- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 729
- Reaction score
- 1
Hi everyone! I just got back from the testing center. I can't believe it is finally overrrrrr!!! Thank you all SDNers, you guys definitely helped out a lot through my studying. It's my time to give back. Here is my score:
PA: 22 93.4%
QR: 19 91.2%
RC: 18😡 38.0%
Bio: 22 95.9%
GC: 29 99.7%
OC: 27 98.7%
TS: 25 99.5%
AA: 23 98.7%
PAT:
Materials used - Crack DAT PAT, Topscore
Keyhole + TFE: Reading a lot of comments about some versions have harder keyhole and TFE compared to the CDP kinda scared me, but my entire PAT section was in par with CDP on every section. Keyhole seemed a little bit tougher though and i spent good ~15 minutes on keyhole before moving on to TFE. TFE was actually a lot easier than CDP. I was happy with that.
Angle Ranking: I would say the angle ranking was dead on par with CDP. I usually got 10 out of 15 correct on angle on CDP and I think I got that because I swear on some of the questions, two angles looked exactly the same to me or they differed by like 1 degree or something.
Hole Punching: There were some weird half-folds that I have never encountered in the CDP, but they were not that tricky. Overall, other than seeing some weird half-folds for the first time, I think the section was on par with the CDP. But it was definitely harder than Topscore.
Cube Counting: No illusions, so this was definitely easy.
Pattern Folding: Pattern folding was on par with the CDP. There were few easy ones and 2-3 questions I could not make a 3D image of so I just guessed on them.
Like everyone had mentioned, CDP is the best practice you can get for the
PAT section. I scored around 21-22 on all 10 CDP tests, so I would say CDP was right there with the level of difficulty on the real thing. One more thing, Topscore was pretty accurate representative of my PAT - I scored ~20 on Topscore.
QR: Math Destroyer, Crack DAT Math, Topscore
I thought I was well-prepared for this section. The score indicates apparently not. I thought I was gonna hit at least 20-21 easy. On the 2nd run of Math Destroyer, I was able to do Test #1~#10 under 45 minutes each section scoring at least 22. CDM was a good practice because it allows you to practice under time constrain. Topscore was also good. Unless you get struck with a hard version like mine, I definitely think that Math Destroyer is sufficient to get you 20+
I was getting depressed after RC section. Because I ran out of time and I actually didn't answer the last question on RC. guessed the last 3 before that. It continued right onto QR.... I would say good 25 questions of 40 questions were word problems that required set up and some time to solve. Difficulty of the word problems... I would say it was similar to Math Destroyer and 3-4 of them was much harder than Math Destroyer. I guessed about 3 of them and I never had time to go back to review. I don't think anyone could have finished my QR section under 45 minutes.
RC:
Materials used: CDR, Topscore
As score indicates, I don't think I deserve any credit to advise anyone on RC section. That 38percentile is horrendous. I just S&D my way through on my reading practices. This was good enough for ~17 on CDR and 20 on Topscore. I originally planned to just S&D my way through on the d-day too. However, with 3days remaining... some sense of insecurity made me try out the method LetsGo2DSchool and some others suggested. Read through the passage under 8-9minutes jot down key words and answer the questions with remaining 12 minutes. This actually worked for me boosting up ~2 points on RC. However, on the testing day......I choked.😡😡 I suggest don't change your approach unless you practiced a good amount. I think I could have scored better if I just S&D through all the way. My passages were definitely S&D-able, and tone/inference questions were not tough at all. Just find a method that works for you and stick with it.
BIO:
Materials used - DAT Destroyer, Cliffs AP, Barrons AP, DATQVAULT, Crack DAT Science
First of all, you don't need science portion of Crack DAT at all. It just came along on my package and it helped me none. In fact, I just looked into biology section only just to learn some random facts. That was about it. I did not bother with it for GC and OC.
Everyone had mentioned how "random" their bio section was. Was it for mine? Sure it was. However, even if you have no idea, I think some of the questions are approachable by eliminating "so-obviously false" choices. I skimmed through both Cliffs AP and Barrons AP. If you can get both, do so. I think the questions in the book are also helpful. But, if I had to choose one, I would say Cliffs AP was definitely better. With ~10 days before my test, I purchased DATQVAULT. It was probably the best choice I made. It definitely helped me a tone. Because it provided an analysis for what I needed to work on for the rest of the way. Other than some random questions I was 😱 about, I would say it was definitely doable. I kinda regret studying so much for bio for the version that I received. But it is always good to be prepared like that, I believe.
GC + OC
Material used - DAT Destroyer, Chad's Videos and Quizzes
Everyone knows this combo. I won't comment further on it. I did Destroyer 3 times and went over Chad's quizzes 3 times also.
I definitely did not like my version of GC and OC, I had to make some educated guesses on GC. I was thrown off a little with a decent amount of lab technique questions, but I guess I guessed them alright. However, it is definitely doable if you have prepared with Destoryer+Chad combo. Everything was really simple and straight forward.
My RC score kinda worries me..I hope my RC score makes cut off. I never felt prepared for RC section and it definitely showed on my result.
On concluding, cheer up for everyone who plans to take the DAT in the future. I will tell you right now if you prepared with given enough time and effort, you should do well! All that hardworking preparation will pay off at the end!!! I'm glad it is finally over. The real DAT is really easier than the questions on you have seen during DAT Destroyer and other practice problems! And good luck to everyone who is applying this cycle!
