DAT Done!!!!1 25!?!?!?!?!?? (aug/16/08)

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achilles2

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I was on my knees praying while I was waiting for the CPU to process my score I just wanted like a 21.

Perceptual Ability = 17(47.4%)
Quant Reasoning = 17(65.7%)
Reading Comp = 24 (97.2%)
Bio = 29 (99.9%)
Gen Chem = 23 (95%)
Orgo = 30 (100.0%)
TS = 27 (99.9%)
AA = 25 (99.9%)

Despite feeling amazing I am a tad worried about my Perceptual ability =/ Do you think a 17 is good enough??? I really don't want to have to retake the DAT for just that since I feel lightning doesn't strike the same place twice.

People always wonder if kaplan is worth the money, and personally I had a GREAT teacher who really went out of her way to help us as much as possible. She did things like provide us with her own notes she made when learning and she did a great job. The online stuff you get with kaplan is outstanding like 20 practice subject tests (orgo + chem + bio math, etc) 5 full length practice tests + your first test. And online lessons in all the major areas. People who complain about the course just must have not put in enough effort I thought they gave you all the tools (even if the classroom stuff was a bit weak, it will reinforced areas even in things you thought u knew!!)
-if you take the class
1) go to all the classes yes it sucks yes often you know everything already, but you may pick up 1 fact or question that you see on the DAT you never know.
2) do all the online questions the more questions you do the better these are provided with answers!!!



I'll do a full breakdown in a bit, I promise =)

Oh man holy crap.....so amped up still


Thanks for all the kind words I couldn't have done this well with out SDN.

BIO Breakdown:
-materials I used were (kaplan course, kaplan white book, AP cliffs, destroyer, wiki, and my bio textbook from college)

Best materials for this section (Cliffs + Kaplan White Book) Destroyer gets honorable mention for helping point out weak spots but its up to you to then learn it!!)
I really thought the biology section was pretty simply, very random questions from all areas but if you know all the general concepts you should score pretty well. What seperates the 20's from the 20+'s is just like 3 or 4 questions and I was torn between 2 answers on like 3 that could have gone south for me and I could have ended with a MUCH lower score since another miss would have dropped my bio to like a 26 or 24. Reality is I didn't do much better then anyone who scored a like 21 or above in bio.
-My study advice is pratice tests, but doing practice tests just for the sake of doing them is worthless. I took the 6 practice tests with kaplans online thing, and each time I printed them out and went over what I got wrong AND right. Odds are if I got something wrong then I would get another question from the section wrong so I read up on the entire area that question came from.
-Time + effort will get you to the green in the bio section no problem
-I advise you tear through a study book BEFORE attempting destroyer.
-After you finish a few practice tests and studied for a bit GO back through your study book, you be amazed the things you overlooked or forgot learning other areas in more depth, if anything you want to be a generalist in the biology section.
-Be good at every area even the odds ones before you focus on becoming amazing at any of them.
-if your looking for bias I think you should learn areas like biochemistry, vertebrate development, and cell biology in more detail. Great thing for me was that I was a biochem major and took grad level cell bio courses this year in grad school so that really helped me out and I might be taking a bit of that for granted.....but in all honestly 5 bucks says a generalist will score better then someone who neglected the boring areas like biomeres or plants and all that crap. Learn everything sucks yes but will carry you to the promised land in this section.



Gen Chem

(Best materials for this section Kaplan white book)

I was worried about this section, but I felt it was alot faster and fair then the practice tests I took. Pretty much you just have to move equations around if you get a calculation problem, destroyer has a few examples of what I'm talking about you never really have to do much math just the correct setup equation is one of the answer choices.

I don't think destroyer really helped me that much here (it did in orgo) but make sure you know ALL you general concepts.....section was easier then all my practice tests actually, I scored a fing 15 in one of my kaplan pratice tests!!! What the hell is that???

Actually destroyer was good for making me pay attention to unit conversions and just repeating how to find all the little things like molarmass and such its worth running through that section but I wouldn't rush to run back through it again.

KNOW ALL YOUR EQUATIONS!!!!!! Don't slack you never know when you'll need one, on my test I forgot volume for like 30 seconds and I was like holy fing &$&$, don't neglect the simple and odd formulas.

Gen Chem is kinda like bio if your decent at everything odds are your going to do pretty well.

Again practice tests then re-review the chapters. Gen chem is very double, make sure you understand the periodic table well and the trends!!!!

ORGO

(Best Study Stuff for this section Destroyer + Kaplan White Book)
-This section was MUCH easier then I was expecting the questions were VERY straightfoward. I think I had the question that everyone was talking about with no right answer but if you noticed there was a delta sign for heat so I think they overlooked that because it makes a difference.
-Know your BASICS again inside and out that will net you most of the questions I only remember like maybe 2 or 3 harder questions that had a more advanced reaction.
-Know your functional groups on the aromatic ring and where they direct!!!
-Again know your basics what makes something more acidic?? More basic??

-Destroyer was useful because it constantly reminded me that I suck lol, but seriously it really taught me what a bulky strong base did!!! Its a great resource even tho I found the questions on the DAT to be MUCH easier if you train with destroyer your going to be in good shape.
-Constantly re-write the reactions down from the white book that goes over all the main ones you'll see
-When you see a base think SN2 or E2 a bulky strong base E2 and acid SN1 or E1.
-Confidence in this section know the basics and you will do great!!!


Reading Comp

(no real study materials)
-seek and destroy for the win!!! No piano/ethics/frap, the Gods smiled on me =)

Quant

I really should have studied more for this section my score was a lack of me putting in the time and effort, I took the GRE's like a year and change ago and got like a 720 on the math. This section loves trig my god, learn those stupid conversions and trig identity rules, know your special triangles.

Your going to be very tired by the time you get here so just gut it out speed speed speed!!!
-actually I wouldn't pay too much attention to me on this section because I sucked but hey 😛


Perceptual Ability

-Wow Kaplans was NOTHING like what I saw on the DAT, keyholes + top front ends were MUCH harder....but thats not a big deal what was a big deal was ANGLE RANKING was INSANE. On my practice tests I was getting like 22-23's and nailing every single angle ranking. These things were different by maybe 2-3 degrees I don't know if my test was extra hard in this area but jesus my strongest area I was getting schooled on.
-Folding wasn't that bad I had like 5 or 6 double hole punch questions but I'm really really good at folding that and angle ranking are SUPPOSED to be my strong points.
-Cube counting was easy so don't sweat that
-Pattern folding, well its pattern folding its supposed to be impossible 😛
-if Crack DAT is much harder then Kaplan its worth getting
 
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awesome scores! i doubt ur 17 in PAT will hurt you too much with that TS score. wow!! im jealous haha i'd def trade my PAT score for ur TS score
 
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