DAT finished 3/27/08

[peterngu]

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Just finished the DAT about an hour ago.
PAT=23 (the only score I'm proud of)
QR=18
RC=19
Bio=19
GChem=20
OChem=19
TSA=19
AA=19

As some other SDN-er put it before, I really benefited from the posts in this forum and would like to give back in anyway possible. Please ask questions that you may have about the test but keep them in this thread so that others can read it too (rather than PM'ing)!
Bio was very random, and I had to draw upon knowledge from upper division classes to answer some of them if I could (questions about laboratory techniques like http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=442518). I felt that my study materials prepared me for a best possible score of maybe 22.
QR had pretty difficult word problems that consumed a lot of time trying to figure out.
GC and OC were more or less straight-forward, even though I didn't do that well.
RC decided to throw a 24-paragraph passage at me. That definitely threw me off.
PAT seemed pretty straight forward to me. There weren't too many tricky problems except the angle rankings. Prometric now has video footage of me trying to do an owl impersonation.
Study Materials
1)Kaplan - I took the Kaplan course about 3 years ago and kept the books and flashcards. I annotated the entire Kaplan book, made sure I knew the flashcards, and did all of the review problems. I also made use of their online practice problems. This seemed to test my fundamentals pretty well for GC and OC, but again, Bio was very random and all over the place.
2)acethedatdotcom - The practice full-length exams were great confidence boosters, even if the scores were miscalculated, or graded incorrectly. The most useful aspect of the website was their PAT which had great 3-d models that could be rotated to help with the mental perception. It got me used to paying attention to proportions when trying to eliminate answers for keyholes and such.
3)DATAchiever - While falling within the scope of what we're supposed to study, I felt the tests were more difficult than the test and I was scoring 16-17s. Despite that, the explanations for the questions were excellent for use as a study tool and make you think about the concepts rather than straight memorize.

 

[Bizznet]

Thanks for you write up. Extremely well done on the pat section. Given a good gpa you should be able to make a good run for the upcoming cycle.

 

[dantheman2007]

your scores are like mine; Great Job!!
assuming you apply early, to the right schools, with a GPA of 3.5 you should be set.
Best,
Dan

 

[klutzy1987]

great job consistent scores and no low ones you should be just fine. Make sure you got all the Ec taken care of and you will be allright congrats.

 

[illbirz]

I was wondering as far as biology goes you said you had Qs about lab work rather than evo, or anatomy? "oh boy!" and btw as far as the ochem section did u have nomenclature on there? Thnx.

 

[DanNuch]

nice job man, those are great scores that anyone would be proud of.

im studying now and also feel the kaplan book is kind of "general" when it comes to biology, did you find that it covered all the basic concepts though? Like maybe a good plan would be to get the basics from kaplan then later go into depth?

this is my plan now and it seems to be going alright, im just worried that if kaplan is missing somthing then i'll forget to go over it...

once again, great job

 

[klutzy1987]

nice job man, those are great scores that anyone would be proud of.

im studying now and also feel the kaplan book is kind of "general" when it comes to biology, did you find that it covered all the basic concepts though? Like maybe a good plan would be to get the basics from kaplan then later go into depth?

this is my plan now and it seems to be going alright, im just worried that if kaplan is missing somthing then i'll forget to go over it...

once again, great job

Get the cliffs AP and the destroyer for bio the kaplans isnt good enough alone.

 

[laugh]

Nice score! Congrads

 

[tamkhan]

Scores are good. Very consistent👍. Make sure you apply early, and to the right schools.

 

[aym4]

Nice scores. Did you do the acheiver RC sections? and if so how did you score? Thanks!

 

[peterngu]

1st off, thanks to everyone for their kind words and encouragement! I definitely appreciate it.

illbirz - The bio section had one or two questions on everything (by everything, I mean the subjects found in the Kaplan blue book and then a few extra ones like experimental genetic recombination.) I was just a little surprised and upset that even though I paid $1100 (the old price by the way) for Kaplan, I felt totally unprepared for such upper division biology questions. There were also questions on evolution and anatomy. I think the best way to describe the topics I didn't encounter in my review are lab techniques "commonly" discussed or used in scientific papers (eg Scientific American, or other scientific journals they make you read in upper division biology classes). I feel I got lucky I was a Bio major in undergrad and had to read lots of those papers. As far as that goes, I would suggest googling or using wikipedia for the main concepts behind commonly used lab techniques. A short list should suffice. However, that was only two questions out of 40. Don't slack off on the other topics! For OC, I saw one or two nomenclature questions, but they were so basic I felt they were the gimmes given by the DAT gods from on high. Even though they were basic, I would not let my guard down. Just study as hard as you have been for that particular topic.

