- Joined
- Jul 21, 2013
- Messages
- 65
- Reaction score
- 33
My second post ever on SDN. I have read hundreds of posts since joining 2+ years ago and have gathered a lot of valuable information from many of you. I figured I would post a DAT breakdown for those of you who are going to take the DAT in the near future. It is super nice to have it done with! So here are my scores:
22AA
22TS (21 BIO 20 GC 29 OC)
20 PAT
20 RC
18 QR
Overall, I am pleased with my scores. I wish that my QR was a little bit higher and of course there is always room for improvement in the other areas as well but you can drive yourself crazy will all of the coulda, shoulda, wouldas!
Materials Used: Kaplan Online Course (looking back I would not have purchased this material, I used this course for the first month and a half (I studied for 3 months) and it ended up being somewhat of a waste. After the first half of my studying I got my act together and decided to get Cliff's AP BIO, Chad's vids, DAT destroyer, Math Destroyer and DAT Bootcamp. These four are a must! I also used Crack DAT PAT.
BIO: For this section I primarily used Cliff's AP BIO and DAT Destroyer. Cliff's was helpful. I wish I would have had time to go through it one more time before the test though. DAT Destroyer was also very helpful but I was not able to get all the way through it because I started a little bit late. This section is difficult to prepare for but it is all about repetition. Make flash cards (wish I would have) and drill yourself like crazy.
GC: This section was Chad's and DAT destroyer all the way. Chad makes Chemistry (both organic and general) easy and entertaining. I watched all of his Gen Chem videos at least twice and tried to take copious notes. I thought I was more prepared than what I showed on the actual DAT as I was scoring around a 26 on the Bootcamp GC tests. Oh well! Totally would have started earlier with Destroyer and Chad's.
OC: This section for me was the easiest section on the DAT (obviously). Chad's vids and Destroyer were both incredibly helpful on this section. I watched all of Chad's OC vids twice and went through about half of the Destroyer problems. Great materials. I also went through all of the OC bootcamp tests a couple of times which I found incredibly helpful (Thanks Ari!).
PAT: I thought that I was more prepared in this section than I showed as well. I used Crack DAT PAT and took all 10 tests multiple times. I was scoring about a 21 average. I also used the bootcamp PAT, but didn't have time to finish all of them. I took about four tests and was averaging about a 19. I wish I would have started sooner with Bootcamp as well because the descriptions are incredibly helpful!
RC: I didn't really practice RC. I did do the 3 topscore tests and was averaging a 26 and so I thought I was good to go...but I was not quite as good to go as I thought (I seem to be saying that a lot) but it could have definitely been worse.
QR: Math Destroyer. End of story. I only did 5 of the tests and didn't know all of the solutions and I still was able to bring my score up from a 16. I am not happy with the 18 as I was hoping for a 20+ in all sections but hopefully it will not impact my app too much. I didn't study much for this section and it showed but I would say that anyone who goes through Math destroyer completely once or twice and understands all of the solutions could easily score above a 2o.
Try not to stress too much about the test. Study hard, exercise, pray, and try to save some time for friends and family and things will work out just fine! Best of luck.
22AA
22TS (21 BIO 20 GC 29 OC)
20 PAT
20 RC
18 QR
Overall, I am pleased with my scores. I wish that my QR was a little bit higher and of course there is always room for improvement in the other areas as well but you can drive yourself crazy will all of the coulda, shoulda, wouldas!
Materials Used: Kaplan Online Course (looking back I would not have purchased this material, I used this course for the first month and a half (I studied for 3 months) and it ended up being somewhat of a waste. After the first half of my studying I got my act together and decided to get Cliff's AP BIO, Chad's vids, DAT destroyer, Math Destroyer and DAT Bootcamp. These four are a must! I also used Crack DAT PAT.
BIO: For this section I primarily used Cliff's AP BIO and DAT Destroyer. Cliff's was helpful. I wish I would have had time to go through it one more time before the test though. DAT Destroyer was also very helpful but I was not able to get all the way through it because I started a little bit late. This section is difficult to prepare for but it is all about repetition. Make flash cards (wish I would have) and drill yourself like crazy.
GC: This section was Chad's and DAT destroyer all the way. Chad makes Chemistry (both organic and general) easy and entertaining. I watched all of his Gen Chem videos at least twice and tried to take copious notes. I thought I was more prepared than what I showed on the actual DAT as I was scoring around a 26 on the Bootcamp GC tests. Oh well! Totally would have started earlier with Destroyer and Chad's.
OC: This section for me was the easiest section on the DAT (obviously). Chad's vids and Destroyer were both incredibly helpful on this section. I watched all of Chad's OC vids twice and went through about half of the Destroyer problems. Great materials. I also went through all of the OC bootcamp tests a couple of times which I found incredibly helpful (Thanks Ari!).
PAT: I thought that I was more prepared in this section than I showed as well. I used Crack DAT PAT and took all 10 tests multiple times. I was scoring about a 21 average. I also used the bootcamp PAT, but didn't have time to finish all of them. I took about four tests and was averaging about a 19. I wish I would have started sooner with Bootcamp as well because the descriptions are incredibly helpful!
RC: I didn't really practice RC. I did do the 3 topscore tests and was averaging a 26 and so I thought I was good to go...but I was not quite as good to go as I thought (I seem to be saying that a lot) but it could have definitely been worse.
QR: Math Destroyer. End of story. I only did 5 of the tests and didn't know all of the solutions and I still was able to bring my score up from a 16. I am not happy with the 18 as I was hoping for a 20+ in all sections but hopefully it will not impact my app too much. I didn't study much for this section and it showed but I would say that anyone who goes through Math destroyer completely once or twice and understands all of the solutions could easily score above a 2o.
Try not to stress too much about the test. Study hard, exercise, pray, and try to save some time for friends and family and things will work out just fine! Best of luck.
