- Joined
- Mar 24, 2012
- Messages
- 525
- Reaction score
- 212
Hey guys! First I like to thank God for this opportunity to take this test again and to be able to take time off work despite apps/ test materials/ and this TEST draining my bank account. I like to give huge shout outs to @Ari Rezaei , @orgoman22 (thank you Nancy for the pep talk and the encouraging words 
), @FeralisExtremum for such GREAT material and notes for me to achieve these scores.
Anyhow, here are my scores and my breakdown!! Sit back, relax, and enjoy the essay..
PAT 22
QR 19
RC 18
Bio 24
GC 23
OC 23
TS 23
AA 21
Previous Attempt: 2012
Pat 22
QR 19
RC 19
Bio 17
GC 20
OC 24
TS 19
AA 20
Materials used:
Chad's videos/quizzes
DAT destroyer
math destroyer
Bootcamp
Qvault RC
Feralis notes-anki
Cliffs AP bio
Crack dat Pat (only did 2 tests out of 5)
Practice test scores attached.
Honestly if I were to sum it up, I definitely think I got a hard version of the test. There were definitely questions in each section that I had to mark and really think things through. But with hard work and time, you'll def be prepared for these questions. Although I feel I did alright, I'm not too ecstatic about my QR and RC scores, ESPECIALLY my RC.
BIO-24
I used the Feralis notes and AP cliffs Bio notes. So what I did was read a section out of cliffs and then the next day read the Feralis portion of the same section. Feralis notes are AMAZING....very detailed yes but I think you get the bang for the amount of space filled on paper. While reading, I supplemented these notes with Anki cards, which you guys should definitely use while studying the Bio. One thing I learned in college awhile back, rather the hard way was to utilize "spaced repetition." Anki is a spaced repetition program that brings up facts based upon your recollection. Finally after going through the notes, I did the whole Bio destroyer 1.5 times. The first time through, I went through making sure to jot down any problems I was insecure about. Then the .5 time, I went through just the missed questions and redid those. The Bio destroyer def saved me on some questions on the real DAT.
Actual: I thought the bio was straightforward for the most part but there were definitely some tricky questions. I even had a GC related question in the Bio section. I marked it and came back to it but still didn't figure it out due to the time constraint. There were also a few tricky questions where they lead you into one direction then asks for something else and it could've easily been a trap. I marked maybe 6/40 for this section.
GC/OC-23/23-yes i'm getting kind of sleepy so I'll combine these two.
I first went through Chad's videos making sure I took very good notes. After that I took the quizzes after to make sure I understood. Chad does a great job and dumbs things down, which I needed bc it's been awhile since I've taken these courses and the last test. I think I went through destroyer 3x for each section. The week before my test, I saw my bootcamp GC score avg, and put me in full gear to go through destroyer for the 3rd time in 2 days. I then didn't want OC to feel lonely so I gave OC another run through.
Actual test: The GC and OC portions weren't too bad. If you know Chads then you will be fine. And some of the bootcamp questions were in my test. I came into this test thinking that Bootcamp will be definitely HARDER but I'd say it was on par esp with the GC section. I'm so glad I reviewed all the questions I got wrong a few days before my exam bc it definitely helped me. For the GC section, you know how some people only got maybe 2-3 calculations? I think I got 8+ or so, which did require some time to set up equations etc. The calculations themselves weren't too bad but 1 question had a interesting twist to it. I had several mechanism questions for OC but they were fairly basic. I memorized all of the roadmaps from destroyer and chads but I think it was overkill, although definitely good practice.
PAT-22
When I took the test in 2012, I thought it was straightforward especially for the keyholes and TFE. For TFE back then, using the line method worked fine but I heard they took that away awhile back. With that in mind, I did only a few with Crack dat pat and moved onto DAT Bootcamp. I'd say skip CDP and just buy DAT bootcamp. To this day, I'm still not comfortable with TFE but all in all I guess I did ok. Use the generators!!! They were really helpful with the visualization.
Actual:
During my test sign in, I was specifically told I couldn't write on my sheets during the 15 min tutorial. I was banking on drawing my hole grids and cube table at this time but slight change of plans...I had to draw them as I did them. If you guys get a strict prometric center, I recommend drawing a 4x4 L for your hole grids and space each apart by a column. Help saves time. Drawing the tables for cubes should be quick so no worries there.
keyhole: it was way easier than Bootcamp. They did test on proportions but only a few? There were only a couple that I was stumped on. I breezed through this section knowing that time could be an issue. I definitely had 2 rock questions and just tried my best to make an educated guess. They looked looked like crumbled paper...Who comes up with these? I really think the test makers were on something when they produced these or they wanted to get a kick out of our expressions somehow.
TFE: On par with BC but having used the generators, I was able to visualize some of the tedious figures on some of them.
