DAT done- Frapped :) scores, breakdown, and some advice

[Isradoc1983]

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Hi
So I just took the DAT today and I was fraped 🙂 a very bad thing for someone whose english is his third language 🙂
First of all I want to thank all those that helped me out Albuterol, Greenwave(for the notes) and many others...

Here are my score
PAT 18 (65.9%)
QR 17 (64%)
RC 16 (don't want to mention the percentile 😀)
Bio 20(87.4%)
GC 21( 87.3%)
OC 19 (75.3%)

TS 20 (85.8%)
AA 19 (75.3%)

ok, so i am somewhat disappointed by these scores ( especially RC). However, English is my THIRD language and I came here at 21. So, I hope they'll be bale to overlook it. Plus I have done well in English classes😀

ok test break down
Bio: I seriously thought I am going to get like a 17-18 it was very weired and random plus some questions I just guessed on. Destroyer was useless! (waste of money and time) now that I think about it most of the stuff I used was useless. The non weired questions were VERY easy and didn't require much thinking. Really don't know what to recommend for this section.

GC: FOCUS on very General Stuff! don't break your head trying to understand how to do some weired question in destroyer/ kaplan. Just know your basics/ theory and some calculations. Looking over kaplan/ princeton should be enough. Again destroyer is an overkill and useless!
I think I got 1/2 wrong which lowered my score...
what did i have: balance reactions, oxid/reduc,Ksp, Keq, heat absorbed/ released, endo/exo etc... no crazy calculations. The calculations that I did have were very easy

OC: I didn't do that well as i should have on this section as I was rushing through it and wanted to look over all of bio again because I marked some questions. I finished it in like 13 min. Ooh well nothing I can do right now about it. I should have gotten 20+ here but coming back to Bio I realized i did some stupid mistakes and i guess it raised my score to a 20.
Whatd did i have: R/S; know you isomers;know chair conformations; very and i'll say it again VERY basic reactions! destroyer maybe helped me with one reactions otherwise it was Useless!!!. IR/NMR/ CNMR (VERY easy questions)

PAT- dissapointed by my score, I was getting 20-21 on CDP. However, I had the worst testing experience as 2 of my markers stopped writing after hole punch 😡😡😡 in the middle of the cube section. So, did you ever try to count cubes in your head? well i did and it sucked! ( which I guess reflects my score). TFE was harder than CDP. Angels, hole punch, cubes were easy. Key hole and folding similar to CDP.

RC: not really going to comment on it cause I have nothing to say 🙄 (just look at my score) except that it was different from TS and my passages especially the ethics passage sucked. I ran out of time understanding the ethics passage and had to guess on like 4-5 questions cuase i ran out of time.

Ok so my take for this exam. I could have studied for 2-3 weeks and probably get the same scores instead I studied for 5-6 weeks while I was working full time and got the same scores. Now you might ask why I did it? well cause I bought the freaking destroyer!!! thats why! for my version of the exam this book was completely useless and it was a waste of money and most importantly time! it freaked me out and made me think that the dat is much harder than it actually is especially in bio and ochem. I want to send the stupid book to Dr. Romano and ask for my $$ back! Take what I say with a grain of salt cause i am sure for some other versions of the dat destroyer is great!

p.s as you might guessed I am dissapointed by getting destroyer.

Top score: a nice program to simulate test conditions but thats about it. Nothing that appeared on TS was anyway similar to my DAT. All the weired/ random questions I got on TS about flat worms or some other **** weren't on the DAT and you don't really need to know them. Although OC was somewhat similar.

Ok so this post is getting long....
now I would like some of your advice. I only applied to 4 schools BU, Tufts, NYU, and Pitssburgh. My first choice are BU or Tufts as I want to stay in Boston. NYU is a back up and I don't even know why I applied to pitts' ( I probably won't go there anyway). My sci GPA is 3.42 the other way they calculate it its 3.46 non science is 3.56. After freshman year my GPA was 3.6+ (frehsman it was 3.0). I speak 3 languages and served in the Army in a comabt unit. I have 2 publications lots of research, 40+ hours of shadowing and good LOR from a dentist and professors.

