7.19 DAT Finished! Long Breakdown inside.

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PAT: 20 (79.0)
QR: 21 (96.4)
RC: 22 (84.4)
Bio: 24 (98.9)
GC: 20 (79.8)
OC: 23 (94.4)

TS: 22 (95.6)
AA: 22 (97.0)

Over the past month, I’ve been reading every breakdown by fellow SDNers, so suffice it to say, I’m really excited to write my breakdown. I’m a non-traditional student and graduated in 2007. I was a pre-med student up until my last year in college, and decided to switch tracks and use my econ degree to get a job in banking. I found that the corporate world really sucks (minus the money), and decided to go back into the health care field. After shadowing a few dentists in the area, I realized dentistry was right for me. I haven’t applied yet, but will be submitting in a few days.

Anyways, after a month of studying, here’s the breakdown:

PAT - CDP
I took 7/10 CDP tests and started with a 15. In about a week and a half, taking tests every day, I started averaging around the low 20s. CDP is definitely a must especially for timing. Keyholes were harder, TFE was comparable, angles seemed easier, hole punching was ridiculously easy, and pattern folding was easier because they didn’t have as many patterns.

QR - Math Destroyer
This section was super easy. Thanks to CANgnome for the math cheat sheet http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=748252 The cheat sheet helped on a few problems. Basic trig questions, quite a few straightforward problems that you could just number crunch with the calculator (a little lag), a few velocity and distance problems, exponentials. Definitely get the Math Destroyer. Also, I highly recommend skipping long word problems and saving them until the end after you take a quick glance at the problem and don’t know the route of solving it off the bat.

RC – Crack Dat Reading, Topscore
I was definitely afraid of getting pianoed and luckily I didn’t. I thought I would score higher since all the questions with the exception of a few tone ones were solvable from S&D. My strategy was to: look at all the questions first, to see how many questions were tone and how many were detailed oriented. If 95% of the passage was just S&D type of questions, I would skim through the entire passage and then answer each question one by one. If the passage had a few tone questions, I would read through the entire passage a little slower. Passages were: fungi, morals. mesenchyme. CDR was good for timing and tone type of questions. Topscore was very similar in terms of S&Ding (unless you get pianoed!)

Bio - Cliffs AP, KBB, Alan’s Notes, Campbells
I bought the destroyer but didn’t use it for this section because I’ve heard it’s overkill. I was really surprised by my score and expected bio to be my lowest score since I’ve only taken the general bio courses in college. A few taxonomy questions, 1 plant, genetics, cell organelles, a few physiology.

GC - Chad, Destroyer
Definitely thought I’d do better in this section. My version was pretty calculation intensive, so that might be why. Know how to balance equations, molarity, PV=NRT, and colligative factors.

OC - Chad, Destroyer
OC is a strength of mine so I was glad to get a good score in this section to make up for my lower GC score. Overall, it was pretty straightforward. Know your SN1,SN2, E1, and E2 although I did not have any questions that tested on the differences between those mechanisms. I had a few aromatic, carbonyl, and lab technique questions as well.

Topscore & Destroyer
I completed 1 full length test, and just the natural science part for test 2. In hindsight, if I had more time, I would have completed a test a week leading up to your test to simulate test day conditions. Practice tests are a must to help refine your test taking skills and timing.

Destroyer for GC and OC was great, didn’t go through the bio part so I can’t say much about it.

I would also like to thank everyone on these forums for their suggestions and insight into what to use! The materials above should have plenty to get a 20+ score if you study hard.

 

[kevinrho]

Awesome score everything above 20! I wish I would get these scores.

 

[MowgliR]

What were your CDR scores?

Did you read all of Campbells or used it as a reference?

Is there anything that you would add to the QR sheet that you think might have helped you?



Thanks and nice scores!

 

[marymatthews]

what sucks about the corporate world?

 

[revoapparel]

In regards to the corporate world, I guess I'm looking for a little more freedom, working with my hands, type of career.

FOR QR, Math Destroyer has a great cheat sheet included with it, but does not have any unit conversions. I did not getting any complex trig identity questions. Area questions regarding squares and circles were easy. Nothing about the QR part is hard; you just have to use wise time management and skip the questions that you are having trouble with immediately. It's all about maximizing time and not dwelling too much on a question.

