DAT DONE!! 09/12/12 Breakdown

[pancakes20]

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PAT 20
QR 17
RC 22
Bio 23
GC 23
OC 23
TS 23
AA 22

I finally got the DAT over with today and overall I am very happy with my scores. I would like to thank the SDN community for this extremely useful forum! I wouldn’t have known where to begin studying or what materials to use had it not been for this site.

Bio: KBB, Cliff’s, DAT Destroyer

I found this section to be very easy (I am a bio major). It was the second easiest after organic chemistry. I made notes from Cliff’s and KBB and went through DAT destroyer once. I feel like I didn’t even need to study the Destroyer. The answers to all of my questions could be found in KBB/Cliff’s.

General Chemistry: KBB, Chad’s quizzes, DAT destroyer, undergrad textbook.

This section was very straightforward. Much easier than the problems you encounter in destroyer.

Organic Chemistry: KBB, Chad’s quizzes, DAT destroyer, undergrad textbook.

I found this to be the easiest section. Chad’s Quizzes were really good study material for this section. It is important to know SN2/SN1/E1/E2 in detail and the simple reduction (when you get a more substituted product or less substituted product) and oxidation (when it is Markovnikov/Anti-Markovnikov) reactions. Otherwise it was really simple stuff.

PAT: CDP and Achiever

Keyholes: This was a tough section. Compared to CDP, there was much more focus on proportions. It was easier than achiever though because the object did not have to be oriented in weird angles for it through the keyhole. I never scored higher than 6/15 on achiever for this section. For this section, after looking at the object given, I went straight to the answer choices and compared the answers to find the correct one.

TFE: I found this section to be pretty similar to CDP. For this section, I took a few seconds to form an image in my mind of what the side being asked for would look like and this usually helped me narrow it down to two choices.

Angles: I have always been bad at angles. I practiced with a number of strategies mentioned on this forum and none of them seemed to work for me. I found this section to be much easier than CDP angles. It was closer to Achiever. I did skip this section and came back at the end to do it. I didn’t have a strategy going into this section, but I ended up using the strategy mentioned on this forum by condog for the acute angles and for the obtuse angles I just moved my eyes along the angles line to see which angle was bigger.

Hole punching: I found this section to be very easy. It was more similar to CDP than achiever. I mentally unfolded the paper to see where all the holes were and then found the answer that matched.

Cube counting: This section was also very easy compared to CDP and Achiever. I had one illusion question but it was very straightforward and it was easy to identify the cubes. I created tables with numbers one to five to do this section.

Pattern folding: Very similar to CDP.

Reading Comprehension: Crack DAT Reading and Achiever.

This section was similar to Crack DAT. I didn’t get any tone or main idea questions on the DAT today though. All three of my passages were science based. My strategy was to read through the questions first and write down a word/two for questions that require search and destroy. Although most of my questions were search and destroy, this technique did not work very well for the first two passages I had and I found myself scrambling and made a lot of educated guesses. I was surprised with the mark I got on this section, I expected much lower. During practice with Crack DAT, I had trouble completing the sections in time because I am a very slow reader but on the DAT I was able to finish with a minute to spare. Also, I needed to use a little bit of geography knowledge in this section to answer a few questions.

Math: DAT destroyer, MATH destroyer

I am little disappointed with my score in this section since I consider myself to be very good at math (but I realized I had forgotten most of the concepts I knew very well four years ago). I went through the math destroyer once but didn’t have time to go over the wrong problems a second time. Time management is very important in this section. I did all the easy problems and guessed and marked about 7/8 that I couldn’t figure out right away. I thought I would get back to these at the end but I only had one minute left when I finished the section. It would have helped to go through the Math Destroyer a second time and build speed. From the questions I did attempt, they were easy/medium difficulty but almost none were exactly like the Math destroyer questions.

Final Note: It is really important to remain confident and believe that you can do it. At one point yesterday, I cracked under all the pressure because I started feeling like I wasn’t prepared and I didn’t get to review a lot of stuff that I wanted to review and therefore I would fail the test. But my dad reassured me that I was prepared and that even if I end up doing bad it’s not the end of the world. Then I decided that I would not worry about what kind of score I get but just focus on completing each section of the test to the best of my ability. And throughout the test, I kept reminding myself that I can do it…. and it worked! I did end up doing amazing! So do not pressure yourself by saying that you need to get a certain score. Focus on doing the test to the best of your ability and good results will follow!! Best of luck!👍

 

[EpicDentist]

Nice break down. Congrats on your scores!

