DAT....Finally Done!

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AP30

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Hello Everyone,

I just took the DAT this past Wednesday and cant believe how relived I finally feel. I felt like this test was taking over my life, it had come to the point where I was thinking and dreaming about Bio/Che/Ochem while being asleep.

Here's the break down:

PAT 19
QR 18
RC 16
Bio 23
GC 25
OC 21
TS 23
AA 21

Here is how I prepared:

Bio: I went thru Cliff's AP book and destroyer. Cliffs is a great source for information, everything you need to know and more is in that book. I read the book once, and made small outlines of areas in which I was weak. Then after I felt comfortable with the material, I moved to the Destroyer, which really shows where you need to improve. The explinations help out a lot. I went thru the bio section 3-4 times, just to reinforce all the information.

Chem/Ochem: I used the DAT destroyer for this as well. I felt alot of the questions were more challenging in the book compared to the actual test, but I'd rather be over prepared than under prepared. I went thru these two sections 3-4 times as well.

PAT: I used crack PAT. I bought the full packaged but really only used reading and PAT. PAT exams are great, again, they're more difficult than the actual DAT, especially the hole punching. Although I did feel that key holes were alot more harder than any of the crack PAT exams I took.

Reading: I used crack reading, although the passages are much shorter than on the actual DAT. This was my weakest section and really I just ran out of time towards the end.

Math: I used the math destroyer for this. Math Destroyer will prepare you well for this. I would do a test and then review my mistakes the next day, and if you can really understand what you did wrong, just by going thru it once, I think most people could be ready. Although keep practicing because under the clock, you have to move fast and the stupid mistakes add up.

I think the tools I used prepared me well, and I was confident all the way up until I got into the pro metric parking lot on the day of. Whatever you do, do not panic! As I was walking in, I continuously just tried to keep my mind from freaking out. I kept on telling myself I'm not gonna worry about the score, I'll just go in there and perform at 110%...and I guess it went ok (minus the reading). haha
 
Congratssssss!!!!!!!!!! Must feel amazing to finally be done!!! 😀


How long did you study for?
 
your scores overall are great, but your reading comprehension is low. I have heard that most adcoms like to see high reading scores because it shows that you can retain info quickly.
 
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Hey Guys thanks for the feedback. Sorry, I have not heard of any major differences between Cliffs and Barron. I never really touched Barrons, but based of from what I read on these forums, Cliffs was the way to go.

I studied for a very long time, about 3 monhts. Towards the second half, I really crunched, on some days I would get in 10-12 hrs of studying (had to go the library for that, impossible to do it at home).

Yea, I know reading killed me, my last passage very technical and I ran out of time, so ended up guessing on the last few questions.
 
Congratulations. You must feel liberated now. Enjoy it while it lasts. Good luck in the future.
 
Nice job. But here is some advices from my personal experiences. Do not be too proud of your scores. I had kind of similar scores and so far I have been rejected from UCSF.
I am a Molecular Cell Biology major from UC Berkeley. science GPA 3.5/ Total GPA 3.64
DAT:
PAT 27
OCHEM 29
GCHEM 21
Bio 22
RC 17
QR 16
AA 21
TS 23
I also have more than 3000 hours of paid research experience and two second author papers, one of which is on development of the incisors in mice. I also have 200 hours of shadowing.

But plz do not get me wrong my friend. I am not tring to discourage you at all. Just make sure that not all the universities that you are applying to are high ranking schools, and include some average schools to be on the safe side.
Good luck
 
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