Just took the DAT today june 22...here are my thoughts

[rip921]

Oh man, I took the DAT today in gainesville,

AA: 22
TS: 22
Organic : 20
GC: 20
Biology: 25
RC: 21
QR: 26
PAT: 20


I was so relieved when I was finished with the test. When I was taking practice tests, I was always pressed for time, but when I took the real thing, I was just flying through all the sections. As far as what I studied, I used Barrons, Ace the DAT and Kaplan MCAT. I used the kaplan mcat for the biology and the organic and general chemistry sections. Kaplan's MCAT books went it a lot of detail in these sections. As far ace the dat, I thought that it was alright, I mean its really good for the PAT, very comparable to the real thing, mabye even a little bit harder than the real thing. If you are going to use Ace the dat, use it for the PAT and QR, the other sections have errors, and are really tough! But overall the book that I would probably recommend just as much as the Kaplan mcat book would be Barrons. There are errors on the barrons practice exams, but there the there was a thread on this forum that listed the wrong answers and the actual answer that it should be, but my scores on the barrons dat exams were very close the my real score. I'm just glad I dont' have to take this test again, no more studying DAT everyday while watching television!

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[Darby_O'Gill]

How long did you study for?

 

[SunnyD0119]

Oh man, I took the DAT today in gainesville,

AA: 22
TS: 22
Organic : 20
GC: 20
Biology: 25
RC: 21
QR: 26
PAT: 20


I was so relieved when I was finished with the test. When I was taking practice tests, I was always pressed for time, but when I took the real thing, I was just flying through all the sections. As far as what I studied, I used Barrons, Ace the DAT and Kaplan MCAT. I used the kaplan mcat for the biology and the organic and general chemistry sections. Kaplan's MCAT books went it a lot of detail in these sections. As far ace the dat, I thought that it was alright, I mean its really good for the PAT, very comparable to the real thing, mabye even a little bit harder than the real thing. If you are going to use Ace the dat, use it for the PAT and QR, the other sections have errors, and are really tough! But overall the book that I would probably recommend just as much as the Kaplan mcat book would be Barrons. There are errors on the barrons practice exams, but there the there was a thread on this forum that listed the wrong answers and the actual answer that it should be, but my scores on the barrons dat exams were very close the my real score. I'm just glad I dont' have to take this test again, no more studying DAT everyday while watching television!

wow those are really good scores...congrats
would you say the actual dat is easier or harder than the practice tests?? also what kind of questions did it ask on the orgo section?

 

[rip921]

As far as the organic, I had quite a bit of reactions on there, and as far as how much I studied, well I took the kaplan courses in janunary/feburary, which were a total waste of money, and then starting in May I started studying, nothing to serious, infact I would usually study with the tv on or something, and the first thing i did was I learned all the information, I read the all the bio chapters in the mcat book, and I went over all the organic and gen chem. I have to say that I am a chemistry major, so I focused more on bio then the chemistry sections. As I was taking the test, I thought that it was easier than the Ace the Dat exams, mabye a slightly harder than the barrons. Ace the dat did a great job with the pat, like the angles and stuff, lots of practice. Most of all , I tried not to get comsumed by the dat studying and I tried not to get stressed out.

 

[dat_student]

rip921, great scores. congrats...how was the reading section?

 

[rip921]

For the reading section, I had three stories on cancer, stocks and finance, and the nervous system. It was to bad, but the one thing that I didn't like was the fact that like after you read the story, you click next and the first question comes up, and with ace teh dat and kaplan, you could click on exhibit and it would bring the story up as a popup. But on the real thing, there is a separate frame at teh bottom that has the story, so you can scroll in the bottom frame and look in the story, but you can't get a pop-up version of the story unless you go back to before the first question of teh story. Above the bottom toolbar where the story is, the rest of teh screen in the question. But overall, I thought that it wasn't to bad, my score was pretty comparable to the kaplan and barrons and ace the dat.

 

[dexadental]

hey rip those are some nice scores...you shoulda told me you were taking it so early, we coulda studied! I'm surprised you didn't get topscore...but get this: I called the testing center today and theyre all booked for the month! That sucks...considering I wanted to do it Monday when we get back from our break. You really tore up QR...I'm hoping someone cancels and am calling like every 2 hours...I need to take this thing on Monday! So was gen chem mostly theory or calcs? How is the testing environment there? Is it near the Kaplan center?

