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

[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

 

[jjw822]

wow... that is most amazing score i ever seen.

I think even with 17 you should be perfectly fine

congrat!!

 

[xaznxcountx]

Gangsta scores!

 

[funkymonkey]

wow congrats! looking fwd to this breakdown lol

 

[ldm0208]

29 bio is crazy. CongratZ!!!!!
If you are going to do the full breakdown later, can you do a simple breakdown only for biology ASAP? Just like what were your materials and practice tests scores?? Thank you..

 

[doc3232]

rippin it up...congrats

 

[Albuterol]

dude!!! u murdered this test! and here u were worrying about plant biology a few days ago haha awesome job man!

 

[eldirty]

WOW ... i would say good luck but i dont think you need any ... congrats

 

[211183]

wow!! congrats!! genius scores!! please break down what you focused on in your studying and how you studed!! esp bio and orgo... congrats again!!

 

[doc3232]

I hope he is writing that breakdown!!!! 😉
I think he prepared very effectively for bio...

 

[achilles2]

I put up a quick bio overview I'll make it better and do the rests a bit later on

dude!!! u murdered this test! and here u were worrying about plant biology a few days ago haha awesome job man!

yeah well you never know!!! lol I know the biochem of plants but alot of the other stuff I still suck on 😛

 

[TeamGuo]

damnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn loving the science scores. 😀

 

[Chesnok]

Nice scores or even great ; I hope you didn't apply to the same schools as I did JK
Are u applying for this year ? Go to Harvard and so forth down the list .
GL.

And now you may start software called DAT Killer lol.

 

[achilles2]

Nice scores or even great ; I hope you didn't apply to the same schools as I did JK
Are u applying for this year ? Go to Harvard and so forth down the list .
GL.

And now you may start software called DAT Killer lol.

lol lol

I was thinking about actually writing a biology study guide, I guess I can work at kaplan at the least =)

 

[Lazerous]

By "Kaplan White Book" do you mean the lesson book they give you with the class?

 

[Albuterol]

achilles i have a question for you. i have 3 weeks till my test and i have gone through all the material a few times and continue to go over my weak points. what do u suggest i do to get the most out of my remaining time?

 

[JBarr29]

good for you man...congrats
gl with the admission process, im sure you'll have no problemo

 

[klpennin]

Awesome!!! Good job!!

 

[ddsbruin]

damnnn, great job man! im pretty sure you'll get into your top choice 🙂 gl with the interviews! another sdn member destroys the dat!

 

[TheGreenWave]

29 bio is ridiculous!!!! congrats 👍

 

[achilles2]

By "Kaplan White Book" do you mean the lesson book they give you with the class?

yup

achilles i have a question for you. i have 3 weeks till my test and i have gone through all the material a few times and continue to go over my weak points. what do u suggest i do to get the most out of my remaining time?

Do you have any practice tests left? Have you gone through destroyer already??

I would just re-read the sections you found boring and can't recall alot of imformation from esp general stuff YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO MISS EASY POINTS!!!! Otherwise areas I think you should study in more detail are cell bio, biochemistry, and verterbrate development.

 

[Albuterol]

thanks for the tips bro!

 

[achilles2]

thanks for the tips bro!

yeah no doubt man, that outline I did on development...I'd go through it again if I were u =)

Remember make sure you know the difference between protosomes and deutosomes!!!

 

[211183]

everytime your post goes to the top i just get re-amazed at your score. i hope i can pull something even close to that off on tuesday!

working on gen chem because i'm the most afraid of that one...

 

[triad027]

man you blew away science.... grats!

 

[Mamona]

congratulation incredible scores!!!!

 

[polarmolar]

Amazing, you ripped it apart!!

 

[achilles2]

i got a few PMs asking for the notes I made on development let me see if I can find them and i'll post them in this thread for you guys.

 

[achilles2]

Words that are bold/underline/italics you NEED TO KNOW…bold underlined words you SHOULD KNOW and only italics means it might be over the top but if you have extra brainpower then put it to use.


Secondary oocyte released from developed Graafian follicle at ovulation.

