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the DAT aint one 
Still more to update!
This has been a long journey for me. I'm so glad to finally be done!!!!
First off, a little background on me (I think it makes it easier to form a comparison between how you're doing and how you will do).
I DID NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING MY FRESHMAN YEAR IN BASIC SCIENCE CLASSES. Seriously, all I did was "party and bull**** and party and bull****" If you're confused on how this lifestyle works, please refer to biggy smalls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEaPDNgUPLE ...don't lie, after listening to that you're lightweight jammin, you're welcome
This was honestly my down fall and why it took me a little longer to study for this test. By the end of my freshman year I had a 3.2 overall GPA and a 2.8 science. I got a C+ in gen chem and just barely skated by with enough memorization for a B in Gen Bio. If anything, this should give you hope, because I got these scores even though I still struggle with Gen Chem!
I just finished my undergrad in may, went to a small private school on the Left Coast, and after 3 years of 4.0's to bring up my GPA, I graduated with a 3.75overall 3.7 science. I have to say, the easiest way to prepare for this test is to do well in your science classes!! If I had a strong foundation in Gen Chem this preparation would have been a lot less stressful
So to start this little journey, flash back two years, my sophomore year in college like many of you. Before I discovered SDN (best resource hands down), I like many others fell for the hype on the Kaplan course. Impulsively I forked over the $1,400. A month before my test date that summer, I came across this site-where so many people bashed the Kaplan course saying that it wasn't enough. Naturally, I freaked out, cancelled my test date, which amounted to a waste of a summer. Junior year, I made a second attempt to study for the DAT, but had a lot of family-related issues come up (younger brother went to prison, girlfriend troubles, a little 808 and heartbreaks you know the deal). So, once again I did not take the DAT...two summers of my life gone. After you stop studying for the DAT you start to forget EVERYYYYTHING. So this summer I had to start ALL OVER AGAIN. I'm sure we all have had our fair share of life struggles, but even with those, I am living proof that this test is beatable. So Now onto the good stuff
CDP:
averaged 23 on all CDP tests, got a 22 on the real thing, YES, the real PAT is a little bit harder, but not impossible. Master CDP and you'll be good to go
Qvault:
BIO: 22/25/25/25/23/20/25/23/22/20
GC: 26/29/20/24/29/20/29/20/22/24
QR: 23/21/21/24/20/20/23/25/X/X
Kaplan Scores:
DIAGNOSTIC:
BIO: 16
GC: 14
OC: 25
PAT: 19
RC: 21
QR: 14
TS: 18
AA: 18
*LOOK HOW FAR I CAME* Don't Give Up!!!
*The following tests were taken 2 weeks before the real thing*
MIDTERM:
BIO: 21
GC: 24
OC: 21
PAT: 24
RC: 19
QR: 17
TS: 22
AA: 20
FINAL:
BIO: 22
GC: 20
OC:25
PAT: 21
RC: 20
QR:20
TS:22
AA:21
Test 1:
BIO: 21
GC: 20
OC: 25
PAT:23
RC: 22
QR: 24
TS: 22
AA: 22
Test 2:
BIO: 24
GC: 21
OC: 23
PAT: 24
RC: 21
QR: 22
TS: 23
AA: 22
Test 3:
BIO: 29
GC: 20
OC: 21
PAT:23
RC: 21
QR:19
TS: 24
AA: 22
TopScore:
Achiever
*I bought the seven test version, but after test three I realized some of the questions they asked were too difficult to be seen on the real DAT, so I used the last 4 tests ONLY for PAT, which I'm sure helped, but not so much that it is a necessity to buy achiever, Master CDP and you should do well on the real thing
Test 1:
PAT: 18
BIO: 26
GC: 19
OC: 23
RC: 17
QR: 19
TS:22
AA: 21
Test 2:
PAT: 21
BIO: 20
GC: 18
OC: 21
RC: 17
QR: 19
TS: 20
AA: 19
Test 3:
PAT: 18
BIO: 18
GC: 20
OC: 23
RC: 16
QR: 16
TS: 20
AA: 19
Prep Materials Used and Test Day Experience:
I studied roughly three months for this exam, however, you can do this in much less time! I basically knew that I would not be able to apply until next cycle, so I kind of took my sweet time with this process. After graduation in May, I was really sick with mono, and once I had recovered from that, I needed to celebrate a little with the homies, so I really didn't start the whole studying process until the end of June. I would like to say that I was an O.G. and managed to study 8+ hours a day constantly...but for me, that is just ridiculous, know what study method works for you and stick to it. For instance, I'm a night person, all four years of college I stayed up late studying rather than studying throughout the day, I just get more done when the sun goes down, so that's exactly how I prepped for this, why change a good thing? I will say that throughout this entire process, I HAD A LIFE. I went out to bars/clubs with friends, managed to watch all 8 seasons of scrubs (the 9th doesn't count), and even took two weeks off simply because I wasn't in the "study mode". Like I said, for those of you on a time crunch, this entire process could be done a lot faster. I took my last practice test 4 days before my exam, and I stopped studying intensely 3 days before my exam. I was pretty much burnt out and over the idea of studying-I think once you reach this stage, you're ready! My exam was at 8am, but in order to get to the center in time I had to wake up at 5am (did I mention that I am not a morning person?). In order to prepare for this drastic change in my sleep cycle I started to shift my hours a week before my exam, while I was still taking practice tests. I went down to CVS and bought some melatonin, boy-oh-boy does that stuff make you tired. I ended up using this the night before my exam too, to make sure I could fall asleep and get my 7 hours.
PAT: Do you race a track car on a cold start? Of course not! you warm it up before the big race. That is exactly what I did. I brought my laptop to the prometric center, arrived an hour early and did 15 keyhole and 15 TFE. However, if you do this, Do NOT look at the score you get. This is just a little warm up so you don't get in there and go blank, don't freak yourself out if you get a few wrong.
Resources Used: Kaplan, CDP, Achiever
OK, first and foremost, d@mn you prometric. As the TCA at prometric handed me my two laminated sheets, she looked my in the eye with an Ice cold stare and said "you are not allowed to write anything before your actual exam begins, IF YOU WRITE ANYTHING BEFORE YOUR TUTORIAL FINISHES WE WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR SHEETS AND REMOVE YOU FROM THE TESTING ROOM. So, after successfully scaring the **** out of me, I began to freak out, thinking how in the hell am I supposed to set up my grids for holepunching?! I knew that I would have to finish the sciences even faster than usual to allow myself enough time to review answers I was unsure of AND set up my grids for PAT. I think being frazzled over this is what threw off my score a little bit, I was anticipating a little higher, but I am still thrilled with a 22.
KEYHOLE: As most are aware, this section seems to be more difficult than what it used to be. It is very "proportions" based now. Achiever is overkill for this section, but it is the best comparison. This is one of those sections where I can't say it was very hard, but it was definitely not a cake walk. Truthfully, I probably missed most of my points from this section.
TFE: This section varied A LOT in difficulty. One figure would be very easy like CDP, but another figure would be testing me on intricate details that is expected from achiever. To be prepared for this section, master CDP. To be an absolute beast at this section master CDP, and Achiever. Kaplan was roughly on par with CDP for this section.
ANGLES: muuuuuuch easier than CDP. It was basically a hybrid between CDP and Achiever. Achiever is a little too easy, and CDP is a little too hard, the real DAT was right in the middle
HOLE PUNCHING: Cake walk. Sure, you may get a 1/3 fold here and there, but this should be your bread and butter, your guaranteed 15/15. With this section and cube counting mastered you can easily get a 19+
CUBE COUNTING: Once again, Cake walk. I was lucky and didn't get an illusions. I would say that CDP is most comparable to this. A couple of the Achiever tests have some illusions that a pretty hard to visualize, but once again, I didn't have a version with illusions so I can't say that you shouldn't expect any.
PAPER FOLDING: wow...just wow. This section was MUCH harder than I anticipated. By the time I reached this section I was sort of in a screw it mentality. I couldn't even fold a couple of the figures in my head. CDP was useless for this, Kaplan (yes kaplan) and Achiever were much more on par. In fact, most of the shaded figures were very similar variations to what I had seen in Achiever or Kaplan.
