DAT Officially done on 9/25!!!

[pennypen]

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Yo everyone! haha... I just got done (not actually just, I meant like 5hours ago..) with the DAT today. Phew, finally something is outta my way.

Ok here is my score.

Bio: 19 😛
G.C: 21 🙂
O.C: 21 🙂
PAT: 26 😱
Math: 17 😡
RC: 19 😀
TS: 20 🙂
AA: 19 😛

I didn't do awesome like the others, who posted their awesome scores, but I will still try to write out some stuff that might help you.😀

Overall, I think I will settle with this score. Cuase I hate studying!!
I don't wanna look through the Destroyer anymore lol.

I am actually surprised with my Bio score. While I was taking the real DAT I was so sure that I was going to get really bad score... Even tho I was getting over 20s for practice exams, i think I am really happy with what I got for Bio. (I don't know how people get 23 or over, those people should join MENSA) If you know the concepts very well, and know how to relate one fact to others, I think you will do fine for bio section. ALSO!!! DO NOT FREAK OUT BY GETTING SOME RANDOM QUESTIONS for first few questions. As you move onto next probs, you will start to find some stuff that you know. (It happened to me today.....)

For G.C., I think this section was pretty easy. (I still had to guess 2 probs) Know the calculations well (basic ones.) As long as you know how to do some basic calculations, you should be fine.

For O.C., I thought this section was freaking easy!!! But i don't know where i went wrong!! So it's kinda driving me crazy.... Anyway you don't really need to know crazy rxns, just know basics. Also, know the concepts inside and out. If you can master the concept, it will help you to solve the most rxn probs also. (For mine, I had lots of concept than rxn. Rxn probs I got were very simple as well)

For PAT. I always thought this part was easy, and I was able to get 100% on every practice exams I took. (I am sorry guys, I am not trying to be cocky here...lol) So I really didn't do too much for this section other than just taking a couple of practice exams. However, I can let you know this. The PAT I had today was way harder (well... more like it takes longer time) than practice tests.(I used topscore and Achiever) I always had 20mins or so when I was done with the test, but I almost didn't have any time left at the end of the real DAT. So be prepared!

For RC section, I got epidemiology, floating bridges, and spinal cord. Spinal cord was a really easy passage. I think you can use search and destroy method and still do well. Epidemiology was a pretty easy passage to read through. And floating bridges was even easier, but I didn't have much time to do well on it haha... I gotta let you know. I am probably one of the slowest reader in the world, so I can guarantee that you guys will do much better. I am happy with my score tho. 😀

And MAth... math.... math.... well math questions were easy, but I failed to manage the time. Everyone should be able to do fine on this section as long as you manage your time. Don't ever get stuck on one question more than 3minutes. (Or 4minutes.... or whatever!!) that killed me.... One more thing! try to find out how many you can miss in order to get a score you want. So let's say you can miss about 10 questions to recieve 18 on this section, then just skip some long questions that you don't know. Cuase I can bet you that there will be more easy questions than harder ones.


So I am done with mine... even tho I am not too happy with my math... but oh well... It's party time!! (Also Friday night baby!!! And I am writing this post online! YEAH!)

GOOD LUCK TO YA'LL!

 

[THINKOFMYFUTURE]

without even reading the rest of ur post

if ur gpa is above 3.2 with those scores u are pretty much guaranteed in so long as u a.) apply early, b.) decent extras c.) decent interviewee.

dont sweat the lows, u did well enough on those which matter

also schools love big pat score pat above 22 is like triple nice

 

[pennypen]

Thanks bro! Hopefully I can get in this year!

 

[hausee]

Congratz! amazing PAT score.

I always have trouble with angles that bigger than 150 degrees, how do you do it? Mind share some tricks? Thanks

 

[wantVCUdental]

nice scores, what did you use for preps?
specifically what did you use for chem and o.chem
and of course PAT? 😛
congrats

 

[pennypen]

thanks guys!

I don't really know if anyone have tricks for this section tho...

But I can tell you this tho... If you ever get stuck with angles, make sure you find smallest and largest first. (Or at least one of them) And then check the answer choices. You might be able to take some answer choices out of your way in that way.

And if you really can't tell the difference between two angles, most times an angle with shorter lines are larger than the one with longer lines.

I don't know if that help or not, but the angles were actually my weakest area also... So I guess I was lucky to get this score.

For GC :
I uesd destroyer, Kaplan blue book and Princeton Review for MCAT(not really helpful tho...). I think destroyer questions were very good for this section. And Kaplan blue book was actually enough for me to go over some concepts. (Just letting you know, you guys can do much better than me for sure cuz I really suck at GC) This section was really straight forward!