Oocyte surrounded by same layer of granulose cells as it was within the follical
-beween the granulose cells and the eggs plasma membrane is the glycoprotein layer called the zona pellucida.

Sperm is capped by an organelle called the acrosome, which contains glycoprotein digesting enzymes.

Effects of sperm upon entering egg
1)stimulates the egg nucleus to complete second meiotic division, producing two egg nuclei, one is extruded from the egg as a second polar body. This leaves a single haploid egg nucleus.
2)Sperm penetration triggers movement in egg cytoplasm which establish the bilateral symmetry of developed animals.
3)Activation is characterized by a sharp increase in protein synthesis and an increase of metabolic activity.

Cell Cleavage-rapid divisions with no significant increase in cell size so nucleus to cytoplasma ratio increase.

When zygote reaches ~32 cells becomes a solid ball of cells know as a morula. Each individual cell of the morula is known as a blastomere.

Bastomeres continue to divide and secrete a fluid into the center of the morula, when a hollow ball of 500-2000 cells exist its known as a blastula with a fluid filled center known as a blastocoel.

The pattern of cleavage division is influenced by the presence and location of yolk.
-when egg contains little or no yoke cleave occurs throughout the whole egg as holoblastic cleavage. This pattern is still seen in ancenstors of the vertebrates such as echinoderms, tunicates, lancelets, and mammals. This holoblastic cleavage results in formation of a symmetrical blastula.

Even tho cleavage is not impeded by yolk in mammalian eggs, the inner cell mass is concentrated at one pole. Opposite this inner cell mass (across the blastula) on the outside is what is called the trophoblast.
-part of the trophoblast enters the maternal endometrium and contributes to the placenta.
-part of placenta is composed from the trophoblast and another part is composed of modified endometrial tissue called the deciduas basalis of the mothers uterus.

In mammals blastula is called a blastocyst.
-blastocyst cells are pluripotient which means they can turn into ANY cell in the body (aka stem cells), they CANNOT develop into a complete organism. The cells from the morula are totipotient, which means 1 cell can develop into a new organism.

GASTRULATION

Actin filament contractions that change the shape of the migrating cells cause an invagination of the blasula tissue. Pattern of gastrulation amoung vertebrate groups depend on the shape of the blastulas produced during cleavage.

The invagination produced is called the archenteron. This will later become the digestive gut (these cells that make up the archenteron will become endoderm dervived. The open pore to the archenteron is called the blastopore. In deuterosomes (that’s us and our friends echinodermata, hemichordate, and xenoturbellida) the blastopore becomes the anus. In protosomes however, the blastopore becomes the mouth. (I always think dodo since deudo sounds like dodo and it becomes the anus you get it, ok ok I’ll get back to work jeez).

So anyway gastrulation officially begins as the surface of the blastula invaginates into the blastocoel.

Two layer gastrula
-composed of the ectoderm (cells outside) and the endoderm (cells that formed the archenteron.

Three layer gastrula
-third layer (mesoderm) forms between the ectoderm cells and endoderm cells. Remember you build your muscle last!!! In mammals gastrulation requires the involution of surface cells into a blastopore or primitive streak, and the mesoderm is dervived from some of these involuted cells.

In mammalian gastrulation, the amniotic cavity forms within the inner cell mass and its base. Layers of ectoderm and endoderm differentiate, a primitive streak develops through which cells destined to become mesoderm migrate into the interior. The trophoblast moves away from the embryo and begins to play a role in forming the placenta.



NEURULATION

Two morphological features found only in chordates, the notochord and the hollow dorsal nerve cord, the development of the dorsal nerve cord is called neurulation.

The notochord is first visible soon after gastrulation is complete. It is a flexible rod located along the dorsal midline in the embryos of all chordates although in us its function is later replaced by the vertebral column when it developes from mesoderm.

After the notochord is in place a layer of ectodermal cells above the notochord invaginates forming a long crease called the neural groove, down the long axis of the embryo.

Once the edges of the neural groove fuse together it becomes a long hollow cylinder called the neural tube.
-so notochord comes first then the neural groove then neural tube.
-the neural tube later differentiates into the spinal cord and brain

In vertebrates just before the neural tube closes its edges pinch off to form a small strip of cells called the neural crest which becomes incorporated into the roof of the neural tube. It’s a key point of evolution between veterbrates and lesser chordates.

