Hey guys, long time reader here, first time poster! Well, after neglecting my wife and everything else in my life for months, I am finally DONE! Feels kind of weird to be honest.... Anyway, scores:
PAT 29 (99.9) 😱
QR 19 (92.9)
RC 23 (96.1)
Bio 19 (83.5)
GC 20 (86.0)
OC 23 (97.1) 😀
TS 20 (91.3)
AA 21 (97.2)
I'm very pleased...to not have to retake!
So these felt about right based on how I was doing during the exams. QR was giving me hell, I knew it while I was taking it, same with Bio. OChem I felt was fairly easy. The only surprise is the PAT.
Studying things, I'll keep them brief:
PAT: To be perfectly honest, I didn't do much prep here. I took practice tests from KBB (2 of them in total) and then the one on ADA 09. I think I was averaging 22, which I was fine with. I've always had good spatial perception, and was counting on my 25ish years of video games to carry the day. They didn't let me down!
QR: I used Chad's and DatQVault. Chad was amazing (more on that in GC/OC). DatQVault scores were all over the board. 18/19/25/19/23. Made my head hurt trying to figure it out. There were a lot of logs and a fair amount of Trig (neither of which I excel at).
RC: I've always been a fairly good reader (I read for pleasure often, etc.) Did a couple DatQVault and they went about the same. I had 3 science passages...which made me cringe a little, but ti worked out, so all's good.
Bio: This section eluded me throughout studying. I just feel like it's TONS of individual information. I read KBB twice-ish. My DatQ scores were all over the place, just depending on how much the questions matched my knowledge base. I have a BS in Bio from 5 years ago, so that base is semi-broad, but I could never quite grip everything. I read in someone else's breakdown that instead of killing yourself trying to memorize tons of Bio, focus on GC/OC and boost your AA that way. I thought it was good advice, so I did it. Whatever, 19, I'll take it.
GC/OC: Chad's, all the way. This was, by FAR, the best studying resource I used. I watched all the vids, took notes, watched select ones back at 1.5x after a few Qvaults pointed out my weaknesses. My QVault scores were fairly consistent, 20-24 on both, so I'm pleased with these.
Overall, QVault I felt was a reasonable resource. There were definitely some errors, but I found that really buckling down and trying to figure out which ones were errors actually helped me understand the concepts and solidify things. There's also a "report error' button, that I tried to be diligent about using, so hopefully QVault just gets better. If nothing else, it's an absolute TON of practice questions, and the breakdowns they give you highlight your weak areas well.
KBB was alright. Nothing special. If you like reading a textbook, it's fine.
For content review, Chad's is where it's at, hands down. The man can teach chemistry. And, AND, he's in the process of adding Bio videos (they started to go up like 3 days before my test...doh!). For the money, I'd recommend this to absolutely everyone. Buy it, watch it, take notes, you won't regret it.
The one thing I read in someone else's breakdown that helped me immensely was: CALM DOWN. If you can't answer a question, don't let it eat away at you, you'll run out of time, and miss easy questions later. This applies in all sections, but for me QR was the worst. If you've studied, you know most of this stuff, the scant things you don't, just guess, mark them, and move on. If you have time, come back and think hard on it, but otherwise don't fret. This advice helped me immensely.
So that's it guys, with a GPA of 3.63 (sGPA 3.6) I think these should get me interviews at most places I want to go! Hope someone found this helpful, because I've read many of these, and all of them were awesome.
Cheers,
Rick
PAT 29 (99.9) 😱
QR 19 (92.9)
RC 23 (96.1)
Bio 19 (83.5)
GC 20 (86.0)
OC 23 (97.1) 😀
TS 20 (91.3)
AA 21 (97.2)
I'm very pleased...to not have to retake!
So these felt about right based on how I was doing during the exams. QR was giving me hell, I knew it while I was taking it, same with Bio. OChem I felt was fairly easy. The only surprise is the PAT.
Studying things, I'll keep them brief:
PAT: To be perfectly honest, I didn't do much prep here. I took practice tests from KBB (2 of them in total) and then the one on ADA 09. I think I was averaging 22, which I was fine with. I've always had good spatial perception, and was counting on my 25ish years of video games to carry the day. They didn't let me down!
QR: I used Chad's and DatQVault. Chad was amazing (more on that in GC/OC). DatQVault scores were all over the board. 18/19/25/19/23. Made my head hurt trying to figure it out. There were a lot of logs and a fair amount of Trig (neither of which I excel at).
RC: I've always been a fairly good reader (I read for pleasure often, etc.) Did a couple DatQVault and they went about the same. I had 3 science passages...which made me cringe a little, but ti worked out, so all's good.
Bio: This section eluded me throughout studying. I just feel like it's TONS of individual information. I read KBB twice-ish. My DatQ scores were all over the place, just depending on how much the questions matched my knowledge base. I have a BS in Bio from 5 years ago, so that base is semi-broad, but I could never quite grip everything. I read in someone else's breakdown that instead of killing yourself trying to memorize tons of Bio, focus on GC/OC and boost your AA that way. I thought it was good advice, so I did it. Whatever, 19, I'll take it.
GC/OC: Chad's, all the way. This was, by FAR, the best studying resource I used. I watched all the vids, took notes, watched select ones back at 1.5x after a few Qvaults pointed out my weaknesses. My QVault scores were fairly consistent, 20-24 on both, so I'm pleased with these.
Overall, QVault I felt was a reasonable resource. There were definitely some errors, but I found that really buckling down and trying to figure out which ones were errors actually helped me understand the concepts and solidify things. There's also a "report error' button, that I tried to be diligent about using, so hopefully QVault just gets better. If nothing else, it's an absolute TON of practice questions, and the breakdowns they give you highlight your weak areas well.
KBB was alright. Nothing special. If you like reading a textbook, it's fine.
For content review, Chad's is where it's at, hands down. The man can teach chemistry. And, AND, he's in the process of adding Bio videos (they started to go up like 3 days before my test...doh!). For the money, I'd recommend this to absolutely everyone. Buy it, watch it, take notes, you won't regret it.
The one thing I read in someone else's breakdown that helped me immensely was: CALM DOWN. If you can't answer a question, don't let it eat away at you, you'll run out of time, and miss easy questions later. This applies in all sections, but for me QR was the worst. If you've studied, you know most of this stuff, the scant things you don't, just guess, mark them, and move on. If you have time, come back and think hard on it, but otherwise don't fret. This advice helped me immensely.
So that's it guys, with a GPA of 3.63 (sGPA 3.6) I think these should get me interviews at most places I want to go! Hope someone found this helpful, because I've read many of these, and all of them were awesome.
Cheers,
Rick
