DAT stole my life until 8/2/12. breakdown.

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nahehes49

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PAT 20 (79%)
QR 21 (96.4%)
RC 22 (84.4%)
BIO 28 (99.7%)
GC 23 (95.4%)
OC 25 (95.8%)
TS 25 (99.6%)
AA 24 (99.5)

Despite the fact that summer should be fun and relaxing, my summer was quite the opposite, but in the end, I believe it was all worth it. (now my greatest fear is the testing center notifying me that the scores were misgraded.. does that happen?) This is my first post on SDN. I must admit, I have been the ultimate SDN creeper, reading everyone's DAT breakdowns. I apologize in advance for such a long breakdown!

intelligence background i will be a 3rd year at Emory in the upcoming fall. I finished all the 4 basic pre-reqs, nothing higher. biology and gchem were from freshmen year so i needed major review. i had just taken ochem, so definitely more fresh. i have never studied so hard for anything. my parents label me as the lazy one so my mom was always in shock watching me study, but i definitely needed to. i am clumsy and tend to make stupid mistakes. my older brothers took all the smart genes so definitely needed to crank it.

study time: total ~190 hours. I started around mid May until test day. Around May/June, I did around 4-7 hours a day. I also took one weekend break and travelled. July was more 6 - 9 hours a day.
activities during study time: working part time (15-17hr/week) and volunteer at a dental clinic (6 hr/week)

study materials
DAT destroyer :love:
Kaplan blue book
Crack DAT PAT :love:
Chad's videos :love:
Cliff's AP bio :D
Topscore :D
flashcards (anki & cue cards) :)
random free online quizzes
exam cracker 1001 questions for gchem and ochem ( i only did 1/3 of them. the questions aren't really that similar to the DAT but good prep learning)
free practice tests sets, like 2007 ADA & OAT sample
DAT flashcard app on droid https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bh.superflashcard.dat.android&hl=en :thumbup::thumbup:
study buddy (we quizzed each other over texts all the time. best thing ever! ill be your quizzing buddy too! )

study schedule
I didn't have a schedule. I was never the structured type. I knew that if I tried to stick to a strict schedule, (ex. from 9am - 10 am ill do bio), I knew I could never follow through. Knowing that about myself, I knew I needed something else to ensure that I had quality studying. so my goal for each day was simple, to do 1-2 hours of each science topic. it didn't matter when I did it, just as long as I did it. However, I ran into another problem. I ended each day of studying with feeling of incompleteness, anxiety and incompetence. I knew that I had studied but I needed a quantitative way to keep track. So i started doing something like this..
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for me, it was a good way to know what I had done the day before and what I had to do and because I recorded the times of when I was studying, it allowed me to fully concentrate until I wrote my time-out. then I found an app called Time Recording that is actually for work, but I used it to "clock in" and "clock out" of my each study session. turns out, I can only study fully for an hour. haha. I seriously don't understand how you can mentally 100% study for 3-4 hours straight. I loved having mental refreshing breaks with reddit!

study style
I got bored just plain studying. I learned human physiology through the kaplan reviews, youtube videos (i wanna marry you Khan academy) but it's honestly so so boring to just read the biology/chemistry books. plus, I wasn't sure if I had truly understood the material. I also know that I SUCK at multiple choice problems. I second guess myself. I try to figure out the "psychology" of the choice answers given which all ends up screwing me over. so especially for biology, I took as many quizzes as I can find. the basic process was: learn & quiz. review the quiz & learn & take more quizzes. I must have done +3000 problems. I made sure I did practice problems everyday all day. you will also see that, i retook a lot of the DATqvault, I didn't retake these tests on the same day. I took them 2 weeks later so that I wasn't answering the questions from memory. also, I tried to make my life revolve around the DAT, for example, when I had to pee, I would ask myself, what part of my body is working? what process does this involve? When I had diarrhea, I thought, hmm large intestine is responsible for water resorption so that part of my body ain't working right now. stuff like that. keep your brain engaged to learning. take breaks when you feel that your mental capacity is going down. since bio was just factual, i used to read alan's note in bus stops, bathrooms, wherever i had small free time.

