**If you are a re-taker, READ THIS!!!I am a re-taker and hope this thread provides any and all re-takers the confidence that scores can go up more than just a point.**
Firstly, praise the Lord. Through Him all things are possible. I would have had no chance to have the resilience to study for the 3 months that I did this summer. I cannot express how much love I have for Him and his mercy. Please, do not allow for this test to be the sole determinant of your happiness. Your life is beautiful not because of your accomplishments, but through love and compassion.
Secondly, thank all of you on SDN for being awesome and helping me have the opportunity to fight this test with more confidence! Thanks to Glimmer for her countless hours of help, especially in the beginning of my studying, Sskater and saintguitar for responding to my questions about kaplan and how to tackle the program, supergenius310 for being awesome, Eugeniager for answering a lot of my questions, and GatorD for answering anything I asked of him and for Bootcamp, which is probably the best score indicator around! If I am forgetting anyone, it isn't because I am not grateful, I am just very happy! Thanks again!!
Thirdly,the past studying schedule and scores:
Last year, my goal was a 19. I didn't feel as if I could get anything higher in the time I had. I had a full-time job plus was training every day for college soccer. I studied for a month, studying during my lunch break and for a couple of hours after training. The final five days I put in about 10 hours per day, taking off work to study. I used Chad's for the chemistry sections and attempted and stopped destroyer, CDP for the PAT (4 tests), Chad's for QR, CDR for reading (2 tests), and cliff's ap bio for biology.
Here are my scores from last year:
PAT- 22
QR- 21
RC- 20
BIO- 18
GC- 19
OC- 19
TS- 19
AA- 19
These scores were perfectly fine, but I wanted to give myself the opportunity to not worry about the DAT scores bringing me down AT ALL. My GPA is pretty good too (3.63 sci and 3.73 overall), but I just wanted to make it a sure thing- as close as possible anyway.
My schedule and scores for round two:
I studied for 3 months for this bad boy, studying as much as I felt healthy to do so (lol). I took a Kaplan course (course is worthless, materials they provide such as notecards and tests are beneficial, but only bio is in line with difficulty).
Scores round 2:
PAT- 30 (+8)
QR- 24 (+3)
RC- 22 (+2)
BIO- 26 (+8)
GC- 23 (+4)
OC- 29 (+10)
TS- 25 (+6)
AA- 25 (+6)
PAT 30-Kaplan, CDP (23, 21, 23, 24, 25), Bootcamp (1 test-20)- Taking the Kaplan tests, I thought this section was a joke. In actuality, these might be pretty close, except the hole punching is too easy and the angle ranking is WAY too easy. CDP seemed very close to the actual test, as I got a 25 on the last one I took and only missed angle ranking questions. I must have had a good angle ranking day today, because that's what it always came down to for my scores. I would have taken more bootcamp tests, but I was running low on study time and didn't practice this section much the last few weeks since I was scoring decently well on the Kaplan tests (scores below).
QR 24- Kaplan, Math destroyer (4 tests-untimed), Bootcamp (1 test-20). Kaplan math is way to difficult in the workshops in my opinion, the actual test was easy. That being said, the math destroyer got me at least two questions correct on the actual test, so the harder questions are in line with the math destroyer. I took the Bootcamp test before I got into the math destroyer, so that may have been pretty accurate at the time.
RC 22- I didn't feel like studying for this more than Kaplan because I did well enough last time and had no desire to try to improve it.
Biology 26- Cliff's AP, 1/2 of Barron's, Ferali's notes, Kaplan, destroyer (once), Qvualt, Bootcamp. What more do I need to say? I think the best thing for bio is exposing yourself to all the information and common questions that arise, and from there branch off into the sections you think should be studied in more depth.
Qvault scores- 22/23/21/22/22/22/22/22/22/22 ( hmm, nice average, eh?)
Bootcamp- 26/23/24/23/25 (Closest score predictor)
GChem 23-Kaplan, Chad's, destroyer. I was not a huge fan of either of the Kaplan chemistry sections. Frankly, they were too hard, overall, and had random physics-related questions that were not going to be on the actual DAT (its a joint class with optometry students and they have physics). It wasn't bad practice, but the destroyer was much more helpful in my opinion. I went through it once for gchem. Qvault gets a bad rap for the chemistry sections, but I enjoyed all it had to offer and the practice questions involved. Score-wise, I thought both Qvault and Bootcamp were on par here. The questions in Bootcamp, in some cases, may be harder than the actual test, but the score is very accurate.
