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deleted565160
What's good SDN, I just finished my DAT today around 5PM.
PAT: 22
QR: 23
RC: 19 👎thumbdown👎
BIO: 20
GC: 24
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 22
Before I begin, I must thank all the SDN members for the tips and information about this tedious test. Also, I want to add that before I started studying for this test, I had almost zero knowledge of OC and GC because my freshmen and sophomore year of College weren't the best years academic wise.. yeah. Still managed to maintain a GPA above 3.0, however.
Materials Used
- CHAD (make Chad your best friend for the summer!)
- KBB
- Cliff's
- CrackDat
- DAT Destroyer
- QVault
- TopScore
Kaplan Diagnostic (taken on the very first day)
PAT: 18
QR: 17
RC: 13
BIO: 10
GC: 9
OC:9
yeah, embarrassing scores. 😀
Breakdown
BIOLOGY: For this section, I primarily used KBB. Yes, I read over Cliff's once but it was like reading newspaper -- boring and boring. I am not a good reader so I need visual aids while reading, which KBB provided with colored pictures and headings and what not. I eventually read over KBB three times before the test. Not the hardest task because KBB is easy read and chapters are relatively short. I also watched Chad's Bio videos, which helped me on some concepts that were hard to grasp from the books (Ex. DNA replication). Also did a ton of QVault questions which were pretty difficult compared to the actual DAT. For the BIO section on the actual DAT, the difficulty of the questions varied extremely. From a simple question that asked for the organelle common between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, to a really detailed question about the zona pellucida. Overall, it was pretty doable and the questions look most similar to many of Destroyer questions.
GC: Ah, I stressed over this section so much before the test. I was averaging about a 15 on GC for all 3 TopScore tests. I used Chad's videos and quizzes, Destroyer, and learned some concepts from the Qvault. What I liked about Qvault is that they categorize each concept so I can just go to the ones I am least familiar with and work a bunch of problems. However, I think almost all of my GC questions from the actual DAT resembled questions from Chad's quizzes. I also went through Chad's quiz for GC twice, and watched the videos twice on the topics that I was weak at.
OC: By far, my least familiar section of the DAT. Studying was not my first priority during my sophomore year when I took Ochem. 😛 However, Chad is such an amazing teacher that I was able to grasp most of the ideas and concepts from him. Destroyer is another good source for OC because of the wide variety of the types of questions it provides.
Same with GC, I went over Chad's quizzes twice for OC and watched his videos twice on the topics I sucked at. Fortunately, I did not have any NMR or IR questions on my actual test. I really suck at those so I lucked out on that.
QR: Math was always my strongest subject. I started off with Math Destroyer and finished all 12? or 14? (I forget) Destroyer tests and averaged around a 33/40. I was not really worried about this section so did not spend much time studying for QR. However, QR questions were very similar to Qvault and TopScore than the Destroyer. The Destroyer questions are pretty difficult compared to the actual DAT but it gives you good math concepts.
RC: If you have not noticed already, English is not my first language.. 😀 Reading has always been my weakest cause I just suck at reading. And reading about 30 paragraphs and answering 50 questions in just an hour was always always a mission impossible for me. I did all CDP reading tests and averaged about 20. However, the actual reading questions are nothing like the CDP reading. I had only one tone question, and everything else was either defining or explaining types of questions. Despite the hatred, I am content with my RC score.
I almost forgot, but my TopScore results were no where close to my actual scores. I averaged 15 TS, and 17 AA for all three TopScore tests. In addition, I actually do not recommend TopScore for BIO and PAT because the BIO tests were just too specific and they seem to recycle PAT questions from CDP.
All in all, I think this test is about 40% Chad, 40% practice, and 20% basic knowledge. Even if you do not have the best science knowledge like myself, you can overcome this test with the help of the almighty Chad and a ton of practice questions. I highly highly recommend making Chad your bestfriend just for the summer. I watched his videos while I was eating, laying in bed (no homo), driving to places (listening to his videos in this case), and doing business in the bathroom.
