22AA Breakdown (29OC)

[MrBoneless]

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Took the DAT today after a long long night of trying to sleeping and months of studying and working full-time. I didn't get some crazy high score, but it is higher than I expected and this info might be helpful for someone. I was hoping for a 20AA with everything 19+ so I am incredibly happy with how it all turned out.

Overall, I'm peeved I got a 19 in GC. I realized that sounds stupid but I tutor chemistry and studied the most for it out of anything and felt super confident. I was expecting a 20+ score on it. I think I got cocky and didn't double check my work. And not reviewing right before the test hurt my score a lot. Oh well... On the bright side I was expecting a 17 in OC (I was horrified) and about lost my mind when I saw that score. I'm content overall, having a 19 keeps me humble I suppose.

Thanks everyone who has posted helpful breakdowns. I want to pass it on, so here goes!

BIO/GC/OC/RC/QR/PAT
20/19/29/23/21/23

Recommended resources:
DAT Destroyer
Ochem Odyssey
Crack Dat Pat

My overall study plan was doing mostly Kaplan for two months. I abandoned the videos halfway through because if you read they are mostly pointless. Then in the third month, I realized Kaplan wasn't enough so I ordered DAT Destroyer, Odyssey, and Crack Dat Pat. I used DAT Destroyer for 2-3 weeks and Odyssey in the last week. I spread CDP tests throughout. Towards the last few days I took some free Bootcamp tests and got pretty worried, so I kicked it into overdrive.

Biology (20)
I mostly used Kaplan. I basically just read through KBB once and then called it good after making some flashcards. I started working through DAT Destroyer on bio but ran out of time and only got through 200 questions. I am a biology major so I didn't try as hard as I should have and would just speed-read through stuff.

Materials:
Kaplan 6/10: Great on basic, not so great for advanced materials.
DAT Destroyer 7/10: Saw a few identical questions, did well at teaching obscure as well as common knowledge info. Worked through half the problems.​

Chemistry (19)
Like I said, worse than I expected. Some of the questions were out of left field but I have only myself to blame. I should not have neglected chemistry for the last week. My score were 20+ on practice so I thought I was fine. I also wish I would have done Chad's videos instead of Kaplan here.

Materials:
KBB 8/10 Covers a ton of material. Pretty dang comprehensive. Worked through the problems once.
DAT Destroyer 9/10 Great practice. Wish I would have reviewed just before the test.​

Organic Chemistry (29)
I almost had a panic attack because last night I took the Bootcamp practice and got a 15. I about lost my mind and I abandoned reviewing everything so I could study OC. I spent the whole night memorizing the 25 reactions in DAT Destroyer. The actual DAT was cake... I don't know if I regret putting OC above all else but it's done.

Materials:
Ochem Odyssey 11/10
Odyssey is some seriously good stuff. I started working on it last minute because I realized I was screwed after getting consistent 16's on Kaplan Full Lengths. I ended up doing it in 3 days, one of which I worked. Between that and cramming reactions in the last few hours before the test I made my highest score. If you can't handle Ochem, get Odyssey and don't leave it until last like I did.
DAT Destroyer x/10
I really couldn't handle the problems. I don't know why it felt so much harder than Odyssey. Ended up floundering through 120 and quit.
Kaplan 7/10
Was fine for introductory material but didn't explain it in ways I could easily understand.​

RC (23)
Didn't study. I read a lot and write as a hobby and figured I'd be fine.

QR (21)
I was worried about this score. I've always been good, not great, at math. But I never learned trigonometry adequately in high school. A lot of my studying was learning new stuff and training myself to now make careless mistakes. Turned out better than I thought it would.

Materials:
Kaplan 6/10
Destroyer 8/10
Destroyer saved my butt here. During the test I felt like I was getting wrecked, but it worked out. I did DAT destroyer twice here and made flashcards of trigonometric functions. It didn't cover arcsin, arctan, etc. and the explanations weren't always all there. (I had to figure out on my own the difference between combination and permutation problems which was super confusing.)​

PAT (23)
This was tough. Pretty comparable to the free Bootcamp test I took. I did get a higher score than I got in Bootcamp but the problems were about the same difficulty. I may have gotten a hard test.

Prep Material:
Crack Dat Pat 7/10
This was pretty much the only thing I used. I think PAT is just about exposing yourself to hard problems over and over until you can just fly through stuff. I did 6 practice tests.
Kaplan 3/10
The strategies they tell you about are okay but I did better making my own up. Not really passable but not useless.
​

I will post practice scores in a second.

