DAT Breakdown 23AA/ 23PAT/ 21TS + Chance Me!

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axe-e-dental

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Hi guys, I just got back from my exam and thought I'd post this breakdown as quick as possible to get my fresh thoughts posted. My goal was to get an AA of 22 and well I did meet my goal and I'm very happy. I hope this breakdown can give you some insight on what I did to prepare for this exam and hopefully you can nitpick some thing from it and incorporate it in your study routine to crush the DAT!

Also chance me please. I'd appreciate the feedback. My oGPA: 3.33 and sGPA: 3.33

Overall Thoughts on the Exam:
The exam was quite random. Well actually a lot of random. Some questions were like 10th grade freebie questions and other were such that if you had a Ph.D in your field, they would give you a run for your degree. I was very surprised to see that my results were the opposite of my results from my practice test. For my practice I was doing very well on the science section, but average for the RC, QR and PAT. On the actual, it was turned around. I did very well on the RC, QR and PAT, but okay for the sciences. Overall the average stayed the same so I'm content. Though I am disappointed in my biology score. But I'm just glad the exam's over and I'm free. I hope this helps you somehow. And now I'm gonna go sleep.

Score:
Bio-20) G.Chem-23) O.Chem-22) RC-25) QR-24) PAT-23) AA=23

Practice Exam Scores:
!!!***Disclaimer***!!! - I should mention that Bootcamp practice exam scores could be a bit inflated. I had gone through the Bootcamp individual section practice exams 1-10 about a month before taking these full exams. So I don't really know how much that may have skewed the results but I'm definitely sure it did.​
Bootcamp practice exam scores:
1) Bio-28) G.Chem-27) O.Chem-27) RC-20) QR-18) PAT-21) AA=24
2) Bio-23) G.Chem-24) O.Chem-29) RC-22) QR-19) PAT-19) AA=23
3) Bio-24) G.Chem-26) O.Chem-27) RC-22) QR-19) PAT-20) AA=24
4) Bio-25) G.Chem-25) O.Chem-22) RC-22) QR-19) PAT-20) AA=23
5) Bio-23) G.Chem-23) O.Chem-21) RC-20) QR-19) PAT-20) AA=21
ADA 2007 and 2009 practice exam scores:
2007) Bio-21) G.Chem-25) O.Chem-28) RC-21) QR-21) PAT-20) AA=23
2009) Bio-21) G.Chem-24) O.Chem-24) RC-19) QR-19) PAT-21) AA=21​

Materials Used:
  • DAT Bootcamp (10/10): Must have!
  • DAT Math Destroyer (7/10): Excellent source for math practice. Though a bit outdated due to no QC questions. I was only able to finish half of it due to time constraints but still very helpful.
  • DAT Destroyer (10/10): Use as a learning tool and not a testing tool. Be prepared to get stressed over how many questions you're getting wrong. It's okay, thats normal! Only finished half, but well worth it.
  • Cliff's Biology (7/10): Excellent source for biology review but the anatomy sections are missing.
  • Ferali's Notes (10/10): Bible of Biology. Everything is in there. If you think up a question you don't know, answers is probably in there.
  • Chad's Videos (9/10): Easy to follow along and gets to the important stuff
  • Mike's Videos (9/10): Basically Chad's for O.Chem!
  • Destroythedat.com (10/10):Use this for G.chem practice. Has lots of problems to cement the calculation procedures in your head. Repetition is key.
Thoughts:
Biology (20)
This section was a bit disappointing for me really. I'm a biology major and I expected to do better in this section. I have yet to take any anatomy and physiology classes in college so I focused a majority of my biology study time to learn this topic. On the exam I only got one question related to anatomy and physiology. Most questions were on embryology, cellular components, metabolism and evolution to which I hadn't dedicated much time to. I didn't get any question regarding plants at all. For some reason my version of the test reeeeally loved the Zone of Pellucida. I had 4 depth questions about it and I just ended up guessing. Overall pretty straightforward, but those 4 questions got to me and got me a bit nervous for the rest of the section.​

To study for this section I went through each and every question of the Bootcamp biology. Not just what the correct answer was but also the explanation. I wrote out the whole explanations out in my notebooks. Writing out is a better way to learn instead of reading in my opinion.

General Chemistry (23)
Very conceptual and not many calculations. The calculations didn't even need to be solved out for most of the questions as the answer format was setup in how you'd write out the numbers to solve. No surprises here but I did get two lab technique questions.​

To study for this section I used Chad's Videos and his website destroythedat.com. The site is very good and has lots of similar problems. So you can really pinpoint your weakness and do exactly those types of problems to get better. Highly recommended.

Organic Chemistry (22)
Very straightforward. Nothing too much to comment here. I will say, I did have a grudge against Organic Chemistry because it was one of my favorite favorite subjects but I didn't do too well in O.Chem I and II (C's) in my classes. It didn't make sense to me that I enjoyed the subject but wasn't doing too well. So I was set on getting a good score on this exam just to prove myself.​

To study for this section, I used Mike's Videos. He explains very well and his handouts are very helpful. I went over reactions list every night before bed to memorize them.

Perceptual Ability (23)
Big, big surprise for me! For my practice exams I was okay at PAT but this 23 was a huge surprise. I wasn't expecting it at all. I had 6 rocks and each one of them harder then the previous one. I guess my guessing game was pretty strong today. The angles were on par with Bootcamp. The pattern folding was pretty easy actually as it was just picking out shapes that matched to the problem. Hole punching was the same as bootcamp as well at the cube counting.​

To study for this section, I used the Bootcamp generators. I would do the generators for 10 minutes each every morning.

Reading Comprehension (25)
Even bigger surprise!! I didn't get over a 21 on the practice test and somehow pulled out a 25. I think the trick to this section is to just get excited about the articles. I didn't use the S&D method because it wasn't working for me in practice tests but all the articles were very S&D friendly.​

To study for this section, I would read an article every morning after my PAT practice.

Quantitative Reasoning (24)
The biggest surprise of all! From my practice scores you can see that I was hovering around a 19. This section was pretty easy. The DAT math destroyer and Bootcamp practice exams were quite more difficult in comparison. And I'm glad they were because it pushed me to practice more and get this score.​

To study, I used the DAT Math destroyer and Bootcamp. My biggest weakness was probability and QC. I found some GRE practice books that had a QC problems and improved upon that.

And now time to go sleep...(forgive me for grammar mistakes. my brain is fried)

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