DAT done!

[la brat]

Bio 18
OC 22
GC 21
RC 22
QR 21
PAT 28 (100th %)
TS 20
AA 21

Thanks for all the tips to those who posted and replied. Here's my take on the test...

Bio: must've had an off day, missed a few too many. I studied the most for this by 10x (how stupid). Turns out nothing, not even destroyer or even Shaums's (although the best source) really prepares you for the random wording of questions and the weird similarities in answer choices of some of the questions. Half the questions were as easy as they come, but half were just plain bizarre. I conclude the following about biology: other than luck or absolute peak performance, being a bio major or taking a lot of bio classes (six or seven) would benefit the test taker the most. (I was a film major back in college. No matter how many thousands of films you guys have seen, I just have a greater understanding of the language of film than those who didn't major in it from having studied it from so many angles so many times). Don't slack on ecology, comparative anatomy, or other boring topics: I got killed on these questions.

O-chem/g-chem: very fair. Destroyer was very good for these sections. I feel I would've done slightly better in OC if I had anticipated the difficulty of some of the spectroscopy questions (Kaplan is not in depth enough for this). Both sections also had random lab questions that threw me off. My advice is to make sure you know lab techniques, materials, and spectroscopy well for both sections. Otherwise, fairly easy.

Reading comp: Don't know what to say. I went straight to the questions and skimmed the passage for answers. I thought I was getting every single one right, but oh well. Of note, I believe neither topscore nor achiever did a good job preparing you for this section. My advice would be to practice using MCAT materials even though the format is different.

PAT: Aced this section. I always had a knack for this kind of stuff. I had good techniques for every section, and it payed off. Way easier than achiever, by the way. Kaplan and Topscore are insufficient. Crack the PAT is very good although the hole punching is too difficult.

QR: Surprised myself. The best thing I believe you can do for yourself here with such little time is to completely skip all word problems first time through. Do not second guess your math calculations. Overall impression is that it wasn't as bad as everyone said.

Topscore was just too easy overall. Achiever was more like the real thing, if a little difficult. No biology source was sufficient to prepare you, but those who have taken more than the basic courses should be good. During the test, I thought I was doing exceptionally well and felt relaxed. Boy was I surprised by my average bio score. Overall, be very vigilant for careless errors and do not dwell for not even 10 seconds on questions you're not very sure about. Most importantly for those studying: concentrate on improving all other sections besides biology! It's a much more realistic way of increasing your overall score. My too cents.

I feel okay about my application, but am a little worried about a few C's in geology I got back in the 90's in college. I hope they weigh BPC average more; for that I have a 3.6. I also am curious about exactly how many dental EC's you need to be competitive. I have 75 hours of shadowing and 85 hours of volunteering at UCLA dental clinic. But working and being out of college limits the exposure and free time. Any thoughts?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[happyasaclam88]

WOW!! that is an amazing pat score! congratulations on being finished and on doing so well.
pat is by far the hardest section to do this for, but any hints or advice? i find angle ranking to be devilishly (and embarrassingly) difficult.
also, what sort of lab questions were there for gchem/ochem?

again, congratulations! you're sure to do fine.

 

[doc3232]

nice Pat score...Too nice. Rest is great too.

 

[OMFS08]

Bio 18
OC 22
GC 21
RC 22
QR 21
PAT 28 (100th %)
TS 20
AA 21

Thanks for all the tips to those who posted and replied. Here's my take on the test...

Bio: must've had an off day, missed a few too many. I studied the most for this by 10x (how stupid). Turns out nothing, not even destroyer or even Shaums's (although the best source) really prepares you for the random wording of questions and the weird similarities in answer choices of some of the questions. Half the questions were as easy as they come, but half were just plain bizarre. I conclude the following about biology: other than luck or absolute peak performance, being a bio major or taking a lot of bio classes (six or seven) would benefit the test taker the most. (I was a film major back in college. No matter how many thousands of films you guys have seen, I just have a greater understanding of the language of film than those who didn't major in it from having studied it from so many angles so many times). Don't slack on ecology, comparative anatomy, or other boring topics: I got killed on these questions.

O-chem/g-chem: very fair. Destroyer was very good for these sections. I feel I would've done slightly better in OC if I had anticipated the difficulty of some of the spectroscopy questions (Kaplan is not in depth enough for this). Both sections also had random lab questions that threw me off. My advice is to make sure you know lab techniques, materials, and spectroscopy well for both sections. Otherwise, fairly easy.

