- Joined
- Sep 14, 2012
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 5
Hey Guys,
Just wanted to say thanks for all of the advice on the forums. I would NOT be getting through this whole process without it!
Wanted to give my breakdown as a non-science major, 1st time taking the DAT:
PAT: 23
QR: 15
RC: 21
BIO: 20
GC: 21
OC: 21
TS: 20
AA: 20
Overall, I wish I had done a little better to make up for my GPA, so a part of me was slightly disappointed when I saw my scores, but I put a lot of pressure on myself with this test and was a nervous wreck. I actually thought my brain stopped working when the bio section started and I could feel myself freaking out. I took deep breaths and eventually calmed down as I was getting more and more questions I felt confident about, and the test went smoothly from there.
So yeah, that QR score...I looked at the time and I had 20 mins left and was only on question 15. I swear, the time flies by at the end of the DAT. I didn't think I was going to score that low so i'm very disappointed and frankly worried i'm going to have to retake just because of that.
I studied immediately after school was over, from about May 15-July 3rd with a weeklong family vacation snuck in there at the end of May. At first my mindset was to study for 12 hours a day to get through all the material and practice problems/tests, but realistically I only ended up studying for about 5-8 hours every day with ample breaks, and a couple days off. I will also admit I studied/reviewed until the day of my test, which I know most people don't recommend, but that's how i've always worked. Plus, on practice tests I took like QVault and DAT Bootcamp I was NOT scoring well in GC & Bio (17-18) and it freaked me out, especially GC, because normally that's my best science subject and I was doing well on initial practice problems with the Destroyer. I think I started to over-think and was getting burnt out by that last week of studying.
Flashcards REALLY helped me for conceptual questions on GC & OC. I made my own & reviewed them throughout my study period, as well as the day of my test & I felt great about it.
PAT - Kaplan & Crack the DAT PAT. This has always been my best section, and I was not surprised by my actual score. The PAT section always came naturally to me, so I have to admit I wasn't very worried/focused on this, except for hole punching! I started doing Kaplan problems on paper, then took about 5 of the Crack the DAT PAT tests & scored consistently in the mid 20s. I really really like Crack DAT PAT. The main thing was timing. I wanted to make sure I saved my weakest section for last because I built up enough speed on the other sections that I could give myself at least 15-20 minutes for hole punching, which turned out to be much easier on my DAT compared to Crack DAT. I'm actually almost certain I scored perfectly on hole punching, and it was the keyholes on the real DAT that gave me trouble. Some of those shapes were completely out there, none like I had ever seen!
QR - All I can say is that I should have practiced more. As I mentioned before, I ran out of time. I used the Math Destroyer which was extremely helpful, and Khan Academy. I wish I had used Chad's for more review but it was too late in the game.
RC - I did one DAT Bootcamp test as a diagnostic, and saw that I needed to work on timing. I used mapping for my 1st 2 passages, and lucked out when I realized search & destroy was going to work for my 3rd passage, especially since I was running out of time. Reading scientific publications to practice is definitely helpful.
Bio - Cliff's AP Bio 3rd Edition, DAT Destroyer, and Schaum's AP Bio. I mainly used Cliff's & Destroyer. They both cover 98% of what you need to know. Cliff's is simply a MUST. The information in that book covers just about everything you need for the DAT. Also, I think it's definitely important to go through the Destroyer because you'll see on the test that questions are very familiar! Plus, the explanations go into such great detail about why answers are right and wrong, as well as notes about the content in the questions. I got questions that were definitely not general bio, they were upper level like microbiology which I have not taken. I took Bootcamp, DAT cracker, and QVault practice tests for bio problems, and they were challenging and had a good sample of how broad the bio section is.
GC - Chad's Videos, notes from college, & DAT Destroyer. If you need to brush up on a topic, Chad goes through material in the easiest way possible, plus his quizzes are great. The destroyer was amazing. So much practice for both theory based questions and calculations with such detailed explanations! It is worth knowing everything in that book, and if you can do the problems in the destroyer, you can definitely handle the questions on the DAT. The amount of theory/conceptual questions was greater than the amount of calc based questions, and the ones I missed were topics that didn't get much focus on in undergrad.
OC - Organic Chemistry I & Organic Chemistry II: Translating the Basic Concepts and DAT Destroyer. This was my weakest subject when I first started studying and I knew I would have to study extra hard. It had been 3-4 years since I took my last ochem class and I was NOT looking forward to re-learning everything. In the end though, thanks to the destroyer and those explanations & roadmaps, I ended up feeling the MOST confident about this section going into test day, and was scoring 25-27 a couple times on my practices with Bootcamp, ADA, & Kaplan. I am sad I didn't score higher.
If I can give any advice, it would be to not dwell on your practice scores and just be confident. My practice scores psyched me out, made me worry, and I lost a little confidence. I truly believe I could have gotten the 22s & 23s I was aiming for if I hadn't let that get to me, but what's done is done, and i'm happy I finally got it out of the way!
