DAT Breakdown!!

[pppokerface]

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Took the DAT last week and I must say that its the best feeling ever to have that done with! I figured since I got some great advice from past DAT breakdowns that I would share my 2 cents with you all!
Here are my scores:

BIO: 20
GC: 22
OC: 23
RC: 21
QR: 18
PAT: 21
AA: 21
TS: 22

Bio: Cliffs AP is a MUST! It really helped me on my weaker subject areas (plants, taxonomy) & was a great review guide overall. Destroyer problems & Kaplan subject tests were also beneficial!
GC: I was getting 17 & 18s on the Kaplan exams (which I thought were pretty tough), actual DAT was VERY straight forward..MUCH easier than Kaplan. Know your acid/base stuff! I didn't really use Destroyer for this section since I thought those questions were pretty hard and I turned out okay!
OC: Straightforward, always was my strongest section on Kaplan exams so I didn't need to put that much work into it. Destroyer was very good for practice!
RC: my passages were decent; I used search & destroy method.
QR: I was really worried about this section, I was getting 15-20s on Kaplan exams so an 18 was fine with me! I had a LOT of trig on my test which I had not spent enough time on 🙁
PAT: I used Kaplan & CDP (5 tests) on this, was scoring 19-22 on both; Kaplan angles were a joke but for the most part it was helpful. CDP was great except I felt their cube counting & hole punching were a lot more difficult than the actual thing

If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask or pm me!

 

[llungu]

I suck at trig - I had it junior year in high school & since my teacher was about 8 pregnant when the class started she took the rest of the year off for maternity leave --> leaving me with a substitute that sold garage doors for a living.. Needless to say, I didn't learn anything that year. When you say trig, do you mean trig identities, or knowing what sin(pi/2) is? either way I'm screwed :/ Do you have any tips on where to learn that stuff?

 

[brightsmiles9]

Great job!!! CONGRATSS!! Good luck with everything! 🙂

 

[pppokerface]

llungu, i definitely feel your pain with having a horrible teacher! i don't remember the exact problems but i know i had at least 3 or 4 that had some sort of trig identity/solving for values with pi fractions in it. the math section in destroyer had a lot of trig which probably be helpful. reading an old math textbook would probably be best to relearn everything (too bad i didnt take my own advice lol) all versions of the DAT are different though, some may not have any trig.

 

[pppokerface]

Great job!!! CONGRATSS!! Good luck with everything! 🙂

thanks so much!!!

 

[g23armani]

Congratulations!

 

[jay47]

I suck at trig - I had it junior year in high school & since my teacher was about 8 pregnant when the class started she took the rest of the year off for maternity leave --> leaving me with a substitute that sold garage doors for a living.. Needless to say, I didn't learn anything that year. When you say trig, do you mean trig identities, or knowing what sin(pi/2) is? either way I'm screwed :/ Do you have any tips on where to learn that stuff?

Trig really isn't too hard, even if you were never taught (like me, until college)

Just remember, it almost ALWAYS goes back to triangles....

For example, what is the sin(30 degrees)? [and, as always, without a calculator]...

Think of a right triangle with a 30 degree side....now what do the other sides look like?

30-60-90

Now remember the mnemonics....SOH-CAH-TOA....

Opposite over hypotenuse...but, you have to know the triangle ratios...

30-60-90 = 1 (short)-2 (hypotenuse)-root3 (middle) http://www.themathpage.com/aTrig/30-60-90-triangle.htm

Now, what is opposite/hypotenuse? It is 1/2 or .5, and that is the sine of 30 degrees.

Now, let me ask another question...when do sine and cos equal each other?

Another way to ask the question is, when will the legs of the right TRIANGLE be equal on both sides? Easy right, a 45-45-90 triangle, so at 45 degrees or pi/4

Shown here in graphical form.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sine_cosine_plot.svg

Another tip is to keep in mind pi values as they relate to degrees, cuz I can't work with pi in my head..

pi=180 degrees
pi/2=90 degrees
pi/4=45 degrees

 

[sw1sschez]

Congratulations. Some of the best scores I've seen so far lately. I heard math doesnt really count that much anyway. So you are all set pretty much. That O chem you blew away.

 

[Colorful Joe]

Looks really good!!!
What parts of the destroyer did you find most helpful???

 

[MrJeff]

These are great scores!! good job.

 

[KitKat09]

Nice scores. Congrats 🙂

 

[ZzZzSleepyhead]

Goob job! Thanks for the breakdown.

What materials did you use to study for QR?