Here's my score breakdown:
PAT 23 98.7%
QR 17 63.2% 😕
RC 19 53.3% 🙂confused:😕ran out of time. I hate those tone questions)
Bio 20 85.5%
G CHEM 21 86.2%
O Chem 23 92.9%
TS 21 91.3%
AA 20 84.0%
Alright guys here's the breakdown of study materials that I totally forgot to update on since my test a couple weeks (the 14th) ago.
PAT: I used CDP and the Kaplan online stuff. I really liked CDP and I think it's definitely a must as everyone says to get a great score in this section. I know everyone bashes on Kaplan but I personally thought it was great practice. It fills in where CDP may be easier. For example, although Kaplan is too easy with angle ranking and hole punching, it fills in where I think CDP is kind of too easy - key holes. Kaplan had some nice keyholes with some crazy intricacies that I felt helped me on the real exam. Overall its good practice too. Remember to continue studying the PAT section even if it means just picking random in CDP every day until test day.
BIO: Very random as everyone said but nothing too crazy. It's very manageable and the more you know the better. I only used Cliffs ap bio and went over destroyer bio 2x. Wikipedia anything you may be confused about. Like everyone says, Cliffs pretty much guarantees you a 20, and I guess it got me my 20 as well.
G CHEM: Kaplan is really good for this section and destroyer will sharpen up your understanding. Dont worry too much about destroyer calculations because they're pretty insane. Kaplan imo is a great representative. You must know concepts as well as knowing how to do some calculations.
O CHEM: This was the easiest section for me with some obscure questions. I did the whole thing in literally 15 minutes because Destroyer is the ultimate best thing. Know those road maps cold and know concepts too. Kaplan is great for concepts and destroyer will give you all the reactions that you need for the test. Know IR / NMR too.
RC: By the time it was after the break. I literally came back in with 1 minute left on the counter. It took me so long to sign back in / get finger printed again because there were 6 ppl in front of me trying to get back to their test too. Anyway, RC is something you really cant study for. You need to be an active reader in your studies. It is absolutely important that you do not freak out when you see tone / inference questions. My first two passages were straight up S&D but they were very very long which I wasnt used to this because the kaplan RC passages were only about 10 paragraphs - 13 max. All my paragraphs had about 16-19 paragraphs in length. S&D did not work at all on the very last paragraph and I thought i was screwed because I spent too much time in the first 2. I had 7 minutes to do very last passage with a whole lot of inference / tone questions. It sucked, and I'm happy with the 19 I got in this section because I literally put D for like 10/17 questions in the end. Topscore / Kaplan are good practice but learn how to attack inference/tone questions.
QR: This was my worst section indicated by the 17. Frankly though 17 is what I wanted or better. Im really slow on math and I need time to think, which this section doesnt really let you do. It's like you must know how to do the problem as you are reading the question. I skipped anything I was unsure of and picked a letter and kept moving. It really sucks because I knew how to do almost every problem but there's no time to do the calculations. I think I had like 15-20 ones skipped and 20 that I know that I got correct. Even by the end by tackling the simple algebra ones and some easy word problems, I still only had 5 minutes to go back and do the marked ones. But o well I'm happy with it I suppose considering I didnt study much for this section. I actually only used destroyer math for this with some kaplan knowledge of formulas and winged the rest.
Overall, topscore is very representative. Like everyone says you go up 1 to 2 poitns above your topscore exam on the real thing in the sciences and PAT but your RC and QR will go down 1 to 2 points.
Topscore 1 | Top score 2 | Topscore 3 |
DAT
G chem: 19 | 20 | 21 |
21
O Chem 21 | 20 | 20 |
23
Bio 19 | 21 | 20 |
20
RC 21 | 20 | 21 |
19
PAT 22 | 21 | 22 |
23
QR 16 | 21 | 18 |
17
DAT TS/ AA : 21/20
I hope that helps. My scores aren't grand but I'm happy that I got above 20 in sciences and PAT with a decent RC score. My GPA is sGPA 3.74 | cGPA 3.76 from the University of California Irvine with a Bio Sci degree. Hopefully wherever my DAT is lacking, the GPA score will tilt it in my favor. Anyone with opinions on my chances are welcome!!
