DAT Done - My Opinions

[meanstreak]

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Just finished mine yesterday and SDN gave me alot of help so I wanted to return the favor. I was hoping for 19's across.

PA 22
QR 25
RC 22
Bio 19
GC 25
OC 21
TS 21
AA 22

My background is in Electrical Engineering and I started studying for this 6 months ago by taking a Kaplan class but didn't really get hardcore about studying until 1 month ago. I even took a leave of absence from my full-time work. Well, the main reason for time off was because of our new baby but it did help in extra studying time. Other than Kaplan, the only other resource I used was Barron's for PA section. By the way, Barron's had lots of science question mistakes.

PA: I didn't think this was overly difficult as I imagined. I initially skipped the first 15 questions, that took 10secs. The Angles weren't as impossible as I thought, half were definitely doable and the rest I went with my gut. The hole-punching was familiar, only thing to be aware of is when they fold it only half way. What I mean is - most of practice questions had you folding quarter of the square to the center to make a small triange but this is when you take one corner and hold it 3/4 of the way and then fold it in half. Sorry if this is not clear. I've attached a pic, if interested.

QR: Nothing difficult. There were 4-6 word problems. The only thing that gave me trouble was when I mistakenly read the word "Fifteen percent" as 50%. So you need to be fast in this section but make sure you read significant words very carefully. There was couple Trig problems, so I had to know what a secant is. Also, I had to know what it means to take a square root of a square root.

RC: This is one my weaker areas but SDN helped a lot. My passages were Calcium functions, the biology of aging, and the increase in resistance to antibiotics in bacteria. My strategy was read as much as I can within 5 mins and do the questions within 15 mins.

Bio: Kaplan (white) book and Barron's didn't help me much here. I suggest using additional resources for this section. And I too had the sea urchin question. Thanks to SDN for that one.

GC & OC: Really simple stuff, Kaplan was definitely enough.

Overall, real DAT was easier than practice tests and the key is to relax and don't be stressed when you begin the test. I know that's easier said then done but practice it. I was stressing too much in the beginning with bio questions but when I did finish the 1st pass through all the science questions, I had 20 minutes left. I wish I used all that time to go over bio questions but I had to go to the restroom and I review my OC questions instead.

Anyways, thanks to all that have previously contributed and hope this is helpful for some of you.

 

[mochafreak]

great job, congratulations.

 

[dat_student]

Just finished mine yesterday and SDN gave me alot of help so I wanted to return the favor. I was hoping for 19's across.

PA 22
QR 25
RC 22
Bio 19
GC 25
OC 21
TS 21
AA 22

congrats. good job.

 

[cowsgomoo]

Nice job!! 😀 😀

 

[Noroozi]

Thanks for the PAT picture.

 

[Richnator]

Just finished mine yesterday and SDN gave me alot of help so I wanted to return the favor. I was hoping for 19's across.

PA 22
QR 25
RC 22
Bio 19
GC 25
OC 21
TS 21
AA 22

My background is in Electrical Engineering and I started studying for this 6 months ago by taking a Kaplan class but didn't really get hardcore about studying until 1 month ago. I even took a leave of absence from my full-time work. Well, the main reason for time off was because of our new baby but it did help in extra studying time. Other than Kaplan, the only other resource I used was Barron's for PA section. By the way, Barron's had lots of science question mistakes.

PA: I didn't think this was overly difficult as I imagined. I initially skipped the first 15 questions, that took 10secs. The Angles weren't as impossible as I thought, half were definitely doable and the rest I went with my gut. The hole-punching was familiar, only thing to be aware of is when they fold it only half way. What I mean is - most of practice questions had you folding quarter of the square to the center to make a small triange but this is when you take one corner and hold it 3/4 of the way and then fold it in half. Sorry if this is not clear. I've attached a pic, if interested.

QR: Nothing difficult. There were 4-6 word problems. The only thing that gave me trouble was when I mistakenly read the word "Fifteen percent" as 50%. So you need to be fast in this section but make sure you read significant words very carefully. There was couple Trig problems, so I had to know what a secant is. Also, I had to know what it means to take a square root of a square root.