DanNuch - I feel that is an excellent approach, and the one I took too. I annotated the whole Kaplan book (you don't have to do that) and did every review question. However, that only covered the basics. Schaum's outline of biology is a great resource to fill in the holes when you take Bio practice problems and see that you get some wrong because it's describe in a way you didn't encounter. Also, wikipedia is a great resource for me when I didn't want to fish through the Schaum book.
Kaplan does cover a few lab techniques like centrifugation, electrophoresis and such, but it would be wise to cover your bases and add several more to cover the ones Kaplan and the mighty Schaum's don't cover.

aym4 - aym4, it's funny that you asked that. I did do the RC on achiever, and I consistently got 22-23, and that number jumped to 27-28 for the other 6-7 practice tests I took. In fact, my best scores on practice exams were RC, QR and PAT, all hovering around 24-25 at least while GChem was my lowest consistently around 16, up to two days before the test. As you can see, my scores decided to reverse on me. After taking the DAT, I would have to recommend Achiever just for the one or two 24-paragraph passages they throw at you. I made the mistake of trying to outline that one 24-paragraph passage on the real thing and left myself oh-so-little time to answer the remaining questions.

I probably have to take back the comment I made about not being prepared for a bio score of greater than 22. That's not true. I was just a little flustered by the few questions I never saw in review. They were probably only 2 out of 40 questions, which would still give me a very high score.

Please feel free to continue asking questions within the thread.

 

[113zami]

how was the QR section compared to kaplan subject tests?, were they tricky or just time consuming?

 

[Willem]

Hey man, Id remove what the name of your OC nomenclature question was. Granted, its not like nomenclature is the least of our worries on this test and you arent even sure that was the answer, but they tend to get a bit upset here when you post exact things you remember from the test rather than general topics.

Anyway, I would be proud of your grades if I were you. You need to pat yourself on the back for all of your hard studying. Also thanks for some of the advice. Mine is this afternoon and I can barely sit still I am so nervous. Going to be glad when its over.

 

[peterngu]

how was the QR section compared to kaplan subject tests?, were they tricky or just time consuming?

Both. BOTH. I was able to figure out most of the kaplan subject test word questions, but found myself skipping most of the word problems on the real thing and then coming back and guessing.

Thanks Willem, my mistake. I'm very new to posting as you can tell.

 

[DRKNM]

Congrats on the scores and passing this obstacle!!! I have several questions if you don`t mind.
1)did you use destroyer?
2)what was your strategy for taking the RC part, in details, and how did you prepare for it? did you have to use marker and laminated paper for scratch paper?
3)did you use topscore?
4)Did you have any micro or immunology questions?
5)what about genetics? i heard that they have some difficult questions, what is a good study guide for this? should i just use a genetics book?
6)any questions from the following topics:world bioms, material cycles,ecology,animal behavior, taxonomic classification where they ask for similarities/diff between phyla, PLANT, embryology?

This question is for anyone who is kind enough to please explain to me good ways to figure solve TFE problems in the PAT. any links with examples that you can attach would be great since that is the fastest way for me to learn the method.

That is it for now. I hope that you guys will answer my questions and help through the last obstacle.

Thanks

 

[peterngu]

Congrats on the scores and passing this obstacle!!! I have several questions if you don`t mind.
1)did you use destroyer?
2)what was your strategy for taking the RC part, in details, and how did you prepare for it? did you have to use marker and laminated paper for scratch paper?
3)did you use topscore?
4)Did you have any micro or immunology questions?
5)what about genetics? i heard that they have some difficult questions, what is a good study guide for this? should i just use a genetics book?
6)any questions from the following topics:world bioms, material cycles,ecology,animal behavior, taxonomic classification where they ask for similarities/diff between phyla, PLANT, embryology?

This question is for anyone who is kind enough to please explain to me good ways to figure solve TFE problems in the PAT. any links with examples that you can attach would be great since that is the fastest way for me to learn the method.

That is it for now. I hope that you guys will answer my questions and help through the last obstacle.

