- Joined
- May 28, 2009
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 0
So I'm super duper surprised with my scores. I only did serious studying for like maybe 2.5 weeks since I had to work during the summer, and I had post-graduationitis for a while. I took the kaplan class in january but didn't take it seriously at all. I read over the blue book here and there and did some of the kaplan workshops during july.
I think my story is pretty hopeful because I took practice tests literally 2 days before the exam and got science scores from 16-18, and these are from Topscore, Achiever, and Kaplan.
I pretty much studied until the minute I stepped into the testing center freaked out that I would have to retake. Even taking the test, I marked a bunch of stuff and thought I was going to do poorly.
So here are my scores:
PAT: 20 ---85.4
QR: 17---65.7 <---reading all the horror stories, I was just aiming to pass.
RC: 22---90.3
Bio: 24---98.7
GC: 24---98.2
OC: 23---94.3
TS: 24---99.3
AA: 22--96.4
PAT: I bought the 10 test CDP literally 10 days before the test. I started with like a 17/18 and the highest i got was a 20. I got 16, 16 on achiver and 17-19 on the topscores. The real test is similar to CDP. Keyholes is like CDP, TFE is like Topscore, Angles Topscore, Keyholes (MUCH EASIER THAN CDP), Cube counting (a bit easier than CDP), Folding (ehh... not sure, my strategy all along was to just guess. I hated pattern folding and just banked on doing well on other things. I think it was maybe a bit harder than CDP) I really thought i was gonna get a 17//18 taking it.
QR: HAH.....yeah, i told myself going in the test that I'd be satisfied with a 17. Ummm...it's hard to get a great score, but then again, I never got above a 19 on any of the practice test. I think its hard because they have topics there that are similar to the practice test, but not identical. You sorta have to go a bit above and beyond for some topics to get those questions. I really just didn't bother to study since ive heard that its so random. Just guess and mark the ones that you don't know for sure and move on.
RC: I'm glad I didn't get pianoed because just before I left for the test, I read on SDN that people were getting pianoed today. I got DNA microarrays, brain and language, and Calcium. The passages were pretty dense but not much harder than achiever/topscore. The good thing is that most of the questions go in the order of the paragraphs, so you dont have to read everything to know where the answers are in the passage.
Bio: I marked like 10 questions on the test. I was expecting a 18 like how I've been scoring on all my practice tests. Some questions were super random, and there's no way you can prepare for it. I'm a bio major and I took classes that mentioned some of the questions so I was able to guess correctly. The MC choices on the real DAT are less tricky. They'll give you something like, epiglottis (im making it up), and give you answer choices that are completely unrelated. I get tricked when the answers seem half-right, but if you know that it has to do with digestion, you're good to go. Oh...kaplan blue book isn't enough for this section.
GChem: Chad's vidoes are great starters if you don't know any gchem...like me. Destroyer was pretty helpful too. I was most scared about this section because I got 16 across the board for all the practice test. If you do the destroyer questions, you'll be fine.
Ochem: I studied least for this section. I really know this stuff and knew how to do everything on the test except this one question. I think the 3rd test for topscore resembles the real dat the most.
I was holding back on sending checks to the scores because I thought I wouldn't make the cutoff for some schools.
Moral for this post: PRACTICE TEST LIE!!! You will do ALOT better on the real thing, especially the science section. Good luck Y'all.
I think my story is pretty hopeful because I took practice tests literally 2 days before the exam and got science scores from 16-18, and these are from Topscore, Achiever, and Kaplan.
I pretty much studied until the minute I stepped into the testing center freaked out that I would have to retake. Even taking the test, I marked a bunch of stuff and thought I was going to do poorly.
So here are my scores:
PAT: 20 ---85.4
QR: 17---65.7 <---reading all the horror stories, I was just aiming to pass.
RC: 22---90.3
Bio: 24---98.7
GC: 24---98.2
OC: 23---94.3
TS: 24---99.3
AA: 22--96.4
PAT: I bought the 10 test CDP literally 10 days before the test. I started with like a 17/18 and the highest i got was a 20. I got 16, 16 on achiver and 17-19 on the topscores. The real test is similar to CDP. Keyholes is like CDP, TFE is like Topscore, Angles Topscore, Keyholes (MUCH EASIER THAN CDP), Cube counting (a bit easier than CDP), Folding (ehh... not sure, my strategy all along was to just guess. I hated pattern folding and just banked on doing well on other things. I think it was maybe a bit harder than CDP) I really thought i was gonna get a 17//18 taking it.
QR: HAH.....yeah, i told myself going in the test that I'd be satisfied with a 17. Ummm...it's hard to get a great score, but then again, I never got above a 19 on any of the practice test. I think its hard because they have topics there that are similar to the practice test, but not identical. You sorta have to go a bit above and beyond for some topics to get those questions. I really just didn't bother to study since ive heard that its so random. Just guess and mark the ones that you don't know for sure and move on.
RC: I'm glad I didn't get pianoed because just before I left for the test, I read on SDN that people were getting pianoed today. I got DNA microarrays, brain and language, and Calcium. The passages were pretty dense but not much harder than achiever/topscore. The good thing is that most of the questions go in the order of the paragraphs, so you dont have to read everything to know where the answers are in the passage.
Bio: I marked like 10 questions on the test. I was expecting a 18 like how I've been scoring on all my practice tests. Some questions were super random, and there's no way you can prepare for it. I'm a bio major and I took classes that mentioned some of the questions so I was able to guess correctly. The MC choices on the real DAT are less tricky. They'll give you something like, epiglottis (im making it up), and give you answer choices that are completely unrelated. I get tricked when the answers seem half-right, but if you know that it has to do with digestion, you're good to go. Oh...kaplan blue book isn't enough for this section.
GChem: Chad's vidoes are great starters if you don't know any gchem...like me. Destroyer was pretty helpful too. I was most scared about this section because I got 16 across the board for all the practice test. If you do the destroyer questions, you'll be fine.
Ochem: I studied least for this section. I really know this stuff and knew how to do everything on the test except this one question. I think the 3rd test for topscore resembles the real dat the most.
I was holding back on sending checks to the scores because I thought I wouldn't make the cutoff for some schools.
Moral for this post: PRACTICE TEST LIE!!! You will do ALOT better on the real thing, especially the science section. Good luck Y'all.
