kaplan full length exams vs real dat

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
M

Mna627

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2014
Messages
25
Reaction score
2
How would you compare the scores from the kaplan full length practice exams to the actual dat? i feel like some of the questions were much more difficult than bootcamp questions, at least for the sciences. How would you compare your kaplan full length scores to the real test though??? taking my test in a month any advice would be great!
Members don't see this ad.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
I don't remember my exact scores, but I took the 2 Kaplan full length exams that come free with KBB about 5 weeks and 3 weeks before my real DAT. I did much better on the real DAT for the sciences (like 16-18 on Kaplan then 22+ on real thing)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm taking the live-class with Kaplan, the workshops are so useless.... everything is so outdated... it even says it's from 2007. Anywho, I've been trying to gather some info as well, it turns out a lot of people are doing very poorly on the Kaplan full lengths and doing much better on the real DAT. They are trying to make your scores as low as possible so they don't have to give back money to you if you do worse on the real thing.

My diagnostic was a 17AA, my first full length I actually did worse in every section and got a 16AA, I'll be taking my full length 2, 3, 4, and 5 soon within the next week so if you remind me, I'll let you know how I did on those.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
I used nothing but Kaplan (the book and the online exams) and went from 17 and 18 on the two practice exams to a 19 AA on my actual DAT.

The angle ranking questions on those Kaplan online exams are laughable in comparison to the real thing. Find another source for PAT prep.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I didn't use Kaplan but I have a few friends who have used Kaplan. Most said they were too easy but they learned from it and did better on the actual.

All my friends who have used Kaplan enjoyed it and said practice test were useful if you learned from them. (Ie not just basing your score on it)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Here's an update of all my scores, I took my 2nd full length today, I will be starting destroyer tomorrow and will be taking my 3rd full length next week.
Personally, I think the bio section is very weak and weird. I built my chem/orgo foundation solely off chad's notes. I haven't studied QR at all, I have math destroyer that i'll be starting as well. I'm going to start skimming Ferali's notes too... I should get some big improvements in the 3rd full length.

Honestly, Kaplan is only a good practice resource, not a good learning resource. I wish I knew this about a month ago when I started studying...
 

Attachments

  • Diagnostic.png
    Diagnostic.png
    150 KB · Views: 523
  • Full Length 1.png
    Full Length 1.png
    147 KB · Views: 520
  • Full Length 2.png
    Full Length 2.png
    155.6 KB · Views: 609
Upvote 0 Downvote
Not at ALL representative of your scores, especially for sciences. I just looked back on my full length tests and I got a 14 and 15 on ochem. On the real DAT, I got a 25. The highest thing I scored in any of the sections on a Kaplan test was 19 (no higher than 16 on any of the sciences), and this was less than 3 weeks before my test. On my real DAT, I didn't get anything lower than a 21. I wish I had known how skewed the Kaplan scores are. I was really freaked out.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
hellofuturedentists said:
Not at ALL representative of your scores, especially for sciences. I just looked back on my full length tests and I got a 14 and 15 on ochem. On the real DAT, I got a 25. The highest thing I scored in any of the sections on a Kaplan test was 19 (no higher than 16 on any of the sciences), and this was less than 3 weeks before my test. On my real DAT, I didn't get anything lower than a 21. I wish I had known how skewed the Kaplan scores are. I was really freaked out.
Click to expand...

They purposely make their scores lower than it should be to avoid having to refund anyone their money for their money-back guarantee if you score lower than your diagnostic lol. Also, it makes it seem like you got a big boost from the Kaplan course after you take the real thing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Typical Average Student said:
They purposely make their scores lower than it should be to avoid having to refund anyone their money for their money-back guarantee if you score lower than your diagnostic lol. Also, it makes it seem like you got a big boost from the Kaplan course after you take the real thing.
Click to expand...
Oh I don't doubt that at all. I didn't actually use their course. I rented KBB from the library and used the code to get the tests for free haha.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
syedj94 said:
Idek what to say about Kaplan. On the practice tests in their book, I scored 21 Bio, 22 OCHEM, 20 Gchem, 20 reading, 25 qr and 20 PAT. Based on this I went into the exam like a pro. Ended up with 19 OCHEM, bio, Rc, qr, 17 pat and 20 Gchem.
Click to expand...

