Just realized this should read 5/24/2011 as well... guess my brain is thoroughly fried, haha
Hey guys, been lurking on here a while and I just got done with my DAT, so I thought I'd post my thoughts/advice for all of ya'll.
PA: 20
QR: 18
RC:20
Bio:20
GC:22
OC:21
TS:21
AA:20
Happy overall, I didn't have the time to really shoot for a mid 20 score. I only had about 3 weeks to study, but here were my thoughts about each section:
Biology: This section floored me when I saw it. It really convinced me that I had wasted most of my studying on biology. It wasn't very difficult, but it was minute detail that I would never consider important, or dig through the book to find. Overall, a 20 isn't that hard to get, but getting into the high 20s seems more like luck of the draw than it should be to me (and that isn't to discredit any of you making high 20s on this, just a personal observation). Used Kaplan Blue Book, Schaum's, and Cliff's for this.
General Chemistry: To me, this section is where you can beef up your science score. I really don't have an excuse for not getting a 25 or so here. The section is extremely straightforward, and none of the calculations are challenging. I used nothing but the kaplan blue book for this, and was still kind of surprised when I got done that I hadn't got a bit higher. Had to have been a silly mistake on a problem or two.
Organic: This was my biggest worry, I got a 16 on my last top score test in this. I felt like I got very lucky, this section was very easy. There were some NMR based questions that I wish I had reviewed more, but overall very manageable. I highly recommend the Ohio State flashcard website for the reactions here. For concepts I just skimmed through the Kaplan book, I remembered most of it from Organic 1 from a few semesters back, but my reaction recollection was very rusty.
PA: I'll just say that I was surprised by the difficulty of this. I thought top scores were very easy, but I struggled through this one. I found Pattern Folding was easier on the test than Top Score, Key Holes were roughly equivalent, and angles were roughly equivalent. Cubes are just cubes, nothing tricky. What surprised me were the key holes. I had no study material that adequately exposed me to this section. I was missing one key hole per PA section on top score, but I feel like it was a LOT more difficult on the real test, but still not impossibly hard, you just have to be more efficient.
RC: I got piano'ed I guess. I assume it is the passage everyone refers to, but I didn't really think it was that difficult. I thought it was roughly equivalent to the difficulty of the other two I had. Search and destroy was the main methodology for me, though I did skim through the passages first. When I saw I got the piano passage, I actually read through it first. I was very surprised I didn't make higher here. Apparently ever question I was 50/50 on went the wrong way, ha! (Isn't that always how it goes?)
QR: This was my biggest disappointment. There is really no reason to not be able to get a 20 here. I did very well on all my practice tests on top score, but they were not representative of what showed up. I found most of the problems on the real test more engaging, though not difficult. Efficiency is the key here. They had a greater variety of problems than I was expecting, and I wasn't efficient enough to finish everything. Skimming through Kaplan and topscore tests were my only preparation here.
Overall, I found the test to be more difficult than I was expecting, and I found it easy to get discouraged when you hit questions you don't know when it is the real test. Of course, my scores are nothing special, but I thought I'd give you guys a different perspective on it anyway, while it is fresh on my mind. I assure you all, if I can make these scores, anyone can, haha 🙂
Sorry for the rant, just wanted to be thorough.
Hey guys, been lurking on here a while and I just got done with my DAT, so I thought I'd post my thoughts/advice for all of ya'll.
PA: 20
QR: 18
RC:20
Bio:20
GC:22
OC:21
TS:21
AA:20
Happy overall, I didn't have the time to really shoot for a mid 20 score. I only had about 3 weeks to study, but here were my thoughts about each section:
Biology: This section floored me when I saw it. It really convinced me that I had wasted most of my studying on biology. It wasn't very difficult, but it was minute detail that I would never consider important, or dig through the book to find. Overall, a 20 isn't that hard to get, but getting into the high 20s seems more like luck of the draw than it should be to me (and that isn't to discredit any of you making high 20s on this, just a personal observation). Used Kaplan Blue Book, Schaum's, and Cliff's for this.
General Chemistry: To me, this section is where you can beef up your science score. I really don't have an excuse for not getting a 25 or so here. The section is extremely straightforward, and none of the calculations are challenging. I used nothing but the kaplan blue book for this, and was still kind of surprised when I got done that I hadn't got a bit higher. Had to have been a silly mistake on a problem or two.
Organic: This was my biggest worry, I got a 16 on my last top score test in this. I felt like I got very lucky, this section was very easy. There were some NMR based questions that I wish I had reviewed more, but overall very manageable. I highly recommend the Ohio State flashcard website for the reactions here. For concepts I just skimmed through the Kaplan book, I remembered most of it from Organic 1 from a few semesters back, but my reaction recollection was very rusty.
PA: I'll just say that I was surprised by the difficulty of this. I thought top scores were very easy, but I struggled through this one. I found Pattern Folding was easier on the test than Top Score, Key Holes were roughly equivalent, and angles were roughly equivalent. Cubes are just cubes, nothing tricky. What surprised me were the key holes. I had no study material that adequately exposed me to this section. I was missing one key hole per PA section on top score, but I feel like it was a LOT more difficult on the real test, but still not impossibly hard, you just have to be more efficient.
RC: I got piano'ed I guess. I assume it is the passage everyone refers to, but I didn't really think it was that difficult. I thought it was roughly equivalent to the difficulty of the other two I had. Search and destroy was the main methodology for me, though I did skim through the passages first. When I saw I got the piano passage, I actually read through it first. I was very surprised I didn't make higher here. Apparently ever question I was 50/50 on went the wrong way, ha! (Isn't that always how it goes?)
QR: This was my biggest disappointment. There is really no reason to not be able to get a 20 here. I did very well on all my practice tests on top score, but they were not representative of what showed up. I found most of the problems on the real test more engaging, though not difficult. Efficiency is the key here. They had a greater variety of problems than I was expecting, and I wasn't efficient enough to finish everything. Skimming through Kaplan and topscore tests were my only preparation here.
Overall, I found the test to be more difficult than I was expecting, and I found it easy to get discouraged when you hit questions you don't know when it is the real test. Of course, my scores are nothing special, but I thought I'd give you guys a different perspective on it anyway, while it is fresh on my mind. I assure you all, if I can make these scores, anyone can, haha 🙂
Sorry for the rant, just wanted to be thorough.
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