- Joined
- Jul 2, 2012
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Pre-Dental
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
.Hi everyone, .
.I took my DAT on August 9, 2012. My scores are: .
.Biology: 20 (91.8%).
.General chemistry: 30 (100.0%).
.Organic chemistry: 24 (97.9%).
.PAT: 22 (93.8%).
.RC: 23 (96.1%).
.QR: 26 (99.8%).
.TS: 23 (99.3%).
.AA: 25 (100.0%) .
.Biology.
.I felt the biology section was on the hard side compared to most bio sections that I had on the practice tests. I studied biology more than o-chem and g-chem, but this ended up being my lowest score. I remember there were a few random/ tricky questions. I marked about 10 questions and there were 5 questions that I was really unsure about. I think I ended up getting 6 wrong on this section. .
.General Chemistry.
.The general chemistry section was pretty easy. The computational questions were fairly straightforward. Altogether, there were maybe 2 tricky questions. I was really unsure about one question, but I was able to narrow this question down to 3 choices and pretty much guessed. Overall, I felt that my practice materials were good preparation..
.Organic Chemistry.
.The o-chem section was pretty straightforward. I had about 2-3 tricky questions. I think I got one queshad one question on IR and C13 NMR that I guessed on and probably got wrong. The other question I definitely got wrong was an annoying question asking for the name of a fairly obscure reaction that was never asked about in any of my practice materials. Overall, I felt that my practice materials were good preparation..
.I felt that I went through the science section a more slowly and cautiously than I did for most of my practice exams, but I still had about 20 minutes to check over all the questions on the science section. .
.Perceptual Ability Section.
.The PAT section was average in difficulty compared to my practice materials. I had about 5 minutes left to check over my marked questions. I did two PAT tests from CRACKDAT the days leading up to the exam and got a 22 on both of these practice tests. I ended up getting the same exact score so I think CRACKDAT is a good indicator for this section. .
.Reading Comprehension.
.The reading comprehension section was average in difficulty compared to my practice materials. I've definitely had much more difficult reading passages from Achiever (by far the hardest!) and QVault (some were hard because they were longer >20 paragraphs) where I didn't even finish on time. However, I think my RC might have been harder than some other ADA test since my percentile (96.1%) was higher than others with a 23 on this section (most I've seen have 89ish% with a 23). My passages were on neuroscience, the effect of exercise on mental health, and the relationship between genes and cancer. My strategy was to read all the questions first. I wrote down keywords for each question. This took me about 3.5-4 minutes. I read the passage in about 6 minutes. While I was reading, I jotted down the paragraph number corresponding to keywords from question stems. Although this method was a bit risky since you losing quite a bit of time upfront, I felt that I was able to find the answers fairly quickly after reading the entire passage. I ended up finishing with about a minute. I didn't have any time to check my answers, but I only marked about 7 questions and was confident about getting a 21 or higher. .
.Quantitative Reasoning.
.I was a little tired by the time I got to the QR section. I usually look forward to QR since it is my strongest section and I usually finish with about 10-15 minutes on my practice tests. However, I ended up taking too much time in the beginning because my mind was a bit lethargic in the beginning. I had to pick up the pace later on since I was on question 30 with 10 minutes left. I remember feeling panicky since I felt that I was running out of time. I had 6-7 questions that I marked with 3 minutes left to go. I was able to figure out most questions before time finished. I ended up getting one question wrong that was fairly simple. I was unsure about how to do the other question I got wrong. Overall, I felt this section was slightly harder than average, but I definitely had harder QR sections on Achiever. .
.I studied at the beginning of June till my test date in August. For the first month, I just reviewed concepts and did some PAT test from CRACK DAT. In the second month, I did a practice test almost every other day. I used Kaplan's blue book, Barron's DAT, DAT destroyer, math destroyer, DAT achiever (7 test version), DAT Topscore, Crackdat PAT (10 test version), DATQVAULT, ADA materials (2007 free test and 2009 test), and Cliff's Biology. I felt that all the materials that I used were quite helpful. In particular, I would recommend MATH DESTROYER, DAT destroyer for o-chem, DAT Topscore, DATQVAULT, and ADA materials. DAT Achiever was good to get a feel for the worst, but was about 2 levels harder than the real thing. .
