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So I actually finished my DAT on the 16th, but immediately after I had to catch a plane to Hawaii for a family vacation. I just got back, so some of the details of the test are a little rusty.
AA-21
TS-22
Bio-23
Ochem-20
Gchem - 22
RC - 19
PAT-19
QR-22
Problems during the exam: So everything was going smoothly during the science section, until I hit the 2nd to last question or so on the gchem section. I don't know exactly what was going on, but it was a question about radioactive decay I believe, but the equation was not displaying properly. The numbers and elements were distorted so that I could net tell which elements and which isotopes were being created or emitted. For example, it would display hydrogen as H 7 3 2 and nitrogen as 1 4 4 1 N. I was really confused as to what was happening, and started panicking, so spent at least 6 minutes trying to figure out how to solve the problem. I know, I know, that was dumb, but when you get panicked you do really stupid things. This left me a LOT less time to do the ochem section, so I had to really rush the ochem and guess on a few questions that I know I could've gotten. I was really bummed out and upset that the gchem section affected by ochem section. I called the ADA right after, and as expected, they offered me a retake of the exam, but I would have to automatically void my 1st exam score. I am considering it, but am still not sure if I should retake. I know that normally, I should score a 25 or so on the ochem section.
Bio: I know you guys read this a lot, so I'm not going to overdo it, but DAT Destroyer was so spot on with this it wasn't funny. Out of the 40 questions on my exam, I will swear to you that at least 16 were from the Destroyer word by word, it was creepy. The other questions were definitely more application based questions where you don't simply recall facts, but have to understand the concepts. I also used Achiever (way too detailed) and Topscore (again, way too detailed). I cannot emphasize enough how Destroyer really nails a lot of the questions. I was scoring around 18 or so on both Topscore and Achiever.
Ochem: I thought this section was pretty similar to Topscore and Achiever. Maybe slightly easier. It was really straightforward, and I just wish I had a few more minutes to finish this section. I was scoring around low to mid 20's on topscore, and 18's on Achiever.
Gchem: As expected, this section was a lot more conceptual than the practice tests that I took. This is not to say, however, that there were no calculations. As noted above, like the radioactive decay problem, there are some calculations you need to do, but they seemed simple enough. I was scoring about 20 or so on all of my practice tests.
PAT: I'm a little dissappointed with this score, because I know I could've done better. I just got caught up on one of the pattern folding questions at the end, and left no time for my cube counting questions (I do cube counting last). It was really depressing because right as I was about to enter the last answer for the last cube count, my time ran out. Anyways, the PAT here is much easier than the Achiever, probably similar difficulty to topscore. For the PAT, I mainly used Crack the DAT, and man, it really is helpful, especially for the hole punches, TFE, and angles. They're really hard on Crack the DAT, but make the real PAT seem like a joke. I was scoring around 23 or so on Crack the DAT and 25 on Topscore. Achiever, I was getting like 18 or so. I highly recommend Crack the DAT if you're weak on TFE, hold punching, or angles. The angles weren't that bad at all on the real PAT compared to Crack the DAT.
RC: As said by many others, the questions definitely had more inference/tone related questions than the practice test I took. This isn't to say, however, that the reading the passage for the answer technique is bad. I think it'll still work well. But again, I started freaking out, and fell behind the clock, and left 4 answers blank at the end! That was really bad, I totally was convincing myself that I could guess the last 4 questions in 15 seconds, but before I knew it, the time was up. Man, I really wish I answered them. Passage length was identical to Achiever, Topscore, Kaplan. I was getting around 22-23 on Achiever and 25-29 on Topscore.
QR: I didn't really study much for this section. I just looked over some of the DAT destroyer problems, and then made sure to do all of the Achiever and Topscore problems. I thought the real QR was really similar to all of the questions I was presented with on my practice tests. Time was about the same I thought with the practice tests, and my scores reflected that. I was averaging about a 22 or slightly lower on the practice tests.
I'm glad the test is over, and now I'm frantically working on my application so that I can get it out in about the next 6 days. In the meantime though, what do you guys think about me retaking the exam? I know for sure that I can do much better on the ochem section. My overall GPA is around a 3.74 and my science is ~3.55 or so. Anyways, good luck to you all, and feel free to ask any questions.