Now for the best part of my application I also applied to Med schools!! ( don't kill me 🙄🙄) However, I did it before shadowing any dentists or having any exposure to dentistry. I already applied and got one interview and I said I applied on my application and remained honest about it. I am sure that I want to go to dental school and I can explain why I chose dentistry over medicine.... so my application have many "but" and "ifs" but any advice would be greatly appreciated

Tufts avg according to their website is 19.4,19.3 and 18.5(PAT). science GPA is about 3.32. BU is about the same maybe lower. what do you think my chances are? I know RC sucks but everything else is about average. Science is above average. I really don't want to take the exam again just to improve on RC (or maybe math). Please let me know.

ooh yeah and my application is complete and verified so they're just waiting for my DAT scores!

Thanks for all your help guys! ask any questions and i'll try to help.

 

[Albuterol]

hey bro,
nice job! i think you should be ok for Tufts or BU with your gpa and extracurricular activities. IF they ask why med , dent just be straight up. IMO destroyer was good for chem and orgo for the FRAP, but honestly Biology was pretty useless except for a few explanations!

 

[rdhdds1]

hey bro,
nice job! i think you should be ok for Tufts or BU with your gpa and extracurricular activities. IF they ask why med , dent just be straight up. IMO destroyer was good for chem and orgo for the FRAP, but honestly Biology was pretty useless except for a few explanations!

Agreed. I have also found that Destroyer is asking a whole lot of specific subject questions in bio.

 

[TheGreenWave]

nice scores despite getting the FRAP exam. Hopefully, your nice TS score will carry you through the application process! Good luck to you!

 

[heatwheat]

Good scores. Could you post your T.S. scores?

 

[supraman]

One of the more helpful breakdowns, thanks dude. Glad I didn't read, "like OMG! Destroyer was sooo dead on!!! like without it i'd have gotten like a 12!"

 

[klutzy1987]

Agreed. I have also found that Destroyer is asking a whole lot of specific subject questions in bio.

I will leave it to your imagination to figure out why. There is a very good reason for this though, and if you cant figure it out, well then your pretty clueless.

 

[klutzy1987]

One of the more helpful breakdowns, thanks dude. Glad I didn't read, "like OMG! Destroyer was sooo dead on!!! like without it i'd have gotten like a 12!"

Agreed, those posts are pretty stupid, however this one is also.

Destroyer was useless! (waste of money and time) now that I think about it most of the stuff I used was useless. Again destroyer is an overkill and useless!
destroyer maybe helped me with one reactions otherwise it was Useless!!!.
Ok so my take for this exam. I could have studied for 2-3 weeks and probably get the same scores instead I studied for 5-6 weeks while I was working full time and got the same scores. Now you might ask why I did it? well cause I bought the freaking destroyer!!! thats why! for my version of the exam this book was completely useless and it was a waste of money and most importantly time! it freaked me out and made me think that the dat is much harder than it actually is especially in bio and ochem. I want to send the stupid book to Dr. Romano and ask for my $$ back! Take what I say with a grain of salt cause i am sure for some other versions of the dat destroyer is great!

p.s as you might guessed I am dissapointed by getting destroyer.

Top score: a nice program to simulate test conditions but thats about it. Nothing that appeared on TS was anyway similar to my DAT. All the weired/ random questions I got on TS about flat worms or some other **** weren't on the DAT and you don't really need to know them. Although OC was somewhat similar.

I dont know if you have taken the DAT, but the destroyer definitely isnt useless. I find it pretty difficult to imagine that not one of the reactions covered in the destroyer came up on the DAT, as the destroyer has every reaction we need to know for Orgo. As far as Gchem, I dont know how you can say that, you mean to tell me that you didnt have a single one of the formulas and topics covered in the destroyer, I find that hard to believe. Which leads to Bio, which always has the most random questions on the DAT and "somehow" the destroyer "usually" touches on those wierd questions. You can bash the destroyer all you want however both you I and everyone reading this post knows that destroyer is not useless, in fact it is quite valuable. You may have a personal Vendetta against the destroyer, i dunno but i think that your omments are nonsense. I think that you made a point to say that destroyer didnt help at all which i dont believe, but what exactly did you use that had "value".

