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Hi everyone,
I just got home from staying out with a few friends after finishing my exam. Celebrating (aka dinner and coffee) was obligatory after some gruesome weeks.
Scores
PAT 19
QR 21
RC 18
BIO 23🤣
GC 21
OC 21
TS 22
AA 21
I began "studying" a few months ago but only ramped up the past 8 or so weeks. I honestly had a harder time than I imagined studying because of my job commitment. I have unpredictable hours which gave me anywhere from 0-4 hours of study time per day so I often had to rejumble my study schedule. Nevertheless, I am glad I can relax a bit now.
I used the usual - Chad's videos, Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Cliffs, Feralis, Bootcamp.
I'll start with GC because that is where I started to panic for the remainder of the test.
GC
I used Chad's videos and quizzes which are amazing. Bootcamp was good practice as well since the question types were similar. I went through Destroyer once. I planned to go through it twice but I ran out of time.
I had did not know how to do at least 5 of the first 15 questions which caused me to panic. There were several acid base questions that I had no idea what to do and ended up guessing. I'm sure I learned the concepts somewhere but I just had no idea where to start on solving these questions. These questions killed my morale and I think it really affected me for the rest of the test. I had to keep telling myself "just keep going hard so I can make up for the GC score" while going through the other sections.
Nevertheless, I somehow ended up with a 21, so my biggest regret is not being able to control myself after being thrown off. So, my biggest piece of advice is to just keep going because you never know. I was hoping for a higher score because I better on my BC exams.
PAT
I only used Bootcamp. I expected at least a 20 because my lowest BC score was a 19 and the consensus was that the real exam was easier. The keyhole was definitely easier but I ran out of time and had to guess the entire angles and a few questions on pattern and TFE. My internal panic attack from GC definitely affected me here.
Compared to BC, the questions are similar. I think getting profient in BC will prepare you well.
QR
I did 5 Math Destroyer exams and the first 40 questions in the DAT Destroyer. I also memorized the formulas in Math Destroyer this morning. I was always decent at math and got decent scores in BC so I didn't worry too much. I think that if you can get the "easy" ones right, you can score well. This section wasn't bad at all. I did guess a handful of questions because time was running down and I wanted to ensure I got all the "easy" ones right.
RC
Also, scored ~20 in BC so I don't know what happened. Again, my GC freakout killed me here. There isn't much else to say except that it's very similar to BC. I think the real exam passages were shorter though. I may be wrong but it seemed that way.
Bio
This was the section I worried about the most. I took intro GC over 4 years ago and OC over 3 years ago, so I spent more time studying them. As a result, I wasn't able to put in much time into Bio. Although I had taken upper level bio courses (which helped for some questions) in my last few years of school, I took intro bio in high school. However, skimming through Feralis brought back concepts quickly. I read through Cliffs once and skimmed through Feralis once. I found the Bio part surprisingly straightforward since I was scorings 18s in BC
OC
Chad's again. I also did Destroyer 1.5 times and did BC. I honestly think that's more than enough. Again, GC killed me here. I spent 40 minutes on Gen Chem so I rushed through OC in 20 mins. The questions themselves were just like BC. There isn't much more to say. I had 1 very funky question that wasn't covered in any materials. I averaged mid 20s in BC.
My personal lesson - Manage your time. This is common sense but when the real exam comes, you get nervous and you sometimes don't perform the same way you do at home. I had timing issues in PAT and RC at home but it was far worse during the exam. I also spent too much time doing GC (40 mins) which left me 20 min to rush through OC.
Don't panic if you see a few questions you don't know how to do. A few questions aren't going to kill your score, especially if you can eliminate some answer choices. Even if you have to guess, you have a dozen more questions to get right. My panic during the GC cost me big time and I am kicking myself in the foot about it. I feel like I could have score a few points higher in some sections if only I remained calm.
My question - How do the sub 20 scores in RC and PAT affect me? Do I need to retake the exam? I really don't want to but if I have to, what can I say? I'm going to consult my advisor but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Good luck to the rest of you!