Thanks

1)No, I didn't use Destroyer. I was a little turned off by the price. From what I gather though, it seems like a really good resource especially for OCHEM. You should ignore the skeptics that seem to attack anyone that endorses Destroyer.
2)For the RC, I went through the paragraphs quickly and outlined each paragraph as fast as I could. From there I used my outline to find information for each question. I can't say that is the best strategy, since I only scored in the 50th percentile for that section. The only way to prepare for it is to practice, and often! And yes, I had to use the laminated paper and pen. I'd suggest going to check out your test-site well in advance to avoid surprises. The people at my test center were kind enough to let me see the materials they would give me and the computers.
3)No, I didn't use Topscore. You're making me feel like I didn't use enough study material, !
4 and 5) There were some questions from some of those sections (genetics and immunology), but they weren't terribly difficult. Schaum's and Kaplan cover what you need to know in those topics. The review questions in Schaum's outline of biology help a lot to explain these topics too. DAT Achiever had some good genetics problems that made me think about how to calculate the frequencies of alleles and the meaning behind Hardy-W Equilibrium and that good stuff. I hope Topscore does too.
6)There were definitely some classification and embryology problems. I don't recall any about the other topics but I'd study those anyways. I know it sucks to hear that you have to study those boring topics, but there's only 40 questions for this section and you have to have a legitimate chance at answering each question for success. The Bio section just has so much to choose from for a question database.

As for the TFE, I tried to visualize what each figure looked like. I can't recommend it as being the best way to go about it, but it worked for me. Sorry I can't suggest more than that.

 

[Mamona]

Great scores and thank you for your answers🙂

 

[playa2652]

Were the acethedatdotcom exams similar to the actual DAT in difficulty? and is it worth buying?

 

[doc3232]

How were the Kaplan tests to the real one?
Harder, easier?

 

[peterngu]

playa2652 - no way, acethedatdotcom tests were far easier than the real thing. I'd only buy it if you really need help with the PAT portion of the test, and are in need of extra practice problems. The PAT questions have great diagrams for the TFE, keyholes, pattern folding, and hole punching to help train the way you think about the figures you encounter, but aside from that, it's only good for easy practice problems.

doc3232 - The Kaplan natural sciences tests were pretty easy compared to the real thing. My scores dropped significantly between those full length exams and the real thing, about 2-3 points for each section. They are excellent though, for spotting weaknesses in your ujnderstand of the fundamental principles for the natural sciecnes. If you don't know the basics, you won't be able to decipher the harder questions. The QR word questions were good practice for the real thing. The RC passages are about the same length as the real thing. I'd say the difficulty of the PAT is slightly harder on the real thing, so it's definitely worth doing.

 

[playa2652]

So what is the best way to study for the actual thing? I just took a Kaplan practice midterm and scored 18's for gchem, ochem, RC, Bio 16, QR 14, and PAT 22. If you say that the Kaplan tests aren't a fair assessment of the real test, how did u improve on your studying to get higher tests scores? Achiever is way too hard and topscore is hard too?

 

[DRKNM]

peterngu,

Thank you so much for answering my questions. I will ask people here to see what the have to say about TFE since it is my week point in PAT. I can solve them but i need a faster way.

Thank you again and good luck!!

 

[peterngu]

playa2652 - Well, you definitely want to do the Kaplan tests. Since the Kaplan natural sciences are easier than the real thing, you want to be able to consistently excel at those tests. What the Kaplan tests are good for are to test your understanding of the basics. Thus, I definitely recommend that you take the Kaplan tests, see what you got wrong, and make sure you understand why your answer choices are wrong. When you can do well on the Kaplan questions, move on to Achiever and Topscore. Take those tests, and make sure you understand why your answer choices are wrong. Although they are somewhat harder than the real thing for the natural sciences, practicing can never be detrimental to your studies. Also, understanding how to do harder questions only makes sense for your studying purposes since you want to be as prepared as possible.

It's not that Kaplan tests waste your time because they are easier, but I said that they are easier to make sure that you don't get lulled into a false sense of security when you do well on those and then go take the real thing.

 

[DDSelin2mori]

Which method did u use for Top-front-end in Pat? Does counting the number of events work in real Pat?

 

[peterngu]

As I said before, I only visualized the TFE objects and then went from there. It is definitely not the recommended strategy though. Counting events may work for some but then they still try to trick you with shapes like triangles, circles and slopes that don't become differentiated too often by counting events. After you're able to narrow down your answer choices by event counting, try to eliminate choices by quickly looking at the differences in solid/dotted lines and see which should be which.