DAT done, F-U Piano!!!!!

[RCLEE]

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This actual DAT was the most difficult compared to the kaplan and topscore practice exams. It must have been an unlucky day for me. All sections seem to be more difficult. I'll need achiever!

On my second passage, I saw the word piano. My response was a silent "f&#k!" I tried my best to have interested in it and the reading was great. I enoyed the reading, but I got hammered with the questions and spent 25mins total in that passage. My score in RC ended with a 15 😡. My avg lowest score on Kaplan & Topscore were 18-19pts on RC.

Obviously, I need to take the DAT again, right? No score should be under 17?

That and my GPA is in the low 3.

PAT: WTH? The folding of paper was a lot crazier and the rule was different from the one that I had. I'll need to buy Crack that PAT?

So, do I just apply and submit my application and take another DAT in 3 months with improved score? Just get my application in first, right? Anyone with experience?

 

[yankeefan86]

This actual DAT was the most difficult compared to the kaplan and topscore practice exams. It must have been an unlucky day for me. All sections seem to be more difficult. I'll need achiever!

On my second passage, I saw the word piano. My response was a silent "f&#k!" I tried my best to have interested in it and the reading was great. I enoyed the reading, but I got hammered with the questions and spent 25mins total in that passage. My score in RC ended with a 15 😡. My avg lowest score on Kaplan & Topscore were 18-19pts on RC.

Obviously, I need to take the DAT again, right? No score should be under 17?

That and my GPA is in the low 3.

PAT: WTH? The folding of paper was a lot crazier and the rule was different from the one that I had. I'll need to buy Crack that PAT?

So, do I just apply and submit my application and take another DAT in 3 months with improved score? Just get my application in first, right? Anyone with experience?

Sorry to hear that RCLEE. Do you mind giving us a thorough breakdown of what you saw in the science and QR sections? Also what study materials did you use??

 

[qkchen]

sorry to hear. how were your other sections like

 

[tayloreve]

Yes, what were your others scores? Your AA?

 

[thatsG]

sorry to hear but I also took the Kaplan course and topscore my first time and ran into trouble on a few sections and wanted to retake. 1st test was in Oct. before applying and 2nd was in July after I submitted my app the month before. 2nd time around i used crack dat pat and destroyer and it worked out great. Best advice is to have a good study plan that you can have confidence in if you submit your app prior to your test but it is better to have a solid dat score than submitting your app early

 

[RCLEE]

Sorry to hear that RCLEE. Do you mind giving us a thorough breakdown of what you saw in the science and QR sections? Also what study materials did you use??

I only got a 20AA guys. Sorry if this makes me sounds like an ass but I expected more. I cannot disclose my other scores due to personal reasons. But, I can tell you that all my other scores were higher than the national avg of 17.

I used Destroyer, Kaplan course, Topscores, and Cliffs AP biology to study and practice. My average scores on Topscore on AA was a 19 due to mostly dumb mistakes that I made. On the DAT itself, I don't think I made dumb mistakes. There were problems that I just didn't even know in the OC and other sections.

OC - I had quite a few CNMR, IR, HNMR, and lab question. Questions were out of the blue. OC was my strongest section of all the practice tests that I took but I ended up with a lower score on the real DAT. I guess I need to read the OC Odyssey? That's why there's the OC Odyssey book made by Dr. Orgoman.

GC - was not as difficult as TS/Kaplan. A lot of easy questions and less time consuming like converting with Kb Ksp and stuffs. Just plain and simple ones.

BIO - a lot of out-of-the-blue questions that I've never thought of and probably have never learned. I guess it's a bit harder than Kaplan/TS since I scored really high on the practice exams.

Math - includes everything. I had like 5 geometry questions that involves graphs, area, and inequalities. Not as hard as TS/Kaplan.

