about 2 weeks out, starting to feel the pressure

[TXpredent]

Hi yall,

I'm about 2 weeks out (take it on May 13th) and it finally hit me this morning. As of right now, I've "completed" the Kaplan course, gone through all of Chad's videos at least once, and finished the Destroyer once, and taken notes on top of Alan's bio notes from the KBB. I'm about 25% of the way through it a second time. I'm getting a little better, before I was only getting about 50% or less correct and now I get about 70-80% correct. What did yall do about 2 weeks out? I need a good review day in the next couple of days to go over some old stuff I'm not so clear on again. I've got another Kaplan Full length exam or two left as well, I'll probably take those soon. I have like another 7 CDPAT's which I really need to get on. Out of the 3 I've done I'm only averaging an 18.

Oh I just thought of something, I just started the Math Destroyer, after doing the QR sections on the Kaplan test and the QR section in the DAT destroyer, I was really confident. The first Math Destroyer test exposed a TON of weaknesses and I'm really worried now. How did the QR on the real DAT compare? There's stuff on there I haven't seen in like 6 years (late high school).

I might get Achiever or TopScore too, do yall have any preferences?

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[OUDent88]

The math on the real thing is a bit easier then the math destroyer. If you're looking for a program to take full practice tests then go with topscore all the way. Doing achiever 2 weeks before your test is just asking for trouble haha

Hi yall,

I'm about 2 weeks out (take it on May 13th) and it finally hit me this morning. As of right now, I've "completed" the Kaplan course, gone through all of Chad's videos at least once, and finished the Destroyer once, and taken notes on top of Alan's bio notes from the KBB. I'm about 25% of the way through it a second time. I'm getting a little better, before I was only getting about 50% or less correct and now I get about 70-80% correct. What did yall do about 2 weeks out? I need a good review day in the next couple of days to go over some old stuff I'm not so clear on again. I've got another Kaplan Full length exam or two left as well, I'll probably take those soon. I have like another 7 CDPAT's which I really need to get on. Out of the 3 I've done I'm only averaging an 18.

Oh I just thought of something, I just started the Math Destroyer, after doing the QR sections on the Kaplan test and the QR section in the DAT destroyer, I was really confident. The first Math Destroyer test exposed a TON of weaknesses and I'm really worried now. How did the QR on the real DAT compare? There's stuff on there I haven't seen in like 6 years (late high school).

I might get Achiever or TopScore too, do yall have any preferences?

 

[njohns24]

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[JonLee]

Hi yall,

I'm about 2 weeks out (take it on May 13th) and it finally hit me this morning. As of right now, I've "completed" the Kaplan course, gone through all of Chad's videos at least once, and finished the Destroyer once, and taken notes on top of Alan's bio notes from the KBB. I'm about 25% of the way through it a second time. I'm getting a little better, before I was only getting about 50% or less correct and now I get about 70-80% correct. What did yall do about 2 weeks out? I need a good review day in the next couple of days to go over some old stuff I'm not so clear on again. I've got another Kaplan Full length exam or two left as well, I'll probably take those soon. I have like another 7 CDPAT's which I really need to get on. Out of the 3 I've done I'm only averaging an 18.

Oh I just thought of something, I just started the Math Destroyer, after doing the QR sections on the Kaplan test and the QR section in the DAT destroyer, I was really confident. The first Math Destroyer test exposed a TON of weaknesses and I'm really worried now. How did the QR on the real DAT compare? There's stuff on there I haven't seen in like 6 years (late high school).

I might get Achiever or TopScore too, do yall have any preferences?

2 weeks out from my DAT was spring break. I spent an average of 6 productive hours studying. A friend of mine recommended me to know the DAT destroyer inside out and I would be good for the SNS. He was right. It is a lot harder than the real thing. I spent about 4 days going through Destroyer and making note cards of weak areas.

I also memorized the roadmaps and read OChem as a 2nd language (I and II). My ochem was really rusty two weeks out and I feel those books helped tremendously in refreshing my memory.

For CDP, I just repeatedly did questions for Holepunching and cube counting (got the royal flush). I gave up on angle ranking cause it was just too hard to get 70-80% consistently at the toughest level. From what I remember, the angles on the real thing was easier than the hardest difficulty on CDP. Still pretty tough though.

I also went through Samsa's and 2thDMD's PAT tutorial threads and made sure to understand all the questions in it.
(http://acedat.blogspot.com/p/perceptual-ability-test.html)

I found that I remembered a lot more math than i gave myself credit for. I was a beast at computation and reasoning problems in high school, so thankfully it sticked with me. Trig screwed me over, but if you get like 25+ questions right on the QR you are golden.

You definitely don't have enough time to do everything you mentioned and learn everything well (well you might, everyone has their own pace, but that's a lot of stuff for two weeks).

I'd def recommend focusing on areas you are weak in and just ignoring things you remember instantly.

Good luck! I know how it feels!

Oh yea, definitely recommend taking a sleeping pill or two the night before. Trust me, you will have a hard time sleeping.

I wish i listened to the SDNer's that told me that. I only got 3 hours of sleep 0.o
But the adrenaline really keeps you goign throughout the test!

