How accurate are Bootcamp scores?

[thisismyacct]

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I don't plan on taking the DAT for another while but just for kicks and giggles I decided to go on the DAT Bootcamp website and take a practice test. I only took the bio section, and it said my estimated score is a 19. Does that mean if it were the actual thing, I were to score higher or lower?

I understand this is a hard question to answer. So I guess another question is: for those of you who used bootcamp and have taken the DAT, can you post your bootcamp scores and then what your DAT scores were?

 

[byahnoob]

it depends
there's definitely luck into it as well ... are you getting questions on material that you know .. biology is so dense too
give yourself like a +/- 2 on all science sections

that being said, the point of it is to learn why you got certain questions wrong and what sections you're weak it.

 

[AKtoTXstudent]

I don't plan on taking the DAT for another while but just for kicks and giggles I decided to go on the DAT Bootcamp website and take a practice test. I only took the bio section, and it said my estimated score is a 19. Does that mean if it were the actual thing, I were to score higher or lower?

I understand this is a hard question to answer. So I guess another question is: for those of you who used bootcamp and have taken the DAT, can you post your bootcamp scores and then what your DAT scores were?

biology is a crapshoot. Its very random. +/- 2 is accurate estimate. just gotta study everything for biology and hope they dont throw obscure meaningless questions at you

 

[IdleKoala]

For me, I scored around +1/2 on the real DAT compared to BC for Biology. But I could definitely imagine a version of the test in which I score -1/2.

 

[Canavero]

I scored 1-3 points higher than my BC averages for each of the sections on the actual DAT. BC does a decent job predicting your scores, but remember it is just that, a prediction. On a side note: I think that the 2009 DAT is a pretty accurate predictor for the sciences and QR, except I don't know if it's really worth $100.

 

[otlcat]

I scored 1-5 points higher than my BC averages. If it makes you feel better, I averaged a 17 on BC Bio but ended up getting a 22 on the real one. And I agree with @DensMedicusOptimus the 2009 DAT is pretty accurate (RC on 2009 was crap though).

 

[thisismyacct]

I scored 1-5 points higher than my BC averages. If it makes you feel better, I averaged a 17 on BC Bio but ended up getting a 22 on the real one. And I agree with @DensMedicusOptimus the 2009 DAT is pretty accurate (RC on 2009 was crap though).

Did you freak out since you averaged a 17 on BC? How do you deal with that? And I don't mean that in a condescending way, I just know that personally it would really scare me for the real test, so I ask that in case I end up in a situation similar to yours.

 

[otlcat]

Did you freak out since you averaged a 17 on BC? How do you deal with that? And I don't mean that in a condescending way, I just know that personally it would really scare me for the real test, so I ask that in case I end up in a situation similar to yours.

I did BC Bio practice without finishing studying the details of certain topics (such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration) because I know that I would forget the nitty gritty stuff if I studied too early. But even with knowing that I might score lower on the practice, I totally freaked out when I got a 17. When I checked what I got wrong, I realized that I actually didn't know a lot of the details for topics like fertilization, gastrulation, and plants so I freaked out even more. I only had 3 weeks to study for the DAT so my anxiety built up even more and I had a few days when I was in a slump because my scores just weren't improving.

But instead of giving up, I just studied even harder. I brushed up on those topics I was weak at; I went back to Feralis' notes and watched AP Bio Youtube videos to memorize all the details to those topics. For the last two days before my test, I took the QVault free Bio practice, 2009 and 2007 ADA practice and got 21 on all three so I felt better.

But regardless of the practice score, I think everyone feels nervous before the test. All you can do is to just keep studying and not give up!! Work on the topics you're weak at and continue to do practice tests. Hard work will pay off at the end!!