Reading comp: Don't know what to say. I went straight to the questions and skimmed the passage for answers. I thought I was getting every single one right, but oh well. Of note, I believe neither topscore nor achiever did a good job preparing you for this section. My advice would be to practice using MCAT materials even though the format is different.

PAT: Aced this section. I always had a knack for this kind of stuff. I had good techniques for every section, and it payed off. Way easier than achiever, by the way. Kaplan and Topscore are insufficient. Crack the PAT is very good although the hole punching is too difficult.

QR: Surprised myself. The best thing I believe you can do for yourself here with such little time is to completely skip all word problems first time through. Do not second guess your math calculations. Overall impression is that it wasn't as bad as everyone said.

Topscore was just too easy overall. Achiever was more like the real thing, if a little difficult. No biology source was sufficient to prepare you, but those who have taken more than the basic courses should be good. During the test, I thought I was doing exceptionally well and felt relaxed. Boy was I surprised by my average bio score. Overall, be very vigilant for careless errors and do not dwell for not even 10 seconds on questions you're not very sure about. Most importantly for those studying: concentrate on improving all other sections besides biology! It's a much more realistic way of increasing your overall score. My too cents.

I feel okay about my application, but am a little worried about a few C's in geology I got back in the 90's in college. I hope they weigh BPC average more; for that I have a 3.6. I also am curious about exactly how many dental EC's you need to be competitive. I have 75 hours of shadowing and 85 hours of volunteering at UCLA dental clinic. But working and being out of college limits the exposure and free time. Any thoughts?

WOW!!!1 I am amazed at your PAT score. Surprised to hear you were a film major. Wow! I really hope I can do this. How long did you study for? How many hrs per day? Did you practice destroyer simultaneously while studying or afterwards?

 

[la brat]

WOW!! that is an amazing pat score! congratulations on being finished and on doing so well.
pat is by far the hardest section to do this for, but any hints or advice? i find angle ranking to be devilishly (and embarrassingly) difficult.
also, what sort of lab questions were there for gchem/ochem?

again, congratulations! you're sure to do fine.

;
I have a few suggestions for angle ranking. they may sound funny, but give it a try: imagine the different slopes of the angles as peoples' noses. Use your vanity to get a sense of which nose you'd want for someone (smallest, or largest if you prefer). Another way is to imagine the slopes as hills that you're riding your bike down. Switch your focus quickly between the two closest hills and you should get a sense of which one would be slightly riskier. Those are just a few tricks. The basic principle is to quickly move your eyes back and forth between two answer choices after you've lined up the slopes in your mind; you may even need to tilt your head to get the correct perspective for comparison. You should then just get a sense of which one is ever so slightly smaller.

The lab questions had to do with column chromatography, acid/base indicators, and density measuring

 

[baedero1]

do you recall what plant questions did you have?
and RC topics?

 

[Sama951]

PAT 28 (100th %)

I love you

 

[la brat]

WOW!!!1 I am amazed at your PAT score. Surprised to hear you were a film major. Wow! I really hope I can do this. How long did you study for? How many hrs per day? Did you practice destroyer simultaneously while studying or afterwards?

I studied for about 4 months, a couple of hours a day. I can't pull off the 10 hours a day routine. I find pacing around, imagining the facts in my head as a "lesson plan movie" works best no matter which subject. I studied for destroyer simultaneously while studying other texts: I think the o-chem, while difficult, reinforced important reaction concepts. The g-chem in destroyer was perfect. Biology in destroyer was okay, but if you read my rant, it wasn't all that challenging as far as applying concepts. I would have to say that not over-thinking the wording of the bio questions during the exam is necessary; otherwise, they can really mess with your head. Go with your gut instinct. Unfortunately, you need a good foundation, more than just intense studying, to hone that instinct.

 

[jigabodo]

Need I say more?

 

[la brat]

do you recall what plant questions did you have?
and RC topics?

Yes I do: none! And it sucks, cause I knew plants really well. Maybe their were some ecology related stuff, but nothing on meristems, cambrium, all that crap I knew.

RC topics were a few diseases and pianos

 

[la brat]

I love you

Thank you. I hope you're female, but even so...

 

[Sama951]

Thank you. I hope you're female, but even so...

No sir, sorry to disappoint.

 

[la brat]

No sir, sorry to disappoint.

No problem. I love all Canadians, except the French ones

 

[Sama951]

No problem. I love all Canadians, except the French ones

yeah they get a lot of flack because we need to put french labels on everything that gets sold in this country. It gets especially confusing when you're 10 and you tell your dad to buy you grape juice, so he brings home "raisin" juice and you start to hate him for not being able to follow simple instructions even though, as it turns out, raisin is french for grape and you would have known that had you turned the tetra-pak around...

