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Hey everyone. Don't post much but have been around for a while. Just wanted to give a small breakdown of my scores from last week. I took the DAT last year and got a 18AA, 18TS. Here are my scores from this time around:
PA-21
QR-20
RC-24
BIO-22
GC-20
OC-27
TS-22 (95.6%)
AA-23 (98.7%)
After last year I was somewhat discouraged but got over it pretty quickly and was very happy with these scores. Just goes to show that it's a whole new test the second time around and you just have to forget you ever took it the first time.
Last summer I took the Kaplan On-line course but did not take it again because I felt that it kind of wasted my time last year. I think it's a great class for anyone that has had that great of teachers or just general overview but I just felt like it was a little to general for me and the teacher spent to much time answering very general questions of (what I felt were) easy concepts that others in the class did not understand. Again, that is just my opinion and obviously it is perfect for some people (like the people asking those questions) who paid the same amount that I did so deserved to ask whatever questions they pleased! Anyway....I did not study for the test again until mid-may (aside from taking Biology courses in school). From then on I pretty much studied every day from around 9 to 5. During the last week and a half up to the test I pretty much took a practice test every day with a skipped day thrown in randomly. The day before the test I just sat around with the notecards I made throughout the month and watched TV.
--------------------------------
The materials I used were Kaplan BB (purely for review of concepts I did not remember as well), DAT Destroyer, and Math Destroyer.
BIO/GC/OC
If I had to only pick one thing to prepare with it would definitely be DAT Destroyer. I did every problem in the Bio, GC, and OC sections and kind of used those to guide my studying and what I needed to go over/take notes on. Since there is so much information you obviously cannot go over everything that can be on the test but I felt like it pretty much covered all of the general areas.
QR
For QR, I took 5 of the Math Destroyer tests and, again, used my wrong answers to see what I needed to study more. I felt like the Math Destroyer (along with the practice tests) did a pretty good job of preparing me for the types of problems that I saw on the test.
RC
Never once "studied" for this section besides taking the practice tests and even on the practice tests never went back to look at answers I had not answered correctly. For me, this section is ALL about timing. I made an outline of key words for the entire passage for the first 5 minutes or so then spend the next 15 answering the questions.
PA
Like RC, I didn't study for this section aside from the practice tests. For whatever reason this stuff is pretty easy to me. I will say that this is the one section that I usually scored higher on the practice tests than on the actual test. Out of the 100's of angle ranking ?'s on all of the practice tests I had taken, I had only missed TWO. I had to mark 6 or 7 on the actual test because they were so hard and the pattern folding was pretty hard as well.
-----------------------------
I took the 5 Kaplan Full-Lengths (and assorted quizzes), the 3 TopScore tests, the 2007 (paper) and 2009 (online) ADA practice tests.
I thought they were all pretty representative of the actual DAT with the exception of the 2009 ADA test which I just HATED the formatting of and the fact that they do not provide you with the correct answers. By the last few days of my studying, I was scoring around 21/21/22 on the TopScore tests (which I took last). The closest to my actual score was the 2007 ADA test which I felt was a little to easy.
-------------------------------
Overall, I would say my biggest piece of advice is to not memorize random facts, but understand the concepts behind things. For example, when you take a practice test or do other problems, don't go back over it and make a note of the exact question and answer, try to understand what concept you are missing go over the whole thing until you understand it. I feel like that was the biggest difference between my studying the first and second times.
I am sending in my application on Monday and have a 3.0sGPA and 3.4 overall GPA. I have good/great community service and extracurricular activities and 1100+ hours of observation. I am crossing my fingers for numerous interviews! Feedback and questions are welcome..Good luck! 🙂
PA-21
QR-20
RC-24
BIO-22
GC-20
OC-27
TS-22 (95.6%)
AA-23 (98.7%)
After last year I was somewhat discouraged but got over it pretty quickly and was very happy with these scores. Just goes to show that it's a whole new test the second time around and you just have to forget you ever took it the first time.
Last summer I took the Kaplan On-line course but did not take it again because I felt that it kind of wasted my time last year. I think it's a great class for anyone that has had that great of teachers or just general overview but I just felt like it was a little to general for me and the teacher spent to much time answering very general questions of (what I felt were) easy concepts that others in the class did not understand. Again, that is just my opinion and obviously it is perfect for some people (like the people asking those questions) who paid the same amount that I did so deserved to ask whatever questions they pleased! Anyway....I did not study for the test again until mid-may (aside from taking Biology courses in school). From then on I pretty much studied every day from around 9 to 5. During the last week and a half up to the test I pretty much took a practice test every day with a skipped day thrown in randomly. The day before the test I just sat around with the notecards I made throughout the month and watched TV.
--------------------------------
The materials I used were Kaplan BB (purely for review of concepts I did not remember as well), DAT Destroyer, and Math Destroyer.
BIO/GC/OC
If I had to only pick one thing to prepare with it would definitely be DAT Destroyer. I did every problem in the Bio, GC, and OC sections and kind of used those to guide my studying and what I needed to go over/take notes on. Since there is so much information you obviously cannot go over everything that can be on the test but I felt like it pretty much covered all of the general areas.
QR
For QR, I took 5 of the Math Destroyer tests and, again, used my wrong answers to see what I needed to study more. I felt like the Math Destroyer (along with the practice tests) did a pretty good job of preparing me for the types of problems that I saw on the test.
RC
Never once "studied" for this section besides taking the practice tests and even on the practice tests never went back to look at answers I had not answered correctly. For me, this section is ALL about timing. I made an outline of key words for the entire passage for the first 5 minutes or so then spend the next 15 answering the questions.
PA
Like RC, I didn't study for this section aside from the practice tests. For whatever reason this stuff is pretty easy to me. I will say that this is the one section that I usually scored higher on the practice tests than on the actual test. Out of the 100's of angle ranking ?'s on all of the practice tests I had taken, I had only missed TWO. I had to mark 6 or 7 on the actual test because they were so hard and the pattern folding was pretty hard as well.
-----------------------------
I took the 5 Kaplan Full-Lengths (and assorted quizzes), the 3 TopScore tests, the 2007 (paper) and 2009 (online) ADA practice tests.
I thought they were all pretty representative of the actual DAT with the exception of the 2009 ADA test which I just HATED the formatting of and the fact that they do not provide you with the correct answers. By the last few days of my studying, I was scoring around 21/21/22 on the TopScore tests (which I took last). The closest to my actual score was the 2007 ADA test which I felt was a little to easy.
-------------------------------
Overall, I would say my biggest piece of advice is to not memorize random facts, but understand the concepts behind things. For example, when you take a practice test or do other problems, don't go back over it and make a note of the exact question and answer, try to understand what concept you are missing go over the whole thing until you understand it. I feel like that was the biggest difference between my studying the first and second times.
I am sending in my application on Monday and have a 3.0sGPA and 3.4 overall GPA. I have good/great community service and extracurricular activities and 1100+ hours of observation. I am crossing my fingers for numerous interviews! Feedback and questions are welcome..Good luck! 🙂
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