Well here they are folks
PAT------17 😡
QR-------18
RC-------19 Piano.........
OC------30 This pleases me
GC------20
Bio------22
TS------22 (96)
AA------22 (96.4)
These posts have really helped me in my studying for the DAT, and setting my expectations--so I wanted to return the favor...thanks to everyone on here.
As a background, I studied a ton for the DAT (around 6-8 hrs a day for 3 months) and felt very prepared going in. On topscore my AA was never lower than 22 and my PAT was 20-21 everytime--I even got a 28 on test 2 RC. On the ADA sample DAT (free one online) I got 28 TS (I thought the science was was easy) 21 PAT 25 QR and 23 RC. My confidence was brimming, then I read this post http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=753355 which heightened my anxiety (since chemboy was also doing quite well on his practice tests). Anyways, I prayed that I wouldn't get that test and reassured myself that chances of getting that exact test are slim--turns out I got the exact same test! IT was tough. Overall, the science seemed a little harder than practice tests I took (Kaplan, Topscore, ADA Practice) and the RC, QR, and PAT blew the other practice tests out of the water. I don't mean to scare people but I am going to try to give my honest breakdown so you can be prepare well, and ask you experienced guys what my chances are like for interviews/getting in.
I'll go through each section.
Start with the rough areas
PAT-I honestly was shocked to see a 17 on my report. I had never gotten below 20 on any practice test. I did the first 7 CDP, all the Kaplan, Topscore, and ADA practice test. Keyholes seemed easier on the PAT, TFE maybe a little harder on real DAT, Hole Punching Easier (no half circles or double punches) angles seemed the same as CDP (tough), cube counting was pretty easy, and pattern folding was about the same. I thought I got a 20 or 21 based on how I felt taking the PAT, and I honestly don't know what went wrong. I may have just done really bad on angles and gotten unlucky with some I wasn't sure about. Also there was a cube counting figure that looked like it had a "hole" of one cube in the middle, which seemed strange... My question is will this hurt my application quite a bit, or will my GPA and AA make up for this shortcoming? I was really disappointed with this score--what do you guys think?
QR-This was prob. the most surprising part of the test for me. I considered QR one of my strongest sections, and I usually finish with time to spare and a good score. The questions on here were very time consuming compared to practice tests, and I realized about half way through that my pace was way too slow, and I started skipping questions when they looked time consuming. Unfortunately, most of the questions looked that way so I had to guess on prob. over 10 questions which killed me. I hate doing that, but I guess I am lucky to come out with an 18. The overwhelming majority were word problems, or time consuming geometry (find area of this crazy figure with very limited information--requires many steps and calculations).
To prepare, I went through KBB and made sure I knew how to do all the problems on other practice tests. I would practice doing topscore as fast as possible, that was the closest level of difficulty, although the real QR was much harder than topscore (avg. about 22 on topscore, got a 25 QR on test 3). It sounds like some people had an easier time than topscore on the QR, which makes me think that there must be a lot of variability from test to test.
RC (19)-Also disappointed with this score. This was another strong point of mine. I did get the piano passage. My opinion was that the passage itself was not too bad, but the questions are a little trickier than other practice tests. I thought I got 21-23 based on how I felt, but my score showed that I must have been tricked by some questions. I thought the difficulty of the passages were on par with Topscore, but these questions had more inference (the authors tone was?) and there were less "gimmies" where the answer was just cut and paste from the passage. From many posts I have read, it does sound like the people who get piano get lower scores than what they got on practice tests, but if you feel real comfortable with topscore I think you should do great on most RC on the real dat. My other passages were about aspirin and secondary cellular messengers. The method I like the best is reading a couple questions first, then reading the passage until I recognize something. Then go to next question, if I have already read it go back, if not keep reading. That seemed to work great, and got me 49/50 on one topscore test--and more importantly I survived the piano.
OC (30)-This section seemed really easy and straightforward. I used KBB, Chads Videos and Quizes (and took detailed notes), DAT Destroyer. Chad's notes and videos are the best possible resource for this, because he seems to know exactly the range of material covered on the DAT. If you know that stuff very well, you will do great. DAT destroyer is good for O.Chem as well, but realize that the real DAT's problems are much more simple. Destroyer is good for studying, don't use it as a practice test or anything like that. I made a notebook for Chem and Bio, and would add little nuggets of information that I accumulated throughout my studying. Then, I would go over my notebooks before I took practice tests, so that everything was fresh in my brain. This strategy worked really well for me, I went over all my notes twice in the day or two before the test and everything was so fresh and clean in my head.
