Dat Done! 7/19/10

[Avery07]

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Well, I never thought this day would come.. and I'm still in disbelief that it's here. I'm not sure what to do with all this new time I used to have..

So the DAT..

First, I didn't do near as good as I had originally set out to. I wanted 20+'s back in December but I didn't come through with my QR and chem studying as well as I should have.

I did not get any sleep last night, was looking at what little dinner I had in the toilet at 4:00am, and received 3 hours of sleep the night before.

I basically went into this test knowing I was going to fail miserably but I tried to hold it together going in..

Halfway through the sciences, I knew I was getting 30% (tops) of the questions right and tears kept flowing down for the next 3 hours.. It was the worst feeling in the world. Something like attending your own funeral. Most of you know I've been on this thing pretty hard since December and I just felt all that slipping away. I didn't take any breaks and if I didn't know the question right then, I guessed and went to the next one without even marking it or going back with time left over. I felt I had already done too bad that it didn't even matter..

Well, was I ever surprised when I got these results back:

Perceptual Ability: 19
Quantitative Reasoning: 18
Reading Comprehension: 19
Biology: 19
General Chemistry: 19
Organic Chemistry: 20

Total Science: 19
Academic Average: 19

I know those aren't stellar scores by any means.. definitely less than what I had wanted to begin with, but given how crappy my week has been and how bad I felt during that exam, I could not be happier right now.



Perceptual Ability: (19)
I thought it was (mostly) harder than Crack PAT. Hole punching and angles were easier. Pattern folding and TFE were a lot harder for me. I was getting 14 or 15 (out of 15) on CDP. I hit CDP hard back in the Spring but only did test's 1/2/3 on the 10th, 9th, and 8th days before my exam. After that, I had no more time to keep up with the remaining tests. I wasn't doing great compared to what I used to get.. 19, 20, 19. I had mid 20's once upon a time.


Quantitative Reasoning: (18)
I don't know what to say here. I hate math. I'm terrible at it but manage to get by with A's in school.. just to forget it immediately after. I went over the first 2 MATH Destroyer exams with my math tutor the day before my DAT. I couldn't concentrate enough to do simple arithmetic problems, so I don't think I learned anything from Destroyer. Well.. I used the standard deviation information from Destroyer to get me a couple points. There were several problems on the QR that were WORD FOR WORD in those two practice exams I took.. Definitely a great resource and worth looking into.

I lucked out on my exam. There was minimal trig. Maybe 5 problems, and then maybe 3 geometry. All others were word problems/basic math stuff. That calculator saved my life. I just plugged and chugged possible answers for probably half the problems.. and it managed to work lol. I was hoping for a 14.. honestly. There was no calculator lag either.


Reading Comprehension: (19)
Well.. I had given up by the time reading comp came around. I was at my worst during PAT and reading comp. I wasn't trying and just wanted to go home and end my misery. I couldn't focus and was taking forever to read through a passage. I used search and destroy. My confidence was in the gutter and I was way too low on sleep and food. I managed to get through the section in OK shape though. I had one passage on bone fractures which I thought was a piano equivalent. I couldn't get it together in this passage at all. I was filling in like 8 bubbles of this passage in the last minute. The other two weren't too bad. All I ever did for practice was the Topscore 1 reading exam which I got a 22 on. I remember having a lot of tone questions..


Biology: (19)
I know, I know... don't even start with me!! 😛 (For those of you unaware, I devoted my life to a handwritten bio book. Check it out: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=731615)

I know everything there is about the fundamentals and concepts of biology. This test was 80% very specific physiology questions. Stuff I've never heard of before. I know the general phys stuff in Kaplan and Cliffs and that wasn't in here. I had less than 10 general biology questions. Everything else was physiology. I haven't taken A&P yet.. it's the only bio class I haven't taken. I don't know how I got out of this with a 19.. I knew none of those questions and just clicked whatever felt right.


