Finished dat 4/20/2011

[joe2424]

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DAT scores 4/20/2011

Perceptual Ability: 20
Quantitative Reasoning: 19
Reading Comprehension: 22
Biology:19
General Chemistry: 23
Organic Chemistry: 22
Total Science: 21
Academic Average: 21

The study materials I used: Kaplan Blue Book, Kaplan Online resources, Campbell text book (read chs. 6-22 & 40-51), Barrons AP Biology (awesome resource), Chad's videos, Godfrey Test Prep, DAT Destroyer, DAT Achiever, Crack the PAT, Top Score, and purchased 2009 Practice DAT.

Perceptual Ability
Keyholes: surprisingly I thought that Crack the PAT was way to easy for these compared to the real DAT. I was consisently getting 15/15 everytime on crack the pat, but on the real thing I had to really focus up a little more. A better representation of this section is DAT Achiever. If you can get between 10-12 right on this section with Achiever you will be fine.

Top Front End: I thought again Achiever was much better than crack the pat. Achiever doesn't let you just count lines in order to find the answer, but instead teaches you to see the 3D figures, which I felt Crack the PAT didn't do completly. Again, Achiever was harder than the real DAT for this section, but teaches you to think about these questions the right way. Make sure to study the wrong answers from Achiever which is how I learned to see the 3D figure. The writer of the program gives all three views for even the wrong answer choices which helps you to learn.

Angles: I think Crack the PAT was much harder than the real DAT for this section. The only distinguishing difference on the real DAT versus Crack the PAT is that the angles are drawn with straight lines via Crack the PAT, but on the real DAT they are not. Achiever better shows how the angles are drawn, but Crack the PAT allows you to adjust the angle size to really challenge you. My method was the rapid high glance back and forth between angles and looking at the answers first.

Hole Punches: This section was a joke. Crack the PAT over prepares you for this section. Not bad at all. Just practice a lot. You should be able to get all of these.

Cubes: I GOT THE HIDDEN CUBE!! I was so mad when I saw this on my test. I really could never figure this out, but whatever. Crack the PAT is the best for this section.

Pattern Folding: Achiever is good for this section.

Reading Comprehension
I was really worried about this section, which is why I got the Godfrey test prep. I scored 17's and 18's on Godfrey and never really got to finish the test. The passages are way to long for Godfrey compared to the real DAT. Achiever is really tough. I got 17's with Achiever and could never finish the passages. Plus some of Achiever's passages were so confusing, which I thought the reading on the real dat was much more straight forward. Top Score was completely inaccurate for this section since it was way to easy. Stick to Achiever and Godfrey. I practiced reading for an hour per day.

Biology
I read Campbell because I am not a Biology major, but for those of you who are then I wouldn't recommend it, but instead use it as a resource to look topics up. I would highly recommend the Barron's A.P. Biology book. This did a great job at summarizing the details you really need to know for the test. I looked at the Cliff's AP book, but went with the Barron's book because I thought they did a better job at presenting the material even though the book may have less detail. I also went through the Kaplan Blue Book as well, but found that they left out important details.

General Chemistry
Two ways to get a good score. First, watch Chad's videos and make sure to do the questions over and over again along with his videos and secondly, make sure that you do all the questions in DAT Destroyer. I went through destroyer three times as well as Kaplan's online material (5 subject tests). A couple saturdays I went to the borders bookstore with my girlfriend and did some sample tests for free in the Barrons AP Chem Book and DAT book. Just do tons and tons of questions and you should do well. Destroyer was much harder than the real dat! I probably did about 1500 G.C. questions between Kaplan, Destroyer, Top Score, Achiever, and Barrons AP CHEM.

Organic Chemistry
Same as Gen. Chem just practice and do tons of questions. Use the road maps in the destroyer to make flash cards and Chad's videos. I had a stack of flash cards between I.R. stuff, Lab stuff, and reactions. Plus go through destroyer 3 times. If you do that I guarantee you should score well.

Q.R.
No real tips for this section and didn't really study for it. Make sure to know conversions, distance and rate questions, ratios, trig. concepts. Some of it was similar to SAT math, but they had a couple reflection questions which I just guessed and skipped because of time concerns. The key to doing well is making sure to budget your time well!




