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- Jun 17, 2008
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First of all i would like to admit that i have been somewhat of a forum stalker for the past 3 months because i have read numerous threads and have only posted 1 or 2 myself. That being said i would like to also thank everyone on this forum for giving me such valuable information these last few months. I now feel like i can contribute my experiences to all of you. Hopefully someone reading this will find something useful and raise their score on test day. The study material i used included Kaplan Course Book (similar to blue), Barron's DAT prep, Cliff's DAT (NOT Cliff's Bio) Prep, Crack DAT, Destroyer, and topscore. I supplemented everything with college textbooks but only when i needed to find specific facts. I studied for 3 months, 2 of which occured in concurrence with Kaplan Prep Class. I will first break down the usefulness of my study materials and then break down the test itself.
Kaplan Course Book/Class: Is it worth $1400? Honestly, no way. However, it did give my study a lot of structure along with hundreds of practice problems online. If your someone that likes structure but can't do it on your own, then you might consider taking this class. The class itself was not very usefull, everything was rushed and not gone into in detail. The instructer made it very clear that they were not covering everything and that what they covered was not in depth enough. The course book however is a very good thing to have. It is the most thorough summary (i say summary because it does not have everything) of most if not all of the subjects tested.
Barron's and Cliff's DAT prep: These two were the biggest waste of money ever. The books had so many mistakes that after a while i stopped looking through them incase i learned something that is actually wrong. Don't get these.
Crack DAT: Super useful in time management practice and zoning in on weak areas. A must have for anyone that wants a real gauge at how the real one is done. NOTE: the real one is slightly easier in some aspects while harder in others.
Destroyer: My new Bible. This book is everything you need and a bag of chips. It is ridiculously useful. The first time i got it in the mail and tried to do some problems, my exact words to myself were "Oh ****". With that level of ability established, i proceeded to learn everything in this book. It is an Ochem and chem how to guide. I will admit that it is overkill for what you need on the actual test but hey, overkill is what gets high scores right? Get this book and know how to do at least 90% of the problems right of the bat and know the Ochem reaction maps solid.
Topscore: Good source of practice problems and real test simulations. It compares fairly well to the real thing. I won't write out all the individual scores but here are the AAs and PAT:
1) 21AA and 28PAT
2) 22AA and 24 PAT
3) 24AA and 26 PAT
Now to break down the test...
Bio: Random, but random in the way that we've all come to prepare for. They reword a lot of the "no brainers" that we're so used to so be aware of that. All in all, not hard at all. If you know all of your bio pretty well and be careful reading the questions, you should be just fine.
Chem: Easiest thing ever after Destroyer. Know destroyer, and dominate chem.
Ochem: Much easier than Destroyer as well. If you can do the synthesis in destroyer, this will be a walk in the park. Again i can't emphasize enough, DESTROYER!!!!
PAT: I had a bubble screen so it was a little harder because i practiced on my laptop. However it was very similar to crack. The pattern folding was a little bit tricky and some of the folding patterns were a little bit questionable. Cube counting, angles, TFE, and keyhole are a breeze compared to crack.
Reading Comp: Let me just say that this was my worst score. i'm not gonna make any excuses because i usually scored 20 and 21s on all my practice tests. However, i got frapped. And what's more, they tricked me about it. The first passage was about cells so i read through really fast preparing myself for search and destroy. Then i look at the questions and all of them are tone and ethics. My biggest advice for this section is to take a look at the questions first so you know what to expect.
Quant: Time management is the biggest thing i would say. Non the of the problems were too hard. I'd say 80% are right away doable if you don't make stupid mistakes. Some are a bit tricky so watch out and read carefully.
Ok now for my Real DAT scores:
PAT: 23
BIO: 22
GC: 29
OC: 23
RC: 17 <<<<
at least it's at the minimum for schools right?
QR: 23 (sorry i forgot to include this)
TS: 24
AA: 23
I hope something in this long thread will help someone out there. Feel free to ask me any questions and i'll try to get back to you asap. Good luck everyone.
Kaplan Course Book/Class: Is it worth $1400? Honestly, no way. However, it did give my study a lot of structure along with hundreds of practice problems online. If your someone that likes structure but can't do it on your own, then you might consider taking this class. The class itself was not very usefull, everything was rushed and not gone into in detail. The instructer made it very clear that they were not covering everything and that what they covered was not in depth enough. The course book however is a very good thing to have. It is the most thorough summary (i say summary because it does not have everything) of most if not all of the subjects tested.
Barron's and Cliff's DAT prep: These two were the biggest waste of money ever. The books had so many mistakes that after a while i stopped looking through them incase i learned something that is actually wrong. Don't get these.
Crack DAT: Super useful in time management practice and zoning in on weak areas. A must have for anyone that wants a real gauge at how the real one is done. NOTE: the real one is slightly easier in some aspects while harder in others.
Destroyer: My new Bible. This book is everything you need and a bag of chips. It is ridiculously useful. The first time i got it in the mail and tried to do some problems, my exact words to myself were "Oh ****". With that level of ability established, i proceeded to learn everything in this book. It is an Ochem and chem how to guide. I will admit that it is overkill for what you need on the actual test but hey, overkill is what gets high scores right? Get this book and know how to do at least 90% of the problems right of the bat and know the Ochem reaction maps solid.
Topscore: Good source of practice problems and real test simulations. It compares fairly well to the real thing. I won't write out all the individual scores but here are the AAs and PAT:
1) 21AA and 28PAT
2) 22AA and 24 PAT
3) 24AA and 26 PAT
Now to break down the test...
Bio: Random, but random in the way that we've all come to prepare for. They reword a lot of the "no brainers" that we're so used to so be aware of that. All in all, not hard at all. If you know all of your bio pretty well and be careful reading the questions, you should be just fine.
Chem: Easiest thing ever after Destroyer. Know destroyer, and dominate chem.
Ochem: Much easier than Destroyer as well. If you can do the synthesis in destroyer, this will be a walk in the park. Again i can't emphasize enough, DESTROYER!!!!
PAT: I had a bubble screen so it was a little harder because i practiced on my laptop. However it was very similar to crack. The pattern folding was a little bit tricky and some of the folding patterns were a little bit questionable. Cube counting, angles, TFE, and keyhole are a breeze compared to crack.
Reading Comp: Let me just say that this was my worst score. i'm not gonna make any excuses because i usually scored 20 and 21s on all my practice tests. However, i got frapped. And what's more, they tricked me about it. The first passage was about cells so i read through really fast preparing myself for search and destroy. Then i look at the questions and all of them are tone and ethics. My biggest advice for this section is to take a look at the questions first so you know what to expect.
Quant: Time management is the biggest thing i would say. Non the of the problems were too hard. I'd say 80% are right away doable if you don't make stupid mistakes. Some are a bit tricky so watch out and read carefully.
Ok now for my Real DAT scores:
PAT: 23
BIO: 22
GC: 29
OC: 23
RC: 17 <<<<
at least it's at the minimum for schools right?QR: 23 (sorry i forgot to include this)
TS: 24
AA: 23
I hope something in this long thread will help someone out there. Feel free to ask me any questions and i'll try to get back to you asap. Good luck everyone.
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