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Everybody,
Well, I took the test today and wanted to thank everyone on the board for all of their studying and test taking tips. I'm very happy with my results and am even more excited about being done with it!!!
So here's my results:
Section Score Percentile
AA 23 99.3
PAT 20 95.5
QR 21 93.5
RC 27 99.8 😀
Bio 22 98.7
GC 21 92.4
OC 23 97.1
TS 22 98.2
Because I found everyone elses tips very usefull I thought I would post some of my tips and impressions"
Studying:
I used the ?Big Blue? Kaplan book for most of my studying, only using old textbooks if there was a concept I didn?t remember well.
For practice problems I used the Kaplan book and CD-ROM that comes with it as well as Topscore (a great CD-ROM from Scholarware).
Because I needed to refresh myself on a lot of the topics I ended up studying about a month with a very relaxed schedule (1-2 hours every other day) during spring quarter and then about three weeks of ?hardcore? (6 plus hours every day) right before the test. I did not take the $1000 Kaplan course and do NOT think that it is necessary to do well.
In General
The questions are not difficult, the important thing is to be very familiar with the format because it can be nerve-racking once you get in front of the computer screen. Topscore was very similar to the DAT and I highly recommend it.
At the Test
When I got to the test I moved the keyboard to the side so that I had plenty of workspace and then I opted to take the 30 min tutorial of the test (it just shows you the format, etc). During this time I wrote out all of the Math and Gen Chem formulas that I would need later on a piece of scratch paper, took a few deep breaths and then clicked through the 15 or so pages of the tutorial and jumped right in to the Science section.
Biology:
Most of the questions were very straightforward and were covered by the Kaplan book quite well. My test did seem to focus more heavily on Genetics, Ecology and Evolution then Kaplan does, but they were pretty straightforward (I also had recently taken upper division Macroevolution, Animal Ecology and Genetics ? so maybe I?m biased). Expect a few specific questions ? but you should be able to at least make an educated guess. I was surprised to have no questions on photosynthesis, but all of the other topics were covered pretty evenly. (Hint for Genetics ? read the question carefully ? are they asking for phenotypic or genotypic ratio?)
General Chem:
This is not my strongest science ? it?s been so long since freshman year! ? but I thought it was very straightforward ? very similar to topscore, if not a little easier.
O Chem:
Probably the easiest of the science sections. The section focuses heavily on SN2/SN1 E2/E1, with the rest of the questions pretty much being the reactions covered in Kaplan.
PAT:
Totally doable if you practice. I was using Topscore and consistently getting 23?s. So I guess expect your score to drop about 3 points. I didn?t think the angles were as bad as everybody says, but I swear that some of the answers for Pattern Folding were identical (anyone else get the ?beach ball? one ? 2 were the same!). Watch your time on this section.
Break
I went and ate a Luna Bar and a few ozs of water. I need food to think so not eating wasn?t an option.
Reading Comprehension:
Apparently eating helped because I thought this section was a piece of cake. Maybe I just got easy sections: Genetics of Cancer, Stock Market, and Para/Sympathetic Nervous System. The method I used was to read the first question and then dive into the passage answering questions as I went. But since the third passage was so long I really just searched for the answers. I had about 10 min left at the end to check my answers. I recommend trying out a few different methods when you practice and get comfortable with one. I can kind of ?visualize? the passage after skimming it for a few minutes so I found no need to take notes.
Math (QR):
Exactly like Topscore. I would recommend reading and working through the online GRE guide to their Math section (but add the Kaplan trig stuff and forget about the graphs at the end). Just practice doing the problems fast ? you will see the same ones ( ie ?Sara has 20 coins that add up to 75 cents, if she only has nickels and dimes?.). I made it through all of the problems but would have liked to have more time.
So that?s it. Piece of cake right?
Again thanks to all of the previous posters. Feel free to ask me any questions while everything is still fresh in my mind.
Oh and in case you're wondering:
I go to UCSB
4.09/4.15 total/science GPA (with+/-)
hoping to get into: UCLA UCSF UOP (california resident) but have some back ups just in case.
Thanks again, good luck to everyone taking it in August!
Time to go relax and have a drink!
Jessica
Well, I took the test today and wanted to thank everyone on the board for all of their studying and test taking tips. I'm very happy with my results and am even more excited about being done with it!!!
So here's my results:
Section Score Percentile
AA 23 99.3
PAT 20 95.5
QR 21 93.5
RC 27 99.8 😀
Bio 22 98.7
GC 21 92.4
OC 23 97.1
TS 22 98.2
Because I found everyone elses tips very usefull I thought I would post some of my tips and impressions"
Studying:
I used the ?Big Blue? Kaplan book for most of my studying, only using old textbooks if there was a concept I didn?t remember well.
For practice problems I used the Kaplan book and CD-ROM that comes with it as well as Topscore (a great CD-ROM from Scholarware).
Because I needed to refresh myself on a lot of the topics I ended up studying about a month with a very relaxed schedule (1-2 hours every other day) during spring quarter and then about three weeks of ?hardcore? (6 plus hours every day) right before the test. I did not take the $1000 Kaplan course and do NOT think that it is necessary to do well.
In General
The questions are not difficult, the important thing is to be very familiar with the format because it can be nerve-racking once you get in front of the computer screen. Topscore was very similar to the DAT and I highly recommend it.
At the Test
When I got to the test I moved the keyboard to the side so that I had plenty of workspace and then I opted to take the 30 min tutorial of the test (it just shows you the format, etc). During this time I wrote out all of the Math and Gen Chem formulas that I would need later on a piece of scratch paper, took a few deep breaths and then clicked through the 15 or so pages of the tutorial and jumped right in to the Science section.
Biology:
Most of the questions were very straightforward and were covered by the Kaplan book quite well. My test did seem to focus more heavily on Genetics, Ecology and Evolution then Kaplan does, but they were pretty straightforward (I also had recently taken upper division Macroevolution, Animal Ecology and Genetics ? so maybe I?m biased). Expect a few specific questions ? but you should be able to at least make an educated guess. I was surprised to have no questions on photosynthesis, but all of the other topics were covered pretty evenly. (Hint for Genetics ? read the question carefully ? are they asking for phenotypic or genotypic ratio?)
General Chem:
This is not my strongest science ? it?s been so long since freshman year! ? but I thought it was very straightforward ? very similar to topscore, if not a little easier.
O Chem:
Probably the easiest of the science sections. The section focuses heavily on SN2/SN1 E2/E1, with the rest of the questions pretty much being the reactions covered in Kaplan.
PAT:
Totally doable if you practice. I was using Topscore and consistently getting 23?s. So I guess expect your score to drop about 3 points. I didn?t think the angles were as bad as everybody says, but I swear that some of the answers for Pattern Folding were identical (anyone else get the ?beach ball? one ? 2 were the same!). Watch your time on this section.
Break
I went and ate a Luna Bar and a few ozs of water. I need food to think so not eating wasn?t an option.
Reading Comprehension:
Apparently eating helped because I thought this section was a piece of cake. Maybe I just got easy sections: Genetics of Cancer, Stock Market, and Para/Sympathetic Nervous System. The method I used was to read the first question and then dive into the passage answering questions as I went. But since the third passage was so long I really just searched for the answers. I had about 10 min left at the end to check my answers. I recommend trying out a few different methods when you practice and get comfortable with one. I can kind of ?visualize? the passage after skimming it for a few minutes so I found no need to take notes.
Math (QR):
Exactly like Topscore. I would recommend reading and working through the online GRE guide to their Math section (but add the Kaplan trig stuff and forget about the graphs at the end). Just practice doing the problems fast ? you will see the same ones ( ie ?Sara has 20 coins that add up to 75 cents, if she only has nickels and dimes?.). I made it through all of the problems but would have liked to have more time.
So that?s it. Piece of cake right?
Again thanks to all of the previous posters. Feel free to ask me any questions while everything is still fresh in my mind.
Oh and in case you're wondering:
I go to UCSB
4.09/4.15 total/science GPA (with+/-)
hoping to get into: UCLA UCSF UOP (california resident) but have some back ups just in case.
Thanks again, good luck to everyone taking it in August!
Time to go relax and have a drink!
Jessica
