Completed DAT 5/19/10

[r0b113]

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A sunny day was ready and waiting for me as soon as I left the testing center!
Here is more score breakdown:

PAT -- 30 (100.0)
QR -- 22 (98.7)
RC -- 19 (67.6)
BIO -- 18 (72.1)
GCH -- 21 (91.6)
OCH -- 20 (84.4)

TS --19 (82.8)
AA -- 20 (93.4)

I am completely satisfied with my results. Thanks to the resources and contributions everyone here provided. You really helped calm my nerves and answer some questions

I have a 3.86 GPA and a 3.8 Science GPA with a BS in Biological Sciences. Any thoughts/opinions on my standing and how schools will see my scores?

____
Edit:

I only had 2-2.5 weeks of pure DAT studying after my finals, and before my scheduled summer distractions, so I disconnected myself from life and studied around 10-12 hours a day (taking breaks in total of 1 hour for the sake of my sanity). I read, and read, and read for the first week and a half. In the last week, I furiously took practice exams, both sections and full length.

My thoughts on the materials I used to review during my 2 week self-taught crash course for the DAT:

KAPLAN 7th Edition DAT -- Comprehensive, but short enough where no subject is discussed too extensively, losing the general focus of the DAT and your attention. I did refer back to my class textbooks, but only because I wanted to make sure I knew some topic areas in even more detail. I attribute 75% of my DAT learning to this book and their tips and strategies. I would highly recommend a full reading of everything in this book, taking every practice section and the complete sample test in-text and another one online (which is in an accurate DAT-type format). I spent about 3 days reading each science section, along with the math review. This took about a week and a half, and from T-5 days of the DAT, I straight up took a full length exam every morning at 8am, and then did more Kaplan section tests during the day to further practice
A

Official 2009 Sample DAT bought from the ADA -- I bought this sample test, and while it had some errors and didn't seem that "official" to me, it was helpful. Gave me a certified idea of what the test would be like, and there happened to be similar questions on my DAT today.

ExamKrackers MCAT Bio/Chem/Orgo -- I read through each of these at a slow pace during the last month of my winter semester, but didn't sit down and actively study any of it. They have some great tips for remembering a lot of things though. But, again, their strategies for test taking apply for MCAT, so I simply read it for content and a refresher.
B

Biology 8th edition by Raven -- This was my freshmen year biology textbook and it is amazing. Anything not included in the KAPLAN book, I found detailed explanations to clarify things in this book. Great stuff, but I don't think it would be necessary to read it in it's entirety
A-

My study sheets from Carey's Organic Chemistry -- I had made an intensive 30 page collection of the summaries of all the reactions/mechanisms/conditions I learned throughout Orgo 1 and Orgo 2, and to refresh my knowledge for this test, I just studied off of these notes. (Also, I just completed Orgo 2 with an intensive professor in my Winter '10 semester. So this stuff is still fresh in my case)
B-

Barron's DAT -- This book frustrated me with it's errors in question writing and their incorrect answers for practices, but after reading the KAPLAN book in its entirety, I only used this as a 2nd-to-last day brisk review of their science content, and just to see what strategies they liked for RC and PAT. I didn't like their strategies (See my post below for what I liked from KAPLAN)
C-

 

[oceanblue5841]

Congrats on the scores! Now you can relax a little bit. You have a strong case for acceptance, so don't sweat it. 30/30 on the PAT? Wow, how did you prepare for that, what materials did you use?

 

[mprs]

Really good job, good marks (although PAT could use some work if you decide to retake it).

How does it feel to be done ? 😀

 

[whatDATmean]

Congrats! I would also like to know how did you prepare for the PATs. I'm having a bit of trouble with certain areas.

Could you also how did you approach each category (angle ranking, cube counting etc.) and your methods in solving them? Your thought process would be nice also!

 

[321931]

Really good job, good marks (although PAT could use some work if you decide to retake it).

How does it feel to be done ? 😀

Wow, how long did u study the PAT section? Or did it just come naturally for you?