PAT - OMG!!! I was not prepared for this by Kaplan/Topscore I didn't know that you can fold the paper into 1/3 and then hole punch???? I only seen 1/2 and 1/4 with TS and Kaplan. I had about 10 angle problems that the 4 angles looked relatively the same to the others. There was no picking the largest and smallest ones method that can be applied. Paper folding was easier. Lots of hidden cubes. On Kaplan and TS, I normally had 3-7 errors max out of 90.

Overall, I believe that I had a more difficult version of the DAT today. I had no idea how I ended up with a 15 on the RC. I had a great feeling about it after completing the exam. I couldn't believe it when I saw my RC score.

sorry to hear but I also took the Kaplan course and topscore my first time and ran into trouble on a few sections and wanted to retake. 1st test was in Oct. before applying and 2nd was in July after I submitted my app the month before. 2nd time around i used crack dat pat and destroyer and it worked out great. Best advice is to have a good study plan that you can have confidence in if you submit your app prior to your test but it is better to have a solid dat score than submitting your app early

Do you mind if I ask whether you had interviews when you submitted your app last year?

I'll take your advice and submit the app on the second wave. In your opinion, what's my chance of a few interviews with a 20AA and a 15 in RC? As for now, I'll need to invest more on OC Odyssey, crack that PAT & RC, biology textbook, and achiever. I heard that achiever is really hard. I want to prepare myself better for the next DAT even if I end up with a more difficult version of the DAT.

 

[dentalWorks]

sorry pal... 15 in RC = retake.

I dunno how you did on the PAT, but CDP is the only resource I'd trust my studies into.... there is nothing out there that can do what CDP does.

all the best to you next time. Look at it this way, your odds of getting the piano passage again are slim-to-none

 

[thewobblytooth]

Don't jinx him dentalworks

Anyways, hey OP, give us a description of how you studied, how much per day, etc. Maybe you can give us a better sense of what you did so we can help you think of ways to improve. Chad's videos? It'll boost your gchem and ochem scores.

 

[FLOSS UR TEETH]

I only got a 20AA guys. Sorry if this makes me sounds like an ass but I expected more. I cannot disclose my other scores due to personal reasons. But, I can tell you that all my other scores were higher than the national avg of 17.

I used Destroyer, Kaplan course, Topscores, and Cliffs AP biology to study and practice. My average scores on Topscore on AA was a 19 due to mostly dumb mistakes that I made. On the DAT itself, I don't think I made dumb mistakes. There were problems that I just didn't even know in the OC and other sections.

OC - I had quite a few CNMR, IR, HNMR, and lab question. Questions were out of the blue. OC was my strongest section of all the practice tests that I took but I ended up with a lower score on the real DAT. I guess I need to read the OC Odyssey? That's why there's the OC Odyssey book made by Dr. Orgoman.

GC - was not as difficult as TS/Kaplan. A lot of easy questions and less time consuming like converting with Kb Ksp and stuffs. Just plain and simple ones.

BIO - a lot of out-of-the-blue questions that I've never thought of and probably have never learned. I guess it's a bit harder than Kaplan/TS since I scored really high on the practice exams.

Math - includes everything. I had like 5 geometry questions that involves graphs, area, and inequalities. Not as hard as TS/Kaplan.

PAT - OMG!!! I was not prepared for this by Kaplan/Topscore I didn't know that you can fold the paper into 1/3 and then hole punch???? I only seen 1/2 and 1/4 with TS and Kaplan. I had about 10 angle problems that the 4 angles looked relatively the same to the others. There was no picking the largest and smallest ones method that can be applied. Paper folding was easier. Lots of hidden cubes. On Kaplan and TS, I normally had 3-7 errors max out of 90.

Overall, I believe that I had a more difficult version of the DAT today. I had no idea how I ended up with a 15 on the RC. I had a great feeling about it after completing the exam. I couldn't believe it when I saw my RC score.




Do you mind if I ask whether you had interviews when you submitted your app last year?

I'll take your advice and submit the app on the second wave. In your opinion, what's my chance of a few interviews with a 20AA and a 15 in RC? As for now, I'll need to invest more on OC Odyssey, crack that PAT & RC, biology textbook, and achiever. I heard that achiever is really hard. I want to prepare myself better for the next DAT even if I end up with a more difficult version of the DAT.

