Hello all,
Although this is my first post, I have been lurking on SDN for almost 2 years now. If you're reading this you already know, but just want to say what a stellar resource this forum is. Many thanks to all the posters for offering up their knowledge and advice.
Ok, what you really came for:
PA: 19 (69.4% percentile)
QR: 18 (86.6%)
RC: 20 (78.5%)
BIO: 20 (91.8%)
GC: 22 (95.2%)
OC: 25 (98.4%)
TS: 21 (96.2%)
AA: 21 (97.2%)
First of all, this was a re-take and this time around I used the Kaplan DAT On-Demand program. This is not the classroom program but rather the online course with which a lot of you are probably familiar. Overall, I'm happy with my experience. Is it worth the $1,200 or however much it is? That really depends on the person and how you study and learn the best. It comes with loads of practice exams with detailed explanations and those alone, in my opinion, are almost worth the cost. If you guys want more details or opinions I'll be happy to provide. Just wanted to mention this first as it was used in preparation for all sections.
I studied sparingly since January and ramped it up once the semester ended (~first week of May). Put in 10+ hours a day for the past 3 weeks. It sucked, but was definitely worth it.
Perceptual Ability - 19
Other than Kaplan and self-guided practice, really didn't do much on this. I probably could have done better but dedicated most of my studying to everything else. There weren't many surprises, except in hole punching, which was ridiculous. As I said, I have taken the test before...on my first DAT the hole punches were probably the easiest section of the PAT, and there were only so many different types of folds that could be made. Apparently not the case anymore. I recall a recent thread where someone mentioned that some of the hole punches were like origami....spot on. I had a handful that had folds nothing close to anything I've seen. Also, one had a hole punched on the crease of one of the folds, i.e., such that when unfolded, there would have been half a hole on the edge of the paper....I guess? Maybe someone has seen this before and can shed some light.
QR - 18
Again, mostly Kaplan. The best thing for QR is practice. Know all your trigonometric functions, identities, etc. I know this isn't a huge secret but I'm sure that about half of what I missed in this section had to do with sin/cos, etc. Just didn't study it enough.
RC - 20
No practice on this. I wouldn't really know how to practice for RC...unfortunately its one of those things highly dependent on inherent ability, IMO. I am actually very disappointed with a score of 20. On my first DAT I made a 26 in RC. I have no idea what happened in this section. I honestly thought I had close to a 30 when I finished. Definitely would have made my AA even better. Not gonna complain too much, though.
BIO - 20
All Kaplan. The book that comes with the Kaplan online course is basically like a deluxe version of the Blue Book, complete with end of chapter problems, with explanations, which were really helpful. I basically read the entire BIO section twice and answered all the problems and supplemented with flash cards in days leading up to the test. As everyone says, it's random as hell. Maybe 2 or 3 physiology questions (seriously), not a single taxonomy, no hardy weinberg, two punnets, don't recall any endocrinology. There was also a question about solutions in a spectrophotometer which I was in no way ready for. Luckily I think I got it right (thanks BIO lab). I am surprised at my score in BIO...I must have marked about 15 or so.
GC - 22
Used Chad's almost exclusively for this. Let me make this very clear: if you aren't using Chad's Videos, you aren't even trying. If you are preparing for the DAT, stop reading this right now and go buy them. For $50 ($25 for GC and $25 for OC) they might as well be free. Watched all the videos twice and worked the quizzes and cumulative tests over and over. I went in to the test today fully expecting to make a 30 in Gen Chem. But, as in BIO, got a totally random test. A lot of the questions were conceptual, but Chad is very good for that, as well as calculations.
OC - 25
All Chad's. Chad's videos/quizzes are good for Organic too, but I'm pretty good at it anyway and this was definitely my strong category. Organic is pretty cut and dry: know your reactions. But Chad's help a lot with conceptual stuff, which I had a lot of on my test.
Overall I'm really happy with my scores. I'm even happier that I don't have to study for this anymore! I didn't want to make this post too long-winded but I'd be happy to answer any questions and offer any other advice.
Thanks and best of luck to all!