RC: This is one my weaker areas but SDN helped a lot. My passages were Calcium functions, the biology of aging, and the increase in resistance to antibiotics in bacteria. My strategy was read as much as I can within 5 mins and do the questions within 15 mins.

Bio: Kaplan (white) book and Barron's didn't help me much here. I suggest using additional resources for this section. And I too had the sea urchin question. Thanks to SDN for that one.

GC & OC: Really simple stuff, Kaplan was definitely enough.

Overall, real DAT was easier than practice tests and the key is to relax and don't be stressed when you begin the test. I know that's easier said then done but practice it. I was stressing too much in the beginning with bio questions but when I did finish the 1st pass through all the science questions, I had 20 minutes left. I wish I used all that time to go over bio questions but I had to go to the restroom and I review my OC questions instead.

Anyways, thanks to all that have previously contributed and hope this is helpful for some of you.

Wow, congratz. I so wish I was in your shoes. I hope to do as well as you on the real DAT. I need to practice more though, I've been slowing down my studying recently, even though the test is in about 3 weeks ;-( Congratz though.

 

[lida]

Just finished mine yesterday and SDN gave me alot of help so I wanted to return the favor. I was hoping for 19's across.

PA 22
QR 25
RC 22
Bio 19
GC 25
OC 21
TS 21
AA 22

My background is in Electrical Engineering and I started studying for this 6 months ago by taking a Kaplan class but didn't really get hardcore about studying until 1 month ago. I even took a leave of absence from my full-time work. Well, the main reason for time off was because of our new baby but it did help in extra studying time. Other than Kaplan, the only other resource I used was Barron's for PA section. By the way, Barron's had lots of science question mistakes.

PA: I didn't think this was overly difficult as I imagined. I initially skipped the first 15 questions, that took 10secs. The Angles weren't as impossible as I thought, half were definitely doable and the rest I went with my gut. The hole-punching was familiar, only thing to be aware of is when they fold it only half way. What I mean is - most of practice questions had you folding quarter of the square to the center to make a small triange but this is when you take one corner and hold it 3/4 of the way and then fold it in half. Sorry if this is not clear. I've attached a pic, if interested.

QR: Nothing difficult. There were 4-6 word problems. The only thing that gave me trouble was when I mistakenly read the word "Fifteen percent" as 50%. So you need to be fast in this section but make sure you read significant words very carefully. There was couple Trig problems, so I had to know what a secant is. Also, I had to know what it means to take a square root of a square root.

RC: This is one my weaker areas but SDN helped a lot. My passages were Calcium functions, the biology of aging, and the increase in resistance to antibiotics in bacteria. My strategy was read as much as I can within 5 mins and do the questions within 15 mins.

Bio: Kaplan (white) book and Barron's didn't help me much here. I suggest using additional resources for this section. And I too had the sea urchin question. Thanks to SDN for that one.

GC & OC: Really simple stuff, Kaplan was definitely enough.

Overall, real DAT was easier than practice tests and the key is to relax and don't be stressed when you begin the test. I know that's easier said then done but practice it. I was stressing too much in the beginning with bio questions but when I did finish the 1st pass through all the science questions, I had 20 minutes left. I wish I used all that time to go over bio questions but I had to go to the restroom and I review my OC questions instead.

Anyways, thanks to all that have previously contributed and hope this is helpful for some of you.

What is SDN? because my weakness is RC? and gooooood job 🙂

 

[chordata]

What is SDN? because my weakness is RC? and gooooood job 🙂

SDN = Student Doctor Network (The website ur currently viewing.)

 

[lida]

SDN = Student Doctor Network (The website ur currently viewing.)

he was talking that SDN helped him in RC section 🙄

 

[katdds]

Just finished mine yesterday and SDN gave me alot of help so I wanted to return the favor. I was hoping for 19's across.