30 is damn impressive.

 

[Hopeful20]

How did you manage through the angle portion?

 

[r0b113]

Wow, how long did u study the PAT section? Or did it just come naturally for you?

To be honest, I'm pretty good at this kind of thing, and this test was exciting because it was the first time I have applied it for an exam. But to answer your questions, it was part my focus and ability to render these things in my head, and a HUGE help were all of the practice sets that I found in my Kaplan book and the Kaplan practice sections. A lot of people think this section is 10x on the real thing than in these review books, but this isn't really the case in my view. It just takes application and familiarity of what you practiced

I freakishly spent only 2 full weeks preparing for the DAT. But, I didn't leave the house and spent about 10 hours a day at the book and sample tests

The key is: practice, practice, practice

Apertures: Couldn't really get a strategy for this section. You just gotta visualize the object the best you can with the drawing on the left and use process of elimination for those that don't match either the Top-Bottom hole, Front-Back hole, or Side-Side hole. Be sure to look out for the tricks in angles of triangles, right-angled corners of a quadrilateral, and holes thru the objects. Those are key, and if you don't scrutinize the holes enough, you'll easily fall for the tricky options. But i'm sure you all know most of this

Top-Front-Side: Same as apertures, you just need practice in exposing yourself to this kind of mental rendering and find a pattern thru that practice in knowing what kind of shapes end up as dotted lines, etc.

Hole-punching: I love these problems. I've practiced them enough where I got to the point where I could solve them between 8-15 seconds. There were tricky ones on my DAT tho, where a triangularly folded paper was folded across horizontally by 1/3 or 2/3, and this threw me off because Kaplan and Barron's didn't really give these kind of examples. But again, do as many of these as you can until you get to a comfortable, quick point. Also, like Kaplan suggests, note the initial line of symmetry for the folds.

Angle ranking: On the DAT, it's true, there were 3-4 problems were I sat there for a good minute, praying that my debate between 2 choices would be the right one. I recently read the Barron's book and they mentioned the "angle parking" technique, where you imagine an angle fitting within the angle of another, identifying it as smaller. This was a pretty good strategy. But to be honest, I approach these questions with an initial viewing and my gut response. I'll look at the 4 angles simultaneously, and then dissect it and find 3-2-1-4, and if it's an option, I go for it. Otherwise, it's an internal debate that could take forever

Cube-counting: Simply put, I use Kaplan's strategy, which I immediately loved, of making a quick table with 0,1,2,3,4,5 on the left, and tally marks on the right as you go along counting EVERY cube for the figure before even looking at a question. Then, you just refer to your table when asked how many sides are shaded. This was by far the best strategy, and made this section the easiest possible on the PAT. USE THE TABLE-TALLY STRATEGY!

Pattern folding: My weakest point, I thought. If you can't visualize this well enough, I don't think it would hurt to take actual paper and make some of these figures to get an idea of where things go. I don't really have a strategy here, but for easier ones like a square with patterned sides: if the 4 sides of the square alternate patterns/shading, they can't be adjacent to each other and you can eliminate usually 1-2 of the choices by this

Hope this didn't waste too much of your time🙄, but the key is practice and repetition until you're not even the slightest bit uncomfortable with these problems. You CAN reach that point!

 

[dentalWorks]

20AA with 3.8 GPAs.... thats a recipe for a bunch of acceptance letters

Good job on that 30 👍

 

[carborn2]

READ PLEASE:

Just wanted to ask you a question since you aced the perceptual section.

How difficult were the aperture questions and orthographic projections in the actual DAT?

I have been using the Kaplan, Barrons, the ADA and Cliff Notes material to study for those parts of the PAT. ANY SIMILARITIES.

Which study guide mirrors the actual test?

Aperture passing:

Were they easy to identify on the actual test because some of Kaplan's are difficult to see at first.

Orthographic projections, did you use line counting in addition to mental imaging.

FOR THE ANGLES:

What makes these angle questions so hard to see? Are Barron's angle questions accurate?