BIO:
Resources Used: Kaplan, Cliffs AP Bio, DAT Destroyer
Even though its sort of a far-fetched dream, I was really hoping to pull a 30 on this section. I was destroying the qvault questions and I figured that after a couple more weeks of studying I would be able to bring it up to a 30. However, when I was taking my test, I seriously was just hoping to get a 20. The questions were so much different than what I had prepared for-I think I may have just gotten a weird version, but it seems that most of my science questions were application/experiment based. Overall THERE WAS NOTHING RANDOM. Even with questions that I was unsure of, I knew the topic they were testing me on. If you know Cliffs front to back you will get a 20+ on this section. I have a little over 2000 bio flashcards that I accumulated over the course of my test prep. I started prepping for this section by reading through Cliffs VERY INTENSELY the first time through. Literally memorized everything. Everytime I came across something I hadn't heard of before, I would make a flash card on it. Every other day I would start a new chapter in cliffs, the days in between I would test myself on the previous chapter. After I finished the book, I read it again, but tested myself as I read it. Once I had mastered Cliffs, I moved on to Kaplan, which is more basic in most areas (its a nice brief review and a third way to test yourself on the material you have learned!), but it has a handful of anatomy concepts that you need to know for test day: bones, ear, eye, etc. Once I was finished studying and just working on practice tests/destroyer questions, I would work my way through a handful of the flashcards I had accumulated each week, to make sure I still remembered all of the concepts.
GC:
Resources Used: Chads Videos, DAT Destroyer
GC was by far my worst section when I started studying. I never understood general chemistry...even back in highschool. I'll take the majority of the blame for a lack of effort, but I also never had an instructor that could really break it down in a way that I understood the material. With that said, CHAD IS THE MAN. For all of you who are terrible in the chemistries, don't give up! the material you will see is a lot more basic than the material you would see in a Gen Chem class, so it is definitely possible to get a 20+ (I got a 24 and I got a B in GC1 and a C+ in GC2).
On the actual test, I had A LOT of lab questions. Truthfully, I do not think it was something I could've prepared for-I didn't even see similar questions in Destroyer. With that said, I think my test version was not the norm. I prepared by going through chad's videos once and then by working my way through destroyer. After I finished destroyer once, I did it a second time (while rewatching Chad's videos for a second time). After the second time I marked all of the questions that I had gotten wrong and resolved them each weekend. I also reviewed my notes from chads videos everyweekend to keep the material fresh
OC:
Resources Used: Chad's videos, Destroyer
RC:
Resources Used: CDR
This section was hit and miss with me when I first started my test prep. You think, reading? how hard could it possibly be to read and answer questions?...well apparently it was hard for me haha. CDR CDR CDR! seriously. CDR is a little more challenging than the real thing. My first couple of tests I got 17 and 18. But towards the end of the 10 test version I was averaging 23. What was my secret to success? My strategy. Obviously all of us can read...you're reading this post right now, but this section is more than that, it's about strategy. I combined Kaplan's mapping the paragraphs with my version of vicvipers strategy(a method I saw posted 2 years ago).
Basically how this works is:
1. you immediately read the first three questions to see what they're asking (I never wrote the questions or pieces of questions down, it seemed like wasted time to me). If any of those questions are tone-related mark them (you'll have to come back to them after you read the entire passage).
2. Start reading the article. I read the first three paragraphs *write down a keyword of each paragraph. i.e. if paragraph one is about ibuprofen, write down 1. ibuprofen, etc
3. After reading three paragraphs if you found a something that related to one of those first three questions, great! find the question and answer it. If not, don't be discouraged and most importantly, DO NOT FREAK OUT and resort to S&D.
