DAT done 6/18/13

[dbd]

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DAT done, total time spent studying~ a month ish.
Got owned by the chem sections and solubility.

Scores:

pics or it didn't happen. attached.

my breakdown:
PAT: lol wtf happened i have no idea how i got that. used achiever and that's it.
QR: didnt study for it, looked at like 3 trig probs in dat destroyer
RC: didn't study at all, did two achiever tests. note: real DAT passages were super easy. i finished with 20 minutes left and had a chance to look back at all my answers. still got one wrong apparently
Bio: came off a semester where i took cell/developmental and organismal diversity. DAT destroyer was pretty good, DAT qvault was solid. Also had campbells. read campbell bio for the human anatomy section, it's pretty good.
GC: DAT destroyer- i had it, only did 80 ish problems. I mainly used my gen chem
textbook from high school which happens to be the reference text the DAT uses.
DATqvault- good practice questions, which i noticed happened to copy exactly the practice problems word for word in my textbook. I smell copyright infringement.
OC: dat destroyer- great problems, apparently didnt help me that much.
Qvault: SUCKED SO BAD. wrong answers everywhere, and confused the hell outta me. don't bother with qvault ochem.

ACHIEVER: kicks your butt in everything. i used the 7 test version, ended up only taking 5 and the PAT sections for all of em. didnt get above 18 on anything in the sciences. somehow got a 22 on the PAT on the 7th test so..... yeah. was running outta time like crazy on achiever, finished each section with 20 minutes or more to spare on the real thing..
Qvault: it's good for bio, plagiarizes like crazy for gc (but it's still worth it), sucks butt for ochem. don't get ochem seriously.

basically: chillax. real dat is easier than anything you'll take while practicing.assuming you actually study and have taken these subjects before, you'll be fine. I screwed up majorly in chem both sections. but good luck people.

 

[dbd]

Quick notes: I'm a junior, so I'm not applying to next year.
Thoughts on other breakdowns: Personally I found glimmer's breakdown by far the best, not only b/c of the scores, but rather her approach on studying. Seriously, you're not gonna learn anything if you spend 14 hours a day studying/6-7 days a week, and to the people who say they did that for 2 months+, I'm gonna call bs on that and say that you weren't actually productive for the whole of that time. SERIOUSLY TAKE BREAKS, RELAX EVERY NOW AND THEN, WATCH COMMUNITY/ GOT/go on imgur to chill.
also, don't think think that just cause you spent 14 hours a day studying, that it means you're learning. Don't confuse time spent with productivity. There's typically a positive correlation there, but just cause you spent that long studying doesnt meant you actually accomplished anything. Instead of doing hour goals (i know some people do that aka study 1 hour play 1 hour) try and set goals that are like.. concept related. aka master the immune system, then go chill for an hour. but make sure you seriously master it, not half-a** it then go play.

I realize that my breakdown is bs compared to others and probably not very helpful atm, but i just got done with it and i'll address concerns and questions tomorrow when i'm in a more relaxed state.

 

[lr2014]

Great scores! To which textbooks are you referring?

 

[dbd]

Great scores! To which textbooks are you referring to?

Chemistry: The Central Science. I used the 8th edition since I had it, I believe the ADA uses the 9th edition. I got my book for 5 bucks on amazon, like 7 years ago. It's pretty cheap.

Biology: I used Campbell Biology, the newest edition. Forgot what it was. There's a pdf of the entire book floating around somewhere. Otherwise buy.

Organic Chemistry: Forgot the title, but it's by Marc Loudon. It's super dense, and contains more than you need to know. Legit college textbook that kicked my butt. It's really good, but I don't think it'd be worth it to buy it since it's not specific to the DAT.

So, I heard a lot about this Chad guy, apparently it works for other people. I probably should've tried it, but I didn't wanna spend for it. Guess it came back and bit me in the ass for it.

 

[gn4]

Congratulations. Those are great scores. You can pretty much pick your choice of school when you apply

 

[deleted518758]

Wow amazing scores! How long did you study for? Also, where is this free copy of Campbell's Biology book that you are talking about? That would save me of so much money...
Congrats again!!!!

 

[dbd]

I don't quite remember where I found the pdf from, but I'm pretty sure it's on google somewhere. That's my go to solution. As for the study time, It was a little over a month, probably closer to a month and a half. I had just taken orgo II a semester ago, and I was coming off a semester with cell/developmental bio, genetics/evolution and organismal diversity (aka learning all the phylogenies and classes) so I figured I'd take the DAT a little early. I'll post a better breakdown in a bit now that I got home.

 

[cmF]

yer smart. And your breakdown isn't BS like you say. There's a lot of good pointers especially about maintaing a balanced life outside of studying. However, I think posting your 7 Achiever scores would help a lot people gauge their progress/expectations.

 

[dbd]

yer smart. And your breakdown isn't BS like you say. There's a lot of good pointers especially about maintaing a balanced life outside of studying. However, I think posting your 7 Achiever scores would help a lot people gauge their progress/expectations.

Achiever 1 Achiever 2
PAT 17 19
QR 23 20
RC 18 20
Bio 16 17
GC 18 16
OC 18 15
TS 17 16
AA 19 18

I just posted a legit breakdown . Also the rest of my achiever scores were so horrendous/ i took them section by section and they were all under 17. Achiever gets harder after the first test =.=.