DAT Breakdown 6/6/13

Hey everyone!

I was debating whether or not to do a breakdown since my scores aren't nearly as good as most of the scores are on here. But I figured I would since I have gained so much from these forums and it is the right thing to do to give back. Anyways, my scores are:

PAT: 21
QR: 19
RC: 20
BIO: 21
GC: 19
OCHEM: 19
TS: 20
AA: 20

I studied roughly 3 months for this exam, and I studied hard so I kind of wished I would of done a little bit better, but overall I am satisfied with my scores.

Materials:
DAT Destroyer
Math Destroyer
KBB
Cliff's
Chad's Videos
Topscore
Achiever (3 test)
qVault (all sections)
2007 Sample test
Barron's
CDP
Old textbooks

PAT: I honestly was in SHOCK when I saw I made a 21. I know a 21 isn't great, but when practicing on CDP I made a lot of 20's, and I made a FIFTEEN on Achiever's PAT!! Achiever was ridiculously hard compared to the real PAT. The PAT on my exam was totally doable! I think if you're scoring well on CDP/Achiever you are ready to go!

Keyholes: Keyholes were pretty simple in my opinion. Definitely not as hard as Achiever (if they were I would of been screwed). I'd say on the same level as CDP, except there were a few where it didn't look like any of the answer choices were correct haha.

TFE: Not bad at all either! Definitely not as hard as Achiever, I'd say same level as CDP. It was really easy to narrow it down to just 2 answer choices and just have to decide between those two.

Angles: Gahh angles were one of my worst subjects on CDP! Thankfully on the real thing they weren't that bad. Much easier than CDP. I could actually tell the angles apart!!!!!! Was very relieved.

Hole punching: Hole punching was very easy. I think I might of had a 1/3 fold thrown in there. My only beef with the hole punching section, was their hole punching pictures aren't nearly as nice as the ones on CDP!! The holes were like tiny, and in some pictures I couldn't exactly tell where the hole was punched, if that makes sense. I dunno, it kind of took me by surprise, but once you kind of figured out where they meant to put the hole it was easy to figure out.

Cubes: Ahhhhhhhhh this part was a joke!! The figures weren't NEARLY as bad as CDP. They were rather small and I didn't have any illusions. It was pretty clear cut. If you can do CDP cubes, you're good to go!

Pattern Folding: I'm not the best at pattern folding, but not that bad either. I actually had a similar pattern to one that was in Achiever!

Overall, for the PAT, if you're scoring good on CDP/Achiever you are good to go!!

QR: Hahahaha. I am SOO terrible at math. By the end of the test, I was so ready to get it over with because I thought I had flunked it and was going to have to retake it! I honestly am super happy with a 19 because I have to say I guessed on at least half of the problems. There were so many lengthy word problems!!!!!! I had very few "simple" calculations, a few conversions, and not a lot of trig.......word problems on word problems!!!! I had like ONE probability problem and NO permutation/combinations!! I couldn't believe permutations weren't on my exam after how much I studied for those darn things! Yea I'm not one to give much advice on this section. I did 8 of the math destroyer tests, watched Chad's videos and did a few qvault exams. I'm just not good at math..so..yea..next

RC: Boooooo. Kind of bummed I only made a 20, was really counting on this score to pull up my AA! The passages weren't hard to read at all. The only thing was, I HAD SO MANY TONE/INFERENCE QUESTIONS. The only practice I did for RC was the 3 topscore tests, and I don't remember ever seeing any tone questions, so they threw me off guard. You had to like pick a word that best described a paragraph and some of the words I had never heard of so I had no idea what they meant.. haha. Timing is definitely key here. I only had about 10 minutes left with 13 more questions to go and started freaking out. I had a few questions that I already knew off the top of my head from studying for biology, and some answers were just so dumb you could easily eliminate them.

Biology: I'm happy that this was one of my highest scores because I feel like I put the most time into this subject. People aren't lying when they say this section is super random. A lot of people ask if it's better to know a lot about a little, or a little about a lot. I would definitely expose yourself to as much bio material as possible. I had a few questions that DAT Destroyer saved me on!!! If I wouldn't of done destroyer I know for a fact I would've missed those questions. Had several questions where you had to apply logic to deduce the answer. I zoomed through this question very quick. Curious to see what I missed though. I had no questions on plants which I was soooooo happy about. Like one taxonomy question, three genetics questions, and hardly anything on anatomy which I was bummed about because I knew my anatomy!!

Gen Chem: Oh my god. The first like 3 questions I had no idea how to do. I felt like I had a lot of calculation problems. I marked several questions. Was pretty bummed because I knew all of Chad's and could fly through all of Chad's quizzes and Destroyer. I don't know what happened on this section. I had 2 lab questions that I had noooooo idea what the answers were. I never reviewed any gen chem lab stuff, so I had to make educated guesses. Chad's the man though. If it weren't for Chad, I would of bombed this section. He definitely teaches you all of the conceptual stuff. The only things I didn't really know how to do were a few calculations and those lab questions. Probably made stupid math mistakes too. Oh well.

Organic Chem: Happy with my 19!! I was never really good at ochem. For example, my entire class failed our ACS exam last year. Lol. Even though I didn't score super high on this section, the organic was pretty simple. It was nothing like on the level of Destroyer. Chad definitely teaches you everything you need to know. I knew a few questions just from Chad's quizzes! I was still pretty nervous going through ochem because of all the gen chem questions I had marked. All these terrible thoughts started coming to me that I failed and was going to have to retake...yea not too good to be thinking. Very basic ochem stuff though. I had some sn2 questions, aromaticity, stereochemistry, activating/deactivating/ortho/para stuff, bond angles, intermolecular forces just to name a few.

Overall I am very happy to be done. I have a 4.0 GPA and my #1 choice is to attend LSU! Their average AA for incoming freshman is a 20 and I think the GPA is around 3.6-3.7'ish. I hope I don't have to retake this exam, that would be a nightmare lol. Anyway, if I could go back and do it again, I wouldn't of studied for 3 months. I would study for maybe a month and half because I started to forget stuff I learned in the beginning. And definitely don't freak out during your test! Even though you think you might be bombing it (like me) your scores at the end might surprise you! Just try your hardest, that's all you can do.

Here are my scores I made on all the practice materials.

Topscore #1
Bio: 21
G. Chem: 21
Ochem: 18
QR: 20
RC: 21
PAT: n/a
AA: 20

Topscore #2
Bio: 20
G. Chem: 21
Ochem: 20
PAT: n/a
RC: 20
QR: 19
AA: 20

Topscore #3
Bio: 21
G. Chem: 19
OChem: 19
PAT: 19
RC: 25
QR: 22
AA: 21


Achiever #1
Bio: 17
G. Chem: 19
Ochem: 16

Achiever #2
Bio: 18

PAT
23/21/18/20/20/20/20/19/21/21

Qvault Bio
19/18/19/22/19/22/22/27/22/19

Qvault Gen Chem
21/24/21/22

2007 ADA
Bio: 21
Gen Chem: 21
Ochem: 21

Well that is about all! I hope this was somewhat helpful to you guys. Thanks so much for everyones help along the way. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me!! Good luck everyone

(ps..I know I can't be the only one scoring in the low 20's.......don't be ashamed or intimidated by all these high scores!! come out and share!!)