- Joined
- Sep 23, 2009
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 0
First, I would like to thank all the members who have been sharing their invaluable knowledge and wisdom. I learned a lot from all the posts and threads and saved a lot of time and money.
Here's the break down of my score:
PAT 23
QR 27
RC 19
BIO 19
GC 22
OC 23
TS 21
AA 22
To be honest, I am not completely satisfied with my score.
I am thinking about retaking the DAT to crank up my science scores.
I actually registered for the DAT one year ago and was going to take it in August 2011.
But due to the series of unfortunate events such as family loss, best friend's suicide, etc, etc, I had to continuously reschedule the exam several times, $25 for each.
So I ended up taking the DAT during my finals week - May 4th 2012 was the expiration day of my DAT registration, and I couldn't take the test after that.
I studied for two months to prepare the DAT.
But I couldn't dedicate all my effort and hours into it because I also had to focus on my school works to keep my GPA high. I plan to apply for the Air Force Scholarship Program, so I really need to have high GPA and DAT score.
Currently, I have 3.61 overall GPA and 3.89 Science GPA.
And here is my opinions about the test and prep materials.
Bio: It was my weakest section. I read over Barron's AP Bio twice and also supplemented with Cliff's AP Bio and KBB. I also used DATqvault. And like everybody else already said, Biology questions in the actual DAT was so random. If I study biology again to ace the bio section, I will go over Barron's AP bio to familiarize myself with the overall concepts, and read the Campbell's bio textbook and try to understand all the details.
GC/OC CHAD + DAT Destroyer.....enough said. Watch Chad's lectures, and take notes. I made 80-page notes for each of GC and OC after watching the videos once. Then I kept going over the notes with my red pen. I completed the destroyer once. I really wished that I had more time to prepare. I think that I could've scored high 20's if I repeated the destroyer problems couple more times. The questions in the actual test was simpler and easier than those in destroyer. One OC question asked me how a "Ketal" look like. And I had none of IR/NMR questions.
QC CHAD + Math Destoyer. Chad's math videos gave me an excellent review on the subject. And what he goes over in the video appears in the real DAT. Then I completed all twelve math destroyer tests once. For first couple of tests, I timed myself for an hour. Then I reduced the time down to 45 minutes - the actual DAT time. Finally, for the last couple of tests, I reduced the time to 40 minutes. In the actual exam, I had about a minute left after all of the 40 questions. During the actual exam, I marked and passed all of the "wordy" questions and dealt with simple arithmetic problems first. Then I went back to deal with trigonometry problems and less complicated "wordy" questions. In last fifteen minutes, I attacked more challenging questions. Word of advice: do not try to come up with a formula for every questions. Sometimes you can just work out the problems with the answer choices and find the right one. This can save a lot of valuable time. And I strongly recommend the Math Destroyer. Just like GC/OC section, the real DAT gives you simpler and easier questions. The destroyer will train you with all the curve balls that Chemistry and Mathematics can throw at you.
PAT I purchased Crack DAT PAT. In my opinion, it was a good reflection of the real exam. The angle section was the most identical in the difficulty level. The punch-hole section was actually harder in the real DAT. I also went over the techniques described in PreDD$.net : http://predd$.net/pat-techniques/. (Change $ sign to s...... for some reason, the real name becomes ************)
This helped me tremendously. Just practice a lot, and you will be fine.👍
RC English is my second language, and I'm a slow reader. I used Crack DAT Reading, but it did not really help. For the DAT, I read the first passage completely and wrote down key points for each paragraph. By the time I finished answering the first 17 questions, I only had 30 minutes left. At that time I knew I was f*&ked. I just tried to do my best on the second passage, and I guessed all the questions for the third.... sad....🙁
My passages were about hurricane and human heart. I honestly don't even remember what the third one was about.
One thing I can tell you for sure about the real RC, search and destroy method will not work.
And if you are like me who read slow and speak English as a second language, train yourself with online science news. Try to read it fast and understand the key points at the same time. Time yourself and start this at least an year or two prior to the DAT if you want to ace RC.
Well, that's all I have to say.
