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Hey
I just took the dat today, Friday and I wanted to post some comments. First I really appreciate this site and you can see my appreciation because im posting with in a half hour after being done. Im really thankful for all the people who took the time to respond to questions and post tips. I found studying material for the DAT to be really obscure. Kaplan isnt enough and you have to search pretty hard to find materials like destroyer. I think i shot my self using only kaplan the first time i took the test. Well anyways here are my scores. ..im a re applicant also GPA 3.61 and 3.55 science at the University of Illinois
Retake 20PA, QR18, RC21, BIO22, GC20, OC21, TS21, AA20
1st time 18PA, QR16 RC19, BIO18, GC22, OC17, TS 19, AA 18
This year I had interviews at uic and siue and was waitlisted at both schools with no luck. I am applying to 17 schools this time and sent my application on June 1st. Mostly to Midwest schools and a few private schools. My strongest part of my application is my community service, did a few service trips non medically related and won some awards through them. About 150 hours of shadowing and thats increasing every week. A little research experience as well
I was so scared of not getting ever because I was always considered a good student, took school seriously, and studied hard for the dat the first time so i never thought I would be in this position. In march, i got really sick with bacterial meningitis and that took a lot of out me. Bed ridden for at least a month. I managed to pull myself together and re apply. My dat score was the low point of my application so I realized that I needed to put forth the extra effort so i studied for two months straight for the dat. I used destroyer, barrons, kaplan blue book, crack dat pat, and achiever. Yea i spent alot of money but it was well worth it.
I highly recommend Destroyer. Its a different more active way of studying rather than just reading. This really worked for me but I think you need kaplan for the base of your studying. Kaplan is so boring but it gives you an idea of the material and is a good start. I constantly went through destroyer and went to kaplan, wikipedia, and this message board for reference. Barrons was filled with errors and is too brief but it gave me a good understanding of the PAT section. It provides a good description of the rules and tricks.
CRack DAT PAT was awesome. I bought the five test edition did 17,17, 17,18, 21. It was pretty similar to the actual thing. Angles were a bit easier and my cube counting was just as difficult. The only thing i would complain about was the format of the hole punch wasnt the same. The spacing of the holes was different. Also there was a half hole punch too. It kind of threw me off. It really helped with timing for sure. Timing was my biggest problem. All the other sections were pretty similar to the software.
I bought Achiever because I needed to work on my timing. It was well worth it for that reason. The questions are way more complicated in the science and pat sections. The reading lacked tone questions that i had on the test. There were alot of tone questions on my test actually. QR was a little more difficult on the real test. More random questions on it.
My achiever scores were..16-19 bio, 15-18chem, 17-22 ochem, 17-18 pat 23 RC, 22-19QR. Their pat is ridic and way too much compared the actual test. In the end im glad i used achiever because it over prepared me and made me work harder and think more during the test.
As for the test, bio there were a few random questions but nothing that u will not have seen before. Chem was a little bit more difficult, not many calculations. Organic chem was very basic with a few tricks here and there. Destroyer did an excellent job covering sciences.
PAT was very similar to CRACK DAT.
RC alot of tone questions. I did search and destroy and ended up just reading most of the passage. You really had to understand the passages.
QR was tough. Alot of random questions and some deviations of questions i have seen before. The trig wasnt too difficult but alot of word problems. I thought i could have done better but its the last part of the test plus i always had trouble with timing.
I would be very happy to answer any questions anyone has. Posts like these helped me a lot when i was studying. I was never very good at standardized tests so this took a lot work and im fairly sure if you manage it right anyone can do good on the DAT. I started reading this website thinking that people on here were geniuses and i could never score 20 + but there is always hope. Best of luck to everyone.
I'm gonna go celebrate this weekend and finally enjoy life.
I just took the dat today, Friday and I wanted to post some comments. First I really appreciate this site and you can see my appreciation because im posting with in a half hour after being done. Im really thankful for all the people who took the time to respond to questions and post tips. I found studying material for the DAT to be really obscure. Kaplan isnt enough and you have to search pretty hard to find materials like destroyer. I think i shot my self using only kaplan the first time i took the test. Well anyways here are my scores. ..im a re applicant also GPA 3.61 and 3.55 science at the University of Illinois
Retake 20PA, QR18, RC21, BIO22, GC20, OC21, TS21, AA20
1st time 18PA, QR16 RC19, BIO18, GC22, OC17, TS 19, AA 18
This year I had interviews at uic and siue and was waitlisted at both schools with no luck. I am applying to 17 schools this time and sent my application on June 1st. Mostly to Midwest schools and a few private schools. My strongest part of my application is my community service, did a few service trips non medically related and won some awards through them. About 150 hours of shadowing and thats increasing every week. A little research experience as well
I was so scared of not getting ever because I was always considered a good student, took school seriously, and studied hard for the dat the first time so i never thought I would be in this position. In march, i got really sick with bacterial meningitis and that took a lot of out me. Bed ridden for at least a month. I managed to pull myself together and re apply. My dat score was the low point of my application so I realized that I needed to put forth the extra effort so i studied for two months straight for the dat. I used destroyer, barrons, kaplan blue book, crack dat pat, and achiever. Yea i spent alot of money but it was well worth it.
I highly recommend Destroyer. Its a different more active way of studying rather than just reading. This really worked for me but I think you need kaplan for the base of your studying. Kaplan is so boring but it gives you an idea of the material and is a good start. I constantly went through destroyer and went to kaplan, wikipedia, and this message board for reference. Barrons was filled with errors and is too brief but it gave me a good understanding of the PAT section. It provides a good description of the rules and tricks.
CRack DAT PAT was awesome. I bought the five test edition did 17,17, 17,18, 21. It was pretty similar to the actual thing. Angles were a bit easier and my cube counting was just as difficult. The only thing i would complain about was the format of the hole punch wasnt the same. The spacing of the holes was different. Also there was a half hole punch too. It kind of threw me off. It really helped with timing for sure. Timing was my biggest problem. All the other sections were pretty similar to the software.
I bought Achiever because I needed to work on my timing. It was well worth it for that reason. The questions are way more complicated in the science and pat sections. The reading lacked tone questions that i had on the test. There were alot of tone questions on my test actually. QR was a little more difficult on the real test. More random questions on it.
My achiever scores were..16-19 bio, 15-18chem, 17-22 ochem, 17-18 pat 23 RC, 22-19QR. Their pat is ridic and way too much compared the actual test. In the end im glad i used achiever because it over prepared me and made me work harder and think more during the test.
As for the test, bio there were a few random questions but nothing that u will not have seen before. Chem was a little bit more difficult, not many calculations. Organic chem was very basic with a few tricks here and there. Destroyer did an excellent job covering sciences.
PAT was very similar to CRACK DAT.
RC alot of tone questions. I did search and destroy and ended up just reading most of the passage. You really had to understand the passages.
QR was tough. Alot of random questions and some deviations of questions i have seen before. The trig wasnt too difficult but alot of word problems. I thought i could have done better but its the last part of the test plus i always had trouble with timing.
I would be very happy to answer any questions anyone has. Posts like these helped me a lot when i was studying. I was never very good at standardized tests so this took a lot work and im fairly sure if you manage it right anyone can do good on the DAT. I started reading this website thinking that people on here were geniuses and i could never score 20 + but there is always hope. Best of luck to everyone.
I'm gonna go celebrate this weekend and finally enjoy life.
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