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- Jul 4, 2006
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Finally I'm done and can actually enjoy the rest of my summer the way I'm supposed to. Okay, so I'll start from the beginning. I started my DAT studying in the first week of June. I didn't take the Kaplan course, but I used the Kaplan Blue Book found in the bookstore. I spent about 1-4 hours a day studying (usually around 1 hour...was a little lazy, what can I say). I started by summarizing the Kaplan book into my own notes in a notebook. I spent about 3 weeks doing this. After I finished that, I was pretty lazy the next week and probably spent only 7 hours total studying the next week. After that, I went back to the usual 1-4 hours a day of studying. I studied each section separately, and then did a quick review the last two days before the test. I took the Topscore and DAT Achiever tests every other day the week before my test. The last week before the DAT I hardly studied, I basically only took the practice tests, I was so sick of studying since I usually only study the day before for exams in school.
Overall, I thought the DAT wasn't that bad. I just finished Biochemistry and Comparative Animal Physiology this last semester, so a lot of bio was still fresh in my head. If you know Kaplan for General Chemistry and Organic, I think you'll be set for the real DAT. Math came back pretty quick as I was studying and was very similar to Topscore and DAT Achiever. I don't know why my Quant score was so low (I was pretty pissed about it) I was very sure that I got every question right, but can't do anything about it now. I finished the science section a little over 20 minutes early, but spent another 10 min and went through all of the gen chem and organic sections again (found 1 mistake i made). Reading Section sucked, I half guessed on 3 questions, I didn't pace my self enough and dwelled on certain questions. PAT was close to Topscore, angles were tough, tougher than of the practice tests (as everyone has said). Kaplan's PAT is a joke, it was way too easy compared to the real DAT. Biology was very broad. I read Kaplan and Schaum's. Kaplan is not enough. I think I had one Taxonomy question, which I was mad about, I was hoping for at least 5 of those, I can't believe I wasted time studying it, but it all depends on what test you take. Don't let your practice test scores scare you. I only broke a 20 on 1 science section (organic-topscore 3) out of the 6 practice tests, but look at my scores. Like everyone says, the DAT is not a hard test.
If you're curious about my GPA or the schools I'm applying to, check out my predents profile link in my signature. Post or PM any questions.
Topscore 1 Topscore 2 Topscore 3
Biology 18 / 17 / 18
Chem 18 / 19 / 17
Organic 16 / 19 / 28
PAT 21 / 21 / -
Reading - / - / -
Quant 21 / 21 / 22
Achiever 1 Achiever 2 Achiever 3
Biology 16 / 18 / 15
Chem 17 / 15 / 17
Organic 18 / 17 / 19
PAT 16 / 18 / -
Reading 21 / - / -
Quant 21 / 19 / 22
REAT DAT
Biology 23 (98.5%)
Chem 25 (97.5%)
Organic 25 (98.0%)
PAT 20 (88.2%)
Reading 21 (76.5%)
Quant 22 (93.8%)
TS 24 (99.3%)
AA 23 (98.4%)
Overall, I thought the DAT wasn't that bad. I just finished Biochemistry and Comparative Animal Physiology this last semester, so a lot of bio was still fresh in my head. If you know Kaplan for General Chemistry and Organic, I think you'll be set for the real DAT. Math came back pretty quick as I was studying and was very similar to Topscore and DAT Achiever. I don't know why my Quant score was so low (I was pretty pissed about it) I was very sure that I got every question right, but can't do anything about it now. I finished the science section a little over 20 minutes early, but spent another 10 min and went through all of the gen chem and organic sections again (found 1 mistake i made). Reading Section sucked, I half guessed on 3 questions, I didn't pace my self enough and dwelled on certain questions. PAT was close to Topscore, angles were tough, tougher than of the practice tests (as everyone has said). Kaplan's PAT is a joke, it was way too easy compared to the real DAT. Biology was very broad. I read Kaplan and Schaum's. Kaplan is not enough. I think I had one Taxonomy question, which I was mad about, I was hoping for at least 5 of those, I can't believe I wasted time studying it, but it all depends on what test you take. Don't let your practice test scores scare you. I only broke a 20 on 1 science section (organic-topscore 3) out of the 6 practice tests, but look at my scores. Like everyone says, the DAT is not a hard test.
If you're curious about my GPA or the schools I'm applying to, check out my predents profile link in my signature. Post or PM any questions.
Topscore 1 Topscore 2 Topscore 3
Biology 18 / 17 / 18
Chem 18 / 19 / 17
Organic 16 / 19 / 28
PAT 21 / 21 / -
Reading - / - / -
Quant 21 / 21 / 22
Achiever 1 Achiever 2 Achiever 3
Biology 16 / 18 / 15
Chem 17 / 15 / 17
Organic 18 / 17 / 19
PAT 16 / 18 / -
Reading 21 / - / -
Quant 21 / 19 / 22
REAT DAT
Biology 23 (98.5%)
Chem 25 (97.5%)
Organic 25 (98.0%)
PAT 20 (88.2%)
Reading 21 (76.5%)
Quant 22 (93.8%)
TS 24 (99.3%)
AA 23 (98.4%)