Although this is my first post, I have been lurking on SDN for almost 2 years now. If you're reading this you already know, but just want to say what a stellar resource this forum is. Many thanks to all the posters for offering up their knowledge and advice.
Ok, what you really came for:
PA: 19 (69.4% percentile)
QR: 18 (86.6%)
RC: 20 (78.5%)
BIO: 20 (91.8%)
GC: 22 (95.2%)
OC: 25 (98.4%)
TS: 21 (96.2%)
AA: 21 (97.2%)
First of all, this was a re-take and this time around I used the Kaplan DAT On-Demand program. This is not the classroom program but rather the online course with which a lot of you are probably familiar. Overall, I'm happy with my experience. Is it worth the $1,200 or however much it is? That really depends on the person and how you study and learn the best. It comes with loads of practice exams with detailed explanations and those alone, in my opinion, are almost worth the cost. If you guys want more details or opinions I'll be happy to provide. Just wanted to mention this first as it was used in preparation for all sections.
I studied sparingly since January and ramped it up once the semester ended (~first week of May). Put in 10+ hours a day for the past 3 weeks. It sucked, but was definitely worth it.
Perceptual Ability - 19
Other than Kaplan and self-guided practice, really didn't do much on this. I probably could have done better but dedicated most of my studying to everything else. There weren't many surprises, except in hole punching, which was ridiculous. As I said, I have taken the test before...on my first DAT the hole punches were probably the easiest section of the PAT, and there were only so many different types of folds that could be made. Apparently not the case anymore. I recall a recent thread where someone mentioned that some of the hole punches were like origami....spot on. I had a handful that had folds nothing close to anything I've seen. Also, one had a hole punched on the crease of one of the folds, i.e., such that when unfolded, there would have been half a hole on the edge of the paper....I guess? Maybe someone has seen this before and can shed some light.
QR - 18
Again, mostly Kaplan. The best thing for QR is practice. Know all your trigonometric functions, identities, etc. I know this isn't a huge secret but I'm sure that about half of what I missed in this section had to do with sin/cos, etc. Just didn't study it enough.
RC - 20
No practice on this. I wouldn't really know how to practice for RC...unfortunately its one of those things highly dependent on inherent ability, IMO. I am actually very disappointed with a score of 20. On my first DAT I made a 26 in RC. I have no idea what happened in this section. I honestly thought I had close to a 30 when I finished. Definitely would have made my AA even better. Not gonna complain too much, though.
BIO - 20
All Kaplan. The book that comes with the Kaplan online course is basically like a deluxe version of the Blue Book, complete with end of chapter problems, with explanations, which were really helpful. I basically read the entire BIO section twice and answered all the problems and supplemented with flash cards in days leading up to the test. As everyone says, it's random as hell. Maybe 2 or 3 physiology questions (seriously), not a single taxonomy, no hardy weinberg, two punnets, don't recall any endocrinology. There was also a question about solutions in a spectrophotometer which I was in no way ready for. Luckily I think I got it right (thanks BIO lab). I am surprised at my score in BIO...I must have marked about 15 or so.
GC - 22
Used Chad's almost exclusively for this. Let me make this very clear: if you aren't using Chad's Videos, you aren't even trying. If you are preparing for the DAT, stop reading this right now and go buy them. For $50 ($25 for GC and $25 for OC) they might as well be free. Watched all the videos twice and worked the quizzes and cumulative tests over and over. I went in to the test today fully expecting to make a 30 in Gen Chem. But, as in BIO, got a totally random test. A lot of the questions were conceptual, but Chad is very good for that, as well as calculations.
OC - 25
All Chad's. Chad's videos/quizzes are good for Organic too, but I'm pretty good at it anyway and this was definitely my strong category. Organic is pretty cut and dry: know your reactions. But Chad's help a lot with conceptual stuff, which I had a lot of on my test.
Overall I'm really happy with my scores. I'm even happier that I don't have to study for this anymore! I didn't want to make this post too long-winded but I'd be happy to answer any questions and offer any other advice.
Thanks and best of luck to all!
