Hey guys, I guess i'm one of those people who have benefitted from this site without ever having contributed
Now after taking my DATs (8/19/11) just wanted to share what i've learned...
First Scores:
PAT 24 (98.1)
QR 22 (97.9)
RC 24 (94)
Bio 22(95.9)
GC 29 (99.7)
OC 24 (95.7)
TS 24 (99.1)
AA 24 (99.6)
Background: EALC/Bio major
One month prior:
1 week of chad's video's gchem + some math destroyer (3/10 tests)
dat destroyer + cdp (ace edition) 2 weeks
topscore + cliffsnotes 1 week
*no real rc besides whatever practice Top score and practice test provided
CDP avgs were 19-23
Top scores were 20-22s all around
the day before i took the practice 2009 ada bombed it, freaked out, googled feedback about it, found this site (*again, had originally used it to purchase study materials*), and then proceeded to absorb whatever i could in two hours lol.
Experiences of Actual DAT:
I found it helpful to scout the place out a day before you come in so that you are familiarized with the environment, but the day of i'm not gonna lie...my heart was pounding but i did well to maintain a cool head. If anything before the test no matter how nervous, you need to have confidence.
The sciences were pretty much well prepared for by the dat destroyer and chad's videos. (Finished with 15 min to spare and decided to use the restroom and clear my head for the next part **just don't waste time with questions you don't know! and come back to it later)
I didn't really do much studying for bio since i figured there was only so much one could learn after being a bio major and all. My technique was just to apply the knowledge i'd learned to make educated guesses on the ones i was unsure of (~10)
The PAT wasn't too bad minus the last section which was trickier than any i'd seen on cdp. for TFE i'd try and preemptively visualize a 3d image before looking at the answers to help narrow down the choices before comparing the remaining answers with whatever 2 axes they allowed us to see.
QR. So um during the break i mused over whether or not to try out a method i'd read on SDN from one of the members since i found it made sense and would help with tone questions(didn't know the name, but props! and thanks!) . Basically i went about doing the SnD answers, skipping the tone ones until the end. By that time, i'd have lots of time and would have skimmed the paragraphs enough to get a firm grasp of where to read to answer tone questions... i also found that in most tone questions the paragraphs where it's to be found is also supplied
QR, i honestly didn't know what to expect since the practice test was so obnoxiously hard, but thankfully it was just like SAT math with more word problems. Timing is key and if you are already pretty good at math then you should have no problem although i found that the crackdat math good was really accurate at the concepts encountered in this section.
Thanks!
Now after taking my DATs (8/19/11) just wanted to share what i've learned...
First Scores:
PAT 24 (98.1)
QR 22 (97.9)
RC 24 (94)
Bio 22(95.9)
GC 29 (99.7)
OC 24 (95.7)
TS 24 (99.1)
AA 24 (99.6)
Background: EALC/Bio major
One month prior:
1 week of chad's video's gchem + some math destroyer (3/10 tests)
dat destroyer + cdp (ace edition) 2 weeks
topscore + cliffsnotes 1 week
*no real rc besides whatever practice Top score and practice test provided
CDP avgs were 19-23
Top scores were 20-22s all around
the day before i took the practice 2009 ada bombed it, freaked out, googled feedback about it, found this site (*again, had originally used it to purchase study materials*), and then proceeded to absorb whatever i could in two hours lol.
Experiences of Actual DAT:
I found it helpful to scout the place out a day before you come in so that you are familiarized with the environment, but the day of i'm not gonna lie...my heart was pounding but i did well to maintain a cool head. If anything before the test no matter how nervous, you need to have confidence.
The sciences were pretty much well prepared for by the dat destroyer and chad's videos. (Finished with 15 min to spare and decided to use the restroom and clear my head for the next part **just don't waste time with questions you don't know! and come back to it later)
I didn't really do much studying for bio since i figured there was only so much one could learn after being a bio major and all. My technique was just to apply the knowledge i'd learned to make educated guesses on the ones i was unsure of (~10)
The PAT wasn't too bad minus the last section which was trickier than any i'd seen on cdp. for TFE i'd try and preemptively visualize a 3d image before looking at the answers to help narrow down the choices before comparing the remaining answers with whatever 2 axes they allowed us to see.
QR. So um during the break i mused over whether or not to try out a method i'd read on SDN from one of the members since i found it made sense and would help with tone questions(didn't know the name, but props! and thanks!) . Basically i went about doing the SnD answers, skipping the tone ones until the end. By that time, i'd have lots of time and would have skimmed the paragraphs enough to get a firm grasp of where to read to answer tone questions... i also found that in most tone questions the paragraphs where it's to be found is also supplied
QR, i honestly didn't know what to expect since the practice test was so obnoxiously hard, but thankfully it was just like SAT math with more word problems. Timing is key and if you are already pretty good at math then you should have no problem although i found that the crackdat math good was really accurate at the concepts encountered in this section.
Thanks!