 

[Isradoc1983]

Hi guys thanks for posting your comments and all
as for TS scores they were higher I usually got 22 on GC and 20-23 Orgo, bio was about 19-20. However, it wasn't because they were similar or anything to the real DAT. Ok let me correct it. It was somewhat similar to GC and more similar to OC but very different from bio. What I mean is that TS didn't really ask weired questions for bio it asked very specific questions but they didn't require you to think about it. It was either you know it or you don't. Very simple. On the real DAT it was WTF( on some of the questions)? and then think about the answer choices.

for klutzy1987 you should have read my post more carefully. I said take what I say with a grain of salt! for my version of the DAT destroyer was useless and it just freaked me out! I could have easily used kaplan or my old mcat books and get the same score on orgo and GC. Of course some of the reactions were from destroyer, but they were also in kaplan and many other places. Same applies to GC it was very easy! ( I rushed through orgo and thats why i didn't get a higher score). if you have read kaplan or any other book it was all in destroyer. Again, I took the DAT once so i don't know how it compares to other versions, but I read those posts of people going over destroyer 5 times ( and i went over it twice ( again waste of time) and i just thought it was useless. IF you get the Frap version destroyer won't be much help for bio while GC and OC will be basic and destroyer will be an overkill for them.

Any more thoughts about my chances in BU and Tufts?

 

[klutzy1987]

IF you get the Frap version destroyer won't be much help for bio while GC and OC will be basic and destroyer will be an overkill for them.

A friend of mine got the frapp test and he bagged a 20 on bio using just cliffs and destroyer so it apparently is not useless.

 

[Thundercatz]

I was frapped and there were and handful of questions on bio that were very similar to Destroyer. Were there also questions that I have never seen? Yup, there were a few, but that is just how the DAT is.

 

[Isradoc1983]

Hmmm, yes but those questions that were similar to destroyer were also very similar to kaplan, and could be answered w/o destroyer. Anyway, if i got a different version I might have scored higher on bio and other subjects using destroyer. In my opinion, for the frapp test the destroyer wasn't helpfull and I could have gotten the same 20 w/o it.
what do you all think about my chances of getting into BU or Tufts?

 

[klutzy1987]

I would call up both BU and Tufts and ask them if they would accept a 16 on RC. That would be the only thing holding you back.

 

[polarmolar]

Klutzy whats your motivation for your endless hype of destroyer???

 

[klutzy1987]

Klutzy whats your motivation for your endless hype of destroyer???

Well for starters i used it almost exclusively for the sciences and did very well. I also dont like the haters on here that bash it for no reason, when it is obviously very helpful. No matter what version of the DAT you had it is definitely the best resource for the sciences IMO. Then people like you come and along and take pride in bashing it for no apparent reason.

 

[doc3232]

Klutzy whats your motivation for your endless hype of destroyer???

Romano's student. 😎

I don't think the OP is bashing Destroyer. Every person comes in with a different background and sometimes a different version of the DAT. I think the OP is just saying to him Destroyer didn't help.

 

[Albuterol]

I got FRAPPED too and while I don't agree with the OP 100% percent, the biology section was rather random. While the questions may not have helped as much (I couldve probably gotten the same info from another resource)the explanations in Destroyer helped me answer probably 2 questions. I thought Chem and Orgo in destroyer were great. Chem in destroyer is really more calculation based than what was on the exam, but still if u can do the calculation u must have the foundation to answer the question.

 

[Isradoc1983]

I got FRAPPED too and while I don't agree with the OP 100% percent, the biology section was rather random. While the questions may not have helped as much (I couldve probably gotten the same info from another resource)the explanations in Destroyer helped me answer probably 2 questions. I thought Chem and Orgo in destroyer were great. Chem in destroyer is really more calculation based than what was on the exam, but still if u can do the calculation u must have the foundation to answer the question.

Thats what I meant. I felt destroyer was overboard with calculations and didn't have much of conceptual stuff. On the real DAT calculations were very easy and I didn't have any tricky/ weird problems. I was lacking some conceptual stuff. If I'd focus more on conceptual stuff I could have done better. However, I don't think you need destroyer to do well on GC or OC.

