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First of all, I want to thank this message board for all the help they give, as well as all the questions posted, really helps you know where you're at!
Scores:
PAT - 22 - 93.8%
QR - 16 - 65.3%
- could care less, I hate math with a passion
RC - 21 - 88.9%
Bio - 19 - 83.5%
GC - 22 - 95.2%
OC - 25 - 98.4%
TS - 21 - 96.2%
AA - 21 - 97.2%
Since everybody else posts what they thought about each question and what resources they used, I'll do the same except for QR, nobody wants to know, haha
PAT - CDP 5 test edition, as well as some questions I bought off ebay for 8$ or so. I thought CDP was very representative of the PAT section, and actually the whole CD series is spot on for layout of the DAT including color, etc. Keyholes weren't too bad, thought they were kind of easy except for 1 or 2, TFE had a mix of hard ones (CDP test 4) and easy ones, angles were actually pretty easy...could usually knock it down to two answer choices just finding which is the biggest/smallest, unlike CDP where that sometimes doesn't work at all. Hole punching was pretty dang easy, had one problem with a crazy fold on it, but other than that they were easier than CDP, cube counting again was easier than CDP just because there were fewer cubes, they also through in "blanks" in the middle of the figures as well...just where there wasnt any cube, so you had to be able to visually realize that. Pattern folding was a joke, even the dice were easy, or maybe I was just on today.
QR - Don't care, I had Math Destroyer, but nothing stuck. I'm just bad at math.
RC - All science related, one was telomeres, one was gene therapy, can't remember the last one, and - didn't get piano passage, thank god...actually took a deep breath before I went on to the third passage. Only resource I used for this was TopScore, which was great for the factual questions. I got a 25 yesterday, and easily could've done better than that, but what I wasn't used to was the tone questions and inference questions, but they seemed to be pretty logical/easy as long as you read the passage. Started to run out of time for the 3rd passage, only had 17 minutes left or so once I finished the third, so I didn't read it nearly as thoroughly, don't know if that's where I started getting points taken off. I think for this section it'd be best to get Achiever just for the tone/inference questions so you don't get surprised come test day. Luckily, I'm a pretty good reader (eng 1st language)
Bio - Cliffs, Alan's notes, and Thinkwell videos (plants, molecular bio, cellular respiration, photosynthesis). Thinkwell videos were great, but honestly the Bio section was a lot of random crap, just like everybody said and I was expecting that coming in, so I'm satisfied with a 19, even though I really enjoy Biology. No taxonomy question, no plants, a LOT of genetics questions regarding calculating how many progeny will have so and so disease, or stuff like that (TopScore has plenty of those). Don't worry too much about Bio, just read Cliffs and supplement with Thinkwell if you don't understand something/weren't taught something.
GC - Chad's the coolest dude out there for revamping your freshman chemistry knowledge, and for me it was 2 years ago, so I was in need of a refresher, and he more than delivered. Questions were very basic, mostly conceptual, and I only had a few calculations, which I know I missed a couple because I flatout guessed because my numbers weren't ever matching an answer 😕 . Had destroyer, and didn't do all of the gchem, just because it was boring and I didn't care so much about the calculations, was hoping on the fact I got a conceptual version, and luckily I did!
OC - Chad was pretty good at making organic seem basic. Also helps that my OChem professor is a beast, and I learned it the first time (finished up this past semester). Used all of Destroyer OChem, which was pretty good, definitely overkill for the DAT, especially the reactions were VERY basic, but it's definitely good to know Destroyer OChem front to back. Had one NMR and one IR I believe, and they were no brainers - the rest was just concepts and reactions, and a basic understanding of SN1/SN2/E1/E2, but didn't actually have any reactions directly involving them.
I also had a mistake on my OC section, was asking for the most stable newman projection of a certain compound, and NONE of them even had the right number of carbons...maybe I'll get another point when they audit it 🙄.
Glad it's over, and I'm not going to take that crap again, this summer was miserable. The DAT turned my world upside down, was sick twice and on antibiotics, was dizzy for about 2 weeks straight, and our oldest dog had to be put to sleep (RIP Brandy!!), but all in all I'm just glad it's over, and I hope everybody else here has a better/easier experience getting ready for this thing than I did!