 

[Glimmer1991]

Wonderful scores! I 100% agree that the Destroyer is overkill and just stresses people out. I also had a really hard reading section. I SWEAR that some of the S&D-type questions could not be found in the passage, and reading is one of my strongest suits! Oh well! Congratulations!

 

[pancakes20]

Thank you!

 

[ToBeDDSS]

Epic scores. Nice breakdown.

 

[Dr.9999]

Great Scores!

 

[biomolecmed]

Very well done. Congratulations.

 

[qnzbabi91]

Great job and scores. Congratulations!

 

[Dotoday]

Congratulations on a job well done.

Sent from my MB855 using Tapatalk

 

[lavashak]

Good job on the great scores.. I postponed mine twice and I do not feel like I am ready..Have you had any practice test? I did four achievers and I was so disappointed at myself so I have no confidence right now and my test is within nine days..Any last minute advice?

 

[Troyvdg]

Good job on the great scores.. I postponed mine twice and I do not feel like I am ready..Have you had any practice test? I did four achievers and I was so disappointed at myself so I have no confidence right now and my test is within nine days..Any last minute advice?

I can't even say that Achiever is good practice for the DAT (aside from PAT), sure, their questions are challenging, but they aren't realistic questions that you will be asked on the exam. With that said, don't be so hard on yourself. Take the 2009 ADA sample exam, or a couple topscore tests. Even these don't accurately portray the exam. There isn't a single resource that will accurately gauge your performance on the real thing

 

[biomolecmed]

Do you think that RC is getting harder every year?

 

[Papasmurf1234]

Good job on the great scores.. I postponed mine twice and I do not feel like I am ready..Have you had any practice test? I did four achievers and I was so disappointed at myself so I have no confidence right now and my test is within nine days..Any last minute advice?

You need to look at the trends of your scores. Doing well or crappy on a single test isn't going to determine your performance on test day. Also, make sure you get plenty of sleep and wake up around 2 hours before your actual test so you are awake during it lol.

 

[Papasmurf1234]

Do you think that RC is getting harder every year?

I don't think anyone is going to be able to answer that since no one takes it every single year (unless you want to I guess but who has that kind of money).

Given the average score trends i'd say people are doing better since the test was established but not by a whole lot. It seems like every decade a year the average is brought down by a point or so. But not surprising as there are more people in the world, there will be more people taking the test.

 

[Dentalkid434]

Congratulations on a job well done! 🙂

Are you applying this cycle?

 

[adambennett92]

you're like the Michael Jordan of science

 

[pancakes20]

Good job on the great scores.. I postponed mine twice and I do not feel like I am ready..Have you had any practice test? I did four achievers and I was so disappointed at myself so I have no confidence right now and my test is within nine days..Any last minute advice?

Hi, I don't think its possible to feel completely ready for the DAT. If you have gone over the basics of each section and have a good grasp, I would not recommend postponing the test again. Achiever is ALOT harder than the real DAT, so don't let it get you down. After the first two achiever tests, I did not use achiever for the gc, oc or math sections because these sections were way too hard. I did three or four of the bio sections and all the reading and PAT sections. Use achiever to do all the PAT and RC (if you are not too good at this section) but do not worry about what kind of scores you get because these are much harder than the DAT. For gc and oc, I would highly recommend doing Chad's quizzes - the questions on the DAT are most similar to these questions and and make sure you go over the explanations for all the answers. For RC I would recommend Crack DAT as well. For PAT, also use CDP. And make sure you do the 2007 and 2009 DAT tests. I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have anymore questions. Good luck!

 

[pancakes20]

Congratulations on a job well done! 🙂

Are you applying this cycle?

Thank you so much! Yes, I have applied. I am a Canadian student, so I have mostly applied to private schools. Are you applying this cycle?

 

[pancakes20]

you're like the michael jordan of science

 

[biomolecmed]

I understand. You are probably right. Did you try reading any journals just to spped up your reading for the RC, or you just studied from Crack Dat?

 

[pancakes20]

I understand. You are probably right. Did you try reading any journals just to spped up your reading for the RC, or you just studied from Crack Dat?

Hi, I am not sure if you are asking me, but I didn't read any journals. I just used Crack DAT and Achiever.