- Joined
- Jun 24, 2007
- Messages
- 897
- Reaction score
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After 2x re-scheduling I finally took the exam.
Started studying tiny amount of gchem during school year. Like maybe 1day/week. Not much really. Didn't really start studying until school ended in May. Even then I only watched like 1-2 of Chad's vid a day. Or read like 2-3 chapters of cliffs with some breaks in between. I like chem, o chem, and human bio. Also helps I take upper level bio and chem classes for my major. So they are pretty fresh for me. The last 2 weeks I studied for most of the day though.
Topscore practice exams 1/2/3
AA 23/23/22
BIO 21/19/17 (last one had too much taxonomy stuff I didn't study yet).
GC 28/28/25
OC 20/25/28
PAT 21/21/21
QR 22/21/20
RC 23/21/21
TS 22/22/21
-I bought achiever, but didn't do the full tests because I ran out of time. I only did 1 bio test and got 21.
I looked through the rest of the questions and only looked up the answer to the ones where I was like hmm what's this?
-Got CDP, scores were like 19,22,21 and then some more 21's. Only did 7 tests not the full 10.
-Did the pay ada exam and kaplan blue book exam. Scores were similar to topscore.
Overall the exam was kind of easy.
BIO:
Really basic. Most questions I got wrong were probably about taxonomy or something. I like human bio stuff. I took upper level bio classes and just took anatomy and physiology so we covered most of the stuff in there. Only stuff I was rusty was on evolution, ecology, taxonomy, and maybe some plant stuff. I didn't memorize any taxonomy stuff until the night before or maybe 2 nights before. I only memorized major classes that I saw questions about in topscore. Like about amoebas or which class can regenerate limbs. Some of the descriptions in cliffs are like "brown algae - they are photosynthetic (not sure if true just making it up)" I didn't bother memorizing those, that does not tell me anything. It made it seem unimportant. Kaplan BB also gives better descriptions of some of the stuff than in Cliffs. Like Cliffs doesn't mention anything about regererating limbs in echinodermata.
Like on the exam they asked me some taxonomy, so good I looked at it. But I only knew basics. When they asked something about insects, I didn't memorize the big bilateral, deuterosome table in cliffs. All I knew was like insects have jointed appendages so thats what I picked. Couldn't really weed the answers out on those and just kind of guessed. Could have memorized more taxonomy stuff.
Bio questions were really basic and easy, but they don't ask you the question directly like what is the name of this? They give you an example like "in a lab it was found that so and so... so what does this mean?" It was still easy.
For this I read cliff's 1-2x and ecology, evolution I focused on memorizing more. Read alan's notes. Did destroyer. Destroyer was really detailed and those 1,2, or all of the above answers made it hard.
GC
I like chemistry. Can you tell? It helps that I like chemistry and that I take upper level ones for my major. So it is fresh. Watched chad's videos maybe 1-2 a day. Then read kaplan BB then did destroyer. Got most of the questions on destroyer my first time through. Then I went through the answers and saw what I got wrong. Didn't go over it a second time.
OC
I like OC too. I thought OC and GC would be my two highest scores 24+. Not really sure what I got wrong. Some questions I was like what shouldn't there be an extra carbon? Thought the answer choices were wrong, but maybe I was just not familiar with that reaction. I watched's chad's videos then did destroyer. Also got most of the questions right the first time through. Then went through the answers. Read first couple of chapters of kaplan BB then skimmed rest since I thought I got most of the stuff down.
I also looked at the summaries and reactions at the end of chapters in my o chem book. Didn't focus on proteins much or carbs. Just knew D, L, what proteins look like at different pHs, mutarotation, etc.
I had some IR and NMR questions. I only remembered OH, C=O and C-O peaks in IR from when I took the class. In NMR I only knew how to do peak splitting and what downfield means. I watched chad's IR video the day before the exam. Didn't really prepare for it. Was feeling confident in my answers on the exam, but they could have been wrong. Could have prepared more for IR.
Though I did better in this section.
QR:
Did math destroyer. The first 4 tests. I didn't remember any trigonometry except soh, cah, toa. They had some questions that needed the unit circle but I didn't memorize it so I guessed. I have not taken trig since in high school. I also did not take precalc and skipped straight to ap calc in high school. In uni, I did calc I and II. I would rather have derivatives and integrating than trig.
Math destroyer was similar to the exam. I mean really similar. You should get it.
On the exam. I did all of the easy questions first. I had like 8 marked when I finished. I had like 15 minutes left when I went through it the first time. Then I went back and did the harder ones and word problems. I was a little worried with this section because I wasn't sure how many formulas or trigonometry stuff I needed to know and didn't spend much time memorizing it. I was hoping for 18+. So a 21 is good. I only started preparing for this about a week before the exam.