TopScore digits 1- 2- 3 vs real DAT
BIO 19 - 19 - 18 vs 28
GC 18 - 18 - 19 vs 23
OC 20 - 23 - 19 vs 25
RC 22 - 21 - 23 vs 22
QR 21 - 21 - 23 vs 21
TS 19 - 20 - 19 vs 25
AA 20 - 20 - 20 vs 24

Crack DAT PAT #1 - # 8
16 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 24 - 22 - 22 - 22
CRACK DAT PAT #1 - #6, (taking it second time)
21 - 22 - 22- 20 - n/a- 30

PAT studying style
I wouldn't PAT myself on the back for the 20. I didn't take all 10 tests, but I did re-take most of the tests. PAT is nothing academically related. I think it's more of a procedural memory. it's similar to riding a bike. it's learning how to visualize things at different angles through various visual tasks. so I didn't start the PAT until a month before my DAT. I believe that the reviewing process is the more important than practicing taking so many tests. for example, for the aperture passing, I asked myself, what does the front, top, side look like? picture it in your head. then look at the answer. don't base your answers on the choices you see. for pattern folding, I just replayed the folding 3-4 times. even if I didn't understand it, it's visual information that your brain processes and during sleep, it will consolidate those visual data that you had played. it's a procedural thing.

DATqvault () = taking it for non-first time
BIO 18 (23, 20, 29, 27, 27)- 18 (29, 27) - 15 (29, 22, 20,22) - 17 (27, 29, 22) - 18 (27, 23) - 22 (27) - 19 (18, 29) - 19 (27, 23) - 19 (22) - 20 (23)
GC 20 (24,30) - 22 (22) - 22 (24) - 29 - 22 - 20 - 20 - 20 - 20 - 20
OC 14 (21 - 29) - 19 (29) - 19 (29) - 19(23) - 17 (19, 21) - 20 (25) - 19 (19) - 23 (29) - 23 (20) - 20
QR 20 - 17 - 21 - 20 - 19 - 21 - 23 - 26 - 21 - 22
RC 22 - 22 - 20 (only did three cause I was lazy)

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now the real thanggg.

BIO 28
Kaplan blue book - this was the book i started with. general review. good intro to human physiology stuff, as this was totally new to me.
AP Cliff bio- I must have read this 3-4 times. I did their quizzes twice. their plant section is really specific. the only way i learned them was through flashcards. i could care less about dicots and monocots.
Alan's biology notes nice and concise. somethings seemed outdated so i made some edits of my own.
DATqVAULT this is so worth the money. 10 test for all sciences, reading, and math for $100. i'lll take it. I did those when I got sick of reading.
DAT Destroyer - I did 40 questions at a time, like the real DAT. I went over it at least three times. I also downloaded anki, which is this awesome flashcard system. on the real DAT, there were 3-4 questions that were strangely similar to the destroyer. hmmm. weird. but it helped me! haha. their explanation is really nice and helpful.
*on the real thing, I had marked about 10 questions. Biology had always been my lowest so I was pleasantly surprised. lucky guess or the computer messed up? compared to the online quizzes and top score, the real DAT questions are less specific. they're more general. don't let topscore depress you like it did to me! topscore has these taxonomy questions that's not indicative of the real DAT. on the real DAT, they have more application based questions; they'll give you an observation and ask what you can conclude about this observation. I am gonna use diarrhea as an example, the question may ask, if clair had diarrhea what can you conclude about her digestive system?

free study materials of biology
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/cla...64631&alaid=ala_661088&showSelfStudyTree=true
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0073031208/student_view0/
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/tag/dat