.At the end of the day, I was more than happy with my scores. I was shooting for a 22+. I only scored a 25 or higher on 2 practice exams and most of my scores were around the 21-22 range. I believe the ingredients to achieving a 25+ are good preparation and a little bit of luck (if I had to take the DAT again, I think I could get a 22+, but I'm not sure I good get a 25+ again). .
.My scores from DAT Topscore were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test
22/23/20/20/22/24/22/22/ test 1.
.22/19/21/22/23/26/21/22/ test 2.
.21/25/20/21/23/26/22/23/ test 3
..
My scores from DAT Achiever were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test
19/20/23/17/15/30/21/21/ test 1.
.19/17/17/18/17/22/18/18/ test 2.
.19/17/17/18/17/22/18/18/ test 3.
.17/17/18/17/17/19/17/18/ test 4.
.15/15/15/18/16/20/15/16/ test 5.
.17/20/20/17/22/16/19/19/ test 6.
.19/17/18/18/18/19/18/18/ test 7.
.My scores from Kaplan blue book were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test .
.20/18/25/21/20/26/20/22/ test 1 (book).
.19/19/21/21/19/22/20/20/ test 2 (online).
.My scores from Barrons book were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test.
.24/25/25/20/22/26/25/24/ test A.
.22/23/25/20/22/29/23/25/ test B.
.My scores from ADA exams were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test.
.22/28/30/22/23/26/27/26/ 2007 test.
.22/20/23/22/22/23/22/22/ 2009 test.
.My scores from DATQVAULT were:.
.Biology: 22, 22, 22, 22, 20, 18, 19, 20, 18, 19.
.G-chem: 24, 29, 20, 26, 26, 22, 24, 21, 22, 26.
.O-chem: 22, 21, 24, 24, 20, 20, 19, 24, 19, 24.
.RC: 22, 22, 20, 18, 20, 21, 21.
.QR: 30, 27, 30, 23, 30, 30, 30, 27, 27, 30.
.I hope this DAT Breakdown helps anyone preparing to take the DAT. Let me know if you have any questions! 🙂 .
.I took my DAT on August 9, 2012. My scores are: .
.Biology: 20 (91.8%).
.General chemistry: 30 (100.0%).
.Organic chemistry: 24 (97.9%).
.PAT: 22 (93.8%).
.RC: 23 (96.1%).
.QR: 26 (99.8%).
.TS: 23 (99.3%).
.AA: 25 (100.0%) .
.Biology.
.I felt the biology section was on the hard side compared to most bio sections that I had on the practice tests. I studied biology more than o-chem and g-chem, but this ended up being my lowest score. I remember there were a few random/ tricky questions. I marked about 10 questions and there were 5 questions that I was really unsure about. I think I ended up getting 6 wrong on this section. .
.General Chemistry.
.The general chemistry section was pretty easy. The computational questions were fairly straightforward. Altogether, there were maybe 2 tricky questions. I was really unsure about one question, but I was able to narrow this question down to 3 choices and pretty much guessed. Overall, I felt that my practice materials were good preparation..
.Organic Chemistry.
.The o-chem section was pretty straightforward. I had about 2-3 tricky questions. I think I got one queshad one question on IR and C13 NMR that I guessed on and probably got wrong. The other question I definitely got wrong was an annoying question asking for the name of a fairly obscure reaction that was never asked about in any of my practice materials. Overall, I felt that my practice materials were good preparation..
.I felt that I went through the science section a more slowly and cautiously than I did for most of my practice exams, but I still had about 20 minutes to check over all the questions on the science section. .
.Perceptual Ability Section.
.The PAT section was average in difficulty compared to my practice materials. I had about 5 minutes left to check over my marked questions. I did two PAT tests from CRACKDAT the days leading up to the exam and got a 22 on both of these practice tests. I ended up getting the same exact score so I think CRACKDAT is a good indicator for this section. .
.Reading Comprehension.
