- Joined
- Jun 6, 2008
- Messages
- 205
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Hey guys, DAT IS DONE. WOW. Its officially summer break for me.
Many of the SDNers had helped me through my studys by posting their breakdowns. Soo...here's mine.
PAT 20
QR 15
RC 23
BIO 20
GC 21
OC 19
TS 20
AA 20
OK So I was freaked out the week before the test. I took topscore and keep getting 15-17's. I took the last test the day before the exam and i got an AA17. So I was preparing for the worst. However, I reviewed as much as possible the night before and just believe in myself. (people are right, confident is key. I prayed like crazy also. All I wanted was a 20)
I studied for 1 month while working a part time job (16-24 hours per week). I mainly studied 4-5 days per week and dedicate the whole day to study. (4-8 hours/ day depending on how badly my ADD was that day).
Just to let you guys know, I am not taking the DAT for dentistry. This is for Podiatry Admission. LONG story short, I got special permission to take the DAT to replace MCAT due to the time it takes to mail the results. School starts 7/30 if the school likes my score. ^_^
QR: Last section and I paniced. Not just paniced, I FREAKED OUT. The first question took me 3 mins (the answer was reallly obvious too after it took me 3 tries to solve it). Then i started to rush until I got to question 20 and recalled that one of the SND members stated that many of the easy questions will be at the end. For this reason, I thought it would be a great idea to do the test backwards (thinking easy questions would be at the end). I would not want to miss out on those easy questions due to time limitations right? well...there were no easy questions... So dont ever try doing this people, doesnt work. So in the end I paniced some more and got this low low score. =(. Math was one of my strongest area too.
I did DEstroyer (easy), 2/7 of the Kaplan subject test (too easy), Topscore (just right).
RC: I did not Study that much for this (I didn't know how). I only did Topscore. I believe my Year worth of reading articles after articles for my independent research helped me a lot. Also, I tend to cram a lot when i study which requires fast pace reading. The combination of scientific articles and years of training in cramming saved my butt in this section.
Hint: there were many interference questions and one type of question that I have never seen before. They would give a statement follow by a reason for the statement. They then ask, is the fact correct, is the reasoning correct, and if they are related to each other (fact and reasoning). Caught me off guard since topscore did not prepare me for this.
Biology: There were questions from every topic. I understand now why people say Biology section is random. They pretty much cover almost every topic. I skimmed through AP cliff, Kaplan subject test, and Topscore. Much of my knowledge for the DAT came from my Undergrad and AP cliff helps me recall many of those concepts. I figured there were just too much biology to study in 4 days so I only read AP cliff and did practice problems.
GC: Everything was straight forward. NOthing tricky. I used Destroyer, MCAT hyperlearning, Kaplan subject test, and topscore. I had mixture of Concepts and calculations. I would say Practice practice practice. There were many errors that i was able to catch my self doing since I repeatedly made those errors during my practice tests.
Ochem: Most feared section of all. I was never good at Ochem but after studying for the DAT, I think I knew more about Ochem than during my undergrad. MCAT Hyperlearning refreshed my memory, Destroyer killed me, Kaplan subject test killed me, and Topscore killed me. THen i just reviewed everything i got wrong and hope for the best. I also used this:
http://undergrad-ed.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/Carey5th/useful/reagents/functional.html
Just read this and Destroyer Road maps every once in a while during your studies and you should be good with the reaction part. I also looked at this 2 hours before my test. MCAT hyperlearning help me understand the concepts and Kaplan subject tests will fill in any other weaknesses. I believe Topscore did i great job as well.
PAT: Did not study for it. Just got expose to it during Topscore tests. Phew, i got lucky. For the angle section, i think my eyes were literally 5 inches away from the screen to look at every pixel on the computer. This section was tough. The fox folding section was tough also but if I stared at the pictures long enough, some clues will pop out to help me find the box. My strategy for this was to do normal pace on the hole fitting section, semi fast on front-top-end view section, semi fast on hole punch and slow down a little for the hard folds, SUPER FAST for the box counting, and slow for the box folding. This gave me 10 min to spare at the end to double check my box couting section (which i made some mistakes)
Hope everyone is doing well. Dont give up no matter what the result of the practice tests are saying. If you keep fixing your mistakes, you will sooner or later stop making them. So practice practice practice. There's no reason to study if you can not apply it in a question. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE. Hopefully my QR wont hold me back.