GC 23 & OC 25
- chad's video and quizzes - I love this man. I wanna marry him. I think he's bald because all these amazing knowledge in his head pushed all his hair out. I didn't do so hot on gchem in my college and I've always hated (and still hate gchem). Orgo was amazing in my college and it was still fresh in my head. The best thing about chad is that he tells you what kinds of questions you should anticipate. I did his quizzes 3-4 times.
- DAT destroyer. such good practice even though I felt like a complete ******* when I went through it the first time. I almost always missed 50 - 75% of the questions. i'd be like.. WTF. I thought i knew this material *depression* . anyways, destroyer is sneaky like Ninja. I went through the gchem & orgo portion 4-5x by the 5th time, I could tell why that was the answer and why the rest of them weren't the answer. Destroyer, you were reall difficult for me to love, but at the end, I figured you out mothaflockaa!
- DATqvault more practice. more knowledge. I also supplemented the Chad videos by doing the qvault quizzes as well.
**on the real thing, the only worry i had about gchem was that i would mess up on the math, but so much easier than destroyer, quite similar to datqvault.the stoichiometry on the real thing is easier than datqvault. same with orgo. a lot of reactions but very straightforward. destroyer's reaction map is awesome but i think you can still do well even if you hadn't memorized the reaction map.

free study materials of gchem/ochem
http://wps.prenhall.com/esm_mcmurry_chemistry_5/73/18712/4790506.cw/index.html
http://www.brookscole.com/cgi-wadsw...t_isbn_issn=9780534389994&disciplinenumber=12
http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0078664187/student_view0/self-check_quizzes.html (my personal favorite! )

RC 21 & QR 22
- I didn't do much for reading. I am generally a fast reader cause I am impatient. I used the "search and destroy" tactic. I had some reading about ethics, fungal infections, and epithelial-mysenchymal tooth things. the reading isn't as high as I wanted even though I found the real thing easier. I had 20 minutes left after I was done. there were few tone questions but generally easy. it also helped that the reading was interesting.
- for QR, i practiced a lot. I always felt like a ******* with the destroyer, but my problems were usually with probability, geometry, trigonometry, and finances. DATqVAULT was my main homedawg. I still don't fully understand probability but the probability questions on the DAT were doable. similar to TopScore. also, i must say, I love using the calculator. **on the real thing, I had no time to double check, but I had marked 5-7 questions.

PAT 20
this is my lowest score booo.
keyholes: a bit harder than proportion cause DAT has an emphasis on proportions. for the questions I marked, I would trace the outlines of the figure given so that I wouldn't miss the humps and zig zags and what nots.

TFE: umm.. not much reliance on the line counting method as compared to CDP. what helped me was knowing where the solids and dotted lines go. also i feel like you develop some gut feeling after you do so many CDP.

angles: i feel like CDP was harder but for the obtuse angle, I pretended i was trying to sit on a beach chair and decide which "chair" i had to lean back more. for the really acute angles, i looked for which angle had more "ink." my friend also suggested that for the intermediate angles, to pretend they were bird beaks and decide which one needed to close more. but honestly, i feel like angle is something you have to know within the first 20-30 seconds or you start to second guess yourself. I marked the uncertain ones because when you come back to it, your perspective is more fresh.

cube counting: straightforward. equivalent (or easier) than crack. i just wrote down the numbers of the faces each cubes had. i believe that's the barron method.

pattern folding: oh gawwddd this was my worst section on crack dat pat. i found this section harder than crack dat pat because CDP has more color oriented things. the real DAT had a lot of irregular shapes and i wasn't sure how some of the shapes folded into each other. the classic dice problems were there. whew. i hate you pattern folding. boo.

the week before the test
i took 2 topscores. i took the third topscore 2 days before the test and then i was depressed. i cried cause i felt like i had hit a wall, a wall where my limit was only around 19 - 20. i didn't know how to get over this "limit" and felt stuck. i felt so much pressure and anxiety and all i could hope was for the real test score to be higher than topscore, as i had read on sdn. so if you're reading this now and feel down, dont! i found this TED talk helpful http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

stress & testing
this is unrelated to the testing material and such, but i feel that it's an important factor of testing. your worries, anxiety, and stress are all inevitable in the studying/testing process. i also find it so useless when people say "don't worry, just relax." nevertheless, i knew that such negativity was affecting my focus but i came to accept it as part of the process. we worry because we understand that we can do better than what we have achieved because we believe in ourselves to achieve something far greater. however, excessive worrying is dwelling on your past. minor worrying is just anticipation of the future. in addition to all the studying and practices, i found it crucial to mediate my stress and anxiety. i stayed sane because i had my study buddy to text/vent and my friends. if you feel like you're going insane, dont hesitate to PM!

practice test is not always truly indicative of your real score! good luck to everyone!!

