It's finally over!!!!! I can't even believe it…
Instead of doing a breakdown, I'm just going to post my practice scores and give general advice based on my experiences with this nasty. I was aiming for a 23, but this will certainly do
PAT: 21
QR: 21
RC: 21
BIO: 21
GC: 21
OC: 25
TS: 22
AA: 22 (97%)
I don't know how I pulled off 21's in almost all of the sections lol but I'm happy. First of all, to all those peeps who haven't take the DAT yet, RELAX…it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. During the test, I kept thinking "Really? Is this it?" and hoping nothing harder would come up in the next question…and it never did!
On test:
BIO- surprisingly easy! I didn't really get any random questions that everyone was talking about. There were some extremely simple questions (freebies!). The tougher questions were conceptual ones describing a scenario and what would happen. These were not that bad either.
GC- Easy calculations. Some really basic concepts. There were like 2 conceptual problems that asked on something weird (I can't even remember what it was) but I don't think I ever covered them (I used Chad & Destroyer). The thing that threw me off on this section was the girl sitting next to me pounding away on her keyboard and the guy on my other side squeaking in his chair. For some reason, I couldn't block it out of my head. But read my advice below on how to avoid this.
OC- pretty basic as well. I didn't have any weird reactions or synthesis problems. I think I missed the nomenclature question, which is disappointing. It was tricky though. I studied the least amount for this section because I finished my ochems this past spring but I did practice using Destroyer. Also, go over Chad's lab lecture…hint hint
PAT- I was expecting this section to be a monster but it wasn't. I kept hearing how keyholes and pattern folding were so much harder than CDP, but I thought the answers were easily narrowed down. I used Achiever's PAT a lot to help visualize the structure and I think this helped boost my confidence in this area. I highly recommend it! (especially because you can't line count) I thought CDP was great but the solutions to Achiever PAT are so much better. For example, in TFE they give you shape for the wrong answers too.
RC- I was nervous about this section and math the most. I wrote down #1-23 on my board and wrote key words after reading it. For practice tests, I would read the first 5 questions really fast just to make sure I'm paying attention while I am reading (otherwise my mind wanders) and then try to finish the passage within 8 minutes. HOWEVER On my version of the test, most of the questions were straight from the passage. I think I had maybe 3 "tone-ish" type questions for the whole thing. I noticed this at the beginning of the second passage so I switched my technique (not sure if that's a good thing to do in the middle of a test but it worked for me) and went to skimming the passage really fast..maybe like 4 minutes, then I s&d. So maybe it was a hybrid s&d. I don't know but I'm so happy with this score.
QR: I know I keep saying this, but it was freakin easy…so much easier than I thought. I think I only had 1 probability question. Math destroyer was freaking me out. I skipped test 11 & 12 entirely but I did test 1-10 and then repeated 1-4. It was a good decision by me (however, I have heard of other people getting tons of hard word problems and p-values on their test. I got word problems but they weren't hard to me).
Ok some advice & other stuff that might be useful/encouraging
- bring ear plugs- I thought you couldn't bring earplugs but my testing center allowed them. Even if they say they don't just bring them anyways and put them in your locker if you can't use it. I guess it varies with each testing center. They provide these yellow over the ear headphones that didn't block out anything and kept sliding off my head. Luckily, people stopped typing and fidgeting by the time PAT came around.
- All of the test centers are implementing the non-erasable markers so that you have to raise your hand to get more scratch paper. This does however depend on when they get their shipments in. I got lucky and was able to use a dry erase
- Visit the test center before your test. I called ahead to see if I could check out the testing center but they said the only way I could come inside was if I paid $30 to take a simulation test. That was the last thing I wanted to do, but I still drove there just to make sure I was familiar with the area and parking etc. I'm so glad I did. The directions seemed so easy but when I went the day before, I got lost. My test center was surprisingly really small and it was located in between a bunch of warehouses (kind of weird).
- I wasn't planning on studying the day before my test, but I end up doing 8-ish hours. Studying made me really tired and worn out, but I'm glad I did it . I had questions on my test that I knew the answers to from this review session. For this, it just depends on the person.
- The night of the test, I went to bed at 10:30ish and I guess my body was on high alert because I woke up every single hour (not exaggerating) and checked the clock. Finally at 5 am (my test was at 8:30), I just got up and did some Math destroyer to get the math side of my brain flowing before the test.
