I just got done with the test and overall I thought it was good. For the past month and a half I really only studied for 30 minutes a day maybe 3 days a week(on a good week). I unfortunately just didn't have much time.I was only able to really start studying for it about 5 days ago (I started on monday). I put in about 6 hours on monday, 7 hours on tuesday, 7 on wed, 7 on thurs, and about 2 on friday. I took 3 practice tests, one about 2 months ago(got 16 AA,19 PAT), one on monday (17 AA, 20 PAT) and one on thursday (18 AA, 20 PAT). The only resource that I used was Kaplans book and online resources.
PA 18
QR 19
RC 25
BIO 20
GC 19
OC 20
TS 20
AA 20
Perceptual Ability- By far the hardest for me on this test. I was relieved to have gotten an 18....and that says a lot because I was shooting for lower 20's. I didn't really study this section(Which is why this took me by surprise), other than the practice tests. This was mainly because I was getting around 20 without a problem. Kaplans TFE, keyhole, folding, and cube counting were all pretty similar to the test. The 2 huge differences though were angle ranking and hole punch. At times I thought all 4 of the angles were the exact same...I never seemed to have this problem on my kaplan tests. Also, the hole punch was much harder. There were folds I didn't think they could even do on my test....I really should have gotten crackdat PAT but with my limited time, I was focusing much more on my sciences. I wasn't able to finish the section and was left with about 15 problems. (I bubbled them in, but I did so randomly)
Quantitative Reasoning- I was a little surprised by my 19. I normally got at least a 20 on my tests and the kaplan tests seemed pretty representative of the test. I didn't feel the section was especially difficult but I still didn't do very well in it. One area I think I could easily improve on.
Reading Comprehension- This was something I never have had an issue with. I always got around a 25 on my tests, and sometimes higher. This was pretty much exactly like the kaplan tests.
Biology- I studied this Friday night. Skimmed through the Kaplan book and took a few practice questions. I have a good biology background so I wasn't too worried. I actually thought that the kaplan practice tests were harder than the real DAT. I'm a little surprised I only got a 20 because there weren't really any questions that truly stumped me.
Gen Chem- This was the science that I was most worried about. I studied this on mainly on tuesday. The Kaplan test was pretty representative of the real test though. There seemed to be more calculations on kaplan than the real DAT though.
Organic Chem-I studied this mainly on wednesday. I thought the kaplan test was harder than the test as well. The DAT didn't really have many hard problems.
Overall I'm happy. It could have gone much much worse with only 5 days of studying. I also had some timing issues that I never had with the practice tests. I wasn't able to look over any questions in the science and PAT sections and I think some of the questions may have went unanswered(not on purpose). The only reason I think this may have happened because in the RC section I got done with 5 minutes left and there were 3 questions that I know I answered but were left blank. This happened with 2 question on the math section as well. Unfortunate but nothing you can do about it.
The kaplan materials were great. The only thing that I think kaplan materials did not do a good enough job with is the Angle ranking and hole punching. So getting crackdat PAT would be one thing I wish I would have done if I had the time. Other than that it was really good. I'm thinking about retaking it in 3 months though. The main reason being the 18 on the PAT. I was hoping I would get a little higher than that. There also really weren't many questions that I had no idea about in the science section and I think I could raise the Bio, orgo and especially gen chem up at least a point. I think the RC would stay relatively the same and my qr I could probably get up a point or two. Are there any negatives to retaking the test? Does it look bad to the schools if you retake the DAT and and it stays the same (or goes down)?
Now its off to finish all of the supplemental applications. Goodluck to everyone else!
PA 18
QR 19
RC 25
BIO 20
GC 19
OC 20
TS 20
AA 20
Perceptual Ability- By far the hardest for me on this test. I was relieved to have gotten an 18....and that says a lot because I was shooting for lower 20's. I didn't really study this section(Which is why this took me by surprise), other than the practice tests. This was mainly because I was getting around 20 without a problem. Kaplans TFE, keyhole, folding, and cube counting were all pretty similar to the test. The 2 huge differences though were angle ranking and hole punch. At times I thought all 4 of the angles were the exact same...I never seemed to have this problem on my kaplan tests. Also, the hole punch was much harder. There were folds I didn't think they could even do on my test....I really should have gotten crackdat PAT but with my limited time, I was focusing much more on my sciences. I wasn't able to finish the section and was left with about 15 problems. (I bubbled them in, but I did so randomly)
Quantitative Reasoning- I was a little surprised by my 19. I normally got at least a 20 on my tests and the kaplan tests seemed pretty representative of the test. I didn't feel the section was especially difficult but I still didn't do very well in it. One area I think I could easily improve on.
Reading Comprehension- This was something I never have had an issue with. I always got around a 25 on my tests, and sometimes higher. This was pretty much exactly like the kaplan tests.
Biology- I studied this Friday night. Skimmed through the Kaplan book and took a few practice questions. I have a good biology background so I wasn't too worried. I actually thought that the kaplan practice tests were harder than the real DAT. I'm a little surprised I only got a 20 because there weren't really any questions that truly stumped me.
Gen Chem- This was the science that I was most worried about. I studied this on mainly on tuesday. The Kaplan test was pretty representative of the real test though. There seemed to be more calculations on kaplan than the real DAT though.
Organic Chem-I studied this mainly on wednesday. I thought the kaplan test was harder than the test as well. The DAT didn't really have many hard problems.
Overall I'm happy. It could have gone much much worse with only 5 days of studying. I also had some timing issues that I never had with the practice tests. I wasn't able to look over any questions in the science and PAT sections and I think some of the questions may have went unanswered(not on purpose). The only reason I think this may have happened because in the RC section I got done with 5 minutes left and there were 3 questions that I know I answered but were left blank. This happened with 2 question on the math section as well. Unfortunate but nothing you can do about it.
The kaplan materials were great. The only thing that I think kaplan materials did not do a good enough job with is the Angle ranking and hole punching. So getting crackdat PAT would be one thing I wish I would have done if I had the time. Other than that it was really good. I'm thinking about retaking it in 3 months though. The main reason being the 18 on the PAT. I was hoping I would get a little higher than that. There also really weren't many questions that I had no idea about in the science section and I think I could raise the Bio, orgo and especially gen chem up at least a point. I think the RC would stay relatively the same and my qr I could probably get up a point or two. Are there any negatives to retaking the test? Does it look bad to the schools if you retake the DAT and and it stays the same (or goes down)?
Now its off to finish all of the supplemental applications. Goodluck to everyone else!
Last edited: