- Joined
- May 14, 2010
- Messages
- 189
- Reaction score
- 80
Heya! In the past couple months, I've probably spent more time checkin' out all the breakdowns on SDN then I did studying, so I figured I might as well add to the pile 😛.. It's nothing like sfoksn's or others 25+s on here (which I read through many times), but nonetheless, here's my experience with the test 🙂
For my scores, I got:
PAT: 20 (81.0%)
QR: 22 (98.7%)
RC: 20 (78.5%)
Bio: 22 (87.6%)
GC: 24 (98.0%)
OC: 22 (94.0%)
TS: 23 (99.3%)
AA: 22 (98.9%)
Was shooting to get a 23 AA, but 22 is alright for the amount of work I put in.
For a brief background, I got out of school early May... Was planning to study for 2+ months but didn't really pick up the pace until mid June x_x. I checked out dentalworks' 8 week schedule late May, but it took me two weeks to [stop slacking off and] customize it to how best I studied. I basically ended up setting up an excel spreadsheet of everything I needed to do and crossed off things that I did, highlighted things that I am going to the day of or the next day, etc. I have to say that I am a very poor studier, even in my classes.. The reason I do well is because I pay attention and learn the material in class; I'm pretty sure I have a mild case of ADD (or laziness) that prevents me from studying 24/7 like some others can :\. This definitely carried over into my studying, and most of the information in Bio and GC was info I remembered from classes.
For my test, I was actually supposed to take it Saturday but the power went out at the place I went to... Waited around for 2+ hours before they said it wouldn't be up for the day. Luckily I spoke with a very nice gal working for Prometric who helped me reschedule for Monday (was suppose to leave for vacation late Saturday so I wanted to reschedule asap lol). Man was I just flat out nervous the rest of Sat and Sunday, I thought I was going to forget everything lol.. I felt like I memorized all of Destroyer already, and so I just did another PAT and Math Destroyer. I also gave in to temptation to play a few hours of CS so that probably didn't help lol.
Anyways, for an overview of materials I used starting in June: Kaplan's blue book, Cliffs AP Biology, Chad's Videos briefly, DAT Destroyer* (went through twice), Math Destroyer, CDP, some CDM, some CDR, and Topscore. I was shadowing during this time so I'd say I spent roughly 3 hours a day studying till the end of June, till I realized how eff'd I was that it was already July, then I spent ~10 hours a day for the next 3 weeks.
For a brief overview of topscore test results, I got:
------Test: AA--TS-PAT--Bio-GC--OC-QR--RC
Topscore1: 22--20--20--19--21--20--20--29
Topscore2: 22--22--22--21--23--21--21--25
---Did the sciences for Topscore 3 but didn't time/score them
CDP: 21 (untimed - took 2 hours lol), 18, 20, 20, 22, 21, 23
CDR: 20, 21, 20
CDM: 20, 19
Math Destroyer (out of 40): 22, 29, 33, 26, 27, 32
More Detailed Breakdown:
PAT (20): Kaplan, CDP*, Topscore.
-Kaplan wasn't too bad for the PAT. Very good introduction without making me stress out (well, stress out too terribly 😛). The only real easy one is the angles, which was a not so pleasant surprise to find out when I moved over to CDP 😛. Overall, compared to CDP, the DAT keyholes were just a tad harder, TFE and hole punching were similar, angles were a little easier (thank God 😛), but pattern folding was quite a bit harder on the real DAT for me. I'm pretty confident I got all of the hole punching and TFE correct, but the pattern folding alone took 20+ minutes but itself x_x.. It was a killer compared to CDP's patterns, which I was getting 13-14/15 by the end of it. Topscore was decent on difficulty, maybe just a bit easier than the real. CDP is definitely worth it for practicing timing and what not.
Another thing worth noting on the actual DAT is, like on Topscore, the number of cubes is much lower than CDP, around 12-15 instead of 20+.. and also there were mostly two (rarely 3) questions on each block set, so while I used the tally method on most of CDP, I started just counting them without tallying and got through this section much quicker and with equal accuracy. Also, the 4x4 grid method for hole punching made it a joke.. Easiest section on the DAT by far.
QR (22): Kaplan, Math Destroyer, CDM.