PA 22
QR 25
RC 22
Bio 19
GC 25
OC 21
TS 21
AA 22

My background is in Electrical Engineering and I started studying for this 6 months ago by taking a Kaplan class but didn't really get hardcore about studying until 1 month ago. I even took a leave of absence from my full-time work. Well, the main reason for time off was because of our new baby but it did help in extra studying time. Other than Kaplan, the only other resource I used was Barron's for PA section. By the way, Barron's had lots of science question mistakes.

PA: I didn't think this was overly difficult as I imagined. I initially skipped the first 15 questions, that took 10secs. The Angles weren't as impossible as I thought, half were definitely doable and the rest I went with my gut. The hole-punching was familiar, only thing to be aware of is when they fold it only half way. What I mean is - most of practice questions had you folding quarter of the square to the center to make a small triange but this is when you take one corner and hold it 3/4 of the way and then fold it in half. Sorry if this is not clear. I've attached a pic, if interested.

QR: Nothing difficult. There were 4-6 word problems. The only thing that gave me trouble was when I mistakenly read the word "Fifteen percent" as 50%. So you need to be fast in this section but make sure you read significant words very carefully. There was couple Trig problems, so I had to know what a secant is. Also, I had to know what it means to take a square root of a square root.

RC: This is one my weaker areas but SDN helped a lot. My passages were Calcium functions, the biology of aging, and the increase in resistance to antibiotics in bacteria. My strategy was read as much as I can within 5 mins and do the questions within 15 mins.

Bio: Kaplan (white) book and Barron's didn't help me much here. I suggest using additional resources for this section. And I too had the sea urchin question. Thanks to SDN for that one.

GC & OC: Really simple stuff, Kaplan was definitely enough.

Overall, real DAT was easier than practice tests and the key is to relax and don't be stressed when you begin the test. I know that's easier said then done but practice it. I was stressing too much in the beginning with bio questions but when I did finish the 1st pass through all the science questions, I had 20 minutes left. I wish I used all that time to go over bio questions but I had to go to the restroom and I review my OC questions instead.

Anyways, thanks to all that have previously contributed and hope this is helpful for some of you.

so overall, kaplan's subject tests helped you? wow, great scores, that is what i mainly studying from too..but I thought the PAT was harder than barron's and kaplan's material..

 

[Lostinbul]

Nice Scores! You're hard work will pay off!

 

[meanstreak]

What is SDN? because my weakness is RC? and gooooood job 🙂

This is what I did to prepare for RC - I did a summary of most of the passages that were mentioned in SDN and I searched the web for articles to read. One source was just google and then I subscribed to "Scientific American" Digital version which I used as a 2nd source of articles. You probably never get the same article that you will get on the real DAT but it helped me to focus my readings. Also, when I have a familiarity with the words that being used, it helps me to read faster and feel more comfortable. One word that did come up was "tyrosine kinases" in the calcium passage. Anyway, I just practiced reading for 5 mins and going to questions for the next 15 mins. If I wasn't able to finish reading in 5 mins then I read upto 4:30 sec and spend 30secs reading the first and last sentence of each unread paragraph, while scanning the middle of course.

Some people might think reading articles before hand is useless but I was desperate and I made the time to read and it did help me. When I was doing Kaplan passages, I would run out of time while still doing questions for the 2nd passage.

Good luck...

 

[meanstreak]

so overall, kaplan's subject tests helped you? wow, great scores, that is what i mainly studying from too..but I thought the PAT was harder than barron's and kaplan's material..

I did those subject test really early in my studies and my last few weeks before the real DAT was the 3 full-length tests that Kaplan has and also their flash cards for GC & OC. What really helped me was the reaction/systhesis flash cards on OC.

As for PAT, I didn't think it was any much harder than Barron's or Kaplan's. My strategy was to skip the first 15 questions, then spend max of 15 mins on T/F/E, then 15 mins for next 3 sections. Then I will have 15 mins each for Pattern Folding and 15 mins for Keyhole. On the real DAT, I was able to get the 1st pass thru all the questions and have 2 mins left. For the T/F/E, I first try to see if there's an odd shape that I can rule out first. DAT always seem to have one odd ball, if you look at the sample questions in the application packet, you see what I mean. And then look for dissimilarity among the possible choices. These methods really helped me.

Good luck...