DAT Done, huzzah!

[Boat on the Chesapeake]

Just got back from taking the DAT. Word of advice: try not to schedule your DAT 2 hours away from your home -_-

Score / % for reference
PAT: 19 75.2
QR: 16 50.9
RC: 23 92.6
Bio: 21 90.4
Che: 20 79.4
Orgo:20 79.2
TS: 20 84.0
AA: 20 84.0

I'm pretty happy with my scores, except for QR, not really sure what happened. I was getting 20's easy on Topscore, 700 SAT math, guess partially some bad luck. Should I be too worried about it? The consensus seems to be it's the least important section and my AA is good...
I'm mostly focusing on my state schools (PA).

Overall my impression was similar to what others have been saying, not that many chem calculations, lots of word problems in QR, RC passages around 14 paragraphs with some annoying inference questions and stuff about which part of a statement was true.

Study method: I used Kaplan blue book, Achiever, Topscore. I didn't use Destroyer, I was stingy and got Organic Chemistry Demystified: A Self Teaching Guide on amazon for $12. I was originally going to take it March 29th but class projects started to build up so I pushed it back. I crammed all of spring break, and then had another month and a half to study 1-2 hours a day on weekdays. I spent Friday-Tuesday since finals studying and taking Topscore every day, getting 18/19 AA with higher QR scores.

Thanks to everyone on SDN for their advice and study materials, I wouldn't have done this well without you. Good luck to everyone starting their apps tomorrow

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[rcwha]

How did you study for the chemistry? Since top score and achiever are mostly calc. for chm. I don't know how to prepare for this section...

Just got back from taking the DAT. Word of advice: try not to schedule your DAT 2 hours away from your home -_-

Score / % for reference
PAT: 19 75.2
QR: 16 50.9
RC: 23 92.6
Bio: 21 90.4
Che: 20 79.4
Orgo:20 79.2
TS: 20 84.0
AA: 20 84.0

I'm pretty happy with my scores, except for QR, not really sure what happened. I was getting 20's easy on Topscore, 700 SAT math, guess partially some bad luck. Should I be too worried about it? The consensus seems to be it's the least important section and my AA is good...
I'm mostly focusing on my state schools (PA).

Overall my impression was similar to what others have been saying, not that many chem calculations, lots of word problems in QR, RC passages around 14 paragraphs with some annoying inference questions and stuff about which part of a statement was true.

Study method: I used Kaplan blue book, Achiever, Topscore. I didn't use Destroyer, I was stingy and got Organic Chemistry Demystified: A Self Teaching Guide on amazon for $12. I was originally going to take it March 29th but class projects started to build up so I pushed it back. I crammed all of spring break, and then had another month and a half to study 1-2 hours a day on weekdays. I spent Friday-Tuesday since finals studying and taking Topscore every day, getting 18/19 AA with higher QR scores.

Thanks to everyone on SDN for their advice and study materials, I wouldn't have done this well without you. Good luck to everyone starting their apps tomorrow

 

[OMFS08]

Good Job man, I would say go ahead and shoot your apps out, your QR is a bit low but I think your other scores should help. Thanks for the well wishes and good luck to all that are applying tomorrow as well.

 

[jigabodo]

Solid score. Congrats indeed.

 

[AndyK]

Good job, man! What was your strategy for reading comp?

 

[Boat on the Chesapeake]

For chemistry, I'm a chem-bio major so I've been exposed to most of it before, but the thing that helped me the most was Kaplan blue book, read the gchem section twice over. There were no concepts on the test that I didn't see in Kaplan iirc.

For orgo, make tons of flash cards and make them part of your daily routine. For bio, I used Kaplan and occasionaly wikipedia/my freshmen bio book. Having my biochem and physiology finals last week was helpful, minus the stress lol.

For RC I don't have that much of a strategy, I didn't number anything, I spent maybe 30secs scanning the passage and then just went to it. It's a bit more like SAT reading comprehension than Topscore was; some of the inferences are easy or common sense, others require finding two different quotes.

 

[rcwha]

For the bio. section, what topics did you cover using outside sources that wasn't covered in kaplan blue. Just from taking practice exams, I feel like kaplan blue didn't go over some topics such as plant structures and random taxonomy questions.

I appreciate your input on the chm. section. I'm def. going to use kaplan for tha!