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So as of yesterday I'm finally done, and it is a huge relief. I am super stoked with my scores. Here they are along with my scores from achiever:
Achiever 1.......2......3................DAT
PAT.............18......18.....18...............23
QR...............22......18.....21...............20
RC...............22......22.....22...............21
BIO..............21......21.....19...............23
GC...............20......18.....18...............21
OC...............23......20.....30...............29
TS...............21......20.....20...............23
AA...............22......20.....22...............23
As I said, I'm very happy with these scores. My goal when I started studying was to get at least a 20 in each section and a 22 AA, so I'm very pleased. I studied for about 2 months, 5 days a week, for about 7-8 hours each day. I used Kaplan, Destroyer, Barron's, Cliff's AP Bio, High Yield Bio, High Yield Gen Chem, Achiever, referenced the crap out of my textbooks, and used wikipedia to fill in any gaps. I used this forum a lot and loved it when a breakdown of the sections was given, so here's mine:
PAT:
I didn't do all that much for it as of late. For the first couple weeks of study I would do about a half hour each day just to get my mind in that mode of thinking. Once I was comfortable with it, I stopped doing that and just practiced once in a while. Barron's had some good strategies, and Kaplan and Barron's had some good practice. I heard from a buddy I was studying with that the real PAT was a lot harder than he expected from those materials and harder than Topscore. I was trying to decide between Topscore and the Achiever and heard that the Achiever has way harder PAT, so I went with Achiever. It's true, the PAT on the Achiever was way harder than anything I saw on the DAT. It was nice because I felt like I was doing Kaplan stuff again. Besides RC, I studied for this one the least.
QR:
I thought Kaplan did a good job of presenting the scope of the exam. I then went through the Destroyer's QR section a few times. The key here is time. Every time I did problems I would time myself to get used to the pace. I finished with 10 minutes left and was able to review some of my marked questions. I even caught a couple errors that I made, so that was nice. All I can say for this section is to practice. A lot of people don't study much for this section because it's the least important, but it factors into your AA, so you don't want to blow it. Having taken physics already also helped me with solving word problems.
RC:
Studied for this one by far the least of all. I think that by the time I took the DAT I had taken 6-7 full length practice tests. The practice for RC I got with those was sufficient for me. I was nervous for this section most of all at first, because I traditionally do poorly on RC tests because I'd get so bored reading the passages. I started off using Kaplan's mapping method, but there's no time for that since you end up having to search and destroy afterwards. During one of my practice tests, I decided mid-test to search and destroy and found it to be much more effective. So that's what I did for my last 3-4 practice tests and saw better results.
Bio:
I read through Kaplan a couple of times, and did a thorough study of Cliffs. They were both very useful, but what helped me most were my undergrad classes. Last semester I took Biochem, Cell, and Anatomy, so I had all of that still fresh. I had one anatomy type question that I would have had no shot at (this was an oddball question that I wouldn't study for). The semester before, I had taken Advanced Physiology and Histology. There were a few questions that I hadn't studied for but just knew the material thanks to my classes. I would recommend making some flashcards. I never make them and hate them, but I found that there are just so many random little facts to know that trying to re-visit them on a regular basis doesn't happen. Anytime I came across something in a practice test or my study I didn't know, I'd throw it on a flash card so that I had the info readily available. I wouldn't sit down and spend a lot of time making them, but just do it as you go.
GC:
Not a lot to say here. Kaplan was outstanding, and destroyer gave tons of excellent practice. Both are a must have for your studies. I had mostly conceptual problems on this section, nothing too crazy.
OC:
I'm not trying to sound arrogant here, but I really expected perfection on this section. I had an awesome undergrad professor who kicked our trash, but we learned the material very well. I scored in the 100th percentile on the ACS national final and tutored the 2nd half of Ochem last summer. I wouldn't have done much study for this section, but I had to due the fact that I hadn't done any ochem for a year. I'd say read through Kaplan to get the concepts and lab techniques and then hit the destroyer hard.
Overall I'd say to use the study guides as a just that, study guides. Don't take their info as 100% correct. Back up everything you're unsure about with a textbook. Many times I found errors in practice tests or sources such as the destroyer, kaplan etc. and after searching through a textbook I found that I was right. It really helps to cement the concepts as well to do that. I think I referenced all of my bio and chem textbooks at least once during my study. Sorry for the length. If you have any questions, or I didn't make sense, feel free to ask.