3. Whether or not you were able to answer any of those first three questions, Read 3 or 5 more questions (Depending on how good your short-term memory is)
4. After reading the questions and getting a gist of them, start reading the article again, write down key words as before
--Repeat this process until you have finished the article--
5. After you have finished the article and have gone through all of the questions, flip back through your questions for the ones you have marked ANSWER THESE BEFORE MOVING ON TO THE NEXT ARTICLE. To not waste any time, I did this quickly and just looked at the bottom right hand corner of the screen at the marked button. It's red if you've marked a question, making it easy to flip through and spot your skipped questions. Once I found a question I had skipped, I reread it and checked my white board to see if any of my key words describing each paragraph correlated to the question (Once you read the whole article through you will most likely remember the layout/what each paragraph is about, but the keywords are there just in case). It is important to answer all of your skipped questions before moving on because if you were to come back to the article after reading the other two, you would likely forget everything, especially info that related to the authors tone (this is a high stress race against the clock).
QR:
Resources Used: Sparknotes, Qvault, Math Destroyer
I might have hated this section even more than gen chem. I was never bad at math, always did well in it, but I guess after so much time goes by without practice I lost my mojo (use it don't lose it!). It was a full on struggle getting a 20 on the real thing. It was hands down the hardest test I had taken, harder than math destoyer, only because it was a lot different than it (I had a couple of graph questions which threw me off). Seriously though, this test was hard. I had to straight up guess on 6 questions just because I had no idea how to solve them. I'm very happy with this score, even though it is the section that brought down my AA. Before diving into any problems, I had to review the math that I had forgotten over the years, for this I used the sparknotes website (specifically their SAT 1 and SAT 2 math reviews..pretty great stuff) After forming a foundation I dove into questions. I probably could've practiced more, but I was more concerned about scoring well in sciences to offset my math score. I think the best resource I used was Qvault, even though I scored much higher on qvault than on the real thing, the question "types" are similar (be warned although I said similar, they will most likely be a little more difficult on the real thing).
Some Hard Truths that I discovered on test day:
1) GET A FULL NIGHTS REST.
Even after a full nights rest, you will still be exhausted. Point being, its already a hard test, don't make it harder than it needs to be.
2) YOU WILL SEE MATERIAL YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH
Suck it up and get over it. I had to pep talk myself through finishing the science section. I thought that I had screwed up everything after Gen Chem. But I persevered.
3) AT SOME POINT YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU'LL NEED A RETAKE
It was always hard for me to understand how people with such high scores could say this. TRUST ME. you will feel this way. Its something you won't understand until test day. Just trust in yourself and your preparation. I skipped 6 questions in GC, I couldn't wait to get to OC because that is normally my bread and butter...when I finally did, The first 3 questions were all application based lab techniques (not the simple extraction stuff you see in test prep material) I panicked, starting flipping through questions aimlessly. If this happens, STOP. take a breath. and continue taking one question at a time. On my 15 minute break I went to the bathroom stared at myself in the mirror and said "dont b!tch up, finish strong". Even if you think you did terrible on one section, Do not let it affect your performance on others, continue to play like a champion. The same thing happened to me during QR, It was the most difficult test I had ever seen (harder than math destroyer). I took a minute to stop and clear my head before I continued.
4) KNOW THE BASICS
On test day you will be running on instinct. It's sort of an outer-body experience when you are there, rational though went out the window for me. But, If you understand the basics of everything, you will be able to muster up enough brain power to reason your way through questions.
5) TREAT IT LIKE A PRACTICE TEST
Seriously. Part of the reason I was able to make it through the Gen Chem was because I didn't always go with the "safe" answer. Obviously, I did not go with the wrong answer when I was unsure about a question, but I definitely was not afraid to take the risk of picking an answer that I wasn't 100% sure on. Ultimately, this eased my mind when moving from section to section. Was I was past the Sciences I had no regrets and was able to give 100% to the others because I kept telling myself, "its ok, its just another practice test"
6) 90% PREPARATION AND 10% LUCK
I know, I know, you're asking yourself, Did he just say that?! and...yes, yes I did. After all of the breakdowns I have read, I have yet to see this posted. I'm going to keep it real with you, this is true. HOWEVER, this does not mean that you should rely on being "lucky" on test day. Maximize that 90% hard work portion and you will definitely break 20.