-I honestly don't know how I pulled a 22 off on this one, I was dreading it by the end (also had to pee really badly x_x), and I ended up blind guessing on two of them :\.. I guess I just got most of the other ones right to make up for it heh. QR was definitely my least favorite part of the DAT, and I think I could have better prepared for this section if I hadn't goofed off the first month of 'studying'. I only finished 2 of 5 CDMs, and got through 7 of 11 math destroyers... The 7 Math Destroyer tests I did take were very good in helping me with most of the questions though.. you really only can phrase a math question in so many ways. As a sidenote, the calculator only lags if you press the same button down more than once, if so, just wait half a second before you click it, no rush lol - at least at my testing center, there was no lag.
As a sidenote, I followed the advice of CANgnome here and wrote down the sin table during my 15 min break - I simply drew out the 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles and wrote down the sin/cos/tan and formulas. This was a big relief because I was always horrible at trig lol. I also wrote down conversions, although I only needed one for the test.
RC (20): CDR, Topscore.
-Now this section I was surprised by the most.. This was my best section on the SAT, and as you can see in my Topscore tests, I thought this was easily my best section on the DAT as well, also noting that I finished each test with 15-20 minutes left every time. I have to say, Topscore was not that good a resource for this, and was a main reason I didn't complete the third test. It simply contains too many S&D questions, and the real one contained many more tone/inference questions. CDR was better for this, but I figured with scores that I got on topscore that I would be better studying for other sections, so I left it after 3 tests.. My advice is just to find out what is best for you; if you have problems with S&D, go with topscore; if you have problems with tone (more likely), go with CDR.
Bio (22): Class*, Kaplan, Cliffs, DAT Destroyer
-I got just a few screwballs in this section, but otherwise, it was very straightforward, and it was more conceptual rather than tediously detailed. I ended up not reading Ch 19-21 of Campbells.. I thought I had the book, and I figured I would wait till the last week to study it, then I sadly realized that I had sold it already lol. Anyways, Kaplan was a good basic overview, and was a good overview for the human physiological systems. Cliffs was excellent for getting more into detail and contained very few errors (that I could find lol). Classes at UoP definitely helped with this section as well; I have taken Gen Bio I/II, Genetics, Ecology, Evolution, and Microbiology thus far. The hardest part was definitely embryology. I also had a random taxonomy question that I feel was poorly worded, but meh, a couple oddballs out of however many questions the DAT is out of is fine.
GC (24): Class*, Kaplan, DAT Destroyer
-I am a GC tutor/workshop leader at my univ, so I was fairly prepared for this section to begin with. Solubility and electrochemistry were my main problem areas, so I focused a bit more on those. The questions on the actual DAT were much easier than those on DAT Destroyer. I didn't have to refer to my periodic table at all (MWs were given), and I only had to do ~2 [easy] calculations.. Many more conceptual questions were asked that seemed like dead giveaways. Overall, Kaplan was pretty good for reviewing all concepts, and I also went halfway through Chad's videos till I realized it more or less covers the basics that I already knew from basic GChem classes. *Make sure you know the concepts in addition to the calculations.
OC (22): Kaplan, DAT Destroyer
-I didn't do too well in my ochem classes this past summer (ochem I to be specific). Basically you need to know all of the concepts and reactions in ochem by memory lol. At the beginning, I thought this was going to be my worst section, even worse than QR. I opened up the DAT road maps and was pretty frightened that I couldn't remember more than 5 reactions. It just takes a lot of notetaking and practice problems for the reactions and concepts to stick, and both kaplan and destroyer were very good for this. Chad's videos were also good for re-introducing the topics of SN1, SN2, etc, but after a while I did fine with just memorizing notes from kaplan & road maps. Same with GC, know the concepts.
So! That's about it. I'm applying only to UoP as part of their 3+3 program, and am getting my BS in plain ol' Biology this year (want to go into cell/molecular biology but don't want to wait another year to finish req's for it 😛). I was going to apply to UCLA but I really like the student environment at UoP.. Everyone seems really helpful, nice, noncompetitive, and I really like their sim lab compared to UCSF (haven't seen UCLA's), and other reasons. The only drawback for me is having no campus, but I suppose I can live with that, especially if I'm just going to be in sim lab/clinic for half the days anyways 😛.