Angles: angles were definitely easier than bootcamp but angles are just angles. I used the closing laptop visualization technique and used my fingers to cover sides that werent equal.
Holess: It was straightforward. I had a few "third" folds but there weren't anything that was difficult.
Cubes: This was on par w/ bootcamp. The structures were not too hard but not too easy.
Pattern folding: This section was straightforward as well. I felt like on a lot of them, they were testing proportions as well as folding. It was weird but I think if you pay close attention to details, it's definitely manageable.
RC-18
I already knew from the start that RC was my weakest section. I made sure I practice with Bootcamp and Qvault but as they say, RC skills are learned from childhood. Bootcamp helped me prepare for the tones and "statement" questions. Qvault RC was good practice as well as they also incorporated a lot tone and statement questions into their program. I would say both were representative of the real DAT. I used mapping/reading/answering questions all at the same time.
Actual: Oh boy where do I start. I've been reading a lot of breakdowns saying that they only got 1 tone question or none of the "state is correct but reason false" type of questions but my test had a whole BUNCH of those. I had 2 that were back to back at one point. I had topics regarding screening for diseases, geckos, and I forget the other one. I think my test had 6:4 SnD to tone. I ran out of time here. Idk if I need to retake bc of this section honestly. I'm not sure how an 18 looks to schools but I feel like this score will really pull me down.
QR-19
I prepared with math destroyer. I went through tests 1-14 and have practiced it timed. Math destroyer is a MUST bc I saw a lot of similiar problems during the test. Know your formulas and techniques and you should be fine. Make sure to start early though. I made sure to start about a month before my test and have gone over a section every other day.
Actual:
I went into the test pretty confident for this section but it seems like the theme of my test was to have slight twists to variations of problems. During the test, I marked and moved on if I couldn't see a procedure within 20 seconds or so. One thing I'd recommend is to look at a problem before you jump straight it and tackle it. Some of the wordings were worded very weird and could've been worded better. I did have a few rate problems, conversions, algebra, trigs.
I think this covered everything. I was pretty ecstatic yet a little disappointed bc of my RC score. I was really shooting for a 20+ here but what can i do. One thing I highly recommend while studying is to give yourself some time to wind down after a long day. Closer to d-day, I would put in 10+ hours right up to bed time and I found myself not being able to sleep bc my brain was independently going over random facts from the sciences. This did mess with my sleeping patterns but thankfully I fixed it a few days before the exam. For those studying for this exam, put in your time, focus, and effort and you WILL perform well. I'm sure there has to be sacrifices made (for me it was my job) but it's all worth it at the end. Question to ask yourself when things seem bleak is: How bad do you want it?
"Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity"-Henry Hartman.
), @FeralisExtremum for such GREAT material and notes for me to achieve these scores.Anyhow, here are my scores and my breakdown!! Sit back, relax, and enjoy the essay..
PAT 22
QR 19
RC 18
Bio 24
GC 23
OC 23
TS 23
AA 21
Previous Attempt: 2012
Pat 22
QR 19
RC 19
Bio 17
GC 20
OC 24
TS 19
AA 20
Materials used:
Chad's videos/quizzes
DAT destroyer
math destroyer
Bootcamp
Qvault RC
Feralis notes-anki
Cliffs AP bio
Crack dat Pat (only did 2 tests out of 5)
Practice test scores attached.
Honestly if I were to sum it up, I definitely think I got a hard version of the test. There were definitely questions in each section that I had to mark and really think things through. But with hard work and time, you'll def be prepared for these questions. Although I feel I did alright, I'm not too ecstatic about my QR and RC scores, ESPECIALLY my RC.
BIO-24
I used the Feralis notes and AP cliffs Bio notes. So what I did was read a section out of cliffs and then the next day read the Feralis portion of the same section. Feralis notes are AMAZING....very detailed yes but I think you get the bang for the amount of space filled on paper. While reading, I supplemented these notes with Anki cards, which you guys should definitely use while studying the Bio. One thing I learned in college awhile back, rather the hard way was to utilize "spaced repetition." Anki is a spaced repetition program that brings up facts based upon your recollection. Finally after going through the notes, I did the whole Bio destroyer 1.5 times. The first time through, I went through making sure to jot down any problems I was insecure about. Then the .5 time, I went through just the missed questions and redid those. The Bio destroyer def saved me on some questions on the real DAT.
Actual: I thought the bio was straightforward for the most part but there were definitely some tricky questions. I even had a GC related question in the Bio section. I marked it and came back to it but still didn't figure it out due to the time constraint. There were also a few tricky questions where they lead you into one direction then asks for something else and it could've easily been a trap. I marked maybe 6/40 for this section.
GC/OC-23/23-yes i'm getting kind of sleepy so I'll combine these two.
