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- Mar 11, 2006
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Well I can happily pronounce my DAT as completed! Hasn't quite sunken in how much free time I have again. I have used SDN as a resource for a bit now, so I can finally contribute a little and hopefully help others out.
First off, yes I remember several questions and NO, I will not post them here or in private. That violates SDN policy as well as DAT regulations. Please don't ask.
If all you care about are my scores, than you can scroll down to the bottom.
I will post my inital diagnostic scores vs my actual results. While I have technically been studying for this test a long time (just by going to organic chem class) - for the sake of simplicity, I started true earnest DAT study in early Feb. Approx. 3 months of solid studying.
MATERIALS:
I did not take the Kaplan course. However, my school offers a review class for DAT hopefuls and I did attend those classes (700$). They were run every monday and friday for 2 hours with 2 profs from my school. monday was biology and quantitative (pretty much all bio though). Friday was chemistry (and a little PAT).
While the actual sessions were not extremely helpful, they kept me motivated and on track. The class provided me with the Kaplan blue book and the Barrons book. They also had an initial diagnostic test and gave out the ADA booklet test as well. Topscore was also included. I was also allowed to borrow a cambells biology book from a prof.
I went out and got DAT achiever on my own. It was by far the most useful for preparation. The PAT and SNS sections are excellent review/practice.
I also got AcetheDAT. My advice - do not bother. Take all the mistakes in the barrons book and multiply that by about 50. AcetheDAT left me questioning my abilities mostly because the majority of their questions are WRONG and/or worded terribly.
Most of my studying was done on my own. I mapped out the biology section in kaplan which took a LONG TIME. But it really helped me to write everything down.
For ochem, I divided all the reactions into functional groups and put them on paper as well. Very helpful. I only needed to grind reactions because I remembered the IUPAC/nmr/stereochemistry/ect. material from class.
gchem.. oh my. I pretty much had to teach myself everything again. Gchem at my school was too easy and I didn't retain much. However, after a solid weak or so of review, it started to come back.
I did a lot of PAT practice which I will go into later. Quant and RC was barely focused on. I didn't care about math in HS, so I didn't have the motivation to really study for it (most of it came back on its own through practice tests).
OK OK, on to the test:
I had to be up at 6am in order to make it to the test center in time. I am not a big breakfast eater, so I just made an instant breakfast. Other people think food is important, but it wasn't for me. I had a power bar during the break with some water.
Biology:
Diagnostic - 16
Actual - 21
I was intimidated by the biology section. Many questions were very unfamiliar with what I had reviewed. There was a lot of plant stuff. There were about FIVE taxonomy questions. However, the questions were not impossible. You just need to relax and look at your options. Common sense should usually eliminate a few choices. I was surprised at my score however, I did not think it would have turned out so good.
There were several very basic genetics questions. Know your organelles and diffs between prok/eukaryotes.
General Chemistry
Diagnostic - 12
Actual - 20
The gen chem was the easiest science section. Very little calculations were required. Similar to the ADA test. There were a few off the wall questions about tests that I had never heard of, but other than that, quite straight-forward.
Organic Chemistry
Diagnostic - 13
Actual - 20
The first question was crazy. I almost lost my composure but was relieved to see the rest of the section being normal. The first questions was worded very poorly and took me a minute to understand what they were asking. It was a 5 step reaction that required a lot more thinking than I was prepared for (although I think I got it right!)
Basically know your reactions: grignard, diels alder, williamson ether synth...reductions/oxidations, sn1,sn2,e1,e2, blah blah blah.
IUPAC, Hnmr, aromaticity, acid/base, stereochem all showed up in some form.
Perceptual Ability
Diagnostic - 13
Actual - 22
The pride of my test. 97th percentile will leave anyone smiling. Please note that studying DAT achiever PAT will really help you out. I also started doing drills without thinking. I would see the front of a chair in class, and imagine the top and side views! The important thing is practice!! Keeping pace is also a must - if you aren't seeing something right away, guess/mark/move.
Keyhole: Pretty basic, similar to topscore. A few had some very nasty tricks though that I didn't see upon first glance.
Orthographic projections: Simple - similar to topscore. Pretty sure I got all of them.
Angles - ahh angles. I will not lie, this is the hardest section. More difficult than achiever and topscore. However, if you really look hard, they are doable. If they give you angles with one long end, and one short, try picturing the number 7. You would be surprised how much this helps for determining size.
There isn't much else on strat..you just need to practice and not freak out.
Hole punch - Easy for the most part. One or two of them had some pretty tough folds though. Similar to topscore with 1 or 2 DAT achiever quality problems.
Cube counting - Basic stuff, use the method in Kaplan or barrons, or your own version. Just count everything and answer afterwards.
Paper folding - Suprisingly easy. I think Topscore had tougher folding problems. There were only 2 or 3 that even had shading.
Reading Comprehension
Diagnostic- 19
Actual - 18
My only failure- I honestly don't know what happened. I was scoring 25-29 on RC on DAT achiever and Topscore. I think I may have been pondering a lot of the science section still because the break left me thinking that biology may not have gone well : /
Lesson, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS
astronomy and two biology sections were given to me.
Quantitative Reasoning
Diagnostic - 15
Actual - 19
Pleasantly easy. Not too heavy on word problems (and the ones I ran into were simple). Very basic trig and algebra. Just need to keep pace.
So there you have it. I think test composure/confidence is the real key to doing well. If you see a tough problem, just relax and think it through logically. While the SNS and PAT sections are most important, don't blow off the other two, they still add/deduct from your AA!!
If you have any further questions, feel free to post or PM me. Once again, please don't ask for SPECIFIC examples from my test.
and for those of you who don't care and only wanted to see my scores!