Anyways, I'm really glad to get over this hump in the road to dentistry, and will be in Tahoe/Almanor and Reno these next two weeks to celebrate! And of course, feel free to reply or PM me with any questions 🙂
For my scores, I got:
PAT: 20 (81.0%)
QR: 22 (98.7%)
RC: 20 (78.5%)
Bio: 22 (87.6%)
GC: 24 (98.0%)
OC: 22 (94.0%)
TS: 23 (99.3%)
AA: 22 (98.9%)
Was shooting to get a 23 AA, but 22 is alright for the amount of work I put in.
For a brief background, I got out of school early May... Was planning to study for 2+ months but didn't really pick up the pace until mid June x_x. I checked out dentalworks' 8 week schedule late May, but it took me two weeks to [stop slacking off and] customize it to how best I studied. I basically ended up setting up an excel spreadsheet of everything I needed to do and crossed off things that I did, highlighted things that I am going to the day of or the next day, etc. I have to say that I am a very poor studier, even in my classes.. The reason I do well is because I pay attention and learn the material in class; I'm pretty sure I have a mild case of ADD (or laziness) that prevents me from studying 24/7 like some others can :\. This definitely carried over into my studying, and most of the information in Bio and GC was info I remembered from classes.
For my test, I was actually supposed to take it Saturday but the power went out at the place I went to... Waited around for 2+ hours before they said it wouldn't be up for the day. Luckily I spoke with a very nice gal working for Prometric who helped me reschedule for Monday (was suppose to leave for vacation late Saturday so I wanted to reschedule asap lol). Man was I just flat out nervous the rest of Sat and Sunday, I thought I was going to forget everything lol.. I felt like I memorized all of Destroyer already, and so I just did another PAT and Math Destroyer. I also gave in to temptation to play a few hours of CS so that probably didn't help lol.
Anyways, for an overview of materials I used starting in June: Kaplan's blue book, Cliffs AP Biology, Chad's Videos briefly, DAT Destroyer* (went through twice), Math Destroyer, CDP, some CDM, some CDR, and Topscore. I was shadowing during this time so I'd say I spent roughly 3 hours a day studying till the end of June, till I realized how eff'd I was that it was already July, then I spent ~10 hours a day for the next 3 weeks.
For a brief overview of topscore test results, I got:
------Test: AA--TS-PAT--Bio-GC--OC-QR--RC
Topscore1: 22--20--20--19--21--20--20--29
Topscore2: 22--22--22--21--23--21--21--25
---Did the sciences for Topscore 3 but didn't time/score them
CDP: 21 (untimed - took 2 hours lol), 18, 20, 20, 22, 21, 23
CDR: 20, 21, 20
CDM: 20, 19
Math Destroyer (out of 40): 22, 29, 33, 26, 27, 32
More Detailed Breakdown:
PAT (20): Kaplan, CDP*, Topscore.
-Kaplan wasn't too bad for the PAT. Very good introduction without making me stress out (well, stress out too terribly 😛). The only real easy one is the angles, which was a not so pleasant surprise to find out when I moved over to CDP 😛. Overall, compared to CDP, the DAT keyholes were just a tad harder, TFE and hole punching were similar, angles were a little easier (thank God 😛), but pattern folding was quite a bit harder on the real DAT for me. I'm pretty confident I got all of the hole punching and TFE correct, but the pattern folding alone took 20+ minutes but itself x_x.. It was a killer compared to CDP's patterns, which I was getting 13-14/15 by the end of it. Topscore was decent on difficulty, maybe just a bit easier than the real. CDP is definitely worth it for practicing timing and what not.
Another thing worth noting on the actual DAT is, like on Topscore, the number of cubes is much lower than CDP, around 12-15 instead of 20+.. and also there were mostly two (rarely 3) questions on each block set, so while I used the tally method on most of CDP, I started just counting them without tallying and got through this section much quicker and with equal accuracy. Also, the 4x4 grid method for hole punching made it a joke.. Easiest section on the DAT by far.
QR (22): Kaplan, Math Destroyer, CDM.
-I honestly don't know how I pulled a 22 off on this one, I was dreading it by the end (also had to pee really badly x_x), and I ended up blind guessing on two of them :\.. I guess I just got most of the other ones right to make up for it heh. QR was definitely my least favorite part of the DAT, and I think I could have better prepared for this section if I hadn't goofed off the first month of 'studying'. I only finished 2 of 5 CDMs, and got through 7 of 11 math destroyers... The 7 Math Destroyer tests I did take were very good in helping me with most of the questions though.. you really only can phrase a math question in so many ways. As a sidenote, the calculator only lags if you press the same button down more than once, if so, just wait half a second before you click it, no rush lol - at least at my testing center, there was no lag.
As a sidenote, I followed the advice of CANgnome here and wrote down the sin table during my 15 min break - I simply drew out the 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles and wrote down the sin/cos/tan and formulas. This was a big relief because I was always horrible at trig lol. I also wrote down conversions, although I only needed one for the test.
RC (20): CDR, Topscore.
-Now this section I was surprised by the most.. This was my best section on the SAT, and as you can see in my Topscore tests, I thought this was easily my best section on the DAT as well, also noting that I finished each test with 15-20 minutes left every time. I have to say, Topscore was not that good a resource for this, and was a main reason I didn't complete the third test. It simply contains too many S&D questions, and the real one contained many more tone/inference questions. CDR was better for this, but I figured with scores that I got on topscore that I would be better studying for other sections, so I left it after 3 tests.. My advice is just to find out what is best for you; if you have problems with S&D, go with topscore; if you have problems with tone (more likely), go with CDR.
Bio (22): Class*, Kaplan, Cliffs, DAT Destroyer
-I got just a few screwballs in this section, but otherwise, it was very straightforward, and it was more conceptual rather than tediously detailed. I ended up not reading Ch 19-21 of Campbells.. I thought I had the book, and I figured I would wait till the last week to study it, then I sadly realized that I had sold it already lol. Anyways, Kaplan was a good basic overview, and was a good overview for the human physiological systems. Cliffs was excellent for getting more into detail and contained very few errors (that I could find lol). Classes at UoP definitely helped with this section as well; I have taken Gen Bio I/II, Genetics, Ecology, Evolution, and Microbiology thus far. The hardest part was definitely embryology. I also had a random taxonomy question that I feel was poorly worded, but meh, a couple oddballs out of however many questions the DAT is out of is fine.
GC (24): Class*, Kaplan, DAT Destroyer
-I am a GC tutor/workshop leader at my univ, so I was fairly prepared for this section to begin with. Solubility and electrochemistry were my main problem areas, so I focused a bit more on those. The questions on the actual DAT were much easier than those on DAT Destroyer. I didn't have to refer to my periodic table at all (MWs were given), and I only had to do ~2 [easy] calculations.. Many more conceptual questions were asked that seemed like dead giveaways. Overall, Kaplan was pretty good for reviewing all concepts, and I also went halfway through Chad's videos till I realized it more or less covers the basics that I already knew from basic GChem classes. *Make sure you know the concepts in addition to the calculations.
OC (22): Kaplan, DAT Destroyer
-I didn't do too well in my ochem classes this past summer (ochem I to be specific). Basically you need to know all of the concepts and reactions in ochem by memory lol. At the beginning, I thought this was going to be my worst section, even worse than QR. I opened up the DAT road maps and was pretty frightened that I couldn't remember more than 5 reactions. It just takes a lot of notetaking and practice problems for the reactions and concepts to stick, and both kaplan and destroyer were very good for this. Chad's videos were also good for re-introducing the topics of SN1, SN2, etc, but after a while I did fine with just memorizing notes from kaplan & road maps. Same with GC, know the concepts.
So! That's about it. I'm applying only to UoP as part of their 3+3 program, and am getting my BS in plain ol' Biology this year (want to go into cell/molecular biology but don't want to wait another year to finish req's for it 😛). I was going to apply to UCLA but I really like the student environment at UoP.. Everyone seems really helpful, nice, noncompetitive, and I really like their sim lab compared to UCSF (haven't seen UCLA's), and other reasons. The only drawback for me is having no campus, but I suppose I can live with that, especially if I'm just going to be in sim lab/clinic for half the days anyways 😛.
Anyways, I'm really glad to get over this hump in the road to dentistry, and will be in Tahoe/Almanor and Reno these next two weeks to celebrate! And of course, feel free to reply or PM me with any questions 🙂
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