- Joined
- Mar 22, 2011
- Messages
- 22
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So happy to finally be done with the DAT today and share my experience here. Time to give back to this lovely community🙂
This is what I got:
Perceptual ability 23 (98.1%)
Quantitative reasoning 23 (97.1%)
Reading comprehension 21 (84.5%)
Biology 29 (99.9%)
General chem 30 (100%)
Organic chem 23 (94.3%)
TS 28 (99.9%)
AA 25 (99.9%)
I spent two monthish on preparing for the DAT. I have used KKB, DAT destroyer&Math destroyer, Cliff's AP bio, Chad's video, CDP 10 test version, Topscore, Achiever.
Now for the individual section
Bio: I feel that the questions were pretty basic, maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am a bio major. A lot of the questions were related to cell biology, e.g. cellular structure, function.. I didnt have any questions on photosynthesis, glycolysis..I do have some questions on ecology, animal behavior, evolution, but all were pretty basic. Cliff's AP bio plus KKB should give you pretty sufficient background for tackling this part. Bio is not like chemistry in the sense that you can get pretty good by practicing a lot of problems. Bio is more broad and knowledge based than understanding based (not talking about graduate level). Therefore, read the books well, it will pay off. Lastly, I remember there were long questions, sometimes with a figure, dont be intimidated. Calm down and read, you will notice the idea behind the complicated wording is actually quite simple. So don't panic.
General chem: Questions were very basic, but today I got a lot of calculations, very few questions didn't involve numbers. However, many of them use fomula as answer choices so that definitely were less pain. High school was 10 years ago, I didn't remeber much what I learned. So I started by watching Chad's video to refresh my memory. It was very helpful. Destroyer provides a good practice for this part, although the real test was definitely easier and more straightforward.
Ochem: I was very weak at the beginning of the preparation particularly on this section. I watched Chad's video at first, but hardly followed. then I read KBB, which actually did a great job in summarizing for Ochem. I read them twice in total, and in the end I improved quite a bit. Destroyer is much farder in Ochem than the real thing, but surely prepared you for a much easier time. The roadmaps are great, towards the end I pretty much can write down all the products without much trouble. I had a lot of questions about SN1, SN2, E1, E2, sometimes in a format of a reaction, other times plain questions on the conditions that favor what reaction, especially they like to test you on the degree of the carbon where the halide attaches and what reaction is gonna apply. So make sure you know them well.
Perceptual ability: CDP and topscore are very much like the real thing. I have a pretty good 3dimentional perception to start with so I don't experience particular difficulty with this area. Cube counting, hole punching, are difinitely easier than CDP, keyholes and TEF are comparable, pattern development is easier in the sense that they don't have crazy shading on the sides like what you see a lot in CDP. Angle ranking were actually my biggest obstacle today, there were like 5 questions I can hardly see difference between angles😕. Guess that's mostly where I lost the points.
Reading comprehension: like a lot of other people out here, I spent the least time in preparing for this part, pretty much only used the practice tests. I am a slower reader, and this part is what I suck most. However, the passages in the real test was shorter than the practice tests (especially the reading in Achiever was crazy). What I found myself lucky today was that all three passages I got were sort of in my comfort zones. the first was about calcium and cellular signaling, second was language and brain, last was DNA microarray (which is right down my alley
, I was able to choose many of the answers without reading).
Quantitative reasoning: this part i worried the least. I am pretty good at it to begin with. Math destroyer was a good preparation, both difficulty and timing. I usually get good score on math in all the practice tests, but today this became my weakeast section. I almost run out of time in the end, had 3 or 4 marked without time to go back so just guessed. My word of advice here is do not underestimate the challenge of this part, time can feel tight in this section, so keep high gear, and dont dwell on a question too long if you stuck.
Here I also put my practice scores, in general, practice tests tend to be more difficult than the real test, especially bio with all the crazy diversity questions.
Topscore
Bio: 1-21, 2-18, 3-20
GC: 1-23, 2-18, 3-19
OC: 1-18, 2-20, 3-21
PA: 1-20, 2-22, 3-23
QR: 1-24, 2-22, 3-29
RC: 1-20, 2-20, 3-18
TS: 1-20, 2-19, 3-20
AA: 1-21, 2-20, 3-21
Achiever (only did 1 and 2 full length, after the torture of the second one, I decided only do the science part for the last one):
PA: 1-19, 2-19
QR: 1-26, 2-24
RC: 1-15, 2-18
Bio: 1-19, 2-17, 3-18
GC: 1-19, 2-19, 3-19
OC: 1-16, 2-17, 3-20
TS: 1-18, 2-18
AA: 1-19, 2-19
That's my DAT summary. It feels great to be done, my life was pretty much on hold for the last month. NOw I can move on to other things.