.The reading comprehension section was average in difficulty compared to my practice materials. I've definitely had much more difficult reading passages from Achiever (by far the hardest!) and QVault (some were hard because they were longer >20 paragraphs) where I didn't even finish on time. However, I think my RC might have been harder than some other ADA test since my percentile (96.1%) was higher than others with a 23 on this section (most I've seen have 89ish% with a 23). My passages were on neuroscience, the effect of exercise on mental health, and the relationship between genes and cancer. My strategy was to read all the questions first. I wrote down keywords for each question. This took me about 3.5-4 minutes. I read the passage in about 6 minutes. While I was reading, I jotted down the paragraph number corresponding to keywords from question stems. Although this method was a bit risky since you losing quite a bit of time upfront, I felt that I was able to find the answers fairly quickly after reading the entire passage. I ended up finishing with about a minute. I didn't have any time to check my answers, but I only marked about 7 questions and was confident about getting a 21 or higher. .
.Quantitative Reasoning.
.I was a little tired by the time I got to the QR section. I usually look forward to QR since it is my strongest section and I usually finish with about 10-15 minutes on my practice tests. However, I ended up taking too much time in the beginning because my mind was a bit lethargic in the beginning. I had to pick up the pace later on since I was on question 30 with 10 minutes left. I remember feeling panicky since I felt that I was running out of time. I had 6-7 questions that I marked with 3 minutes left to go. I was able to figure out most questions before time finished. I ended up getting one question wrong that was fairly simple. I was unsure about how to do the other question I got wrong. Overall, I felt this section was slightly harder than average, but I definitely had harder QR sections on Achiever. .
.I studied at the beginning of June till my test date in August. For the first month, I just reviewed concepts and did some PAT test from CRACK DAT. In the second month, I did a practice test almost every other day. I used Kaplan's blue book, Barron's DAT, DAT destroyer, math destroyer, DAT achiever (7 test version), DAT Topscore, Crackdat PAT (10 test version), DATQVAULT, ADA materials (2007 free test and 2009 test), and Cliff's Biology. I felt that all the materials that I used were quite helpful. In particular, I would recommend MATH DESTROYER, DAT destroyer for o-chem, DAT Topscore, DATQVAULT, and ADA materials. DAT Achiever was good to get a feel for the worst, but was about 2 levels harder than the real thing. .
.At the end of the day, I was more than happy with my scores. I was shooting for a 22+. I only scored a 25 or higher on 2 practice exams and most of my scores were around the 21-22 range. I believe the ingredients to achieving a 25+ are good preparation and a little bit of luck (if I had to take the DAT again, I think I could get a 22+, but I'm not sure I good get a 25+ again). .
.My scores from DAT Topscore were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test
22/23/20/20/22/24/22/22/ test 1.
.22/19/21/22/23/26/21/22/ test 2.
.21/25/20/21/23/26/22/23/ test 3
..
My scores from DAT Achiever were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test
19/20/23/17/15/30/21/21/ test 1.
.19/17/17/18/17/22/18/18/ test 2.
.19/17/17/18/17/22/18/18/ test 3.
.17/17/18/17/17/19/17/18/ test 4.
.15/15/15/18/16/20/15/16/ test 5.
.17/20/20/17/22/16/19/19/ test 6.
.19/17/18/18/18/19/18/18/ test 7.
.My scores from Kaplan blue book were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test .
.20/18/25/21/20/26/20/22/ test 1 (book).
.19/19/21/21/19/22/20/20/ test 2 (online).
.My scores from Barrons book were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test.
.24/25/25/20/22/26/25/24/ test A.
.22/23/25/20/22/29/23/25/ test B.
.My scores from ADA exams were:.
.Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA/ Test.
.22/28/30/22/23/26/27/26/ 2007 test.
.22/20/23/22/22/23/22/22/ 2009 test.
.My scores from DATQVAULT were:.
.Biology: 22, 22, 22, 22, 20, 18, 19, 20, 18, 19.
.G-chem: 24, 29, 20, 26, 26, 22, 24, 21, 22, 26.
.O-chem: 22, 21, 24, 24, 20, 20, 19, 24, 19, 24.
.RC: 22, 22, 20, 18, 20, 21, 21.
.QR: 30, 27, 30, 23, 30, 30, 30, 27, 27, 30.
.I hope this DAT Breakdown helps anyone preparing to take the DAT. Let me know if you have any questions! 🙂 .
