Hey guys and gals,
I took my DAT today and I promised myself weeks ago that if I was happy with my scores then I would post a little bit of insight to give back to the forum that helped me soooo much. Here's my scores...
Bio-20, Gchem-23, Ochem-20, RC-20, Math-18, and PAT-25
AA-20, TS-21
So I know that some of you might be disappointed if you got those scores but I can't explain how relieved and happy I am. I took the DAT last summer and only got a AA of 17. A lot of it was because I was working 3 different part time jobs last summer. After not getting it due to my scores I decided to make some sacrifices and devout 2 months to studying. Here's my studying breakdown and overall insight the materials I used...
KBB- I started off going through KBB completely through once and then I reread the bio and gchem sections a little later. Last summer it took me a good month and a half to make it through once but this summer I scheduled it out and went through it in 2 weeks. This set a good tone for my overall study schedule. I bought numerous other resources that I started using after KBB..
(Crack the DAT): Ok, first off I wouldn't spend the money on the science practice tests but CD is definitely worth the money for PAT, Reading, and Math.
CDMath- I mainly bought this because I'm pretty bad at math and I wanted the 25 math practice tests. I took a practice test every day and managed to make it through all 25 and then I went back and did some over. I've read reviews on this forum that crack the dat math has bad explanations. This is not the case anymore. All the problems have very detailed VIDEO explanations. The camera isn't the best but I found these videos very valuable. I feel that the first 5 or 6 CDM were harder than the rest for some reason. At first I was scoring 16s and 17s and by the last 15 I didn't score below a 21 on any of them. They really helped me with timing which I feel like is the only reason I even got an 18 on math!
CD PAT- The pattern folding on CDP is ridiculous and overall I felt that CDP was much harder than the real DAT. That's great though because it overly prepares you!! Overall I was getting everywhere from 19-22s on the 8 tests I took.
CD Reading- I was really stressed about reading too and I think CDR was really helpful. Like math the main concern for me on this section was time which CDR really helped me with. I was able to test out a few strategies and found what works best for me. The day before my test I took one and scored a 23. The passages overall on CDR have a lot more inference questions but I feel that the real dat skipped around a little more.
Cliffs AP Bio- Because I was obsessed with checking SDN forums on DAT info I decided to mainly rely on cliffs ap bio for biology. Overall I liked reading through cliffs a lot more than kaplan for some reason. I probably read through this book 3 times before my test. It's really not a bad read! On the real test I felt like I had a really hard bio section overall. I was pretty demoralized actually after bio thinking I didn't score better than an 18 but I picked myself up and made it through gchem and ochem.
Achiever- I bought the package of 5 achiever tests and started taking one every weekend. WOW!!! These tests are FREAKING HARD!! They totally screwed with my confidence but they also made me want to study harder and I also think they helped me mentally prepare for seeing really hard material so that I didn't freak out on the real test. On the first three tests I scored 16s and on the last two I got a 15
and a 14😱. I definitely think the achiever tests got harder as you go along. I knew that they were going to be really hard so I also bought topscores tests and took those the week before my test.
Topscore- Topscore was a lot more like the real DAT except that a few of the sections I felt were a little easier like RC and maybe math. I scored a 19 on my first topscore test then a 20 and 21. I feel that I made the right choice saving these for last because they definitely boosted my confidence.
DESTROYER!!- So I decided that the main thing I was going to do this time around was work on practice problems mostly because I believe that that's the best way to learn. I made it all the way through destroyer in a week after I read KBB and then I just continually went through the gchem and ochem sections. I would do 50 problems for gchem and ochem everyday (except weekends-practice tests) and then a couple of weeks before my test I bumped it up to 100 questions of gchem and ochem everyday and I also went through the biology section again. I really believe that this book is the main reason I was able to do soooo much better. I ended up just forgetting about reading all of the KBB and other materials out there and invested the majority of my time to destroyer and it paid off, especially for gchem which was my lowest science last year. I was actually surprised that I didn't get a higher ochem score.
Other materials- I also went through the ADA sample test a couple of days before and the sample test in the back of the kaplan book. It was helpful to see even more problems.
So I guess this wasn't a "quick insight" but I just thought that instead of always getting great info from these forums that I would give for a change. Hope this helps!!