General Chemistry: (19)
I actually studied pretty hard the last couple weeks for this section. Watched Chad's gen chem twice; taking notes and doing practice exams. I ran through Chad's quizzes the night before my DAT and felt good. During the exam I felt like I was again, only getting 20-30% of the questions right. Not sure how I ended up with a 19 but I'm not going to question it.


Organic Chemistry: (20)
Hahahaha. What a joke. People are going to hate me here but.. I know NOTHING about ochem. And I get a 20?? My extent of ochem is nomenclature, stereoisomerism, and free radicle halogenation.. with a vague idea of the differences of sn1/sn2/e1/e2. a VERY VAUGE IDEA. My extent of this knowledge is what carbon they prefer... and even that is hazy right now. By the time I got to ochem, I really didn't care anymore. I knew I had like a 12 in bio and chem so I was just clicking whatever looked legit and moved to the next question. I think I actually knew like 6 questions in this section. I did all of ochem in 5 minutes.. literally lol. I was ready to get home. Lots of lab techniques stuff that I had no idea about. I watched chad's 1 & 2 a month ago and that was it. I was going to review again before the exam but gen chem was taking my time; next thing I knew, it was the day before the exam, my head wouldn't think, and studying ochem was out of the question. I'm baffled how I got a 20. I should have a 9.



I went into the exam hoping that I would get tested on the concepts of biology and not physiology. This with what I assumed to be a good reading score and a good genchem score would hold me up against a deathly math score and ochem score. I wanted a 20 in reading, bio, and genchem and then was hoping for 16's in math and ochem (if they stuck to arithmetic and nomenclature questions only). Going into the test I just wanted a 17AA and to be done. This week has been the worst week of my life.

I did study A LOT. Honestly, I think I'm one of the people here who has studied the most for this thing. I focused all my time learning the fundamentals of biology. I tutor for biology and can teach you everything in Cliff's and Kaplan inside and out. As I said earlier, the DAT skipped all the fundamentals and mainly covered detailed physiology questions. I spent about 4-8 hours a day from December 15 - June 1 studying biology. I loved every second. I'm a bio lover who loves to learn and teach. I haven't forgot any of what I learned and am grateful for having the opportunity to go through all that stuff. My only regret is not having a DAT score that truly reflects my knowledge of biology.

I had plans to study ochem and gchem prior to the test but after setting the date, time quickly ran out for ochem and I wasn't about to put myself through another day of this misery. I went in knowing I would fail, knowing I would have a retake in October, and after bio, knowing I would wait until after the spring semester when i could take anatomy and physiology. Thankfully things turned out differently.

I have every resource you can think of. Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Odyssey, Cliff's AP Bio, Cliff's AP Chem, Chad's, TopScore, oChem for dummies, Campbell's (my DAT had no technology questions btw(ch 19-21)), so many more.. Crack everything..

I had time to go through like none of that. I did a couple TopScore exams.. never scoring higher than a 16. I would see people on here getting 20's and I just tried to ignore it.

What is essential? Chad's, Cliff's AP Bio (don't go without these whatsoever)

I would recommend also going with Destroyer and Math Destroyer. Odyssey if you get a chance. I only went through 40 or so gen chem Destroyer problems a month or so back. I did the first few chapters of Odyssey a couple weeks ago and loved the book.




That's about everything.. but am I glad to be done!! I wish I did better for the time I invested but I think my scores are sufficient. They are definitely good enough that I won't put myself through this again unless I have to next cycle.

Also, during my summer, I've been in summer school, working 20 hours as a tutor during the rest of my day, and working 20 hours at another job in the early morning. This left me with very little time for the DAT and as such I devoted every free second to studying.


I'm still baffled by those scores. I was waiting for 12-14 to come up for each section.

I'm applying to UMKC, Midwestern AZ, Midwestern IL, NYU, and UoP.

