DAT DONE happy, with some frustration---full explanation of my day

[thefifthbeatle]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Here are my DAT scores:

Bio 17
Gchem 18
Ochem 21
PAT 21
RC 18
QR 16 <---what happened? 🙁
AA-18
TS-19

I am very happy with my scores. I have a 3.5 BS Chemistry degree, year of research (inorganic chem), shadowing, volunteering at the hospital.

I know these aren't as high as some here, but I am relieved and extremely happy with my RC, PAT, and OCHEM. I have a state school (OSU) and a school no more than 20 miles from my house (Case). I know my scores aren't a guarantee to get in, but I am applying to 9 schools and am so happy this day is over! Good luck to all! I have no plans on retaking.

Pretest- I was extremely scared on the drive there. Then I felt like, come on, you can do this!! I almost got Taco Bell before the test so I could act all confident that I could do good under extreme bathroom conditions!!!!

BIO Wow..Wow..Wow....nothing I studied was on here. Where were the ecto-endo-mesoderm questions!!!??? So random!!!! Only a Bio major could do amazing on this.
GChem Very conceptual. A couple of calculations. Just know trends other than electronegativity,ionic size, etc
Ochem I thought I did horrible, but did my best on this section. 1 naming, easy reactions, know sn1/2 e1/2 like the back of your hand and you should do fine. Also, know how to do things by name. What I am trying to say. KMnO4 + CH3OH---> is written as potassium permanganate and methanol. Those weren't the exact ones, those are just an example
PAT Everyone talks about how the angles were hard. For every 3 that were easy, 1 one was extremely difficult. The pattern foldings were so HARD. I skipped 9/15 of these! they are impossible! top/end/front were a joke, so were cube counting
RC Wow, I am surprised I got an 18. Also, I panicked. 11 min in, I only answered 3 questions!!! Also, on one of my articles, I remember 3 consecutive questions being in the same paragraph. Two of the articles were no tones or summaries. Only one had over 1/3 asking for tone, summary, an alternate title...
QR The stuff is not that hard. Time is of the essence though. And unlike topscore, they frequently use sin,cos,tan,csc,sec,etc

Overall, I almost left halfway through the test. I felt so defeated. Also, the markers are so horrible. Everyone around me had pencil and papers! I was so jealous!!!

My studying:

12 hr. a week May 7 - July 1st
The final two weeks were 5 hours a day, then mon,tues,wed 11 hours
Topscore results:

Bio-15's
Chems-16 and 17s
PAT 22
QR 22
RC 22

I didnt use destroyer, I was kinda turned off by the people who use it and say it's the only way to go. Maybe I would scored higher, but it wasn't for me. I bought topscore because Mr. Dalsky from Case Western recommended it. I found it to be a good indicator. Yes the test is harder, but the grading curve is much better for DAT. So it all evens out.

 

[Cute Fairy]

Congrats, you didn't do that bad!

Good luck

 

[litldime]

great job...glad you didn't leave the test....never be defeated...happy for you that its over....
good luck with the rest....
-ld

 

[D D S 2 B]

hey...congrats with the relief of being done with the test....You said "GChem Very conceptual. A couple of calculations. Just know trends other than electronegativity,ionic size, etc " what did you mean by other...please elaborate if you can...Are the destroyer questions good for the conceptual parts or should we open the g-chem text books again???Thanks...greatly appreciated...good luck with the rest of the process..

 

[s0chon02]

thefifthbeatle,

Thanks for the breakdown/elaborations! I'm sure a lot of people (definitely me) are finding it helpful! Good luck with rest of your app. process!

 

[thefifthbeatle]

just know what supersaturated means and stuff like that...what do electrolytes do to solutions....stuff like that...it's so random and overlooked. But hey I still got an 18. Again I am happy, I know I have a chance somewhere!!! I am just so mad at that damn QR!

 

[xtractime]

although you didn't get 24's and 25's, its good to see someone with something lower than godly results posting their scores. thanks for the feedback on how your day went. goodluck in the rest of the application process. 👍

 

[pluginchugin]

you're scores are somewhat like mine. 18/18/23 so hopefully we both get something! 🙂

 

[thefifthbeatle]

Yeah, not everyone here gets 25's. For every person typing in 24-25, there are a lot not posting scores whatsoever. I am just gonna press my luck with these scores. I wish I coulda had bio and qr +1. But there are many factors in the selection process. Also, many people are applying to schools with big DAT and GPA. The averages for the schools are much less. There is hope (more than hope) for people with my scores right on the averages (mathematics say there also has to be people with less than mine getting in)