Just wanted to say thanks for all of the advice on the forums. I would NOT be getting through this whole process without it!
Wanted to give my breakdown as a non-science major, 1st time taking the DAT:
PAT: 23
QR: 15
RC: 21
BIO: 20
GC: 21
OC: 21
TS: 20
AA: 20
Overall, I wish I had done a little better to make up for my GPA, so a part of me was slightly disappointed when I saw my scores, but I put a lot of pressure on myself with this test and was a nervous wreck. I actually thought my brain stopped working when the bio section started and I could feel myself freaking out. I took deep breaths and eventually calmed down as I was getting more and more questions I felt confident about, and the test went smoothly from there.
So yeah, that QR score...I looked at the time and I had 20 mins left and was only on question 15. I swear, the time flies by at the end of the DAT. I didn't think I was going to score that low so i'm very disappointed and frankly worried i'm going to have to retake just because of that.
I studied immediately after school was over, from about May 15-July 3rd with a weeklong family vacation snuck in there at the end of May. At first my mindset was to study for 12 hours a day to get through all the material and practice problems/tests, but realistically I only ended up studying for about 5-8 hours every day with ample breaks, and a couple days off. I will also admit I studied/reviewed until the day of my test, which I know most people don't recommend, but that's how i've always worked. Plus, on practice tests I took like QVault and DAT Bootcamp I was NOT scoring well in GC & Bio (17-18) and it freaked me out, especially GC, because normally that's my best science subject and I was doing well on initial practice problems with the Destroyer. I think I started to over-think and was getting burnt out by that last week of studying.
Flashcards REALLY helped me for conceptual questions on GC & OC. I made my own & reviewed them throughout my study period, as well as the day of my test & I felt great about it.
PAT - Kaplan & Crack the DAT PAT. This has always been my best section, and I was not surprised by my actual score. The PAT section always came naturally to me, so I have to admit I wasn't very worried/focused on this, except for hole punching! I started doing Kaplan problems on paper, then took about 5 of the Crack the DAT PAT tests & scored consistently in the mid 20s. I really really like Crack DAT PAT. The main thing was timing. I wanted to make sure I saved my weakest section for last because I built up enough speed on the other sections that I could give myself at least 15-20 minutes for hole punching, which turned out to be much easier on my DAT compared to Crack DAT. I'm actually almost certain I scored perfectly on hole punching, and it was the keyholes on the real DAT that gave me trouble. Some of those shapes were completely out there, none like I had ever seen!
QR - All I can say is that I should have practiced more. As I mentioned before, I ran out of time. I used the Math Destroyer which was extremely helpful, and Khan Academy. I wish I had used Chad's for more review but it was too late in the game.
RC - I did one DAT Bootcamp test as a diagnostic, and saw that I needed to work on timing. I used mapping for my 1st 2 passages, and lucked out when I realized search & destroy was going to work for my 3rd passage, especially since I was running out of time. Reading scientific publications to practice is definitely helpful.
Bio - Cliff's AP Bio 3rd Edition, DAT Destroyer, and Schaum's AP Bio. I mainly used Cliff's & Destroyer. They both cover 98% of what you need to know. Cliff's is simply a MUST. The information in that book covers just about everything you need for the DAT. Also, I think it's definitely important to go through the Destroyer because you'll see on the test that questions are very familiar! Plus, the explanations go into such great detail about why answers are right and wrong, as well as notes about the content in the questions. I got questions that were definitely not general bio, they were upper level like microbiology which I have not taken. I took Bootcamp, DAT cracker, and QVault practice tests for bio problems, and they were challenging and had a good sample of how broad the bio section is.
GC - Chad's Videos, notes from college, & DAT Destroyer. If you need to brush up on a topic, Chad goes through material in the easiest way possible, plus his quizzes are great. The destroyer was amazing. So much practice for both theory based questions and calculations with such detailed explanations! It is worth knowing everything in that book, and if you can do the problems in the destroyer, you can definitely handle the questions on the DAT. The amount of theory/conceptual questions was greater than the amount of calc based questions, and the ones I missed were topics that didn't get much focus on in undergrad.
OC - Organic Chemistry I & Organic Chemistry II: Translating the Basic Concepts and DAT Destroyer. This was my weakest subject when I first started studying and I knew I would have to study extra hard. It had been 3-4 years since I took my last ochem class and I was NOT looking forward to re-learning everything. In the end though, thanks to the destroyer and those explanations & roadmaps, I ended up feeling the MOST confident about this section going into test day, and was scoring 25-27 a couple times on my practices with Bootcamp, ADA, & Kaplan. I am sad I didn't score higher.
If I can give any advice, it would be to not dwell on your practice scores and just be confident. My practice scores psyched me out, made me worry, and I lost a little confidence. I truly believe I could have gotten the 22s & 23s I was aiming for if I hadn't let that get to me, but what's done is done, and i'm happy I finally got it out of the way!