.....................nice PAT score

 

[Predentknight]

WOW awesome scores. Congrats. What did the numbers on your practice exams look like. For Ochem did you find many questions dealing with carbohydrates and amino acids? How complex were the general chemistry questions? for example were there a lot of complex hypothetical situations or more basic concepts. Do you think Crack PAT was a good purchase or was achiever sufficient. Thanks for all the great advice.

 

[la brat]

yeah they get a lot of flack because we need to put french labels on everything that gets sold in this country. It gets especially confusing when you're 10 and you tell your dad to buy you grape juice, so he brings home "raisin" juice and you start to hate him for not being able to follow simple instructions even though, as it turns out, raisin is french for grape and you would have known that had you turned the tetra-pak around...

.....................nice PAT score

Sounds like a Seinfeld bit. I actually don't mind the quebecois. The women in Montreal are really hot too

 

[la brat]

WOW awesome scores. Congrats. What did the numbers on your practice exams look like. For Ochem did you find many questions dealing with carbohydrates and amino acids? How complex were the general chemistry questions? for example were there a lot of complex hypothetical situations or more basic concepts. Do you think Crack PAT was a good purchase or was achiever sufficient. Thanks for all the great advice.

Ochem: one carb question on stucture of glucose, that's it

g-chem: not that much conceptual. Lot's of math-based and non-math based calculations including VSPER, relative solubilities, intermolecular forces. Nothing really difficult. Yes, basic concepts. Don't worry.

PAT: Crack pat is best in my opinion. Achiever is a little overkill

 

[OMFS08]

I studied for about 4 months, a couple of hours a day. I can't pull off the 10 hours a day routine. I find pacing around, imagining the facts in my head as a "lesson plan movie" works best no matter which subject. I studied for destroyer simultaneously while studying other texts: I think the o-chem, while difficult, reinforced important reaction concepts. The g-chem in destroyer was perfect. Biology in destroyer was okay, but if you read my rant, it wasn't all that challenging as far as applying concepts. I would have to say that not over-thinking the wording of the bio questions during the exam is necessary; otherwise, they can really mess with your head. Go with your gut instinct. Unfortunately, you need a good foundation, more than just intense studying, to hone that instinct.

Congrats again man, your my inspiration, my exam is august 9th and I am one of those 10 hr a day study people. I realized that its only been 4 days and I have almost finished the kaplan book hahhaahha. Well maybe I should slow down so I can actually study. My goal is to finish the entire book in a month then reread once or twice. Whats your trick for the RC? Is going straight to the questions good given the time constraints? How old are you by the way if you dont mind me asking?

 

[AFF2009]

Nice scores!! congraz

Quick question on the Bio section did u have any images or cells? also did u have wierd phyla of the fungi, protist. etc..

Also for the QR, did u have trig identities, or wierd polygons?

Thanks...
Best of luck for the rest of your application

 

[la brat]

Congrats again man, your my inspiration, my exam is august 9th and I am one of those 10 hr a day study people. I realized that its only been 4 days and I have almost finished the kaplan book hahhaahha. Well maybe I should slow down so I can actually study. My goal is to finish the entire book in a month then reread once or twice. Whats your trick for the RC? Is going straight to the questions good given the time constraints? How old are you by the way if you dont mind me asking?

Don't mind at all. I'm 31.

I don't think there is a real trick to RC except mental awareness. Since you have a 15 minute break right before this section, I suggest drinking some light caffeinated drink which should perk you up. If there's any section you should almost rush through, at least work at a feverish pace, RC is it. Skim the passage -- read the intro paragraph, the first sentence of each subsequent paragraph. Then go straight to the questions and skim the paragraphs for the answer. But if you're taking longer than 10 seconds to locate the area of the answer, mark it and move on. Always mark and move on from general questions regarding tone of passage and author's intent: they are the biggest time drainers. for most of the questions, make sure to read the sentence before and after the answer-containing sentence to make sure there is no qualifying statement that either modifies, augments, or contradicts your supposed answer; this is one of the most obvious tricks for these test writers. hope this helps

 

[la brat]

Nice scores!! congraz

Quick question on the Bio section did u have any images or cells? also did u have wierd phyla of the fungi, protist. etc..

Also for the QR, did u have trig identities, or wierd polygons?

Thanks...
Best of luck for the rest of your application

For the bio, no cell images and no phylogeny questions. I'm actually mad because I think questions relating to structures of cells in pictures or phyla/class names are relatively easy compared to those random application questions. If I were you, I'd pray for any straight ahead question that you could answer purely from reading review or textbooks.