My sGPA and cGPA are 3.28 and 3.26 (3.3+ in a week). I was a late bloomer for the A game and had too much fun early in college. During my last year, I've taken nothing but science courses (genetics, microbiology, ecology, evolutionary biology (phylogenetics), evolution (as a principle), cell biology, trigonometry, topics in biology, and problems in biology). I received a 4.0 in both semesters; 19 credits last semester. There is a strong upward trend here and I hope schools will notice that.

I have tons of EC's, shadowing, research, and volunteering.




How do you guys think I stand??




Thanks for everything SDNers. This community is amazing.

 

[mx41]

Wow great scores, really impressive

Although i do find it hard to believe that you got a 20 by doing a lot of guessing. You would need to get like 24 or 26 out of 30 to get that kind of score, how could you get so much right without having any idea?

And you said you got 16s in your Topscore, would you say that TS is harder than the actual dat?
Lastly, is the QR section easier than math destroyer?
Thanks and good work!

 

[Afterschool88]

Honestly Avery, you hit everything on the nail. I felt the "same" as you when I went through the test. If I could redo everything, I would go in with a more CONFIDENT mentality. I went in there already defeated. When I came across a question I didn't know, I groaned/cried and felt in general terrible.

Thats where I went wrong. I should of kept head up and kept going. I think I could of pulled off a better score.

I emphasize. Sigh.

Anyways your scores aren't to bad by any means. I'm sure you'll get an interview somewhere. Keep the hope alive. 👍

 

[Avery07]

Wow great scores, really impressive

Although i do find it hard to believe that you got a 20 by doing a lot of guessing. You would need to get like 24 or 26 out of 30 to get that kind of score, how could you get so much right without having any idea?

And you said you got 16s in your Topscore, would you say that TS is harder than the actual dat?
Lastly, is the QR section easier than math destroyer?
Thanks and good work!

25 out of 30 on oChem.. I kid you not, it was guessing. If it looked like you could add a compound with another one, I chose that answer. I'm not sure how I pulled this off.. I stopped caring halfway through genchem and just flew through it, answering the 6 I actually knew and guessing on the rest. I suppose I should buy a lotto ticket now.

I think the DAT is on par with TopScore. I really had a lot of luck today. At least in ochem. I was prepared for gen chem but the questions they asked me I had never seen before. I gave them my best guess which seemed to do the trick. I have chad to thank for that. I have KBB as well and the test at the end of the book was much easier than the real DAT.

I think QR was a lot easier than math destroyer; at least my section was. Like I said, there were several questions I recognized word for word from the MATH destroyer. I lucked out in not having many trig or geometry problems. The algebra and word problems I really didn't know how to quickly solve and just plugged in answers using the calculator. For complex fractions or questions with variables, I just plugged everything in the calculator to convert them to decimals and worked hard questions out that way.

 

[Avery07]

Honestly Avery, you hit everything on the nail. I felt the "same" as you when I went through the test. If I could redo everything, I would go in with a more CONFIDENT mentality. I went in there already defeated. When I came across a question I didn't know, I groaned/cried and felt in general terrible.

Thats where I went wrong. I should of kept head up and kept going. I think I could of pulled off a better score.

I emphasize. Sigh.

Anyways your scores aren't to bad by any means. I'm sure you'll get an interview somewhere. Keep the hope alive. 👍

I usually don't have the confidence problem but Math Destroyer killing me the night before and the fact I knew nothing in Ochem ruined that for me.. I was just ready to be done and didn't care anymore. When I left my house, I assumed I would be doing the same thing a year from now. Most of the schools I applied to are in the 18-19 DAT range so I'm not too worried about interviews. After all, 19 is the average score in accepted students.

 

[marymatthews]

wow why were you sick the entire week and the night before? What happened?
Whyd you take the DAT then if you knew you were going to do bad? Why didnt you void or something?
Will you be retaking it?

 

[mashinka]

dude great job. I am sure you aren't giving yourself the credit you deserve. You worked your ass off and those scores are great....i would kill for them.
Good job and i am sure this time next year you'll be shipping off to a great school.