Ectodermal cells associated with the neural crest cells thicken into placodes, which develop into parts of the sense organs in the head.

Neural crest cells migrate toward notochord and become sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia, others become specialized as Schwann cells which insulate nerve fibers, others form the autonomic ganglia and the adrenal medulla, this is why cells that secrete adrenaline from the adrenal glands is so similar to the neurotransmitter nor-adrenaline from the sympathetic neurons, both these nerves and glands arise from the neural crest cells.



RANDOM STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Amphioxus – is a tunicate, it has a notochord and is therefore a chordate, however, it lacks a bony vertebrae and thus is not a vertebrate.

Pharyngeal slits- - characteristic of both hemichordate and chordate, used by organisms in feeding, the wall of the pharynx is perforated by up to 200 vertical slits which are separated by stiffening rods. Rows of cilia cause currents of water to flow through the mouth through the pharyngeal slits and out of the body through a hole called the atriopore. Small particles are trapped by the cilia and are moved to parts of the mouth where the organism can eat it.

Five hallmarks characteristics that all chordates possess at some point. 1) notochord, 2) endostyle, 3) post anal tail, 4) pharyngeal slits and 5)dorsal hollow nerve cord.

Notogenesis – development of the notochord by the epiblasts that make up the floor of the amnion cavity, notochord arises as a pouch from the mesoderm.

 

[ryry]

lebron james of DAt

 

[achilles2]

lebron james of DAt

hahaha thanks playa =) Just trying not to let the members at SDN down 😀

 

[xaznxcountx]

He's the Kobe Bryant, not Lebron. Or Lebronze I should say, hahaha

 

[211183]

😡

 

[IdahoDoc]

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

Great Scores!!! These are some of the highest i have seen this cycle.
Do you think you could post all your kaplan test scores?? Thanks.

 

[ryry]

He's the Kobe Bryant, not Lebron. Or Lebronze I should say, hahaha

nah, he's too nice to be kobe. kobe = too cocky.

 

[achilles2]

nah, he's too nice to be kobe. kobe = too cocky.

hahaha thanx man 😀 Being cocky on this test will get you killed, gotta stay humble and focus on things you don't know and everything will be aces when its game time.

For real tho the best advice I can give for this test is make sure you know the general concepts of EVERYTHING, this test loves to test general information from all ends of the spec. Be fast on quant if you don't know a problem just guess and move on you don't have to be right on that many to get above a 16, for those good at math we all hate you lol.

Study hard take your practice tests and really go over what areas you miss questions in.

 

[smile101]

wow...you are like a DAT bible...congratulations!!!
Where all are you applying?

 

[lhtran07]

wow...those scores are amazing! how much time did you take out to study? I'm taking mine in Oct. and am a little worried about not having enough time to review everything

 

[supraman]

Sorry if you mentioned it, but how long you study for?

 

[achilles2]

I studied from the beginning of the summer maybe starting 3 months ago?

I used to sprint so I treated my studying like training, I wanted to gradually increase the intensity and peak the day of the DAT.

So for the first month I studied maybe 1-2 hours a day max. The second month I was taking the DAT course and spent maybe an additional hour a day studying. The final month I really kicked it up taking subject tests and studying 2-3 hours a day, and the week of the DAT I took off from work and studied for like 8-10 hours a day.

There is just so much information on the DAT you need to go over it many times to learn it and taking it piece by piece and building on what you learned before is the key to success.

 

[achilles2]

wow...you are like a DAT bible...congratulations!!!
Where all are you applying?

Stony Brook, Harvard, UCLA, UPenn, Tufts, Chapel hill, BU, and NYU.

Waiting for ADEA to confirm my transcripts (they have them already but its taking them forever to confirm my grades) so whenever they get mailed out I submitted my application like a week ago to the schools and official DAT reports but they take up to 4 weeks since I took the test on the 16th they should be out soon.