For Bio, I skimmed through campbells and mainly read over the pictures and diagrams. I definitely got lucky on bio as I didn't have many plants, taxonomy questions.

For CDR, I was averaging 22-23. CDR doesn't have many S&D type of questions, which tend to take a good amount of time. Topscore has just about the right number of detail questions.

 

[Simple Jack]

good job! we got the exact same scores for QR, BIO, and GC
I took mine on Saturday the 17th. We both got the calculation-intensive GC version, I was totally hoping for the conceptual version too b/c conceptual chemistry is awesome.

 

[UnimaasMED]

PAT: 20 (79.0)
QR: 21 (96.4)
RC: 22 (84.4)
Bio: 24 (98.9)
GC: 20 (79.8)
OC: 23 (94.4)

TS: 22 (95.6)
AA: 22 (97.0)

Over the past month, I’ve been reading every breakdown by fellow SDNers, so suffice it to say, I’m really excited to write my breakdown. I’m a non-traditional student and graduated in 2007. I was a pre-med student up until my last year in college, and decided to switch tracks and use my econ degree to get a job in banking. I found that the corporate world really sucks (minus the money), and decided to go back into the health care field. After shadowing a few dentists in the area, I realized dentistry was right for me. I haven’t applied yet, but will be submitting in a few days.

Anyways, after a month of studying, here’s the breakdown:

PAT - CDP
I took 7/10 CDP tests and started with a 15. In about a week and a half, taking tests every day, I started averaging around the low 20s. CDP is definitely a must especially for timing. Keyholes were harder, TFE was comparable, angles seemed easier, hole punching was ridiculously easy, and pattern folding was easier because they didn’t have as many patterns.

QR - Math Destroyer
This section was super easy. Thanks to CANgnome for the math cheat sheet http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=748252 The cheat sheet helped on a few problems. Basic trig questions, quite a few straightforward problems that you could just number crunch with the calculator (a little lag), a few velocity and distance problems, exponentials. Definitely get the Math Destroyer. Also, I highly recommend skipping long word problems and saving them until the end after you take a quick glance at the problem and don’t know the route of solving it off the bat.

RC – Crack Dat Reading, Topscore
I was definitely afraid of getting pianoed and luckily I didn’t. I thought I would score higher since all the questions with the exception of a few tone ones were solvable from S&D. My strategy was to: look at all the questions first, to see how many questions were tone and how many were detailed oriented. If 95% of the passage was just S&D type of questions, I would skim through the entire passage and then answer each question one by one. If the passage had a few tone questions, I would read through the entire passage a little slower. Passages were: fungi, morals. mesenchyme. CDR was good for timing and tone type of questions. Topscore was very similar in terms of S&Ding (unless you get pianoed!)

Bio - Cliffs AP, KBB, Alan’s Notes, Campbells
I bought the destroyer but didn’t use it for this section because I’ve heard it’s overkill. I was really surprised by my score and expected bio to be my lowest score since I’ve only taken the general bio courses in college. A few taxonomy questions, 1 plant, genetics, cell organelles, a few physiology.

GC - Chad, Destroyer
Definitely thought I’d do better in this section. My version was pretty calculation intensive, so that might be why. Know how to balance equations, molarity, PV=NRT, and colligative factors.

OC - Chad, Destroyer
OC is a strength of mine so I was glad to get a good score in this section to make up for my lower GC score. Overall, it was pretty straightforward. Know your SN1,SN2, E1, and E2 although I did not have any questions that tested on the differences between those mechanisms. I had a few aromatic, carbonyl, and lab technique questions as well.

Topscore & Destroyer
I completed 1 full length test, and just the natural science part for test 2. In hindsight, if I had more time, I would have completed a test a week leading up to your test to simulate test day conditions. Practice tests are a must to help refine your test taking skills and timing.

Destroyer for GC and OC was great, didn’t go through the bio part so I can’t say much about it.

I would also like to thank everyone on these forums for their suggestions and insight into what to use! The materials above should have plenty to get a 20+ score if you study hard.

Good job👍 Could you please post your scores on topscore?

 

[mx41]

How does the real DAT compare to the math destroyer book? Is it harder, easier?
Did you go through all the PAT tests (I believe there's 10)?

 

[TexasDDS]

where are alan's notes?