DAT done-7/25/11 and words of encouragement for those who need them

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dooley11

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If you feel discouraged, hopeless, and depressed like i was, ii hope what you are about to read helps a little bit. I studied for DAT for two months, working part time for the first month and working full time for the last month. I got on SDN at work getting discouraged and terrified by the scores people got. I was getting lower than 20's in 95% of my practice exams including Achiever, Kaplan, Barron, and Topscore. I was literally getting 14's 15's and 16's on science and RC, 18's and 19's on PAT, and 20's on math. If you don't believe me you can read my old post. I set my goal in the beginning as 23. hahaha. Then after taking those exams I was thinking i'd be happy to get a 19 and if I get 20, i would be celebrating. Then a night before i took the exam, I lost all my confidence. i went back and reviewed my notes but I didn't have enough time to go through them all. Then I started praying that I get 17 so that I can actually apply somewhere. :(When i left my house on monday morning for the test, I was hoping that something in the testing room goes wrong so that I can push my test without a cost.

And then finally that moment came. I started praying again..God please don't let me suffer too much during the test. i might break down. Please end this quickly with no pain... don't care about the scores anymore. let the four hour pass in the speed of light. ....:oops:Then i finished the test... the score pops up on the screen.:scared: ............i looked at the scores..again and again.. made sure they were MY scores.....These are the scores i received.

QR 19 (90.8 percentile)
RC 18 (53 percentile):eek:
Bio 24:eek: (I'm at work and Idon't remember..)
GC 25 :eek:
OC 25:eek:
TS 25 (99.9 percentile :eek:)
AA 22 (98.9 percentile :eek:)

I know there are people who scored waaaayyyy above me but these scores were WAAAYYYYY higher than I had expected for me. Guys, the real DAT isn't as bad as the practice exam. Don't lose your focus. Don't get discouraged by those practice test scores and the scores that other people get. YOU CAN DO WELL on the real thing!!!!!
Comments on science sections: Questions are NOT DEEP. For some of the questions, I was thinking..."are you kidding me??????... Is this all it's asking???" But now that I think about it, we only have 1 hour and 30 mins for the whole thing. Oh btw i finished TS in 60 mins. This has NEVER happened to me during practice exams.. I would always run out of time. The bio felt more like trivia. Some random stuff.. AGAIN the quetions that they ask for are NOT deep. Don't think too much. here are some studying materials i found useful for the test: mcat kaplan books (bio, gc, oc), practice questions and pictures/diagram from bio text book for plant bio (i tried to study as little as poss for this part :oops:)

My only hope was QR... but it hurt my score instead. hahaha I bought math destroyer but only got through half. maybe that's why. btw if anyone wants this book, let me know... its new..

RC. I'm super happy with my RC score. YEs. REally. I was hoping 17 at the most.

PAT: i think i got what I deserved. I couldn't spend much time on this and I was getting 18's and 19's during practice with achiever.

Bottom line is... HAVE CONFIDENCE and KEEP FOCUS!

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my practice tests are not as high as I'd like either. They range under 20's. My exam is Thursday and I am freaking out. This post made me have some hope. Thanks and good job on those scores!
 
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my practice tests are not as high as I'd like either. They range under 20's. My exam is Thursday and I am freaking out. This post made me have some hope. Thanks and good job on those scores!


Don't worrry about the practice exams..seriously.... Learn them and move on. don't let them stop you from studying and getting ready for the exam. :)
 
WOW! Those are amazing scores!!! :thumbup:

I take mine in less than a week and reading posts like yours definitely make me feel a lot less nervous and give me more hope. Way to go!
 
congrats! those are such awesome scores and you just gave me true inspiration that i can do well next week! thank you so much and best of luck with applying this year!
 
WOW!

Congrats! I love it when I read post like yours. Its truly inspirational.
Im very happy for you. Goodluck on applications! :)
 
Congrats!! Your story is music to my ears.

However, this is very strange... other recent threads have conflicting assessments. For example, I remember reading the other day about someone saying that the bio questions were really tricky and that Cliffs AP Bio and Destroyer weren't enough. And that's just one example. There can't be that much discrepancy between different versions of the exam. So what's going on? Whose statements are more accurate?
 
There can't be that much discrepancy between different versions of the exam.

Both are accurate. Discrepancy between people (their preparation, their definition of 'random', their recall of the exam questions, etc)
 
Congrats!! Your story is music to my ears.

However, this is very strange... other recent threads have conflicting assessments. For example, I remember reading the other day about someone saying that the bio questions were really tricky and that Cliffs AP Bio and Destroyer weren't enough. And that's just one example. There can't be that much discrepancy between different versions of the exam. So what's going on? Whose statements are more accurate?

i studied intensely for sure; however, regardless of the time and efforts i put in, whenever i did the practice exams, I wouldn't get the scores i felt like i deserved. i was on the verge of giving up, and i just didn't want other people to suffer like i did.. totally waste of energy and time. :(
 
This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear right now. I was literally starting to break down. I'm doing about 18AA and 22-23PAT on Kaplan's practice scores. But my TS is like at 16-17 constantly. My QR and RC are usually between 20-22. I'm taking the exam this Thursday and everyone's putting me down telling me I should reschedule or find a private tutor. I honestly had so much faith until people starting saying that stuff. My goal is a 20-21AA, 22-23PAT and 18TS. But, honestly I've been struggling with the Science section a bit...it's good to know someone out there is in the same position I'm in. This post was literally God sent. If you have any advice for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Congrats on the scores :)
 
This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear right now. I was literally starting to break down. I'm doing about 18AA and 22-23PAT on Kaplan's practice scores. But my TS is like at 16-17 constantly. My QR and RC are usually between 20-22. I'm taking the exam this Thursday and everyone's putting me down telling me I should reschedule or find a private tutor. I honestly had so much faith until people starting saying that stuff. My goal is a 20-21AA, 22-23PAT and 18TS. But, honestly I've been struggling with the Science section a bit...it's good to know someone out there is in the same position I'm in. This post was literally God sent. If you have any advice for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Congrats on the scores :)

copticdentist, i still can't believe it ended it so early without pain.. it ended before I knew it. it flew by... one day before my exam, instead of relaxing and feeeling ready, i was panicking whining and crying,, The night before my exam i woke up every 20 minute feeling stressed nd paranoid,,, It really isn't worth it.. RELAX. You definitely have potential to score higher than me. your practice scores in PAT and QR and RC are much higher than mine. i moved my exam once after seeing my achiever score... i got 16. really. no joke. :( lol Good luck. you will do great! that's all you need to hear right now.
 
How did you find the questions in the sciences compared to topscore? Thanks


It was more on par with the real one than achiever in difficulty wise. But there were some trivia-like questions that I don't know how i came across. maybe through some of my science classes..? :oops:
 
Thanks for the encouragement...hopefully my TS will increase from my Kaplan practice tests. Hopefully I'll break the 20AA.
 
would you also mind telling me the detail covered within taxonomy, how does it compare to destroyer/topscore?
 
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