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Wow so I can't believe I'm all done with the DAT. Although I have been reading a lot on this forum, I don't post very much. Anyway, I thought I'd share my scores from today:
Bio 26
GC 28
Orgo 29
PAT 24
RC 23
QR 27
TS 28
AA 27 🙂
(you can see the percentiles in the attached image)
I'll really did not think I was going to score this high for two reasons: 1) My practice test scores (achiever, topscore) were much lower and 2) other than spring break (2 weeks) + 4 weekends in the spring semester + 2.5 weeks after finals, I did not spend any additional time studying.
I would like to thank everyone on these forums for posting DAT-related questions and answers.
Reading all about how other people have studied for months on end on this forum, I was quite intimidated going into the test. I would just like to let everyone know who is preparing to take the DAT in the near future that IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO WELL ON THIS TEST WITHOUT STUDYING FOR MONTHS ON END. If you studied hard in your basic science courses, you should be well prepared for success. Classes are quite difficult and time consuming at my school, thus I had very little time to devote to DAT preparation.
With that said, here is a brief breakdown of each of the sections:
Bio (datQvault, destroyer, Wolfe videos, Barrons AP bio, Examkrackers, Audio Osmosis, Kaplan 2008 book from amazon): Although I am a molecular biology major, this has always been the toughest section for me because 1) I did not take AP bio in high school and 2) my intro bio courses did not cover the same material as the DAT (nor did my intro bio professors stress memorization of facts). Out of all my study materials, datQvault, the Wolfe videos, and Barrons AP bio book were key. The examkrackers bio book and the audio osmosis were very helpful with anatomy and physiology type questions. I listened to the bio CDs of the audio osmosis over and over (every night as I fell asleep for maybe 2 months and sometimes when I worked in the lab). I did all datQvault 10 tests and reviewed them once more the day before my exam. This is a great resource and I highly recommend it. The Wolfe videos were great for reproductive-related topics as well as immunology. The Barrons book was great for all around review. The questions on the actual test were quite random and I probably marked 10 questions as I was going through the first time.
GC (destroyer): I took chemistry and AP chemistry in high school and general chemistry in college, so I did not review much for this section. I went through destroyer once and that was it. Destroyer was great review, but I felt it went into unnecessary detail at times. I did not have any pH or log calculations on this section, although I was prepared to do them thanks to destroyer. The actual test wasn't too bad and many of the calculation type questions were written out instead of condensed as a final value.
Orgo (destroyer, ACS organic): Orgo as a subject has always been oddly kind of fun for me, so I enjoyed this section. The ACS organic review book was very helpful and I highly recommend it. I did destroyer once through as practice. The actual test wasn't bad at all.
PAT (crack DAT PAT, Barrons DAT): WARNING--maybe I was just nervous, but I though the actual test was harder than crack DAT PAT. I had scored around 22 and 23 on the last few crack DAT PAT tests I did, but I did not have a confident feeling when I finished the actual PAT. Also, although achiever is very very difficult, I really feel that my success on this section is due to the tough problems I was seeing on achiever tests. Achiever really helped me to improve my PAT abilities. Practice really is key for this section.
RC (nothing other than achiever and topscore): I really enjoyed the passages I had and although this section requires a lot of concentration, it isn't too bad if you've actually been reading all of those assigned textbook and primary literature readings assigned for classes 🙂. I once heard that if you tell yourself you are genuinely interested the passages you're assigned, you'll remember more.
QR (destroyer, math destroyer [2 tests], Khan academy): I would have liked to review more for this section, but I ran out of studying time. Out of the time I did devote to studying QR, the Khan academy videos were very helpful in explaining combinations, permutations, and the probability associated with them. I was making good time up until I hit a couple of hard questions around #20 on the real exam. I burned up some time on these, but I ended up guessing on them knowing that this would allow me to have a look at possibly easier questions in the second half of the section. Timing is the biggest issue for this section, so if you get to a tough question that you don't know how to solve, just guess and come back if you have time. Also (about the windows calculator), you are not allowed to use the keyboard keys and there was a very very slight lag when entering repeated numbers. It is definitely better than the achiever calculator (which didn't allow me to input decimal points on some of the numbers and also had major lag).
