DAT done 3/10

[letsdoitbama]

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Never thought I would see the day, but DAT is finally complete. After this beast of an exam, here's the verdict...



PAT: obviously CDP all the way, not sure how you could do it any other way. Was averaging 23-25 towards the last few I took on CDP, thought real deal was pretty similar. Keyholes easy, TFE a few tricky ones nothing too out of the ordinary, I swear a few of those angles were the exact same but that might be some of the effects after 90 minutes of science, cubes and hole punching easier than CDP, and pattern folding about the same.

QR: What I thought would be my strongest section coming into the test, took 10 math destroyers and was getting 22-25 towards the end. However on the real test I was so surprised how quickly I ran out of time, literally blind guessing on probably 5 questions. Not sure how this happened considering I had my timing pretty well down on the math destroyer, probably just worn out from the rest of the sections. Overall on par with math destroyer, timing a much bigger obstacle than the actual questions.

RC: Now this section took the most utmost focus and concentration of all. I thought my eyes were literally going to explode after focusing on that screen for so long. Averaged 20 on cdr, thought the real test was much more search and destroy type questions compared to cdr, which wasn't really how I prepared. cdr still good practice though. Didn't get pianoed, and last passage seemed really easy for some reason, go figure. Luckily I had about five minutes left at the end to literally just rest my eyes before the math section. I honestly think I would've been screwed on math if I didn't have enough time to rest my eyes a few minutes. Gotta love computer based tests...

BS: Oh DAT biology...all I can do is shake my head at you. I'd like to think I've read through a great deal of biology in my college career and there were literally things I've never heard of before. This section is by far the biggest toss-up, just glad I somehow "survived". How people destroy this section is absolutely beyond me, but I guess it's not the end of the world. Just tried to forget about it and maintain confidence for the rest of the test, obviously easier said than done.

GC: I would say this was my weakest subject throughout preparing for the test, just never quite "clicked" with me. Went through Chad, not sure if I would praise him quite as much as others on this forum do, but I would say it was a "good start". The real moneymaker on both chems is destroyer, definitely just need practice questions to do after Chad.

OC: Always thought I had a decent grasp on ochem, this section seemed to have a few tough questions. Destroyer's good for this too, but only got a few reaction questions. Don't even remember what the rest were like, some just seemed really insignificant concepts, but oh well.

Was hoping for 20+, so I'm decently satisfied with these scores. Big thanks to SDN for all the advice, I don't even wanna know how some people do this test without this website.

 

[wired202808]

good job bama! congrats! so overall you felt that the Destroyer was similar to the real DAT? Was the Destroyer harder or easier?

 

[letsdoitbama]

I've heard others say destroyer is "harder" than the DAT but I think it's just on par as far as preparation goes. You obviously want to be closer to overprepared than underprepared, and that's what I think destroyer gives you. Overall, less in depth but same required knowledge of both chemistries. Math destroyer is really good too, even though math was my most disappointing score. Guess there's no guarantee's just gotta survive this process. I went through destroyer in depth the first time around and then circled the answers and kept skimming through it constantly until test time, I like learning by repetition

 

[wizi]

RC: Now this section took the most utmost focus and concentration of all. I thought my eyes were literally going to explode after focusing on that screen for so long. Averaged 20 on cdr, thought the real test was much more search and destroy type questions compared to cdr, which wasn't really how I prepared. cdr still good practice though. Didn't get pianoed, and last passage seemed really easy for some reason, go figure. Luckily I had about five minutes left at the end to literally just rest my eyes before the math section. I honestly think I would've been screwed on math if I didn't have enough time to rest my eyes a few minutes. Gotta love computer based tests...

Hi letsdoitbama,

I have a question about CDR and real DAT RC.
I am doing CDR and their answer choices for the "fact" questions require you have to search the whole passage because they are everywhere. I am wondering if its the same thing on the real DAT as well?

On the real DAT, do "S&D" questions require you have to S&D the whole passage you get the answer or you just need to S&D in 1 paragraph for the answer??

Thank you,

 

[letsdoitbama]

Hi letsdoitbama,

I have a question about CDR and real DAT RC.
I am doing CDR and their answer choices for the "fact" questions require you have to search the whole passage because they are everywhere. I am wondering if its the same thing on the real DAT as well?