20 AA is solid. Do you mind sharing your kaplan midterm and final breakdown? Did you think the Kaplan online subject tests were difficult or easier compared to the real deal? I am not scoring too well on them and am very worried b/c I take the test in 2 weeks...

I am sorry to hear about your RC... it seems everything else was at least decent... I would call some schools up and see what they think about the scores before worrying too much... like I said, a 20 AA is very good. However, they do look deeper than the AA.

 

[RCLEE]

Don't jinx him dentalworks

Anyways, hey OP, give us a description of how you studied, how much per day, etc. Maybe you can give us a better sense of what you did so we can help you think of ways to improve. Chad's videos? It'll boost your gchem and ochem scores.

Dentalworks is right. I want to retake the DAT. Not just to improve on the RC, I'll need to improve on the overall score too.

A2ndragoon89, I have the same PAT score as you. Disappointed too! I read over your DAT break down and I've got to say that I'm in the same/similar shoes as you were. I only did serious studying one month before the exam date. But most days, I had only a few hours to study. On my last week, I took 3 practice tests. Which might have a big mistake an error. In the future, I'll only take one test a week and then study & practice solving problems that I get wrong.

My gchem score is pretty high, I think that I don't need the chad's video. I need to read through the organic odyssey book that I have though. I didn't read it because I scored on average of 23 on OC on the practice tests and read that the OC section on the real DAT was easier on a lot of posts. I'll definitely look into Chad's video to see how it is in OC.


AA 20 would be great if I had high GPA. I think I would need high DAT score to be competitive. I didn't take the final. I only was able to take one Kaplan's test without distraction:
AA 21; TS 21; RC 19; QR 22; OC 20; GC 24; Bio 19; PAT 25

Here's my score with a major distraction and a headache after 1hr in the exam. You can see my score dropped dramatically after Bio:
AA 19; TS 21; RC 16; QR 19; OC 17; GC 16; Bio 30; PAT 21
I was trying someone's reading method here by reading the questions first then search for answers. It didn't work out well for me especially when I was so distracted.

 

[yankeefan86]

RCLEE: Since you got the piano passage, did it contain alot of inference questions or is it possible to search and destroy it? Im just wondering how to do good on if I get it on my test.

 

[UCF FINatic]

What is a piano reading section? I just started studying for teh DAT and haven't gotten to practice tests or anything yet, so I have no idea what it is.

 

[yankeefan86]

What is a piano reading section? I just started studying for teh DAT and haven't gotten to practice tests or anything yet, so I have no idea what it is.

Its a section on the reading comprehension portion on the real DAT. So you won't find this passage on any practice tests. But it is supposed to be extremely hard for a reading comp passage

 

[RCLEE]

RCLEE: Since you got the piano passage, did it contain alot of inference questions or is it possible to search and destroy it? Im just wondering how to do good on if I get it on my test.

there were a lot of tones and inference overall on the passages that I had. So, I didn't do much of the search and destroy since they wouldn't work anyway. I spent 10-11 reading the passages and the remaining time reading the questions and searching for the answers that I wasn't sure on. Frankly, the piano passage was easy to read and I thought that I got plenty of answers correct until I saw the score, which confused the heck out of me. My advice is what I should have done. I should have just focused on answering the 1st and the last passage and do the piano last. That way, I wouldn't have ran out of time on the last passage.

 

[yappy]

I have Odyssey and regular DAT destroyer...

I have not taken the DAT yet but IMO the regular destroyer seems like alot better prep than Odyssey. Odyssey contains some useful info but alot of it is way out there. I'm finding most hte useful info in odyssey is also in dat desteroyer O-chem section.

In fairness - the stereo chapter in Odyssey did rock.

Did you use DAT destroyer prior to taking the DAT? If not you may want to look into that and CHADS o chem vids prior to jumping on Odyssey.

