DAT Done 7/22/10!!

[klboehm]

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PAT 18 (61.1) 😕
QR 21 (93.3)
RC 20 (72.4)
BIO 22 (95.7)
GC 26 (98.4)
OC 24 (95.2)
TS 23 (98.2)
AA 23 (98.3)

I would like to start off by saying that I have only completed 2 years of undergrad. I have only taken basic bio, chm, and ochem classes with the exception of anatomy and physiology. I have a 3.87 cummulative GPA. I will not be applying to schools until next summer. The schools that I am looking at are Indiana (in-state), USC, UoP, Boston, UPenn.

I studied for a total of 9.5 weeks this summer. For the first 5 weeks I only studied ~2-4 hours a day. I went through Kaplan BB and Cliffs AP bio twice each during this time. I devoted the next two weeks to Chad's GC and OC videos. Next, I went through Destroyer twice over the course of 2 weeks. During the second week of going through destroyer, I decided to watch Chad's videos again on fastplay. I took one topscore practice test a day for the 3 days before my test. I also skimmed through Cliff's AP bio. I probably studied about 6-8 hours a day for 4 weeks leading up to my test day.

Topscore results
BIO/GC/OC/PAT/QR/RC/TS/AA
1 19/19/ 19/ 21/ 18/20/19/19
2 18/19/20/ 22/ 20/ 21/ 20/20
3 19/19/19/ 22/ 21/22/ 19/ 20

Breakdown

BIO: Bio was not as bad as I thought it could be. This section definitely focused on more broad topics than the little details. Destroyer questions are a lot harder, but helpful. Cliffs AP bio was a great book to sum topics up, and it is an easy read.

GC: I am not sure how I did this well. This has never been my strongest subject. Chad's videos and supplemental materials are a must!

OC: This section was very fair. Reactions were very basic. I actually never took a single look at the roadmaps in Destroyer. Chad's videos are also a must for this section too!

PAT: I thought PAT on the actual DAT was harder than topscore. I also did not do well with timing on this section. I never used CDP, and if I could change how I studied I would have bought CDP.

RC: I got pianoed! The other two articles were related to biology. I used search and destroy, but there were a few tone questions.

QR: The calculator helped out a lot even though it has a slight delay. The calculator has a square root function on it that I used quite a bit. This section is all about using time wisely. I also had 2-3 questions involving std. deviation that I had no clue how to solve.


Overall I am pleased with my scores. I am very happy with my science scores. I wish I would've done better on the PAT section. Do you think my PAT score will cause any major problems for me? Any thoughts?

 

[Chemboy23]

no, great scores! wish i was done too! taking it next week! i'm scared to death about the bio section.

 

[Simple Jack]

solid scores! that's cool that you knocked out the DAT a year early too! that'll make for a less stressful summer indeed.

 

[jsun4]

were introductory bio classes sufficient enough to score 20 + on bio?

 

[klboehm]

were introductory bio classes sufficient enough to score 20 + on bio?

I took 2 sem. of introductory bio and 2 sem. of anatomy/physiology. These classes alone were sufficient for me. I didn't feel like I needed ecology, genetics, etc. since the DAT doesn't get too detailed. Taking Anatomy/Physiology help out a lot because I feel like I had quite a few questions related to this topic specifically. I did have to put in more time learning ecology and taxonomy just because those topics were not hit that hard in my classes. Cliffs AP bio was a great resource for this information.

 

[mx41]

About the QR, did you use Math destroyer? How did that compare to real dat?
Is topscore a good rep. of the QR section?
And in QR did you have any problems that you can easily use a calculator for? i.e. The sq root of the sq root of 90,000

 

[klboehm]

About the QR, did you use Math destroyer? How did that compare to real dat?
Is topscore a good rep. of the QR section?
And in QR did you have any problems that you can easily use a calculator for? i.e. The sq root of the sq root of 90,000

I only used the DAT destroyer QR section. I did not have Math destroyer. I thought the QR section on the actual DAT is more time consuming. I was finishing topscore with about 7-8 min. to spare, and on the actual DAT I was working until the very last second on the final question. I didn't get a chance to go back to my marked questions. There were 2-3 questions that I simply plugged into the calculator. They were not as simple as the square root of 90,000 , but you would have to take the square root of a set of fractions that were added together for example. A few questions also came up that I had never seen in any practice exams, but they were manageable.

 

[luv8724]

****... I was so worried getting 18-19 on topscores... you kind of gave me a bit of confidence.. my test in 2 dayz... I was really nervous cuz i got by 2nd topscopre 19..