Hi everyone,
I just got home from staying out with a few friends after finishing my exam. Celebrating (aka dinner and coffee) was obligatory after some gruesome weeks.
Scores
PAT 19
QR 21
RC 18
BIO 23
GC 21
OC 21
TS 22
AA 21
I began "studying" a few months ago but only ramped up the past 8 or so weeks. I honestly had a harder time than I imagined studying because of my job commitment. I have unpredictable hours which gave me anywhere from 0-4 hours of study time per day so I often had to rejumble my study schedule. Nevertheless, I am glad I can relax a bit now.
I used the usual - Chad's videos, Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Cliffs, Feralis, Bootcamp.
I'll start with GC because that is where I started to panic for the remainder of the test.
GC
I used Chad's videos and quizzes which are amazing. Bootcamp was good practice as well since the question types were similar. I went through Destroyer once. I planned to go through it twice but I ran out of time.
I had did not know how to do at least 5 of the first 15 questions which caused me to panic. There were several acid base questions that I had no idea what to do and ended up guessing. I'm sure I learned the concepts somewhere but I just had no idea where to start on solving these questions. These questions killed my morale and I think it really affected me for the rest of the test. I had to keep telling myself "just keep going hard so I can make up for the GC score" while going through the other sections.
Nevertheless, I somehow ended up with a 21, so my biggest regret is not being able to control myself after being thrown off. So, my biggest piece of advice is to just keep going because you never know. I was hoping for a higher score because I better on my BC exams.
PAT
I only used Bootcamp. I expected at least a 20 because my lowest BC score was a 19 and the consensus was that the real exam was easier. The keyhole was definitely easier but I ran out of time and had to guess the entire angles and a few questions on pattern and TFE. My internal panic attack from GC definitely affected me here.
Compared to BC, the questions are similar. I think getting profient in BC will prepare you well.
QR
I did 5 Math Destroyer exams and the first 40 questions in the DAT Destroyer. I also memorized the formulas in Math Destroyer this morning. I was always decent at math and got decent scores in BC so I didn't worry too much. I think that if you can get the "easy" ones right, you can score well. This section wasn't bad at all. I did guess a handful of questions because time was running down and I wanted to ensure I got all the "easy" ones right.
RC
Also, scored ~20 in BC so I don't know what happened. Again, my GC freakout killed me here. There isn't much else to say except that it's very similar to BC. I think the real exam passages were shorter though. I may be wrong but it seemed that way.
Bio
This was the section I worried about the most. I took intro GC over 4 years ago and OC over 3 years ago, so I spent more time studying them. As a result, I wasn't able to put in much time into Bio. Although I had taken upper level bio courses (which helped for some questions) in my last few years of school, I took intro bio in high school. However, skimming through Feralis brought back concepts quickly. I read through Cliffs once and skimmed through Feralis once. I found the Bio part surprisingly straightforward since I was scorings 18s in BC
OC
Chad's again. I also did Destroyer 1.5 times and did BC. I honestly think that's more than enough. Again, GC killed me here. I spent 40 minutes on Gen Chem so I rushed through OC in 20 mins. The questions themselves were just like BC. There isn't much more to say. I had 1 very funky question that wasn't covered in any materials. I averaged mid 20s in BC.
My personal lesson - Manage your time. This is common sense but when the real exam comes, you get nervous and you sometimes don't perform the same way you do at home. I had timing issues in PAT and RC at home but it was far worse during the exam. I also spent too much time doing GC (40 mins) which left me 20 min to rush through OC.
Don't panic if you see a few questions you don't know how to do. A few questions aren't going to kill your score, especially if you can eliminate some answer choices. Even if you have to guess, you have a dozen more questions to get right. My panic during the GC cost me big time and I am kicking myself in the foot about it. I feel like I could have score a few points higher in some sections if only I remained calm.
My question - How do the sub 20 scores in RC and PAT affect me? Do I need to retake the exam? I really don't want to but if I have to, what can I say? I'm going to consult my advisor but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Good luck to the rest of you!