Now its the waiting game I did all I could I just hope its enough


If anyone else has any questions I'd be happy to answer

 

[orchid33tolle]

Congrats on making an amazing score!! I'm used the DAT Destroyer and man, that thing makes everything look easy. i agree that it reminds you that you suck, but it makes you work harder. haha it definitely separates the low 20's from the high 20's

 

[achilles2]

Congrats on making an amazing score!! I'm used the DAT Destroyer and man, that thing makes everything look easy. i agree that it reminds you that you suck, but it makes you work harder. haha it definitely separates the low 20's from the high 20's

that and a bit of luck.....not getting the piano passage I'm sure didn't hurt my reading comp 😛

 

[KappaSig]

could you please tell us how many hours a day you studied and for how long? Also did you study one section at a time, for example finished all the bio reading and the review questions then went on to chem, or how did you do it exactly? Thanks for your help.

 

[Kotik]

awesome scores!!!
Did you hear anything about Crack DAT Math?

 

[achilles2]

could you please tell us how many hours a day you studied and for how long? Also did you study one section at a time, for example finished all the bio reading and the review questions then went on to chem, or how did you do it exactly? Thanks for your help.

sure playa 😀

I studied for the course of the summer I was working at the time so about 3.5 months total duration. For the first month I studied perhaps an hour and change a day the second month I signed up for the Kaplan course and did some of the online material and studied for again 1 to 2 hours a day. I started the kaplan course about 1.5 months away from my DAT date and ran through the course while studying again 1-2 hours extra a day. The last 4 weeks I kicked it into high gear and started studying 3-4 hours a day (this was tough with work but I sucked it up getting up early and studying for 2 hours before then I'd study during lunch and whatnot). The week before the test I took off from work and studied 6-10 hours a day and did a practice test every other day.

The practice tests were really the key as I printed them out and went over what I got wrong the day after, then i rinsed and repeated.


In terms of studying sections:

I started off studying 1 section at a time I feel this is key to learn and master important concepts you just see them over and over and over again. However, later in my studying esp at the end I was studying all areas at the same time in fields I was weak in (except math and my score reflected my lack of effort I put into that section). Practice questions are really the key because you may know something but if its asked in a odd or nebulose way you can still get it wrong. Going over the answers takes time and effort but it pays off in the end.

So I started off studying each section but then I focused more and more on the total target (except for math and PA)

People ask me about bio alot and I gotta tell you alot of it is a crapshoot....I felt alot of the difficult questions came from development + cellbio + biochem. For me I am currently in grad school so biochem and cell bio is my strongest area so that really helped me esp with experimental type questions, I love application questions because its what I study all day in grad school lol.

My honest advice tho is to study the entire bio section for general ideas and concepts MOST of the questions are easy if you know all the material so you can get a good bio score being a generalist. Then if you have time I'd study development cell bio and biochem in more detail. I heard achievers bio tests are very hard so that may be a good way to step up your bio studying game.

Hope this helps if you have any other questions I'm here 👍

 

[achilles2]

awesome scores!!!
Did you hear anything about Crack DAT Math?

no I didn't use Crack DAT PAT or Crack DAT math and my scores show my weakness in that area. It kills me if I got like a 19 or 20 in math I would have like a 26 or 27 AA!!!!!! I mean I am happy with a 25 but you only get so many shots in life to earn sick bragging rights

Kaplan was a great course except for PAT you really need another resource and I see people swearing by crack DAT pat so you might want to check that out for PA.

For math resource I really don't know any great ones =/ I feel most of the math was trig and algerbra so if they make cliffs or AP subject books for those two areas I'd pick those up.

Otherwise I don't know alot about crack DAT math sorry man

 

[gentile1225]

dude those are some amazing scores! not gunna lie, im kind of jealoud, but you sound like you deserved it! best of luck to you in the future.

 

[achilles2]

dude those are some amazing scores! not gunna lie, im kind of jealoud, but you sound like you deserved it! best of luck to you in the future.

Thanks man I hope they + my graduate GPA can help mitigate my lackluster undergraduate GPA

I worked really hard the last year and 1/2 to make up for my mistakes. My best advice to those is to try your best while at college to put yourself into the best situation possible.

Best of luck to you as well

 

[Andrew324]

what were your scores the first time?