 

[TXpredent]

Thanks for the tips guys, I just did a CDPAT today and totally got destroyed. I didn't even finish in time. I guess I'll take a look at those PAT tutorials again, that's what I get for leaving it alone for like week. The only ray of light in today's PAT was that I improved on keyholes and angles and almost did as good on hole punches as I normally do even though skipped half of the questions bc I ran out of time.

I'll probably go back and do each section individually on that test.

 

[Dentgrl2984]

So I am feeling kind of down right now. This will be the second time I take the DAT and I have been studying for a little over 2 months and I have been doing Crack DAT Science tests and I am not scoring too well. Some of the problems on the gen chem section look foreign to me. Some of them I don't even know what they are asking. But I am doing well on the destroyer problems. I have done chad's videos, and read KBB and Barrons Chem, so I am not understanding why I am not performing well. In addition to feeling more prepared this time around than last. Any feedback???

 

[TXpredent]

I've never used Crack DAT science, but have you taken a practice exam yet? Like the 2007 ADA DAT or TopScore or Achiever?

 

[Dentgrl2984]

Crack DAT is a software for practice exams. But I was thinking about getting Topscore to get more practice. I can't redo the exams since I easily remember the answers.

 

[Dentgrl2984]

Ok so I did a search on the crack dat science and saw there were alot of people in my same situation. I will no longer be using this for science tests, instead I just ordered Topscore. I was seriously on the verge of a major meltdown but then I saw other threads and now I feel better

 

[TXpredent]

back to the original topic....

 

[dymm]

Hey man, I know you're probably a little scatter brained right now and just wanting to be most time effective. So here's what you need to do. I know it's hard to let go and quit "learning/studying" bc that's what makes most sense and that's what we've always done in college etc but standardized tests are dif. They test more than your knowledge. They test your test taking ability aka practice. Trust me, I know. I have taken this thing before and I see you making my mistakes if you're not careful. I can already tell you from the things you've mentioned and just the fact that these last 2 wks will fly by that you won't have enuf time for it all. What you need to start doing is practice. THEN go study what weaknesses that practice exploits. Right now you need to start doing one pat and one qr daily, minimal. What I'm doing and what I would advise is to spend at least an hr/day w each topic so it stays fresh. Good luck studying, we're in the homestretch!

+1.

Two weeks prior to the test, I was frantically doing many mini tests (i.e. CDP/CDR full 60 minute tests; math destroyer tests) under timed conditions. I was also going through gen/o-chem Destroyer for the 3rd or 4th time.
9-10 days prior to the test, I simulated testing conditions (e.g. taking the test around the same time as my real DAT, using markers, taking the 15 minute break to eat a light snack/stretch, etc.) and took one practice test per 1-2 days.

I didn't take the Kaplan course so I don't know how you have prepared in regards to that. But I would recommend topscore and achiever if you are running out of Kaplan practice tests to take. I also noticed that you are aware of the ADA 07 and 09 practice tests so you could take those also. That's like 8 practice tests not counting Kaplan ones.. so you should be golden in terms of test stamina and pacing if you took all or most of them. Also please do not stress over the actual gory details of the scores you will be getting from these tests (esp. achiever) unless they are like <16/17 or something, which in that case I would take more time studying/taking timed tests, and maybe even postpone the DAT date. On the flip side, I scored very similar to my last three topscore tests that I took before the real DAT.

The above info. merely represents my honest opinions, and what I have done to prepare. So please take it with a grain of salt.

Best of luck with the DAT

 

[torobcheh21]

I'm in the same boat...test coming up really soon and I'm feeling the same way. I know this isn't a common problem area for most, but I'm having trouble on the Reading Comp section. I've tried making notes of key words from each paragraph but I end up taking too much time. How successful is the search and destroy method exactly? I'm not the best reader and to comprehend things well I have to go at a pretty slow pace. Do you guys have any suggestions overall?

And for those that have done both kaplan practice tests and the ADA 2009 test, how much does the ADA one differ? I have the kaplan tests but not the ADA ones and I was wondering if it's a must to get the paid ADA test...

Thanks

 

[asdfray]

hey txpredent,

nothing like counting the days till writing the DATs huh? I know exactly how you feel. Just try your best and do all the prep work - you'll do great!

Best of luck!

 

[TXpredent]

asdfray,

yup it's killing me. I'm stressed out about trying to retain everything I've learned so far and trying to keep doing practice tests. I think I'm going to alternate each day doing the Destroyer and a practice test back and forth for the rest of my time. I'll need about 6 practice tests, between the two ADA's, 3 TopScores and my Kaplan ones, I should be fine. Thanks for the pointers!

edit: I just noticed something, are the 2007 and 2009 ADA exams only pdf documents? I thought there was one we could pay for?

torobcheh21,

I use the Kaplan method, it seems to work on their full length exams at least. I just scan everything as fast as possible. Sometimes big science-y words bog me down but I just keep going. Never tried S&D. I score 23-25 on RC on the Kaplan practice exams, hopefully that translates into a good score on the actual DAT.

 

[TXpredent]

welp, I'm taking it Sunday.... tomorrow is the frantic refresher day. Will be doing Kaplan section quizzes and Destroyer all day. Wish me luck folks!

 

[JonLee]

Good luck! You got this!

Looking forward to the breakdown you will do of your awesome scores in a few days

 

[njohns24]

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