I only knew the area of square, circle, circumference, area of triangle, volume of cylinder, yards, miles, oz, temperature, etc. I didn't memorize the other ones like for the unit circle or trapezoids in the kaplan book.
The calculator did not lag. I used it a lot. It really helped. The calculator doesn't do exponents do except for square root. So if you wanna square something you have to do like 10 x 10.
PAT
I thought I did better. I got 21's on most cdp tests. The percentile is meh on here. The real test was easier than most of the exams I took too. On cdp I only got like 6 to 8 out of 15 angles right. I didn't have a strategy for it. I did the hill method, but if they make the angles upside down or twisted, I can't use it. Everything else I got like 12-13 out of 15 on cdp. When I first started doing TFE I was like what? After like 2 exams, it was easier just comparing lines and stuff.
The real exam:
TFE only like 1-3 here I wasn't sure about. It was one of my worst sections when studying at first, but easily got better at it.
Keyholes were easy.
Cubes were easy. There was not many cubes to count either. I did the grid method.
Angles some were easy and big difference and others were hard like CDP. No strategy for angles so I just picked what I thought and guessed. Probably got the most wrong in here.
Hole punches were easy too. Not like in cdp where they fold a triangle and then into a square and its all confusing. Some of the questions on the real exam, I was like how do you fold it like that? The folds did not make sense. I will post example from the sample ada later maybe.
Pattern folding was easy too. They used some of the questions where some sides are shaded and some aren't, but not many sides were shaded and it was not as confusing as cdp. Cdp was harder.
RC:
I don't like to read much. When I read textbooks for class I read slowly and take my time. I didn't feel I was doing too good on reading when I was taking the exam. Like questions were like "what statement best states the purpose of this essay" I was I dno, two of these sound good to me. Wasn't really sure if I was picking the right ones.
I started looking at the first 2-3 questions. Then I would read the first 5 paragraphs. After that I would just read the first sentence or skim the rest. Then I would kind of have an idea where to look and try answering questions. Sometimes I couldn't find what they are talking about so I skimmed the essay from the beginning really fast.
Other stuff.
simple jack - I went to eat something at hooters.
I was typing this and it logged me out so I had to re type it.
I like reading the posts here as most of the time they are the trick questions. Doing the trick ones gives the best practice.
Exam I had plenty of time to finish. Like for the sciences I had like 30+ min extra. Pat maybe like 5 min. RC was the only one I used the full time limit on.
I go to a state uni. My gpa is "high."
Was hoping for 23-24, but am happy with what I got.
Feels good to be done.
Started studying tiny amount of gchem during school year. Like maybe 1day/week. Not much really. Didn't really start studying until school ended in May. Even then I only watched like 1-2 of Chad's vid a day. Or read like 2-3 chapters of cliffs with some breaks in between. I like chem, o chem, and human bio. Also helps I take upper level bio and chem classes for my major. So they are pretty fresh for me. The last 2 weeks I studied for most of the day though.
Topscore practice exams 1/2/3
AA 23/23/22
BIO 21/19/17 (last one had too much taxonomy stuff I didn't study yet).
GC 28/28/25
OC 20/25/28
PAT 21/21/21
QR 22/21/20
RC 23/21/21
TS 22/22/21
-I bought achiever, but didn't do the full tests because I ran out of time. I only did 1 bio test and got 21.
I looked through the rest of the questions and only looked up the answer to the ones where I was like hmm what's this?
-Got CDP, scores were like 19,22,21 and then some more 21's. Only did 7 tests not the full 10.
-Did the pay ada exam and kaplan blue book exam. Scores were similar to topscore.
Overall the exam was kind of easy.
BIO:
Really basic. Most questions I got wrong were probably about taxonomy or something. I like human bio stuff. I took upper level bio classes and just took anatomy and physiology so we covered most of the stuff in there. Only stuff I was rusty was on evolution, ecology, taxonomy, and maybe some plant stuff. I didn't memorize any taxonomy stuff until the night before or maybe 2 nights before. I only memorized major classes that I saw questions about in topscore. Like about amoebas or which class can regenerate limbs. Some of the descriptions in cliffs are like "brown algae - they are photosynthetic (not sure if true just making it up)" I didn't bother memorizing those, that does not tell me anything. It made it seem unimportant. Kaplan BB also gives better descriptions of some of the stuff than in Cliffs. Like Cliffs doesn't mention anything about regererating limbs in echinodermata.
Like on the exam they asked me some taxonomy, so good I looked at it. But I only knew basics. When they asked something about insects, I didn't memorize the big bilateral, deuterosome table in cliffs. All I knew was like insects have jointed appendages so thats what I picked. Couldn't really weed the answers out on those and just kind of guessed. Could have memorized more taxonomy stuff.
Bio questions were really basic and easy, but they don't ask you the question directly like what is the name of this? They give you an example like "in a lab it was found that so and so... so what does this mean?" It was still easy.
