- Joined
- Sep 26, 2006
- Messages
- 57
- Reaction score
- 0
PAT - 24 (99.3)
QR - 19 (81.9)
RC - 23 (92.6)
BIO - 24 (98.4)
GC - 19 (70.4) 😳
OC - 26 (97.7)
TS - 22 (95.3)
AA - 22 (95.4)
University of California, Davis
3.22 BCP
3.26 Sciences
3.36 Non-Sciences
3.29 Cumulative
Materials used:
- Schaum's Biology
- Kaplan Blue Book
- DAT Destroyer
- DAT Achiever
- DAT TopScore
- Crack the PAT
Hours slept per night for a month and a half:
6
The test:
PAT was pretty easy. I was smiling this dumb smile as I answered the questions. The trick is just getting lots of practice. Use TopScore, Achiever, Crack the PAT, etc. Everything was really straightforward, even the angles. There were only a few angles that I had to mark, but other than that, a lot of them reminded me of Kaplan and how if you just found the largest and smallest, you instantly had the answer. I think Crack the PAT also gave me lots of confidence overall going into the test (I was getting 23's on it). I did pretty well on Achiver's and Topscore's too. I should note that I was already doing pretty well in the PAT before practicing...probably because I do lots of art and play lots of 3D videogames (or, at least, I used to before studying for this test). However, it really is important to keep the feel of the PAT fresh in your mind before the test. I did one Crack the PAT every day leading up to the DAT.
QR was, for the most part, really straightforward and I could've probably gotten a 20 or 21 on it if I'dve just skipped to all the fast/easy ones. I recommend that you immediately skip the ones that you KNOW will take you a while to do. I repeat, even if you know HOW to do a certain problem, if it will take you at least a minute and a half to set it up and whatnot, go on to an easier one. Each question is worth the same amount of points! I didn't get any crazy probabilities or anything, and the word problems were just a matter of setting up the simultaneous equations. I recommend DAT Destroyer, DAT Achiever, and DAT TopScore for practice. Memorize all the trig identities and all the area and volume formulas! Look at the ADA website--they tell you what they'll ask you--review those things on Wikipedia or in some textbook!
RC was pretty easy, but I still felt some pressure to do well in it because I'm an English major (doubling in Bio) so it would look pretty bad if I got a low score. I never bother doing Kaplan's outline method--what a waste of time. I just skip all the ones that "require" you to've read the whole thing and go for the fact questions. I just look for key words. Once you find the key word, you're going to end up reading the paragraph it's in. You're gonna end up doing this for most of the questions, so in effect, it's basically like reading the whole passage! But make sure you are FAST at scanning. NOW you can go back and answer those tone/inference questions! Practice with Topscore, Achiever, and Kaplan.
BIO was the test I was most scared of going into the test; it's such a broad category. I probably marked seven or eight questions (but then again, I ALWAYS mark a lot of them). I had about 30 minutes left after going through all 100 questions, so I just focused on my marked BIO (and GC) questions. Make sure you know about the immune system, molecular & cell biology lab techniques, steps in metabolism, etc. Like a lot of people have mentioned, it is a lot more general than Achiever and Topscore. HOWEVER, both those practice test softwares are really good for diagnosing what you need to study. I was getting 17-19's on these tests in BIO, but I made sure to review the parts I scored low in. When I started studying for this, I read the Kaplan Blue Book, but I realized it was very general. The Schaum goes into slightly more depth, but still if you need to learn something that you are really bad at, read it in a REAL textbook then go back to these review books. The real textbooks were written for people who had never learned these things before. You can get by if you REALLY understand the concepts. There were only a few questions where you either you KNEW it or you didn't, but even then you could narrow it down with the knowledge you already had. Test yourself with DAT Destroyer, make sure you know everything inside of it, and then diagnose yourself with Achiever and Topscore!
GC was the section that gave me the most trouble on the actual test and I was actually worried I would get a 17 or something. I only had about four or five calculations, and you never had to do actual math because it was all set up for you in the answers. I was never good at GC in general so I'm glad I even got a 19. DAT Destroyer is GREAT if you have no idea where to start. The test, as a lot of people have said before, was more conceptual than what most of us had expected it to be like. However, concepts always have a math part to them, so it's VERY important to know all the formulas and what goes into them (for example, the free energy equation...what does it mean for a reaction to be endothermic/exothermic and how does that affect sponteneity, etc.). I also read an actual general chemistry textbook to review things I had poor background with. Once again, diagnose yourself with the practice test software.
OC was so easy oh my gosh. Just read the Kaplan Blue Book and do DAT Destroyer. I read an actual o-chem book for it too, which was good for remembering stuff I'd forgotten in the past three years.
Sorry if this review wasn't in-depth enough. My test was from 5pm-9:30pm so I'm pretty tired. Can't wait to sleep.
Another thing, I DID take the Kaplan class, but I never used the online resources (I know there were a lot of practice tests), so it was basically like not having taken it. The lectures themselves were pretty worthless, but I'm sure the practice tests would've probably been good to take.