- The last week and a half of studying, I wanted to get into the mindset of PAT and math destroyer so I did at least one test of both a day. I would take a PAT test (I did CDP 1.5 times and Achiever PAT again) and then check the answers the next day. This allowed me to see things that I may have not seen before. I timed myself the first time around for math and then the second time I did it without the clock. It seems kind of odd but this way, I wasn't worried about choosing the best answer just to have the questions complete. I really wanted to absorb the material and I think it stuck since it was the second time around.
- Do not be discouraged. When I first started doing PAT, it tooke me an hour and thirty minutes just to figure out TFE and I still got most of them wrong. Everything really comes easier with practice. I was so bad at math too, but I just learned from my mistakes and reviewed equations whenever I felt like I was getting rusty.
- I was really struggling for time during my studying but a month & a half before the test, I forced myself to work out. Only for about 45 minutes every other day. This sounds weird, but I wanted to be in shape every way possible for my DAT. Even though I was losing 45 minutes out of my day, it was worth it. I felt so good after running, it completely refreshed me. It also made sitting in a chair for 12 hours tolerable. I think I got piriformis syndrome due to sitting for so long because my butt was in so much pain. The running helped with this too.
- I watched a 9/11 documentary a couple days ago that really put things into perspective for me (sorry if that sounds cheesy lol but it did). THE DAT IS ONLY A TEST. It is so miniscule if you think about what's going on in the world around us. If you want to be a dentist, you'll find a way. Period.
- Eye of the Tiger was my theme song. It's so motivational. In fact, when I was listening to it on the way to the test, I started tearing up (maybe it's a girl thing) because I wanted this so bad and I know I studied my butt off. This happened when I put the song on repeat too! Haha. I also used quotes on my desktop to motivate me
."We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit"..
.-Aristotle .
."Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.".
.-Joshua 1:9 .
Thanks Toothhornet, I saw this on your signature
.BE CONFIDENT IN ALL THAT YOU DO!!!!! Stay positive-be a positive ball of energy. you CAN do it! .and then I put the score that I wanted underneath it with a period at the end. Anytime I got down on myself, I would read these. The DAT is just one big mind game so do anything you can to prepare.
.Thanks to all those who helped me on SDN. It really is nice to have a support system and people to motivate you. And I couldn't have done it without my family who had to feed me and put up with me. And most of all, I thank God for getting me through this and always being on my side when I'm depressed/down on myself.
Sorry if what I type doesn't make sense. I've had a long day. Best wishes to all of you.
.
Instead of doing a breakdown, I'm just going to post my practice scores and give general advice based on my experiences with this nasty. I was aiming for a 23, but this will certainly do
PAT: 21
QR: 21
RC: 21
BIO: 21
GC: 21
OC: 25
TS: 22
AA: 22 (97%)
I don't know how I pulled off 21's in almost all of the sections lol but I'm happy. First of all, to all those peeps who haven't take the DAT yet, RELAX…it really wasn't as bad as I was expecting. During the test, I kept thinking "Really? Is this it?" and hoping nothing harder would come up in the next question…and it never did!
On test:
BIO- surprisingly easy! I didn't really get any random questions that everyone was talking about. There were some extremely simple questions (freebies!). The tougher questions were conceptual ones describing a scenario and what would happen. These were not that bad either.
GC- Easy calculations. Some really basic concepts. There were like 2 conceptual problems that asked on something weird (I can't even remember what it was) but I don't think I ever covered them (I used Chad & Destroyer). The thing that threw me off on this section was the girl sitting next to me pounding away on her keyboard and the guy on my other side squeaking in his chair. For some reason, I couldn't block it out of my head. But read my advice below on how to avoid this.
OC- pretty basic as well. I didn't have any weird reactions or synthesis problems. I think I missed the nomenclature question, which is disappointing. It was tricky though. I studied the least amount for this section because I finished my ochems this past spring but I did practice using Destroyer. Also, go over Chad's lab lecture…hint hint
PAT- I was expecting this section to be a monster but it wasn't. I kept hearing how keyholes and pattern folding were so much harder than CDP, but I thought the answers were easily narrowed down. I used Achiever's PAT a lot to help visualize the structure and I think this helped boost my confidence in this area. I highly recommend it! (especially because you can't line count) I thought CDP was great but the solutions to Achiever PAT are so much better. For example, in TFE they give you shape for the wrong answers too.
RC- I was nervous about this section and math the most. I wrote down #1-23 on my board and wrote key words after reading it. For practice tests, I would read the first 5 questions really fast just to make sure I'm paying attention while I am reading (otherwise my mind wanders) and then try to finish the passage within 8 minutes. HOWEVER On my version of the test, most of the questions were straight from the passage. I think I had maybe 3 "tone-ish" type questions for the whole thing. I noticed this at the beginning of the second passage so I switched my technique (not sure if that's a good thing to do in the middle of a test but it worked for me) and went to skimming the passage really fast..maybe like 4 minutes, then I s&d. So maybe it was a hybrid s&d. I don't know but I'm so happy with this score.
