Gen Chem Question for those who have seen the real thing

[smildoc2]

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Thanks in advance to anyone able to help, this forum has been an incredible source of info, even though I'm a little tired of the "I have a 4.0 / all 25+'s except for my crappy 22 on QR will I get in? bit". I plan on posting my advice once I take the test July 5th if I think I can help.

On a lot of the Kaplan Subj tests, the answer will be in complex fraction format, like for dimensional analysis problems, all of the steps will just be combined into one fraction.

Does anyone remember if the real test had answer choices like this? I can't stand these problems because the numbers they end up with conflict with my style of arriving at an answer...

Muchos gracias.

 

[SunnyD0119]

hey im takin the real thing on july 5th too....
how have you been doing on those kaplan subject tests???

 

[dexadental]

I'm taking the real thing on Wednesday, I've done the kaplan subject tests for gen chem about 5 times, I feel I could do these probs in my sleep...but lets just wait and see what happens when the numbers change...eeek! Well wish me luck everyone, sorry but I had to butt in on this thread, I'm not gonna be on SDN at all tomorrow, its a day of relaxation and meditation for me!

 

[dat_student]

...Well wish me luck everyone, ...

Wish you the best of luck...

 

[Blackstars]

I'm taking the real thing on Wednesday, I've done the kaplan subject tests for gen chem about 5 times, I feel I could do these probs in my sleep...but lets just wait and see what happens when the numbers change...eeek! Well wish me luck everyone, sorry but I had to butt in on this thread, I'm not gonna be on SDN at all tomorrow, its a day of relaxation and meditation for me!

Good luck on your test day, relax and calm your nerves during the test and I'm sure you're going to do great.

 

[mepstein]

I studied hard. I think Im pretty smart but i dont end up doing amazing in my classes. The worst score i got on every practice test was GC. I ended up getting a 29 on the real thing! The calculations that you need to do are very simple. It is much more conceptual, knowing the ideas of the basics is more important.

good luck!!

 

[smildoc2]

honestly, i haven't been doing so hot on the subject tests... i kind of use them to figure out what i don't know and then go over the stuff in my textbooks. i've been out of college for a few years and have had to reteach some topics to myself.

i just took organic recently, did really well on that ACS final, but now I'm finding I forget the details, which are the key to the subject. For Gen Chem, it's been about five years since I took the course, and the second semester stuff is giving me problems.

I'm pretty smart, too, just like a lot of these brainiacs on this forum, but competing with people who have just learned the info from real professors can be discouraging.

Regardless, I'm not answering them in my sleep, unless by sleep you mean fully awake with all my textbooks spread out on the floor.

 

[SunnyD0119]

listen dude kaplan i think is a little fruity....the way they do stuff doesnt really explain what the hell is going on.........what i'm doing is going to the text books and reading the chaps on stuff im not gettin like solubility and kinetics.....i think honestly that kaplan makes some mistakes too...i remem in one practice test on a question for standard enthalpy formation for methane...they say its -625kj...its not its more like -890kj........thtas the answer i kept getting and they even tried to explain how -625 is right.........(they justify by saying that you don't have to multiply by coefficients if you can reduce the reaction to 1 w/ all elemental species w/ coeffieciets -they're H is 0) but anyways you cant do that.
anyways just study im getting to that point where im studying and studying and hopefully i'll do well....we just gotta get into the mindset that we're ready
so good luck

 

[smildoc2]

Hey, I struggled for a while with the differences between solubility, titrations, Ksp, and the kinetics stuff for a while too.

The major thing I found is that any of the ones that deal with equilibria get the exponents from the balanced equations.

All the ones that deal with rates are a completely different topic, and their exponents come from experimental trials. This has to do with mechanism rathere than the amount of stuff produced.

I think this is a pretty solid rule.

 

[mochafreak]

I'm taking the real thing on Wednesday, I've done the kaplan subject tests for gen chem about 5 times, I feel I could do these probs in my sleep...but lets just wait and see what happens when the numbers change...eeek! Well wish me luck everyone, sorry but I had to butt in on this thread, I'm not gonna be on SDN at all tomorrow, its a day of relaxation and meditation for me!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do great. 👍

 

[SunnyD0119]

interesting.....i'll remmebr that and take a look at some problems.....the one thing i find the most confusing though is the fact that kaplan puts some freekishly hard math on those ksp stuff........ but anyways back to studying
take care

 

[dat_student]

I studied hard. I think Im pretty smart but i dont end up doing amazing in my classes. The worst score i got on every practice test was GC. I ended up getting a 29 on the real thing! The calculations that you need to do are very simple. It is much more conceptual, knowing the ideas of the basics is more important.

good luck!!

How did you do on Kaplan's & TopScores' G'Chem tests before taking the real DAT?

 

[dexadental]

I think analytical chemistry last spring pretty much drilled solubility, titrations, equivalence point problems, and acid base reactions in my head forever, the one reason I'm thankful for taking that otherwise obnoxious class. I too have noticed a few errors in Kaplan.

 

[mepstein]

IF this is unreadable i can email the excel file. I kept results of every of the 14 practice tests i did. I averaged 18 i think on GC! Copy and paste into word, i think it will work

PRACTICE DAT SCORES
Date Company Number Reading QR Biology Chem Ochem TS AA PA
1 12/29/2004 Kaplan Diagnostic 21.0 17.0 15.0 15.0 15.0 15.0 17.7 19.0
2 2/6/2005 Kaplan Blue Book 18.0 21.0 18.0 14.0 17.0 16.3 18.4 22.0
3 4/9/2005 Barrons A 20.0 23.0 17.0 16.0 18.0 17.0 20.0 18.0
4 4/25/2005 Midterm 1 19.0 18.0 19.0 17.0 19.0 18.3 18.4 22.0
5 5/1/2005 Barrons B 18.0 25.0 17.0 19.0 23.0 19.7 20.9 19.0
6 5/6/2005 Kaplan extra 1 21.0 24.0 24.0 19.0 17.0 20.0 21.7 23.0
7 5/8/2005 Kaplan extra 2 19.0 21.0 29.0 15.0 15.0 19.7 19.9 22.0
8 5/10/2005 Kaplan CD 19.0 23.0 18.0 18.0 20.0 18.7 20.2 23.0
9 5/13/2005 DAT ACHIEVER 1 23.0 21.0 17.0 19.0 17.0 17.7 20.6 17.0
10 5/16/2005 Kaplan Final 19.0 21.0 24.0 18.0 28.0 23.3 21.1 22.0
11 5/18/2005 Top Score 1 19.0 21.0 19.0 18.0 17.0 18.0 19.3 22.0
12 5/21/2005 DAT ACHIEVER 2 18.0 20.0 18.0 17.0 17.0 17.3 18.4 18.0
13 5/24/2005 Top Score 2 20.0 22.0 17.0 20.0 19.0 18.7 20.2 23.0
14 5/27/2005 DAT ACHIEVER 3 22.0 25.0 15.0 19.0 20.0 18.0 21.7 20.0
15 5/30/2005 Top Score 3 21.0 22.0 19.0 18.0 19.0 18.7 20.6 23.0
AVERAGE 19.8 21.6 19.1 17.5 18.7 18.4 19.9 20.9
2-Jun-05 FINAL SCORE 19 22 21 29 21 22 22 22