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- May 7, 2014
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Hey friends, took my DAT today and my goodness it feels good to be done. I honestly feel like I don't have a purpose at the moment, like what the heck am I supposed to do!
Anyway. I ended up with..
PAT - 20
QR - 22
RC - 27
Bio - 22
GC - 22
OC - 19
TS - 21
AA - 22
Time I spent:
4 weeks at 6 hours a day. That was my useful limit. Any more and I would have gone crazy.
Materials I used:
I bought 3 books from a friend: the Kaplan DAT 2015, some ACS O chem study book, and DAT Destroyer 2015. These are the books BYU test prep gives you, cost me 100 bucks for them from someone who took the class. I watched all Chad's videos (minus the bio section) once. Took me two months so that was 100 as well. I used DAT Bootcamp which cost me 150. Finally, I did use the 2007 and 2009 DAT. Total was 350 bucks, ish.
Quality of said materials:
Kaplan DAT 2015: PAT section is useless. Didn't touch either chem section. I read through probably 50% of the bio sections (the ones I was weak at). It was helpful, but certainly not necessary.
ACS O Chem: Haha..didn't touch it. Maybe that's why I ended up with a 19 in OC.
DAT Destroyer 2015: This will be a somewhat unpopular opinion. I know orgoman browses the forum and he/she does a great job at being involved. But I did NOT like the book. I do feel like it was too difficult in general, and it just frustrated me. That being said, if you learn well by solving difficult problems and trying to understand them, more power to you. It wasn't great for me. Again though, only a 19 on OC so heck, take my advice with caution.
Chads Videos: Man am I tired of his voice, haha. He does a very good job at lecturing, however. I don't feel like they're necessary but they are helpful for those weak in OC/GC/QR.
Bootcamp: My number 1 resource. If I was asked all of the GC/OC/BIO questions I would get a 95%+. I knew all the questions and felt like they were quite representative of the actual test, definitely moreso than the Destroyer. I probably used the resource too much to be honest, and didn't branch out to other questions enough. I can't really give you scores here, I used it mostly as a resource for questions and not for tests. However, I did use the PAT and QR as tests and I got, on average, a 19 on the PAT sections and 18 on the QR sections.
2007 DAT: I used this as a practice bank of questions, I did NOT use it as a test prep. I went through and made sure I knew 100% of the questions. It was definitely helpful. I went through it twice.
2009 DAT: I used this as an actual test. I got a..
PAT - 22. Ended up doing 2 points worse.
QR - 17. Ended up doing 5 points better
RC - 21. Ended up doing 6 points better.
Bio - 20. Ended up doing 2 points better.
GC - 19. Ended up doing 3 points better.
OC - 19. Tie!
My Thoughts:
So I didn't do as well on the PAT as I should have. I'm not sure what else to say. My Bootcamp scores were pretty representative of my actual. I expected to get a 21-23 here.
I was MOST worried about QR, but for some reason I did really well! Some of the questions were really easy. I expected to get a 18-20.
I knew RC was going to be my best section, I got a 22 on my first bootcamp and only took 3 bootcamp RC sections as prep. Really, it's pretty easy stuff for me so I did well. I expected to get a 25 ish.
Bio is a crapshoot. Study what you can, and make sure you know everything about each answer. I expected to get a 20-21 here.
GC I felt like was my specialty, I expected to do really well. I could do any bootcamp question with ease. 22 is okay. I expected a 23+.
OC..ew. I hate OC, but I expected to get a 20+. There was some random crap on the test that I hadn't ever seen.
Conclusion:
I am happy with a 22. There are better scores out there, but getting a 27 on RC is great because I know a lot of schools put a lot of umph into that score. I wish I had all 20+'s, but O chem got in my way.
If you guys have any questions, especially those who are going to take the test soon, please ask away.
Thanks guys!
Anyway. I ended up with..
PAT - 20
QR - 22
RC - 27
Bio - 22
GC - 22
OC - 19
TS - 21
AA - 22
Time I spent:
4 weeks at 6 hours a day. That was my useful limit. Any more and I would have gone crazy.
Materials I used:
I bought 3 books from a friend: the Kaplan DAT 2015, some ACS O chem study book, and DAT Destroyer 2015. These are the books BYU test prep gives you, cost me 100 bucks for them from someone who took the class. I watched all Chad's videos (minus the bio section) once. Took me two months so that was 100 as well. I used DAT Bootcamp which cost me 150. Finally, I did use the 2007 and 2009 DAT. Total was 350 bucks, ish.
Quality of said materials:
Kaplan DAT 2015: PAT section is useless. Didn't touch either chem section. I read through probably 50% of the bio sections (the ones I was weak at). It was helpful, but certainly not necessary.
ACS O Chem: Haha..didn't touch it. Maybe that's why I ended up with a 19 in OC.
DAT Destroyer 2015: This will be a somewhat unpopular opinion. I know orgoman browses the forum and he/she does a great job at being involved. But I did NOT like the book. I do feel like it was too difficult in general, and it just frustrated me. That being said, if you learn well by solving difficult problems and trying to understand them, more power to you. It wasn't great for me. Again though, only a 19 on OC so heck, take my advice with caution.
Chads Videos: Man am I tired of his voice, haha. He does a very good job at lecturing, however. I don't feel like they're necessary but they are helpful for those weak in OC/GC/QR.
Bootcamp: My number 1 resource. If I was asked all of the GC/OC/BIO questions I would get a 95%+. I knew all the questions and felt like they were quite representative of the actual test, definitely moreso than the Destroyer. I probably used the resource too much to be honest, and didn't branch out to other questions enough. I can't really give you scores here, I used it mostly as a resource for questions and not for tests. However, I did use the PAT and QR as tests and I got, on average, a 19 on the PAT sections and 18 on the QR sections.
2007 DAT: I used this as a practice bank of questions, I did NOT use it as a test prep. I went through and made sure I knew 100% of the questions. It was definitely helpful. I went through it twice.
2009 DAT: I used this as an actual test. I got a..
PAT - 22. Ended up doing 2 points worse.
QR - 17. Ended up doing 5 points better
RC - 21. Ended up doing 6 points better.
Bio - 20. Ended up doing 2 points better.
GC - 19. Ended up doing 3 points better.
OC - 19. Tie!
My Thoughts:
So I didn't do as well on the PAT as I should have. I'm not sure what else to say. My Bootcamp scores were pretty representative of my actual. I expected to get a 21-23 here.
I was MOST worried about QR, but for some reason I did really well! Some of the questions were really easy. I expected to get a 18-20.
I knew RC was going to be my best section, I got a 22 on my first bootcamp and only took 3 bootcamp RC sections as prep. Really, it's pretty easy stuff for me so I did well. I expected to get a 25 ish.
Bio is a crapshoot. Study what you can, and make sure you know everything about each answer. I expected to get a 20-21 here.
GC I felt like was my specialty, I expected to do really well. I could do any bootcamp question with ease. 22 is okay. I expected a 23+.
OC..ew. I hate OC, but I expected to get a 20+. There was some random crap on the test that I hadn't ever seen.
Conclusion:
I am happy with a 22. There are better scores out there, but getting a 27 on RC is great because I know a lot of schools put a lot of umph into that score. I wish I had all 20+'s, but O chem got in my way.
If you guys have any questions, especially those who are going to take the test soon, please ask away.
Thanks guys!