Qvault- 26/26/22/22/26/21/21/21/26/21
Bootcamp- 22/25/21/23/21
OChem 29 Same as gchem, except I didn't go through the destroyer in the conventional way. I was struggling after the first 60 or so questions, so I thought to myself, "Is this type of studying really helping you learn?" And I knew it wasn't. So, I looked for a new way to attack the destroyer, knowing full well that the information provided in it would be essential for solid scores in this section. My determination was that I would type of question at a time, with a divide and conquer mentality. I marked down which questions dealt with reactions, which dealt with acidity/basicity, lab techniques, spectrums, nomenclature, and any "interesting questions" that I thought would be beneficial to separate. I took each of the problems that dealt with a reaction, and separated it into individual steps, making a notecard for each step. I then went over the other sections and wrote notecards for them, too, if I felt I may not remember the answer on the test. I specifically had notecards on spectrum, lab techniques, and reactions and think this was the best thing that I could have ever done. In less than two weeks, I went from scoring 19's on bootcamp to 22+ with this alone, in my opinion.
Qvault- 24/22/30/26/22/19/20/26/20/22 (I took multiple tests in a row sometimes, so I got tired and I think that made my scores fluctuate)
Bootcamp- 19/19/22/29/22
Kaplan tests (taken in the order provided)- My goal last year was a 19 and I put my goal on Kaplan at 24... maybe I should have put a 30! ;-p
PA/Bio/GC/OC/RC/QR/TS/AA
Diagnostic-these scores are pretty bogus and aren't representative
Midterm- 25/24/20/18/19/19/21/20
Final- 24/22/18/25/20/21/22/21
1- 26/21/21/23/22/25/22/22
2- 23/21/21/19/23/24/20/22
3- 22/26/18/19/20/21/22/21
The chemistry sections are weird in kaplan and get gradually harder as it progresses. Be prepared for that if you take this course!
ADA tests
2007- missed one bio, two GC, no OC. Didn't take the others.
2009- missed two bio, two GC, 3 OC, 5 pat, 11 RC, 10 math
I spent a total of three months studying for this behemoth, knowing full well the difficulty it would bring. I almost had to postpone the test due to health issues, but thank goodness I didn't (its not always a bad thing to postpone, though).
Thank you all again for the generosity and support that you have all shown to me and others. Without your help and the grace of God, I would have never come close to what I desired. Thank you, thank you, thank you fellow members of SDN. You are all beautiful people! Let me know if you have any questions!
Firstly, praise the Lord. Through Him all things are possible. I would have had no chance to have the resilience to study for the 3 months that I did this summer. I cannot express how much love I have for Him and his mercy. Please, do not allow for this test to be the sole determinant of your happiness. Your life is beautiful not because of your accomplishments, but through love and compassion.
Secondly, thank all of you on SDN for being awesome and helping me have the opportunity to fight this test with more confidence! Thanks to Glimmer for her countless hours of help, especially in the beginning of my studying, Sskater and saintguitar for responding to my questions about kaplan and how to tackle the program, supergenius310 for being awesome, Eugeniager for answering a lot of my questions, and GatorD for answering anything I asked of him and for Bootcamp, which is probably the best score indicator around! If I am forgetting anyone, it isn't because I am not grateful, I am just very happy! Thanks again!!
Thirdly,the past studying schedule and scores:
Last year, my goal was a 19. I didn't feel as if I could get anything higher in the time I had. I had a full-time job plus was training every day for college soccer. I studied for a month, studying during my lunch break and for a couple of hours after training. The final five days I put in about 10 hours per day, taking off work to study. I used Chad's for the chemistry sections and attempted and stopped destroyer, CDP for the PAT (4 tests), Chad's for QR, CDR for reading (2 tests), and cliff's ap bio for biology.
Here are my scores from last year:
PAT- 22
QR- 21
RC- 20
BIO- 18
GC- 19
OC- 19
TS- 19
AA- 19
These scores were perfectly fine, but I wanted to give myself the opportunity to not worry about the DAT scores bringing me down AT ALL. My GPA is pretty good too (3.63 sci and 3.73 overall), but I just wanted to make it a sure thing- as close as possible anyway.
My schedule and scores for round two:
I studied for 3 months for this bad boy, studying as much as I felt healthy to do so (lol). I took a Kaplan course (course is worthless, materials they provide such as notecards and tests are beneficial, but only bio is in line with difficulty).