I never thought that this test would be over, but finally it is and I don't think I am going to retake it. I studied for three months, 10 hours per day, 6 days per week. I also ran up a big AMEX bill and had no life, but I guess that is what it takes.

 

[wall1two]

awesome job! what where your practice test scores like if i can ask.

 

[casper22]

Good Score..Congrats...

 

[dentalWorks]

Congrats.

I think your the only other person (other than me) who bought godFrey.

Did you like it? I hated it, I got depressed everytime I did a test, always scoring 14-16s.

 

[wired202808]

dentalworks, do you feel G.dfrey's helped? Would you buy it again knowing what the real exam was like? I dont mind spending the $65 if its worth it.

 

[vicsin]

420 DAT 👍

 

[DDSdreaming]

great scores how did your TopScore practice tests compare to the real thing?

 

[Bchance]

Nice job.. you did well!!! Congrats!!

 

[dentalWorks]

dentalworks, do you feel G.dfrey's helped? Would you buy it again knowing what the real exam was like? I dont mind spending the $65 if its worth it.

here is what I thought about it
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=669896

Its an okay program if you can keep yourself from getting frustrated lol. You won't score well, if you do, then ur gonna end up with like a 25 in RC lolz

 

[wired202808]

dentalworks, so is there really a point? do you feel practicing with it improved your RC score or merely highlighted it? I read your other post, I'm not sure if you gained anything from it besides being tortured LOL (this is my assumption.) because I can always find other type of passages to use and read, I just dont want to shell out $60 and waste time on something that might not help me in the long run.

 

[joe2424]

Top Score Practice Scores:
I thought Top Score was a pretty good representation of what the science portion of the test was like, but not the Reading Comprehension and Q.R.
Bio 19, 18, 19
G.C. 25,21,22
O.C. 22,22,22
PAT 24, 23,23
Q.R. 22, 22,22
R.C. 27,26,25

I knew before purchasing the Godfrey Test Prep that it was going to be hell, but I wanted to get it anyways because I have always struggled with Reading Comprehension and was worried about the Piano passage that I read about on SDN. A lot of the schools of minimum cut offs reading comprehension at 17, so I was really worried about not making the cut. I felt that I did get better because I practiced reading once a day for an hour or so, but overall you need a little luck and to manage your time properly. If you do not make it to the last passage most likely you are not going to do well. I feel like the test takers know this which is why, at least on my test, the first two passages were much more difficult than the last passage.

My Kaplan Test scores were🙁they were all over the place)
Midterm, Final, Practice 1, Practice 2, Practice 3
Bio:17, 19, 17, 18, 22
G.C.: 19, 20, 19, 19, 19
O.C: 21, 19, 21, 20, 17
PAT: 20, 23, 26, 25, 23 (the keyholes and T.F. are pretty decent, but everything else is a joke)
R.C.: 19, 20, 20, 20, 18
A.A.: 19, 20, 20, 20, 19
T.S.: 19, 19, 19, 19, 20
Q.R.: 20, 21, 21, 22, 20


Hope this helps. Yeah I was upset I had to take this exam on 4/20 but luckily I still had a little time to make up for the first half of my pathetic day.

 

[dentalWorks]

dentalworks, so is there really a point? do you feel practicing with it improved your RC score or merely highlighted it? I read your other post, I'm not sure if you gained anything from it besides being tortured LOL (this is my assumption.) because I can always find other type of passages to use and read, I just dont want to shell out $60 and waste time on something that might not help me in the long run.

I don't know if it helped me... I only took the test once and escaped with a 19. Would I have scored lower without it? I don't know

joe2424 ~ what do you think?

 

[Expert]

You are the first person I heard who says that the real DAT PAT was harder in some sections that Crack the DAT PAT. people usually say that Crack the DAT PAT is harder or at least comparable to the actual DAT.

 

[invictusx]

You are the first person I heard who says that the real DAT PAT was harder in some sections that Crack the DAT PAT. people usually say that Crack the DAT PAT is harder or at least comparable to the actual DAT.

Mine was much harder, at least the TFE was. Angle ranking... is the usual.

 

[joe2424]

Only Keyholes and Top-Front End were harder on the real DAT versus crack the pat, which is why I recommend using Achiever for those sections since there questions are much more accurate to what the actual DAT is like in fact probably a little bit harder than the real DAT.

Top Score was pretty helpful especially for the science sections of the test. I wanted to take as many tests as possible, which is why I decided to get the Top Score. I used Top Score only for the science section, but that is really it.

I liked to practice things that were going to be harder like the Destroyer, Achiever, and Godfrey tests. I don't think I ever broke a 17 in Achiever. I will guarantee that if you are getting (on the first attempt of Achiever) a 16 or higher that you will do really well on the DAT. I got +4 from Achiever on pretty much all my sections of the test. Also, I found Achiever's reading was even harder and more complex than the real dat.

My study schedule was 6 days per week
1hr reading comp
1hr gen. chem (40questions)
1hr. ochem (40 questions)
1.5hr bio
1hr pat
1hr science review (ochem flash cards, Barrons AP Bio book, reading over)
Gym
2 hrs Review Gen Chem and Organic Questions
CALL IT A DAY


On Saturday's I would take full length tests and Sunday's I took off.

 

[Expert]

Would the line counting technique still work for the TFE on the actual DAT? At first I thought the TFE on CDP was hard, and then i discovered line counting and became really good at them, and now it appears that doing well may require actually being able to visualize in 3d.

 

[wired202808]

joe can you please advise on the G-dfrey's proogram to let me know if its worth it? Thanks.

 

[DDSdreaming]

Only Keyholes and Top-Front End were harder on the real DAT versus crack the pat, which is why I recommend using Achiever for those sections since there questions are much more accurate to what the actual DAT is like in fact probably a little bit harder than the real DAT.

Top Score was pretty helpful especially for the science sections of the test. I wanted to take as many tests as possible, which is why I decided to get the Top Score. I used Top Score only for the science section, but that is really it.

I liked to practice things that were going to be harder like the Destroyer, Achiever, and Godfrey tests. I don't think I ever broke a 17 in Achiever. I will guarantee that if you are getting (on the first attempt of Achiever) a 16 or higher that you will do really well on the DAT. I got +4 from Achiever on pretty much all my sections of the test. Also, I found Achiever's reading was even harder and more complex than the real dat.

My study schedule was 6 days per week
1hr reading comp
1hr gen. chem (40questions)
1hr. ochem (40 questions)
1.5hr bio
1hr pat
1hr science review (ochem flash cards, Barrons AP Bio book, reading over)
Gym
2 hrs Review Gen Chem and Organic Questions
CALL IT A DAY


On Saturday's I would take full length tests and Sunday's I took off.

That is a sick study schedule! Were you working or going to school ?
Also I am really hoping your guarantee holds true so far I have TS of 16 and 15 on Achiever and 18s on TopScore. I would love a 19 or 20 but i think i could possibly slide by with an 18..

 

[joe2424]

Sorry for long delay on response, but no I wasn't in school and was tutoring for work about 15 hours per week. The rest of my time was dedicated towards this test, but I knew I had to dedicate more time than most people because I was not a science major and didn't do as well as most people on standardized tests. Godfrey was awesome for reading comprehension, since it was so long. The real passages on the DAT aren't even close to as long as Godfrey, which helped make me have plenty of time on the real DAT. The reading section is all about allocating your time properly and trying to stay focused and calm.

Crack the PAT was good for only Angles, paper folding, and Cube Counting. Achiever is the best software for Keyholes, Top-Front End, and Pattern Folding. Overall, I liked Achiever more since it was more accurate to the real DAT if not harder. Crack the PAT doesn't work well for Top-Front-End because you cannot count lines, instead Achiever makes you see the figure three dimensionally in your mind. Initially I couldn't do this, but after spending hours to understand the answer key from solid works software I figured it out. Just get Achiever and Crack PAT for these sections and study them only for the question types I listed and you should do great. This is what helped for me, but obviously everyone is different.