Dat done 8/3/2010!!!!!!!

[calicarbocation]

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Perceptual Ability 21
Quantitative Reasoning 17
Reading Comprehension 20
Biology 17
General Chemistry 20
Organic Chemistry 19
Total Science 18
Academic Average 19

Feels Great to be done!!! Here was my take on what I thought about each section...

Perceptual Ability- Was not nearly as difficult as Achiever!! I thought the difficulty was actually more close to the Topscore tests. The hardest part, hands DOWN, was the angle ranking!! Nearly impossible, honestly. I was kind of praying my way through them...Just a suggestion, don't waste your time studying for that section though. Score your points with all the other stuff in the PAT.

Quantitative Reasoning- I thought I would do better in this section. The questions were not any harder than those covered in the Destroyer Math book, but the issue is time!!!! So hard to finish in time, I was just skipping the ones I knew would suck out like 10 minutes of my time and making sure I answered everyyyy easy to medium question as best as I could.

Reading Comprehension- I almost enjoyed this section compared to the whole test....cause I knew all the answered were laid out somewhere in the passage. My technique was that I would read half of the passage carefully and not super fast, then I would start doing the questions once I had a good understanding of the point of the passage. Then I went through and did search/destroy method which went by reallllyyy fast once I knew what it was all about.

Biology- My weakest area in my opinion...Didn't feel comfortable with the material. I took a year of Biology (1 and 2) almost 2 years ago. The specificity of the questions were intense for me, even though I reviewed a LOTTTTT of biology...It was just really hard. But I know that if I had a strong Biology background and take more Bio classes at school it would really help. Covered topics that seemed like they were out of range for just a regular Biology class that you would take freshman year in college...

General Chemistry- HAHHH....I guessed on a few questions but mostly, the questions were similar to some of the Destroyer questions. I feel like Destroyer challenges you a bit more, but I definitely saw all the same exact types of questions....even down to nuclear decay....which I know I was able to get right from practicing with the Destroyer and going through it like 2-3 times.

Organic Chemistry- I used....THE DESTROYER. period.....If you can just adopt it for a while and become best friends with it then you will do relatively well on this section, depending on your background. Those "roadmaps" should help a lot!! I thought I was going to do a lot better than a 19 on this section so I'm still curious as to what I had specifically missed....

My study materials included The Destroyer (and the Math Destroyer as well), and Barron's AP Biology review book, Barron's DAT review book (came with 2 practice tests on a CD), The ACS books for Gen chem and Orgo, and the Kaplan big blue book. My practice tests included Barrons, Topscore, and Achiever (3 test version). I felt like it was enough for me, since I only had about a month or so to really study.

I would have loved to break 20 but I'm happy with what I have too...
Could have been better, could have been worse!
Anyway I'm DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE!!!!!

Hope this freakin gets me into dental school!!!

 

[TerpFan]

.

 

[kevinrho]

congrats!

 

[calicarbocation]

Were you able to access the calulator during the gen chem section? or just during QR? I'm SO SO SO horrible at math (had to take pre-calc and calc three times each before i finally passed) so i'm just worried about having to do the actual calculations in GC. Thats what messed me up last time. I would set up the problem but then get tripped up in the numbers. (South) Asian fail.

Oh boy....I actually am not very good at doing math myself...(the last math class I took was in my junior year in high school and we all used graphing calculators!!!) ...Anyway, I had planned on using the calculator during the math section test but i dont know WHY i completely forgot it was on option to use and didn't even think to access it. I was so crunched on time that I was just doing all the problems I knew were basic math (just involved multiplication/addition/division) and solving everything quickly by hand on my whiteboard. I got through like 95% of the problems and guessed on the hardest last bit left. As for the Gen Chem section, the only thing I had access to was a periodic table. It seemed like most of the math in the Gen Chem section was doing stoicheometry or something of the sort. Some of the questions you didn't even have to solve out all the way...as long as you knew what formula to use and could plug the values in the right place, you would be able to choose the corresponding answer set up in the same way.

I really do feel like the Destroyer gets you used to the exact types of questions that you will see on the DAT. Everyone says it's sooooo hard, blah blah, but it's really a blessing that this thing exists...cause if you can harness the good out of it, you will be confident when it comes down to Gen Chem and math, for sure!!
One thing I would recommend for math is to feel comfortable with dividing by decimals, knowing your BASIC trig functions/identities (like cos = 1/sec...and sin= 1/csc) and basic probability stuff.

Either way, don't worry about the calculations being insanely hard or anything, afterall the test was designed so that you need not use a calculator! But just be confident, calm, try your BEST, and just remember that you're not the only one in this and that you will do amazing! GOOD LUCK!

 

[calicarbocation]

congrats!

Thanks!!

 

[TerpFan]

Oh boy....I actually am not very good at doing math myself...(the last math class I took was in my junior year in high school and we all used graphing calculators!!!) ...Anyway, I had planned on using the calculator during the math section test but i dont know WHY i completely forgot it was on option to use and didn't even think to access it. I was so crunched on time that I was just doing all the problems I knew were basic math (just involved multiplication/addition/division) and solving everything quickly by hand on my whiteboard. I got through like 95% of the problems and guessed on the hardest last bit left. As for the Gen Chem section, the only thing I had access to was a periodic table. It seemed like most of the math in the Gen Chem section was doing stoicheometry or something of the sort. Some of the questions you didn't even have to solve out all the way...as long as you knew what formula to use and could plug the values in the right place, you would be able to choose the corresponding answer set up in the same way.

I really do feel like the Destroyer gets you used to the exact types of questions that you will see on the DAT. Everyone says it's sooooo hard, blah blah, but it's really a blessing that this thing exists...cause if you can harness the good out of it, you will be confident when it comes down to Gen Chem and math, for sure!!
One thing I would recommend for math is to feel comfortable with dividing by decimals, knowing your BASIC trig functions/identities (like cos = 1/sec...and sin= 1/csc) and basic probability stuff.

Either way, don't worry about the calculations being insanely hard or anything, afterall the test was designed so that you need not use a calculator! But just be confident, calm, try your BEST, and just remember that you're not the only one in this and that you will do amazing! GOOD LUCK!

Thanks!!! Good luck this cycle!

 

[ellebelle7]

Same overall scores as me AA:19 TS: 18 though our sectional breakdowns were different. Good luck this cycle! Where do you want to apply?

 

[calicarbocation]

Same overall scores as me AA:19 TS: 18 though our sectional breakdowns were different. Good luck this cycle! Where do you want to apply?

Sweet! Good luck to you too! I'm actually applying next year so that it will be the end of my junior year then, but I'm shooting for MCG cause it's very cheap and they accept only Georgia residents (which I am!) But if that doesn't work out, I'm thinking Minnesota cause my sister goes there now, and other than that, probably just a range of schools around the states, or around the southeast area. What about you?