Looooooooooooooong and Detailed DAT Breakdown 8/16/2011 WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!

I am finally done!!!!!!!!! I'm so psyched and so ready to enjoy my summer. I've read a lot of these helpful breakdowns and now I'm posting my own.

I don't know where to stick this but...
Practice Test Scores:
Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test
17/14/17/10/21/17/16/17/ Kaplan Diagnostic
18/17/15/18/19/18/17/17/ Kaplan Midterm
18/17/23/19/16/15/19/18/ Kaplan Final
18/20/17/23/21/25/18/20/ Kaplan Practice Test I
22/25/25/23/18/22/24/22/ 2007 ADA
20/21/20/22/20/20/21/20/ 2009 ADA

Long term planning:
All you need is two months of really hard studying to do well, in my opinion. I started officially studying on July 5th (as soon as my summer class was over--and I took a weekend off) but I had been taking the Kaplan class during the first part of the summer-- though I didn't really benefit from it because I wasn't able to keep up (summer classes can be intense). I wouldn't recommend the Kaplan in-class course because you can't really have someone speak this information to you, especially when you aren't prepared. It's also too by-the-book. But I did love the online material: the section/subject tests, as well as the online workshops--big fan of the workshops.
So from July 5 to August 3, I studied (as in, reading, etc) and did some problems. After August 3rd, I focused most of my time on problems, problems, problems, and learning why I got things wrong, etc. The only “studying” I did after August 3rd had to do with questions I wasn't getting right. The week before the test, I did a practice test at 2pm every other day and studied on the other days, with Saturday off to hang out.
I had initially scheduled the test for the 4th of August, but gave myself till August 1st to decide if I needed more time or not. I did. Reschedule if you don't feel ready, you're doing yourself a huge favor.

A few days before my test, I went to check my prometric center out. SUCH A GOOD IDEA. Taking the train there was simple, but I literally circled that neighborhood four times before finding it. GO AND FIND IT AND MAKE SURE YOU CAN WALK THERE FROM UR TRAIN STATION (hi, NYers!). I walked back and fourth twice to make sure. I had the lady show me around. She wouldn’t let me see the scrap paper but it was pink and gridded on both sides. You sit in this cubicle thing and whatever. It’s clean and there are lots of law offices in that building. Staff was super nice. I was also lucky enough to catch a guy walking out of the center after having taken his test (not the DAT, though), and he told me about his experience (told me to bring a sweater), etc.

You know how everyone said not to study the day before the test? Well, I did--but not a lot. I watched a lot of Millionare Matchmaker and at 6, everything was put away and I went walking with a friend. I also had a panic attack that night because I wasn’t able to fall asleep and I cried it out, had my family reassure me that everything would be alright, and fell asleep by midnight. I also ate a lot that day—bananas, oreos, mom’s cooking, etc.

I woke up, ate a protein-filled breakfast: eggwhites with cheese. Before I left I had a slice of whole grain toast with honey and a cup of tea. I also bought peanut m&ms for my break (I had been training myself to eat these during my breaks hahaha.)

That morning, I visited my grandma for good luck, all my friends texted me to wish me luck, I spoke to a lot of family on the phone, and my mom even volunteered to take the train with me to the testing center. I also prayed and brought my siddur everywhere with me. I also reviewed the Kaplan quicksheets on my way there.

I put my stuff in the locker and the whole metal detector/finger printing thing took all of five minutes and I stated the test half an hour early. The main reason I did so was because I just drank a lot of water (I have to to do well) and was afraid I’d have to pee if I didn’t start soon. My finger was shaking when I pressed the end button of the tutorial. Oh during the tutorial, I did corny things like write encouraging things to myself on my scrap and writing down random bio facts to get me in the groove. I also prayed before starting.