I just got home from staying out with a few friends after finishing my exam. Celebrating (aka dinner and coffee) was obligatory after some gruesome weeks.
Scores
PAT 19
QR 21
RC 18
BIO 23🤣
GC 21
OC 21
TS 22
AA 21
I began "studying" a few months ago but only ramped up the past 8 or so weeks. I honestly had a harder time than I imagined studying because of my job commitment. I have unpredictable hours which gave me anywhere from 0-4 hours of study time per day so I often had to rejumble my study schedule. Nevertheless, I am glad I can relax a bit now.
I used the usual - Chad's videos, Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Cliffs, Feralis, Bootcamp.
I'll start with GC because that is where I started to panic for the remainder of the test.
GC
I used Chad's videos and quizzes which are amazing. Bootcamp was good practice as well since the question types were similar. I went through Destroyer once. I planned to go through it twice but I ran out of time.
I had did not know how to do at least 5 of the first 15 questions which caused me to panic. There were several acid base questions that I had no idea what to do and ended up guessing. I'm sure I learned the concepts somewhere but I just had no idea where to start on solving these questions. These questions killed my morale and I think it really affected me for the rest of the test. I had to keep telling myself "just keep going hard so I can make up for the GC score" while going through the other sections.
Nevertheless, I somehow ended up with a 21, so my biggest regret is not being able to control myself after being thrown off. So, my biggest piece of advice is to just keep going because you never know. I was hoping for a higher score because I better on my BC exams.
PAT
I only used Bootcamp. I expected at least a 20 because my lowest BC score was a 19 and the consensus was that the real exam was easier. The keyhole was definitely easier but I ran out of time and had to guess the entire angles and a few questions on pattern and TFE. My internal panic attack from GC definitely affected me here.
Compared to BC, the questions are similar. I think getting profient in BC will prepare you well.
QR
I did 5 Math Destroyer exams and the first 40 questions in the DAT Destroyer. I also memorized the formulas in Math Destroyer this morning. I was always decent at math and got decent scores in BC so I didn't worry too much. I think that if you can get the "easy" ones right, you can score well. This section wasn't bad at all. I did guess a handful of questions because time was running down and I wanted to ensure I got all the "easy" ones right.
RC
Also, scored ~20 in BC so I don't know what happened. Again, my GC freakout killed me here. There isn't much else to say except that it's very similar to BC. I think the real exam passages were shorter though. I may be wrong but it seemed that way.
Bio
This was the section I worried about the most. I took intro GC over 4 years ago and OC over 3 years ago, so I spent more time studying them. As a result, I wasn't able to put in much time into Bio. Although I had taken upper level bio courses (which helped for some questions) in my last few years of school, I took intro bio in high school. However, skimming through Feralis brought back concepts quickly. I read through Cliffs once and skimmed through Feralis once. I found the Bio part surprisingly straightforward since I was scorings 18s in BC
OC
Chad's again. I also did Destroyer 1.5 times and did BC. I honestly think that's more than enough. Again, GC killed me here. I spent 40 minutes on Gen Chem so I rushed through OC in 20 mins. The questions themselves were just like BC. There isn't much more to say. I had 1 very funky question that wasn't covered in any materials. I averaged mid 20s in BC.
My personal lesson - Manage your time. This is common sense but when the real exam comes, you get nervous and you sometimes don't perform the same way you do at home. I had timing issues in PAT and RC at home but it was far worse during the exam. I also spent too much time doing GC (40 mins) which left me 20 min to rush through OC.
Don't panic if you see a few questions you don't know how to do. A few questions aren't going to kill your score, especially if you can eliminate some answer choices. Even if you have to guess, you have a dozen more questions to get right. My panic during the GC cost me big time and I am kicking myself in the foot about it. I feel like I could have score a few points higher in some sections if only I remained calm.
My question - How do the sub 20 scores in RC and PAT affect me? Do I need to retake the exam? I really don't want to but if I have to, what can I say? I'm going to consult my advisor but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Good luck to the rest of you!