Scores round 2:
PAT- 30 (+8)
QR- 24 (+3)
RC- 22 (+2)
BIO- 26 (+8)
GC- 23 (+4)
OC- 29 (+10)
TS- 25 (+6)
AA- 25 (+6)
PAT 30-Kaplan, CDP (23, 21, 23, 24, 25), Bootcamp (1 test-20)- Taking the Kaplan tests, I thought this section was a joke. In actuality, these might be pretty close, except the hole punching is too easy and the angle ranking is WAY too easy. CDP seemed very close to the actual test, as I got a 25 on the last one I took and only missed angle ranking questions. I must have had a good angle ranking day today, because that's what it always came down to for my scores. I would have taken more bootcamp tests, but I was running low on study time and didn't practice this section much the last few weeks since I was scoring decently well on the Kaplan tests (scores below).
QR 24- Kaplan, Math destroyer (4 tests-untimed), Bootcamp (1 test-20). Kaplan math is way to difficult in the workshops in my opinion, the actual test was easy. That being said, the math destroyer got me at least two questions correct on the actual test, so the harder questions are in line with the math destroyer. I took the Bootcamp test before I got into the math destroyer, so that may have been pretty accurate at the time.
RC 22- I didn't feel like studying for this more than Kaplan because I did well enough last time and had no desire to try to improve it.
Biology 26- Cliff's AP, 1/2 of Barron's, Ferali's notes, Kaplan, destroyer (once), Qvualt, Bootcamp. What more do I need to say? I think the best thing for bio is exposing yourself to all the information and common questions that arise, and from there branch off into the sections you think should be studied in more depth.
Qvault scores- 22/23/21/22/22/22/22/22/22/22 ( hmm, nice average, eh?
)Bootcamp- 26/23/24/23/25 (Closest score predictor)
GChem 23-Kaplan, Chad's, destroyer. I was not a huge fan of either of the Kaplan chemistry sections. Frankly, they were too hard, overall, and had random physics-related questions that were not going to be on the actual DAT (its a joint class with optometry students and they have physics). It wasn't bad practice, but the destroyer was much more helpful in my opinion. I went through it once for gchem. Qvault gets a bad rap for the chemistry sections, but I enjoyed all it had to offer and the practice questions involved. Score-wise, I thought both Qvault and Bootcamp were on par here. The questions in Bootcamp, in some cases, may be harder than the actual test, but the score is very accurate.
Qvault- 26/26/22/22/26/21/21/21/26/21
Bootcamp- 22/25/21/23/21
OChem 29 Same as gchem, except I didn't go through the destroyer in the conventional way. I was struggling after the first 60 or so questions, so I thought to myself, "Is this type of studying really helping you learn?" And I knew it wasn't. So, I looked for a new way to attack the destroyer, knowing full well that the information provided in it would be essential for solid scores in this section. My determination was that I would type of question at a time, with a divide and conquer mentality. I marked down which questions dealt with reactions, which dealt with acidity/basicity, lab techniques, spectrums, nomenclature, and any "interesting questions" that I thought would be beneficial to separate. I took each of the problems that dealt with a reaction, and separated it into individual steps, making a notecard for each step. I then went over the other sections and wrote notecards for them, too, if I felt I may not remember the answer on the test. I specifically had notecards on spectrum, lab techniques, and reactions and think this was the best thing that I could have ever done. In less than two weeks, I went from scoring 19's on bootcamp to 22+ with this alone, in my opinion.
Qvault- 24/22/30/26/22/19/20/26/20/22 (I took multiple tests in a row sometimes, so I got tired and I think that made my scores fluctuate)
Bootcamp- 19/19/22/29/22
Kaplan tests (taken in the order provided)- My goal last year was a 19 and I put my goal on Kaplan at 24... maybe I should have put a 30! ;-p
PA/Bio/GC/OC/RC/QR/TS/AA
Diagnostic-these scores are pretty bogus and aren't representative
Midterm- 25/24/20/18/19/19/21/20
Final- 24/22/18/25/20/21/22/21
1- 26/21/21/23/22/25/22/22
2- 23/21/21/19/23/24/20/22
3- 22/26/18/19/20/21/22/21
The chemistry sections are weird in kaplan and get gradually harder as it progresses. Be prepared for that if you take this course!
ADA tests
2007- missed one bio, two GC, no OC. Didn't take the others.
2009- missed two bio, two GC, 3 OC, 5 pat, 11 RC, 10 math
I spent a total of three months studying for this behemoth, knowing full well the difficulty it would bring. I almost had to postpone the test due to health issues, but thank goodness I didn't (its not always a bad thing to postpone, though).
Thank you all again for the generosity and support that you have all shown to me and others. Without your help and the grace of God, I would have never come close to what I desired. Thank you, thank you, thank you fellow members of SDN. You are all beautiful people! Let me know if you have any questions!
Last edited:
