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I would like to thank sdn for the opportunity to meet different people who helped me out in my studies and application.
I especially like to thank my study-buddy casper whos been a great friend to me throughout this stressful time.
I would also like to thank Rlow for proofreading my personal essay.
And now the scores:
Biology 27
G.chem 21
O.chem 30
PAT 21 (I was expecting more, but I was very slow during the test and I ran out of time)
RC 16
QR 16 (I used to be really good in math, but when I realized a couple days before my DAT that I LOST the touch of it, I freaked out. its been a long time since Ive solved any math problems, but this is not an excuse to get such a low score in such a scoring subject!)
TS 24 (99.3%)
AA 22 (96.4%)
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Before/during the test:
My test center was about an hour away from where I live. I was feeling sick on the day because of the lack of sleep. It wasnt b/c I was worried for the test. The lack of sleep was due to early morning noise in my house. I am a night owl, and early morning kills me. Anyways, so I got up and got ready, but I was feeling sick already. I thought Id feel better after breakfast, but it got worse. More than one hour drive to the test center made my stomach more upset and my brain more tired. I tried to pull myself together as much as I could and went into the center to take the test. People were really nice and friendly over there.
I drank red bull during the break to wake up myself, but gosh it didnt work. Yes, my hands were working faster, but my brain was still sleepy and I couldnt get up or feel any energy in me!
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Breakdown:
Biology (27):
Items used: barrons AP bio, sdn notes, MCAT hyperlearning*, Kaplan subject tests, 2007 destroyer my friend sent me, exam crackers, Kaplan, schaums outlines of biology, wiki/google, khan academy, youtube
Barrons AP bio (10/10): I used barrons AP the most. It was my main book. I knew I was weak in ecology/classification, and I made sure I knew them. This book is excellent in covering almost all basic topics. I loved it. I love the pretty pictures and the smooth writing in this book. I did google/wiki for some of the concepts AP didnt cover, but all in all, this was the only book in biology that I really liked studying from. I probably read this 2-3 times. Read one time fully, but then skimmed thru other times. I would come back to this book time to time when I forgot a concept or when I would simply want to refresh a chapter in my mind (animal behavior, ecology, classification chapters).
SDN notes (10/10): God bless sdners for sharing their notes with everyone. Those bio notes are awesome! I downloaded one page colorful hormone chart, Campbells ch 19-21 outlines, cliffs classification notes, and my favorite alans bio outlines (Yes, I know alan didnt make them, but he was the one who sent them to me, so I thank him for that!).
MCAT hyperlearning (6/10): Excellent book, but very detailed. I used it for a couple of chapters I was weak in. Didnt read all chapters.
Exam crackers (6/10): I have mixed feelings for this one, and used it only when I didnt understand a concept in other books or when I wanted to get more information and couldnt find it quickly anywhere else. Its got pretty colorful pictures and I liked them.
Schaums outline of biology (4.5/10): BORING! I actually started off with this book. After comparing many books I thought this had everything that we would need to know for the DAT. But boy was I bored! I hardly read 3 chapters and got so bored that I had to choose a different book. I did however go back to this book in rare occasions, and it didnt disappoint me.
Destroyer vs. Kaplan subject tests: Those who bash Kaplan have never used Kaplan to its fullest extent. I actually liked Kaplan tests more than destroyer. To put in one sentence, I would say, destroyer is a prep book and Kaplan is a test book. Kaplan subject tests made me think how a question could be asked in different ways. They made me think over a simple concept. Destroyer only adds new topics/stuff that AP would not cover in general, but it doesnt prepare you how a question could be asked on the test. You do only destroyer, you wont do good if you havent had good science background. And I think the questions were more of a thinking type-conceptual not much of a knowledge type. Ofcourse you need to have knowledge to apply in conceptual type of questions, but practice applying those concepts is half the battle imo.
Destroyer (6/10): honestly, I dont see whats the big fuss about destroyer. It does provide good review of many topics that you might have over looked thinking that they werent so important. I had 2007 bio destroyer and it had covered many topics. Read it once. And skimmed half the second time.
Kaplan subject tests (9/10): READ the explanations. Dont skip the explanations of the ones you got right.
KBB (5/10): a good review. I only skimmed through this book once and read sections /parts if I found any new information.
Internet:
Khan academy: I used khan academy for c-4 plants photosynthesis, photorespiration, CAM plants and human immune system. Excellent explanation. However, AP bio also covers human immune system very nicely. But this really helped me with c-4 plants and stuff.
Youtube: I really liked this one video about dark reactions that I found on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUZXWHoiOSs
Wiki/google : I liked wiki and google imagies. Im a visual learner so it helps to see the pictures and making a mental map of all the concepts.
Tips on this section: I would say AP and alans notes cover almost all the material/concepts that youd need to know for this test. With that said, I would still highly recommend going over other prep books and skim thru them atleast once. Different wordings would help build the concepts and would definitely help you remember new concepts faster. You wouldnt have to read everything in detail, but skimming through different books prepares your mind to see the same concept in different manners. It helps.
Practice: I said it before, and I am saying it again. Knowing the concept will only get you half way. Memorizing concepts will help you, but applying concepts is the KEY to do better in this test. It can only be done if you start taking practice tests and start realizing how a question can be asked in different ways. This is the reason I liked AP a lot. After every chapter, there are bunch of practice problems with their explanations. I did them all the first time I was going through the book, and skimmed thru almost all the second time around. Kaplans practice tests were good too. I would get around 4-11 wrong in them, and then I would go over all the explanations. READ the explanations and understand why you got a question right or wrong. Skim thru the ones you are so strong in and read in details for the ones you are weak in, but never miss any question.
The test: it wasnt hard, but the wordings would trap you if you havent trained yourself to tackle applied problems. I got one fungi question that some ppl talked about in the past on sdn. It was very basic. KNOW the picture of a fungi structure and you should be golden. There was another picture of a mountain and .. well I cant tell you what the question was, but if you know ecology from AP bio, you should be fine for this one too. You gotta know what the question is asking about. Hardly a couple questions were straight ones. All others, including this mountain pic one, would make you think, and could make you falsely feel that the question is asking you about a different concept. In short, the ratio of knowledge vs. practice should be 1:3.
Anki: I know many ppl here would recommend making anki cards. May be they were useful to some people, but they werent very useful to me. Like I said, I am a visual learner, I would like to have many things on a paper /word document and then I would visualize where all the pieces are for the first time I read them. So that, when a question comes up, those wordings exactly like I saw them would show up highlighted in my mind. Flipping card method isnt so very useful for me! But for those who love that strategy, follow the guideline of karatetooth: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=697147&highlight=anki
*MCAT hyperlearning = I was never interested in medicine, but I read somewhere on sdn that these books helped them prepare well for the test, so I bought them. In short, dentistry has always been my first choice, I am not a medical drop out.
General chem. (21):
Items used: Barrons AP chem., MCAT hyperlearning, CHAD, destroyer, exam krackers, Kaplan subject tests, ACS
Barrons AP Chem (8/10): Its been a while since Ive had to deal with general chemistry. So I started off with barrons AP chem.. This book is a great start. For those who have good g.chem background, I dont think they need to go thru this book. This book covers many problems and it helps solidify concepts very nicely. There are some typos here and there, but still its a good book.
MCAT Hyperlearning (10/10): the best g.chem test prep book. Its concise and very easy read. I loved this book so very much. I went thru this book probably 3-4 times. First time I read it in detail, and other times skimmed thru the entire book. I would come back time to time and refresh a chapter or two if I feel like I had forgotten a concept. I cant stress enough how much this book helped me in g.chem. Without this book, I would probably not have gotten 21 in g.chem. This book doesnt cover some concepts so much in detail, like stoichiometry. But Ive had tons of practice from barrons ap chem. In short, AP and hyperlearning covered everything there is to know about g.chem. Then it comes down to solidifying the concept and practice.
Chad (10/10): I love this guy. After reading AP and hyperlearning, this was the guy who solidified all the g.chem concept s. hes an excellent teacher. I watched his videos once and took notes. I didnt go over all the notes that thoroughly though. I probably skimmed thru them for 1-2 times. But I did go over his quizzes in all details. READ the freaking explanations. His quizzes are great practice and very similar to the real DAT. His explanations in all the topics are golden. He is all you need to know if you have solid g.chem background.
Destroyer (6/10): I went over destroyer nearly at the end of all the studies. So I knew the concepts, but I would still get many problems wrong because like I said, destroyer includes new concepts and topics that you probably hadnt seen before. I told this to casper. And he kept telling me to learn from the mistakes rather than feeling down about it. And hes right. I learned what/why I got something wrong. I thought destroyer g.chem isnt the best representative of the DAT. Like I said before, it includes beyond what you need to know, so if you have enough time, do go over them cause extra knowledge will never hurt.
Kaplan subject tests (8.5/10): I never finished any of these tests in time! Not in 30 minutes. There were many calculation based problems which took most of my time. The real DAT was more conceptual. Kaplan subject tests did not include new information, but it asked questions in ways such that you have to think to answer the question. This is the reason I liked them a lot.
Exam krackers (9/10): I didnt use this a lot, but for the parts I used this book, it was great. If I had to go back, I would probably have gone over all the problems from this book. Not the passage ones at the end, but the in-chapter problems. I did some of them, and they were as good as Kaplan tests, but more conceptual. Theyd definitely solidify concepts, but I didnt have enough time to go over them all. I highly recommend skimming thru this book and definitely going over the in-chapter problems.
ACS (7.5/10): I didnt use this book a lot. Only for a couple of sections like equilibrium, thermodynamics, acid/base, lab). Its a great practice. There are only a few explanations in the beginning of each chapter though. So youd not know why you got some answers wrong when you do the practice problems. But you can always ask your friends, and ofcourse sdn is a great place for all this.
Actual DAT: I didnt get a chance to go over this second time or I would probably have done better in this one. I definitely didnt know the strategy to solve one problem! I totally blanked out I guess. For other questions, I think they were fair. I must have made stupid mistakes. Practice and knowledge both are equally important for this section.
o.chem (30):
items used: o.chem as a second language I and II, MCAT hyperlearning, CHAD, destroyer, KBB, Kaplan subject tests, ACS
o.chem as a second language (15/10): yes, you read it right. Its more than 100%, but these books are incredible. I LOVED these books. I first started off with chad, and he did a nice job in explaining concepts, but I like things to be written on paper so that I could draw lines and compare/contrast things and add things in the sides. This book is an easy read/well written with great illustrations. It took me around 4-5 hours to finish the first book because it was very basic. But some of the chapters from this book helped the most. Why arent all the books this easy to read? It took me some time to finish the second book, but it was worth it. I did all the problems from both books. Lined/marked on papers. Compared/contrasted and wrote down page numbers and everything (e.g. clemmensen reaction and wolff-kishner reaction both do the same thing so I would make a chart and write down the page numbers from this book for a future reference). I thoroughly used these books. Theyre simply amazing. Read them, use them, and conquer o.chem.
MCAT hyperlearning (9/10): Hyperlearning books are great. It sometimes feel like chad is following hyperlearning style. I used this book early on in my studies, and they helped a lot. I did go back for isomer chapter and sn1/sn2/e1/e2 things. Simple and great explanations. It has all the reactions at the end of the section so that you could go back to specific reaction to review it.
Chad (8.5/10): I do love chad, no doubt about it. But I think for o.chem chad isnt sufficient if you want to get 25+ in this section. His quizzes are great, but his lectures miss out some details. Regardless, chad helped me answer one NMR question on the real DAT and I THANK him for his strategies. Without him I would probably have guessed on that question.
Destroyer (9/10): I liked this section of destroyer. But it was mainly a review for me. I probably have asked capser gzillion times if the new edition is more difficult than this older one (Im surprised how he never got bored answering me the same question.. lol). And he assured me that there are more problems, but the concepts are all similar. Im not saying I didnt get anything wrong, but I knew what I got wrong and I knew why I got a question wrong before seeing the explanation. I guess I solidified all the concepts before I hit the destroyer, so it was just a review for me. And its always nice to solve more problems. Why I gave this a 9? Well, b/c I thought the road-maps were good. It kinda assured me that I knew all the reactions there is to know for this test. how much it was useful on real dat? Not sure.. there werent so many synthesis problems (like not 20 questions). And those that were asked were so easy. And they werent easy b/c I saw them on road-maps, but they were easy b/c I had good practice and solid concepts b/c of other prep books. To be honest I did not memorize a single reaction, I understood the mechanisms from o.chem as a second language, and chad quizzes and his list of reactions, and my notes.
KBB (8/10): I liked this part of the book, its a good read. But the test is definitely not on terms of how the concepts were presented in this book. Like all the sn1/sn2/e1/e2 problems were not explained so well in this book. I think its nice to have more practice for those. If you dont have a good orgo background, this book is not enough imo.
Kaplan subject tests (10/10): again, great explanations with great questions. I sometimes didnt finish all the questions in time, but it was a great practice regardless. I reached to the point where I could easily answer the question b/c of all the practice. READ the explanations. They are great.
ACS (8/10): great practice. I didnt go over all the chapters. But the ones I did go over were great. Itd make you think and thats exactly what I wanted.
Actual DAT experience: I thought it was easy. Practice will make you perfect. Read concepts once and go back to them time to time and skim over everything, but its more important to practice and go over ALL question frequently.
PAT (21):
I seriously thought Id do better than this. I couldnt go over this second time b/c I was terribly slow during the test. I was sleeping by the time I reached to this section.
Things used: CDP, practice tests, sdn sama, barrons DAT
CDP (9.5/10): I took away 0.5 points b/c of the pattern folding section. Except that, everything else was on par with cdp.
Top score (9/10): images arent so great, but a good practice.
Barrons DAT (9/10): its got all the rules and great strategies.
Sdn sama (10/10): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=528643 . I started off by reading this thread, and I got scared. People would throw difficult questions there, and I thought that this sections hard like the questions thats asked here. I spent hours on this thread and tried to learn strategies and everything. But b/c of this, no hard question surprised me! It made me strong to expect the worse. There are some great strategies and experiences on this thread that I really liked. But I eventually developed my own strategies by reading lots of breakdowns and practice.
Actual DAT experience:
Key hole: on par with CDP and top score. I think I am good at visualization and b/c of all the questions thats been asked on sdn, I had good practice before hitting top score, so it became easy for me. And with cdp practice, this became easier. On actual dat, however, I was so sleepy and tired that I did not get that zeal that I used to have while doing practice tests. But I think I didnt do that bad on this section.
T/F/E: this was very easy for me b/c I can visualize things easily. Cdp and topscore were good practice. Real DAT was easier. I hardly line-count, I try to visualize instead, and it worked almost all the times.
Angles: I am genuinely bad at this. On cdp, I would either do really good or bad, and I would not know how that happened. I dont think practice helped me very much. Real dat was on par with cdp angles.
Hole punching: cdp test 3, 4 were harder on this section, but after that they asked very easy questions. Top score was a joke! Real test had easy and hard ones so itd take up equal amount of time. I didnt do the grid-method cause someone on sama thread suggested to visualize it instead to save more time. So I practiced w/o grid method and it worked fine with me.
Cube counting: more images and less cubes than cdp, but on par with top score. The last image was wrong on the real dat. One question for the last image was asking about two sides painted cubes, but I assure you, there was not one cube that had only two sides open. And the answer choice did not have a zero. And I got so confused that I spent more than 5 minutes on this alone. BAD. Because of this, I couldnt come back to the marked questions at the end! There were some illusion types of questions, but not so hard like cdp. Used tally method.
Pattern folding: cdp is useless in this section. Well.. not entirely useless, but cdp didnt prepare me for this. Top score was a good practice but I think the real test was a little harder cause it required you to have keyhole-knowledge plus imagining folding the paper. Yes, just like in key hole we have to look for small things, we have to look for details in this one too. I still think I didnt do bad in it.
I was so damn sure that I would do good in this section. But b/c of my health that day I couldnt be more effective. Ah! Whatever!
RC (16): English is my third language. And I hate reading compositions. Enough said for this one. Plus I was sick and sleepy. I felt that the second passage was probably written by a highschooler or something. It was very stupidly written. Oh and I got pianoed. I dont think for those whose English is good would have any trouble with this passage. I couldnt finish things in time so guessed on many questions.
Math (16): hahahaha. Math was my strongest subject few years back. I was a math tutor in my second semester for crying out loud. but I forgot everything. I only used math destroyer and sdn notes and some other notes I downloaded from internet, and my own notes. I think practice is more important in this one than just reading the notes. Key to do well in this section is to not get stuck on one problem for so long. Math destroyer is enough for this section imo. The questions were very similar to math destroyer. I got only 7 right out of 20 questions I attended in 45 minutes of the first math destroyer test.. I got so freaked out and I thought I was definitely going to fail this section. I was very rusty. Before I thought I was good, so I didnt care for this section until the last moment, and I realized how rusty I was nearly a week before the exam! If you dont practice, youll lose it. I had my friend to support me for this. He spent hours telling me that math will come to me once I practice enough, but I didnt have much time to practice a lot. So I knew I wouldnt do as well as I hoped for initially. Anyways, its gone, so I cant cry about it. All I can do now is to go back to practice and review my math. No I am not retaking the DAT, but being weak in math is something I cannot bear.
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Practice test Scores:
Top score: I did only 2 of the practice tests, and they were good. But I hated their screen. Its so outdated. Its still a good practice though.
Top score's saved on a different computer, so i'll post the scores and some imp websites later on.
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CDP scores: 20, 19, 17, 18, 22, 21, 22, 24
Notes:
Last two tests were taken randomly, so I am not adding those scores.
test # 2, 3, 4 were done in time limit 50/55 minutes instead of 1 hour
test # 3, 4 had insanely hard hole punching questions. Other tests had easy/moderate hole punching questions.
Bad results of some of those were due to angle ranking and/or Illusions of cube counting.
I especially like to thank my study-buddy casper whos been a great friend to me throughout this stressful time.
I would also like to thank Rlow for proofreading my personal essay.
And now the scores:
Biology 27
G.chem 21
O.chem 30
PAT 21 (I was expecting more, but I was very slow during the test and I ran out of time)
RC 16
QR 16 (I used to be really good in math, but when I realized a couple days before my DAT that I LOST the touch of it, I freaked out. its been a long time since Ive solved any math problems, but this is not an excuse to get such a low score in such a scoring subject!)
TS 24 (99.3%)
AA 22 (96.4%)
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Before/during the test:
My test center was about an hour away from where I live. I was feeling sick on the day because of the lack of sleep. It wasnt b/c I was worried for the test. The lack of sleep was due to early morning noise in my house. I am a night owl, and early morning kills me. Anyways, so I got up and got ready, but I was feeling sick already. I thought Id feel better after breakfast, but it got worse. More than one hour drive to the test center made my stomach more upset and my brain more tired. I tried to pull myself together as much as I could and went into the center to take the test. People were really nice and friendly over there.
I drank red bull during the break to wake up myself, but gosh it didnt work. Yes, my hands were working faster, but my brain was still sleepy and I couldnt get up or feel any energy in me!
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Breakdown:
Biology (27):
Items used: barrons AP bio, sdn notes, MCAT hyperlearning*, Kaplan subject tests, 2007 destroyer my friend sent me, exam crackers, Kaplan, schaums outlines of biology, wiki/google, khan academy, youtube
Barrons AP bio (10/10): I used barrons AP the most. It was my main book. I knew I was weak in ecology/classification, and I made sure I knew them. This book is excellent in covering almost all basic topics. I loved it. I love the pretty pictures and the smooth writing in this book. I did google/wiki for some of the concepts AP didnt cover, but all in all, this was the only book in biology that I really liked studying from. I probably read this 2-3 times. Read one time fully, but then skimmed thru other times. I would come back to this book time to time when I forgot a concept or when I would simply want to refresh a chapter in my mind (animal behavior, ecology, classification chapters).
SDN notes (10/10): God bless sdners for sharing their notes with everyone. Those bio notes are awesome! I downloaded one page colorful hormone chart, Campbells ch 19-21 outlines, cliffs classification notes, and my favorite alans bio outlines (Yes, I know alan didnt make them, but he was the one who sent them to me, so I thank him for that!).
MCAT hyperlearning (6/10): Excellent book, but very detailed. I used it for a couple of chapters I was weak in. Didnt read all chapters.
Exam crackers (6/10): I have mixed feelings for this one, and used it only when I didnt understand a concept in other books or when I wanted to get more information and couldnt find it quickly anywhere else. Its got pretty colorful pictures and I liked them.
Schaums outline of biology (4.5/10): BORING! I actually started off with this book. After comparing many books I thought this had everything that we would need to know for the DAT. But boy was I bored! I hardly read 3 chapters and got so bored that I had to choose a different book. I did however go back to this book in rare occasions, and it didnt disappoint me.
Destroyer vs. Kaplan subject tests: Those who bash Kaplan have never used Kaplan to its fullest extent. I actually liked Kaplan tests more than destroyer. To put in one sentence, I would say, destroyer is a prep book and Kaplan is a test book. Kaplan subject tests made me think how a question could be asked in different ways. They made me think over a simple concept. Destroyer only adds new topics/stuff that AP would not cover in general, but it doesnt prepare you how a question could be asked on the test. You do only destroyer, you wont do good if you havent had good science background. And I think the questions were more of a thinking type-conceptual not much of a knowledge type. Ofcourse you need to have knowledge to apply in conceptual type of questions, but practice applying those concepts is half the battle imo.
Destroyer (6/10): honestly, I dont see whats the big fuss about destroyer. It does provide good review of many topics that you might have over looked thinking that they werent so important. I had 2007 bio destroyer and it had covered many topics. Read it once. And skimmed half the second time.
Kaplan subject tests (9/10): READ the explanations. Dont skip the explanations of the ones you got right.
KBB (5/10): a good review. I only skimmed through this book once and read sections /parts if I found any new information.
Internet:
Khan academy: I used khan academy for c-4 plants photosynthesis, photorespiration, CAM plants and human immune system. Excellent explanation. However, AP bio also covers human immune system very nicely. But this really helped me with c-4 plants and stuff.
Youtube: I really liked this one video about dark reactions that I found on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUZXWHoiOSs
Wiki/google : I liked wiki and google imagies. Im a visual learner so it helps to see the pictures and making a mental map of all the concepts.
Tips on this section: I would say AP and alans notes cover almost all the material/concepts that youd need to know for this test. With that said, I would still highly recommend going over other prep books and skim thru them atleast once. Different wordings would help build the concepts and would definitely help you remember new concepts faster. You wouldnt have to read everything in detail, but skimming through different books prepares your mind to see the same concept in different manners. It helps.
Practice: I said it before, and I am saying it again. Knowing the concept will only get you half way. Memorizing concepts will help you, but applying concepts is the KEY to do better in this test. It can only be done if you start taking practice tests and start realizing how a question can be asked in different ways. This is the reason I liked AP a lot. After every chapter, there are bunch of practice problems with their explanations. I did them all the first time I was going through the book, and skimmed thru almost all the second time around. Kaplans practice tests were good too. I would get around 4-11 wrong in them, and then I would go over all the explanations. READ the explanations and understand why you got a question right or wrong. Skim thru the ones you are so strong in and read in details for the ones you are weak in, but never miss any question.
The test: it wasnt hard, but the wordings would trap you if you havent trained yourself to tackle applied problems. I got one fungi question that some ppl talked about in the past on sdn. It was very basic. KNOW the picture of a fungi structure and you should be golden. There was another picture of a mountain and .. well I cant tell you what the question was, but if you know ecology from AP bio, you should be fine for this one too. You gotta know what the question is asking about. Hardly a couple questions were straight ones. All others, including this mountain pic one, would make you think, and could make you falsely feel that the question is asking you about a different concept. In short, the ratio of knowledge vs. practice should be 1:3.
Anki: I know many ppl here would recommend making anki cards. May be they were useful to some people, but they werent very useful to me. Like I said, I am a visual learner, I would like to have many things on a paper /word document and then I would visualize where all the pieces are for the first time I read them. So that, when a question comes up, those wordings exactly like I saw them would show up highlighted in my mind. Flipping card method isnt so very useful for me! But for those who love that strategy, follow the guideline of karatetooth: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=697147&highlight=anki
*MCAT hyperlearning = I was never interested in medicine, but I read somewhere on sdn that these books helped them prepare well for the test, so I bought them. In short, dentistry has always been my first choice, I am not a medical drop out.
General chem. (21):
Items used: Barrons AP chem., MCAT hyperlearning, CHAD, destroyer, exam krackers, Kaplan subject tests, ACS
Barrons AP Chem (8/10): Its been a while since Ive had to deal with general chemistry. So I started off with barrons AP chem.. This book is a great start. For those who have good g.chem background, I dont think they need to go thru this book. This book covers many problems and it helps solidify concepts very nicely. There are some typos here and there, but still its a good book.
MCAT Hyperlearning (10/10): the best g.chem test prep book. Its concise and very easy read. I loved this book so very much. I went thru this book probably 3-4 times. First time I read it in detail, and other times skimmed thru the entire book. I would come back time to time and refresh a chapter or two if I feel like I had forgotten a concept. I cant stress enough how much this book helped me in g.chem. Without this book, I would probably not have gotten 21 in g.chem. This book doesnt cover some concepts so much in detail, like stoichiometry. But Ive had tons of practice from barrons ap chem. In short, AP and hyperlearning covered everything there is to know about g.chem. Then it comes down to solidifying the concept and practice.
Chad (10/10): I love this guy. After reading AP and hyperlearning, this was the guy who solidified all the g.chem concept s. hes an excellent teacher. I watched his videos once and took notes. I didnt go over all the notes that thoroughly though. I probably skimmed thru them for 1-2 times. But I did go over his quizzes in all details. READ the freaking explanations. His quizzes are great practice and very similar to the real DAT. His explanations in all the topics are golden. He is all you need to know if you have solid g.chem background.
Destroyer (6/10): I went over destroyer nearly at the end of all the studies. So I knew the concepts, but I would still get many problems wrong because like I said, destroyer includes new concepts and topics that you probably hadnt seen before. I told this to casper. And he kept telling me to learn from the mistakes rather than feeling down about it. And hes right. I learned what/why I got something wrong. I thought destroyer g.chem isnt the best representative of the DAT. Like I said before, it includes beyond what you need to know, so if you have enough time, do go over them cause extra knowledge will never hurt.
Kaplan subject tests (8.5/10): I never finished any of these tests in time! Not in 30 minutes. There were many calculation based problems which took most of my time. The real DAT was more conceptual. Kaplan subject tests did not include new information, but it asked questions in ways such that you have to think to answer the question. This is the reason I liked them a lot.
Exam krackers (9/10): I didnt use this a lot, but for the parts I used this book, it was great. If I had to go back, I would probably have gone over all the problems from this book. Not the passage ones at the end, but the in-chapter problems. I did some of them, and they were as good as Kaplan tests, but more conceptual. Theyd definitely solidify concepts, but I didnt have enough time to go over them all. I highly recommend skimming thru this book and definitely going over the in-chapter problems.
ACS (7.5/10): I didnt use this book a lot. Only for a couple of sections like equilibrium, thermodynamics, acid/base, lab). Its a great practice. There are only a few explanations in the beginning of each chapter though. So youd not know why you got some answers wrong when you do the practice problems. But you can always ask your friends, and ofcourse sdn is a great place for all this.
Actual DAT: I didnt get a chance to go over this second time or I would probably have done better in this one. I definitely didnt know the strategy to solve one problem! I totally blanked out I guess. For other questions, I think they were fair. I must have made stupid mistakes. Practice and knowledge both are equally important for this section.
o.chem (30):
items used: o.chem as a second language I and II, MCAT hyperlearning, CHAD, destroyer, KBB, Kaplan subject tests, ACS
o.chem as a second language (15/10): yes, you read it right. Its more than 100%, but these books are incredible. I LOVED these books. I first started off with chad, and he did a nice job in explaining concepts, but I like things to be written on paper so that I could draw lines and compare/contrast things and add things in the sides. This book is an easy read/well written with great illustrations. It took me around 4-5 hours to finish the first book because it was very basic. But some of the chapters from this book helped the most. Why arent all the books this easy to read? It took me some time to finish the second book, but it was worth it. I did all the problems from both books. Lined/marked on papers. Compared/contrasted and wrote down page numbers and everything (e.g. clemmensen reaction and wolff-kishner reaction both do the same thing so I would make a chart and write down the page numbers from this book for a future reference). I thoroughly used these books. Theyre simply amazing. Read them, use them, and conquer o.chem.
MCAT hyperlearning (9/10): Hyperlearning books are great. It sometimes feel like chad is following hyperlearning style. I used this book early on in my studies, and they helped a lot. I did go back for isomer chapter and sn1/sn2/e1/e2 things. Simple and great explanations. It has all the reactions at the end of the section so that you could go back to specific reaction to review it.
Chad (8.5/10): I do love chad, no doubt about it. But I think for o.chem chad isnt sufficient if you want to get 25+ in this section. His quizzes are great, but his lectures miss out some details. Regardless, chad helped me answer one NMR question on the real DAT and I THANK him for his strategies. Without him I would probably have guessed on that question.
Destroyer (9/10): I liked this section of destroyer. But it was mainly a review for me. I probably have asked capser gzillion times if the new edition is more difficult than this older one (Im surprised how he never got bored answering me the same question.. lol). And he assured me that there are more problems, but the concepts are all similar. Im not saying I didnt get anything wrong, but I knew what I got wrong and I knew why I got a question wrong before seeing the explanation. I guess I solidified all the concepts before I hit the destroyer, so it was just a review for me. And its always nice to solve more problems. Why I gave this a 9? Well, b/c I thought the road-maps were good. It kinda assured me that I knew all the reactions there is to know for this test. how much it was useful on real dat? Not sure.. there werent so many synthesis problems (like not 20 questions). And those that were asked were so easy. And they werent easy b/c I saw them on road-maps, but they were easy b/c I had good practice and solid concepts b/c of other prep books. To be honest I did not memorize a single reaction, I understood the mechanisms from o.chem as a second language, and chad quizzes and his list of reactions, and my notes.
KBB (8/10): I liked this part of the book, its a good read. But the test is definitely not on terms of how the concepts were presented in this book. Like all the sn1/sn2/e1/e2 problems were not explained so well in this book. I think its nice to have more practice for those. If you dont have a good orgo background, this book is not enough imo.
Kaplan subject tests (10/10): again, great explanations with great questions. I sometimes didnt finish all the questions in time, but it was a great practice regardless. I reached to the point where I could easily answer the question b/c of all the practice. READ the explanations. They are great.
ACS (8/10): great practice. I didnt go over all the chapters. But the ones I did go over were great. Itd make you think and thats exactly what I wanted.
Actual DAT experience: I thought it was easy. Practice will make you perfect. Read concepts once and go back to them time to time and skim over everything, but its more important to practice and go over ALL question frequently.
PAT (21):
I seriously thought Id do better than this. I couldnt go over this second time b/c I was terribly slow during the test. I was sleeping by the time I reached to this section.