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Wow! Awesome scores! My exam is a week away and I plan to do topscore #2 and #3 in the next few days... I'll have to remember what you said about not getting to down on myself if I only get 18's/19's on it!
 
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Congrats on your awesome DAT scores! I loved reading your anecdotal account of how things went down.
I'm already married so I told my husband that Chad is my manstress.
"Sneaky like Ninja" made me chuckle.

I'm glad you said that Destroyer was so hard the first go. I find it discouraging and helpful at the same time. I went through Chad's quizzes and videos twice, before heading to destroyer.

I think keeping track of your time with the punch in and out is pretty cool! I realized yesterday that I put in 10 hours all together....it's crazy studying for sure! I hope it pays off and I get good scores too.
 
Funny that you think the shading pattern folding problems are easier. Those things are my nemesis. Especially cubes with just lines on the faces, seriously, wtf! I'd take complex shapes any day, I have a method that generally works pretty well on those. I hope my DAT has a good amount of them!
 
Excellent score! Congratulation!

You provide a lot of websites...did you all of them...? Do you find them similar to your DAT exam? Is it useful?

Or should I stick to the classic DAT study material (ie, CDP, Chad, Destroyter)
 
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to koreano: good luck! but if you've been preparing, you don't need luck! high performance comes at intermediate stress, not too high not too low. don't be toooo relax but don't be too tense.

to msmouth: yes! studying is so exhausting. it's a different exhaustion compared to working out intensely cause there's no mental process involved. in my punching in/out time of study, i noticed that all my focused studying is withing 1-1:30 min and after that much time, im in lala land. and i just blankly stare at the table wondering if it's real wood or not. so, im alll for taking short breaks between.

to NDpitch: i loved the funky shaped ones of CDP. they were really easy and i really hated the shading foldings ones. i used process of elimination for the shading folding. the cubes with lines, i never truly understood it. i folded those 5x on the explanation hoping that my brain would just memorize it visually. screw that...whenever i saw those on cdp, i'd just mark skip and move along. try to erase that part of my life.. that part always sucked. luckily there weren't any ones like that on the real thing. the reason why the funky shaped ones were really hard on the real thing was because there were multiple funky shaped ones. in CDP, there were always two distinct funky shapes you could piece but on the real thing, there would be more than one funky shape. and i also just suck at those.

to silverdez: i didn't do alll the problems on all those websites given. the websites i did do 80% of the problems were from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/clas...StudyTree=true for bio; the problems aren't all that similar but http://glencoe.mcgraw-hill.com/sites...k_quizzes.html for gchem is such good practice. there are 3 or more sets of questions for 25 chapters and i did all of them cause gchem and i were enemies back in the days. we decided to have a peace pact during the real DAT, but im back to hating gchem. while these questions may not be similar to the DAT, it does get you to be in the mind set and thinking process. honestly, i got bored of reading and reviewing so i needed to do problems. to answer your question, i'd first make sure i am very familiar with the classic DAT prep like chad and destroyer. i started doing the online ones cause if i were doing the classic DAT prep materials too regularly, i would know the answers from memory so it helps me refresh and forget the answers.

to The Prologue : dude, i love your ID! anyway.. um. i only used Chad for combination and permutation. math education is strict in Korea and i would get hit with a stick cause i didn't know my 4x table in 4th grade so... yea...i mainly used DATqVault for math for practice. that website is godly. it has 10 sets of practice tests for all subjects. i love that website except it lags sometimes but i guess it teaches me patience..
 
Thx for replying me !

There's so much material that it get me confused what to focus and what not to. I wish I have an extra 24 hr a day so i can get thru all the materials!

Once again, congratulate on your score. They are really awesome score!
 
