Ok I already posted my scores, but here is the breakdown of what I thought of the test. I am not going to give a breakdown on resources because I figured it is pretty late in the game and most people are almost done studying, or have their routine already. If you want to know more detail about what I did to prepare PM me and I will let you know. But anyways here are my scores again:
Bio-18
GC-19
OC-25
PAT-19
RC-18
TS-20
AA-20
oGPA-3.72
sGPA-3.86
BCP GPA-3.91
I am a Texas Resident, so the Texas schools are my top choice.
Here is the breakdown...
Bio: Like most say, pretty random. I was only hit with one plant question and one taxonomy question, I was happy about that. This section is not difficult in terms on knowledge. It is hard based on the wording of the questions. Some questions were no brainers, other questions were tough because the wording of the question. I did not spend as much time on biology as a should have, because I figured it was worth spending my time elsewhere on a subject with a greater return on investment like GC, OC, QR. As far as my practice went, I did use Kaplan, DATqvult, topscore, 2009 ADA, barrons, Cliffs. I would say that DATqvault was actually harder than the real thing, some of the questions were super detailed on qvault. The real thing is not super detailed, it is about figuring out what they are asking. I was averaging 17-18 in DATqvault however, so I mean it would be a close approximation on what you may get. I thought the biology on the 2009 ADA was a joke. It is very simple, I scored a 22 and some of the ones I missed was because I misread the question. I would say that topscore was the closet thing.
GC: Like everyone says, very conceptual. Chad and the Destroyer will prepare you well. I had like 2 calculations. I am not quite sure what happened to me here, I thought I would hit the 20 mark but I was a little off.
OC: Same Chad and Destroyer. I actually think destroyer is overkill haha but it is good practice. Organic came naturally for me, I was alway good at it. This section was pretty basic. Had some lab techniques, spectroscopy, mechanisms. All were pretty basic.
PAT: All I can say is wow. This was the most difficult PAT section I have ever had. I did all 10 CDP and the first few I was ranging 17-19 then the last like 6 I was ranging 21-23.
KEYHOLE: CDP is a joke on keyholes. I was constantly getting 14/15 or 15/15 on CDP. The major difference was that the real thing stresses sizes more then what CDP does. For example on the real DAT you could mark out 2 answers, but then the only difference between the other 2 answers was the lengths of sides. It was super tough.
TFE: DO NOT RELY ON LINE COUNTING!! I REPEAT DO NOT RELY ON LINE COUNTING. At the beginning I did rely on line counting until I was able to start visualizing the pictures better. Line counting will narrow your choices down by about 1. The difference in the other 3 was solid lines vs dotted lines. CDP was good practice, the structures on CDP were a little more detailed in amount of lines, the real DAT had fewer lines and more simple structures.
ANGLES: I was never good at angles. Kaplan angles are a joke. If you can master CDP on the 2 degree angles, you will be fine. I would just try to compare each angle in terms of 90 degrees and the rank accordingly, it helped but this was my weakest part always.
HOLE PUNCH: CDP. If you can constantly get 14/15 on CDP you will be fine. I did have one question that in the middle of unfolding there was a half hole punch, but other than that CDP is tricker.
CUBE COUNTING: Easy. CDP does have larger structures, but fewer structures. I remember that CDP would have about 3-4 structures per test. The real one I had 6 figures, but all will a small amount of cubes. I did not have any illusions like you may see on CDP.
PATTERN FOLD: HOLY ****!! This section was intese as ****. CDP is big on shades, lines, dice ect. But on the real thing I had several that were multidimensional. what I mean is that you would have to fold one pattern and there was another pattern that would fold on top of that one and they were shaded. and how the patterns are laid out was confusing and some of them there was not a main "focus" point. for example if you are folding a box, well they should all look like squares, right? well on the real thing it was like all triangles and 2 triangles would come together to make a square. (this is an easy example, the real DAT they were More complex.)
READING I do not have very good advice. I am a slow reader, but I was most comfortable reading the passages quickly then trying to find answers. The 2009 ADA is a good example in terms of style of questions, like they give you 2 statements and say which one is true. My passages were about fungi, an ethics passage and I forget the other one. They were actually longer than what I wished for. they were like 15, 17, 22 paragraphs long.
MATH MATH DESTROYER ALL THE WAY. This section was not awful, if you can get the math destroyer down. It is the best representation. The questions on the real thing were not as long as some of the destroyer questions, but same difficulty. My advice if you can not solve the question within like 5 seconds of reading it, just put an answer down and mark it. Do not forget about this section.
Overall, I am pretty pleased. I wish my RC and PAT were a little higher, but it is what it is.
For those who have 2 weeks or so left. My advice is devote a few hours in the morning just reading cliffs, barrons for biology. Then do a math practice test and then get on with your studies. At night do one more math practice test. Math is one of those sections where you can see a rapid improvement in your scores. When I first started doing the destroyer I got destroyed. But my 19 was in the 92nd percentile. It is possible to do well. Chad is also then man when it comes to math, you can know out that series in 1 day.
