3/3 DAT full breakdown

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LibraLin

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First, thanks everyone here for helping. I finally get it done on 3/3. Here is the breakdown.


How long do I prepare for DAT?
About 2 months, 3~4 hours per day.

I took general Bio, general chem, and Ochem in community college about 3 years ago. And I got Cs on all of them. Yes, all of them which means 6 Cs. What I try to say here is I had really weak science foundations so it takes me longer time to study for DAT. 1 month should be enough to prepare for anyone who has better science foundations than me.

What are the materials I used for preparation?
Kaplan BB, Barron’s DAT, Cliff Bio, Crack DAT Math, Crack DAT PAT
I bought Crack DAT Science (newest edition) but didn’t really use it.

DO NOT buy Crack DAT Science which is so ridiculous that only brings you discouragement. I’ve never got above 14 on the Crack Science even on the day before the exam. The questions are just not made for DAT.
Here is one question form Bio section of Crack DAT Science, see who knows the answer……….

Q: During blood clotting, Vitamin K is necessary of synthesis of?
1. fibrinogen 2. thrompolastin 3. prothrombin 4. Factor XIII 5. proaccelerin


Now, here are the breakdowns for the exam.

Bio
Some questions are really easy that you will know the answer right away. Couple questions were covered in neither Kaplan BB nor Cliff Bio. Therefore, I have no idea of the answers for those questions. I skipped reading entire plants section in Cliff Bio, and it’s OK for me because there are no detailed plants questions. Most questions are basic stuff, I won’t try to memorize that much detailed such as which hormones are produced in anterior pituitary gland?

Chem
Some questions are really easy that you will know the answer right away. Overall, this section is harder than the Kaplan BB practice test. The questions are about half concept and half calculations. Same here, some concepts were not covered in the books I used. For those questions, I just made educated guesses.

Ochem
I really suck at Ochem. I barely passed both of my Ochem classes. 2/3 of the questions are conceptual, 1/3 of the questions are about reactions. I have no idea of where the functional groups will go, so I made a guess on most of reactions questions.

PAT
Many people have shared their strategies for this section, so I won’t go into details.
Object Penetrate: Harder than Crack DAT PAT
TFE: Easier the Crack DAT PAT
Angle Ranking: Harder than Crack DAT PAT. I never missed any angle questions on practices, but I hardly tell the answers on some questions.
Hole Punching: Only little easier than Crack DAT PAT. No half hole punching, but there are some folds I’ve never seen in Crack DAT PAT.
Cube Counting: Easier than Crack DAT PAT. Each figure has less than 20 cubes, but there are more figures than practice tests; couple figures contain only 2 questions each.
Pattern Folding: Harder than Crack DAT PAT. Many asymmetry weird-shape structures.

RC
I will post another detailed RC breakdown because some people were wondering how I jumped from 15,15,17 on practice to 22 on the real one.

QR
I am really good on math. I always got above 21 on any practices. The difficulty of this section is about the same as Crack DAT Math but harder than Kaplan BB practice. On the real DAT, there are some factors that affect my performance.
1. They gave me a marker instead of pen and paper, erasing after each questions waste time.
2. They use too many unnecessary words to describe simple questions which cause me so much time to read.
3. There are couple false questions which do not include the correct answer.

Conclusions
Don’t be frustrated if you didn’t do well on the practice tests even most people said the real one is harder. You might do better than the practice on the real one. Here are my scores on practice tests took the days before my exam

BI CH OC PA RC QR TS AA
18 19 18 21 15 20 19 18 <=== Kaplan BB
17 19 23 21 15 22 20 19 <=== ADA sample test
16 16 16 23 17 26 16 18 <=== Kaplan BB CD-ROM​

18 19 17 19 22 20 18 19 <=== Real DAT​


I know my score is not high compared to people here, but I am satisfied with my scores since I was so nervous and had a really bad diarrhea during the test. I believed I can do better next time. I hope this breakdown will be useful for you guys, and good luck to those who is preparing for the exam.

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Hi LibraLin,
From what I have seen on this site I believe your scores are not great, but will be adequate for admission. Thanks for the breakdown.
Congratulations!!!!
Good Luck!
 
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Great breakdown man, I'm sure others will find your advice helpful!
 
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Appreciate the breakdown. Sounds like you did a pretty good job self teaching yourself a lot of information you didn't have great confidence in.
 
"Angle Ranking: Harder than Crack DAT PAT. I never missed any angle questions on practices, but I hardly tell the answers on some questions."

Really? I've heard a lot of people say that the angle ranking on the real DAT is slightly easier than CDP. Some of the angles on CDP vary by about 1-3 degrees. I don't see how they could make it any harder unless they make them vary by a fraction of a degree, lol. You seriously got all of the angle questions right on CDP?
 
"Angle Ranking: Harder than Crack DAT PAT. I never missed any angle questions on practices, but I hardly tell the answers on some questions."

Really? I've heard a lot of people say that the angle ranking on the real DAT is slightly easier than CDP. Some of the angles on CDP vary by about 1-3 degrees. I don't see how they could make it any harder unless they make them vary by a fraction of a degree, lol. You seriously got all of the angle questions right on CDP?

CDP doesnt have any angles smaller than 3 degrees. I think the smallest angle on the DAT was like 4 degrees. I found CDP to be slightly more difficult than the actual DAT. I scored like 1 point higher on the real DAT than I did on my last CDP.
 
Good job dood. Your scores are just about the same as mine. As long as you have a decent gpa you should be good to go. Best of luck
 
Hey I was wondering if you can do RC breakdown! I am struggling with RC getting about 17-18 on practice test. Thank you so much!
 
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