So this was my first time taking the DAT and this was what I got...
PAT: 20 (81.0%)
QR: 22 (98.7%)
RC: 21 (88.9%)
BIO: 20 (91.8%)
GC: 21 (91.6%)
OC: 18 (64.2%)
TS: 20 (91.3%)
AA: 20 (93.4%)
Ahhhh, there's so much I want to say, so hopefully I can get it all out coherently and in some sort of order. XD But one thing I do want to say is that, even though I didn't as well as a lot of the other people here, I'd still love to answer any questions if you guys have them!
Materials I used:
Kaplan Course
DAT QVault (OC only)
DAT Destroyer
Math Destroyer
Crack DAT PAT
2007 ADA test
2009 ADA test
I took the Kaplan course (yup, I'm one of those!) and have to admit that the on-site course (the kind where you actually go to a classroom twice a week and learn, is not very helpful. I really liked my instructor and my classmates were great too, but the truth is that the DAT is mostly self-study. However, Kaplan's online resources were fantastic and I really built my endurance for the DAT by taking their full-length practice tests. Their online material covers a lot and is good at reinforcing a lot of fundamental concepts that you need to learn for the DAT. I'd say if you have the money/if your parents have the money... then take the Kaplan online course, not their on-site course, so that you can go at your own pace and take full advantage of their resources. Due to my... laziness, I actually didn't manage to finish all of their quizzes and workshops. They really do give you a lot of material to work with.
PAT (20)
Crack DAT PAT: 19, 19, 19, 20, 21
I only bought the 5 test package because I wanted something harder than Kaplan. The truth was that I didn't place much emphasis on the PAT section and the only studying I did was to take practice tests/Crack DAT PAT tests and try to understand what I did wrong. My better sections on Crack DAT PAT were hole punching, cube counting, and keyholes. (usually 13 or 14 out of 15)
I thought the keyholes, pattern folding, and cube-counting were relatively easy. Hole punching had one problem that threw me off with a 1/3 fold, angles weren't as horrible as Crack DAT PAT, and TFE was just a little WTF at times. Thankfully there weren't a lot of folding dice/cubes in pattern-folding because that's honestly what I'm the worst at. I think I probably missed the most on TFE, but I did manage to finish the section with ~10 minutes left. I was hoping for a 20 on this section, 21 if I were lucky, especially after seeing all the break downs on here about how the real DAT was harder than Crack DAT PAT.
BIO (20)
I probably should have done better on this section... especially since I'm a biology major. But I didn't spend a lot of time studying biology - I basically just read through KBB to refresh my memory on certain topics that I hadn't studied since AP Biology and then memorized specific systems/concepts I knew I needed to know (embryology, menstrual cycle, cellular respiration, etc). I actually only managed to get through half of the biology section of destroyer. Most of my biology practice came from Kaplan's tests (i.e. taking the practice tests and then really going through what I guessed on/got wrong).
I thought the biology section on the DAT was pretty fair; there were definitely some random questions that I really just had to guess on but there were also quite a few gimme questions that were no-brainers if you had a basic understanding of biology.
GC (21)
I liked general chemistry and this was probably my favorite science to study for. DAT destroyer is more than adequate preparation for this section. I went through the general chemistry section of the Destroyer two times and felt really comfortable with this subject.
I had very few calculation problems and all of them were simply setting up the math. I breezed through this section and thought it was relatively easy after going through all thirty questions in about 10 minutes... which is why I'm a little bummed that I only got a 21. I honestly thought that I had done better. But I guess that's one of the downsides of the DAT, you'll never know what you got wrong/right.
OC (18)
DAT QVault OC: 17, 19, 18, 17, 17, 15, 17, 19, 17, 17
Organic chemistry has been the bane of my existence since I took my first quarter of this subject two years ago. I've never liked organic chemistry and I know I never will. I guess this is just one of those things I'm really not good at. (My GPA can attest to this). I felt that DAT QVault was definitely helpful for some last minute prep, as I bought the package two days before my test. I went through Destroyer twice and made notecards and wrote down reactions and tried my best to memorize and understand as much of all the reactions/reagents/concepts behind what was going to be tested, but I'm just relieved I got an 18 and not a 16.
