Do people still use Achiever?

[mightymoose02]

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When I started studying in July, I read a lot of people's breakdowns and most of them used Achiever/Top Score. I've seen a major shift and trend on these boards the last month to people mostly using DAT QVAULT sections and mainly BootCamp for full-tests.

I know more practice is good but is Achiever (and maybe TopScore) starting to become obsolete in that it's no longer representative of the real test? Is there a consensus now that BootCamp is the most representative and useful for the real test for EVERY section?

Any feedback would be appreciated especially from the people who have taken the test recently and actually used Achiever to either simulate or for the PAT section. 🙂

 

[helloworld9]

I never used Achiever sorry 🙁

However I did use Topscore and took the real DAT (going to retake soon). Topscore's layout is very outdated which is why people might be straying away from it. As for the material itself, the bio was a little too specific, gchem and ochem were on par as was PAT, RC and QR were a little harder in my opinion.

Achiever from what I heard was very difficult and not always representative indicator of one's preparedness, which could be discouraging and driving people away. Bootcamp and QVault not only have a pretty nice format similar to the actual test, but their difficulty of questions is similar as well. (however I must say that Bootcamp's PAT is harder than the real thing). Bootcamp is written by Ari and others who have first hand experience of how the actual test is, so that helps too.

Lastly, Bootcamp is considered pretty cheap for 4 tests and Qvault you can go a la cart so people mainly just use it for Bio. I noticed the trend too, but I guess in terms of test prep it's still survival of the fittest and Bootcamp and QVault are slowly becoming the more fit 😛

 

[hope_to_match]

I am taking my test this Saturday. I purchased achiever, bootcamp and qvault. ended up using achiever only for 3 tests (used 3 pat, 3 bio and 3 gc) and stopped using it. Though I think it's good for PAT (though in my opinion way harder than anything we would see) and bio (reinforces some concepts and details) for GC it has WAY TOO MANY LONG calculations which are impossible to do in 30 mins unless you have a calculator and also they take too long to set up.

Again, i didn't take the test yet but based on what people say the test is like (i.e. similar to chad, qvaults bio/ bootcamps pat) in my opinion achiever is a waste of time and many (bootcamp is very good for pat and qvault as well)

 

[Koalafied]

When I started studying in July, I read a lot of people's breakdowns and most of them used Achiever/Top Score. I've seen a major shift and trend on these boards the last month to people mostly using DAT QVAULT sections and mainly BootCamp for full-tests.

I know more practice is good but is Achiever (and maybe TopScore) starting to become obsolete in that it's no longer representative of the real test? Is there a consensus now that BootCamp is the most representative and useful for the real test for EVERY section?

Any feedback would be appreciated especially from the people who have taken the test recently and actually used Achiever to either simulate or for the PAT section. 🙂

What's "Achiever"?

 

[hope_to_match]

What's "Achiever"?

it's a program that you can buy that has full practice tests which are super duper hard

 

[mightymoose02]

I am taking my test this Saturday. I purchased achiever, bootcamp and qvault. ended up using achiever only for 3 tests (used 3 pat, 3 bio and 3 gc) and stopped using it. Though I think it's good for PAT (though in my opinion way harder than anything we would see) and bio (reinforces some concepts and details) for GC it has WAY TOO MANY LONG calculations which are impossible to do in 30 mins unless you have a calculator and also they take too long to set up.

Again, i didn't take the test yet but based on what people say the test is like (i.e. similar to chad, qvaults bio/ bootcamps pat) in my opinion achiever is a waste of time and many (bootcamp is very good for pat and qvault as well)

Good luck to you!

Maybe Achiever needs updating. Anyone know when they even made those tests?

 

[hope_to_match]

Good luck to you!

Maybe Achiever needs updating. Anyone know when they even made those tests?

thank you 🙂

 

[yggdrasila]

I think Koalafied was making a funny.

It's funny if you look at old breakdown threads everyone calls DAT destroyer crap and now it's like the second bible to Chad's

 

[mightymoose02]

I think Koalafied was making a funny.

It's funny if you look at old breakdown threads everyone calls DAT destroyer crap and now it's like the second bible to Chad's

Really?? I was always told to use DAT Destroyer and some of my friends took it back in 2009. I was offered an older version but I decided to just spend the money and get the entire book + Math Destroyer.

Is it possible that DAT Destroyer has adapted quite well over the years to the real DAT trends? Not sure if the writers add or take out questions.

 

[hope_to_match]

I think Koalafied was making a funny.

It's funny if you look at old breakdown threads everyone calls DAT destroyer crap and now it's like the second bible to Chad's

well...to me it seems as though it depends on the test some say it's overkill some say its golden...i think it's good to lay the foundation and really get those concepts down..i personally only went through it once (both regular and math) i was planning to go over them a second time but decided to do content review instead and do qvault and bootcamp...hopefully to my advantage

 

[yggdrasila]

Really?? I was always told to use DAT Destroyer and some of my friends took it back in 2009. I was offered an older version but I decided to just spend the money and get the entire book + Math Destroyer.

Is it possible that DAT Destroyer has adapted quite well over the years to the real DAT trends? Not sure if the writers add or take out questions.

My friend who took it in 2009 told me it was way over kill but I'm not talking about her. I was just doing some forum searching and like the really old breakdowns people were railing on it so hard. I thought it was funny. Lemme see if I can find one and get back to you.

I'm pretty sure they would have to adapt it year by year. Products should improve in order to be successful right?