Many of the SDNers had helped me through my studys by posting their breakdowns. Soo...here's mine.
PAT 20
QR 15
RC 23
BIO 20
GC 21
OC 19
TS 20
AA 20
OK So I was freaked out the week before the test. I took topscore and keep getting 15-17's. I took the last test the day before the exam and i got an AA17. So I was preparing for the worst. However, I reviewed as much as possible the night before and just believe in myself. (people are right, confident is key. I prayed like crazy also. All I wanted was a 20)
I studied for 1 month while working a part time job (16-24 hours per week). I mainly studied 4-5 days per week and dedicate the whole day to study. (4-8 hours/ day depending on how badly my ADD was that day).
Just to let you guys know, I am not taking the DAT for dentistry. This is for Podiatry Admission. LONG story short, I got special permission to take the DAT to replace MCAT due to the time it takes to mail the results. School starts 7/30 if the school likes my score. ^_^
QR: Last section and I paniced. Not just paniced, I FREAKED OUT. The first question took me 3 mins (the answer was reallly obvious too after it took me 3 tries to solve it). Then i started to rush until I got to question 20 and recalled that one of the SND members stated that many of the easy questions will be at the end. For this reason, I thought it would be a great idea to do the test backwards (thinking easy questions would be at the end). I would not want to miss out on those easy questions due to time limitations right? well...there were no easy questions... So dont ever try doing this people, doesnt work. So in the end I paniced some more and got this low low score. =(. Math was one of my strongest area too.
I did DEstroyer (easy), 2/7 of the Kaplan subject test (too easy), Topscore (just right).
RC: I did not Study that much for this (I didn't know how). I only did Topscore. I believe my Year worth of reading articles after articles for my independent research helped me a lot. Also, I tend to cram a lot when i study which requires fast pace reading. The combination of scientific articles and years of training in cramming saved my butt in this section.
Hint: there were many interference questions and one type of question that I have never seen before. They would give a statement follow by a reason for the statement. They then ask, is the fact correct, is the reasoning correct, and if they are related to each other (fact and reasoning). Caught me off guard since topscore did not prepare me for this.
Biology: There were questions from every topic. I understand now why people say Biology section is random. They pretty much cover almost every topic. I skimmed through AP cliff, Kaplan subject test, and Topscore. Much of my knowledge for the DAT came from my Undergrad and AP cliff helps me recall many of those concepts. I figured there were just too much biology to study in 4 days so I only read AP cliff and did practice problems.
GC: Everything was straight forward. NOthing tricky. I used Destroyer, MCAT hyperlearning, Kaplan subject test, and topscore. I had mixture of Concepts and calculations. I would say Practice practice practice. There were many errors that i was able to catch my self doing since I repeatedly made those errors during my practice tests.
Ochem: Most feared section of all. I was never good at Ochem but after studying for the DAT, I think I knew more about Ochem than during my undergrad. MCAT Hyperlearning refreshed my memory, Destroyer killed me, Kaplan subject test killed me, and Topscore killed me. THen i just reviewed everything i got wrong and hope for the best. I also used this:
http://undergrad-ed.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/Carey5th/useful/reagents/functional.html
Just read this and Destroyer Road maps every once in a while during your studies and you should be good with the reaction part. I also looked at this 2 hours before my test. MCAT hyperlearning help me understand the concepts and Kaplan subject tests will fill in any other weaknesses. I believe Topscore did i great job as well.
PAT: Did not study for it. Just got expose to it during Topscore tests. Phew, i got lucky. For the angle section, i think my eyes were literally 5 inches away from the screen to look at every pixel on the computer. This section was tough. The fox folding section was tough also but if I stared at the pictures long enough, some clues will pop out to help me find the box. My strategy for this was to do normal pace on the hole fitting section, semi fast on front-top-end view section, semi fast on hole punch and slow down a little for the hard folds, SUPER FAST for the box counting, and slow for the box folding. This gave me 10 min to spare at the end to double check my box couting section (which i made some mistakes)
Hope everyone is doing well. Dont give up no matter what the result of the practice tests are saying. If you keep fixing your mistakes, you will sooner or later stop making them. So practice practice practice. There's no reason to study if you can not apply it in a question. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE. Hopefully my QR wont hold me back.
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