Ok, I just woke up in a very foggy haze , soI will attempt to answer all questions. I would say the science overall is very broad and generalized. When I was reading the questions I was thinking if they were joking with some of those questions, because they were soooo easy. I finished the bio in an hour and had 30 min to kill. I had one animal question, one ecology. Gchem had like 4 simple calculations, and was just broad questions. PV=PV, rxn rate, VP . Advice on Ochem, 90% theory. There was only one or two synthesis problems, and the rest were simple kaplan questions. No questions that I had never seen before, and I am so thankful that I didn't get the test with alot of ecology/taxonomy. Know the vertebrates characteristics. immunology. kaplan embryology.
RC had a passage on Calcium, aging, and I forget the third one. The Ca passage was a bitch to read because of all the jargon, so it took me the longest to get through
math was a freaking joke. the probability question consisted of 2 x 3 . It was all algebra and knowing algebra tricks like getting rid of square roots, which # was the biggest, exponents etc.
PAT was evidently my weakest part, but it was still not nearly as hard as DAT achiever. Some of the angles were just ridiculous, but others were obvious. The top front back was probably the second most difficult. Kaplan PAT will not prepare you for the PAT. The best advice for PAT is practice with Kaplan just to get the patterns and a feel for it, but then get DAT achiever. That program kicked my ass in so many ways it wasn't funny, but I did every test twice and took notes on my mistakes. The 3D visualizations of this program is the only way to go if you wanna do well.
To study, I took Princeton Review and had their materials, and also got all of the Kaplan stuff from a friend. Also bought DAT acheiver. Never read Schaum's outline and that other stuff, but I think PR's bio was way more detailed that Kaplan, so between the two I freaking knew alot of bio. I studied for about 4 months. Thr first 2.5 months I studied like 6 hours a day, and the last 1.5 months about 10 hours a day. I would just wake up, make a lunch/dinner, and go sit in one spot that I basically owned at my library. I really need a tan. whitest persian ever
So to do well on this test.. Do alot of problems. as much as you can do. Take notes on everything you get wrong. Then wait a week or 2, and retake those tests. I had about 12 full tests and the Kaplan subject tests, and I reviewed them all multiple times. READ the explanations when you get something wrong, and learn from them. I also read through my Kaplan, PR and own notes several times to make sure I knew it all. I made several sheets that had all the rxs on it, and the hormones, the reproduction cycle, etc. and I studied them so much that I could visualize the where the information was on the page. REPITITION
My DAT achiever score is irrevelent because I took it twice and don't even have the old scores. The first time I took the test I got 16 and 17 on science and PAT sections, but I went and reviewed every single mistake and learned from them, so the second time around I got 19-20s. I have a problem with the importance people on SDN give these scores. I say forget about comparing other people's DAT achiever scores to your own, because it will only kick you off track. I never looked at other people's score . Just study it until you get the score you want.
And the real test is wayyyyyyyyyyy easier than DAT achiever, but you need to prime your brain to think that at that level. This applies to you as well Rhonda. Don't worry about your low Kaplan scores. Just study your mistakes and learn from them so when you take that test again, you will make no mistakes. You gotta start somewhere.
lovechild.. the first test I took was harder than the one I took now, but I guess I wasn't as prepared that time as this time.
datcooldude : for angles, pray. I was struggling. for top front end you need to eliminate usually 2 shapes that the # of lines don't match up, and for the other 2 answer choices the difference was whether a line was supposed to be dotted or a full line. look at the two views given to you and you really have to visualize whether that line would be seen or whether it is blocked. This is diffcult to explain, but as you practice it will come to you.
So in conclusion, the best way to study in my opinion is not to reread your entire ochem/gchem/bio book, because you probably will not retain 90% of it. . Study Kaplan (or Princeton review if you can) and know them like the back of your hand . They are all you need. (BTW, anyone need Princeton review /kaplan materials???
) Then do every single problem until you know them all. I had gotten to a point where would get 2-3 wrong per section on my practice DATs and 0 wrong on the Kaplan subject tests. I walked in the pometric center with confidence.
So thats my rant. I hope it helped . If there is something you read and doesn't make sense, it is probably because my brain is running on fumes right now and grammer is first to go out the window. I'll try to answer anything else you guys want. And I really wanna say this...Dr. Romano sucks.. why you asks, I really don't know. But if his henchmen can come on here and hock his snake oil, then I can say he sucks