I took my DAT today and I promised myself weeks ago that if I was happy with my scores then I would post a little bit of insight to give back to the forum that helped me soooo much. Here's my scores...
Bio-20, Gchem-23, Ochem-20, RC-20, Math-18, and PAT-25
AA-20, TS-21
So I know that some of you might be disappointed if you got those scores but I can't explain how relieved and happy I am. I took the DAT last summer and only got a AA of 17. A lot of it was because I was working 3 different part time jobs last summer. After not getting it due to my scores I decided to make some sacrifices and devout 2 months to studying. Here's my studying breakdown and overall insight the materials I used...
KBB- I started off going through KBB completely through once and then I reread the bio and gchem sections a little later. Last summer it took me a good month and a half to make it through once but this summer I scheduled it out and went through it in 2 weeks. This set a good tone for my overall study schedule. I bought numerous other resources that I started using after KBB..
(Crack the DAT): Ok, first off I wouldn't spend the money on the science practice tests but CD is definitely worth the money for PAT, Reading, and Math.
CDMath- I mainly bought this because I'm pretty bad at math and I wanted the 25 math practice tests. I took a practice test every day and managed to make it through all 25 and then I went back and did some over. I've read reviews on this forum that crack the dat math has bad explanations. This is not the case anymore. All the problems have very detailed VIDEO explanations. The camera isn't the best but I found these videos very valuable. I feel that the first 5 or 6 CDM were harder than the rest for some reason. At first I was scoring 16s and 17s and by the last 15 I didn't score below a 21 on any of them. They really helped me with timing which I feel like is the only reason I even got an 18 on math!
CD PAT- The pattern folding on CDP is ridiculous and overall I felt that CDP was much harder than the real DAT. That's great though because it overly prepares you!! Overall I was getting everywhere from 19-22s on the 8 tests I took.
CD Reading- I was really stressed about reading too and I think CDR was really helpful. Like math the main concern for me on this section was time which CDR really helped me with. I was able to test out a few strategies and found what works best for me. The day before my test I took one and scored a 23. The passages overall on CDR have a lot more inference questions but I feel that the real dat skipped around a little more.
Cliffs AP Bio- Because I was obsessed with checking SDN forums on DAT info I decided to mainly rely on cliffs ap bio for biology. Overall I liked reading through cliffs a lot more than kaplan for some reason. I probably read through this book 3 times before my test. It's really not a bad read! On the real test I felt like I had a really hard bio section overall. I was pretty demoralized actually after bio thinking I didn't score better than an 18 but I picked myself up and made it through gchem and ochem.
Achiever- I bought the package of 5 achiever tests and started taking one every weekend. WOW!!! These tests are FREAKING HARD!! They totally screwed with my confidence but they also made me want to study harder and I also think they helped me mentally prepare for seeing really hard material so that I didn't freak out on the real test. On the first three tests I scored 16s and on the last two I got a 15
and a 14😱. I definitely think the achiever tests got harder as you go along. I knew that they were going to be really hard so I also bought topscores tests and took those the week before my test.Topscore- Topscore was a lot more like the real DAT except that a few of the sections I felt were a little easier like RC and maybe math. I scored a 19 on my first topscore test then a 20 and 21. I feel that I made the right choice saving these for last because they definitely boosted my confidence.
DESTROYER!!- So I decided that the main thing I was going to do this time around was work on practice problems mostly because I believe that that's the best way to learn. I made it all the way through destroyer in a week after I read KBB and then I just continually went through the gchem and ochem sections. I would do 50 problems for gchem and ochem everyday (except weekends-practice tests) and then a couple of weeks before my test I bumped it up to 100 questions of gchem and ochem everyday and I also went through the biology section again. I really believe that this book is the main reason I was able to do soooo much better. I ended up just forgetting about reading all of the KBB and other materials out there and invested the majority of my time to destroyer and it paid off, especially for gchem which was my lowest science last year. I was actually surprised that I didn't get a higher ochem score.
Other materials- I also went through the ADA sample test a couple of days before and the sample test in the back of the kaplan book. It was helpful to see even more problems.
So I guess this wasn't a "quick insight" but I just thought that instead of always getting great info from these forums that I would give for a change. Hope this helps!!
