- Joined
- Jun 20, 2014
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 6
Heyo! It's Friday and I'm done!!! Wahoo!!! 🙂 Pretty relieved to be finished studying for a while. A little bummed about the PAT/QR scores but I'm happy with how the test went and glad I didn't really bomb any section haha.
Scores:
AA: 22
TS: 23
BIO: 21
OC : 25
GC: 25
RC: 21
QR: 19
PAT: 19
GPA: ~3.6, Major: Biochemistry
I began studying in late April 1-2 hours a day from the KBB during my vacation to New Orleans. I would just read a couple chapters from the book and basically outlined whatever I thought was important. The Kaplan book is alright for really broad ideas that I was shaky on (oogenesis, circulatory system, SN2/SN1 etc.) but it didn't really have a whole lot of fine details in it. During that time I also tried outlining the Cliff's AP Bio Book in a notebook but that seemed a bit futile. Definitely a good resource for like $5 though.
Things really kicked into gear mid-May where I began to freak out because I had signed up for the 6/20 date so I decided to buy the Destroyer and a month of Chad's videos and quizzes. It took me about 2 weeks to watch all 36+ hrs of his videos and take notes and do all the quizzes, but they were definitely well worth it. The Destroyer is kind of intimidating at first, but after your knowledge base builds up it gets better (tons of questions though, how does anyone actually finish it... MULTIPLE TIMES?!). What really helped me after searching all the "breakdowns" threads was to study Feralis notes religiously which I found to be a godsend. Just the mass amount of information condensed on those 67+ sheets is super awesome and useful. It's funny because literally two hours before my test I was reading over the notes again and Googled a term that I wasn't sure about which DEFINITELY saved me on a random bio question.
A week and a half before the test I still felt uneasy about my knowledge base so I decided to get the Bootcamp series as well. This was probably one of the best resources besides Feralis notes and Chad's IMO. Tons of practice and helped a lot with timing. The finals days leading up I read over Feralis notes a couple times, read over Chad's notes, redid a handful of my weaker sections of Bootcamp and skimmed through Destroyer.
Mini Breakdown:
OC/GC: Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer (~1/2) & DAT Bootcamp.
BIO: Feralis notes, Bootcamp, Destroyer, Interwebz
PAT: CDP (7 tests), Bootcamp
QR: Destroyer
RC: Bootcamp (did a couple tests to help with format/timing)
I thought the test was alright -- all the sections had a mix of easy and more conceptual questions. Bio was super random (surprise right?). I'm a little sad that the hours I spent reciting to myself how every system works and how they all interconnect weren't even asked about but the random tidbits I picked up were. I guess you just have to study everything because anything is fair game in bio :/. PAT was fine except the test started going before I could make any of the hole punch plots and cube counting things so I definitely lost time making them as the clock was counting down :'( I feel like I could have done better. Keyholes were pretty rough. RC was definitely the most relaxed section -- I just used S&D and I thought it went fine; the passages were pretty cool too so that helped. QR was ok. I studied by doing half of the Destroyer problems and a few of the Bootcamp tests (which were so hard given the time constraints it was kind of difficult to retain how to do the problems lol). During the test I managed to answer like 2/3 of the questions with confidence, and the rest "bleh".
All in all I'm happy with how I did. Never thought I'd score sections above 20 (way above my Bootcamp scores haha) so that was a really nice surprise. I'd say the test itself is pretty do-able if you really spend time learning the material. I spent about 7ish weeks altogether studying, ranging from 8 hrs a day to none depending on how I felt. I also worked 20 hours a week so that factored in on the days I didn't want to do anything. So happy I'm done!
Now its time to kick off summer, crack open a brew and watch the USA SMASH Portugal this weekend! Cheers!!
Scores:
AA: 22
TS: 23
BIO: 21
OC : 25
GC: 25
RC: 21
QR: 19
PAT: 19
GPA: ~3.6, Major: Biochemistry
I began studying in late April 1-2 hours a day from the KBB during my vacation to New Orleans. I would just read a couple chapters from the book and basically outlined whatever I thought was important. The Kaplan book is alright for really broad ideas that I was shaky on (oogenesis, circulatory system, SN2/SN1 etc.) but it didn't really have a whole lot of fine details in it. During that time I also tried outlining the Cliff's AP Bio Book in a notebook but that seemed a bit futile. Definitely a good resource for like $5 though.
Things really kicked into gear mid-May where I began to freak out because I had signed up for the 6/20 date so I decided to buy the Destroyer and a month of Chad's videos and quizzes. It took me about 2 weeks to watch all 36+ hrs of his videos and take notes and do all the quizzes, but they were definitely well worth it. The Destroyer is kind of intimidating at first, but after your knowledge base builds up it gets better (tons of questions though, how does anyone actually finish it... MULTIPLE TIMES?!). What really helped me after searching all the "breakdowns" threads was to study Feralis notes religiously which I found to be a godsend. Just the mass amount of information condensed on those 67+ sheets is super awesome and useful. It's funny because literally two hours before my test I was reading over the notes again and Googled a term that I wasn't sure about which DEFINITELY saved me on a random bio question.
A week and a half before the test I still felt uneasy about my knowledge base so I decided to get the Bootcamp series as well. This was probably one of the best resources besides Feralis notes and Chad's IMO. Tons of practice and helped a lot with timing. The finals days leading up I read over Feralis notes a couple times, read over Chad's notes, redid a handful of my weaker sections of Bootcamp and skimmed through Destroyer.
Mini Breakdown:
OC/GC: Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer (~1/2) & DAT Bootcamp.
BIO: Feralis notes, Bootcamp, Destroyer, Interwebz
PAT: CDP (7 tests), Bootcamp
QR: Destroyer
RC: Bootcamp (did a couple tests to help with format/timing)
I thought the test was alright -- all the sections had a mix of easy and more conceptual questions. Bio was super random (surprise right?). I'm a little sad that the hours I spent reciting to myself how every system works and how they all interconnect weren't even asked about but the random tidbits I picked up were. I guess you just have to study everything because anything is fair game in bio :/. PAT was fine except the test started going before I could make any of the hole punch plots and cube counting things so I definitely lost time making them as the clock was counting down :'( I feel like I could have done better. Keyholes were pretty rough. RC was definitely the most relaxed section -- I just used S&D and I thought it went fine; the passages were pretty cool too so that helped. QR was ok. I studied by doing half of the Destroyer problems and a few of the Bootcamp tests (which were so hard given the time constraints it was kind of difficult to retain how to do the problems lol). During the test I managed to answer like 2/3 of the questions with confidence, and the rest "bleh".
All in all I'm happy with how I did. Never thought I'd score sections above 20 (way above my Bootcamp scores haha) so that was a really nice surprise. I'd say the test itself is pretty do-able if you really spend time learning the material. I spent about 7ish weeks altogether studying, ranging from 8 hrs a day to none depending on how I felt. I also worked 20 hours a week so that factored in on the days I didn't want to do anything. So happy I'm done!
Now its time to kick off summer, crack open a brew and watch the USA SMASH Portugal this weekend! Cheers!!