I just got home from staying out with a few friends after finishing my exam. Celebrating (aka dinner and coffee) was obligatory after some gruesome weeks.
Scores
PAT 19
QR 21
RC 18
BIO 23
GC 21
OC 21
TS 22
AA 21
I began "studying" a few months ago but only ramped up the past 8 or so weeks. I honestly had a harder time than I imagined studying because of my job commitment. I have unpredictable hours which gave me anywhere from 0-4 hours of study time per day so I often had to rejumble my study schedule. Nevertheless, I am glad I can relax a bit now.
I used the usual - Chad's videos, Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Cliffs, Feralis, Bootcamp.
I'll start with GC because that is where I started to panic for the remainder of the test.
GC
I used Chad's videos and quizzes which are amazing. Bootcamp was good practice as well since the question types were similar. I went through Destroyer once. I planned to go through it twice but I ran out of time.
I had did not know how to do at least 5 of the first 15 questions which caused me to panic. There were several acid base questions that I had no idea what to do and ended up guessing. I'm sure I learned the concepts somewhere but I just had no idea where to start on solving these questions. These questions killed my morale and I think it really affected me for the rest of the test. I had to keep telling myself "just keep going hard so I can make up for the GC score" while going through the other sections.
Nevertheless, I somehow ended up with a 21, so my biggest regret is not being able to control myself after being thrown off. So, my biggest piece of advice is to just keep going because you never know. I was hoping for a higher score because I better on my BC exams.
PAT
I only used Bootcamp. I expected at least a 20 because my lowest BC score was a 19 and the consensus was that the real exam was easier. The keyhole was definitely easier but I ran out of time and had to guess the entire angles and a few questions on pattern and TFE. My internal panic attack from GC definitely affected me here.
Compared to BC, the questions are similar. I think getting profient in BC will prepare you well.
QR
I did 5 Math Destroyer exams and the first 40 questions in the DAT Destroyer. I also memorized the formulas in Math Destroyer this morning. I was always decent at math and got decent scores in BC so I didn't worry too much. I think that if you can get the "easy" ones right, you can score well. This section wasn't bad at all. I did guess a handful of questions because time was running down and I wanted to ensure I got all the "easy" ones right.
RC
Also, scored ~20 in BC so I don't know what happened. Again, my GC freakout killed me here. There isn't much else to say except that it's very similar to BC. I think the real exam passages were shorter though. I may be wrong but it seemed that way.
Bio
This was the section I worried about the most. I took intro GC over 4 years ago and OC over 3 years ago, so I spent more time studying them. As a result, I wasn't able to put in much time into Bio. Although I had taken upper level bio courses (which helped for some questions) in my last few years of school, I took intro bio in high school. However, skimming through Feralis brought back concepts quickly. I read through Cliffs once and skimmed through Feralis once. I found the Bio part surprisingly straightforward since I was scorings 18s in BC
OC
Chad's again. I also did Destroyer 1.5 times and did BC. I honestly think that's more than enough. Again, GC killed me here. I spent 40 minutes on Gen Chem so I rushed through OC in 20 mins. The questions themselves were just like BC. There isn't much more to say. I had 1 very funky question that wasn't covered in any materials. I averaged mid 20s in BC.
My personal lesson - Manage your time. This is common sense but when the real exam comes, you get nervous and you sometimes don't perform the same way you do at home. I had timing issues in PAT and RC at home but it was far worse during the exam. I also spent too much time doing GC (40 mins) which left me 20 min to rush through OC.
Don't panic if you see a few questions you don't know how to do. A few questions aren't going to kill your score, especially if you can eliminate some answer choices. Even if you have to guess, you have a dozen more questions to get right. My panic during the GC cost me big time and I am kicking myself in the foot about it. I feel like I could have score a few points higher in some sections if only I remained calm.
My question - How do the sub 20 scores in RC and PAT affect me? Do I need to retake the exam? I really don't want to but if I have to, what can I say? I'm going to consult my advisor but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Good luck to the rest of you!