Bio-21
gchem-20
ochem-20
TS-20
PAT-22
RC-18
QR-19
AA-20
Time to take a shot for every point on my AA. Good day all!
First off, yes I remember several questions and NO, I will not post them here or in private. That violates SDN policy as well as DAT regulations. Please don't ask.
If all you care about are my scores, than you can scroll down to the bottom.
I will post my inital diagnostic scores vs my actual results. While I have technically been studying for this test a long time (just by going to organic chem class) - for the sake of simplicity, I started true earnest DAT study in early Feb. Approx. 3 months of solid studying.
MATERIALS:
I did not take the Kaplan course. However, my school offers a review class for DAT hopefuls and I did attend those classes (700$). They were run every monday and friday for 2 hours with 2 profs from my school. monday was biology and quantitative (pretty much all bio though). Friday was chemistry (and a little PAT).
While the actual sessions were not extremely helpful, they kept me motivated and on track. The class provided me with the Kaplan blue book and the Barrons book. They also had an initial diagnostic test and gave out the ADA booklet test as well. Topscore was also included. I was also allowed to borrow a cambells biology book from a prof.
I went out and got DAT achiever on my own. It was by far the most useful for preparation. The PAT and SNS sections are excellent review/practice.
I also got AcetheDAT. My advice - do not bother. Take all the mistakes in the barrons book and multiply that by about 50. AcetheDAT left me questioning my abilities mostly because the majority of their questions are WRONG and/or worded terribly.
Most of my studying was done on my own. I mapped out the biology section in kaplan which took a LONG TIME. But it really helped me to write everything down.
For ochem, I divided all the reactions into functional groups and put them on paper as well. Very helpful. I only needed to grind reactions because I remembered the IUPAC/nmr/stereochemistry/ect. material from class.
gchem.. oh my. I pretty much had to teach myself everything again. Gchem at my school was too easy and I didn't retain much. However, after a solid weak or so of review, it started to come back.
I did a lot of PAT practice which I will go into later. Quant and RC was barely focused on. I didn't care about math in HS, so I didn't have the motivation to really study for it (most of it came back on its own through practice tests).
OK OK, on to the test:
I had to be up at 6am in order to make it to the test center in time. I am not a big breakfast eater, so I just made an instant breakfast. Other people think food is important, but it wasn't for me. I had a power bar during the break with some water.
Biology:
Diagnostic - 16
Actual - 21
I was intimidated by the biology section. Many questions were very unfamiliar with what I had reviewed. There was a lot of plant stuff. There were about FIVE taxonomy questions. However, the questions were not impossible. You just need to relax and look at your options. Common sense should usually eliminate a few choices. I was surprised at my score however, I did not think it would have turned out so good.
There were several very basic genetics questions. Know your organelles and diffs between prok/eukaryotes.
General Chemistry
Diagnostic - 12
Actual - 20
The gen chem was the easiest science section. Very little calculations were required. Similar to the ADA test. There were a few off the wall questions about tests that I had never heard of, but other than that, quite straight-forward.
Organic Chemistry
Diagnostic - 13
Actual - 20
The first question was crazy. I almost lost my composure but was relieved to see the rest of the section being normal. The first questions was worded very poorly and took me a minute to understand what they were asking. It was a 5 step reaction that required a lot more thinking than I was prepared for (although I think I got it right!)
Basically know your reactions: grignard, diels alder, williamson ether synth...reductions/oxidations, sn1,sn2,e1,e2, blah blah blah.
IUPAC, Hnmr, aromaticity, acid/base, stereochem all showed up in some form.
Perceptual Ability
Diagnostic - 13
Actual - 22
The pride of my test. 97th percentile will leave anyone smiling. Please note that studying DAT achiever PAT will really help you out. I also started doing drills without thinking. I would see the front of a chair in class, and imagine the top and side views! The important thing is practice!! Keeping pace is also a must - if you aren't seeing something right away, guess/mark/move.
Keyhole: Pretty basic, similar to topscore. A few had some very nasty tricks though that I didn't see upon first glance.
Orthographic projections: Simple - similar to topscore. Pretty sure I got all of them.
Angles - ahh angles. I will not lie, this is the hardest section. More difficult than achiever and topscore. However, if you really look hard, they are doable. If they give you angles with one long end, and one short, try picturing the number 7. You would be surprised how much this helps for determining size.
There isn't much else on strat..you just need to practice and not freak out.
Hole punch - Easy for the most part. One or two of them had some pretty tough folds though. Similar to topscore with 1 or 2 DAT achiever quality problems.
Cube counting - Basic stuff, use the method in Kaplan or barrons, or your own version. Just count everything and answer afterwards.
Paper folding - Suprisingly easy. I think Topscore had tougher folding problems. There were only 2 or 3 that even had shading.
Reading Comprehension
Diagnostic- 19
Actual - 18
My only failure- I honestly don't know what happened. I was scoring 25-29 on RC on DAT achiever and Topscore. I think I may have been pondering a lot of the science section still because the break left me thinking that biology may not have gone well : /
Lesson, FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS
astronomy and two biology sections were given to me.
Quantitative Reasoning
Diagnostic - 15
Actual - 19
Pleasantly easy. Not too heavy on word problems (and the ones I ran into were simple). Very basic trig and algebra. Just need to keep pace.
So there you have it. I think test composure/confidence is the real key to doing well. If you see a tough problem, just relax and think it through logically. While the SNS and PAT sections are most important, don't blow off the other two, they still add/deduct from your AA!!
If you have any further questions, feel free to post or PM me. Once again, please don't ask for SPECIFIC examples from my test.
and for those of you who don't care and only wanted to see my scores!
Bio-21
gchem-20
ochem-20
TS-20
PAT-22
RC-18
QR-19
AA-20
Time to take a shot for every point on my AA. Good day all!