For OC :
I used destroyer and KBB. (And some notes that I took when I was taking Ochem classes) I think these two material will be enough to cover this area. It was super easy! I guess I made some mistakes since it was easy... I really didn' care reviewing this section during the real DAT, and that's probably why....

For PAT:
PAT.... I really didn't use any book materials to prepare for this section. I used Topscore and Achiever tho. Make sure to come up with your own way solving probs. That's all I can tell you for this section. I heard that Crack the PAT is also a good source to study with.


Oh and I used topscore, Achiever and a practice exam from ADA website to test me.

 

[Bonanzio]

Impressive scores, congrats!👍

 

[chromosome21]

Congratulations. very nice pat score.

I just want to know how MCAT hyperlearning didn't help? I am using that book right now. Was it not helpful at all? I don't have destroyer, it's very costly, and I found MCAT hyperlearning for very low price. So I thought to stick with it. Please let me know if it's not sufficient.

Thanks and good luck with the application.

 

[pennypen]

Oh... Sorry I should have said that the one I used was Cracking the MCAT CBT by Princeton Review. lol

Sorry about the confusion. (I didn't use hyperlearning... haha)

And I heard that the hyperlearning is a good source. So stick with it!
You also said that you don't have destroyer. If I were you, I will definetely purchase one even tho it's kinda expensive.
I can guarantee that the destroyer will help you.

GOOD LUCK

 

[chromosome21]

Thanks! How big is the destroyer book? And does it include all the science sections? Somebody is selling that book for over a hundred dollars 🙁.. too costly for me.

In real dat, what do you think the level of difficulty of bio section? was it too tough and random as ppl here on sdn complains? I know kaplan bb is not enough, so I thought to use hyperlearning for it as well.

Oh... Sorry I should have said that the one I used was Cracking the MCAT CBT by Princeton Review. lol

Sorry about the confusion. (I didn't use hyperlearning... haha)

And I heard that the hyperlearning is a good source. So stick with it!
You also said that you don't have destroyer. If I were you, I will definetely purchase one even tho it's kinda expensive.
I can guarantee that the destroyer will help you.

GOOD LUCK

 

[pennypen]

Thanks! How big is the destroyer book? And does it include all the science sections? Somebody is selling that book for over a hundred dollars 🙁.. too costly for me.

In real dat, what do you think the level of difficulty of bio section? was it too tough and random as ppl here on sdn complains? I know kaplan bb is not enough, so I thought to use hyperlearning for it as well.

Destroyer is about.... I guess as big as KBB. (may be little smaller than that) It does cover all the science sections. I don't know how much it was when I got mine, but I do remeber that it was quite expensive...

Bio section.... Well it was random, but doable. I think if you go over those two books you have(KBB and MCAT) and understand throughly, then you should be alright with concepts. (Cuz I saw many of my friends scoring over 20 by studying only KBB) Bio section is pretty tough because of their way of asking questions. (Difficulty might vary depends on which test you get) Some of them might trick you to choose wrong answer. BUT if you know the concepts well enough, you will do fine.
Don't worry about the fact that it is random, just focus on getting the concepts right.
DAT is there just to test your knowledge.

If some other people can get over 20, then you will be able to do that also!

GOOD LUCK (P.S.: sorry about this long and not helpful reply lol)

 

[allstardentist]

good work~

 

[chromosome21]

oh it's very helpful! Thanks for replying. 🙂

and yeah, i am too scared for this exam.. it seems like people study too hard to get the desired score, and not everyone succeeds . I don't even know where I stand right now and it's kinda scary..

I read somewhere that destroyer road maps are really good, what are they about? and in orgo do you think we have to memorize all the reactions and mechanisms? PAT seems terrible. I am planning to buy CDP. People complain about math too.. I thought to get this cliff book called "math review for standardized tests" which covers some basics. It doesn't cover trig, but I think I should be fine with that section (may be KBB is enough for it).

your guidance will be greatly appreciated 🙂..

Destroyer is about.... I guess as big as KBB. (may be little smaller than that) It does cover all the science sections. I don't know how much it was when I got mine, but I do remeber that it was quite expensive...

Bio section.... Well it was random, but doable. I think if you go over those two books you have(KBB and MCAT) and understand throughly, then you should be alright with concepts. (Cuz I saw many of my friends scoring over 20 by studying only KBB) Bio section is pretty tough because of their way of asking questions. (Difficulty might vary depends on which test you get) Some of them might trick you to choose wrong answer. BUT if you know the concepts well enough, you will do fine.
Don't worry about the fact that it is random, just focus on getting the concepts right.
DAT is there just to test your knowledge.

If some other people can get over 20, then you will be able to do that also!

GOOD LUCK (P.S.: sorry about this long and not helpful reply lol)

 

[americanpierg]

I read somewhere that destroyer road maps are really good, what are they about? and in orgo do you think we have to memorize all the reactions and mechanisms? PAT seems terrible. I am planning to buy CDP. People complain about math too.. I thought to get this cliff book called "math review for standardized tests" which covers some basics. It doesn't cover trig, but I think I should be fine with that section (may be KBB is enough for it).

your guidance will be greatly appreciated 🙂..

Destroyer road maps are good, it just condenses the reactions down for you. orgo isnt that hard, i learned nothing from the class, but i spent a week reading through mcmurry and ive literally memmorized everything in that book and that was so much more helpful than just memorizing the roadmaps could ever be. orgo is much easier to read than bio and much more interesting too. CDP is good practice. Math is easy, I don't understand why people keep getting 23 TS and 17 QR. It's easier than SAT math. It's on par with ACT math.

 

[fishstalker73]

Destroyer road maps are good, it just condenses the reactions down for you. orgo snt that hard, i learned nothing from the class, but i spent a week reading through mcmurry and ive literally memmorized everything in that book and that was so much more helpful than just memorizing the roadmaps could ever be. orgo is much easier to read than bio and much more interesting too. CDP is good practice. Math is easy, I don't understand why people keep getting 23 TS and 17 QR. It's easier than SAT math. It's on par with ACT math.

People like me, underestimated the QR section, not because the section is hard but because of the lack of practice under timing pressure. It is funny (not really!) that I have gotten an A in both algebra, trig, calculus I, and calculus II but did very poorly in the section on my first DAT. I wish I have taken people advice and practiced more problems. I will kill this section on my next DAT in December because I will be timing myself on every practice question.👍

For Ochem, don't go overboard with the text like I did. Read certain chapters and maybe look over reactions summary at the end of each chapter. personally, I have gone over the Destroyer only once for Chem and Ochem. Destroyer is a big hype (my opinion, don't shoot me down). It might be a good source to scare you and to kick you in the butt and to get you to buckle down to study.

 

[chromosome21]

So you're retaking the test? Arent you applying this year?

Actually I got A's in all of my math classes, but I can see what you mean here. Did you time yourself while taking practice tests? Do you think CDM is a good source? Gosh, I don't need destroyer to scare me, sdn is enough! Whenever I feel "lazy", all i have to do is to get online and read some sdner's DAT breakdown, and it'll kick me.. lol

People like me, underestimated the QR section, not because the section is hard but because of the lack of practice under timing pressure. It is funny (not really!) that I have gotten an A in both algebra, trig, calculus I, and calculus II but did very poorly in the section on my first DAT. I wish I have taken people advice and practiced more problems. I will kill this section on my next DAT in December because I will be timing myself on every practice question.👍

For Ochem, don't go overboard with the text like I did. Read certain chapters and maybe look over reactions summary at the end of each chapter. personally, I have gone over the Destroyer only once for Chem and Ochem. Destroyer is a big hype (my opinion, don't shoot me down). It might be a good source to scare you and to kick you in the butt and to get you to buckle down to study.

 

[whawha]

Nice PAT! 🙂

 

[fishstalker73]

So you're retaking the test? Arent you applying this year?

Actually I got A's in all of my math classes, but I can see what you mean here. Did you time yourself while taking practice tests? Do you think CDM is a good source? Gosh, I don't need destroyer to scare me, sdn is enough! Whenever I feel "lazy", all i have to do is to get online and read some sdner's DAT breakdown, and it'll kick me.. lol

I will be retaking it on December 14 (90 days rule). For QR, I did one Kaplan test (not timed-it was the one in the back of the book) and one Topscore test. I scored 20s on both tests and left it at that. My poor performance was due to a combination of several factors (lack of practice tests under timing pressure, anxiety, focusing way to much time on memorizing on trying to memorizing everything in regard to bio, no sleep the night before the test, and panicking during the exam). I have not tried CDM since I got some feedbacks from members stated that it was not worth the money.

 

[pennypen]

The road maps contain some reactions that you need to know. They are very helpful, but if you have your ochem textbook, then you can just read through the textbook instead. Again, Ochem part is pretty easy, so don't sweat! You will do fine!
And for math... If you know how to manage your time, then you don't have to worry about that section. It's all about how to use that 45min.