I definitely ended spending most of my time on this section during the DAT and I felt like I was guessing on at least 9 of the questions. Maybe I could have done better if I had postponed my test a week later to really drill everything into my head, but I decided to bite the bullet and just take it today so that I could actually have a week to enjoy summer before I have to head back to school.
RC (21)
I didn't study for this past taking the full length practice tests because since I've started, I've always averaged 21 on this section.
All three passages were fine. Haha, I don't really know what else to say about them. I could easily use search and destroy for most of the questions and I actually enjoyed reading the articles. I finished this section with about 10 minutes left, checked over my answers, and then just kind of sat there, taking deep breaths to calm myself down.
QR (22)
I did all 12 tests of Math Destroyer and went through them with my dad (who really helped me figure out short cuts for different types of questions). I have to say that Math Destroyer more than prepares you for this section. I averaged about 33/40 on Math Destroyer. I also thought I was well-prepared for this section because I usually got a 24 on this section on Kaplan's full length tests toward the end.
I went through all the questions once, marking four along the way... and ended up with 15 minutes to go back for those four problems. I ended up figuring out one and guessing on the other three. I didn't have time to check over my other answers, but I was pretty sure I had gotten all of those right because they were honestly so much simpler than Math Destroyer. I guess I must have guessed wrong on those problems. 🙁
During the test: I don't know why I was so nervous, but I literally had to stop a few times to take deep breaths and close my eyes to calm down before going on because my heart was beating so fast. But the funny thing was, it wasn't that I was nervous because the questions were hard or that I couldn't answer any of them, it was just that I was purely anxious. I guess my nerves got the best of me.
I liked the prometric center I went to - it was kind of stuffy, but there weren't a lot of people/it wasn't a big room, so it was really fast to get checked in/checked out. The computer was fine, nothing wrong with it at all. The bathrooms were conveniently located 20 feet away and they even had water for the test-takers.
Practice tests, in the order I took them:
Kaplan Diagnostic (6/19)
PAT: 14 | Bio: 15 | GC: 16 | OC: 16 | RC: 21 |QR: 20 | TS: 16 | AA: 18
Kaplan Midterm (7/17)
PAT: 19 | Bio:16 | GC: 15 | OC: 14 | RC: 20 | QR: 21 | TS: 15 | AA: 17
Kaplan Test #1 (8/7)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 16 | GC: 19 | OC: 15 | RC: 20 | QR: 23 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
Kaplan Test #2 (8/8)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 17 | GC: 19 | OC: 15 | RC: 21 | QR: 24 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
Kaplan Test #3 (8/9)
PAT: 19 | Bio: 18 | GC: 17 | OC: 14 | RC: 21 | QR: 24 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
ADA 2007 (8/10)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 19 | GC: 20 | OC: 23 | RC: 20 | QR: 25 | TS: 20 | AA: 21
ADA 2009 (8/11)
PAT: 21 | Bio: 17 | GC: 19 | OC: 17 | RC: 19 | QR: 20 | TS: 17 | AA: 18
Kaplan Final (8/12)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 18 | GC: 17 | OC: 17 | RC: 21 | QR: 24 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
(In the week before my DAT, I took one test after another, haha)
I don't really know how to feel now that I'm done. I'm partly relieved to be done, but at the same time, I'm really upset at the fact that I missed getting a 21 just by 1 point. (If I had just gotten 1 point higher on any of my sections, I would have gotten an AA of 20.6 to round up to 21). But alas, it wasn't meant to be. I think I'm just mostly scared that I needed a better DAT score to offset my GPA (which will be, at best, 3.3 overall by the time I graduate this upcoming summer...) and I didn't get it. I don't think I'll re-take it because I'm not going to have the time and energy to prepare and study everything again. But I guess a 20/20/20 isn't all that bad either? :/
I'd really like to know if you guys think my scores are good enough... in other words, do schools care if you're "well-balanced" with your scores? Or do they just care about your AA?
