DAT done 8-15...better then I expected!

[gbloomq2010]

Im only going to be a junior starting next week for Undergrad at Clemson.
I have a 4.0 right now (but who knows what could happen)

I studied using a Kaplan course, and old textbooks and notes.
I took four practice tests with kaplan and my best score was
AA:20
PA:21

My real scores:
Biology: 22
G-chem:27
O-chem: 23
QR: 21(was consistently my best section)
Reading: 18
Total Science:23
AA:22
PA:22

I was a little dissapointed with my QR, but made up for it by doing about 3 points better then exprected on Gchem and Biology.
My reading has always been terrible and 18 actually isnt bad considering how i was averaging on Kaplan practice tests.

I wanna apply to MUSC in charleston.
What do yall think?

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[ddstobe]

I'm sure you'll be in a d-school of your choice with those killing scores. could you tell us how you prepare the dat, what materials you use, and just do a breakdown of each sections? thanks.

 

[211183]

very nice! your practice scores give us all here hope who are taking the DAT this coming week. thanks for sharing.
what ddstobe said!

 

[gbloomq2010]

I spent prob 2/3 my time on biology. And i used the Kaplan book and my Freshman biology notes (which were really good). I also had wikipedia on easy access for whenever something was unclear and i need a simple deffinition.

For G-chem, just read the Kaplan book and did practice questions. The only thing I saw helpful was to reread my Kaplan stuff, b/c it was fairly comprehensive.

For o-chem I used the Kaplan book and read the chapter summaries in my text book (which helped summarize all the different reactions and reagents)

I didnt study for math bc i never came accross antything that gave me problem.

For reading, I practiced all the availabe practice sections Kaplan had. The best stratagy i came accross was to write all the questions down and the read the passage and answer them on my scratch paper as a i went (but this prob isnt a good stategy for any decent reader- by far my worst section)

For PA I spent a lot of time just looking at the solutions to my practice section to help learn how to visualize the different shapes. But this skill may have also been somewhat natural, because I didnt feel very compelled to spend much time on it.

After the Kaplan class was over (two monthes- twice a week for 3 hours) I studied in an empy office at my dads work from about noon-8pm for two weeks.

Then i took a full day off before the exam to relax.
Woke up today, reviewed some formulas for gchem (thermodynamics etc)

Took the exam
My gchem didnt feel nearly like a 27 (expected around a 20)
an PAT seemed vveeerrrrryyyy hard..and was suprised by the score.

Biology was not as bad as I thought.
Hope this helps
-Geoff

 

[211183]

i am also sutdying with kaplan... good confidence booster for me to see you didnt use destroyer like everyyyone else....

im sure you'll get in where you want... assuming you are a good interviewer and well rounded


gluck in dschool

oh yeah, was chem from kaplan enough for the test?

 

[ddstobe]

i guess no destroyer, no CDP, no achiever for you right?

 

[gbloomq2010]

i am also sutdying with kaplan... good confidence booster for me to see you didnt use destroyer like everyyyone else....

im sure you'll get in where you want... assuming you are a good interviewer and well rounded


gluck in dschool

oh yeah, was chem from kaplan enough for the test?

Yea, i would say it was enough. I was good at it when i took the class for undergrad, so it was a matter of refreshing my memory. I didnt use anything other than Kaplan, and my ochem txt book and biology notes

 

[gbloomq2010]

i guess no destroyer, no CDP, no achiever for you right?

none of that stuff. and being on this forum would just stress me out bc everyone was talking about all the different resources they were using. It seemed overwhelming. I think if u have one good source it should be enough. And have somewhere for when that source doesn't answer your questions (i used my old textbooks for this)

 

[ddstobe]

did you use your bio textbook for that section too? did you get a lot of random bio questions?

 

[211183]

none of that stuff. and being on this forum would just stress me out bc everyone was talking about all the different resources they were using.

exactly how i feel right now. but your comment made me more confident that i am not missing out on that much.

 

[gbloomq2010]

I only used my bio text book to get some picture for things like photosynthesis, respiration, etc. Prob less than an hour spent with it total.

 

[eldirty]

great scores ... congrats and good luck

 

[ddstobe]

I only used my bio text book to get some picture for things like photosynthesis, respiration, etc. Prob less than an hour spent with it total.

wow, did you just recently take a bio class or something? everybody had been emphsizing how much they would have missed if they didn't have destroyer.