So now for the subject breakdown:

Bio – 19 (83.5)
Materials: Kaplan, Destroyer, DATQVault, Cliff’s APBio
Methods/Strategies:
Answer the question. Process of Elimination. Guess the answer before looking. READ ALL THE ANSWER CHOICES.
Practice: I started reading the Kaplan for this but it wasn’t sticking so I switched to Cliffs. LOVE CLIFFS! It’s written very clearly. I took two days to just fly through it. Then I took the tests at the end of each chapter. Exposure to as many problems as possible is key here. You either know it or you don’t. Even if you don’t know it, you’ve either seen it or you didn’t. I did the three benchmark tests the day before the exam getting 19s each time, so I suppose it’s very accurate. I didn’t finish the destroyer unfortunately because it was a lot. I made flashcards for everything I got wrong/didn’t know, but I’ll be honest, I never actually went over all the flashcards again. When my sister helped me (ahem, forced me) to go through them with her, it was productive. But without her help, they were just for decoration. I suppose writing them was enough….?
The Test:
Everyone is right when they say it’s random. There were a few questions I had no clue about, but I guessed and moved on, coming back to it later with fresh eyes. I swear there were questions that I had seen either on destroyer or datqvault on the actual test. Had about 6 marked, guessed as well as I could. Meh. Knew this wasn’t going to be a strong section and I’m glad I didn’t spend more time on it.

GC – 25 (98.9)
Materials: Kaplan, Destroyer, Chad
Methods/Strategies: Just do it.
Practice: I was afraid about Gen Chem the most at first because it always seemed very abstract to me. Orgo is my favorite subject but GC, yuck. Anyway, I think I committed the most time to this section. I read all of Kaplan for this. When I got onto SDN, I realized everyone was praising Chad so I watched all of his GC videos and took the quizzes. Then GC was a breeze. But it took a while to go through all of them and I wouldn’t recommend it. I would do what I did for Orgo – it’s more efficient: Do the quiz that includes all of the subject questions (I think it’s 180 questions?), and then from there decide which videos to watch (ie. The videos relevant to what you got wrong). But I guess this is if you are short on time. I also went through destroyer once.
The Test: This section went by so quickly. I had maybe five calculation questions, two of which were set ups. I was shocked at how simple it seemed. Everything was conceptual but you had to know you’re facts to get it right.

OC – 28 (99.5)
Materials: Kaplan, Destroyer, Chad
Methods/Strategies: Just do it.
Practice: I love orgo and it comes kind of naturally. I also had a very… challenging (to say the least) professor. I didn’t have time to watch Chad’s videos for this one, but I did do what I suggested in GC: I did the 85 question quiz and only watched the videos of things I scored less than 66% on. I also reviewed spectroscopy and nomenclature the day before the test. I went through Destroyer just once and made sure to know the roadmaps.
The Test: Mostly conceptual (duh, what else would it be?). They would give you five molecules and you would have to rank them, say which one is the best ___, etc. Lots of those. A few very simple synthesis reactions. Know your aromatics. VERY VERY basic spectroscopy and lab questions.

Total Science – 22 (98.3)
The Test: I finished this test with 30 minutes to spare, and that’s NEVER happened. The awaited pee had set in and I ran out of the room, signed out, peed, signed back in, got my finger print taken (Again!), checked all my marked questions, checked all my orgo/gen chem questions and was done.

