Alright, I'm 19 years old and I'm done!
PAT 24 99.0 percentile
QR 17 65.7 percentile
RC 25 98.5 percentile
Biology 21 91.7 percentile
GC 24 95.2 percentile
OC 26 98.1 percentile
23AA/24TS/24PAT
So guys, here's my breakdown (10weeks, 5-7 hours a day):
Biology- Cliffs AP Bio! I knew this book in and out like none other so the test was pretty straightforward, not random like everybody said. If you really do know the basics of biology, scoring a 21 will be easy. Some of the questions are narrowed down to 50/50 and that's what gave me a 21 but I don't think I could have done any better had I studied more. There comes a point in studying for this section where you know you've studied enough. You can't really expect to do superb on here. I bought destroyer and I personally feel like it was ridiculously hard and didn't help much. Kaplan was alright.
General Chemistry- Honestly, Destroyer all the way. Definitely, it's much harder but if you do understand Destroyer (math and concepts), you will ace genchem. I went a little over board and did MCAT exam krackers alongside Destroyer, but after this whole experience, I say that Destroyer really does the trick. Before taking my DATs, I read a lot of how genchem is straightforward and it is, but people forgot to mention that it was not hard, actually, easy.
Organic Chemistry- my goodness, Destroyer does it once again. The organic portion of destroyer is hard, but doable and also much much much easier than the real test. If you get the concepts of stability, resonance, reactivity, isomerism, which the Destroyer provides great explanations to, you need not worry on test day.
Reading Comp.-I wish I could give legit advice about this section. I did get a 25, but I kid you not, there was a lot of luck and guessing. I guessed on 5 questions, and two of the essays were actually about things you learn in basic biology so I answered some questions without reading the passage, probably answered 5 from prior knowledge. Search and Destroy is the only advice I can give.
Quantitative Reasoning- Shall, you beat my score of 17, I bow down to you. I like to think I'm great at math having taking a bunch of college math courses...but time pressure and difficulty of the math problems given on the DATs was horrible for me. I bought Math Destroyer which sharpened my skills in math but somehow, it just didn't do the trick.
Perceptual- Crack DAT PAT all the way. I guarantee that CDP will raise your score like none other. BUT! The biggest advice I give is buy the software 20 days before your test day (buy the 10-test version) and do one test a day for the next 20 days, which means you will have done the ten test twice. I say this because if you buy it too early and complete it, you will start losing that edge for PAT.
Overall: I did take Kaplan (helped a little, good starting point.) But I say a must have is Destroyer.
PAT 24 99.0 percentile
QR 17 65.7 percentile
RC 25 98.5 percentile
Biology 21 91.7 percentile
GC 24 95.2 percentile
OC 26 98.1 percentile
23AA/24TS/24PAT
So guys, here's my breakdown (10weeks, 5-7 hours a day):
Biology- Cliffs AP Bio! I knew this book in and out like none other so the test was pretty straightforward, not random like everybody said. If you really do know the basics of biology, scoring a 21 will be easy. Some of the questions are narrowed down to 50/50 and that's what gave me a 21 but I don't think I could have done any better had I studied more. There comes a point in studying for this section where you know you've studied enough. You can't really expect to do superb on here. I bought destroyer and I personally feel like it was ridiculously hard and didn't help much. Kaplan was alright.
General Chemistry- Honestly, Destroyer all the way. Definitely, it's much harder but if you do understand Destroyer (math and concepts), you will ace genchem. I went a little over board and did MCAT exam krackers alongside Destroyer, but after this whole experience, I say that Destroyer really does the trick. Before taking my DATs, I read a lot of how genchem is straightforward and it is, but people forgot to mention that it was not hard, actually, easy.
Organic Chemistry- my goodness, Destroyer does it once again. The organic portion of destroyer is hard, but doable and also much much much easier than the real test. If you get the concepts of stability, resonance, reactivity, isomerism, which the Destroyer provides great explanations to, you need not worry on test day.
Reading Comp.-I wish I could give legit advice about this section. I did get a 25, but I kid you not, there was a lot of luck and guessing. I guessed on 5 questions, and two of the essays were actually about things you learn in basic biology so I answered some questions without reading the passage, probably answered 5 from prior knowledge. Search and Destroy is the only advice I can give.
Quantitative Reasoning- Shall, you beat my score of 17, I bow down to you. I like to think I'm great at math having taking a bunch of college math courses...but time pressure and difficulty of the math problems given on the DATs was horrible for me. I bought Math Destroyer which sharpened my skills in math but somehow, it just didn't do the trick.
Perceptual- Crack DAT PAT all the way. I guarantee that CDP will raise your score like none other. BUT! The biggest advice I give is buy the software 20 days before your test day (buy the 10-test version) and do one test a day for the next 20 days, which means you will have done the ten test twice. I say this because if you buy it too early and complete it, you will start losing that edge for PAT.
Overall: I did take Kaplan (helped a little, good starting point.) But I say a must have is Destroyer.