Things used: CDP, practice tests, sdn sama, barrons DAT
CDP (9.5/10): I took away 0.5 points b/c of the pattern folding section. Except that, everything else was on par with cdp.
Top score (9/10): images arent so great, but a good practice.
Barrons DAT (9/10): its got all the rules and great strategies.
Sdn sama (10/10): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=528643 . I started off by reading this thread, and I got scared. People would throw difficult questions there, and I thought that this sections hard like the questions thats asked here. I spent hours on this thread and tried to learn strategies and everything. But b/c of this, no hard question surprised me! It made me strong to expect the worse. There are some great strategies and experiences on this thread that I really liked. But I eventually developed my own strategies by reading lots of breakdowns and practice.
Actual DAT experience:
Key hole: on par with CDP and top score. I think I am good at visualization and b/c of all the questions thats been asked on sdn, I had good practice before hitting top score, so it became easy for me. And with cdp practice, this became easier. On actual dat, however, I was so sleepy and tired that I did not get that zeal that I used to have while doing practice tests. But I think I didnt do that bad on this section.
T/F/E: this was very easy for me b/c I can visualize things easily. Cdp and topscore were good practice. Real DAT was easier. I hardly line-count, I try to visualize instead, and it worked almost all the times.
Angles: I am genuinely bad at this. On cdp, I would either do really good or bad, and I would not know how that happened. I dont think practice helped me very much. Real dat was on par with cdp angles.
Hole punching: cdp test 3, 4 were harder on this section, but after that they asked very easy questions. Top score was a joke! Real test had easy and hard ones so itd take up equal amount of time. I didnt do the grid-method cause someone on sama thread suggested to visualize it instead to save more time. So I practiced w/o grid method and it worked fine with me.
Cube counting: more images and less cubes than cdp, but on par with top score. The last image was wrong on the real dat. One question for the last image was asking about two sides painted cubes, but I assure you, there was not one cube that had only two sides open. And the answer choice did not have a zero. And I got so confused that I spent more than 5 minutes on this alone. BAD. Because of this, I couldnt come back to the marked questions at the end! There were some illusion types of questions, but not so hard like cdp. Used tally method.
Pattern folding: cdp is useless in this section. Well.. not entirely useless, but cdp didnt prepare me for this. Top score was a good practice but I think the real test was a little harder cause it required you to have keyhole-knowledge plus imagining folding the paper. Yes, just like in key hole we have to look for small things, we have to look for details in this one too. I still think I didnt do bad in it.
I was so damn sure that I would do good in this section. But b/c of my health that day I couldnt be more effective. Ah! Whatever!
RC (16): English is my third language. And I hate reading compositions. Enough said for this one. Plus I was sick and sleepy. I felt that the second passage was probably written by a highschooler or something. It was very stupidly written. Oh and I got pianoed. I dont think for those whose English is good would have any trouble with this passage. I couldnt finish things in time so guessed on many questions.
Math (16): hahahaha. Math was my strongest subject few years back. I was a math tutor in my second semester for crying out loud. but I forgot everything. I only used math destroyer and sdn notes and some other notes I downloaded from internet, and my own notes. I think practice is more important in this one than just reading the notes. Key to do well in this section is to not get stuck on one problem for so long. Math destroyer is enough for this section imo. The questions were very similar to math destroyer. I got only 7 right out of 20 questions I attended in 45 minutes of the first math destroyer test.. I got so freaked out and I thought I was definitely going to fail this section. I was very rusty. Before I thought I was good, so I didnt care for this section until the last moment, and I realized how rusty I was nearly a week before the exam! If you dont practice, youll lose it. I had my friend to support me for this. He spent hours telling me that math will come to me once I practice enough, but I didnt have much time to practice a lot. So I knew I wouldnt do as well as I hoped for initially. Anyways, its gone, so I cant cry about it. All I can do now is to go back to practice and review my math. No I am not retaking the DAT, but being weak in math is something I cannot bear.
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Practice test Scores:
Top score: I did only 2 of the practice tests, and they were good. But I hated their screen. Its so outdated. Its still a good practice though.
Top score's saved on a different computer, so i'll post the scores and some imp websites later on.
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CDP scores: 20, 19, 17, 18, 22, 21, 22, 24
Notes:
Last two tests were taken randomly, so I am not adding those scores.
test # 2, 3, 4 were done in time limit 50/55 minutes instead of 1 hour
test # 3, 4 had insanely hard hole punching questions. Other tests had easy/moderate hole punching questions.
Bad results of some of those were due to angle ranking and/or Illusions of cube counting.
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