DAT done on 2/9

[gogiantsss]

FEELS SO GOOD TO BE DONE!

Thoughts:
Bio: Some bio questions were completely out of the blue. I dont remember seeing it in any prep book. You just have to eliminate choices and make an educated guess.
GChem: very straightforward, nothing too tricky here.
OChem: basic reactions, just know the reaction conditions that is best suited for a particular reaction.
PAT: much easier than achiever. I was getting 18's on achiever and i did much better. The angles were near impossible, just have to go with your first hunch.
RC: Slightly harder than achiever. THe actual RC had less keywords that you can pick up on, so you have to scan very carefully. Also, it required a little more analysis, not word for word answers like in topscore/achiever.
QR: My best subject on the practice tests, dont know what happened. I think I just got burnt out from the rest of the test... Ended it 15 minutes early. So my advice, practice on your stamina and DONT end sections before time is up.

One question though: For the RC, somehow a 21 equated to 76.5 percentile. How did that work out?

Good luck to everyone out there.

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[sarah_bellum]

How well did your achiever/topscore/kaplan scores correlate with your actual scores?

 

[BodybldgDoc]

15 minutes early in QR? i am always running out of time in that section on practice tests.

 

[gogiantsss]

I didnt think that the practice tests were an accurate gauge of how you'll do on the real thing. The practice tests were used to pinpoint what areas I was weak at. Having said that, i took topscore first and got about 17's and 18's. THen about a week later, i took achiever and got about the same scores. But on the real thing, I got nothing less than a 23 on the sciences. So just focus on studying everything and not on practice scores.

Overall I studied for about 6 weeks about 3-4 hours a day. That was just me. I do my most productive studying in 3-4 hour blocks, after that I tend to fade.

Also, I got scratch paper instead of the well publicized dry erase board.

 

[gogiantsss]

on the QR, there were a lot of word problems. Just use x as a variable and work from there. For example on "Bill is 3 years older..." type of questions, set B as x and then everything else in relations to that. It makes problems go by a lot faster.

I think the most important part on QR is to organize your thoughts in a clear cut manner.

 

[Lonely Sol]

hey I was wondering, what strategy did you use on the RC part?

 

[mut9ya]

where did you take the DAT? They still provide paper?

 

[washingtonDAT]

Thanks for the tips, well done!

 

[busupshot83]

FEELS SO GOOD TO BE DONE!

Thoughts:
Bio: Some bio questions were completely out of the blue. I dont remember seeing it in any prep book. You just have to eliminate choices and make an educated guess.
GChem: very straightforward, nothing too tricky here.
OChem: basic reactions, just know the reaction conditions that is best suited for a particular reaction.
PAT: much easier than achiever. I was getting 18's on achiever and i did much better. The angles were near impossible, just have to go with your first hunch.
RC: Slightly harder than achiever. THe actual RC had less keywords that you can pick up on, so you have to scan very carefully. Also, it required a little more analysis, not word for word answers like in topscore/achiever.
QR: My best subject on the practice tests, dont know what happened. I think I just got burnt out from the rest of the test... Ended it 15 minutes early. So my advice, practice on your stamina and DONT end sections before time is up.

One question though: For the RC, somehow a 21 equated to 76.5 percentile. How did that work out?

Good luck to everyone out there.

Thanks for the heads up. I bet you are on cloud nine right now.