For math, there was one or two trig identity questions and one polygon that wasn't "weird". Just make sure to skip all complicated math problems to ensure that you don't run out of time to answer the easier ones. Math is more test taking technique than problem solving skills in my opinion

 

[DCRedskinsRule]

pat is by far the hardest section to do this for, but any hints or advice? i find angle ranking to be devilishly (and embarrassingly) difficult.

I think I have a pretty nifty trick that worked for most of the angle ranking questions when I took the test. Always locate the smallest and the largest angles first, b/c those are usually the most obvious. By doing that, you can usually eliminate 2/4 if not 3/4 answer choices. If you're down to two, then just rank the middle and you got your answer.

The other trick that I used was to look at the angles and not answers at all and rank them on my own scratch paper (or in your head if you can keep track of that stuff well). That way, you won't fall for a common answer trap.

Hope this helps!

 

[TempleDMDKrazd]

wow.....very nice and consistent scores....!!!

 

[AFF2009]

La brat, I was wondering did u have any bio lab questions: (gel, western blot,...)?

 

[la brat]

La brat, I was wondering did u have any bio lab questions: (gel, western blot,...)?

No I didn't. And like I answered some previous queries about what showed up in the bio section, I knew those techniques really well from taking genetics this semester. So I was very angry that they didn't turn up on the DAT. In my opinion, you should hope for the following to turn up on your test: lab questions (besides FRAP), phylogenic questions (all you have to do is memorize), cell respiration/ photosynthesis (think about how many times you have gone over these subjects), osmosis/ electrical gradients -- none of these showed up on my exam.

Instead, here's an example of a DAT-type question (I'm just making this up, nothing like it appeared on my test): "let's say you had an animal that is pseudocolemate with a skin-diffusion circulatory system but produced uric acid crystals for waste products. What would be the ideal excretory organs for this creature? nephron, nephrida, flame cells, incomplete gut, ect" The point is not to memorize which phylum has which type of excretory system to answer this kind of question. Rather knowing the evolution of animals gives reason as to why certain systems developed according to their advantages from the previous ones.

 

[osimsDDS]

is it incomplete gut?

Reasoning: since a nephron is usually for higher order animals (cant be lower order pseudocolemate), nephridia is most commonly found in annelids, anthropods, and mulluscs (which are colemates)...and finally flame cells or protonephridia are found i flatworms that are acolemates

 

[osimsDDS]

I actually tried your suggestion on angle ranking with the nose thing, it actually worked hahaha

 

[la brat]

is it incomplete gut?

Reasoning: since a nephron is usually for higher order animals (cant be lower order pseudocolemate), nephridia is most commonly found in annelids, anthropods, and mulluscs (which are colemates)...and finally flame cells or protonephridia are found i flatworms that are acolemates

That sounds right. I didn't give the answer much thought. Just realize the point of the question: to think critically when applying your understanding of biological systems. You sound much more on top of it than I was. Good luck to you and everyone else.

Bababooey!

 

[Predentole]

No I didn't. And like I answered some previous queries about what showed up in the bio section, I knew those techniques really well from taking genetics this semester. So I was very angry that they didn't turn up on the DAT. In my opinion, you should hope for the following to turn up on your test: lab questions (besides FRAP), phylogenic questions (all you have to do is memorize), cell respiration/ photosynthesis (think about how many times you have gone over these subjects), osmosis/ electrical gradients -- none of these showed up on my exam.

Instead, here's an example of a DAT-type question (I'm just making this up, nothing like it appeared on my test): "let's say you had an animal that is pseudocolemate with a skin-diffusion circulatory system but produced uric acid crystals for waste products. What would be the ideal excretory organs for this creature? nephron, nephrida, flame cells, incomplete gut, ect" The point is not to memorize which phylum has which type of excretory system to answer this kind of question. Rather knowing the evolution of animals gives reason as to why certain systems developed according to their advantages from the previous ones.

Was the biology honestly this detailed and conceptual? I know this was an example but from the 3 sources I study off of for bio, I haven't even ran across flame cells or incomplete gut...

 

[doc3232]

You must of come across incomplete gut somewhere, maybe you just skimmed over it too fast. Flame cells aren't too bad either.

 

[la brat]

Was the biology honestly this detailed and conceptual? I know this was an example but from the 3 sources I study off of for bio, I haven't even ran across flame cells or incomplete gut...

yes. try other sources. Cliff's AP bio, schaum's, other review guides, Kaplan sucks for bio. Use a textbook if you have the time

 

[allstardentist]

good job