Current Kaplan DAT full length score vs. Real DAT score

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Hi! I have 20 days until my DAT and just started taking full lengths. I'm doing ok, but kind of freaking out because my AA is nowhere near where I want it to be. I just took one and my scores were
AA - 19 and PA - 25
I only got one wrong in Bio but totally laid an egg in gen chem and made stupid stupid mistakes in reading comp. I have 2 more exams and a final left until I take the real exam (and have to do those and study for the next 20 days), my question is, how did your practice exams/final exam compare to the actual score you go on the real thing?

thank you so much, I'm completely freaking out right now!

Originally Posted by ucxc

Hi! I have 20 days until my DAT and just started taking full lengths. I'm doing ok, but kind of freaking out because my AA is nowhere near where I want it to be. I just took one and my scores were
AA - 19 and PA - 25
I only got one wrong in Bio but totally laid an egg in gen chem and made stupid stupid mistakes in reading comp. I have 2 more exams and a final left until I take the real exam (and have to do those and study for the next 20 days), my question is, how did your practice exams/final exam compare to the actual score you go on the real thing?

thank you so much, I'm completely freaking out right now!

Kaplan isnt the best resource for DAT studies, the questions are often too hard so you will probably get a higher AA in real life, but I wouldnt even waste time on it. I would do the ADA 2009 exam to get a better gauge of your score. If you dont have it, then get Topscore or Achiever.

so people end up doing better on the real exam with regards to AA than they do in practice exams? I've heard kaplan PAT is notoriously not as hard as the real deal but I'm hoping my scores go up the next two practices and that the real test is a bit kinder

Originally Posted by ucxc

so people end up doing better on the real exam with regards to AA than they do in practice exams? I've heard kaplan PAT is notoriously not as hard as the real deal but I'm hoping my scores go up the next two practices and that the real test is a bit kinder

I didnt use Kaplan at all, I used Crack DAT Pat for the PAT section and Achiever was pretty good for PAT as well.

I used Kaplan and the exam on the ADEA website. Both were way easier than the real thing in my opinion. Good luck!

I was in the same boat as you. I took the kaplan course and then took the real DAT 2 weeks after. Please take this advice with a grain of salt.

Below are my thoughts on each section on how well the kaplan course prepared me.

Bio: I felt that kaplan bio was inefficient, so I took the advice of many on here to supplement with cliff ap bio. Kaplan blue book and cliff ap was good, but a few questions seemed to circumvent all the material. Luck of the draw I guess.
Gchem: Kaplan did a good job on this section. I did all the workshops and problems, tests. But I still supplemented with lecture notes. The test questions seemed similar to the kaplan questions.
Ochem: Kaplan did a decent job, but ochem was one of my stronger points and I relied heavily on my lecture notes. Kaplan questions were similar to test questions.
PAT: Kaplan did a good job for practice, but the real DAT was a bit harder.
Reading Comp: I think that kaplan didn't have enough passages, so I supplemented with crack DAT (reading).

Bottomline: I didn't rely solely on kaplan to prepare me. Kaplan was good at preparing me for the type of questions on the DAT and for exposing areas of weakness.

Another student told me about a free website with a lot of lecture material. I used this for topics that I still had difficulty with.
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Best of luck.

When I took mine I had not yet taken 2nd semester Ochem, so aside from using DAT Destroyer, I only studied using Kaplans resources. After the class ended I was taking full length tests every 3-4 days leading up to my test. My scores were decent, but not really competitive, ranging from 17-19. My only 20 on a practice test was in Reading Comp. My second to last test I got a 14 on ochem and started to freak out. I just looked over everything I had to build up my ochem score. When I took my test I got nothing lower than a 20 (ochem was the lowest score at 20). Overall I got a 21AA 22TS and 24PAT.

I've read a lot of other people strategies and it seems most people look down on Kaplan, but as long as you are dedicated enough to stick to the program, it will get you the scores you need.

i only used kaplan

i felt the prep questions were pretty much the same difficulty as the real exam questions

it's more about how you handle the pressure of test day i think

either you're more motivated and zone in or you're scared frozen

thanks you guys yeah I'm going over it now and trying to find my weak links, ochem is and has always been my worst so its memorizing time. thanks for the help!