DAT Done

[hooshies]

Hey everyone.

A few things. First, I know I'm WAAAAY late in the cycle, so keep the lectures about that to yourself (believe me, I'm kicking myself enough!). Also, I prepped for the DAT for about 2 months, the last month being hardcore 10 hour/day study sessions. I haven't taken any bio courses for 3 years, and no gchem/ochem courses in 2 years. A lot of my time was spent trying to re-learn many things.

Anyways, here goes:

BIO: 18
GCHEM: 18
OCHEM: 18 <-- was actually shocked by this (had been getting 25+ on all practice tests)
TS: 18
PAT: 25
RC: 24
QR: 24 <-- Not sure what I missed (I chalk it up to stupid mistakes, anyone else think 4x5=25?)
AA: 20

I know my chances of even getting an interview are slim to none (and slim just left the building) but there's always hope aka wishful thinking.

I'll be retaking the DAT if I don't get in, so that's that. Overall, I'm just really disappointed in myself, because I felt like I should have scored higher on the TS, that would have made my AA much more competitive given my other scores (and who knows whether I'll be able to duplicate those scores in my retake!)

Any questions/suggestions/constructive criticism is welcome. I've submitted my application to 17 schools in the country, and hopefully I'll get at least 1 interview.

My total GPA is a 3.8, SCI: 3.4. I've done the 500+ hours of job shadowing, 500+ hours of research/volunteering, and the whole nine yards. So basically only thing I can improve is my DAT.

Lets pray it doesn't come to that

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[hooshies]

Thought I'd go into a bit more detail.

Bio: Um, I'm terrible at bio. I hate memorizing things, and I never learned intro level biology that well in the first place, so I figured this would be my lowest score. It really wasn't as hard as I expected, Achiever was much tougher. I prepped for the test using Kaplan, Schaum's Bio, TopScore, and Achiever. I think Schaum's is a great tool, and I'm disappointed I didn't utilize it more. The Kaplan bio material was probably the least helpful of the tools I used, though still not bad.

Gchem: I was expecting 20+ on this section. It really didn't seem that difficult, I wasn't guessing on questions, and I definitely felt like I did better than an 18. There were a few calculation problems, but in those the numbers either worked out easily, or you just had to set up the calculation, so no big deal there.

Ochem: I have no idea what happened here. I had scored 25+ on every practice test for the orgo section, and the DAT was definitely not harder than TopScore or Achiever. All I can think is that maybe I was getting tired toward the end of the section, but I doubt that too. I didn't use Destroyer, so that might have helped, but I really felt like I knew my stuff. There were A LOT more reactions than I expected. It seemed like 20/30 questions were reactions, maybe more.

PAT: 1) keyhole was easier than Achiever by far. Kaplan's PAT stuff is a joke compare to anything else, but the DAT is about halfway between Kaplan and Achiever. Achiever definitely kills you on this section, and it was fantastic practice; 2) TFE, same as keyhole. Pretty straight forward, take your time and the answer will be pretty easy to find. I'm also convinced that a question in this section was flawed, there were 2 correct answers. I'm 99% sure; 3) Hole punching, a JOKE compared to Achiever. Achiever gives you 3-4 folds, then 2, 3, sometimes 4 holes. DAT gives you 2-3 folds, and 2-3 holes. And a few of the questions were Kaplan-level questions, takes about 2 seconds to answer those if you've done enough practice; 4) angle ranking is just ridiculous. Nothing can prepare you for this section. Achiever is the best I think, but the angles look the same too often. you're either good at this section or you're not. I think I guessed on 3 or 4 of these. i tried to use the "pixel" factor of the monitor, maybe helped on a few; 5) cube counting: I feel like its inexcusable to miss a question here. The cubes are there, just count em; 6) pattern folding wasn't as hard as Achiever either. A few tough ones, one extremely hard one that I guessed on, marked, and came back to with 5 minutes left and got the right answer (i think). Overall, do Achiever PAT and you will be well-prepared.

RC: I'm a philosophy major, so I've gotten used to reading a large amount of BS in a short amount of time and taking in what's important. The 3 articles I had were about 1) visual motion sensing, 2) alligator dome pressure receptors, and 3) fungi and microbes. The questions were pretty straight-forward, no curveballs. there was one question on the first passage that I found to be unreasonable. it asked for a general sense of the article, and I felt like two of the answer choices were equally right. Other than that, not much advice. I semi-used the Kaplan outline method. I wrote down important phrases and paragraph #'s next to em just to keep track for myself, but I only read the article once as fast as I could without losing focus, and just went back for the answers later (if you split it up 12 minutes reading 8 minutes for Q's you should be fine).

QR: Pretty average. Most of the questions were similar to Achiever, some had a few twists thrown in to make sure you were reading the question. 2 probability questions, some work/rate questions, and a some geometry. the rest was simple algebra and some trig. there was one question that really threw me off: (Sec^2 A) + (Tan A) - 3 = 0 --> find A. I took a semi-guess. I had forgotten the trig identities for secant squared. I think if you cancelled out some of the trig functions you could get the answer by process of elimination. I think the key to this section is to just relax, and realize that you have enough time. Don't worry too much if you're spending a minute on a certain question, because there will be questions that you will (or at least, should) answer in just a few seconds, so everything balances out. I don't want to give out too much advice on this section, because I've always just been really good at math, and I did basically zero prep for this section (I usually skipped this section on Achiever and TopScore practice tests).

Overall impression: pretty much what I expected. I should have done better on the science, but I wasn't as well-prepared as I wanted to be. For the other 3 sections, just use Achiever and TopScore, and you should be fine. The key to all sections is really to stay calm, stay focused, breathe slowly, and make sure to read the ENTIRE question. Look away from the monitor for a few seconds every 10 minutes or so, just to make sure your eyes don't start to lose focus or tear up.

Kaplan is a good first source, but I would CERTAINLY supplement with more materials. Schaum's outline is excellent, if you actually use it, and of course your textbooks have most of the information needed anyways. If I end up retaking, I'll probably use Destroyer or something else to try to boost my TS score.

If anyone has any more questions, please feel free to ask. I'll help to the best of my abilities.