I wish this could be helpful for others who are preparing.
Good luck with your studying and good luck with your DAT!
Here's the break down of my score:
PAT 23
QR 27
RC 19
BIO 19
GC 22
OC 23
TS 21
AA 22
To be honest, I am not completely satisfied with my score.
I am thinking about retaking the DAT to crank up my science scores.
I actually registered for the DAT one year ago and was going to take it in August 2011.
But due to the series of unfortunate events such as family loss, best friend's suicide, etc, etc, I had to continuously reschedule the exam several times, $25 for each.
So I ended up taking the DAT during my finals week - May 4th 2012 was the expiration day of my DAT registration, and I couldn't take the test after that.
I studied for two months to prepare the DAT.
But I couldn't dedicate all my effort and hours into it because I also had to focus on my school works to keep my GPA high. I plan to apply for the Air Force Scholarship Program, so I really need to have high GPA and DAT score.
Currently, I have 3.61 overall GPA and 3.89 Science GPA.
And here is my opinions about the test and prep materials.
Bio: It was my weakest section. I read over Barron's AP Bio twice and also supplemented with Cliff's AP Bio and KBB. I also used DATqvault. And like everybody else already said, Biology questions in the actual DAT was so random. If I study biology again to ace the bio section, I will go over Barron's AP bio to familiarize myself with the overall concepts, and read the Campbell's bio textbook and try to understand all the details.
GC/OC CHAD + DAT Destroyer.....enough said. Watch Chad's lectures, and take notes. I made 80-page notes for each of GC and OC after watching the videos once. Then I kept going over the notes with my red pen. I completed the destroyer once. I really wished that I had more time to prepare. I think that I could've scored high 20's if I repeated the destroyer problems couple more times. The questions in the actual test was simpler and easier than those in destroyer. One OC question asked me how a "Ketal" look like. And I had none of IR/NMR questions.
QC CHAD + Math Destoyer. Chad's math videos gave me an excellent review on the subject. And what he goes over in the video appears in the real DAT. Then I completed all twelve math destroyer tests once. For first couple of tests, I timed myself for an hour. Then I reduced the time down to 45 minutes - the actual DAT time. Finally, for the last couple of tests, I reduced the time to 40 minutes. In the actual exam, I had about a minute left after all of the 40 questions. During the actual exam, I marked and passed all of the "wordy" questions and dealt with simple arithmetic problems first. Then I went back to deal with trigonometry problems and less complicated "wordy" questions. In last fifteen minutes, I attacked more challenging questions. Word of advice: do not try to come up with a formula for every questions. Sometimes you can just work out the problems with the answer choices and find the right one. This can save a lot of valuable time. And I strongly recommend the Math Destroyer. Just like GC/OC section, the real DAT gives you simpler and easier questions. The destroyer will train you with all the curve balls that Chemistry and Mathematics can throw at you.
PAT I purchased Crack DAT PAT. In my opinion, it was a good reflection of the real exam. The angle section was the most identical in the difficulty level. The punch-hole section was actually harder in the real DAT. I also went over the techniques described in PreDD$.net : http://predd$.net/pat-techniques/. (Change $ sign to s...... for some reason, the real name becomes ************)
This helped me tremendously. Just practice a lot, and you will be fine.👍
RC English is my second language, and I'm a slow reader. I used Crack DAT Reading, but it did not really help. For the DAT, I read the first passage completely and wrote down key points for each paragraph. By the time I finished answering the first 17 questions, I only had 30 minutes left. At that time I knew I was f*&ked. I just tried to do my best on the second passage, and I guessed all the questions for the third.... sad....🙁
My passages were about hurricane and human heart. I honestly don't even remember what the third one was about.
One thing I can tell you for sure about the real RC, search and destroy method will not work.
And if you are like me who read slow and speak English as a second language, train yourself with online science news. Try to read it fast and understand the key points at the same time. Time yourself and start this at least an year or two prior to the DAT if you want to ace RC.
Well, that's all I have to say.
I wish this could be helpful for others who are preparing.
Good luck with your studying and good luck with your DAT!