 

[Avery07]

wow why were you sick the entire week and the night before? What happened?
Whyd you take the DAT then if you knew you were going to do bad? Why didnt you void or something?
Will you be retaking it?

It was from all the DAT stress piling up. I couldn't make my mind think and still had a lot to cover, which couldn't be covered because of my mind not working.. thus adding to the stress. I literally gave the last half a year of my life to studying for the DAT (mainly fundamentals of biology which turned out to not even matter). I felt like I knew nothing last week and could see all my hard work slowly slipping away. That was all that was on my mind taking the test. I literally was in tears for 2.5 hours.. I did nothing but work and study for the last 6 months and I swore it was all for nothing during that exam.. that was a harsh and very depressing reality in the middle of the DAT.

I wasn't going to delay the DAT anymore. It's ruined my life since December and at this point I was ready to be done even if it meant failing it miserably and sitting out a year.

There is no way I am retaking this beast unless I have to next year in a new cycle. I think a 19 is a very respectable score.. In 2008, 34 of the 54 dental schools had an AA of 19 or under. Harvard had an AA of 20. That puts things in perspective.. Too many SDNers are getting mid 20's and distorting proportions lol.. congrats to all you guys but someone needs to let people here know a 19 will still likely get you in. People get in with 16's as well.. So no.. I'm not retaking it, (yet).

 

[chromosome21]

nice scores.. Could you plz let me borrow your luck on my d-day! 😀

and.. I don't know how to say this but somehow I thought you were a girl!! I just checked your bio thread-link, and realized you're a "he" and not "she".. it's funny how I kept imagining you as a girl! lol

 

[flyingforever]

Awesome scores!!! Good luck with interviews. Hopefully you get somewhere. Best wishes!!!

 

[kevinrho]

those are actually nice scores... i want some of your luck =)...

 

[marymatthews]

So what were the percentages for your scores?

 

[Avery07]

So what were the percentages for your scores?

Perceptual Ability: 19 (67.8%)
Quantitative Reasoning: 18 (84.7%)
Reading Comprehension: 19 (52.2%)
Biology: 19 (76.6%)
General Chemistry: 19 (73.3%)
Organic Chemistry: 20 (79.9%)
Total Science: 19 (75.0%)
Academic Average: 19 (77.6%)

 

[Simple Jack]

Perceptual Ability: 19 (67.8%)
Quantitative Reasoning: 18 (84.7%)
Reading Comprehension: 19 (52.2%)
Biology: 19 (76.6%)
General Chemistry: 19 (73.3%)
Organic Chemistry: 20 (79.9%)
Total Science: 19 (75.0%)
Academic Average: 19 (77.6%)

congrats man well done! I remember one of your older posts "How I DAT" or something like that it was so cool, I reckon nobody has ever studied for this thing in a more cool fashion as that. Anyways, glad the ordeal is over for you, so now on to more fun things. Enjoy the interviews 👍

 

[RedDevilDDS]

Your scores are very well-rounded so I wouldn't worry!

You must be happy I'm writing mine next Tuesday and stress stress!!!

So sad that there is no thesting center near my place and have to fly to another city to write it lol.

Avery, Have you had chance to do achiever?

 

[rpatel8]

You say you watched Chads videos 2x for Gen Chem and did the practice sets and practiced this with Destroyer. Would you say that the info Chad gives along with practice is enough to do well in this section?

 

[Erhatstil]

nice scores! you've been at this thing for a long time so theres no question you'll be able to hack the workload in dental school.

not to frustrate you but the thing that sucks about the DAT is each section doesn't have all that many questions. so your science 19's means you were a calculation off, or had a bio question narrowed down to 2 and guessed wrong only a couple of times..keeping you from 20's and a 21 in ochem. its possible that you were 3 questions away from having a bio 20, gchem 20, and ochem 21. ahh the frustration of the DAT.

i'm in a similar boat as you 3.3 gpa and solid DAT scores so if your apps aren't in yet, get them in asap! i just sent mine a few days ago. good luck to you

 

[AmpedUp]

I'm liking the distribution. You scored above in everything. Stay hopeful though!