PAT: 20 (81.0%)
QR: 22 (98.7%)
RC: 21 (88.9%)
BIO: 20 (91.8%)
GC: 21 (91.6%)
OC: 18 (64.2%)
TS: 20 (91.3%)
AA: 20 (93.4%)
Ahhhh, there's so much I want to say, so hopefully I can get it all out coherently and in some sort of order. XD But one thing I do want to say is that, even though I didn't as well as a lot of the other people here, I'd still love to answer any questions if you guys have them!
Materials I used:
Kaplan Course
DAT QVault (OC only)
DAT Destroyer
Math Destroyer
Crack DAT PAT
2007 ADA test
2009 ADA test
I took the Kaplan course (yup, I'm one of those!) and have to admit that the on-site course (the kind where you actually go to a classroom twice a week and learn, is not very helpful. I really liked my instructor and my classmates were great too, but the truth is that the DAT is mostly self-study. However, Kaplan's online resources were fantastic and I really built my endurance for the DAT by taking their full-length practice tests. Their online material covers a lot and is good at reinforcing a lot of fundamental concepts that you need to learn for the DAT. I'd say if you have the money/if your parents have the money... then take the Kaplan online course, not their on-site course, so that you can go at your own pace and take full advantage of their resources. Due to my... laziness, I actually didn't manage to finish all of their quizzes and workshops. They really do give you a lot of material to work with.
PAT (20)
Crack DAT PAT: 19, 19, 19, 20, 21
I only bought the 5 test package because I wanted something harder than Kaplan. The truth was that I didn't place much emphasis on the PAT section and the only studying I did was to take practice tests/Crack DAT PAT tests and try to understand what I did wrong. My better sections on Crack DAT PAT were hole punching, cube counting, and keyholes. (usually 13 or 14 out of 15)
I thought the keyholes, pattern folding, and cube-counting were relatively easy. Hole punching had one problem that threw me off with a 1/3 fold, angles weren't as horrible as Crack DAT PAT, and TFE was just a little WTF at times. Thankfully there weren't a lot of folding dice/cubes in pattern-folding because that's honestly what I'm the worst at. I think I probably missed the most on TFE, but I did manage to finish the section with ~10 minutes left. I was hoping for a 20 on this section, 21 if I were lucky, especially after seeing all the break downs on here about how the real DAT was harder than Crack DAT PAT.
BIO (20)
I probably should have done better on this section... especially since I'm a biology major. But I didn't spend a lot of time studying biology - I basically just read through KBB to refresh my memory on certain topics that I hadn't studied since AP Biology and then memorized specific systems/concepts I knew I needed to know (embryology, menstrual cycle, cellular respiration, etc). I actually only managed to get through half of the biology section of destroyer. Most of my biology practice came from Kaplan's tests (i.e. taking the practice tests and then really going through what I guessed on/got wrong).
I thought the biology section on the DAT was pretty fair; there were definitely some random questions that I really just had to guess on but there were also quite a few gimme questions that were no-brainers if you had a basic understanding of biology.
GC (21)
I liked general chemistry and this was probably my favorite science to study for. DAT destroyer is more than adequate preparation for this section. I went through the general chemistry section of the Destroyer two times and felt really comfortable with this subject.
I had very few calculation problems and all of them were simply setting up the math. I breezed through this section and thought it was relatively easy after going through all thirty questions in about 10 minutes... which is why I'm a little bummed that I only got a 21. I honestly thought that I had done better. But I guess that's one of the downsides of the DAT, you'll never know what you got wrong/right.
OC (18)
DAT QVault OC: 17, 19, 18, 17, 17, 15, 17, 19, 17, 17
Organic chemistry has been the bane of my existence since I took my first quarter of this subject two years ago. I've never liked organic chemistry and I know I never will. I guess this is just one of those things I'm really not good at. (My GPA can attest to this). I felt that DAT QVault was definitely helpful for some last minute prep, as I bought the package two days before my test. I went through Destroyer twice and made notecards and wrote down reactions and tried my best to memorize and understand as much of all the reactions/reagents/concepts behind what was going to be tested, but I'm just relieved I got an 18 and not a 16.
