Took the DAT- 5/29/13

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SicEm

SicEm

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Hey SDNers! I'm so happy I found this place, it was a lifesaver for me when I was studying for the DAT, which I took yesterday, so I figured I'd return the favor. My scores are nowhere near the sky high figures I've seen on here, but I feel pretty good about them…I've been out of school for awhile so it's been years since I've taken some of these classes. My study materials were probably a little different because I took the Kaplan class and then supplemented it with a couple of things. I can't say I recommend Kaplan because it was SO expensive, and I know you can do very well without it, but for anybody who has already gotten suckered into it and feeling like it won't be enough might like to read what I used in addition.

PS This thing isn't letting me format, so there will be no strategically placed emoticons/smilies....sad day

So here's the breakdown:
PAT: 23 (96.4%)
QR: 20 (94.0%)
RC: 23 (89.8%)
BIO: 23 (97.4%)
GC: 22 (91.8%)
OC: 23 (94.4%)
TS: 23 (97.8%)
AA: 22 (97.0%)

FYI: sGPA: 3.9, cGPA: 3.84

datQvault
BIO: 19, 20, 18, 18, 18, 21, 20, 22, 22, 20 (Avg=19.8)
GC: 20, 19, 21, 22, 19, 20, 26, 24, 20 (Avg=21.2)
OC: 18, 18, 18, 19, 20, 20, 18, 22, 18, 21 (Avg=19.2)

CDP:
20, 20, 21, 21, 25, 24, 23, 21, 24 (Avg=22)

Kaplan scores: (AA/TS/PAT/BIO/GC/OC/RC/QR)
Diagnostic:18/16/18/17/15/15/22/19
Midterm: 17/17 (see QR issue)/25/16/19/17/20/14 (I had to leave my computer for an emergency and was not able to finish QR)
Practice Test 1: 21/18/24/15/20/19/26/25
Practice Test 2: 20/18/23/17/19/17/26/23
I ran out of time before the test and didn't take the Final. I thought I was better off spending my time strengthening my sciences (as you can see above...I needed major help, especially in Bio!)

Study Materials:
Kaplan On Site
Cliffs AP Bio
Crack DAT PAT
datQvault- BIO, GC, OC
Old notes

I will be selling my study materials to anybody who is interested (Cliffs + Kaplan flash cards + big ole Kaplan book + Kaplan lesson plan book)

PAT: It seems like there is a CDP debate where some people say it is easier and some people say it is right on, and I fall in the latter group. I thought it was a very good representation of what the real thing would be. If you're having a hard time with angle ranking, I would go through CDP's extra angle ranking practice tests, that's when it finally clicked for me. Also, when you get one wrong, look at the right answer and stare at the angles until you can see why it's right. That helped a lot too. I started out consistently getting 50% right and moved up to getting 85% or so. Not perfect but definitely an improvement.

BIO: Kaplan, Cliffs, datQvault- People are right, Cliffs is amazing, and really all you need to get a solid score. It won't get you a perfect score though, there were definitely a few things on the real thing that weren't talked about in Cliffs, but some of those things were addressed in Qvault. It's going to be random, and I accepted that there would be some things I didn't know, but if you have a wide breadth of understanding you can at least eliminate some answer choices. Kaplan was "meh." I think there were a few things it did a better job of explaining but overall Cliffs was gold. I read it once and then reread a few of the sections the day before.

GC: Kaplan + Qvault- I thought Kaplan actually did a decent job with this. The practice test problems were harder than Qvault, but I think Qvault was probably closer to the real thing (a smidge easier). Qvault tested on one or two things that Kaplan hadn't addressed, so it diversified my study material.

OC: Kaplan + Qvault + old notes- I was sooo lucky to have an amazing Ochem teacher a few years ago who gave us summaries and awesome notes, so near the end I looked at those a lot. Kaplan did a pretty decent job at presenting trends and basic reactions, but Qvault had a lot of named reactions which was good practice. I think Qvault was a good representation.

RC: I just used Kaplan for this, and didn't really even do all of their practice stuff. I honestly thought I would do better but the material on the real DAT was so dense that I started running out of time. I didn't do search and destroy much except for near the end when I was running out of time….instead, I wrote down one or two key words from each paragraph and referenced that as I was answering questions.

QR: Same as RC, I just used Kaplan. There were a few questions that used concepts that hadn't been addressed in the program…I'm kicking myself about two of them because I thought to myself the morning of "you know I really should look over such and such" but didn't have time and sure enough there were a couple of problems that required that stuff. Oh well.