I like to think the DAT as an unorthodox test of your knowledge. It isn't the most organized standardized test you've ever taken, but I guess somehow it is fair in the end.

So don't worry...I think you have a great shot. You should be able to land something.

 

[Bio Dental Mom]

Congratulations Avery07,

I am so happy for you! I think you did well and schools still accept those scores, so don't worry.. just rock the interview. A friend of mine had a 3.6 oGPA and like a 3.7 sGPA and a 21AA on her DAT and no one accepted her, she applied again the following year and retook her DAT and got a 22AA and got TONS of interviews but only got in to Temple. Bottom line is, just because you have awesome stats doesn't guarantee that you will get in. And I'm sure if they know all the other things you have going on, they will be impressed with your performance on the DAT.

I can definitely empathize with you. I've been studying for this thing since February and it has definitely consumed my life. My husband is getting annoyed...lol. I am honestly just aiming for stats similar to yours 19+ and I would be happy. = )

Good luck with everything and I hope you start getting interview invitations soon! You definitely deserve it!

 

[casper22]

Congrats dude...I wonder how ur scores would have been if you would have got some good sleep...no harm done though..these are equally good...

Good luck with the admission process...

 

[jenbruin]

Hey, congrats on the good scores!! And on (hopefully) being done with the whole DAT ordeal! Good luck with this cycle, I applied to half the schools you did (similar gpa) so maybe I'll see you around

 

[shiftypoptart]

hahahahaha I know how you feel about ochem... I got a 22 and only read half of the kaplan BB up to EAS and just watched chads videos. This is probably the easiest portion of the test but people do bad because they over study the reactions and forget how to do the highly tested stuff like nomenclature, stereochem, and H/C NMR. Guess people don't understand that if you know the basics in ochem its enough to do well, you don't really have to know every single reaction because chances are there will be a few at most and no where near as difficult as in Destroyer.

 

[Avery07]

hahahahaha I know how you feel about ochem... I got a 22 and only read half of the kaplan BB up to EAS and just watched chads videos. This is probably the easiest portion of the test but people do bad because they over study the reactions and forget how to do the highly tested stuff like nomenclature, stereochem, and H/C NMR. Guess people don't understand that if you know the basics in ochem its enough to do well, you don't really have to know every single reaction because chances are there will be a few at most and no where near as difficult as in Destroyer.

My test was a lot of reactions.. there was only 1 nomenclature question and one steroisomer question. Everything else was reactions, reaction concepts, lab stuff, and then a couple NMR.

I really didn't cover the above stuff and have no idea how I got that 20.. I took organic chem 2 years ago.. and have long since forgotten the details.. or so I thought.

 

[flyingforever]

My test was a lot of reactions.. there was only 1 nomenclature question and one steroisomer question. Everything else was reactions, reaction concepts, lab stuff, and then a couple NMR.

I really didn't cover the above stuff and have no idea how I got that 20.. I took organic chem 2 years ago.. and have long since forgotten the details.. or so I thought.

How many questions were lab questions? Any lab questions for Gen. Chem? How were Gen. Chem. questions?

 

[shiftypoptart]

My test was a lot of reactions.. there was only 1 nomenclature question and one steroisomer question. Everything else was reactions, reaction concepts, lab stuff, and then a couple NMR.

I really didn't cover the above stuff and have no idea how I got that 20.. I took organic chem 2 years ago.. and have long since forgotten the details.. or so I thought.

Yeah I had a good couple of reactions but they were all things I've seen before in class or were just obvious. I also took it 2 years ago but some things just stick i guess. I really meant a few for reactions where you get a "WTF?" moment like basically everything in destroyer. But yeah congrats bro hopefully we both get some interviews!