A2ndragoon89,

My gchem score is pretty high, I think that I don't need the chad's video. I need to read through the organic odyssey book that I have though. I didn't read it because I scored on average of 23 on OC on the practice tests and read that the OC section on the real DAT was easier on a lot of posts. I'll definitely look into Chad's video to see how it is in OC.

 

[olive6]

i got piano'd as well!! hahaha it sucked! but i've played since i was 5 so it didn't hurt me as much but some of those questions were TOUGH!

CDP all the way for pat. kaplan and topscore just do not compare.

 

[thatsG]

Do you mind if I ask whether you had interviews when you submitted your app last year?

I'll take your advice and submit the app on the second wave. In your opinion, what's my chance of a few interviews with a 20AA and a 15 in RC? As for now, I'll need to invest more on OC Odyssey, crack that PAT & RC, biology textbook, and achiever. I heard that achiever is really hard. I want to prepare myself better for the next DAT even if I end up with a more difficult version of the DAT.

I submitted my app ~7/15 and everything was in to AADSAS about a month later and I had interviews at Maryland, Buffalo, Stonybrook, and NYU before Dec. 1 and Case after that. But a 15 in RC seems like a red flag... I know you got the piano, it sucks and you could probably do better but the adcom's won't know that and I think it would be tough to get interviews with the 15. Find what works best for you, Kaplan method... search and destroy, whatever it is make it work...ps I pulled an 20 and 18 on RC using search and destroy both times

 

[RCLEE]

I have Odyssey and regular DAT destroyer...

I have not taken the DAT yet but IMO the regular destroyer seems like alot better prep than Odyssey. Odyssey contains some useful info but alot of it is way out there. I'm finding most hte useful info in odyssey is also in dat desteroyer O-chem section.

In fairness - the stereo chapter in Odyssey did rock.

Did you use DAT destroyer prior to taking the DAT? If not you may want to look into that and CHADS o chem vids prior to jumping on Odyssey.

I found about half of a dozen questions that weren't in the Destroyer. Those were questions that I've never seen before. My OC scores were really high in the practice exam. That's why I'll study more of the material and maybe even reread my OC textbook too to prepare for the future DAT.

thatsG, thanks for the info! I feel that I can do better, and I want to show them that I can. I think that I should try to stay away from S&D even though that worked for most people. For the next month and a half, I'll concentrate more on reading and improve my overall reading skills and see how it goes. The way I see it'll do me a lot of good down the road. If my reading and comprehension level won't improve to the level the I want, I'll probably use only S&D on the next DAT.

 

[rav4182]

I found about half of a dozen questions that weren't in the Destroyer. Those were questions that I've never seen before. My OC scores were really high in the practice exam. That's why I'll study more of the material and maybe even reread my OC textbook too to prepare for the future DAT.

thatsG, thanks for the info! I feel that I can do better, and I want to show them that I can. I think that I should try to stay away from S&D even though that worked for most people. For the next month and a half, I'll concentrate more on reading and improve my overall reading skills and see how it goes. The way I see it'll do me a lot of good down the road. If my reading and comprehension level won't improve to the level the I want, I'll probably use only S&D on the next DAT.

can you give us some examples of the TYPE of spectroscopy questions you got. obviously im not asking for the exact questions (that would be cheatin) but could possibly refer to a similar problem somewhere else?

thanks

 

[DentalW]

there were a lot of tones and inference overall on the passages that I had. So, I didn't do much of the search and destroy since they wouldn't work anyway. I spent 10-11 reading the passages and the remaining time reading the questions and searching for the answers that I wasn't sure on. Frankly, the piano passage was easy to read and I thought that I got plenty of answers correct until I saw the score, which confused the heck out of me. My advice is what I should have done. I should have just focused on answering the 1st and the last passage and do the piano last. That way, I wouldn't have ran out of time on the last passage.

Yeah, same thing here. I thought I nailed on them. 😡

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21TS/21AA/23PAT on May 3, 2011