I have been studying for almost 6 weeks and my DAT is on Monday. During those 5 weeks, I mostly reviewed every subject, no practice tests. I just started taking practice tests yesterday and they are killing me! I am not even scoring a 20+ on any of them. And I haven't really focused on QR. I'm using bootcamp and going over questions on destroyer. For those who have taken the DAT, is bootcamp similar to DAT? Even the QR section? Can anyone give me some advice. I'm really freaking out D:
Freaking out. DAT in 5 days D:
- Thread starter imn0tokei
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If you aren't prepared you should push your test date back another 3-4 weeks. Get the rest of you application prepared and be ready to fax your unofficial score report to schools right after you have taken the exam.
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How low are you actually talking? I thought my practice tests were low and when I realized that they were causing more anxiety than they were helping, I stopped taking them. The Bootcamp QR is very very hard. The actual QR (for me at least) was easier than anything I had ever practiced. My bootcamp QR scores were 18 <15 and 19, then on the real test I got a 20 with 13 minutes left over to review!
If you have been truly studying for as long as you say, and not just putting in half effort, you should be ready. I hate how fast people on this website are to tell people to push back their test. I was getting 17's on bio just five days before the test, asked SDN what I should do, and was told to push it back. I didnt, and instead I worked my butt off studying extra hard, and wound up with a 22 on Bio.
You can do this!!
If you have been truly studying for as long as you say, and not just putting in half effort, you should be ready. I hate how fast people on this website are to tell people to push back their test. I was getting 17's on bio just five days before the test, asked SDN what I should do, and was told to push it back. I didnt, and instead I worked my butt off studying extra hard, and wound up with a 22 on Bio.
You can do this!!
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I've read your breakdown I think over a dozen times because you're literally my inspiration every time I think I can't do it! I'm getting consistent 19's in bio but I refuse to push back/quit.
The thing is that I am taking 2 summer classes, one of them is Physics 2. If I had no summer class, I would definitely do that. I just have the feeling that I won't have the time that I would really want to study for DAT since I would also have to study for my 2 other classes. Thank you though.
I did not even do the QR for bootcamp because I kept skipping the problems and I was losing hope right away. I just read your breakdown and qvault helped you with bio and QR. Do you think I should get it too? Here are my scores so far from practicing bootcamp
bio /oc/gc/pat/rc/math
1st : 17/18/18/>14/18/x
2nd : 15/19/15/18/x/x
3rd: 17/x /17/17/x/x
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Well, how low is low? I was averaging 19s for Bio, and 16-17 for OC/GC on practice tests one or two days before my actual test and ended up with a 21 BIO/20 GC/20 OC. I think like @Anselmian said, as long as you're doing the actual work and not just half-studying, you should be okay.
Ask yourself this: If you pushed your test date back, would you actually learn more for the DAT, or would it just be more time for you to freak out about the test?
Whatever you decide, good luck!! And be confident in yourself going into the test. Even if it's just telling yourself "I can do this" out loud - I know it sounds dumb, but it definitely calmed me down before taking my test.
Ask yourself this: If you pushed your test date back, would you actually learn more for the DAT, or would it just be more time for you to freak out about the test?
Whatever you decide, good luck!! And be confident in yourself going into the test. Even if it's just telling yourself "I can do this" out loud - I know it sounds dumb, but it definitely calmed me down before taking my test.
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I took Topscore (yeah I know, not Bootcamp) the week before my test, and I was averaging anywhere from 17-21 in all the science sections. This freaked me out, but I still took the test and I did SO much better than I thought I would: Bio 22/GC 25/OC 29. Cram like crazy and go over all the questions again in these last couple of days. HOWEVER if you haven't been devoting much of your time doing questions and just pure review, I'd say to push it back. It takes a bit of time to get the gist of the question style and this only occurs after doing A LOT of the questions.
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It's just a matter of knowing yourself. Taking the DAT is a stressful experience since there's so much riding on it, but you have to get past the freak out and figure out how prepared you actually are. I had been doing okay on practice tests prior to my original test date, but I knew I still had some gaps in my prep. I delayed 3 weeks and the difference in my confidence was night and day. I know for a fact there were several questions on my exam that I wouldn't have been able to answer had I walked in 3 weeks earlier.
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