- Joined
- Dec 7, 2008
- Messages
- 657
- Reaction score
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I never really post here, but because I received such valuable insight from these forums, I want to contribute a short DAT breakdown. I'll go over what materials worked for me, and hopefully it will help a few people.
I'll start with my scores: I must say that I am shocked they were this high. My practice tests had me pegged for ~18 AA.
DAT July 25, 2011 (Ann Arbor Location if anyone cares)
PAT: 21
QR: 17 (Believe me, I'm not that upset about this. Math dominates me.)
RC: 24 (Surprised? Me too. Never got higher than 19 on TopScore)
Bio: 22
GC: 24
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 22
PAT: Use crack dat pat. Period. It's the best I used by far. It's pricey, but aside from pattern folding, I thought it was right on the money. Pattern folding seemed harder on the real thing to me. Also, perhaps the hole-punching section was a bit easier on the real deal. Anyway I almost always got around 20-21 on the practice tests for crack dat pat so its probably a good progress indicator if nothing else. Topscore inflated my score. The hole-punching in particular seemed to me to be really easy on topscore.
QR: I used math destroyer and crack dat math and improved my topscore math score from 13 to 19 then got 17 on the real thing. I'm not gonna make comments on this because I really don't have much to say with a 17, but I do think both products helped me. I didn't finish much of crack dat math. That may have been a mistake. Be prepared for "word problems" and plenty of them. (Don't stress, if I can get through it, most people can probably do well with practice. I really am terrible at this stuff.)
RC: I must stress this. Topscore's RC section is nothing like what I experienced today on the real test. My passages were of a similar length (all 3 were 14 paragraphs), but not nearly as detail oriented. I scored a 17, 18, and 20 on topscore, but with a kaplan-like method I improved greatly on the real deal. It seemed to demand less speed reading mentality. I would say just hit up every resource you can for this. Crack dat reading seemed most realistic to me though. I admit I may have just gotten an easy test. There was no piano section for me after all...
Bio: No input here. I did OK(ish) on topscore so I didn't study much for it. I focused on the chemistry sections instead. I'm sorry. I know that isn't helpful at all.
GC: Destroyer all the way. Forget crack dat science I don't know where they are coming from. Maybe if you just want a few extra practice problems... Anyway, I used Kaplan blue book, then destroyer. Nothing else. I felt prepared.
OC: I recommend destroyer again. HOWEVER it is important to get a better feel for intermediates. My exam had a couple intermediate questions. Destroyer gets you most of the way there, but I advise another source for intermediate questions. (I may have just failed to pick it up from destroyer though. So see for yourself)
Here is my topscore results if you want to compare. They should give provide confidence. Based on my experience, Topscore seems harder than the real deal.
TopScore 1:
AA: 17
Bio: 18
GC: 18
QR: 13
RC: 18
TS: 18
TopScore 3:
AA: 20
Bio: 16
GC: 17
OC: 28
PAT: 20
QR: 19
RC: 19
TS: 18
TopScore#2 (Unfinished)
Bio : 18
GC: 18
OC: 20
PAT: 23
QR: -
RC: -
Well, that's about it. It's not much, but I hope that this will help someone in the same way this community has helped me.
Good Luck all
I'll start with my scores: I must say that I am shocked they were this high. My practice tests had me pegged for ~18 AA.
DAT July 25, 2011 (Ann Arbor Location if anyone cares)
PAT: 21
QR: 17 (Believe me, I'm not that upset about this. Math dominates me.)
RC: 24 (Surprised? Me too. Never got higher than 19 on TopScore)
Bio: 22
GC: 24
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 22
PAT: Use crack dat pat. Period. It's the best I used by far. It's pricey, but aside from pattern folding, I thought it was right on the money. Pattern folding seemed harder on the real thing to me. Also, perhaps the hole-punching section was a bit easier on the real deal. Anyway I almost always got around 20-21 on the practice tests for crack dat pat so its probably a good progress indicator if nothing else. Topscore inflated my score. The hole-punching in particular seemed to me to be really easy on topscore.
QR: I used math destroyer and crack dat math and improved my topscore math score from 13 to 19 then got 17 on the real thing. I'm not gonna make comments on this because I really don't have much to say with a 17, but I do think both products helped me. I didn't finish much of crack dat math. That may have been a mistake. Be prepared for "word problems" and plenty of them. (Don't stress, if I can get through it, most people can probably do well with practice. I really am terrible at this stuff.)
RC: I must stress this. Topscore's RC section is nothing like what I experienced today on the real test. My passages were of a similar length (all 3 were 14 paragraphs), but not nearly as detail oriented. I scored a 17, 18, and 20 on topscore, but with a kaplan-like method I improved greatly on the real deal. It seemed to demand less speed reading mentality. I would say just hit up every resource you can for this. Crack dat reading seemed most realistic to me though. I admit I may have just gotten an easy test. There was no piano section for me after all...
Bio: No input here. I did OK(ish) on topscore so I didn't study much for it. I focused on the chemistry sections instead. I'm sorry. I know that isn't helpful at all.
GC: Destroyer all the way. Forget crack dat science I don't know where they are coming from. Maybe if you just want a few extra practice problems... Anyway, I used Kaplan blue book, then destroyer. Nothing else. I felt prepared.
OC: I recommend destroyer again. HOWEVER it is important to get a better feel for intermediates. My exam had a couple intermediate questions. Destroyer gets you most of the way there, but I advise another source for intermediate questions. (I may have just failed to pick it up from destroyer though. So see for yourself)
Here is my topscore results if you want to compare. They should give provide confidence. Based on my experience, Topscore seems harder than the real deal.
TopScore 1:
AA: 17
Bio: 18
GC: 18
QR: 13
RC: 18
TS: 18
TopScore 3:
AA: 20
Bio: 16
GC: 17
OC: 28
PAT: 20
QR: 19
RC: 19
TS: 18
TopScore#2 (Unfinished)
Bio : 18
GC: 18
OC: 20
PAT: 23
QR: -
RC: -
Well, that's about it. It's not much, but I hope that this will help someone in the same way this community has helped me.
Good Luck all