P.S. Don't care to hear what you have to say about my QR score, I could really care less.
Scores:
PAT - 22 - 93.8%
QR - 16 - 65.3%
- could care less, I hate math with a passionRC - 21 - 88.9%
Bio - 19 - 83.5%
GC - 22 - 95.2%
OC - 25 - 98.4%
TS - 21 - 96.2%
AA - 21 - 97.2%
Since everybody else posts what they thought about each question and what resources they used, I'll do the same except for QR, nobody wants to know, haha
PAT - CDP 5 test edition, as well as some questions I bought off ebay for 8$ or so. I thought CDP was very representative of the PAT section, and actually the whole CD series is spot on for layout of the DAT including color, etc. Keyholes weren't too bad, thought they were kind of easy except for 1 or 2, TFE had a mix of hard ones (CDP test 4) and easy ones, angles were actually pretty easy...could usually knock it down to two answer choices just finding which is the biggest/smallest, unlike CDP where that sometimes doesn't work at all. Hole punching was pretty dang easy, had one problem with a crazy fold on it, but other than that they were easier than CDP, cube counting again was easier than CDP just because there were fewer cubes, they also through in "blanks" in the middle of the figures as well...just where there wasnt any cube, so you had to be able to visually realize that. Pattern folding was a joke, even the dice were easy, or maybe I was just on today.
QR - Don't care, I had Math Destroyer, but nothing stuck. I'm just bad at math.
RC - All science related, one was telomeres, one was gene therapy, can't remember the last one, and - didn't get piano passage, thank god...actually took a deep breath before I went on to the third passage. Only resource I used for this was TopScore, which was great for the factual questions. I got a 25 yesterday, and easily could've done better than that, but what I wasn't used to was the tone questions and inference questions, but they seemed to be pretty logical/easy as long as you read the passage. Started to run out of time for the 3rd passage, only had 17 minutes left or so once I finished the third, so I didn't read it nearly as thoroughly, don't know if that's where I started getting points taken off. I think for this section it'd be best to get Achiever just for the tone/inference questions so you don't get surprised come test day. Luckily, I'm a pretty good reader (eng 1st language)
Bio - Cliffs, Alan's notes, and Thinkwell videos (plants, molecular bio, cellular respiration, photosynthesis). Thinkwell videos were great, but honestly the Bio section was a lot of random crap, just like everybody said and I was expecting that coming in, so I'm satisfied with a 19, even though I really enjoy Biology. No taxonomy question, no plants, a LOT of genetics questions regarding calculating how many progeny will have so and so disease, or stuff like that (TopScore has plenty of those). Don't worry too much about Bio, just read Cliffs and supplement with Thinkwell if you don't understand something/weren't taught something.
GC - Chad's the coolest dude out there for revamping your freshman chemistry knowledge, and for me it was 2 years ago, so I was in need of a refresher, and he more than delivered. Questions were very basic, mostly conceptual, and I only had a few calculations, which I know I missed a couple because I flatout guessed because my numbers weren't ever matching an answer 😕 . Had destroyer, and didn't do all of the gchem, just because it was boring and I didn't care so much about the calculations, was hoping on the fact I got a conceptual version, and luckily I did!
OC - Chad was pretty good at making organic seem basic. Also helps that my OChem professor is a beast, and I learned it the first time (finished up this past semester). Used all of Destroyer OChem, which was pretty good, definitely overkill for the DAT, especially the reactions were VERY basic, but it's definitely good to know Destroyer OChem front to back. Had one NMR and one IR I believe, and they were no brainers - the rest was just concepts and reactions, and a basic understanding of SN1/SN2/E1/E2, but didn't actually have any reactions directly involving them.
I also had a mistake on my OC section, was asking for the most stable newman projection of a certain compound, and NONE of them even had the right number of carbons...maybe I'll get another point when they audit it 🙄.
Glad it's over, and I'm not going to take that crap again, this summer was miserable. The DAT turned my world upside down, was sick twice and on antibiotics, was dizzy for about 2 weeks straight, and our oldest dog had to be put to sleep (RIP Brandy!!), but all in all I'm just glad it's over, and I hope everybody else here has a better/easier experience getting ready for this thing than I did!
P.S. Don't care to hear what you have to say about my QR score, I could really care less.
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