 

[MrBoneless]

Kaplan AA/PAT/BIO/GC/OC/TS/RC/QR
Diagnostic: 15/13/15/14/12/14/19/16
Full Length 1: 17/18/17/17/13/16/22/15
Full Length 2: 18/19/19/20/15/18/22/16
Full Length 3: 13/24/18/20/23/20/1/1 (skipped QR and RC)

Crack Dat Pat
19/19/21/24/23/22

Bootcamp (Free tests only)
OC (same test 3 times.) 14/15/24
PAT 20
GC 22
BIO 21
QR 19

 

[MrBoneless]

So gen chem was super random and conceptual? What would you have reviewed before the test knowing how "difficult" the section was? It seems like you are pretty competent in chemistry so it is kind of unsettling to see you get "only" a 19. There must've been some BS questions haha

At first I thought the test really just focused on some weaker points of mine, but I don't remember a lot. There was very little calculation in general, mostly concepts. There was one question in particular that was obviously easier stoichiometry but the way it was set up was beyond me. It was very unclear. I think I just made stupid mistakes as well.

So to answer your question clearly, I probably whiffed a few easy ones by not paying enough attention and there were 2-3 easy concept/weird set-ups that I had never seen. Nothing was earth-shakingly tough.

 

[Trigeminal08]

Great score! Mirin that 23 rc!

 

[MrBoneless]

I forgot to mention something important. Every practice test I ever took had 5 cube counting figures. The real one had 7. A few of which were small. So FYI: Pay attention and don't just click through cube counting once you've done your tally.

 

[MrBoneless]

Ok cool! Was electrochemistry heavily focused? For the life of me I can never wrap my head around the battery potential and balancing redox reactions with the moles of electrons lol. Also were the calculations worked through or was it all setup for you

Not a single electrochemistry question. They even had the molar mass calculated already on a couple problems. There weren't a lot of calculations overall.

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Took the DAT today after a long long night of trying to sleeping and months of studying and working full-time. I didn't get some crazy high score, but it is higher than I expected and this info might be helpful for someone. I was hoping for a 20AA with everything 19+ so I am incredibly happy with how it all turned out.

Overall, I'm peeved I got a 19 in GC. I realized that sounds stupid but I tutor chemistry and studied the most for it out of anything and felt super confident. I was expecting a 20+ score on it. I think I got cocky and didn't double check my work. And not reviewing right before the test hurt my score a lot. Oh well... On the bright side I was expecting a 17 in OC (I was horrified) and about lost my mind when I saw that score. I'm content overall, having a 19 keeps me humble I suppose.

Thanks everyone who has posted helpful breakdowns. I want to pass it on, so here goes!

BIO/GC/OC/RC/QR/PAT
20/19/29/23/21/23

Recommended resources:
DAT Destroyer
Ochem Odyssey
Crack Dat Pat

My overall study plan was doing mostly Kaplan for two months. I abandoned the videos halfway through because if you read they are mostly pointless. Then in the third month, I realized Kaplan wasn't enough so I ordered DAT Destroyer, Odyssey, and Crack Dat Pat. I used DAT Destroyer for 2-3 weeks and Odyssey in the last week. I spread CDP tests throughout. Towards the last few days I took some free Bootcamp tests and got pretty worried, so I kicked it into overdrive.

Biology (20)
I mostly used Kaplan. I basically just read through KBB once and then called it good after making some flashcards. I started working through DAT Destroyer on bio but ran out of time and only got through 200 questions. I am a biology major so I didn't try as hard as I should have and would just speed-read through stuff.

Materials:
Kaplan 6/10: Great on basic, not so great for advanced materials.
DAT Destroyer 7/10: Saw a few identical questions, did well at teaching obscure as well as common knowledge info. Worked through half the problems.​

Chemistry (19)
Like I said, worse than I expected. Some of the questions were out of left field but I have only myself to blame. I should not have neglected chemistry for the last week. My score were 20+ on practice so I thought I was fine. I also wish I would have done Chad's videos instead of Kaplan here.

Materials:
KBB 8/10 Covers a ton of material. Pretty dang comprehensive. Worked through the problems once.
DAT Destroyer 9/10 Great practice. Wish I would have reviewed just before the test.​

Organic Chemistry (29)
I almost had a panic attack because last night I took the Bootcamp practice and got a 15. I about lost my mind and I abandoned reviewing everything so I could study OC. I spent the whole night memorizing the 25 reactions in DAT Destroyer. The actual DAT was cake... I don't know if I regret putting OC above all else but it's done.

Materials:
Ochem Odyssey 11/10
Odyssey is some seriously good stuff. I started working on it last minute because I realized I was screwed after getting consistent 16's on Kaplan Full Lengths. I ended up doing it in 3 days, one of which I worked. Between that and cramming reactions in the last few hours before the test I made my highest score. If you can't handle Ochem, get Odyssey and don't leave it until last like I did.
DAT Destroyer x/10
I really couldn't handle the problems. I don't know why it felt so much harder than Odyssey. Ended up floundering through 120 and quit.
Kaplan 7/10
Was fine for introductory material but didn't explain it in ways I could easily understand.​

RC (23)
Didn't study. I read a lot and write as a hobby and figured I'd be fine.

QR (21)
I was worried about this score. I've always been good, not great, at math. But I never learned trigonometry adequately in high school. A lot of my studying was learning new stuff and training myself to now make careless mistakes. Turned out better than I thought it would.

