- Joined
- Jun 5, 2008
- Messages
- 275
- Reaction score
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I just want to say THANK YOU to all those people who have helped me, those that I messaged and those who responded to my posts in their breakdowns, I appreciate it. Hopefully mine can help someone else.
(alright enough of that, here's the good stuff)
PAT = 22
QR = 19
RC = 26
BIO = 24
GC = 23
OC = 23
TS = 23
AA = 23
BREAKDOWN!!!
I really wanted to give a good breakdown for all those who have yet to take it because many people before me helped me to prepare for this thing.
Bio
- What I thought - I thought most of the questions were pretty easy (compared to Destroyer/Cliffs type questions). I distinctly remember that I got through the first 20 without any trouble. I got a couple of strange ones after that though, I don't remember on what, but the difficulty of these in comparison was like night and day. There were probably only 3-4 like this though.
- What I used - Read through Cliffs twice, Read through Kaplan once, went through Destroyer once. I also bought the 5 extra Cliffs AP Bio tests so I had a total of 7 cliffs AP Bio tests that I took and I think that probably really helped. Seeing so many questions and answer explanations can't hurt so I would recommend it to everyone struggling with Bio. Topscore 1/2/3
GC
- What I thought - Nothing too complicated. Seemed to touch on pretty much everything that I covered at least once, but I don't remember too many curveballs. Maybe 2-3 that had me stumped for a minute. There were a decent amount of "gimmies" in here. Don't just know how to do the problem, know why it happens, understand how the concepts relate.
- What I used - CHAD's VIDEOS R AWESOME. There, I said it. If you haven't used these videos, find them, watch them, memorize them. This is coming from someone who got a C in chem I and a B in chem II. He does such an excellent job of not just explaining how to do the problems, but also the basics and theory behind them without being too boring, and based on what I saw on the real thing, the basics behind the problems are very important. Also went through Kaplan twice, and a handful of destroyer problems. Topscore 1/2/3
OC
- What I thought - I got A's in I and II when I took it 2 years ago so I have a pretty good understanding of the concepts and mechanisms and I think that helped a lot. I just had to go back and solidify that and memorize the reactions for the most part. Again, I think this was pretty basic because I don't remember too many difficult ones. It seemed like for the most part, all of the sciences had about 80-90% problems that they wanted you to "get," and about 10% that were a step above in difficulty to see if you really understood what was going on. (However, this could also just be because I didn't understand/know that 10% though)
- What I used - Went through Kaplan twice, destroyer once, first half of my old textbook, first semester of chad's ochem videos (also good but a little too specific for the DAT). Topscore 1/2/3.
PAT
- What I thought - Keyholes seemed a fair bit different from CDP, so I was running a little behind where I wanted to be on time as compared to CDP. I thought TFE seemed easier, one or two weird hole punches but other than that it was easier. Some angles were really tough, but at least about half of them were real easy. Cube counting was much easier, pattern folding was a little more difficult, but it wasn't too bad, I started to run out of time though so had to hurry through the last part a bit.
- What I used - CDP!! scored between 21-24. Highly recommend the 10 test version, and make sure to keep taking them up to the day of the DAT. Also, if you don't have time to do a whole one or don't want to, try just going through angle rankings here and there, I think that may help to decipher the angles if you just keep refreshing yourself on them every day.
RC
- What I thought - cake... I think I got a little bit lucky. Crocodiles - not too bad. Motion processing - again pretty simple, mostly S&D. Fungi - super, unbelieveably S&D easy.
- What I used - Topscore 1 and Topscore 3 (I have always been good at reading [34 ACT], and was good at MCAT verbal so I wasn't too worried but was a bit fearful of having a rough patch and getting flustered so I wanted to practice a bit with the search and destroy.
QR
- What I Thought - Real easy for the most part, maybe 5-10 questions that I had trouble with or skipped and guessed at before time expired. A lot of simple arithmetic, some easy trigonomatry, word problems weren't too tough (but those are my best section to be honest, lol, I suck at equations but I can reason an answer out with the best of 'em). I knew by the end that I did better than 16-17, and for that I was pretty excited to see my final results. The biggest thing with this section is to have a plan. I had one going in. In my head I said, if you're not sure you can figure it out, than go to the next one, just make sure you at least find 15-20 that you know for sure, and if you take educated guessese you should come up with at least a 16-17, and that's good enough to keep you from missing many cutoffs. Just realize that you're not going to be able to finish all 40 and be okay with that, just make sure that the 20, 30 or 35 that you are able to get through count.
- What I Used - Read through Kaplan QR once or twice, about 10 CDM tests and 4-5 Math Destroyer tests. I think the problems in CDM were definitely harder for the most part. Math Destroyer was a little closer in difficulty. I think the real thing was much easier, but each question in the real thing was still pretty time consuming.