 

[Avery07]

Your scores are very well-rounded so I wouldn't worry!

You must be happy I'm writing mine next Tuesday and stress stress!!!

So sad that there is no thesting center near my place and have to fly to another city to write it lol.

Avery, Have you had chance to do achiever?

I bought achiever but never used it. I bought it prior to knowing how hard it was and since I had little time available, I decided not to waste it ruining my confidence.

You say you watched Chads videos 2x for Gen Chem and did the practice sets and practiced this with Destroyer. Would you say that the info Chad gives along with practice is enough to do well in this section?

I would say so. Chad helps nail the fundamentals and covers the main equations. Chad + Destroyer will give you a 20 or higher. If I used destroyer for its potential, I'm sure I would have done better.

I'm liking the distribution. You scored above in everything. Stay hopeful though!

I like to think the DAT as an unorthodox test of your knowledge. It isn't the most organized standardized test you've ever taken, but I guess somehow it is fair in the end.

So don't worry...I think you have a great shot. You should be able to land something.

Thanks Amped. I'm looking forward to the interview process now. Hopefully I'll be seeing you at UMKC next August.

 

[Avery07]

How many questions were lab questions? Any lab questions for Gen. Chem? How were Gen. Chem. questions?

I probably had 4 questions that involved lab techniques. Then there was 1 14C NMR question and 1 H NMR question. Also had a question asking me how many peaks a certain molecule would give in a H NMR spectroscopy.

For gen chem, I had roughly half concepts and half equations. Most of the equations wern't bad. Know your ideal gas stuff. I probably had 7 questions relating to ideal gases. There was one question that simply asked what element corresponded to a certain symbol from the period table.. I was shocked to see such a "waste" of a question.. but happy it was on my test. I remember having one lab question for gen chem but I can't remember what about. I think it involved titrations.

 

[flyingforever]

I probably had 4 questions that involved lab techniques. Then there was 1 14C NMR question and 1 H NMR question. Also had a question asking me how many peaks a certain molecule would give in a H NMR spectroscopy.

For gen chem, I had roughly half concepts and half equations. Most of the equations wern't bad. Know your ideal gas stuff. I probably had 7 questions relating to ideal gases. There was one question that simply asked what element corresponded to a certain symbol from the period table.. I was shocked to see such a "waste" of a question.. but happy it was on my test. I remember having one lab question for gen chem but I can't remember what about. I think it involved titrations.

Sweet thanks. I guess I can't skip lab sections.

 

[AmpedUp]

Thanks Amped. I'm looking forward to the interview process now. Hopefully I'll be seeing you at UMKC next August.

👍 No doubt about it. I'm hoping for the same. I'm sure you'll do fine though.

Anyway, let me know how things go for you in the future. Drop me a few PMs or whatever and I'll do the same.

Congrats on your scores though! You worked hard.

 

[jsun4]

were you tested on carbohydrate/lipid/sugar stuff?

 

[UndergradGuy7]

Good to see you are done. Good scores.
I agree taking anatomy and physiology saved me some time in studying. I am glad I took it.

Do you think you just forgot some stuff since you have been studying since December?

 

[Avery07]

were you tested on carbohydrate/lipid/sugar stuff?

Unfortunately, I was not. Or at least I don't think I was. If I was, it wasn't simple. I don't remember much about biology except for the fact it was a living nightmare.

There was a question about an organelle and what it did. It got pretty specific.. I think I knew the answer but I can't even recall the specific possible answers. It was a "which of the following are not a process done by this organelle" question. 3/5 possible answers were very specific and it was an organelle that was involved very highly with two other organelles. All possible answers related back to process covered within the three organelles so I was having trouble trying to sort out where one process ends and another begins.

Good to see you are done. Good scores.
I agree taking anatomy and physiology saved me some time in studying. I am glad I took it.

Do you think you just forgot some stuff since you have been studying since December?