I first went through Chad's videos making sure I took very good notes. After that I took the quizzes after to make sure I understood. Chad does a great job and dumbs things down, which I needed bc it's been awhile since I've taken these courses and the last test. I think I went through destroyer 3x for each section. The week before my test, I saw my bootcamp GC score avg, and put me in full gear to go through destroyer for the 3rd time in 2 days. I then didn't want OC to feel lonely so I gave OC another run through.
Actual test: The GC and OC portions weren't too bad. If you know Chads then you will be fine. And some of the bootcamp questions were in my test. I came into this test thinking that Bootcamp will be definitely HARDER but I'd say it was on par esp with the GC section. I'm so glad I reviewed all the questions I got wrong a few days before my exam bc it definitely helped me. For the GC section, you know how some people only got maybe 2-3 calculations? I think I got 8+ or so, which did require some time to set up equations etc. The calculations themselves weren't too bad but 1 question had a interesting twist to it. I had several mechanism questions for OC but they were fairly basic. I memorized all of the roadmaps from destroyer and chads but I think it was overkill, although definitely good practice.
PAT-22
When I took the test in 2012, I thought it was straightforward especially for the keyholes and TFE. For TFE back then, using the line method worked fine but I heard they took that away awhile back. With that in mind, I did only a few with Crack dat pat and moved onto DAT Bootcamp. I'd say skip CDP and just buy DAT bootcamp. To this day, I'm still not comfortable with TFE but all in all I guess I did ok. Use the generators!!! They were really helpful with the visualization.
Actual:
During my test sign in, I was specifically told I couldn't write on my sheets during the 15 min tutorial. I was banking on drawing my hole grids and cube table at this time but slight change of plans...I had to draw them as I did them. If you guys get a strict prometric center, I recommend drawing a 4x4 L for your hole grids and space each apart by a column. Help saves time. Drawing the tables for cubes should be quick so no worries there.
keyhole: it was way easier than Bootcamp. They did test on proportions but only a few? There were only a couple that I was stumped on. I breezed through this section knowing that time could be an issue. I definitely had 2 rock questions and just tried my best to make an educated guess. They looked looked like crumbled paper...Who comes up with these? I really think the test makers were on something when they produced these or they wanted to get a kick out of our expressions somehow.
TFE: On par with BC but having used the generators, I was able to visualize some of the tedious figures on some of them.
Angles: angles were definitely easier than bootcamp but angles are just angles. I used the closing laptop visualization technique and used my fingers to cover sides that werent equal.
Holess: It was straightforward. I had a few "third" folds but there weren't anything that was difficult.
Cubes: This was on par w/ bootcamp. The structures were not too hard but not too easy.
Pattern folding: This section was straightforward as well. I felt like on a lot of them, they were testing proportions as well as folding. It was weird but I think if you pay close attention to details, it's definitely manageable.
RC-18
I already knew from the start that RC was my weakest section. I made sure I practice with Bootcamp and Qvault but as they say, RC skills are learned from childhood. Bootcamp helped me prepare for the tones and "statement" questions. Qvault RC was good practice as well as they also incorporated a lot tone and statement questions into their program. I would say both were representative of the real DAT. I used mapping/reading/answering questions all at the same time.
Actual: Oh boy where do I start. I've been reading a lot of breakdowns saying that they only got 1 tone question or none of the "state is correct but reason false" type of questions but my test had a whole BUNCH of those. I had 2 that were back to back at one point. I had topics regarding screening for diseases, geckos, and I forget the other one. I think my test had 6:4 SnD to tone. I ran out of time here. Idk if I need to retake bc of this section honestly. I'm not sure how an 18 looks to schools but I feel like this score will really pull me down.
QR-19
I prepared with math destroyer. I went through tests 1-14 and have practiced it timed. Math destroyer is a MUST bc I saw a lot of similiar problems during the test. Know your formulas and techniques and you should be fine. Make sure to start early though. I made sure to start about a month before my test and have gone over a section every other day.
Actual:
I went into the test pretty confident for this section but it seems like the theme of my test was to have slight twists to variations of problems. During the test, I marked and moved on if I couldn't see a procedure within 20 seconds or so. One thing I'd recommend is to look at a problem before you jump straight it and tackle it. Some of the wordings were worded very weird and could've been worded better. I did have a few rate problems, conversions, algebra, trigs.
I think this covered everything. I was pretty ecstatic yet a little disappointed bc of my RC score. I was really shooting for a 20+ here but what can i do. One thing I highly recommend while studying is to give yourself some time to wind down after a long day. Closer to d-day, I would put in 10+ hours right up to bed time and I found myself not being able to sleep bc my brain was independently going over random facts from the sciences. This did mess with my sleeping patterns but thankfully I fixed it a few days before the exam. For those studying for this exam, put in your time, focus, and effort and you WILL perform well. I'm sure there has to be sacrifices made (for me it was my job) but it's all worth it at the end. Question to ask yourself when things seem bleak is: How bad do you want it?
"Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity"-Henry Hartman.
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