Timeline: 9ish weeks
I run my own business, so I was able to reduce my volume for awhile to give myself time to focus on studying. For the first 7 weeks I only did the Kaplan stuff (our class lasted longer because they kept having scheduling conflicts with the facility…lame) + a bit of CDP every so often. After the Kaplan class ended, I was freaking out. I felt so unprepared from the sciences, and only had 2 weeks. That's when I bought Qvault and started reading Cliffs. I looked over my old ochem notes twice. I went through a lot of the additional practice problems in Qvault. I probably studied for about 8 hours every day for those two weeks.

Ok well that's my breakdown, thanks again to everybody who has posted theirs!
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Great Scores! Congrats!... I also run my own business too, its so hard to study and do that at the same time, I respect that. I plan on taking off the last two weeks off of work to really hone in on my DAT studying and hopefully that will get me at least 20 in all sections. Did you feel those last two weeks put your over the top? Great Job! You should be a shoe in with your business experience, unique applicant and great grades.
 
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Hasuna23 said:
Great Scores! Congrats!... I also run my own business too, its so hard to study and do that at the same time, I respect that. I plan on taking off the last two weeks off of work to really hone in on my DAT studying and hopefully that will get me at least 20 in all sections. Did you feel those last two weeks put your over the top? Great Job! You should be a shoe in with your business experience, unique applicant and great grades.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much! I definitely do think that those last two weeks made all the difference. I did spend time studying up until then but it was just during down time...which gave me a good foundation for when I stepped it up as the test drew near. >20 was my goal too, I definitely think it's doable if you already have a general understanding of the material and can squeeze in a little bit every day for a few weeks. Good luck!!

DrRoyal Pains said:
Sickness :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thank you!!
 
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Nice scores! I take the DAT next week, how did you feel the GC and OC datQvault sections compared to the real thing?
 
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Sweet! I used the Kaplan course too. Sure it was a little expensive, but look at the scores you got. Nice job!

I might have to post by breakdown too even though it is a little late.
 
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ddsJD said:
Nice scores! I take the DAT next week, how did you feel the GC and OC datQvault sections compared to the real thing?
Click to expand...

I thought they were very good preparation and saw questions that were very similar to Qvault. Good luck!

krysta1 said:
Awesome scores! Congrats!
Click to expand...

Thank you!

experiment626 said:
Sweet! I used the Kaplan course too. Sure it was a little expensive, but look at the scores you got. Nice job!

I might have to post by breakdown too even though it is a little late.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Yes, I'm not hating on Kaplan, although there were a few things that bothered me. I won't go into it, but overall, it DID help me prepare and their test format was very similar to the real thing. They had a lot of great suggestions and it laid a very good foundation. You should totally share your breakdown! I wasn't able to find many with Kaplan included, I'm sure plenty of people would enjoy seeing yours!

jigabodo said:
Congrats! Well done.
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
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Kaplan scores updated. I forgot how bad I had been doing on my sciences before I started using qvault!
 
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awesome scores. congrats. with that GPA, you should get a good number of interviews.

I have a question about qvault. I am thinking of buying the biology and organic chemistry tests. are they worth it for $50 each? I tried the free trial for each section and got a 22 on the biology but was skeptical since biology is a broad subject and worried they'll throw enough curveballs on the actual thing to bring my actual DAT biology score to < 20
 
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blankman321 said:
awesome scores. congrats. with that GPA, you should get a good number of interviews.

I have a question about qvault. I am thinking of buying the biology and organic chemistry tests. are they worth it for $50 each? I tried the free trial for each section and got a 22 on the biology but was skeptical since biology is a broad subject and worried they'll throw enough curveballs on the actual thing to bring my actual DAT biology score to < 20
Click to expand...

Thanks! I thought it was worth every penny and would highly recommend both. The question style was pretty much exactly like the real thing, and even though bio is a broad subject, I thought that qvault did an excellent job of addressing the main things that you absolutely must know. They have charts and stuff which are helpful for studying too, and a ton of extra questions besides the 10 tests. The best way to use it as a study tool is to make sure you understand why you got wrong each question (and also why you got the other ones right).
 
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SicEm said:
Hey SDNers! I'm so happy I found this place, it was a lifesaver for me when I was studying for the DAT, which I took yesterday, so I figured I'd return the favor. My scores are nowhere near the sky high figures I've seen on here, but I feel pretty good about them&#8230;I've been out of school for awhile so it's been years since I've taken some of these classes. My study materials were probably a little different because I took the Kaplan class and then supplemented it with a couple of things. I can't say I recommend Kaplan because it was SO expensive, and I know you can do very well without it, but for anybody who has already gotten suckered into it and feeling like it won't be enough might like to read what I used in addition.