Still more to update!
This has been a long journey for me. I'm so glad to finally be done!!!!
First off, a little background on me (I think it makes it easier to form a comparison between how you're doing and how you will do).
I DID NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING MY FRESHMAN YEAR IN BASIC SCIENCE CLASSES. Seriously, all I did was "party and bull**** and party and bull****" If you're confused on how this lifestyle works, please refer to biggy smalls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEaPDNgUPLE ...don't lie, after listening to that you're lightweight jammin, you're welcome
This was honestly my down fall and why it took me a little longer to study for this test. By the end of my freshman year I had a 3.2 overall GPA and a 2.8 science. I got a C+ in gen chem and just barely skated by with enough memorization for a B in Gen Bio. If anything, this should give you hope, because I got these scores even though I still struggle with Gen Chem!
I just finished my undergrad in may, went to a small private school on the Left Coast, and after 3 years of 4.0's to bring up my GPA, I graduated with a 3.75overall 3.7 science. I have to say, the easiest way to prepare for this test is to do well in your science classes!! If I had a strong foundation in Gen Chem this preparation would have been a lot less stressful
So to start this little journey, flash back two years, my sophomore year in college like many of you. Before I discovered SDN (best resource hands down), I like many others fell for the hype on the Kaplan course. Impulsively I forked over the $1,400. A month before my test date that summer, I came across this site-where so many people bashed the Kaplan course saying that it wasn't enough. Naturally, I freaked out, cancelled my test date, which amounted to a waste of a summer. Junior year, I made a second attempt to study for the DAT, but had a lot of family-related issues come up (younger brother went to prison, girlfriend troubles, a little 808 and heartbreaks you know the deal). So, once again I did not take the DAT...two summers of my life gone. After you stop studying for the DAT you start to forget EVERYYYYTHING. So this summer I had to start ALL OVER AGAIN. I'm sure we all have had our fair share of life struggles, but even with those, I am living proof that this test is beatable. So Now onto the good stuff
CDP:
averaged 23 on all CDP tests, got a 22 on the real thing, YES, the real PAT is a little bit harder, but not impossible. Master CDP and you'll be good to go
Qvault:
BIO: 22/25/25/25/23/20/25/23/22/20
GC: 26/29/20/24/29/20/29/20/22/24
QR: 23/21/21/24/20/20/23/25/X/X
Kaplan Scores:
DIAGNOSTIC:
BIO: 16
GC: 14
OC: 25
PAT: 19
RC: 21
QR: 14
TS: 18
AA: 18
*LOOK HOW FAR I CAME* Don't Give Up!!!
*The following tests were taken 2 weeks before the real thing*
MIDTERM:
BIO: 21
GC: 24
OC: 21
PAT: 24
RC: 19
QR: 17
TS: 22
AA: 20
FINAL:
BIO: 22
GC: 20
OC:25
PAT: 21
RC: 20
QR:20
TS:22
AA:21
Test 1:
BIO: 21
GC: 20
OC: 25
PAT:23
RC: 22
QR: 24
TS: 22
AA: 22
Test 2:
BIO: 24
GC: 21
OC: 23
PAT: 24
RC: 21
QR: 22
TS: 23
AA: 22
Test 3:
BIO: 29
GC: 20
OC: 21
PAT:23
RC: 21
QR:19
TS: 24
AA: 22
TopScore:
Achiever
*I bought the seven test version, but after test three I realized some of the questions they asked were too difficult to be seen on the real DAT, so I used the last 4 tests ONLY for PAT, which I'm sure helped, but not so much that it is a necessity to buy achiever, Master CDP and you should do well on the real thing
Test 1:
PAT: 18
BIO: 26
GC: 19
OC: 23
RC: 17
QR: 19
TS:22
AA: 21
Test 2:
PAT: 21
BIO: 20
GC: 18
OC: 21
RC: 17
QR: 19
TS: 20
AA: 19
Test 3:
PAT: 18
BIO: 18
GC: 20
OC: 23
RC: 16
QR: 16
TS: 20
AA: 19
Prep Materials Used and Test Day Experience:
I studied roughly three months for this exam, however, you can do this in much less time! I basically knew that I would not be able to apply until next cycle, so I kind of took my sweet time with this process. After graduation in May, I was really sick with mono, and once I had recovered from that, I needed to celebrate a little with the homies, so I really didn't start the whole studying process until the end of June. I would like to say that I was an O.G. and managed to study 8+ hours a day constantly...but for me, that is just ridiculous, know what study method works for you and stick to it. For instance, I'm a night person, all four years of college I stayed up late studying rather than studying throughout the day, I just get more done when the sun goes down, so that's exactly how I prepped for this, why change a good thing? I will say that throughout this entire process, I HAD A LIFE. I went out to bars/clubs with friends, managed to watch all 8 seasons of scrubs (the 9th doesn't count), and even took two weeks off simply because I wasn't in the "study mode". Like I said, for those of you on a time crunch, this entire process could be done a lot faster. I took my last practice test 4 days before my exam, and I stopped studying intensely 3 days before my exam. I was pretty much burnt out and over the idea of studying-I think once you reach this stage, you're ready! My exam was at 8am, but in order to get to the center in time I had to wake up at 5am (did I mention that I am not a morning person?). In order to prepare for this drastic change in my sleep cycle I started to shift my hours a week before my exam, while I was still taking practice tests. I went down to CVS and bought some melatonin, boy-oh-boy does that stuff make you tired. I ended up using this the night before my exam too, to make sure I could fall asleep and get my 7 hours.
PAT: Do you race a track car on a cold start? Of course not! you warm it up before the big race. That is exactly what I did. I brought my laptop to the prometric center, arrived an hour early and did 15 keyhole and 15 TFE. However, if you do this, Do NOT look at the score you get. This is just a little warm up so you don't get in there and go blank, don't freak yourself out if you get a few wrong.
Resources Used: Kaplan, CDP, Achiever
OK, first and foremost, d@mn you prometric. As the TCA at prometric handed me my two laminated sheets, she looked my in the eye with an Ice cold stare and said "you are not allowed to write anything before your actual exam begins, IF YOU WRITE ANYTHING BEFORE YOUR TUTORIAL FINISHES WE WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR SHEETS AND REMOVE YOU FROM THE TESTING ROOM. So, after successfully scaring the **** out of me, I began to freak out, thinking how in the hell am I supposed to set up my grids for holepunching?! I knew that I would have to finish the sciences even faster than usual to allow myself enough time to review answers I was unsure of AND set up my grids for PAT. I think being frazzled over this is what threw off my score a little bit, I was anticipating a little higher, but I am still thrilled with a 22.
KEYHOLE: As most are aware, this section seems to be more difficult than what it used to be. It is very "proportions" based now. Achiever is overkill for this section, but it is the best comparison. This is one of those sections where I can't say it was very hard, but it was definitely not a cake walk. Truthfully, I probably missed most of my points from this section.
TFE: This section varied A LOT in difficulty. One figure would be very easy like CDP, but another figure would be testing me on intricate details that is expected from achiever. To be prepared for this section, master CDP. To be an absolute beast at this section master CDP, and Achiever. Kaplan was roughly on par with CDP for this section.
ANGLES: muuuuuuch easier than CDP. It was basically a hybrid between CDP and Achiever. Achiever is a little too easy, and CDP is a little too hard, the real DAT was right in the middle
HOLE PUNCHING: Cake walk. Sure, you may get a 1/3 fold here and there, but this should be your bread and butter, your guaranteed 15/15. With this section and cube counting mastered you can easily get a 19+
CUBE COUNTING: Once again, Cake walk. I was lucky and didn't get an illusions. I would say that CDP is most comparable to this. A couple of the Achiever tests have some illusions that a pretty hard to visualize, but once again, I didn't have a version with illusions so I can't say that you shouldn't expect any.
PAPER FOLDING: wow...just wow. This section was MUCH harder than I anticipated. By the time I reached this section I was sort of in a screw it mentality. I couldn't even fold a couple of the figures in my head. CDP was useless for this, Kaplan (yes kaplan) and Achiever were much more on par. In fact, most of the shaded figures were very similar variations to what I had seen in Achiever or Kaplan.