For the pattern folding:

What type of shapes do you have to fold on the actual test?
(CUBES OF COURSE, cylinders probably, definitely triangle shapes, BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE COMPLEX SHAPES). What was your methodology for solving them accurately but most importantly efficiently?

Can you give examples of the question types.

Did you ever get 30's on the practice exams?

Appreciate your help and you definitely are going to make a great dentist with your exemplary perceptual acuity.

 

[r0b113]

The aperture questions seemed really straightforward. Side lengths and appropriate corners were key. If you didn't keep track of that, then you would've fallen for wrong answers. Every practice I've seen has been good at developing this skill. I used and liked Kaplan for all of the PAT sections. Their layout is spot on, and the figures they use are in the same range of complexity.

I didn't use any strategy for the Top-Front-Side section. I formed the image mentally to the best of my ability, and usually there is one dotted/solid line that can give away the entire problem and make the correct answer an easy choice. I didn't do any line counting, like you mentioned

Angle ranking questions aren't bad for the most part, but there are points where they differences in 2 angles are very minute and it could a while to convince yourself which is the right order of the two. Barron's is okay, but their practices are too easy. The 2009 official sample DAT that you can buy from ada.org has accurate, challenging angle ranking problems. You should definitely buy that

For pattern folding you can get used to solving cubes, cylinders and triangles easily with practice. The key to those complex shapes, I think, is to just note the main side on which everything builds off of. This gives is it away, and the ones that don't base around this main side are clearly wrong

I've gotten 86/90 on practices, and sometimes 82/90 and 76/90, but never all of them correct. I was surprised as well, but all of the practice from Kaplan and whatever other resource that has similar, accurate practices are all crucial in getting used to these problems.

Hope that helps!

 

[carborn2]

Thanks for the response.

About those aperture passing problems, you say that some people could have easily fallen into traps with tempting answers, but you didn't. You mentally formed the image or did you draw each view, because the latter seems to be a time waster. My question, is the appropriate view easy to spot from the answer choices.

About those orthographic projections if you mentally formed the image were there many of the same answer choices to trap you or were there clear differences to spot the correct answer. Were they the same difficulty in comparison to Kaplan, Barrons and the ADA or harder?

About the angle ranking what technique did you use to determine the angle ranking for angles within a degree of each other? How many questions in the angle ranking section were within a degree of each other?

About the pattern folding on your PAT were many of the pattern folding shapes complex and did your approach to find the largest part of the figure work for those harder ones.

 

[r0b113]

1) You're definitely not gonna want to waste time drawing what you think each side would look like. So, yes, it was all mental. Once you have that mental image, you'll find 2 of them that may work, but one would have the lengths of a corner that are disproportional, making the choice easier. It truly wasn't as difficult as some of the practices I've encountered

2) The key is being comfortable with the solid and dotted lines. That is what it took to differentiate between the 2 options I had left. One option would omit a line, making it wrong. Another option would make a solid line dotted, making it wrong.

3) There were 2 of my 15 questions that proved to be tough calls. These are the ones I marked, and I went back at the end with a fresh view and took a stab at them. I really have no strategy for differentiating such slight differences. But I did learn from Barron's to try and see if the distance between the two edges of one angle were smaller or larger than the distance on the other angle.

4) For the most part, they were simple cubes/cylinders/pyramidal figures. For the weirder ones, yes, I focused on the sides of larger area and made sure they all existed in the choices

 

[r0b113]

20AA with 3.8 GPAs.... thats a recipe for a bunch of acceptance letters

Good job on that 30 👍

Thanks for the encouraging words!

 

[HASassin]

To be honest, I'm pretty good at this kind of thing, and this test was exciting because it was the first time I have applied it for an exam. But to answer your questions, it was part my focus and ability to render these things in my head, and a HUGE help were all of the practice sets that I found in my Kaplan book and the Kaplan practice sections. A lot of people think this section is 10x on the real thing than in these review books, but this isn't really the case in my view. It just takes application and familiarity of what you practiced

I freakishly spent only 2 full weeks preparing for the DAT. But, I didn't leave the house and spent about 10 hours a day at the book and sample tests

The key is: practice, practice, practice

Apertures: Couldn't really get a strategy for this section. You just gotta visualize the object the best you can with the drawing on the left and use process of elimination for those that don't match either the Top-Bottom hole, Front-Back hole, or Side-Side hole. Be sure to look out for the tricks in angles of triangles, right-angled corners of a quadrilateral, and holes thru the objects. Those are key, and if you don't scrutinize the holes enough, you'll easily fall for the tricky options. But i'm sure you all know most of this

Top-Front-Side: Same as apertures, you just need practice in exposing yourself to this kind of mental rendering and find a pattern thru that practice in knowing what kind of shapes end up as dotted lines, etc.

Hole-punching: I love these problems. I've practiced them enough where I got to the point where I could solve them between 8-15 seconds. There were tricky ones on my DAT tho, where a triangularly folded paper was folded across horizontally by 1/3 or 2/3, and this threw me off because Kaplan and Barron's didn't really give these kind of examples. But again, do as many of these as you can until you get to a comfortable, quick point. Also, like Kaplan suggests, note the initial line of symmetry for the folds.

Angle ranking: On the DAT, it's true, there were 3-4 problems were I sat there for a good minute, praying that my debate between 2 choices would be the right one. I recently read the Barron's book and they mentioned the "angle parking" technique, where you imagine an angle fitting within the angle of another, identifying it as smaller. This was a pretty good strategy. But to be honest, I approach these questions with an initial viewing and my gut response. I'll look at the 4 angles simultaneously, and then dissect it and find 3-2-1-4, and if it's an option, I go for it. Otherwise, it's an internal debate that could take forever

Cube-counting: Simply put, I use Kaplan's strategy, which I immediately loved, of making a quick table with 0,1,2,3,4,5 on the left, and tally marks on the right as you go along counting EVERY cube for the figure before even looking at a question. Then, you just refer to your table when asked how many sides are shaded. This was by far the best strategy, and made this section the easiest possible on the PAT. USE THE TABLE-TALLY STRATEGY!

Pattern folding: My weakest point, I thought. If you can't visualize this well enough, I don't think it would hurt to take actual paper and make some of these figures to get an idea of where things go. I don't really have a strategy here, but for easier ones like a square with patterned sides: if the 4 sides of the square alternate patterns/shading, they can't be adjacent to each other and you can eliminate usually 1-2 of the choices by this

Hope this didn't waste too much of your time🙄, but the key is practice and repetition until you're not even the slightest bit uncomfortable with these problems. You CAN reach that point!

for the cube counting section

are there four questions per diagram or three on the test?

bc if its 4 then ill tally
if its 3 ill free count
i think at least lol

 

[HASassin]

and im also in my last 2 weeks of studying, and i havnt even touched QR, and im kinda week in chem.

im going through destroyer right now and averaging around an 18 ish so far on biol

what would you suggest that i do, if i want to get a 19/20?

im not very good at reading through text books, but prefer just doing questions and correcting them

 

[r0b113]

Regardless of the number of questions per cube, use the tally method. It's amazingly efficient.

Take more and more practice chemistry tests and get used to the question types. Definitely be familiar with everything about the period table, and the trends. The explanations to the answers will be very helpful in knowing what you need to study

 

[sayilohyee]

How is 20 AA is 92% ??
When I took the DAT 2 years ago, i got a 22 and it was 95%...

Did they change the difficulty of the test or something ???? 😛

 

[dentalWorks]

How is 20 AA is 92% ??
When I took the DAT 2 years ago, i got a 22 and it was 95%...

Did they change the difficulty of the test or something ???? 😛

every test version is different.... My 21AA was 97.7%.... I've seen some 21AAs being between 91-92%...

I believe these percentages are based on THAT test version, not a combination of different test versions