PS This thing isn't letting me format, so there will be no strategically placed emoticons/smilies....sad day

So here's the breakdown:
PAT: 23 (96.4%)
QR: 20 (94.0%)
RC: 23 (89.8%)
BIO: 23 (97.4%)
GC: 22 (91.8%)
OC: 23 (94.4%)
TS: 23 (97.8%)
AA: 22 (97.0%)

FYI: sGPA: 3.9, cGPA: 3.84

datQvault
BIO: 19, 20, 18, 18, 18, 21, 20, 22, 22, 20 (Avg=19.8)
GC: 20, 19, 21, 22, 19, 20, 26, 24, 20 (Avg=21.2)
OC: 18, 18, 18, 19, 20, 20, 18, 22, 18, 21 (Avg=19.2)

CDP:
20, 20, 21, 21, 25, 24, 23, 21, 24 (Avg=22)

Kaplan scores: (AA/TS/PAT/BIO/GC/OC/RC/QR)
Diagnostic:18/16/18/17/15/15/22/19
Midterm: 17/17 (see QR issue)/25/16/19/17/20/14 (I had to leave my computer for an emergency and was not able to finish QR)
Practice Test 1: 21/18/24/15/20/19/26/25
Practice Test 2: 20/18/23/17/19/17/26/23
I ran out of time before the test and didn't take the Final. I thought I was better off spending my time strengthening my sciences (as you can see above...I needed major help, especially in Bio!)

Study Materials:
Kaplan On Site
Cliffs AP Bio
Crack DAT PAT
datQvault- BIO, GC, OC
Old notes

I will be selling my study materials to anybody who is interested (Cliffs + Kaplan flash cards + big ole Kaplan book + Kaplan lesson plan book)

PAT: It seems like there is a CDP debate where some people say it is easier and some people say it is right on, and I fall in the latter group. I thought it was a very good representation of what the real thing would be. If you're having a hard time with angle ranking, I would go through CDP's extra angle ranking practice tests, that's when it finally clicked for me. Also, when you get one wrong, look at the right answer and stare at the angles until you can see why it's right. That helped a lot too. I started out consistently getting 50% right and moved up to getting 85% or so. Not perfect but definitely an improvement.

BIO: Kaplan, Cliffs, datQvault- People are right, Cliffs is amazing, and really all you need to get a solid score. It won't get you a perfect score though, there were definitely a few things on the real thing that weren't talked about in Cliffs, but some of those things were addressed in Qvault. It's going to be random, and I accepted that there would be some things I didn't know, but if you have a wide breadth of understanding you can at least eliminate some answer choices. Kaplan was "meh." I think there were a few things it did a better job of explaining but overall Cliffs was gold. I read it once and then reread a few of the sections the day before.

GC: Kaplan + Qvault- I thought Kaplan actually did a decent job with this. The practice test problems were harder than Qvault, but I think Qvault was probably closer to the real thing (a smidge easier). Qvault tested on one or two things that Kaplan hadn't addressed, so it diversified my study material.

OC: Kaplan + Qvault + old notes- I was sooo lucky to have an amazing Ochem teacher a few years ago who gave us summaries and awesome notes, so near the end I looked at those a lot. Kaplan did a pretty decent job at presenting trends and basic reactions, but Qvault had a lot of named reactions which was good practice. I think Qvault was a good representation.

RC: I just used Kaplan for this, and didn't really even do all of their practice stuff. I honestly thought I would do better but the material on the real DAT was so dense that I started running out of time. I didn't do search and destroy much except for near the end when I was running out of time&#8230;.instead, I wrote down one or two key words from each paragraph and referenced that as I was answering questions.

QR: Same as RC, I just used Kaplan. There were a few questions that used concepts that hadn't been addressed in the program&#8230;I'm kicking myself about two of them because I thought to myself the morning of "you know I really should look over such and such" but didn't have time and sure enough there were a couple of problems that required that stuff. Oh well.

Timeline: 9ish weeks
I run my own business, so I was able to reduce my volume for awhile to give myself time to focus on studying. For the first 7 weeks I only did the Kaplan stuff (our class lasted longer because they kept having scheduling conflicts with the facility&#8230;lame) + a bit of CDP every so often. After the Kaplan class ended, I was freaking out. I felt so unprepared from the sciences, and only had 2 weeks. That's when I bought Qvault and started reading Cliffs. I looked over my old ochem notes twice. I went through a lot of the additional practice problems in Qvault. I probably studied for about 8 hours every day for those two weeks.

Ok well that's my breakdown, thanks again to everybody who has posted theirs!
Click to expand...
WOW, amazing! Congratulations on such great scores!
Could you share how you studies, as far as hours/day, time allocation. Would you recommend to study one subject at a time or mix them up?