I definitely ended spending most of my time on this section during the DAT and I felt like I was guessing on at least 9 of the questions. Maybe I could have done better if I had postponed my test a week later to really drill everything into my head, but I decided to bite the bullet and just take it today so that I could actually have a week to enjoy summer before I have to head back to school.
RC (21)
I didn't study for this past taking the full length practice tests because since I've started, I've always averaged 21 on this section.
All three passages were fine. Haha, I don't really know what else to say about them. I could easily use search and destroy for most of the questions and I actually enjoyed reading the articles. I finished this section with about 10 minutes left, checked over my answers, and then just kind of sat there, taking deep breaths to calm myself down.
QR (22)
I did all 12 tests of Math Destroyer and went through them with my dad (who really helped me figure out short cuts for different types of questions). I have to say that Math Destroyer more than prepares you for this section. I averaged about 33/40 on Math Destroyer. I also thought I was well-prepared for this section because I usually got a 24 on this section on Kaplan's full length tests toward the end.
I went through all the questions once, marking four along the way... and ended up with 15 minutes to go back for those four problems. I ended up figuring out one and guessing on the other three. I didn't have time to check over my other answers, but I was pretty sure I had gotten all of those right because they were honestly so much simpler than Math Destroyer. I guess I must have guessed wrong on those problems. 🙁
During the test: I don't know why I was so nervous, but I literally had to stop a few times to take deep breaths and close my eyes to calm down before going on because my heart was beating so fast. But the funny thing was, it wasn't that I was nervous because the questions were hard or that I couldn't answer any of them, it was just that I was purely anxious. I guess my nerves got the best of me.
I liked the prometric center I went to - it was kind of stuffy, but there weren't a lot of people/it wasn't a big room, so it was really fast to get checked in/checked out. The computer was fine, nothing wrong with it at all. The bathrooms were conveniently located 20 feet away and they even had water for the test-takers.
Practice tests, in the order I took them:
Kaplan Diagnostic (6/19)
PAT: 14 | Bio: 15 | GC: 16 | OC: 16 | RC: 21 |QR: 20 | TS: 16 | AA: 18
Kaplan Midterm (7/17)
PAT: 19 | Bio:16 | GC: 15 | OC: 14 | RC: 20 | QR: 21 | TS: 15 | AA: 17
Kaplan Test #1 (8/7)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 16 | GC: 19 | OC: 15 | RC: 20 | QR: 23 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
Kaplan Test #2 (8/8)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 17 | GC: 19 | OC: 15 | RC: 21 | QR: 24 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
Kaplan Test #3 (8/9)
PAT: 19 | Bio: 18 | GC: 17 | OC: 14 | RC: 21 | QR: 24 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
ADA 2007 (8/10)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 19 | GC: 20 | OC: 23 | RC: 20 | QR: 25 | TS: 20 | AA: 21
ADA 2009 (8/11)
PAT: 21 | Bio: 17 | GC: 19 | OC: 17 | RC: 19 | QR: 20 | TS: 17 | AA: 18
Kaplan Final (8/12)
PAT: 20 | Bio: 18 | GC: 17 | OC: 17 | RC: 21 | QR: 24 | TS: 17 | AA: 19
(In the week before my DAT, I took one test after another, haha)
I don't really know how to feel now that I'm done. I'm partly relieved to be done, but at the same time, I'm really upset at the fact that I missed getting a 21 just by 1 point. (If I had just gotten 1 point higher on any of my sections, I would have gotten an AA of 20.6 to round up to 21). But alas, it wasn't meant to be. I think I'm just mostly scared that I needed a better DAT score to offset my GPA (which will be, at best, 3.3 overall by the time I graduate this upcoming summer...) and I didn't get it. I don't think I'll re-take it because I'm not going to have the time and energy to prepare and study everything again. But I guess a 20/20/20 isn't all that bad either? :/
I'd really like to know if you guys think my scores are good enough... in other words, do schools care if you're "well-balanced" with your scores? Or do they just care about your AA?
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