BIO:
Resources Used: Kaplan, Cliffs AP Bio, DAT Destroyer
Even though its sort of a far-fetched dream, I was really hoping to pull a 30 on this section. I was destroying the qvault questions and I figured that after a couple more weeks of studying I would be able to bring it up to a 30. However, when I was taking my test, I seriously was just hoping to get a 20. The questions were so much different than what I had prepared for-I think I may have just gotten a weird version, but it seems that most of my science questions were application/experiment based. Overall THERE WAS NOTHING RANDOM. Even with questions that I was unsure of, I knew the topic they were testing me on. If you know Cliffs front to back you will get a 20+ on this section. I have a little over 2000 bio flashcards that I accumulated over the course of my test prep. I started prepping for this section by reading through Cliffs VERY INTENSELY the first time through. Literally memorized everything. Everytime I came across something I hadn't heard of before, I would make a flash card on it. Every other day I would start a new chapter in cliffs, the days in between I would test myself on the previous chapter. After I finished the book, I read it again, but tested myself as I read it. Once I had mastered Cliffs, I moved on to Kaplan, which is more basic in most areas (its a nice brief review and a third way to test yourself on the material you have learned!), but it has a handful of anatomy concepts that you need to know for test day: bones, ear, eye, etc. Once I was finished studying and just working on practice tests/destroyer questions, I would work my way through a handful of the flashcards I had accumulated each week, to make sure I still remembered all of the concepts.
GC:
Resources Used: Chads Videos, DAT Destroyer
GC was by far my worst section when I started studying. I never understood general chemistry...even back in highschool. I'll take the majority of the blame for a lack of effort, but I also never had an instructor that could really break it down in a way that I understood the material. With that said, CHAD IS THE MAN. For all of you who are terrible in the chemistries, don't give up! the material you will see is a lot more basic than the material you would see in a Gen Chem class, so it is definitely possible to get a 20+ (I got a 24 and I got a B in GC1 and a C+ in GC2).
On the actual test, I had A LOT of lab questions. Truthfully, I do not think it was something I could've prepared for-I didn't even see similar questions in Destroyer. With that said, I think my test version was not the norm. I prepared by going through chad's videos once and then by working my way through destroyer. After I finished destroyer once, I did it a second time (while rewatching Chad's videos for a second time). After the second time I marked all of the questions that I had gotten wrong and resolved them each weekend. I also reviewed my notes from chads videos everyweekend to keep the material fresh
OC:
Resources Used: Chad's videos, Destroyer
RC:
Resources Used: CDR
This section was hit and miss with me when I first started my test prep. You think, reading? how hard could it possibly be to read and answer questions?...well apparently it was hard for me haha. CDR CDR CDR! seriously. CDR is a little more challenging than the real thing. My first couple of tests I got 17 and 18. But towards the end of the 10 test version I was averaging 23. What was my secret to success? My strategy. Obviously all of us can read...you're reading this post right now, but this section is more than that, it's about strategy. I combined Kaplan's mapping the paragraphs with my version of vicvipers strategy(a method I saw posted 2 years ago).
Basically how this works is:
1. you immediately read the first three questions to see what they're asking (I never wrote the questions or pieces of questions down, it seemed like wasted time to me). If any of those questions are tone-related mark them (you'll have to come back to them after you read the entire passage).
2. Start reading the article. I read the first three paragraphs *write down a keyword of each paragraph. i.e. if paragraph one is about ibuprofen, write down 1. ibuprofen, etc
3. After reading three paragraphs if you found a something that related to one of those first three questions, great! find the question and answer it. If not, don't be discouraged and most importantly, DO NOT FREAK OUT and resort to S&D.