Hope y'all do the best you can to knock out the DAT
.
This is what I got:
Perceptual ability 23 (98.1%)
Quantitative reasoning 23 (97.1%)
Reading comprehension 21 (84.5%)
Biology 29 (99.9%)
General chem 30 (100%)
Organic chem 23 (94.3%)
TS 28 (99.9%)
AA 25 (99.9%)
I spent two monthish on preparing for the DAT. I have used KKB, DAT destroyer&Math destroyer, Cliff's AP bio, Chad's video, CDP 10 test version, Topscore, Achiever.
Now for the individual section
Bio: I feel that the questions were pretty basic, maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am a bio major. A lot of the questions were related to cell biology, e.g. cellular structure, function.. I didnt have any questions on photosynthesis, glycolysis..I do have some questions on ecology, animal behavior, evolution, but all were pretty basic. Cliff's AP bio plus KKB should give you pretty sufficient background for tackling this part. Bio is not like chemistry in the sense that you can get pretty good by practicing a lot of problems. Bio is more broad and knowledge based than understanding based (not talking about graduate level). Therefore, read the books well, it will pay off. Lastly, I remember there were long questions, sometimes with a figure, dont be intimidated. Calm down and read, you will notice the idea behind the complicated wording is actually quite simple. So don't panic.
General chem: Questions were very basic, but today I got a lot of calculations, very few questions didn't involve numbers. However, many of them use fomula as answer choices so that definitely were less pain. High school was 10 years ago, I didn't remeber much what I learned. So I started by watching Chad's video to refresh my memory. It was very helpful. Destroyer provides a good practice for this part, although the real test was definitely easier and more straightforward.
Ochem: I was very weak at the beginning of the preparation particularly on this section. I watched Chad's video at first, but hardly followed. then I read KBB, which actually did a great job in summarizing for Ochem. I read them twice in total, and in the end I improved quite a bit. Destroyer is much farder in Ochem than the real thing, but surely prepared you for a much easier time. The roadmaps are great, towards the end I pretty much can write down all the products without much trouble. I had a lot of questions about SN1, SN2, E1, E2, sometimes in a format of a reaction, other times plain questions on the conditions that favor what reaction, especially they like to test you on the degree of the carbon where the halide attaches and what reaction is gonna apply. So make sure you know them well.
Perceptual ability: CDP and topscore are very much like the real thing. I have a pretty good 3dimentional perception to start with so I don't experience particular difficulty with this area. Cube counting, hole punching, are difinitely easier than CDP, keyholes and TEF are comparable, pattern development is easier in the sense that they don't have crazy shading on the sides like what you see a lot in CDP. Angle ranking were actually my biggest obstacle today, there were like 5 questions I can hardly see difference between angles😕. Guess that's mostly where I lost the points.
Reading comprehension: like a lot of other people out here, I spent the least time in preparing for this part, pretty much only used the practice tests. I am a slower reader, and this part is what I suck most. However, the passages in the real test was shorter than the practice tests (especially the reading in Achiever was crazy). What I found myself lucky today was that all three passages I got were sort of in my comfort zones. the first was about calcium and cellular signaling, second was language and brain, last was DNA microarray (which is right down my alley
, I was able to choose many of the answers without reading). Quantitative reasoning: this part i worried the least. I am pretty good at it to begin with. Math destroyer was a good preparation, both difficulty and timing. I usually get good score on math in all the practice tests, but today this became my weakeast section. I almost run out of time in the end, had 3 or 4 marked without time to go back so just guessed. My word of advice here is do not underestimate the challenge of this part, time can feel tight in this section, so keep high gear, and dont dwell on a question too long if you stuck.
Here I also put my practice scores, in general, practice tests tend to be more difficult than the real test, especially bio with all the crazy diversity questions.
Topscore
Bio: 1-21, 2-18, 3-20
GC: 1-23, 2-18, 3-19
OC: 1-18, 2-20, 3-21
PA: 1-20, 2-22, 3-23
QR: 1-24, 2-22, 3-29
RC: 1-20, 2-20, 3-18
TS: 1-20, 2-19, 3-20
AA: 1-21, 2-20, 3-21
Achiever (only did 1 and 2 full length, after the torture of the second one, I decided only do the science part for the last one):
PA: 1-19, 2-19
QR: 1-26, 2-24
RC: 1-15, 2-18
Bio: 1-19, 2-17, 3-18
GC: 1-19, 2-19, 3-19
OC: 1-16, 2-17, 3-20
TS: 1-18, 2-18
AA: 1-19, 2-19
That's my DAT summary. It feels great to be done, my life was pretty much on hold for the last month. NOw I can move on to other things.
Hope y'all do the best you can to knock out the DAT
.