I don't think I had forgotten anything. I am an ongoing teaching assistant for our introductory biology class and I also tutor the class, as well as other biology classes, for our athletic department. In doing my teaching, I am constantly re-emearsed to the "basics of biology." We cover the basics in the intro bio class.. I assume it is like most universities. Everything in Cliff's AP is covered.

Two days before my exam, I started re-reading Cliff's AP Bio. I would take the chapter exam prior to reading the chapter and usually got perfect or only -1 scores. The ones I missed were in my opinion, very faulty questions.

I think it helped going over Cliff's AP one last time to refresh my mind.. confidence-wise. I usually know the answer to random biology questions but I'm not always 100% sure of myself. I thought this would hurt me on the DAT (second guessing) and wanted to read through everything one last time so it was fresh, and so that I would be confident. I also met with one of the biology professors I teach with the day before my DAT to go over the A&P stuff.

My exam was 2.5 hours away and on the way up, I ran through flashcards on my iPhone. For all of you having this phone, I strongly urge you to buy the Exambusters Biology application. It has about 500 flashcards and is very well put together.

They also have a chemistry application for $4.99 which I did not purchase. I was not aware of this application until just now and in hindsight, would have purchased it had I known of its existence. Looking at pictures, it looks as good as, if not better, than the biology application.

Other iPhone applications I purchased are Alpha Exam: AP Biology, AP Biology Review, MCAT Biology Connect, and MCAT Chemistry Connect.

I don't recommend the MCAT Connect applications. They are just too different of a format for the DAT. The AP Biology Review application has nice videos and quizzes. You can actually take a random quiz and it will tell you what subjects you need to study. I recommend it as well. Cost was $3.99.

Both the applications were very affordable and worth their price ten times over. The MCAT applications were $14.99 each and worthless to me (as a DATer).

But again undergradguy, I don't feel I forgot anything. I was "doubtable" on some topics (A&P basics) -- but still think I had retained the information. On the drive up I covered everything again.

The test as I've already stated was hell and didn't test me over Cliff's AP stuff. Or Kaplan, or any other DAT guide for that matter. 20-30% of the questions could be found in these guides. The remaining 70-80% of the questions were VERY DETAILED A&P questions that I had never seen nor heard of in my life. They scared the crap out of me and made me spend the rest of the exam in a sense of failure. I'm not sure if other people have had exams like this or if others have exams that are summarized in Cliffs AP, but mine was most definitely not, and I am very upset about this. I think it was an uncharacteristically hard bio exam but somehow I made it through ok. Again, the score doesn't reflect my knowledge of biology. I'm very much like a "walking biology textbook" as my students say. I can ramble off random biology concepts, facts, and processes or answer random questions with ease. My only fault is A&P. I can fake the general stuff by having done my best to self-learn the basics but there is no way I could have prepared for the questions I was asked.

I went into bio knowing I would do very well under the condition I had minimal general A&P questions. I would have never guessed my test would be of majority detailed A&P questions. In hindsight, I think I did ok by just knowing specific key words, and what processes those related to. Based on that, I had an educated guess of what the answer might be.

 

[fever103]

wow the specifics on a&p is a surprise, especially because no prep material even goes that in depth! would you say we could find the type of information in campbells? a human physiology text perhaps??

 

[Avery07]

wow the specifics on a&p is a surprise, especially because no prep material even goes that in depth! would you say we could find the type of information in campbells? a human physiology text perhaps??

I'm sure it's in Campbells somewhere.. as most of the tested material comes out of this book.

Even if I had read specific A&P information, I'm not sure I could have understood it. The stuff they were asking was beyond complex.. I can understand a few complex processes if I put the time in but it was one thing after the other asking me a random process about some specfic part of an organ that I've never heard of before and then asking how this functioning affected some other random functioning of another detail.

I don't know how to explain it.. I don't remember the questions because honestly, they are impossible to remember for more than 10 seconds.. that hard. This stuff came from a different planet and it was not what I thought I would be tested on.