DAT Finito: 7/13

[theragu]

Hellooooo
I just finished my DAT (about 3 hours ago) and was sufficiently happy to post my scores

PAT: 26 (99.6%)
QR : 21 (96.4%)
RC : 21 (76.7%)
BIO: 20 (88.0%)
GC : 22 (91.8%)
OC : 22 (90.4%)
TS : 21 (91.6%)
AA : 21 (93.4%)

I started studying around the end of May, but I've always had trouble being focused on school/tests during summer, so I didnt get the ball rolling until like mid-June/later end of June.

I always work better under pressure (aka I'm a procrastinator) so the last week before my test I pretty much stayed in my room and studied hardcore most of the day.

I began reading through Campbell's Bio book, and found once i finished that it was too difficult and didn't help as much as I had hoped. Too much information and too time-consuming. So I ended up reading Barron's AP Prep Book (don't ask), and it had a lotttt of good material and was MUCH easier to read and I was able to go through it a few times cover to cover. That helped the most.
BIO: As you can see my bio was the lowest score, which had been happening in my 3 Topscore tests, which worried me because I enjoy bio and had a good background in it. Overall it was random questions that you couldn't really predict would come up. The "Biology Content Specifications" was what I followed up on in Campbell's after reading Barron to make sure I went through everything.

Chemistry: went through Chad's videos; it's a good way to start studying for the chemistries, but you need to do practice practice practice. I used Destroyer, going through the road maps carefully, and it helped a LOT. Make sure to understand every question from the answer in the back.

QR: Didn't study for until yesterday. Just went through Destroyer questions once, making sure to take note of the word problems (important!) because they did come up. There were also a few oddball questions, like those at the end of the SATs that are just really annoying/time-consuming. Left those for the end and then guessed as I ran out of time.

RC: Didn't study for at all. I was good at SAT Reading and used to read books, so I hoped for the best. I thought I did GREAT. Like my best section. But. My score says otherwise. Maybe someone can illuminate me on that?
PAT: I was sooo happy with. Topscore kinda sucked on it. The answers were iffy on alot of questions and I didnt really like it. CDP all the way on this. I only went through the first 4(of 5) tests and was getting 19/20/20/21 sooooo big jump!! Here it was really practice practice practice and figure out why you got something wrong. I had a basic plan for pretty much each section. Keyholes and TFE were straightforward; with a few tough ones thrown in. Angles were SOOOOOO much easier than i expected. I used a combination of discriminating answer choices at first, laptop technique, and Hill's Technique (props to them for coming up with those). Cubes..Kaplan chart with tally marks. Hole Punching was VERY easy for me compared to CDP and Topscore. Straightforward. And patterns got a little difficult, but were not that bad.

Overall:
Very satisfied, especially since I got 20+ on every section..

I have a 3.63 cGPA, applied to UF, Nova, LSU, Boston, Tufts, McGill. First choice is UF andd then it gets expensive lol.
How do my chances look for UF?

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask! My summer has finally begun and I have all the time in the world!

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[mashinka]

damn looking good. your last minute studying gives me a ton of hope seeing as how i have 4 weeks to go and barely feel like i have done anything.
do you have a strong math background, cuz usually that's people's lowest score. and everyone here says a lot about random bio questions. whats a random question...isnt all of bio kind of random?

 

[theragu]

damn looking good. your last minute studying gives me a ton of hope seeing as how i have 4 weeks to go and barely feel like i have done anything.
do you have a strong math background, cuz usually that's people's lowest score. and everyone here says a lot about random bio questions. whats a random question...isnt all of bio kind of random?

4 weeks is plenty of time to me, but make sure you don't feel that way haha. Because if you slack off, usually it starts building in your head and you feel guilty day after day moreso, and eventually you realize, Ok, I need to study hard now. I just work way better when I realize it's a week away and it's all on the line.

I wouldn't say I have a strong math background, so it was kind of risky to put it off to the last day. Destroyer really helped though, especially if you go through the answers and understand and memorize how certain problems get worked out. Because the test ends up being alot of word problems that can take a long time to figure out, or pretty quick if you know what to do with the numbers given. There were also very simple questions.. like they checked to make sure you knew to invert the arrow if dividing by a neg. number in an inequality, or..simple equations like area/circumference of shapes, or sin/cos rules and things like that.

 

[Dr NAT]

Hey,
Great scores. You mentioned you used the laptop technique and Hill's Technique for angle ranking. Could you explain how those techniques work, or perhaps guide me to a site or post where its explained? Thanks. Have a great summer.

 

[theragu]

Hey,
Great scores. You mentioned you used the laptop technique and Hill's Technique for angle ranking. Could you explain how those techniques work, or perhaps guide me to a site or post where its explained? Thanks. Have a great summer.

Hill Technique:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=545778

Laptop Technique:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=545924

Props to ORLO for both of those!

I was only getting about 8/15 on CDP on all the tests, and it was my biggest worry for the real one. I ended up also doing what Chemboy23 mentioned.

"sometimes you can look at the answer choices and two will look alike. Most of the time the two end choices will be the same, i'll give you an example below. if you look at it from their standpoint, they want you to have to distinguish b/t two angles that are almost exactly alike. Most people waste time looking at all four. Example below:

A. 1-3-2-4
B. 4-2-1-3
C. 1-2-3-4
D. 2-3-1-4

Ok, so when I look at these, I automatically see the similiarities in choice A and C. The only difference is the middle two. But!!!, you have to be careful, because this isn't true ALL THE TIME. So basically here's what I do. I look at the choices and try to see if I can find two like the above. Then, I go and look at the figures and try to first, make sure 4 is largest and 1 is smallest, then you can figure out which of the two (2 or 3) is larger/smaller. Hope this helps, again it's just what I prefer to do. For some it may not work."

basically look for similarities in the answers then check with the actual angles, then eliminate the two switched around answers using hill/laptop.

Also, Angles were alot easier(to me) on the real thing. Idk why. I did eat a lot of carrots for two days and morning of my exam, because I know they help with your eyesight. Seriously. Lol

hope that helps

 

[Chemboy23]

Hey great scores!!! I hope I'm this luck August 10th when I take it Congrats! Glad my method in angle ranking help you a little! Best wishes!

 

[KappaSig]

is there any tricks for cube counting or for keyholes?

 

[theragu]

For cube counting, you can use the kaplan thing they teach you. Make a chart 1-5 and mark a tally for each cube as you go through the entire structure before looking at any questions. Then answer them. and do that for each structure.

Keyholes, I find that after alot of practice you get better and better. Sometimes I just look at each side (top, front, end) and crush it (like a soda can) and imagine what it would look like flat. then twist it around and see where it fits. That helps most when I can't get an answer quickly.