Hope this breakdown was helpful and feel free to ask me any questions about anything! 🙂
PAT: 22
QR: 23
RC: 19 👎thumbdown👎
BIO: 20
GC: 24
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 22
Before I begin, I must thank all the SDN members for the tips and information about this tedious test. Also, I want to add that before I started studying for this test, I had almost zero knowledge of OC and GC because my freshmen and sophomore year of College weren't the best years academic wise.. yeah. Still managed to maintain a GPA above 3.0, however.
Materials Used
- CHAD (make Chad your best friend for the summer!)
- KBB
- Cliff's
- CrackDat
- DAT Destroyer
- QVault
- TopScore
Kaplan Diagnostic (taken on the very first day)
PAT: 18
QR: 17
RC: 13
BIO: 10
GC: 9
OC:9
yeah, embarrassing scores. 😀
Breakdown
BIOLOGY: For this section, I primarily used KBB. Yes, I read over Cliff's once but it was like reading newspaper -- boring and boring. I am not a good reader so I need visual aids while reading, which KBB provided with colored pictures and headings and what not. I eventually read over KBB three times before the test. Not the hardest task because KBB is easy read and chapters are relatively short. I also watched Chad's Bio videos, which helped me on some concepts that were hard to grasp from the books (Ex. DNA replication). Also did a ton of QVault questions which were pretty difficult compared to the actual DAT. For the BIO section on the actual DAT, the difficulty of the questions varied extremely. From a simple question that asked for the organelle common between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, to a really detailed question about the zona pellucida. Overall, it was pretty doable and the questions look most similar to many of Destroyer questions.
GC: Ah, I stressed over this section so much before the test. I was averaging about a 15 on GC for all 3 TopScore tests. I used Chad's videos and quizzes, Destroyer, and learned some concepts from the Qvault. What I liked about Qvault is that they categorize each concept so I can just go to the ones I am least familiar with and work a bunch of problems. However, I think almost all of my GC questions from the actual DAT resembled questions from Chad's quizzes. I also went through Chad's quiz for GC twice, and watched the videos twice on the topics that I was weak at.
OC: By far, my least familiar section of the DAT. Studying was not my first priority during my sophomore year when I took Ochem. 😛 However, Chad is such an amazing teacher that I was able to grasp most of the ideas and concepts from him. Destroyer is another good source for OC because of the wide variety of the types of questions it provides.
Same with GC, I went over Chad's quizzes twice for OC and watched his videos twice on the topics I sucked at. Fortunately, I did not have any NMR or IR questions on my actual test. I really suck at those so I lucked out on that.
QR: Math was always my strongest subject. I started off with Math Destroyer and finished all 12? or 14? (I forget) Destroyer tests and averaged around a 33/40. I was not really worried about this section so did not spend much time studying for QR. However, QR questions were very similar to Qvault and TopScore than the Destroyer. The Destroyer questions are pretty difficult compared to the actual DAT but it gives you good math concepts.
RC: If you have not noticed already, English is not my first language.. 😀 Reading has always been my weakest cause I just suck at reading. And reading about 30 paragraphs and answering 50 questions in just an hour was always always a mission impossible for me. I did all CDP reading tests and averaged about 20. However, the actual reading questions are nothing like the CDP reading. I had only one tone question, and everything else was either defining or explaining types of questions. Despite the hatred, I am content with my RC score.
I almost forgot, but my TopScore results were no where close to my actual scores. I averaged 15 TS, and 17 AA for all three TopScore tests. In addition, I actually do not recommend TopScore for BIO and PAT because the BIO tests were just too specific and they seem to recycle PAT questions from CDP.
All in all, I think this test is about 40% Chad, 40% practice, and 20% basic knowledge. Even if you do not have the best science knowledge like myself, you can overcome this test with the help of the almighty Chad and a ton of practice questions. I highly highly recommend making Chad your bestfriend just for the summer. I watched his videos while I was eating, laying in bed (no homo), driving to places (listening to his videos in this case), and doing business in the bathroom.
Hope this breakdown was helpful and feel free to ask me any questions about anything! 🙂