GC (20)- Like chemboy, I thought this Gen Chem was more difficult than practice tests. I had been getting higher on all my practice tests, and it sounds like a lot of people find the real DAT more simple than most of the practice tests. Not the case here. For example, there was a balancing questions that seemed very off the complex (on practice tests they were always simple) and a Hess's Law question that was different, the numbers just wouldn't work out for me. Anyways, I tend to be stubborn and just keep playing with a problem until I figure it out, but I had to just give in on a couple and I am glad that I did. I had plenty of time on O chem and it paid off. Used KBB, took detailed notes on Chad's, and Chad's quizes, and used DAT destroyer. DAT Destroyer is much more difficult and complicated than the real DAT, but i guess it helps with principles. If you have limited time, I would go for Chad's though.
BIO-I was surprised when the first question I got was a picture of some plant structure. Anyways, this section seemed to have 5 or so unexpected questions, and 1 question that I didn't understand much at all. It seemed fairly spread out, as I got questions about plants, taxonomy, embryology, cell bio, genetics, etc. The best material to study was the Cliff's AP Bio. It covers a lot and is in an easy to read format. I also used KBB, Barron's AP BIO. I did a lot of practice questions from the AP bio books and that helped solidify little facts. This test seems to be a measure of how many little random facts you can fit into your head. Once again, the strategy of writing down little nuggets of savory information in a notebook seemed to be the best way for me to cover the plethora of material as well as pound them into my head. I only bring it up again bc I think it would have saved me a ton of time if I did that from the beginning. Topscore seems to be a good representation, except Topscore had some crazy detail in taxonomy questions that I did not see in my DAT. Also, I got no ear or eye questions, but did get a couple "random" anatomy facts (basic funciton of ligaments, and other small parts just to give an idea of the detail). I noticed they like to give little stories sometimes instead of just straight up asking the question. For example, if an animal had this problem ________ what part of the body is affected and stuff like that-didn't see much on topscore)
It feels good to be done. My GPA is 3.9, sGPA is 3.85. I am doing a dental humanitarian trip soon to the Dominican Republic, and have quite a bit of volunteer experience. I am shooting for University of Michigan (where I'm from) but I was wondering what you guys think my chances are for the "Top" schools-Harvard, UCSF, UPenn, Columbia, etc. My PAT just worries me.
Also, I have all the study material one would ever need (Kaplan Blue Book, DAT Destroyer, Cliffs AP, Cliffs DAT, Barrons AP BIO, Barron's DAT, , etc in pretty good condition) PM me if interested.
Anyways, I hope this helps those of you who are studying. Studying is the hardest part, takes so much effort and motivation. I hope this doesn't worry those who are getting lower on practice tests, it sounds like it may have been harder than the avg. DAT (at least RC and QR). If you have any questions let me know, I'll be glad to help I know I had a lot of questions before I took mine.
PAT------17 😡
QR-------18
RC-------19 Piano.........
OC------30 This pleases me
GC------20
Bio------22
TS------22 (96)
AA------22 (96.4)
These posts have really helped me in my studying for the DAT, and setting my expectations--so I wanted to return the favor...thanks to everyone on here.
As a background, I studied a ton for the DAT (around 6-8 hrs a day for 3 months) and felt very prepared going in. On topscore my AA was never lower than 22 and my PAT was 20-21 everytime--I even got a 28 on test 2 RC. On the ADA sample DAT (free one online) I got 28 TS (I thought the science was was easy) 21 PAT 25 QR and 23 RC. My confidence was brimming, then I read this post http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=753355 which heightened my anxiety (since chemboy was also doing quite well on his practice tests). Anyways, I prayed that I wouldn't get that test and reassured myself that chances of getting that exact test are slim--turns out I got the exact same test! IT was tough. Overall, the science seemed a little harder than practice tests I took (Kaplan, Topscore, ADA Practice) and the RC, QR, and PAT blew the other practice tests out of the water. I don't mean to scare people but I am going to try to give my honest breakdown so you can be prepare well, and ask you experienced guys what my chances are like for interviews/getting in.
I'll go through each section.
Start with the rough areas
PAT-I honestly was shocked to see a 17 on my report. I had never gotten below 20 on any practice test. I did the first 7 CDP, all the Kaplan, Topscore, and ADA practice test. Keyholes seemed easier on the PAT, TFE maybe a little harder on real DAT, Hole Punching Easier (no half circles or double punches) angles seemed the same as CDP (tough), cube counting was pretty easy, and pattern folding was about the same. I thought I got a 20 or 21 based on how I felt taking the PAT, and I honestly don't know what went wrong. I may have just done really bad on angles and gotten unlucky with some I wasn't sure about. Also there was a cube counting figure that looked like it had a "hole" of one cube in the middle, which seemed strange... My question is will this hurt my application quite a bit, or will my GPA and AA make up for this shortcoming? I was really disappointed with this score--what do you guys think?
QR-This was prob. the most surprising part of the test for me. I considered QR one of my strongest sections, and I usually finish with time to spare and a good score. The questions on here were very time consuming compared to practice tests, and I realized about half way through that my pace was way too slow, and I started skipping questions when they looked time consuming. Unfortunately, most of the questions looked that way so I had to guess on prob. over 10 questions which killed me. I hate doing that, but I guess I am lucky to come out with an 18. The overwhelming majority were word problems, or time consuming geometry (find area of this crazy figure with very limited information--requires many steps and calculations).