 

[ddsnp]

Goodjob rip I also took it today and we had similar scores..haha ...though i didn't like the reading comp...i noticed a blood vessel throbing on the side of my test...and that is when i was starting to freak out. I'm happy that i don't have to study anymore either...greatjob...for those that are studying for it...keep on truckin cuz it'll pay off

 

[dexadental]

I think you're practically guaranteed a spot at UF.

 

[BigJ77]

Those are some nice scores! Good luck to you! You are looking pretty good!

 

[dat_student]

AA: 22
TS: 22
Organic : 20
GC: 20
Biology: 25
RC: 21
QR: 26
PAT: 20

wondering if anyone gets AA < 20 So far everybody seems to have got 20+ for AA

 

[Comet208]

wondering if anyone gets AA < 20 So far everybody seems to have got 20+ for AA

Thats what is scaring me!

 

[mochafreak]

wondering if anyone gets AA < 20 So far everybody seems to have got 20+ for AA

No kidding...let's keep the pace going, mine's July 9th.

 

[ddsnp]

You guys can get higher than a 20 AA just work hard. I was getting demotivated because of my practice test scores. I only hit 20 once. I studied so much because it takes me a while to remember stuff. My scores are posted up on Done with Dat. Just put in the hours is the best advice i can give. I put in about 5 weeks of 6-7 hour a day (7 days a week) studying and the last week I started to freak out. This is when i stopped looking at the books and mentally prepared myself. I basically told myself I'll do well.

I got a 20 on the PAT and I think that is due to "the foldable ruler" and the sheet of paper i used for the pattern folding. I've asked ADA and they said you can do whatever you want with your scratch paper so take a practice test and see if this may work for you.

If you have any question let me know. I'll be glad to help out SDN because it has helped me out a lot.

Goodluck!

 

[jaerob]

You guys can get higher than a 20 AA just work hard. I was getting demotivated because of my practice test scores. I only hit 20 once. I studied so much because it takes me a while to remember stuff. My scores are posted up on Done with Dat. Just put in the hours is the best advice i can give. I put in about 5 weeks of 6-7 hour a day (7 days a week) studying and the last week I started to freak out. This is when i stopped looking at the books and mentally prepared myself. I basically told myself I'll do well.

I got a 20 on the PAT and I think that is due to "the foldable ruler" and the sheet of paper i used for the pattern folding. I've asked ADA and they said you can do whatever you want with your scratch paper so take a practice test and see if this may work for you.

If you have any question let me know. I'll be glad to help out SDN because it has helped me out a lot.

Goodluck!

How exactly do you go about using a "foldable ruler"? What is it used for, angle ranking? Thanks!

 

[KSDDS]

You guys can get higher than a 20 AA just work hard. I was getting demotivated because of my practice test scores. I only hit 20 once. I studied so much because it takes me a while to remember stuff. My scores are posted up on Done with Dat. Just put in the hours is the best advice i can give. I put in about 5 weeks of 6-7 hour a day (7 days a week) studying and the last week I started to freak out. This is when i stopped looking at the books and mentally prepared myself. I basically told myself I'll do well.

I got a 20 on the PAT and I think that is due to "the foldable ruler" and the sheet of paper i used for the pattern folding. I've asked ADA and they said you can do whatever you want with your scratch paper so take a practice test and see if this may work for you.

If you have any question let me know. I'll be glad to help out SDN because it has helped me out a lot.

Goodluck!

Nice job on your DAT. I wish I had known you could use the paper for the PAT section!

 

[ddsnp]

Okay this is what you do for the foldable ruler. First you take one of your sheets of paper and make a square. Pre fold it during your tutorial and so that will be ready for your paper folding. You'll have a strip of paper left. Tear that in half also so you'll have 2 small pieces that are about 4 inches wide each. Then fold those into triangles and you'll pretty much have 2 right triangles; one can be used for the bigger angles and the other small angles can be used for the smaller ones. You basically set the triangle inside your triangles and you can see how well they fit inside.

If you need more info let me know it might sound confusing...

 

[ysk]

Oh man, I took the DAT today in gainesville,

AA: 22
TS: 22
Organic : 20
GC: 20
Biology: 25
RC: 21
QR: 26
PAT: 20


I was so relieved when I was finished with the test. When I was taking practice tests, I was always pressed for time, but when I took the real thing, I was just flying through all the sections. As far as what I studied, I used Barrons, Ace the DAT and Kaplan MCAT. I used the kaplan mcat for the biology and the organic and general chemistry sections. Kaplan's MCAT books went it a lot of detail in these sections. As far ace the dat, I thought that it was alright, I mean its really good for the PAT, very comparable to the real thing, mabye even a little bit harder than the real thing. If you are going to use Ace the dat, use it for the PAT and QR, the other sections have errors, and are really tough! But overall the book that I would probably recommend just as much as the Kaplan mcat book would be Barrons. There are errors on the barrons practice exams, but there the there was a thread on this forum that listed the wrong answers and the actual answer that it should be, but my scores on the barrons dat exams were very close the my real score. I'm just glad I dont' have to take this test again, no more studying DAT everyday while watching television!

Hey Rip921, did you find it very helpful to look over the Kaplan MCAT books for Bio rather than the DAT Kaplan for Bio? I have both MCAT and DAT kaplan books and when I compared the two, I noticed that the Kaplan MCAT books are pretty much the same for gen chem and ochem but that it has more for the Bio section (tho it does lack the ecology section so stressed in the DAT version). I'm wondering how worthwhile it'll be to study the extra stuff on the MCAT Kaplan for Bio. Can you tell me about how many questions there were on the real DAT that came only from the MCAT version of Bio if you remember and how important you think it'll be to look over the MCAT version? thanks !

 

[LMav]

Okay this is what you do for the foldable ruler. First you take one of your sheets of paper and make a square. Pre fold it during your tutorial and so that will be ready for your paper folding. You'll have a strip of paper left. Tear that in half also so you'll have 2 small pieces that are about 4 inches wide each. Then fold those into triangles and you'll pretty much have 2 right triangles; one can be used for the bigger angles and the other small angles can be used for the smaller ones. You basically set the triangle inside your triangles and you can see how well they fit inside.

If you need more info let me know it might sound confusing...

Hey ddsnp, thanks for explaining but its still confusing. Would you mind to explain about those triangles and how they can be used? I feel like I am lost, please help....

 

[chiterry]

"Then fold those into triangles and you'll pretty much have 2 right triangles..."

Would you mind explaining that a bit more??

 

[ddsnp]

Okay take a sheet of paper and make it into a square that is 8.5 inches by 8.5 inches. Just make a square out of the regular 8.5 inch and 11 inch paper that you have. You will have to rip off a rectangular piece to get a square. Use that square that you just made for the hole punching. Now take that rectangular piece of paper and cut it in half so you have to small rectangles.
Now take that and make triangles out of it. Thats it.

 

[jdcinza13]

Okay take a sheet of paper and make it into a square that is 8.5 inches by 8.5 inches. Just make a square out of the regular 8.5 inch and 11 inch paper that you have. You will have to rip off a rectangular piece to get a square. Use that square that you just made for the hole punching. Now take that rectangular piece of paper and cut it in half so you have to small rectangles.
Now take that and make triangles out of it. Thats it.

And they let you do that during your DAT?

 

[chiterry]

thanks.. but how are we supposed to use the two triangles made from the two small rectangles? How does it help?

 

[Xedfingers]

Thanks so much for the paper folding help!! Your descriptions are great and I think a visual will help alot with the PAT.

I don't know about anyone else, but once I start looking at the hole punching stuff and the counting squares, they allll start to look the same!

THANKS!!

 

[Joeybag]

Thanks so much for the paper folding help!! Your descriptions are great and I think a visual will help alot with the PAT.

I don't know about anyone else, but once I start looking at the hole punching stuff and the counting squares, they allll start to look the same!

THANKS!!

Damn I wish I knew about this foldable ruler stuff but im pretty sure the ADA sight specifically didnt allow it, . From their sight "No books, slide rules, paper, calculating devices, rulers or other measuring devices, or miscellaneous materials will be permitted in the examination room. Candidates who violate these rules will have their test scores voided. The examination fee is not refunded and the candidate must wait one year before being retested."-but I guess if you make you're own w/ the paper they give you it's ok?
plus my prometric people were ball busters, so I was scared to try ( they made me leave my eye drops outside the room-crap l left them there).

 

[Comet208]

Damn I wish I knew about this foldable ruler stuff but im pretty sure the ADA sight specifically didnt allow it, . From their sight "No books, slide rules, paper, calculating devices, rulers or other measuring devices, or miscellaneous materials will be permitted in the examination room. Candidates who violate these rules will have their test scores voided. The examination fee is not refunded and the candidate must wait one year before being retested."-but I guess if you make you're own w/ the paper they give you it's ok?
plus my prometric people were ball busters, so I was scared to try ( they made me leave my eye drops outside the room-crap l left them there).

It appears they dont allow the use of any OUTSIDE material while you are taking the test. however you use the stuff they gave you is at your own discretion.