DAT Breakdown! 6/19/2014

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bowerbird25

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It's....It's finally over!

A little background on me:

I am a non-traditional student. I worked as a clinical research assistant for a little over a year after graduating with a psych degree before deciding to return to school. I completed a little more than half of my pre-reqs in the past year. Some of them I tackled about 4 years ago (woah). I believe the heavy science course load I took definitely influenced my score. I have above a 3.85 GPA and above a 3.8 science GPA. I started studying for the DAT way back in November (mainly the PAT) and studied somewhat consistently while taking courses. Studying time definitely went down during exam weeks tho, which in science courses can be like every 4 or 5 weeks. I know a lot of people caution against this approach, but I allowed myself time to review old material 2 weeks before the exam while studying for QR and RC. I reviewed by taking quizzes/practice tests and reviewing concepts that seemed fuzzy to me. Repetition is key!

I just took the DAT and here are my scores. Can't believe I'm posting this.

PAT: 23
QR:25
RC:25
Bio: 21
GC: 22
OC:25
TS: 22
AA: 24

I was shocked when I finished the exam. I rarely/never achieved these scores on practice exams.

Resources: Chad's videos, CDP, DAT destroyer, DAT Bootcamp, Feralis' Notes, brainscape.com

PAT: The highest score I got on CDP was a 22. How I got a 23 is beyond me, especially considering that I marked 4 questions and had to guess on them before time ran out. What may have helped is that the angles were easier (by far my worst section in practice tests); I was able to pick up on some things that weren't in CDP. For instance, on a few of the questions, I couldn't decide which angle of two was bigger or the biggest. Instead, I was able to look at two smaller angles and see which answer choice had them in the correct order. Seemed like CDP rarely afforded me that luxury. Another thing I HIGHLY recommend for angles is covering up the extended lines of the angles. It can really mess with your perspective if you look at them that way. Instead, focus on the size of the angle where the lines intersect. Another thing I have to recommend is marking the time consuming questions and saving them for later. This was a common tactic that I used throughout the test. That way you make sure you have enough time for the easy and moderately difficult ones. And of course, starting studying on this is November definitely helped.

RC: I didn't start studying for RC until a week before the exam. My only resource was 4 bootcamp tests (thanks Ari!). What really made these a great resource was the fact that they were graded. A lot of people recommend reading science articles, but knowing me, I would read lazily and not have a way of checking whether or not I actually grasped the material. Getting a score after each test was highly motivating, and my score steadily improved with each test. I think the highest score I got on practice tests (once) was a 26. The first time I got a 20. My strategy was a little bit of everything. I am a fast reader so first I read through all or most of each article, occasionally answering a question if it matched the one currently on my screen. When finished, I went through each question and double checked my inclination (if I had one). There was one article that went over 7 different ways of conducting nuclear imaging. For that one, I noted which paragraph each technique was described in while reading. That way I could find the answers I needed quickly. Worked like a charm. Even so, this score is crazy to me because reading comprehension hasn't ever been my strong-suit on standardized tests.

QR: Okay, I wasn't as surprised by this score. I've always been great at math and it shone through. Still-a 25 is really really high, especially considering that I didn't even look at QR until the week before the exam. I only used Math destroyer and bootcamp to prepare for this. And honestly, the only thing they helped with was reinforcing the fact that I HAD to learn trigometric functions and conversion factors. Funny, the only conversion factor I needed to memorize was ounces to lbs (16 ounces in a pound). But there were some trigometric functions on there and I'm glad I had them memorized. FOR THE MOST PART, though, this section could be tackled without much prep if you are good at manipulating numbers.

Bio: This was my lowest score (21). If you would have told me before the exam that a 21 on the bio section would be my lowest score, I'd have been ecstatic! I was a psych major so i expected to do OK on this section. I don't think it was that hard, and there were a few questions that were mirrors of questions I had seen on practice tests. I started studying for bio a month and a half before the exam. My strategy was to make online flashcards of ALL of Feralis' notes on brainscape.com. Brainscape is great resource because you can't lose/disorganize your flashcards, and you can get the mobile app to study them on your phone. If you're studying them on your computer, you can mark how well you know a flashcard on a 1-5 scale. It will show you the ones you don't know well more than the ones you do. After making and reviewing all the flashcards (took about a month), I did the DAT destroyer for it. I did 100 questions at a time and reviewed the questions once. The questions on the exam were simple and random. One taxonomy question. You just gotta know everything.

GChem: Proportionately speaking, I thought this would be one of my higher scores. It wasn't, but a 22 is nothing to complain about. The questions were a lot simpler than a lot of the material on Chad's quizzes. Ksp was on there though. I thankfully reviewed that the nite before the exam because I had a feeling it would be on there. Obviously Chad's videos and quizzes were a huge help here. I started studying Gchem in December during winter break. I must have reviewed the quizzes at least three times over spring semester, particularly the ones that I struggled with. I took the Bootcamp practice tests as the test drew closer and scored pretty highly (20, 23, etc).

OChem: You're kidding right? Ochem is one of my highest scoring sections? I was so intimidated by Ochem when I started taking it in classes. Turned out it was my strong suit. I used Chad's videos, which really helped, but I think bootcamp REALLY helped here too. SN1/SN2/E1/E2 were incredibly important on the test (three total questions), and bootcamp covered them in a similar manner. Markovnikov additions and aldol condensations were important as well, all of which were covered in detail on Bootcamp. Chad did them too, but having bootcamp there to check my knowledge was perfect.

Sorry for the novel. But this community definitely helped me achieve this score. If I can make one final recommendation, it would be to definitely take practice tests, for a couple reasons. First, you get better at pacing yourself. Second, you need to practice recalling all of the info you've studied. When I first did practice tests, I couldn't recognize what topic was being asked about. With time, I got better at spewing all that info I learned from my head.
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Cheers!

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Congrats! How would you recommend study for the QR if you aren't good at manipulating numbers in your head?

I'd use Math Destroyer. Not only does it offer some pretty good explanations of the answers, but it offers 12 practice tests. After trying the first test, make sure you understand why each answer is correct and if the explanation in the solutions section is confusing, ask someone at your university (math TA) or a friend who is good at math. Having someone explain a concept to you in simple terms can really help.

Once you understand each concept on the first test, move on to test 2 and repeat. It's like training a muscle or practicing an instrument. It just takes time to get better. And be sure to time yourself when taking the tests. You get 45 mins on the real test.

Bootcamp's QR is outrageously difficult. They even say so themselves. I wouldn't try those until you're doing well on Math Destroyer.

Good luck!
 
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