Good luck to everyone else!
QR - 19 (81.9)
RC - 23 (92.6)
BIO - 24 (98.4)
GC - 19 (70.4) 😳
OC - 26 (97.7)
TS - 22 (95.3)
AA - 22 (95.4)
University of California, Davis
3.22 BCP
3.26 Sciences
3.36 Non-Sciences
3.29 Cumulative
Materials used:
- Schaum's Biology
- Kaplan Blue Book
- DAT Destroyer
- DAT Achiever
- DAT TopScore
- Crack the PAT
Hours slept per night for a month and a half:
6
The test:
PAT was pretty easy. I was smiling this dumb smile as I answered the questions. The trick is just getting lots of practice. Use TopScore, Achiever, Crack the PAT, etc. Everything was really straightforward, even the angles. There were only a few angles that I had to mark, but other than that, a lot of them reminded me of Kaplan and how if you just found the largest and smallest, you instantly had the answer. I think Crack the PAT also gave me lots of confidence overall going into the test (I was getting 23's on it). I did pretty well on Achiver's and Topscore's too. I should note that I was already doing pretty well in the PAT before practicing...probably because I do lots of art and play lots of 3D videogames (or, at least, I used to before studying for this test). However, it really is important to keep the feel of the PAT fresh in your mind before the test. I did one Crack the PAT every day leading up to the DAT.
QR was, for the most part, really straightforward and I could've probably gotten a 20 or 21 on it if I'dve just skipped to all the fast/easy ones. I recommend that you immediately skip the ones that you KNOW will take you a while to do. I repeat, even if you know HOW to do a certain problem, if it will take you at least a minute and a half to set it up and whatnot, go on to an easier one. Each question is worth the same amount of points! I didn't get any crazy probabilities or anything, and the word problems were just a matter of setting up the simultaneous equations. I recommend DAT Destroyer, DAT Achiever, and DAT TopScore for practice. Memorize all the trig identities and all the area and volume formulas! Look at the ADA website--they tell you what they'll ask you--review those things on Wikipedia or in some textbook!
RC was pretty easy, but I still felt some pressure to do well in it because I'm an English major (doubling in Bio) so it would look pretty bad if I got a low score. I never bother doing Kaplan's outline method--what a waste of time. I just skip all the ones that "require" you to've read the whole thing and go for the fact questions. I just look for key words. Once you find the key word, you're going to end up reading the paragraph it's in. You're gonna end up doing this for most of the questions, so in effect, it's basically like reading the whole passage! But make sure you are FAST at scanning. NOW you can go back and answer those tone/inference questions! Practice with Topscore, Achiever, and Kaplan.
BIO was the test I was most scared of going into the test; it's such a broad category. I probably marked seven or eight questions (but then again, I ALWAYS mark a lot of them). I had about 30 minutes left after going through all 100 questions, so I just focused on my marked BIO (and GC) questions. Make sure you know about the immune system, molecular & cell biology lab techniques, steps in metabolism, etc. Like a lot of people have mentioned, it is a lot more general than Achiever and Topscore. HOWEVER, both those practice test softwares are really good for diagnosing what you need to study. I was getting 17-19's on these tests in BIO, but I made sure to review the parts I scored low in. When I started studying for this, I read the Kaplan Blue Book, but I realized it was very general. The Schaum goes into slightly more depth, but still if you need to learn something that you are really bad at, read it in a REAL textbook then go back to these review books. The real textbooks were written for people who had never learned these things before. You can get by if you REALLY understand the concepts. There were only a few questions where you either you KNEW it or you didn't, but even then you could narrow it down with the knowledge you already had. Test yourself with DAT Destroyer, make sure you know everything inside of it, and then diagnose yourself with Achiever and Topscore!
GC was the section that gave me the most trouble on the actual test and I was actually worried I would get a 17 or something. I only had about four or five calculations, and you never had to do actual math because it was all set up for you in the answers. I was never good at GC in general so I'm glad I even got a 19. DAT Destroyer is GREAT if you have no idea where to start. The test, as a lot of people have said before, was more conceptual than what most of us had expected it to be like. However, concepts always have a math part to them, so it's VERY important to know all the formulas and what goes into them (for example, the free energy equation...what does it mean for a reaction to be endothermic/exothermic and how does that affect sponteneity, etc.). I also read an actual general chemistry textbook to review things I had poor background with. Once again, diagnose yourself with the practice test software.
OC was so easy oh my gosh. Just read the Kaplan Blue Book and do DAT Destroyer. I read an actual o-chem book for it too, which was good for remembering stuff I'd forgotten in the past three years.
Sorry if this review wasn't in-depth enough. My test was from 5pm-9:30pm so I'm pretty tired. Can't wait to sleep.
Another thing, I DID take the Kaplan class, but I never used the online resources (I know there were a lot of practice tests), so it was basically like not having taken it. The lectures themselves were pretty worthless, but I'm sure the practice tests would've probably been good to take.
Good luck to everyone else!
i know how you feel about g chem. i share the same hatred for it.