Topscore 1/2/3
Bio - 18/20/20
GC - 19/18/19
OC - 19/19/20
CDP - 21-24
CDM - 18-22
Math Destroyer - 18-22
(alright enough of that, here's the good stuff)
PAT = 22
QR = 19
RC = 26
BIO = 24
GC = 23
OC = 23
TS = 23
AA = 23
BREAKDOWN!!!
I really wanted to give a good breakdown for all those who have yet to take it because many people before me helped me to prepare for this thing.
Bio
- What I thought - I thought most of the questions were pretty easy (compared to Destroyer/Cliffs type questions). I distinctly remember that I got through the first 20 without any trouble. I got a couple of strange ones after that though, I don't remember on what, but the difficulty of these in comparison was like night and day. There were probably only 3-4 like this though.
- What I used - Read through Cliffs twice, Read through Kaplan once, went through Destroyer once. I also bought the 5 extra Cliffs AP Bio tests so I had a total of 7 cliffs AP Bio tests that I took and I think that probably really helped. Seeing so many questions and answer explanations can't hurt so I would recommend it to everyone struggling with Bio. Topscore 1/2/3
GC
- What I thought - Nothing too complicated. Seemed to touch on pretty much everything that I covered at least once, but I don't remember too many curveballs. Maybe 2-3 that had me stumped for a minute. There were a decent amount of "gimmies" in here. Don't just know how to do the problem, know why it happens, understand how the concepts relate.
- What I used - CHAD's VIDEOS R AWESOME. There, I said it. If you haven't used these videos, find them, watch them, memorize them. This is coming from someone who got a C in chem I and a B in chem II. He does such an excellent job of not just explaining how to do the problems, but also the basics and theory behind them without being too boring, and based on what I saw on the real thing, the basics behind the problems are very important. Also went through Kaplan twice, and a handful of destroyer problems. Topscore 1/2/3
OC
- What I thought - I got A's in I and II when I took it 2 years ago so I have a pretty good understanding of the concepts and mechanisms and I think that helped a lot. I just had to go back and solidify that and memorize the reactions for the most part. Again, I think this was pretty basic because I don't remember too many difficult ones. It seemed like for the most part, all of the sciences had about 80-90% problems that they wanted you to "get," and about 10% that were a step above in difficulty to see if you really understood what was going on. (However, this could also just be because I didn't understand/know that 10% though)
- What I used - Went through Kaplan twice, destroyer once, first half of my old textbook, first semester of chad's ochem videos (also good but a little too specific for the DAT). Topscore 1/2/3.
PAT
- What I thought - Keyholes seemed a fair bit different from CDP, so I was running a little behind where I wanted to be on time as compared to CDP. I thought TFE seemed easier, one or two weird hole punches but other than that it was easier. Some angles were really tough, but at least about half of them were real easy. Cube counting was much easier, pattern folding was a little more difficult, but it wasn't too bad, I started to run out of time though so had to hurry through the last part a bit.
- What I used - CDP!! scored between 21-24. Highly recommend the 10 test version, and make sure to keep taking them up to the day of the DAT. Also, if you don't have time to do a whole one or don't want to, try just going through angle rankings here and there, I think that may help to decipher the angles if you just keep refreshing yourself on them every day.
RC
- What I thought - cake... I think I got a little bit lucky. Crocodiles - not too bad. Motion processing - again pretty simple, mostly S&D. Fungi - super, unbelieveably S&D easy.
- What I used - Topscore 1 and Topscore 3 (I have always been good at reading [34 ACT], and was good at MCAT verbal so I wasn't too worried but was a bit fearful of having a rough patch and getting flustered so I wanted to practice a bit with the search and destroy.
QR
- What I Thought - Real easy for the most part, maybe 5-10 questions that I had trouble with or skipped and guessed at before time expired. A lot of simple arithmetic, some easy trigonomatry, word problems weren't too tough (but those are my best section to be honest, lol, I suck at equations but I can reason an answer out with the best of 'em). I knew by the end that I did better than 16-17, and for that I was pretty excited to see my final results. The biggest thing with this section is to have a plan. I had one going in. In my head I said, if you're not sure you can figure it out, than go to the next one, just make sure you at least find 15-20 that you know for sure, and if you take educated guessese you should come up with at least a 16-17, and that's good enough to keep you from missing many cutoffs. Just realize that you're not going to be able to finish all 40 and be okay with that, just make sure that the 20, 30 or 35 that you are able to get through count.
- What I Used - Read through Kaplan QR once or twice, about 10 CDM tests and 4-5 Math Destroyer tests. I think the problems in CDM were definitely harder for the most part. Math Destroyer was a little closer in difficulty. I think the real thing was much easier, but each question in the real thing was still pretty time consuming.
Topscore 1/2/3
Bio - 18/20/20
GC - 19/18/19
OC - 19/19/20
CDP - 21-24
CDM - 18-22
Math Destroyer - 18-22
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