 

[klutzy1987]

I don't think the OP is bashing Destroyer. Every person comes in with a different background and sometimes a different version of the DAT. I think the OP is just saying to him Destroyer didn't help.

And i am saying that if Destroyer ddint help what possibly could have for Gchem and Orgo. He didnt mention not one source that he used and liked. I am just curious what sources you found helpful, cuz you did pretty good in the sciences.

 

[polarmolar]

Klutzy your in EVERYYYYYYY post hyping destroyer...and if even 1 person says anything against destroyer in their breakdown, your right there in a second!!

true?

Just like you have your opinion, others do too.

I never said destroyer was bad... I am just really wondering what your motivation is for all this hype??

 

[klutzy1987]

Klutzy your in EVERYYYYYYY post hyping destroyer...and if even 1 person says anything against destroyer in their breakdown, your right there in a second!!

true?

Just like you have your opinion, others do too.

I never said destroyer was bad... I am just really wondering what your motivation is for all this hype??

First off i answered this question before. Second, if someone knocks destroyers math section IDC cuz it isnt supposed to be great. If someone has a complaint against the bio section thats also fine a desroyer alone is nowhere near enough, it needs cliffs or schaumms. However when someone comes on and says that destroyer is a complete and utter useless waste of time that seems pretty harsh and largely untrue. The OP has since explained his comments but I am grateful and appreiate that i did well and like to try and help others the best i can. That being said I only know of two sources to study the chemistry, kaplan and destroyer and IMO kaplans sucks. You can have your opinion I have mine. I will bash Achiever also based on my opinions of it because I used it and was largely unsatisfied.

I only hype destroyer cuz i feel it is due. I hype cliffs also because it is due, I taught myself bio from scratch using cliffs and destroyer . I only hype destroyer when someone asks what to use to study or when someone posts grades and did poorly on sciences and doesnt know why. I do this because I feel honestly that destroyer wil help them. If you do not feel this way, well i dunno what to tell you.

 

[151AND8TH]

I was REALLY frapped -- without Destroyer my sciences would not have been a 20 and my AA would have been low enough for a retake.

 

[Isradoc1983]

ok sorry perhaps I didn't specify what I used to study.
So, I used Princeton review MCAT. I took the MCAT a while ago and had good notes left from it( I also did well). It helped me to cover about 70% of BIO except the hereditary stuff. GC and OC were also good in princeton. I found OC in kaplan to be better as it had more reactions/ explanations.
To supplement my bio I used kaplan chapters about evolution/ plants/ photosynth'/ heredity etc etc i.e I basicly went through every chapter and looked what I was missing from my TPR notes. However, TPR is also very detailed for BIO and I don't think you need to know that many things i.e what sequence does the sigma binds etc or where is shinedelgarno sequence ( just examples). Then I got Cliffs AP and only read about 15 pages supplementing kaplan about evolution/phylums etc... I found cliff AP to be great! Never read the chapter about plants though cause it was 2 detailed.

What I realized when I was studying is that the DAT unlike the MCAT won't focus so much on physiology but more on basic stuff i.e meiosis/ mitosis evolutions and characteristics of different phylums. However, I made sure I knew the basic stuff about every section. My prediction was correct as the non weired questions on BIO were very easy and focused exactly on what I thought they would. I guess in other sections they just focus more in depth.

I hope it clarifies how I studied. I took the mcat a year ago so i didn't remember much of it but I had a general idea of everything. Then Kaplan with Cliff AP helped me out. This is a test that you shouldn't study more than 3-4 weeks for straight. I was working full time so I studied for 2-3 hrs a day and then 6 hrs on the weekend so my test preparation lasted for about 5-6 weeks. LAst week I took off and studied about 8 hrs a day. Don't try to memorize every single thing just the main parts and I can't emphasize it enough. You MUST know basics especially for GC and OC. I am sure I could have gotten 20+ on OC if i wouldn't rush through it, but I did.....
Hope it helps.

Forgot to mention I solved Kaplan Bio stuff and it was very easy. Mostly focusing on physiology except one test which focused on phylums characteristics etc