- Joined
- May 23, 2006
- Messages
- 644
- Reaction score
- 1
Life is pretty surreal right now, the excitement is just starting to sink in. Let me try to put my experience into words right now before I forget what just happened.
PAT 23 [98.1]
QR 17 [65.7]
RC 26 [99.1]
BIO 22 [95.7]
GC 22 [90.1]
OC 21 [87.6]
TS 22 [96.0]
AA 22 [96.4]
Undergrad GPA: 3.0
Master GPA: 3.4
Schools: NYU, Columbia, Buffalo, Stony, Maryland, BU, Tuft, Temple, UoP, USC, UMDNJ.
Study Materials: Kaplan Blue Book, Cliff's AP Bio, Shaum's Bio Outline, DAT Destroyer v2008
BIO: I used Kaplan for foundation, and supplemented my studies with Cliff's AP and Shaum's Bio. I found Cliff's to be more relevant to the DATs. Shaum's was a boring read and definitely overkill. Questions on the DAT were quite random but nothing too crazy.
GC: This was my weakest section so I focused more on practice problems to improve my abilities in GC (BTW I hate chemistry). Once again, Kaplan for foundation and hit Destroyer for all the problems since Kaplan lacked a sufficient amount of practice problems. But I have to say, Destroyer is a bit overkill for GC, but if you can go through it without any problems you're golden. On the DAT, the amount of questions was split in the middle with calculations and concepts.
OC: Did I tell you I also hate OC? Yea I dread all types of chemistry, but for the sake of my future I sucked it up and took it like a b1tch. I used Kaplan for foundation and really took the time to just understand the concept behind all the groups and reactants. OC on the DAT was very basic and nothing too extreme, a few special reactants but nothing that Kaplan doesn't cover. I thought Destroyer was overkill for OC so I didn't do much, instead I got familiar with the roadmaps and they did a good job with backing up understanding from Kaplan.
RC: I did two Topscore practice exams and scored 21 and 21 so I just left it at that. For the DAT, I had a handful of inference and tone questions. I tackled the RC section by reading the passages [5-6 minutes per passage] and actually keeping a mental outline in my head. When questions came about I already knew where I had to go to find the answer and just did them as they came. I had 20 minutes left in the end to review my answers.
QR: Topscore was a walk in the park compare to the DAT QR. I used Kaplan again and went through all of Destroyer's section of QR. It didn't help too much. The problems were insane and I was panicking in this section. Time is not your friend! Make sure you keep looking at that timer cause you gotta pace yourself well. My goal was to just answer as many problems as I could and skip the ones I had no clue on.
PAT: I always did well on PAT so I never practiced, took two Topscore practice and got 23 and 23 so I went back on focusing on my science studies. However on the DAT I failed to manage my time efficiently and spent too much time on angles and keyhole, by the time cubes came around I had only 20 minutes left. I did what I could and I'm surprised with my score since I had to rush through pattern folding with 10 minutes remaining. Finished PAT with 4 minutes to spare and went back to a few problems I didn't get to complete. Huge headache after this, I don't think I ever felt this burnt out before, took the whole 15 minutes of desperately needed break.
By the end of the test I didn't know what to expect, I was worried during my break that I didn't do the best I could in TS and PAT. But no point in dreading the past, I just thought to myself that I should pwn the RC and QR to make up for it.
After QR I felt like crap since I had to guess on 10 problems, so I took my time with the survey to delay the results. When those scores popped up on my screen I double pumped my fist and just leaned back with a huge weight off my chest. I was shaking as I went to my locker cause I couldn't believe what just happened. Me? DID I JUST DO THAT?! REALLY?! DAYUM!
Overall: I'm happy =) Good luck to the rest of you guys.
PAT 23 [98.1]
QR 17 [65.7]
RC 26 [99.1]
BIO 22 [95.7]
GC 22 [90.1]
OC 21 [87.6]
TS 22 [96.0]
AA 22 [96.4]
Undergrad GPA: 3.0
Master GPA: 3.4
Schools: NYU, Columbia, Buffalo, Stony, Maryland, BU, Tuft, Temple, UoP, USC, UMDNJ.
Study Materials: Kaplan Blue Book, Cliff's AP Bio, Shaum's Bio Outline, DAT Destroyer v2008
BIO: I used Kaplan for foundation, and supplemented my studies with Cliff's AP and Shaum's Bio. I found Cliff's to be more relevant to the DATs. Shaum's was a boring read and definitely overkill. Questions on the DAT were quite random but nothing too crazy.
GC: This was my weakest section so I focused more on practice problems to improve my abilities in GC (BTW I hate chemistry). Once again, Kaplan for foundation and hit Destroyer for all the problems since Kaplan lacked a sufficient amount of practice problems. But I have to say, Destroyer is a bit overkill for GC, but if you can go through it without any problems you're golden. On the DAT, the amount of questions was split in the middle with calculations and concepts.
OC: Did I tell you I also hate OC? Yea I dread all types of chemistry, but for the sake of my future I sucked it up and took it like a b1tch. I used Kaplan for foundation and really took the time to just understand the concept behind all the groups and reactants. OC on the DAT was very basic and nothing too extreme, a few special reactants but nothing that Kaplan doesn't cover. I thought Destroyer was overkill for OC so I didn't do much, instead I got familiar with the roadmaps and they did a good job with backing up understanding from Kaplan.
RC: I did two Topscore practice exams and scored 21 and 21 so I just left it at that. For the DAT, I had a handful of inference and tone questions. I tackled the RC section by reading the passages [5-6 minutes per passage] and actually keeping a mental outline in my head. When questions came about I already knew where I had to go to find the answer and just did them as they came. I had 20 minutes left in the end to review my answers.
QR: Topscore was a walk in the park compare to the DAT QR. I used Kaplan again and went through all of Destroyer's section of QR. It didn't help too much. The problems were insane and I was panicking in this section. Time is not your friend! Make sure you keep looking at that timer cause you gotta pace yourself well. My goal was to just answer as many problems as I could and skip the ones I had no clue on.
PAT: I always did well on PAT so I never practiced, took two Topscore practice and got 23 and 23 so I went back on focusing on my science studies. However on the DAT I failed to manage my time efficiently and spent too much time on angles and keyhole, by the time cubes came around I had only 20 minutes left. I did what I could and I'm surprised with my score since I had to rush through pattern folding with 10 minutes remaining. Finished PAT with 4 minutes to spare and went back to a few problems I didn't get to complete. Huge headache after this, I don't think I ever felt this burnt out before, took the whole 15 minutes of desperately needed break.
By the end of the test I didn't know what to expect, I was worried during my break that I didn't do the best I could in TS and PAT. But no point in dreading the past, I just thought to myself that I should pwn the RC and QR to make up for it.
After QR I felt like crap since I had to guess on 10 problems, so I took my time with the survey to delay the results. When those scores popped up on my screen I double pumped my fist and just leaned back with a huge weight off my chest. I was shaking as I went to my locker cause I couldn't believe what just happened. Me? DID I JUST DO THAT?! REALLY?! DAYUM!
Overall: I'm happy =) Good luck to the rest of you guys.
