DAT Breakdown (08/13/2014) 22AA,23TS,22PAT

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

DrFLAGATORS

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
120
Reaction score
4
BIO - 23 :horns:
GC - 22 :annoyed:
OC - 25 :clap:
PAT - 22 :nod:
RC - 22 :thumbup:
QR - 19

TS - 23
AA - 22

Now that I have chosen the proper emoticons...

Day Before: I went over chad's notes and re-did bootcamp tests.
Night Before: Stopped studying at 10pm, and tried to sleep. I barely slept. Maybe 3 hours.
Rise: 5:15 am
Breakfast: Chocolate Chip Pancake, Macha Green Tea, Water
Drive: Prometric was 1 hour away. Put my soundcloud on, had windows down, and was ecstatic to get this test done.
Lobby of Prometric: I meditated for 5 minutes. I was really anxious, so it helped.
8am - entered my testing cubicle
Did the 15 minute tutorial to settle nerves, but didn't really help
815am -
Started exam...

Background
So I've taken the MCAT, and was actually accepted to an allopathic medical school couple of years ago, but my immigration was holding me back. I didn't have my Green Card, and the school wouldn't defer my acceptance. So 4 weeks after being accepted to medical school, my seat was rescinded. My MCAT score also expired, so I pretty much got hit with a blue shell...After working for a couple of years, I realized dentistry was a better fit for me (whole nother discussion). After I got my Green Card last December, I pursued applying to dental school. Fast forward to June, when I started my DAT Prep. I originally intended to study and work full time, but that didn't last long. I took these courses 8 years ago, and was pulling my hair out the first month. So I moved my test back from July 18 to July 28. When July came around, I was feeling better about taking it on Jul 28. But, unexpectedly, my roommate passed away in an accident. He was a close friend and it was pretty devastating to our group of friends. I would also count down the days until DAT to him, and was looking forward to grab beers with him and continue our shenanigans afterwards. After his funeral I moved back to my parent's house to refocus and I pushed my DAT back, again, to today. However, after studying for 5 days, I was over it. I wanted to take it and move on with my life. So over the past 2 weeks, I really only studied half the time. Overall, I'm happy with my scores, and I'm definitely going to throw back a few Irish Car Bomb's for my buddy.

BIO
Notes - I read AP Biology Cliff Notes and Kaplan Blue Book Once. I did a Special Master's Program where I take the first year of medical school, so my human physiology was pretty good. I studied the Animal Behavior, Ecology, Taxonomy, Plants stuff more. I printed Ferrell, but I didn't go through it. If I had to do it again, I would only study from Ferell. I flipped through it this morning and it had everything. Wish I used it only. KBB was shallow, and Cliff Notes was too dry.

Practice - DAT Destroyer 1.5x - I was over it after halfway through the second time.
Bootcamp Scores - 21/21/23/22/25 - These were insanely important to hone in on my weaknesses. I went through them twice.

Test Day - I freaked out after the first 10 questions, probably because I haven't taken an actual test in a few years. I thought I totally f***ed this up after I moved on to chemistry. There were ridiculously basic questions, then there was just random ****. I went through all the questions once, and marked ones I wasn't sure on (half of the section). I was able to go back through all my marked questions, and I changed quarter of my marked answers after reading the question and answer choices again. I think test taking skills really help on this section because you will see questions on material you haven't covered.

CHEM
Notes - CHAD's Videos x2, Chad's quizzes x2.5, Chad's outlines like x4.

Practice - DAT Destroyer 1.5x
Bootcamp Scores - 22/21/30/20/20/21 - went through them twice. Questions were very similar on actual DAT.

Test Day - Went through the questions once and marked ones I wasn't sure on. Was able to go back through them. I thought I did pretty good on this section, maybe only missed a couple, but I guess not. Oh well.

ORGO
Notes - Chad's Videos x2, Chad's quizzes x, Chad's outlines x5. I had a white board with all the reactions from chad's. I was really worried about this section in the beginning, but I guess I made my weakness my strength.

Practice - DAT Destroyer x2.5 - I'd say this is around 3 times harder than actual DAT.
Bootcamp Scores - 24/21/20/24/20 - Very similar to DAT

Test Day - I breezed through it. Barely marked any questions. There were a couple I wasn't completely sure of. Way easier on DAT than practice.

PAT
Practice - I used CDP and Bootcamp. CDP was good practice, but I read it was easier than the actual DAT, so I got Bootcamp, too. I only took 12/20 practice tests though. Hole punching started off bad, but i solidified that after practice. Angle Ranking was my worst, and no matter how many times I did the generator, I couldn't see any of those differences. Sometimes I picked the right 3 degrees of separation, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I would even get 6 degree of difference wrong.

CDP 1-5: 19/18/20/19/23
BC 1-3, 6-9: 20/21/20/19/20/20/20

Test Day - I couldn't write on my scratch paper until the test began, so I used the last couple of minutes on sciences to draw my hole punch and cube counting aides. Looking back, I would probably do this at the beginning of the science section instead of the end. I started with hole punch...

HP - Easier than bootcamp/cdp
CC - Easier than bootcamp/cdp
PF - A lot easier than bootcamp, more similar to cdp. Shading and shapes weren't that crazy
KH - I had one rock looking thing, but similar to bootcamp/harder than cdp
TFE - Easier than bootcamp/similar to cdp
AR - No clue, I loathe this crap

RC
I did search and destroy method. I read each question and found it in the passage. Didn't practice this until last week.

Bootcamp Scores: 20/17/22/24/20

Test Day - 1st and 3rd passage were easy, which probably saved me. Science related. The middle passage sucked. There were 20 small paragraphs, which was really annoying. Looking back, if you find you have this kind of passage, I would write a small note about each paragraph because I was getting confused going back and forth from passage to question.

I had one tone question and one both statements are true/false

QR
Notes - Chad's videos x1, chad's quizzes x1. Looking back, I should have done these twice. I didn't study this until 3 weeks ago, and barely. I think you should start studying this 1-1.2 months before. I used to be decent at math, got a 720 on SAT, but I guess I forgot a ton.

Practice - Math Destroyer - 10/15 tests, untimed. Looking back, should have done this timed, and should have gone through it twice. There was a question about arcs.

Bootcamp scores - 18/19 - only did 2 because I was getting discouraged and it seemed impossible to finish. However, there was a question that had a formula I never saw before, and never thought it would show up...lo and behold, it was the last question I had on the DAT. I got it wrong.

Test Day - I went through it looking for easy questions to answer. I marked world problems and diagram's to come back to later. I thought I did pretty decent, so I'm surprised by 19. I thought maybe 21. Overall, it was easier than Math Destroyer questions and definitely easier than Bootcamp. However, if you want to get the harder ones right, I would practice timing on easy questions and go over math destroyer twice.

Glad to finally accomplish this. What a journey it has been.

Members don't see this ad.
 

Attachments

  • DAT SDN.PDF
    490 KB · Views: 82
Awesome! I feel for you, and I do like the mario kart reference. Emoticons are definitely essential. Don't stop fighting
 
Top