On the real DAT, do "S&D" questions require you have to S&D the whole passage you get the answer or you just need to S&D in 1 paragraph for the answer??

Thank you,

The way I did cdr was read through the passage in about 3 and a half minutes, then just answered all the questions and went back to the passage if needed. On the real test, I read through each passage probably each for 1 minute because there were just way more facts than cdr and I knew I wasn't retaining anything. I think it's definitely good to skim through to know the best approximations of where to find certain topics in the passage. Certainly has nothing to do with "reading comprehension" though, so that subject title is definitely misguiding. Regardless of what this section is trying to test, the goal is getting the right answer, which takes a tone of focus to keep searching through the passage every question. All the answers are in there though, you just have to find them. And like I said I was able to have 5 minutes break before math to rest my eyes thank god. So to answer your question, definitely less tone questions than cdr and almost exclusively search and subsequent destruction.

And each question is pretty much from one paragraph, usually one specific sentence in that paragraph. One section gave me four straight questions from the same paragraph, so that was certainly nice.

 

[wizi]

The way I did cdr was read through the passage in about 3 and a half minutes, then just answered all the questions and went back to the passage if needed. On the real test, I read through each passage probably each for 1 minute because there were just way more facts than cdr and I knew I wasn't retaining anything. I think it's definitely good to skim through to know the best approximations of where to find certain topics in the passage. Certainly has nothing to do with "reading comprehension" though, so that subject title is definitely misguiding. Regardless of what this section is trying to test, the goal is getting the right answer, which takes a tone of focus to keep searching through the passage every question. All the answers are in there though, you just have to find them. And like I said I was able to have 5 minutes break before math to rest my eyes thank god. So to answer your question, definitely less tone questions than cdr and almost exclusively search and subsequent destruction.

And each question is pretty much from one paragraph, usually one specific sentence in that paragraph. One section gave me four straight questions from the same paragraph, so that was certainly nice.

I got it. Thanks letsdoitbama.

 

[wired202808]

bama, how long did you study for?

 

[letsdoitbama]

bama, how long did you study for?

Well I started with buying PAT and going through Chad's videos last semester semi-casually, then attempted to study as much as possible over christmas break. I bought destroyer after Chad, it's a 100% must-have, started going through that and Cliff's AP bio. Not always easy to study while also taking hard classes, especially second semester senior year when all friends are pretty much checked out. I think I definitely benefitted from getting a head start with Chad before I started intense studying in January/February. Bought kaplan bb about 5 days before my test mainly for the 2 practice tests, which I was definitely not impressed with. I never studied anything crazy like 10 hours a day, just tried as much as possible in free time outside of classes. Another big factor is trying not to get stressed out throughout everything, that just doesn't help anybody. And even though I didn't get a 23AA, at least I can now focus on other parts of my app.

 

[Jackson-Ave-Dental]

And why is a 23AA special lol?

Anywho! Great job man! Do you remember what your RC topics were? 😀

 

[letsdoitbama]

And why is a 23AA special lol?

Anywho! Great job man! Do you remember what your RC topics were? 😀

haha I don't know just sounded like a nice number. I remember the last one was on antibiotics, not a clue about the others cause the antibiotics one was the only one that made any fluid sense. Rest of the time I was just glued to the screen searching for key words, most of the time found things pretty quickly. I remember the first question on one passage had me search for a certain decade (i.e. 1970 1960) as answer choices. I mean come on that's not even close to comprehension

 

[Vaiyoretto]

Good job!

Did you just use Destroyer to study for bio or did you also use other materials like Cliff's?

 

[letsdoitbama]

Good job!

Did you just use Destroyer to study for bio or did you also use other materials like Cliff's?

I hardly used destroyer for bio at all. Went through cliffs a couple times but definitely spent the most time on chemistries, as I pretty much study bio everyday for school. Looking back glad I didn't spend more time because I don't think I really could have improved that score it's just so random. If you really want to study every possible fact about taxonomy and plants be my guest, I certainly couldn't get myself to do that haha. The payoff for studying other subjects more is just a lot greater in my opinion

 

[invictusx]

Nice job! Take a breather! And hahaa, yea, why is 23 AA so special?