PAT - 25 (99.1)
Materials: Kaplan, CDP
I started this section with a 10. Granted, this was on my Kaplan Diagnostic and I had taken that test totally blind, but still--a FRIGGIN' TEN!!! This is a challenging section and it's all about strategy. First of all, know the rules of the game. How can you play if you don't? PROCESS OF ELIMINATION IS YOUR BEST FRIEND.
Methods/Strategies:
For Keyholes, I don't even know. After I've chosen my answer, I imagine stamping the figure onto the shape I chose and making sure it fits. I also look for tiny details that are easy to miss. Those are the biggest giveaways.
TFE: I think I have a pretty good eye for TFE because I had taken a lot of architecture/drafting classes in high school, and actually considered architecture as a career before choosing dentistry. I count the planes and extend all the lines: horizontal on the front and end, vertical in top/front. I usually focus on two planes before I move onto the last one--and that's usually the difference between the two answer choices you're left with.
For Angles, I use the Kaplan method: find the most obvious smallest/biggest and just eye it from there. When I can't see it, I cover both angles in question with my finger and compare only their vertices, or the areas of the triangles formed with my finger acting as the third side.
Hole punching: I pretend I have a piece of paper in my hands and I literally fold it in space punch the hols with my fingers and unfold it in space, holding my fingers wherever the holes are and matching them up. My favorite section--it's so much fun!
Cube-counting was a nightmare at first. But I got perfect scores by starting with the cube in the back left and moving across one by one writing down the number of exposed sides on my scrap. When they ask for two exposed sides, I circle every two on the page and move on. Never fails. To check, I count the cubes and make sure I have that many numbers on my page. Usually a last resort though.
Pattern-folding: Ugh, what a hassle. I just see it, don't know what else to say.
Practice: Did Kaplan for a while, then bought the ten-test CDP when I realized it was getting easier and lots of people loved it. Averaged 22 on CDP. CDP was a little harder than the actual, especially for cube-counting and angles. TFE/Keyholes/Hole-punching I think was spot-on. Pattern folding is just BLECH in general, so I couldn't tell you.
The Test: The test wasn't so bad. I'd say it was fair overall. I had a bunch of keyholes marked because I wasn't sure about sizes, but I guess it went well. I finished with about 10 minutes and reviewed my marked questions, and only had time to count cubes once. Didn't get to check pattern-folding.


RC – 20 (78.5)
Materials: Kaplan
Methods/Strategies:
This section has three passages and 60 minutes. So I allot myself 20 minutes per section. I read the article for ten minutes, taking down key words for each paragraph, then tackle the questions in the next ten minutes. S&D is nerve-wracking for me and I avoid it. Too risky. I finished exactly at the last second.
Practice: All I really did was what Kaplan gave me plus the ADA passages.
The Test: The test passages were fairly simple and actually interesting! 14-18 paragraphs long and they weren’t even long paragraphs. When you read it where the question is shown to you, it’s a shorter width and easier/faster to read. I thought this test was the easiest of all the practice I had done.

QR - 19 (92.9)
Materials: Kaplan, Math Destroyer
I thought this section was going to be cake. I got a perfect score on my SATs for math and really got cocky with it. I did maybe two tests from the Math Destroyer but just didn't focus on it much. I wish I had done more of the Math Destroyer....
Methods/Strategies:
I try to solve a problem, if within 5-10 seconds I still don't know how to approach it, I choose a random answer, mark it, and move on! I skip quite a few questions this way, but it's a zen-way of thinking, I suppose. When you see a problem with fresh eyes, you can do it.
Practice: Problems, but I didn't do much, so whatevs. Kaplan online workshops were nice, but I ran through them like a fool.
The Test: KNOW YOUR TRIG AND RADIANS AND STANDARD DEVIATION ****. I was hoping that those wouldn't show up but they definitely did. I definitely saw them in the Math Destroyer, though. UGH! I CAN'T BELIEVE I SCORED SO LOW ON THIS SECTION!!!!! I was literally about to start crying when I realized how many questions I was clueless about and started to panic. The only thing that kept me going was knowing I was almost done. My second time through (and I didn't have time to get through all of it), I saw the questions I skipped in a different light and took care of them, but I didn't finish ALL the marked problems.

AA – 22 (98.9)

Well. That’s my score and breakdown. I am thrilled. I am in an accelerated dental program and was required to get above national average. Mission accomplished.

I wish everyone the best of luck on this test. I hope that we can all be colleagues one day.

Also, a huge THANK YOU to the SDN Community. At first, I would go to sleep with panic attacks/nightmares after visiting this website. Then I learned to use it as motivation to work harder and get a higher score. Later, I used it as a study tool and tried to answer as many questions as possible. That led to a bit of an addiction and I made my sister change my password, visiting only occasionally but not being able to reply. I’m back and very thankful. Please PM me and feel free to ask any questions.

Good night, and good luck.