Thanks everyone and I'm off to go get some drinks with my gf 😀
Bio 26
GC 28
Orgo 29
PAT 24
RC 23
QR 27
TS 28
AA 27 🙂
(you can see the percentiles in the attached image)
I'll really did not think I was going to score this high for two reasons: 1) My practice test scores (achiever, topscore) were much lower and 2) other than spring break (2 weeks) + 4 weekends in the spring semester + 2.5 weeks after finals, I did not spend any additional time studying.
I would like to thank everyone on these forums for posting DAT-related questions and answers.
Reading all about how other people have studied for months on end on this forum, I was quite intimidated going into the test. I would just like to let everyone know who is preparing to take the DAT in the near future that IT IS POSSIBLE TO DO WELL ON THIS TEST WITHOUT STUDYING FOR MONTHS ON END. If you studied hard in your basic science courses, you should be well prepared for success. Classes are quite difficult and time consuming at my school, thus I had very little time to devote to DAT preparation.
With that said, here is a brief breakdown of each of the sections:
Bio (datQvault, destroyer, Wolfe videos, Barrons AP bio, Examkrackers, Audio Osmosis, Kaplan 2008 book from amazon): Although I am a molecular biology major, this has always been the toughest section for me because 1) I did not take AP bio in high school and 2) my intro bio courses did not cover the same material as the DAT (nor did my intro bio professors stress memorization of facts). Out of all my study materials, datQvault, the Wolfe videos, and Barrons AP bio book were key. The examkrackers bio book and the audio osmosis were very helpful with anatomy and physiology type questions. I listened to the bio CDs of the audio osmosis over and over (every night as I fell asleep for maybe 2 months and sometimes when I worked in the lab). I did all datQvault 10 tests and reviewed them once more the day before my exam. This is a great resource and I highly recommend it. The Wolfe videos were great for reproductive-related topics as well as immunology. The Barrons book was great for all around review. The questions on the actual test were quite random and I probably marked 10 questions as I was going through the first time.
GC (destroyer): I took chemistry and AP chemistry in high school and general chemistry in college, so I did not review much for this section. I went through destroyer once and that was it. Destroyer was great review, but I felt it went into unnecessary detail at times. I did not have any pH or log calculations on this section, although I was prepared to do them thanks to destroyer. The actual test wasn't too bad and many of the calculation type questions were written out instead of condensed as a final value.
Orgo (destroyer, ACS organic): Orgo as a subject has always been oddly kind of fun for me, so I enjoyed this section. The ACS organic review book was very helpful and I highly recommend it. I did destroyer once through as practice. The actual test wasn't bad at all.
PAT (crack DAT PAT, Barrons DAT): WARNING--maybe I was just nervous, but I though the actual test was harder than crack DAT PAT. I had scored around 22 and 23 on the last few crack DAT PAT tests I did, but I did not have a confident feeling when I finished the actual PAT. Also, although achiever is very very difficult, I really feel that my success on this section is due to the tough problems I was seeing on achiever tests. Achiever really helped me to improve my PAT abilities. Practice really is key for this section.
RC (nothing other than achiever and topscore): I really enjoyed the passages I had and although this section requires a lot of concentration, it isn't too bad if you've actually been reading all of those assigned textbook and primary literature readings assigned for classes 🙂. I once heard that if you tell yourself you are genuinely interested the passages you're assigned, you'll remember more.
QR (destroyer, math destroyer [2 tests], Khan academy): I would have liked to review more for this section, but I ran out of studying time. Out of the time I did devote to studying QR, the Khan academy videos were very helpful in explaining combinations, permutations, and the probability associated with them. I was making good time up until I hit a couple of hard questions around #20 on the real exam. I burned up some time on these, but I ended up guessing on them knowing that this would allow me to have a look at possibly easier questions in the second half of the section. Timing is the biggest issue for this section, so if you get to a tough question that you don't know how to solve, just guess and come back if you have time. Also (about the windows calculator), you are not allowed to use the keyboard keys and there was a very very slight lag when entering repeated numbers. It is definitely better than the achiever calculator (which didn't allow me to input decimal points on some of the numbers and also had major lag).
Thanks everyone and I'm off to go get some drinks with my gf 😀
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! btw, can u share ur topscore results?