To prepare, I went through KBB and made sure I knew how to do all the problems on other practice tests. I would practice doing topscore as fast as possible, that was the closest level of difficulty, although the real QR was much harder than topscore (avg. about 22 on topscore, got a 25 QR on test 3). It sounds like some people had an easier time than topscore on the QR, which makes me think that there must be a lot of variability from test to test.
RC (19)-Also disappointed with this score. This was another strong point of mine. I did get the piano passage. My opinion was that the passage itself was not too bad, but the questions are a little trickier than other practice tests. I thought I got 21-23 based on how I felt, but my score showed that I must have been tricked by some questions. I thought the difficulty of the passages were on par with Topscore, but these questions had more inference (the authors tone was?) and there were less "gimmies" where the answer was just cut and paste from the passage. From many posts I have read, it does sound like the people who get piano get lower scores than what they got on practice tests, but if you feel real comfortable with topscore I think you should do great on most RC on the real dat. My other passages were about aspirin and secondary cellular messengers. The method I like the best is reading a couple questions first, then reading the passage until I recognize something. Then go to next question, if I have already read it go back, if not keep reading. That seemed to work great, and got me 49/50 on one topscore test--and more importantly I survived the piano.
OC (30)-This section seemed really easy and straightforward. I used KBB, Chads Videos and Quizes (and took detailed notes), DAT Destroyer. Chad's notes and videos are the best possible resource for this, because he seems to know exactly the range of material covered on the DAT. If you know that stuff very well, you will do great. DAT destroyer is good for O.Chem as well, but realize that the real DAT's problems are much more simple. Destroyer is good for studying, don't use it as a practice test or anything like that. I made a notebook for Chem and Bio, and would add little nuggets of information that I accumulated throughout my studying. Then, I would go over my notebooks before I took practice tests, so that everything was fresh in my brain. This strategy worked really well for me, I went over all my notes twice in the day or two before the test and everything was so fresh and clean in my head.
GC (20)- Like chemboy, I thought this Gen Chem was more difficult than practice tests. I had been getting higher on all my practice tests, and it sounds like a lot of people find the real DAT more simple than most of the practice tests. Not the case here. For example, there was a balancing questions that seemed very off the complex (on practice tests they were always simple) and a Hess's Law question that was different, the numbers just wouldn't work out for me. Anyways, I tend to be stubborn and just keep playing with a problem until I figure it out, but I had to just give in on a couple and I am glad that I did. I had plenty of time on O chem and it paid off. Used KBB, took detailed notes on Chad's, and Chad's quizes, and used DAT destroyer. DAT Destroyer is much more difficult and complicated than the real DAT, but i guess it helps with principles. If you have limited time, I would go for Chad's though.
BIO-I was surprised when the first question I got was a picture of some plant structure. Anyways, this section seemed to have 5 or so unexpected questions, and 1 question that I didn't understand much at all. It seemed fairly spread out, as I got questions about plants, taxonomy, embryology, cell bio, genetics, etc. The best material to study was the Cliff's AP Bio. It covers a lot and is in an easy to read format. I also used KBB, Barron's AP BIO. I did a lot of practice questions from the AP bio books and that helped solidify little facts. This test seems to be a measure of how many little random facts you can fit into your head. Once again, the strategy of writing down little nuggets of savory information in a notebook seemed to be the best way for me to cover the plethora of material as well as pound them into my head. I only bring it up again bc I think it would have saved me a ton of time if I did that from the beginning. Topscore seems to be a good representation, except Topscore had some crazy detail in taxonomy questions that I did not see in my DAT. Also, I got no ear or eye questions, but did get a couple "random" anatomy facts (basic funciton of ligaments, and other small parts just to give an idea of the detail). I noticed they like to give little stories sometimes instead of just straight up asking the question. For example, if an animal had this problem ________ what part of the body is affected and stuff like that-didn't see much on topscore)
It feels good to be done. My GPA is 3.9, sGPA is 3.85. I am doing a dental humanitarian trip soon to the Dominican Republic, and have quite a bit of volunteer experience. I am shooting for University of Michigan (where I'm from) but I was wondering what you guys think my chances are for the "Top" schools-Harvard, UCSF, UPenn, Columbia, etc. My PAT just worries me.
Also, I have all the study material one would ever need (Kaplan Blue Book, DAT Destroyer, Cliffs AP, Cliffs DAT, Barrons AP BIO, Barron's DAT, , etc in pretty good condition) PM me if interested.
Anyways, I hope this helps those of you who are studying. Studying is the hardest part, takes so much effort and motivation. I hope this doesn't worry those who are getting lower on practice tests, it sounds like it may have been harder than the avg. DAT (at least RC and QR). If you have any questions let me know, I'll be glad to help I know I had a lot of questions before I took mine.
