuff.
OC: (Chads 10/10, chads quizzes 10/10, destroyer 9.5/10, achiever 8.5/10,)
Same as with GC. Roadmaps helped alot, and more than enough needed. I'm pretty good with rxns so I went through this section pretty quick. I had a good amount of rxn questions but they were all pretty simple. Make sure you know your acid chloride derivative stuff. Had quite a few concept questions over it. One thing I might stress
is to focus somewhat on mechanism/intermediates because I had some questions I got stuck on due to not knowing the exact mechanism.
RC: Nothing accept for one achiever test
I didn't want to do search and destroy, but after reading the first passage (a difficult one) and really not gaining anything from it, I went screw it and did S&D on the next 2, which i got lucky on because they were easy articles where s&d helped. I did one practice with achiever, but it was so hard so I never touched RC stuff again and hoped I could wing it on the real thing. I am a slow reader, but I feel anyone else could have easily gone through the section the normal way and be fine. The last 2 articles were really straight forward luckily for me.
QR: Math destroyer 9/10 DAT destroyer 9.5/10
The questions on my DAT were defintely more simpler than math destroyer and more in diffculty to DAT destroyer math section (the 150 quesiton one). Time is a huge factor, so "mark" is your best friend. Do the easy questions first. I suck with algebra, so a lot of the questions that involved it, I backwards solved it. Definitely know your common right angles, such as the 3-4-5 and 5-12-13 ones because it saved me on 3 or 4 questions.
Pat: 7/10 CDP, 10/10 Achiever
This is the section that screwed me up last time, so I bought CDP and eventually started avg like 21-22's on it. I was feeling good about this section about a month ago until I heard achiever was more similar to what was on the actual test. Boy were those people right. Keyholes were defintely harder than CDP and only a notch below diffculty than achiv. I marked or left blank pretty much all of them. TFE was similar to achiv as well. CDP's TFE are a joke compared to my test because line counting for the most part will not work, and you actually have to imagine the figure which is pretty hard for me. Angle ranking was lame like always but easier than CDP and on par with achiv. Paper folding was similar to both materials and if you can do line of symmetry method, then you're fine no matter what.
Cube counting was really easy... Pattern folding was also easy, comparable to CDP and easier than achiv. So yea... CDP is a good intro, but achiv is more represented
of the real test, so I advocate achiv unless you're good with 3d stuff. I just realized this right now, but during the review option in the menu, I only clicked review for "marked" questions instead of for "incomplete" questions. So I left a few incomplete without realizing to go back to do them even though I had a few spare minutes at the end. dammit
All in all, I cannot believe the score I got since I barely finished any sections in time while also having a lot of marked questions. I honestly felt like I did worst than last time. My highest AA on achiever was an 18, so practicing that helped in building endurance and preparing for the worst even though the scores I received on it discouraged me so bad. I know this is the biggest cliche saying on the forum, but if I can do it, then seriously anyone who studies hard can. I probably have the worst memory as far as retaining info goes, but I studied my butt during that time frame. It's all about how much work you put it and being dedicated. In my case, I also got lucky with my guesses on marked problems.
It is the biggest relief in the world to get this over with and to get back to life playing basketball and watching Ironman. I have 3.5 GPA, so hopefully these scores can balance that out and get me interviews at a Texas school. Also another crazy thing is my friend from school who was in the same boat and also helped me with stuff during my studies took the test a couple days ago and got a 23 . His name is DATking. If anyone has any questions at all, I'm more than happy to help. So PM me or reply. Also, sorry for the bad grammar lol.
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