Is this the practice exams offered through the $1300 course? Or the free ones in the back of the kaplan blue books?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Members don't see this ad :)
Here's an update! I took my last Kaplan Test about 2 weeks ago, and took my DAT today
I've attached a photo from all of my practice tests since the very beginning, (2 months of studying) I'm really happy with my improvement. I didn't have enough time to do all the DAT bootcamp tests, so I worked on the areas I didn't feel confident in. I wish you the best of luck.

DAT_progress.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Hello @Mna627. I took a Kaplan Live-Online Course and had access to the Diagnostic Exam and all 5 Full lengths. I did the Diagnostic the first week of my studying (Week 1 of 9), Full Length 1 about halfway through the course (Week 4/5), and then the remaining full lengths one a week (or every five days, however it played out into my schedule). I thought that these exams were difficult, particularly in the sciences. I think I had heard somewhere that Kaplan uses the same science questions for MCAT prep as they do DAT, but I'm not 100% sure on that so don't quote that statement.

Out of all of the Full Lengths, assuming you are or are thinking about taking the course, do not look too into your scores on Full Length 3. I know these practice tests are meant to be practice, but it's hard not to help but use the calculated score as a predictor for how you think you'll do on test day -- I know I was looking into the scores and didn't fully capitalize on learning from my mistakes (I would read over the solution, but never made any notes or anything). While I would eagerly recommend not to fall into that trap like I did, definitely don't look into the scores on Full Length 3 if you are like me. I took the exam about 2 weeks before my Test Date and had gotten low scores and it really added to the anxiety.

However, I thought that the exams were great for getting used to taking full length exams with calculated time for each section and, although the PAT and QR seemed simpler, the scoring is scaled so it's still calculating where you fall within a specific percentile. Any other questions feel free to ask or take a look at my breakdown. Best of luck in your studies!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was wondering the same thing about how's the Kaplan compare to the real test.
I always score at like 17-19 on QR, which scares me a lot. What do you guys think?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
just wanted to add in case people wanted to know.. my friend works for kaplan and they purposely make the diagnostic test harder so that students will sign up for their program or buy more materials, etc.
@Carbohydrates Kaplan math seemed too easy for me, but that's just me... But all of the other QR exams I had (BC, topscore, Destroyer) were harder than the actual exam
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mushibachan said:
just wanted to add in case people wanted to know.. my friend works for kaplan and they purposely make the diagnostic test harder so that students will sign up for their program or buy more materials, etc.
@Carbohydrates Kaplan math seemed too easy for me, but that's just me... But all of the other QR exams I had (BC, topscore, Destroyer) were harder than the actual exam
Click to expand...

Wow. I'm not good at math in general, but I feel like Kaplan math takes long time to do, which stress me out a lot when I do the full length. I dont know..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Besides the diagnostics, I feel like all of their exams are a lot harder and way more detail oriented than exams like topscore or bootcamp, especially for bio
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah I thought so as well. I only did well once in my Kaplan tests. Any problems that seemed time consuming I would just mark and come back to make sure I got all the easy points, and then would worry about finishing up the harder ones. I'm going through the QR section of the destroyer and I feel that it is easier (with the exception of trig) than Kaplan. Did anyone have this experience?
Carbohydrates said:
I feel like Kaplan math takes long time to do
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Taking my best Kaplan scores and comparing to the real DAT, I did better on the real thing or exactly my highest Kaplan score. On average of my practice tests, I did much better on the real thing.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mna627 said:
Anyone else?
Click to expand...

In pic: Diagnostic and each "FL" was Kaplan. I actually liked the online Kaplan practice material a lot. I felt it was more representative of the real test than topscore. I liked taking the FL because they force you to study for at least seven hours straight (doing the test and then going over the material). Also, after taking so many full lengths, the five hours seemed like nothing. The timing will not take you by surprise.

However, I will say the classes are absolutely worthless. Save those three hours a week and study on your own.

ImageUploadedBySDN Mobile1438143184.750716.jpg
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Bootcamp vs DAT
Replies
0
Views
2K
predent446
P
P
DAT Bootcamp Practice Tests vs Real DAT - do I push my date back help!
Replies
2
Views
2K
cjerseysmiles
C
D
DAT Exam
Replies
1
Views
896
the_root_designer
the_root_designer
W
How accurate are bootcamp full test scores?
Replies
1
Views
468
DAT Destroyer
DAT Destroyer
hannahdtran
A Realistic DAT Breakdown: 21AA to 24AA (490)
Replies
1
Views
300
Chicago_predental
C
Top