For this I read cliff's 1-2x and ecology, evolution I focused on memorizing more. Read alan's notes. Did destroyer. Destroyer was really detailed and those 1,2, or all of the above answers made it hard.
GC
I like chemistry. Can you tell? It helps that I like chemistry and that I take upper level ones for my major. So it is fresh. Watched chad's videos maybe 1-2 a day. Then read kaplan BB then did destroyer. Got most of the questions on destroyer my first time through. Then I went through the answers and saw what I got wrong. Didn't go over it a second time.
OC
I like OC too. I thought OC and GC would be my two highest scores 24+. Not really sure what I got wrong. Some questions I was like what shouldn't there be an extra carbon? Thought the answer choices were wrong, but maybe I was just not familiar with that reaction. I watched's chad's videos then did destroyer. Also got most of the questions right the first time through. Then went through the answers. Read first couple of chapters of kaplan BB then skimmed rest since I thought I got most of the stuff down.
I also looked at the summaries and reactions at the end of chapters in my o chem book. Didn't focus on proteins much or carbs. Just knew D, L, what proteins look like at different pHs, mutarotation, etc.
I had some IR and NMR questions. I only remembered OH, C=O and C-O peaks in IR from when I took the class. In NMR I only knew how to do peak splitting and what downfield means. I watched chad's IR video the day before the exam. Didn't really prepare for it. Was feeling confident in my answers on the exam, but they could have been wrong. Could have prepared more for IR.
Though I did better in this section.
QR:
Did math destroyer. The first 4 tests. I didn't remember any trigonometry except soh, cah, toa. They had some questions that needed the unit circle but I didn't memorize it so I guessed. I have not taken trig since in high school. I also did not take precalc and skipped straight to ap calc in high school. In uni, I did calc I and II. I would rather have derivatives and integrating than trig.
Math destroyer was similar to the exam. I mean really similar. You should get it.
On the exam. I did all of the easy questions first. I had like 8 marked when I finished. I had like 15 minutes left when I went through it the first time. Then I went back and did the harder ones and word problems. I was a little worried with this section because I wasn't sure how many formulas or trigonometry stuff I needed to know and didn't spend much time memorizing it. I was hoping for 18+. So a 21 is good. I only started preparing for this about a week before the exam.
I only knew the area of square, circle, circumference, area of triangle, volume of cylinder, yards, miles, oz, temperature, etc. I didn't memorize the other ones like for the unit circle or trapezoids in the kaplan book.
The calculator did not lag. I used it a lot. It really helped. The calculator doesn't do exponents do except for square root. So if you wanna square something you have to do like 10 x 10.
PAT
I thought I did better. I got 21's on most cdp tests. The percentile is meh on here. The real test was easier than most of the exams I took too. On cdp I only got like 6 to 8 out of 15 angles right. I didn't have a strategy for it. I did the hill method, but if they make the angles upside down or twisted, I can't use it. Everything else I got like 12-13 out of 15 on cdp. When I first started doing TFE I was like what? After like 2 exams, it was easier just comparing lines and stuff.
The real exam:
TFE only like 1-3 here I wasn't sure about. It was one of my worst sections when studying at first, but easily got better at it.
Keyholes were easy.
Cubes were easy. There was not many cubes to count either. I did the grid method.
Angles some were easy and big difference and others were hard like CDP. No strategy for angles so I just picked what I thought and guessed. Probably got the most wrong in here.
Hole punches were easy too. Not like in cdp where they fold a triangle and then into a square and its all confusing. Some of the questions on the real exam, I was like how do you fold it like that? The folds did not make sense. I will post example from the sample ada later maybe.
Pattern folding was easy too. They used some of the questions where some sides are shaded and some aren't, but not many sides were shaded and it was not as confusing as cdp. Cdp was harder.
RC:
I don't like to read much. When I read textbooks for class I read slowly and take my time. I didn't feel I was doing too good on reading when I was taking the exam. Like questions were like "what statement best states the purpose of this essay" I was I dno, two of these sound good to me. Wasn't really sure if I was picking the right ones.
I started looking at the first 2-3 questions. Then I would read the first 5 paragraphs. After that I would just read the first sentence or skim the rest. Then I would kind of have an idea where to look and try answering questions. Sometimes I couldn't find what they are talking about so I skimmed the essay from the beginning really fast.
Other stuff.
simple jack - I went to eat something at hooters.
I was typing this and it logged me out so I had to re type it.
I like reading the posts here as most of the time they are the trick questions. Doing the trick ones gives the best practice.
Exam I had plenty of time to finish. Like for the sciences I had like 30+ min extra. Pat maybe like 5 min. RC was the only one I used the full time limit on.
I go to a state uni. My gpa is "high."
Was hoping for 23-24, but am happy with what I got.
Feels good to be done.
Last edited:
