- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
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- 26
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I gained some great tips from SDN and credit this site heavily for helping me prepare. This is what I thought and my advice on how to study. Thanks to all those who came before me
Overall: The real thing is way easier than any of the practice tests. Don't freak out. I actually had to make myself stop looking at this website the last week because all the people kept making me so nervous. I got 19s through 21s with TopScore. The practice tests are not a good guage of how you'll do. Don't use them like that. Use them to figure out what you don't know how to do and then go learn it. If you miss the question on titrations, get out your book and do five titration problems until you get it. My main strategy for studying was to do the subject tests and keep a list of topics, which I would later read about in my textbooks from college. Zumdahl is awesome for GC, and Campbell 4th Edition biology is sweet since the page numbers match up with TopScore. You can get used textbooks for like $5 on barnes and noble. Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein is an awesome book for first semester stuff.
PAT: 21.
There were less questions per figure for the cube counting than I expected. I felt like this drained me for time. For the angle ranking, folding up those triangles like people mentioned ("foldable ruler") really was the only way I could have done this section. I never really did understand what people meant by this, but I used the two triangles as an angle measuring device by pinching them together and lining them up with the angles on the screen. If you're going to do this, I recommend looking at the answer choice first. A lot of times you can quickly figure out which ones are worth comparing. At least twice I compared two angles that didn't narrow down my choices, which was pretty stupid. For the Hole Punching section i used a small square piece of paper that was left from the foldable ruler and actually folded it. The trick is not to get too wrapped in this, but if you use it to tell you the number of layers of paper the hole is through, I noticed on the real thing it was often enough to give you the right answer without even looking at where they were.
Bio: 25. I basically spent my last week before the test reading Schaum's all the way through. I did this because I had focused on doing Chem and Orgo before. My Topscore bio was 16-18, but that was before Schaums. I felt like if you understand Chem and Orgo you have a pretty good shot at figuring a question out, but with Bio you're much more likely to get a "know it or you don't" type problem. Also you don't have to recall anything, just recognize it, so I figured if I had just read it I could pick the answer out from the choices. Schaums goes into way more detail than necessary, so don't get freaked out, but I think the time spent was worth it. I did not get sea urchin, but I did get a bunch or test crosses and I felt like I had maybe 10 genetics questions. Nothing on ecology, but I did get some plant stuff. Know the hormones and the nervous system. Know the germ layers, i think everybody get a question like that.
Gen Chem 27: If you can do the Kaplan Subject Tests, you can do the DAT. They are so much harder. Don't worry about the math, the numbers you get are all 2 divided by 4 and the molar masses are the number of grams you start with. Understand the concepts. I would do the subject test with a calculator just to make it go faster.
Orgo 23: I thought the Kaplan Flash Cards were pretty solid for this. Know your carbonyl chemistry, know that a grignard reagent will act as a strong base if there is no carbonyl. Know esterification, that ether doesn't react with **** except strong acids. The reaction types from first semester are all classic examples, nothing tricky. For SN2, they'll give you methyl bromide. For elimination, they'll give you heat. I thought KMNO4 was on there a lot, there was 1 NMR, 1 easy IR question where you just had to know that IR distinguishes between functional groups and you didn't even have to know any of the bands to get it right. Also know the "n" formulas for aromaticity and chiral centers -> stereoisomers
RC: 29. Do a VERY basic roadmap, meaning like a paragraph # and a main topic. I would skim and then search for the answer. Kaplan suggests too much detail with the keywords. I had neurotransmitters, stocks, and something else. The stocks one was boring as hell.
QR: 22. Know how to multiply fractions, manipulate exponents. I didn't have anything too tough.
Good luck. Hope this helps; I've gotten a lot from this site and wanted to give back.
Overall: The real thing is way easier than any of the practice tests. Don't freak out. I actually had to make myself stop looking at this website the last week because all the people kept making me so nervous. I got 19s through 21s with TopScore. The practice tests are not a good guage of how you'll do. Don't use them like that. Use them to figure out what you don't know how to do and then go learn it. If you miss the question on titrations, get out your book and do five titration problems until you get it. My main strategy for studying was to do the subject tests and keep a list of topics, which I would later read about in my textbooks from college. Zumdahl is awesome for GC, and Campbell 4th Edition biology is sweet since the page numbers match up with TopScore. You can get used textbooks for like $5 on barnes and noble. Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by Klein is an awesome book for first semester stuff.
PAT: 21.
There were less questions per figure for the cube counting than I expected. I felt like this drained me for time. For the angle ranking, folding up those triangles like people mentioned ("foldable ruler") really was the only way I could have done this section. I never really did understand what people meant by this, but I used the two triangles as an angle measuring device by pinching them together and lining them up with the angles on the screen. If you're going to do this, I recommend looking at the answer choice first. A lot of times you can quickly figure out which ones are worth comparing. At least twice I compared two angles that didn't narrow down my choices, which was pretty stupid. For the Hole Punching section i used a small square piece of paper that was left from the foldable ruler and actually folded it. The trick is not to get too wrapped in this, but if you use it to tell you the number of layers of paper the hole is through, I noticed on the real thing it was often enough to give you the right answer without even looking at where they were.
Bio: 25. I basically spent my last week before the test reading Schaum's all the way through. I did this because I had focused on doing Chem and Orgo before. My Topscore bio was 16-18, but that was before Schaums. I felt like if you understand Chem and Orgo you have a pretty good shot at figuring a question out, but with Bio you're much more likely to get a "know it or you don't" type problem. Also you don't have to recall anything, just recognize it, so I figured if I had just read it I could pick the answer out from the choices. Schaums goes into way more detail than necessary, so don't get freaked out, but I think the time spent was worth it. I did not get sea urchin, but I did get a bunch or test crosses and I felt like I had maybe 10 genetics questions. Nothing on ecology, but I did get some plant stuff. Know the hormones and the nervous system. Know the germ layers, i think everybody get a question like that.
Gen Chem 27: If you can do the Kaplan Subject Tests, you can do the DAT. They are so much harder. Don't worry about the math, the numbers you get are all 2 divided by 4 and the molar masses are the number of grams you start with. Understand the concepts. I would do the subject test with a calculator just to make it go faster.
Orgo 23: I thought the Kaplan Flash Cards were pretty solid for this. Know your carbonyl chemistry, know that a grignard reagent will act as a strong base if there is no carbonyl. Know esterification, that ether doesn't react with **** except strong acids. The reaction types from first semester are all classic examples, nothing tricky. For SN2, they'll give you methyl bromide. For elimination, they'll give you heat. I thought KMNO4 was on there a lot, there was 1 NMR, 1 easy IR question where you just had to know that IR distinguishes between functional groups and you didn't even have to know any of the bands to get it right. Also know the "n" formulas for aromaticity and chiral centers -> stereoisomers
RC: 29. Do a VERY basic roadmap, meaning like a paragraph # and a main topic. I would skim and then search for the answer. Kaplan suggests too much detail with the keywords. I had neurotransmitters, stocks, and something else. The stocks one was boring as hell.
QR: 22. Know how to multiply fractions, manipulate exponents. I didn't have anything too tough.
Good luck. Hope this helps; I've gotten a lot from this site and wanted to give back.
