DAT done and critique

[iistoogood4u]

AA 21
TS 21
QR 21
Bio 22
Gchem 20
Ochem 21
RC 19
PAT 17

Materials: Kaplan, Destroyer, Topscore, Exam Krackers

PAT
Ok the dats i took today had extreme PATS. They had things I never knew they could have For example, hole punching, the way they folded it had edges of paper sticking otu awkwardly. This isnt the pretty half fold or nice symmetrical fold. The corner is folded in a way that it covers 1/3 of the paper, then folded up so that a tiny portion stuck out from one of the sides. The PATs that I used to practice are Kaplan and Top Score, neither of those came close to the hole punching and pattern folding I saw. And angle ranking, eveyrone already knows that its just ridiculous. Front/end views are ok, not bad.

Bio
The questions asked were pretty easy, fairly basic, but theres about 2 that I didnt know, and question #40 was the definition of first rule of thermodynamics??? Thats chem aint it?

Chem
I thot i did better because I didnt get stumped on any, maybe just dumb mistakes. Chem is pretty basic as well, redox, hybridizations, pH.


Ochem
I had about 15 reaction questions, I got a halogen/light reaction addition wrong. craps. The other 15 questions were sn2/sn1, definitions, reactivity and stability questions

RC
I suck at reading and im very slow, and im happy i hit 19.

QR
Equivalent to destroyer/top score. They had about 3 trig questions and some circle formula stuff, mile to feet conversion, etc.



So my question is, my gpa is 2.8 so shud I retest?

 

[USCbiograd]

Your DAT scores are good, and probably would not be a problem if your GPA was around a 3.5. But due to the fact that your GPA is so low I would suggest putting in some major studying time and re-take in hopes of a very high DAT score. This is one option, but what year are you in college, do you have time to raise your GPA? Schools do look at trends in your transcripts, is it one bad semester that is bringing you down? Also your PAT section is very marginal, it might be in your best intrest to re-take the DAT just for that simple fact.

 

[ChronarchB]

Of course most people want a better DAT score but your scores are fairly good with a AA 21 and lowest is 17 on PAT. Everything else is 20+. So with a 2.8 I would do a post bac rather than retaking the test. retaking might not gurantee a better score is so maybe not by much more. Try get it up to 3.0 or so that way you will be a more competitive applicant.

 

[iistoogood4u]

I already graduated so I cant raise my gpa. the only thing i can do is retake those classes at a JC and do better, maybe they'll see that I can still improve.

Also on the bio test the questions that stumped me the most are a hypothetical oxygen disociation and the difference btween the stems of dicot and monocot, and also a question about the layers of skin (subcutaneous layer maybe? I forgot, it started with an S).

The most helpful material would have to be the Kaplan. 85% of the test was in the Kaplan book. About 10% were not in Kaplan but were in Destroyer/Topscore/Exam Krackers. One question I rembmer that was on the test that was only in Destroyer was a question about Capacitation and sperm.

Kaplan book was very useful, I suggest study off that religiously. Exam krackers were somewhat similar, they did go over things more in detail than kaplan bio and it was more interesting to read. I definitely recommend Destroyer also because it wraps everything together and the topics/questions help you to see which subjects you dont know. Topscore is ok, only good for timing yourself. Their question explanations dont help as much, but still good.

 

[diane07]

Personally, I think your DAT scores are great.

How will re-taking the DAT fix your low GPA? If it's your GPA you're worried about, then fix that.

I know, I know . . . some people think a high DAT score will trump a low GPA.

I guess only the Admissions Committee's knows the answer to that.