PA: 22 93.4%
QR: 19 91.2%
RC: 18😡 38.0%
Bio: 22 95.9%
GC: 29 99.7%
OC: 27 98.7%
TS: 25 99.5%
AA: 23 98.7%
PAT:
Materials used - Crack DAT PAT, Topscore
Keyhole + TFE: Reading a lot of comments about some versions have harder keyhole and TFE compared to the CDP kinda scared me, but my entire PAT section was in par with CDP on every section. Keyhole seemed a little bit tougher though and i spent good ~15 minutes on keyhole before moving on to TFE. TFE was actually a lot easier than CDP. I was happy with that.
Angle Ranking: I would say the angle ranking was dead on par with CDP. I usually got 10 out of 15 correct on angle on CDP and I think I got that because I swear on some of the questions, two angles looked exactly the same to me or they differed by like 1 degree or something.
Hole Punching: There were some weird half-folds that I have never encountered in the CDP, but they were not that tricky. Overall, other than seeing some weird half-folds for the first time, I think the section was on par with the CDP. But it was definitely harder than Topscore.
Cube Counting: No illusions, so this was definitely easy.
Pattern Folding: Pattern folding was on par with the CDP. There were few easy ones and 2-3 questions I could not make a 3D image of so I just guessed on them.
Like everyone had mentioned, CDP is the best practice you can get for the
PAT section. I scored around 21-22 on all 10 CDP tests, so I would say CDP was right there with the level of difficulty on the real thing. One more thing, Topscore was pretty accurate representative of my PAT - I scored ~20 on Topscore.
QR: Math Destroyer, Crack DAT Math, Topscore
I thought I was well-prepared for this section. The score indicates apparently not. I thought I was gonna hit at least 20-21 easy. On the 2nd run of Math Destroyer, I was able to do Test #1~#10 under 45 minutes each section scoring at least 22. CDM was a good practice because it allows you to practice under time constrain. Topscore was also good. Unless you get struck with a hard version like mine, I definitely think that Math Destroyer is sufficient to get you 20+
I was getting depressed after RC section. Because I ran out of time and I actually didn't answer the last question on RC. guessed the last 3 before that. It continued right onto QR.... I would say good 25 questions of 40 questions were word problems that required set up and some time to solve. Difficulty of the word problems... I would say it was similar to Math Destroyer and 3-4 of them was much harder than Math Destroyer. I guessed about 3 of them and I never had time to go back to review. I don't think anyone could have finished my QR section under 45 minutes.
RC:
Materials used: CDR, Topscore
As score indicates, I don't think I deserve any credit to advise anyone on RC section. That 38percentile is horrendous. I just S&D my way through on my reading practices. This was good enough for ~17 on CDR and 20 on Topscore. I originally planned to just S&D my way through on the d-day too. However, with 3days remaining... some sense of insecurity made me try out the method LetsGo2DSchool and some others suggested. Read through the passage under 8-9minutes jot down key words and answer the questions with remaining 12 minutes. This actually worked for me boosting up ~2 points on RC. However, on the testing day......I choked.😡😡 I suggest don't change your approach unless you practiced a good amount. I think I could have scored better if I just S&D through all the way. My passages were definitely S&D-able, and tone/inference questions were not tough at all. Just find a method that works for you and stick with it.
BIO:
Materials used - DAT Destroyer, Cliffs AP, Barrons AP, DATQVAULT, Crack DAT Science
First of all, you don't need science portion of Crack DAT at all. It just came along on my package and it helped me none. In fact, I just looked into biology section only just to learn some random facts. That was about it. I did not bother with it for GC and OC.
Everyone had mentioned how "random" their bio section was. Was it for mine? Sure it was. However, even if you have no idea, I think some of the questions are approachable by eliminating "so-obviously false" choices. I skimmed through both Cliffs AP and Barrons AP. If you can get both, do so. I think the questions in the book are also helpful. But, if I had to choose one, I would say Cliffs AP was definitely better. With ~10 days before my test, I purchased DATQVAULT. It was probably the best choice I made. It definitely helped me a tone. Because it provided an analysis for what I needed to work on for the rest of the way. Other than some random questions I was 😱 about, I would say it was definitely doable. I kinda regret studying so much for bio for the version that I received. But it is always good to be prepared like that, I believe.
GC + OC
Material used - DAT Destroyer, Chad's Videos and Quizzes
Everyone knows this combo. I won't comment further on it. I did Destroyer 3 times and went over Chad's quizzes 3 times also.
I definitely did not like my version of GC and OC, I had to make some educated guesses on GC. I was thrown off a little with a decent amount of lab technique questions, but I guess I guessed them alright. However, it is definitely doable if you have prepared with Destoryer+Chad combo. Everything was really simple and straight forward.
My RC score kinda worries me..I hope my RC score makes cut off. I never felt prepared for RC section and it definitely showed on my result.
On concluding, cheer up for everyone who plans to take the DAT in the future. I will tell you right now if you prepared with given enough time and effort, you should do well! All that hardworking preparation will pay off at the end!!! I'm glad it is finally over. The real DAT is really easier than the questions on you have seen during DAT Destroyer and other practice problems! And good luck to everyone who is applying this cycle!