OMG wow... great scores! And loved the TED talk! :)

I may PM you in the not-so-distant future hahaha. Again, enjoy the rest of your summer, you've definitely earned it!!! :)
 
Haha glad I wasn't the only one that made a spreadsheet for dat schedule. Best thing I did to amp up my productivity! Fantastic scores! Enjoy your summer now!
 
Your break down was actually really calming and motivating. It made me feel better about my chances. I hope we're classmates one day! Thanks a million!
 
I did TopScore #2 yesterday, these were my scores...

AA-21
RC -22
QR - 21
BIO -19
GC - 19
ORGO- 23
PAT -21

I take the DAT friday. Should I expect same results, slightly lower, or highe?
 
thanks everyone for the kind comment! is it sad that reading your complimentary words is the highlight of my day so far? haha.

to Toofly01: i stumbled on the TED talk cause i was desperate to find something that would prevent me from being so depressed and anxious. i was so dramatic.. i was thinking.. omggg how do i be normal again. haha. psychological effects of DAT... i can't wait to hear from you in the not-so-distant future!

to Vlaura0214: yess! my mom thought i was going a bit overboard with the spreadsheet but it truly does amp your productivity.

to chax you're gonna get fantastic scores. we can apply to the same school and ill see you in couple of years. haha. but seriously, how cool would that be?

to MotivatedToWin: your topscore results are wawyy better than mine but again, i can't say for sure what you will get. however, ive only seen the real score go up, not down. my assumption going into the test was that Ill either stay the same or go up 1-2 points but never down. my entire approach the week before the DAT was. hmm by now, i know everything there is to know and i feel that at this point, the only thing preventing me is nerves and anxiety. who doesn't get tired of reviewing the same material over and over...
 
This is such an amazing breakdown thank you so much for takin the time! I too work part time and a relieved to see someone able to handle all the workload! Any suggestions for reading comprehension??
 
Good job...but you already knew that! You were the best study buddy/venting person ever. Now time for sky diving!
 
MotivatedToWin clicking and waiting for that score is definitely nerve wrecking! however, i had to take a 15 question survey about the testing program before i got to see my score. i am not sure if that's a common thing for all testing center but that's the worst place to put a customer satisfaction survey. i dont even think i answered all those stupid survey questions honestly.

theGNOME yes! working part time and successful DAT score is a possibility! it's like a relationship you work hard at. haha. as for reading comprehension, i just did a lot of practice on perusing and picking out words. however in the past, i've had to read a lot of long boring scientific journal for my research.

gatecher yes yes yes!! everybody, this guy is awesome. i was so so lucky to have you as my study partner. skydiving here we go :D
 
And the Gold Medal goes to..........Nahehes49 ( aka Usain Bolt of SDN ) :D

Blazing scores.
Enjoy the rest of the summer.
 
NewBee12: hahaha hilariouss. im actually gonna have major Olympic withdrawal symptoms now that it's over.

peanutmonster: ill be silently rooting for you. fo realzz though.

debyeh77: i always had this habit of taking a practice test on topscore,qvault, w/e, and check on SDN about where i would stand. it's good to know where you are realistically, but i tried to be a little more depressing. worrying is good! (to some extent) my thought was, study/review like im gonna fail, and take the test like a confident boss.
 
My test is 2 days from now!! woot! I just took my last topscore test and scored bio: 20 chem: 19 OC: 19...hopefully the real test is a lot easier. I'm just finishing up a 12 hour study session. Any suggestions what to do before test day and before test? I'm taking mine at 4:30..
 
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Would you use those biology resources you linked us to, if you could do it all over again?

yes yes and yes. This allows me to answer all types of questions relating to biology in different context and wording, and I feel that being able to answer most of the questions from whatever resources I use is an indication that I have mastered the information, not just memorizing the questions, which would have happened if I limited myself to one or two. plus, they were all free. i like free :) with all those resources, i didn't do alll the questions. if there were some taxonomy questions, i just ignored it cause it was relevant. if some of the questions were too specific, i ignored it. hope this helps!
 
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