Thanks! =)
 
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Congrats on the scores and great write up! Enjoy your interviews and kill it!

I have a question, specifically for DATQVault gen chem. the 1st few practice tests you did, how comfortable were you working through each problem? I've done 8 tests and I'm only averaging around 18 (only two 20+ :( ). I know the concept for almost every question I run into, but there are about 7-8 questions per test that leaves me scratching my head/frustrated. Yea, I had stupid stupid mistakes, but I'm pretty sure the wording plays a huge role in my mistakes and just wanted to hear from your experiences?

I kinda feel like I overprepared leading up to general chemistry and only exposed myself to the hard questions that when I get to simple questions, Idk how to start them immediately :/
 
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For qvault, I am thinking of buying biology and gchem but I am also tempted to buy the ochem section as well.

SicEm would you say biology and gchem or biology or ochem?
 
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berrydenta said:
WOW, amazing! Congratulations on such great scores!
Could you share how you studies, as far as hours/day, time allocation. Would you recommend to study one subject at a time or mix them up?

Thanks! =)
Click to expand...

Thank you!! For the beginning of my studies I was studying about 4 hours a day for 7 weeks (5 days a week), and then for the last two weeks I bumped it up to 8 hours a day (6 days a week). I would say to DEFINITELY mix it up, at least for the majority of the time. If, when you're getting closer to test day, you feel particularly weak in certain areas, its okay to just focus on them but do a quick review of the subjects you neglected a couple of days before the test. For example, I spent those last 2 weeks mainly going over bio and ochem because that's where I felt weakest, and threw in a little bit of gen chem as well. The day before the test, I did a quick run through of the other sections just to re-stimulate/wake up that part of my brain. Also, I would recommend mixing it up every single day. When I got tired of reading bio, I would take a "break" from that and look over a different section. It's good to take actual breaks as well but if you're pressed for time, you can trick yourself into thinking you're taking a break by just using a different part of your brain. I really enjoyed the PAT, so I would "allow" myself to go take a practice test every few days as one of my larger study breaks. It could be a different subject for you, but if there is one that you enjoy more than the others, that could be your "break." I really believe that each section requires different brain functions (memorization vs reasoning etc) so if you are constantly switching between subjects your brain will be able to work through and retain a lot more of what you're studying. Good luck!

roquer2 said:
Congrats on the scores and great write up! Enjoy your interviews and kill it!

I have a question, specifically for DATQVault gen chem. the 1st few practice tests you did, how comfortable were you working through each problem? I've done 8 tests and I'm only averaging around 18 (only two 20+ :( ). I know the concept for almost every question I run into, but there are about 7-8 questions per test that leaves me scratching my head/frustrated. Yea, I had stupid stupid mistakes, but I'm pretty sure the wording plays a huge role in my mistakes and just wanted to hear from your experiences?

I kinda feel like I overprepared leading up to general chemistry and only exposed myself to the hard questions that when I get to simple questions, Idk how to start them immediately :/
Click to expand...

Thanks! Fingers crossed on interviews. Hmm. That's tough. With the ones I knew how to do, I felt VERY comfortable, but I was the same way and there were a few that I had NO IDEA what to do. Are you looking over answers at the end and figuring out why they were wrong? Usually with the qVault tests I would dedicate over an hour to each one because I would go through the test and then look up anything I didn't understand from the answer explanations. Another thing I did was I had a sheet that I kept a list of any concept I didn't understand or something I needed to go back and memorize but didn't feel like looking up at the moment, so it would have things like "redox" "solubility laws" "strong acids" and would try to knock out a couple every now and then. What I would recommend is looking back over the tests you've taken, look at every answer explanation (including the ones you got right) and make a note of anything you need to brush up on. Then finish off the rest of the tests, try to go over some more of the basic concepts, and then take advantage of the extra questions they have on there (I forgot which link it is but you can click somewhere that brings up additional questions.) Don't be discouraged by the practice tests! Just try to focus on the concepts behind the answer explanations and it should help you out.

blankman321 said:
For qvault, I am thinking of buying biology and gchem but I am also tempted to buy the ochem section as well.

SicEm would you say biology and gchem or biology or ochem?
Click to expand...

It's hard to decide between those two options because everybody is different and it depends on what other materials you're using, but if I had to pick I'd say go with biology and ochem. I felt like some of the ochem questions on the DAT could have been taken directly from qVault, they were pretty darn similar. Just be sure that with any qVault subject, you are looking over the answer explanations, that's where I felt like it really helped me out.
 
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