QR: I know I keep saying this, but it was freakin easy…so much easier than I thought. I think I only had 1 probability question. Math destroyer was freaking me out. I skipped test 11 & 12 entirely but I did test 1-10 and then repeated 1-4. It was a good decision by me (however, I have heard of other people getting tons of hard word problems and p-values on their test. I got word problems but they weren't hard to me).
Ok some advice & other stuff that might be useful/encouraging
- bring ear plugs- I thought you couldn't bring earplugs but my testing center allowed them. Even if they say they don't just bring them anyways and put them in your locker if you can't use it. I guess it varies with each testing center. They provide these yellow over the ear headphones that didn't block out anything and kept sliding off my head. Luckily, people stopped typing and fidgeting by the time PAT came around.
- All of the test centers are implementing the non-erasable markers so that you have to raise your hand to get more scratch paper. This does however depend on when they get their shipments in. I got lucky and was able to use a dry erase
- Visit the test center before your test. I called ahead to see if I could check out the testing center but they said the only way I could come inside was if I paid $30 to take a simulation test. That was the last thing I wanted to do, but I still drove there just to make sure I was familiar with the area and parking etc. I'm so glad I did. The directions seemed so easy but when I went the day before, I got lost. My test center was surprisingly really small and it was located in between a bunch of warehouses (kind of weird).
- I wasn't planning on studying the day before my test, but I end up doing 8-ish hours. Studying made me really tired and worn out, but I'm glad I did it . I had questions on my test that I knew the answers to from this review session. For this, it just depends on the person.
- The night of the test, I went to bed at 10:30ish and I guess my body was on high alert because I woke up every single hour (not exaggerating) and checked the clock. Finally at 5 am (my test was at 8:30), I just got up and did some Math destroyer to get the math side of my brain flowing before the test.
- The last week and a half of studying, I wanted to get into the mindset of PAT and math destroyer so I did at least one test of both a day. I would take a PAT test (I did CDP 1.5 times and Achiever PAT again) and then check the answers the next day. This allowed me to see things that I may have not seen before. I timed myself the first time around for math and then the second time I did it without the clock. It seems kind of odd but this way, I wasn't worried about choosing the best answer just to have the questions complete. I really wanted to absorb the material and I think it stuck since it was the second time around.
- Do not be discouraged. When I first started doing PAT, it tooke me an hour and thirty minutes just to figure out TFE and I still got most of them wrong. Everything really comes easier with practice. I was so bad at math too, but I just learned from my mistakes and reviewed equations whenever I felt like I was getting rusty.
- I was really struggling for time during my studying but a month & a half before the test, I forced myself to work out. Only for about 45 minutes every other day. This sounds weird, but I wanted to be in shape every way possible for my DAT. Even though I was losing 45 minutes out of my day, it was worth it. I felt so good after running, it completely refreshed me. It also made sitting in a chair for 12 hours tolerable. I think I got piriformis syndrome due to sitting for so long because my butt was in so much pain. The running helped with this too.
- I watched a 9/11 documentary a couple days ago that really put things into perspective for me (sorry if that sounds cheesy lol but it did). THE DAT IS ONLY A TEST. It is so miniscule if you think about what's going on in the world around us. If you want to be a dentist, you'll find a way. Period.
- Eye of the Tiger was my theme song. It's so motivational. In fact, when I was listening to it on the way to the test, I started tearing up (maybe it's a girl thing) because I wanted this so bad and I know I studied my butt off. This happened when I put the song on repeat too! Haha. I also used quotes on my desktop to motivate me
."We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit"..
.-Aristotle .
."Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.".
.-Joshua 1:9 .
Thanks Toothhornet, I saw this on your signature
.BE CONFIDENT IN ALL THAT YOU DO!!!!! Stay positive-be a positive ball of energy. you CAN do it! .and then I put the score that I wanted underneath it with a period at the end. Anytime I got down on myself, I would read these. The DAT is just one big mind game so do anything you can to prepare.
.Thanks to all those who helped me on SDN. It really is nice to have a support system and people to motivate you. And I couldn't have done it without my family who had to feed me and put up with me. And most of all, I thank God for getting me through this and always being on my side when I'm depressed/down on myself.
Sorry if what I type doesn't make sense. I've had a long day. Best wishes to all of you.
.
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