- Joined
- Sep 22, 2007
- Messages
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Hey all,
Long time SDN follower, first time poster. You all have been so helpful in your posts, so I thought I'd give back. Just took it yesterday, here are my scores:
PAT 17
QR 18
RC 19
BIO 19
GC 18
OC 22
TS 19
AA 19
Stats
below avg. GPA = 3.15 overall, 3.56 science
Graduated from U of Michigan, BA Economics 2003
Resident of Queens, NY
100+ hours as a dental assistant in Bklyn, NY
Section Breakdown
Sciences: Used only the Kaplan book and purchased the DAT Destroyer after it came highly recommended by others in this forum. I can see why. The Destroyer was THE most helpful resource I used. Here is how I studied:
BIO: Purely used Destroyer and Wikipedia. The Destroyer is a MUST for this section, as I easily recognized a couple of the answer choices in at least half the questions on this section, if not more. Enjoyed the multiple choice format of the Destroyer and supplementing whatever knowledge I needed with some info on Wikipedia. Should've used Campbell's and some of the other recommended books on this forum to get myself into the 20 range, but considering the very small fraction of my time spent on Bio, I got what I deserved.
GC: Used Destroyer and Kaplan book. Don't know what happened here. I honestly thought I scored higher than this while I was taking the test.
OC: Didn't use anything BUT the Destroyer, which again is a must for this section. I never dreamed of scoring a 22 in this section until I bought it. I considered myself just a mediocre Orgo student. If you know and understand the Destroyer questions and concepts, there really is no way you should score below a 20 in this section. Seriously.
QR: Purely used Destroyer, which gave me a good review on probability and conversion concepts. Spent a minimal amount of time studying (between 1-2 hours overall) for this section for two reasons, a) from what I understand ADCOMs don't place a great deal of importance on this section and b) I knew I could score at least a 17 on math based on what I already know.
Note: There were at least 5 questions that I had no idea how to answer, and I consider myself good at math! One of them required you to know the formula of an ellipse and apply it.
RC: I did not spend ANY! time whatsoever studying for this. Like someone said in a different post, its hard in the short term to prepare for what essentially is a long term skill.
The only way to go about this is, to me, is to search and destroy. In this order, I would read the very 1st paragraph, skip all the tone questions, go to the questions that were specific about a line or two in the passage, look them up, answer those confidently, and go back to the tone questions at the end when you have already ended up "reading" the passage for all intents and purposes. Honestly I don't know how people read the entire passage and then answer all the questions given the time constraints. But there has to be some speed readers on here, as I only scored in the 54th percentile.
PAT: Crack DAT PAT was great for practice. I believe if I had practiced diligently my score would be significantly higher.
Hope my comments helped. I wish I had done better on QR & GC, and I KNOW I could have done better on BIO and PAT.
I applied at the end of August. What do you think are my chances of getting interviews? Are my scores good enough to roll with or would anyone suggest a re-take? Please be brutally honest.
Long time SDN follower, first time poster. You all have been so helpful in your posts, so I thought I'd give back. Just took it yesterday, here are my scores:
PAT 17
QR 18
RC 19
BIO 19
GC 18
OC 22
TS 19
AA 19
Stats
below avg. GPA = 3.15 overall, 3.56 science
Graduated from U of Michigan, BA Economics 2003
Resident of Queens, NY
100+ hours as a dental assistant in Bklyn, NY
Section Breakdown
Sciences: Used only the Kaplan book and purchased the DAT Destroyer after it came highly recommended by others in this forum. I can see why. The Destroyer was THE most helpful resource I used. Here is how I studied:
BIO: Purely used Destroyer and Wikipedia. The Destroyer is a MUST for this section, as I easily recognized a couple of the answer choices in at least half the questions on this section, if not more. Enjoyed the multiple choice format of the Destroyer and supplementing whatever knowledge I needed with some info on Wikipedia. Should've used Campbell's and some of the other recommended books on this forum to get myself into the 20 range, but considering the very small fraction of my time spent on Bio, I got what I deserved.
GC: Used Destroyer and Kaplan book. Don't know what happened here. I honestly thought I scored higher than this while I was taking the test.
OC: Didn't use anything BUT the Destroyer, which again is a must for this section. I never dreamed of scoring a 22 in this section until I bought it. I considered myself just a mediocre Orgo student. If you know and understand the Destroyer questions and concepts, there really is no way you should score below a 20 in this section. Seriously.
QR: Purely used Destroyer, which gave me a good review on probability and conversion concepts. Spent a minimal amount of time studying (between 1-2 hours overall) for this section for two reasons, a) from what I understand ADCOMs don't place a great deal of importance on this section and b) I knew I could score at least a 17 on math based on what I already know.
Note: There were at least 5 questions that I had no idea how to answer, and I consider myself good at math! One of them required you to know the formula of an ellipse and apply it.
RC: I did not spend ANY! time whatsoever studying for this. Like someone said in a different post, its hard in the short term to prepare for what essentially is a long term skill.
The only way to go about this is, to me, is to search and destroy. In this order, I would read the very 1st paragraph, skip all the tone questions, go to the questions that were specific about a line or two in the passage, look them up, answer those confidently, and go back to the tone questions at the end when you have already ended up "reading" the passage for all intents and purposes. Honestly I don't know how people read the entire passage and then answer all the questions given the time constraints. But there has to be some speed readers on here, as I only scored in the 54th percentile.
PAT: Crack DAT PAT was great for practice. I believe if I had practiced diligently my score would be significantly higher.
Hope my comments helped. I wish I had done better on QR & GC, and I KNOW I could have done better on BIO and PAT.
I applied at the end of August. What do you think are my chances of getting interviews? Are my scores good enough to roll with or would anyone suggest a re-take? Please be brutally honest.