AA-21
TS-22
Bio-23
Ochem-20
Gchem - 22
RC - 19
PAT-19
QR-22
Problems during the exam: So everything was going smoothly during the science section, until I hit the 2nd to last question or so on the gchem section. I don't know exactly what was going on, but it was a question about radioactive decay I believe, but the equation was not displaying properly. The numbers and elements were distorted so that I could net tell which elements and which isotopes were being created or emitted. For example, it would display hydrogen as H 7 3 2 and nitrogen as 1 4 4 1 N. I was really confused as to what was happening, and started panicking, so spent at least 6 minutes trying to figure out how to solve the problem. I know, I know, that was dumb, but when you get panicked you do really stupid things. This left me a LOT less time to do the ochem section, so I had to really rush the ochem and guess on a few questions that I know I could've gotten. I was really bummed out and upset that the gchem section affected by ochem section. I called the ADA right after, and as expected, they offered me a retake of the exam, but I would have to automatically void my 1st exam score. I am considering it, but am still not sure if I should retake. I know that normally, I should score a 25 or so on the ochem section.
Bio: I know you guys read this a lot, so I'm not going to overdo it, but DAT Destroyer was so spot on with this it wasn't funny. Out of the 40 questions on my exam, I will swear to you that at least 16 were from the Destroyer word by word, it was creepy. The other questions were definitely more application based questions where you don't simply recall facts, but have to understand the concepts. I also used Achiever (way too detailed) and Topscore (again, way too detailed). I cannot emphasize enough how Destroyer really nails a lot of the questions. I was scoring around 18 or so on both Topscore and Achiever.
Ochem: I thought this section was pretty similar to Topscore and Achiever. Maybe slightly easier. It was really straightforward, and I just wish I had a few more minutes to finish this section. I was scoring around low to mid 20's on topscore, and 18's on Achiever.
Gchem: As expected, this section was a lot more conceptual than the practice tests that I took. This is not to say, however, that there were no calculations. As noted above, like the radioactive decay problem, there are some calculations you need to do, but they seemed simple enough. I was scoring about 20 or so on all of my practice tests.
PAT: I'm a little dissappointed with this score, because I know I could've done better. I just got caught up on one of the pattern folding questions at the end, and left no time for my cube counting questions (I do cube counting last). It was really depressing because right as I was about to enter the last answer for the last cube count, my time ran out. Anyways, the PAT here is much easier than the Achiever, probably similar difficulty to topscore. For the PAT, I mainly used Crack the DAT, and man, it really is helpful, especially for the hole punches, TFE, and angles. They're really hard on Crack the DAT, but make the real PAT seem like a joke. I was scoring around 23 or so on Crack the DAT and 25 on Topscore. Achiever, I was getting like 18 or so. I highly recommend Crack the DAT if you're weak on TFE, hold punching, or angles. The angles weren't that bad at all on the real PAT compared to Crack the DAT.
RC: As said by many others, the questions definitely had more inference/tone related questions than the practice test I took. This isn't to say, however, that the reading the passage for the answer technique is bad. I think it'll still work well. But again, I started freaking out, and fell behind the clock, and left 4 answers blank at the end! That was really bad, I totally was convincing myself that I could guess the last 4 questions in 15 seconds, but before I knew it, the time was up. Man, I really wish I answered them. Passage length was identical to Achiever, Topscore, Kaplan. I was getting around 22-23 on Achiever and 25-29 on Topscore.
QR: I didn't really study much for this section. I just looked over some of the DAT destroyer problems, and then made sure to do all of the Achiever and Topscore problems. I thought the real QR was really similar to all of the questions I was presented with on my practice tests. Time was about the same I thought with the practice tests, and my scores reflected that. I was averaging about a 22 or slightly lower on the practice tests.
I'm glad the test is over, and now I'm frantically working on my application so that I can get it out in about the next 6 days. In the meantime though, what do you guys think about me retaking the exam? I know for sure that I can do much better on the ochem section. My overall GPA is around a 3.74 and my science is ~3.55 or so. Anyways, good luck to you all, and feel free to ask any questions.
Second, the person I spoke to, Kathy Hinshaw, basically told me that the BEST option I would get, would be to retake the exam, thereby voiding my current score. I'm sure she will tell you the same thing... just call the ADA and ask for her. As for you guys asking where and when I took the test, I took it in Puyallup, WA on 7/16/07 at 12:30pm. I'm sure though that this isn't just a "regional" error, and instead, is an error within the national DAT question database (if there is such a thing).