3. Whether or not you were able to answer any of those first three questions, Read 3 or 5 more questions (Depending on how good your short-term memory is)
4. After reading the questions and getting a gist of them, start reading the article again, write down key words as before
--Repeat this process until you have finished the article--
5. After you have finished the article and have gone through all of the questions, flip back through your questions for the ones you have marked ANSWER THESE BEFORE MOVING ON TO THE NEXT ARTICLE. To not waste any time, I did this quickly and just looked at the bottom right hand corner of the screen at the marked button. It's red if you've marked a question, making it easy to flip through and spot your skipped questions. Once I found a question I had skipped, I reread it and checked my white board to see if any of my key words describing each paragraph correlated to the question (Once you read the whole article through you will most likely remember the layout/what each paragraph is about, but the keywords are there just in case). It is important to answer all of your skipped questions before moving on because if you were to come back to the article after reading the other two, you would likely forget everything, especially info that related to the authors tone (this is a high stress race against the clock).
QR:
Resources Used: Sparknotes, Qvault, Math Destroyer
I might have hated this section even more than gen chem. I was never bad at math, always did well in it, but I guess after so much time goes by without practice I lost my mojo (use it don't lose it!). It was a full on struggle getting a 20 on the real thing. It was hands down the hardest test I had taken, harder than math destoyer, only because it was a lot different than it (I had a couple of graph questions which threw me off). Seriously though, this test was hard. I had to straight up guess on 6 questions just because I had no idea how to solve them. I'm very happy with this score, even though it is the section that brought down my AA. Before diving into any problems, I had to review the math that I had forgotten over the years, for this I used the sparknotes website (specifically their SAT 1 and SAT 2 math reviews..pretty great stuff) After forming a foundation I dove into questions. I probably could've practiced more, but I was more concerned about scoring well in sciences to offset my math score. I think the best resource I used was Qvault, even though I scored much higher on qvault than on the real thing, the question "types" are similar (be warned although I said similar, they will most likely be a little more difficult on the real thing).
Some Hard Truths that I discovered on test day:
1) GET A FULL NIGHTS REST.
Even after a full nights rest, you will still be exhausted. Point being, its already a hard test, don't make it harder than it needs to be.
2) YOU WILL SEE MATERIAL YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH
Suck it up and get over it. I had to pep talk myself through finishing the science section. I thought that I had screwed up everything after Gen Chem. But I persevered.
3) AT SOME POINT YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU'LL NEED A RETAKE
It was always hard for me to understand how people with such high scores could say this. TRUST ME. you will feel this way. Its something you won't understand until test day. Just trust in yourself and your preparation. I skipped 6 questions in GC, I couldn't wait to get to OC because that is normally my bread and butter...when I finally did, The first 3 questions were all application based lab techniques (not the simple extraction stuff you see in test prep material) I panicked, starting flipping through questions aimlessly. If this happens, STOP. take a breath. and continue taking one question at a time. On my 15 minute break I went to the bathroom stared at myself in the mirror and said "dont b!tch up, finish strong". Even if you think you did terrible on one section, Do not let it affect your performance on others, continue to play like a champion. The same thing happened to me during QR, It was the most difficult test I had ever seen (harder than math destroyer). I took a minute to stop and clear my head before I continued.
4) KNOW THE BASICS
On test day you will be running on instinct. It's sort of an outer-body experience when you are there, rational though went out the window for me. But, If you understand the basics of everything, you will be able to muster up enough brain power to reason your way through questions.
5) TREAT IT LIKE A PRACTICE TEST
Seriously. Part of the reason I was able to make it through the Gen Chem was because I didn't always go with the "safe" answer. Obviously, I did not go with the wrong answer when I was unsure about a question, but I definitely was not afraid to take the risk of picking an answer that I wasn't 100% sure on. Ultimately, this eased my mind when moving from section to section. Was I was past the Sciences I had no regrets and was able to give 100% to the others because I kept telling myself, "its ok, its just another practice test"
6) 90% PREPARATION AND 10% LUCK
I know, I know, you're asking yourself, Did he just say that?! and...yes, yes I did. After all of the breakdowns I have read, I have yet to see this posted. I'm going to keep it real with you, this is true. HOWEVER, this does not mean that you should rely on being "lucky" on test day. Maximize that 90% hard work portion and you will definitely break 20.
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