Materials:
Kaplan 6/10
Destroyer 8/10
Destroyer saved my butt here. During the test I felt like I was getting wrecked, but it worked out. I did DAT destroyer twice here and made flashcards of trigonometric functions. It didn't cover arcsin, arctan, etc. and the explanations weren't always all there. (I had to figure out on my own the difference between combination and permutation problems which was super confusing.)​

PAT (23)
This was tough. Pretty comparable to the free Bootcamp test I took. I did get a higher score than I got in Bootcamp but the problems were about the same difficulty. I may have gotten a hard test.

Prep Material:
Crack Dat Pat 7/10
This was pretty much the only thing I used. I think PAT is just about exposing yourself to hard problems over and over until you can just fly through stuff. I did 6 practice tests.
Kaplan 3/10
The strategies they tell you about are okay but I did better making my own up. Not really passable but not useless.
​

I will post practice scores in a second.
View attachment 205567

Congratulations!

Excellent scores, that 29 in Orgo is very nice indeed. Your scores all all great and dental schools will also like that 23 in reading. With you high GPA you will have no problem getting interviews and acceptances. Thank you for the shout out and we are delighted you enjoyed the Organic Chemistry Odyssey and DAT Destroyer.

Enjoy your summer and be ready for interview invites in the Fall.

Wishing you the best..

Dr. Romano and Nancy

 

[Alikhan9]

Did odyssey reactions show up on the DAT? Also in your opinion you said destroyer organic chemistry is harder then odyssey I always herd the other way around

 

[MrBoneless]

Did odyssey reactions show up on the DAT? Also in your opinion you said destroyer organic chemistry is harder then odyssey I always herd the other way around

Odyssey very well may be harder but I think the fact that Odyssey groups problems together and doesn't mix around makes it easy to master a concept. I like how it has the same reaction in four or five circumstances so you actually feel like you understand completely rather than just get confused.

I think overall if you know the 25 must know reactions from destroyer and practice using Odyssey you'll be good to go. What Odyssey really cemented for me was the concepts.

 

[P0W3RL1FT3R]

Nice scores!
How'd you utilize Odyssey? 3 days is intense, did you review each question or just fly through it?

 

[MrBoneless]

Hey forgot to ask. For the QR can you use the keypad or keyboard to type in the numbers?

It didn't even occur to me to try. I do mostly mental math and only used the calculator three or four times. The whole testing situation was weird though, I thought I had a 15 minute break and it was 30 minutes. The people at Prometric had never heard of a DAT before either. All they knew about was the MCAT. It's the only testing center in a town of 100,000 so I would have thought they would have seen a DAT test before.

 

[MrBoneless]

Nice scores!
How'd you utilize Odyssey? 3 days is intense, did you review each question or just fly through it?

Thanks! It was really disjointed. I did the first ten chapters on the first day circling the ones that I wasn't certain about. (Most of them.) Then I worked the following day so I just reviewed and tried to understand the harder ones. The third day I did the second half of the book. Overall I did most everything once, and reviewed the E1, E2, Sn1, Sn2 stuff as well as stoichiometry twice.

I did skip the chapters fatty acids, carbs, and amino acids. I figured those were very low yield sections, and I didn't see a single question on the test about them.

 

[MrBoneless]

No worries, honestly there's only like 20 types of word problems that show up the test. I can't speak for the one you will take but I had one of those Mary is four years older than Jane questions. I never learned how to do them in 60 seconds so I just picked numbers until it worked. There was a very tricky trig based question that required careful reading too. If you have DAT Destroyer I would just master the problems in there. About a third are gimmies, another third are tough but there's only like 120 total of them so just master one or two of the hard ones per day by changing the numbers. If I forgot something twice in any subject I would write it down a bunch of times on scratch paper and just stare at it for a minute or so. It sounds weird but I found myself doing it during my test a few times and if I couldn't remember sometimes muscle memory would take over and then I'd have the answer.

I feel like QR only matters in the sense that it changes your AA. I think under 10 schools highly value high QR scores.

 

[Likkriue]

You did great! According to your post your gc and oc might've gotten swapped lol.

But seriously, you got a great score, be proud of yourself.

 

[MrBoneless]

You did great! According to your post your gc and oc might've gotten swapped lol.

But seriously, you got a great score, be proud of yourself.

Thanks, the perfectionist in me says that I could have done better but it's done now, time to pick schools to apply at!

 

[MrBoneless]

Realistically, and not trying to put myself down or anything, I really am hoping for at least an 18. A 17 would be absolute lowest. Hell a 20 would be awesome, but I would rather focus on the sciences honestly

You're welcome, good luck. I'm sure you'll get an awesome score.

 

[Krentist_72]

If I forgot something twice in any subject I would write it down a bunch of times on scratch paper and just stare at it for a minute or so. It sounds weird but I found myself doing it during my test a few times and if I couldn't remember sometimes muscle memory would take over and then I'd have the answer.

Lol I do that too, but never thought to replicate that during a test.... very smart, maybe I'll give it a shot! Great job btw, you killed it