DAT in a week! RC help and advices for PAT please

[goblueyeah]

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Hey Friends! So my test is on March 9th. In less than a week! So far there are still some shaky sections for me. I appreciate your opinions and advices.

RC ( most shaky) :
I have Crack the DAT 10 tests, q vault 7 tests and bootcamp 5 test... I usually get about 19 on CDR, about 20 on bootcamp and 20 on q vault. So far my score has really being fluctuating. For instance, I got a 17 on bootcamp yesterday while the other day I got a 23....Meanwhile, although people say q vault is easy , I personally find the passages long and dry, and therefore hard to deal with.
My method was always reading the whole passage and then answering the questions, but I usually ran out of time. So recently I started to read half of the passages and then do as many questions as possible and continue. Any advice for me at this point ( P.S. English is my second language and I don't like to read)

PAT ( decent but need improvement) :
I am not too worried about this section but recently my score on CDP has been lower (around 20, I used to get it around 22, am I regressing lol). My angle ranking really sucks..Usually get 5 -7 wrong out of 15.
Now I am out of resources ( I used CDP and bootcamp), should I get achiever or q vault for more new practices or should just do CDP and bootcamp another time?

One last question. I am kind of concerned about the restroom break since the first section lasts 150 min. Anyone here took a quick restroom break if the science section was finished early?

Good Luck everyone!

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Hi Go,

From what you have written you seem to be prepared to take the DAT.I tell my students no timed test can accurately predict what you will actually get on the DAT, that would be impossible. When taking a timed test it will give a score that you received on those questions, when you take the DAT you will be presented different questions, thus more than likely a different score.

You are scoring 20+ on your practice test so that is a good sign to me that you have an excellent working knowledge, but exactly what you will score is hard to predict.

Try your best to remain calm and confident that you have prepared to the best of your ability, read the questions carefully to avoid silly mistakes. On the reading keep a watch on your time, you get 60 minutes, so try not to spend more than 20 minutes on a passage, so you do not run out of time.

Hope this helps and wishing you the very best!

Nancy

 

[DATtestTho]

For RC, just read it one paragraph at a time and just write a few key things about each one on your scrap paper. That way when you finish and read the questions, you know where to look. It also makes you summarize each paragraph along the way so you know whats going on. It makes it very simple.

 

[goblueyeah]

For RC, just read it one paragraph at a time and just write a few key things about each one on your scrap paper. That way when you finish and read the questions, you know where to look. It also makes you summarize each paragraph along the way so you know whats going on. It makes it very simple.

Yeah, I have been using this method. It usually takes me about 7 minutes to read the whole passage and map it out, and then I am usually out of time when I try to answer the questions. 🙁

 

[DATtestTho]

You just need to read faster. Or dont spend so much time writing junk, only like a sentence + a key word or date per paragraph. You want like 20 minutes per essay for reading and answering, no more than that.

 

[synthiac]

Another thing that might help is reading some of the questions and probably jotting down a few key things to look for before you start reading the passage. For me it helped since I kinda knew what to look for when I was reading and helps create a better mental image. I honestly hoped around from one technique to another but search and destroy worked best for me 🙂

 

[elhammy]

Search and destroy and for the PAT make sure you do every question in order don't skip entire sections because that is time wasted. This section has the shortest time/question so you need every second. I would finish some PAT practice tests with 10 minutes left over, but on the real thing I had only 90 seconds at the end.