Achiever 1.......2......3................DAT
PAT.............18......18.....18...............23
QR...............22......18.....21...............20
RC...............22......22.....22...............21
BIO..............21......21.....19...............23
GC...............20......18.....18...............21
OC...............23......20.....30...............29
TS...............21......20.....20...............23
AA...............22......20.....22...............23
As I said, I'm very happy with these scores. My goal when I started studying was to get at least a 20 in each section and a 22 AA, so I'm very pleased. I studied for about 2 months, 5 days a week, for about 7-8 hours each day. I used Kaplan, Destroyer, Barron's, Cliff's AP Bio, High Yield Bio, High Yield Gen Chem, Achiever, referenced the crap out of my textbooks, and used wikipedia to fill in any gaps. I used this forum a lot and loved it when a breakdown of the sections was given, so here's mine:
PAT:
I didn't do all that much for it as of late. For the first couple weeks of study I would do about a half hour each day just to get my mind in that mode of thinking. Once I was comfortable with it, I stopped doing that and just practiced once in a while. Barron's had some good strategies, and Kaplan and Barron's had some good practice. I heard from a buddy I was studying with that the real PAT was a lot harder than he expected from those materials and harder than Topscore. I was trying to decide between Topscore and the Achiever and heard that the Achiever has way harder PAT, so I went with Achiever. It's true, the PAT on the Achiever was way harder than anything I saw on the DAT. It was nice because I felt like I was doing Kaplan stuff again. Besides RC, I studied for this one the least.
QR:
I thought Kaplan did a good job of presenting the scope of the exam. I then went through the Destroyer's QR section a few times. The key here is time. Every time I did problems I would time myself to get used to the pace. I finished with 10 minutes left and was able to review some of my marked questions. I even caught a couple errors that I made, so that was nice. All I can say for this section is to practice. A lot of people don't study much for this section because it's the least important, but it factors into your AA, so you don't want to blow it. Having taken physics already also helped me with solving word problems.
RC:
Studied for this one by far the least of all. I think that by the time I took the DAT I had taken 6-7 full length practice tests. The practice for RC I got with those was sufficient for me. I was nervous for this section most of all at first, because I traditionally do poorly on RC tests because I'd get so bored reading the passages. I started off using Kaplan's mapping method, but there's no time for that since you end up having to search and destroy afterwards. During one of my practice tests, I decided mid-test to search and destroy and found it to be much more effective. So that's what I did for my last 3-4 practice tests and saw better results.
Bio:
I read through Kaplan a couple of times, and did a thorough study of Cliffs. They were both very useful, but what helped me most were my undergrad classes. Last semester I took Biochem, Cell, and Anatomy, so I had all of that still fresh. I had one anatomy type question that I would have had no shot at (this was an oddball question that I wouldn't study for). The semester before, I had taken Advanced Physiology and Histology. There were a few questions that I hadn't studied for but just knew the material thanks to my classes. I would recommend making some flashcards. I never make them and hate them, but I found that there are just so many random little facts to know that trying to re-visit them on a regular basis doesn't happen. Anytime I came across something in a practice test or my study I didn't know, I'd throw it on a flash card so that I had the info readily available. I wouldn't sit down and spend a lot of time making them, but just do it as you go.
GC:
Not a lot to say here. Kaplan was outstanding, and destroyer gave tons of excellent practice. Both are a must have for your studies. I had mostly conceptual problems on this section, nothing too crazy.
OC:
I'm not trying to sound arrogant here, but I really expected perfection on this section. I had an awesome undergrad professor who kicked our trash, but we learned the material very well. I scored in the 100th percentile on the ACS national final and tutored the 2nd half of Ochem last summer. I wouldn't have done much study for this section, but I had to due the fact that I hadn't done any ochem for a year. I'd say read through Kaplan to get the concepts and lab techniques and then hit the destroyer hard.
Overall I'd say to use the study guides as a just that, study guides. Don't take their info as 100% correct. Back up everything you're unsure about with a textbook. Many times I found errors in practice tests or sources such as the destroyer, kaplan etc. and after searching through a textbook I found that I was right. It really helps to cement the concepts as well to do that. I think I referenced all of my bio and chem textbooks at least once during my study. Sorry for the length. If you have any questions, or I didn't make sense, feel free to ask.