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Hello everybody. I took the DAT last august and was rejected from all 10 schools I applied to (Only 1 interview, from my state school who interview everyone who's instate). I was so devastated that I have been very depressed and unhappy since then. I decided that I should retake the DAT and planned on studying from May 20th till August 20th (My test was scheduled for today, August 21st). For the first test, I only used Kaplan online and the book, so this time I got destroyer, Crack DAT delux edition, and Top Score in addition to the Kaplan blue book.
I didn't start studying until July 21st because, for some despicable reason, I can't study unless I'm under extreme pressure and feel like I don't have enough time to get something done. I hate that about myself. So basically I spent 2 months on the internet, video games and TV.
Took the DAT today. On the left are last year's scores, on the right today's:
PA: 20--23
QR: 17--19
RC: 17--19
Bio: 18--20
GC: 18--19
OC: 18--23
TS: 18--21
AA: 18--20
I know that these scores are not the highest (in fact some of you would probably cry if you got these scores haha) but it means a lot to me because it's an improvement and I am happy for the first time in a long time.
Here's what I think of everything that I used:
Destroyer: Absolutely awesome book. I just figured out why it's so great. When you're reading a book with a lot of information (like Kaplan BB), you are so bored and you can't focus when reading. So a lot of stuff is just skipped without retaining that knowledge. With destroyer, you are answering questions and thus you are forced to focus. The questions themselves teach you everything. Now granted, there are just way too many topics in bio to be covered by the 300 something questions that are in destroyer, but it still does a good job with bio. I felt the same way about gen chem too. But for Organic, it was unbelievable. Now I know why the guys is called Orgo man haha. I didn't think I was going to do so well (23) on that section but I did. The roadmaps helped a lot and the questions reinforced that information.
Crack DAT PAT: This is an excellent, and must have, study tool. You will def. get better time management and techniques from it. I only spent two days on it, doing 5 of the 10 tests each day. The hole punching is def. harder than the DAT, but it prepares you very well. By the time I got to the 7th test, I had developed a technique that worke pretty much 99% of the time on hole punching. Top, Front, Side views are harder on the real test. On Crack, you can just use the "number of events" method to solve just about every question but you can't do that on the real test because all the answers have the same number of events. Topscore is much better with this since it's like the real test. Cube counting is also much harder in Crack than the real test, but it prepares you well. Patter folding is harder on the real DAT.
Crack DAT Math: This is also excellent. I also spent just two days on this and did about 12 of the 25 tests (didn't have enough time to do the rest). It's great because you become much much faster. I finished the math section with a couple of minutes remaining. I was actually very dissapointed because I thought I would do much better. One big problem with this though is that there are no long story problems like there are on the actual test. It's very close though.
Topscore: There are some things about this that were awesome and some things that really pissed me off. First of all, I didn't like their customer service much because they were very rude in an email. The software also looks like it was written in the 1980's. The science section is not really like the real test (the DAT I took anyway), it's harder. The PAT angles are much easier than the real test and Crack. Cube counting and top/side/front views are much more similar to the real test than Crack was. Reading is much, much easier than the real test because most of the answers are in the first sentence of the paragraphs. Overall, topscore was harder than the actual test. My AA for the 3 topscore tests were 19,19,18. The best thing about this is that it totally prepares you for the longevity of the test. Last year, I was so exhausted by the time I got to my break that I almost fainted. This time, I took the three tests all at 8am starting 4 days before the actual test (yesterday was my break). I was exhausted after the first topscore test but then for the rest I felt great. I was never tired during the actual test today. That's why I highly recomend that you get this or any other full test so you get accustomed to the longevity of the test.
I hope this post helps some of you and I can answer any other questions. Best of luck to any that will take the DAT soon and best of luck to me for this cycle
I didn't start studying until July 21st because, for some despicable reason, I can't study unless I'm under extreme pressure and feel like I don't have enough time to get something done. I hate that about myself. So basically I spent 2 months on the internet, video games and TV.
Took the DAT today. On the left are last year's scores, on the right today's:
PA: 20--23
QR: 17--19
RC: 17--19
Bio: 18--20
GC: 18--19
OC: 18--23
TS: 18--21
AA: 18--20
I know that these scores are not the highest (in fact some of you would probably cry if you got these scores haha) but it means a lot to me because it's an improvement and I am happy for the first time in a long time.
Here's what I think of everything that I used:
Destroyer: Absolutely awesome book. I just figured out why it's so great. When you're reading a book with a lot of information (like Kaplan BB), you are so bored and you can't focus when reading. So a lot of stuff is just skipped without retaining that knowledge. With destroyer, you are answering questions and thus you are forced to focus. The questions themselves teach you everything. Now granted, there are just way too many topics in bio to be covered by the 300 something questions that are in destroyer, but it still does a good job with bio. I felt the same way about gen chem too. But for Organic, it was unbelievable. Now I know why the guys is called Orgo man haha. I didn't think I was going to do so well (23) on that section but I did. The roadmaps helped a lot and the questions reinforced that information.
Crack DAT PAT: This is an excellent, and must have, study tool. You will def. get better time management and techniques from it. I only spent two days on it, doing 5 of the 10 tests each day. The hole punching is def. harder than the DAT, but it prepares you very well. By the time I got to the 7th test, I had developed a technique that worke pretty much 99% of the time on hole punching. Top, Front, Side views are harder on the real test. On Crack, you can just use the "number of events" method to solve just about every question but you can't do that on the real test because all the answers have the same number of events. Topscore is much better with this since it's like the real test. Cube counting is also much harder in Crack than the real test, but it prepares you well. Patter folding is harder on the real DAT.
Crack DAT Math: This is also excellent. I also spent just two days on this and did about 12 of the 25 tests (didn't have enough time to do the rest). It's great because you become much much faster. I finished the math section with a couple of minutes remaining. I was actually very dissapointed because I thought I would do much better. One big problem with this though is that there are no long story problems like there are on the actual test. It's very close though.
Topscore: There are some things about this that were awesome and some things that really pissed me off. First of all, I didn't like their customer service much because they were very rude in an email. The software also looks like it was written in the 1980's. The science section is not really like the real test (the DAT I took anyway), it's harder. The PAT angles are much easier than the real test and Crack. Cube counting and top/side/front views are much more similar to the real test than Crack was. Reading is much, much easier than the real test because most of the answers are in the first sentence of the paragraphs. Overall, topscore was harder than the actual test. My AA for the 3 topscore tests were 19,19,18. The best thing about this is that it totally prepares you for the longevity of the test. Last year, I was so exhausted by the time I got to my break that I almost fainted. This time, I took the three tests all at 8am starting 4 days before the actual test (yesterday was my break). I was exhausted after the first topscore test but then for the rest I felt great. I was never tired during the actual test today. That's why I highly recomend that you get this or any other full test so you get accustomed to the longevity of the test.
I hope this post helps some of you and I can answer any other questions. Best of luck to any that will take the DAT soon and best of luck to me for this cycle