If you guys have questions feel free to ask!
Bio-18
GC-19
OC-25
PAT-19
RC-18
TS-20
AA-20
oGPA-3.72
sGPA-3.86
BCP GPA-3.91
I am a Texas Resident, so the Texas schools are my top choice.
Here is the breakdown...
Bio: Like most say, pretty random. I was only hit with one plant question and one taxonomy question, I was happy about that. This section is not difficult in terms on knowledge. It is hard based on the wording of the questions. Some questions were no brainers, other questions were tough because the wording of the question. I did not spend as much time on biology as a should have, because I figured it was worth spending my time elsewhere on a subject with a greater return on investment like GC, OC, QR. As far as my practice went, I did use Kaplan, DATqvult, topscore, 2009 ADA, barrons, Cliffs. I would say that DATqvault was actually harder than the real thing, some of the questions were super detailed on qvault. The real thing is not super detailed, it is about figuring out what they are asking. I was averaging 17-18 in DATqvault however, so I mean it would be a close approximation on what you may get. I thought the biology on the 2009 ADA was a joke. It is very simple, I scored a 22 and some of the ones I missed was because I misread the question. I would say that topscore was the closet thing.
GC: Like everyone says, very conceptual. Chad and the Destroyer will prepare you well. I had like 2 calculations. I am not quite sure what happened to me here, I thought I would hit the 20 mark but I was a little off.
OC: Same Chad and Destroyer. I actually think destroyer is overkill haha but it is good practice. Organic came naturally for me, I was alway good at it. This section was pretty basic. Had some lab techniques, spectroscopy, mechanisms. All were pretty basic.
PAT: All I can say is wow. This was the most difficult PAT section I have ever had. I did all 10 CDP and the first few I was ranging 17-19 then the last like 6 I was ranging 21-23.
KEYHOLE: CDP is a joke on keyholes. I was constantly getting 14/15 or 15/15 on CDP. The major difference was that the real thing stresses sizes more then what CDP does. For example on the real DAT you could mark out 2 answers, but then the only difference between the other 2 answers was the lengths of sides. It was super tough.
TFE: DO NOT RELY ON LINE COUNTING!! I REPEAT DO NOT RELY ON LINE COUNTING. At the beginning I did rely on line counting until I was able to start visualizing the pictures better. Line counting will narrow your choices down by about 1. The difference in the other 3 was solid lines vs dotted lines. CDP was good practice, the structures on CDP were a little more detailed in amount of lines, the real DAT had fewer lines and more simple structures.
ANGLES: I was never good at angles. Kaplan angles are a joke. If you can master CDP on the 2 degree angles, you will be fine. I would just try to compare each angle in terms of 90 degrees and the rank accordingly, it helped but this was my weakest part always.
HOLE PUNCH: CDP. If you can constantly get 14/15 on CDP you will be fine. I did have one question that in the middle of unfolding there was a half hole punch, but other than that CDP is tricker.
CUBE COUNTING: Easy. CDP does have larger structures, but fewer structures. I remember that CDP would have about 3-4 structures per test. The real one I had 6 figures, but all will a small amount of cubes. I did not have any illusions like you may see on CDP.
PATTERN FOLD: HOLY ****!! This section was intese as ****. CDP is big on shades, lines, dice ect. But on the real thing I had several that were multidimensional. what I mean is that you would have to fold one pattern and there was another pattern that would fold on top of that one and they were shaded. and how the patterns are laid out was confusing and some of them there was not a main "focus" point. for example if you are folding a box, well they should all look like squares, right? well on the real thing it was like all triangles and 2 triangles would come together to make a square. (this is an easy example, the real DAT they were More complex.)
READING I do not have very good advice. I am a slow reader, but I was most comfortable reading the passages quickly then trying to find answers. The 2009 ADA is a good example in terms of style of questions, like they give you 2 statements and say which one is true. My passages were about fungi, an ethics passage and I forget the other one. They were actually longer than what I wished for. they were like 15, 17, 22 paragraphs long.
MATH MATH DESTROYER ALL THE WAY. This section was not awful, if you can get the math destroyer down. It is the best representation. The questions on the real thing were not as long as some of the destroyer questions, but same difficulty. My advice if you can not solve the question within like 5 seconds of reading it, just put an answer down and mark it. Do not forget about this section.
Overall, I am pretty pleased. I wish my RC and PAT were a little higher, but it is what it is.
For those who have 2 weeks or so left. My advice is devote a few hours in the morning just reading cliffs, barrons for biology. Then do a math practice test and then get on with your studies. At night do one more math practice test. Math is one of those sections where you can see a rapid improvement in your scores. When I first started doing the destroyer I got destroyed. But my 19 was in the 92nd percentile. It is possible to do well. Chad is also then man when it comes to math, you can know out that series in 1 day.
If you guys have questions feel free to ask!
