Is it me or does most of the people on this site think that the DAT is based on luck with the type of questions you get... More with the Bio and RC than other sections. That really makes me nervous. 
Luck With the DAT?
- Thread starter akeurogh
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depends on what kind of scores you are talking about
Solid scores between 20-23 AA are not really luck, these are just hard work + smarts.
In my opinion, and please folks, this is just an opinion, anyone who gets 24 (or higher) is a combination of these 3:
1)hard working
2)natural smarts
3)massive amount of luck for getting an exam version that just happen to have most of the questions be of topics familure to the testee
Solid scores between 20-23 AA are not really luck, these are just hard work + smarts.
In my opinion, and please folks, this is just an opinion, anyone who gets 24 (or higher) is a combination of these 3:
1)hard working
2)natural smarts
3)massive amount of luck for getting an exam version that just happen to have most of the questions be of topics familure to the testee
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What is the definition of "study enough"... how do you measure what is "enough"?
I don't believe there is a single person in this world that feels 100% prepared for the DAT the night before the test. There is pretty much infinant amount of information to know, you just CAN'T possibly know it ALL. So by this logic.... "enough" never gets reached.
I say there is some luck involved. The difference between 23-25+ can be one-two random questions that noone can prep for. Either you know it, or don't, or you might get lucky.
Well, I thought I was fully prepared, but I didn't get everything right, so meh. The night before my test I felt calm and ready and watched Miss Congeniality before going to bed
I don't remember coming across anything I had never read about before, but I still got something wrong, so I guess there's some truth in that. Nevertheless, I feel I deserved my scores considering just how much time I put into studying. F luck.And I would say the difference between 23-25 is the one or two questions person A knew by studying an extra hour every day vs person B that didn't. It's not like the test writers pull stuff out of obscure research papers from Malaysia Dental Journal Quarterly. They get everything out of the textbooks they tell you about. Either you studied it or you didn't. Blaming luck is kinda silly.
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Well, I thought I was fully prepared, but I didn't get everything right, so meh. The night before my test I felt calm and ready and watched Miss Congeniality before going to bed
And I would say the difference between 23-25 is the one or two questions person A knew by studying an extra hour every day vs person B that didn't. It's not like the test writers pull stuff out of obscure research papers from Malaysia Dental Journal Quarterly. They get everything out of the textbooks they tell you about. Either you studied it or you didn't. Blaming luck is kinda silly.
....It makes sense that--the more you know going into the test, the higher the probability that you'll "get lucky" with the types of questions you get. I don't know why people worry about things that are outside of their control, like luck. You can only control the amount of personal effort you put into your preparation... so just focus on that! By putting in the work, you can decrease the chance that luck will affect your score.
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you guys are going off topic here. I NEVER said you need luck to get an astronomical AA. I'll copy/paste what I said exactly:
"anyone who gets 24 (or higher) is a combination of these 3:
1)hard working
2)natural smarts
3)massive amount of luck...."
Read points 1 and 2.... Of course you have to study hard. No s*** its part of the game. But the point I am trying to make here is, if you were one of you those took the test and rocked a 25 AA (congrats to you).... I am almost certain that if you went back 2 days later and took a different version of the test, your going to score well, but I highly doubt you'll get another 25AA.... Obviously since this statment can't be proven by anyone, it stands still as an my personal opinion.
Another thing, you guys are talking about the difference between 23-25 is just 1 question, that is true if your talking about ONE SPECIFIC section of the DAT.... but I was mostly referring to the AA. A score of 24 AA (or higher) IS REALLY hard to get, you basically have to ace EVERYTHING.
"anyone who gets 24 (or higher) is a combination of these 3:
1)hard working
2)natural smarts
3)massive amount of luck...."
Read points 1 and 2.... Of course you have to study hard. No s*** its part of the game. But the point I am trying to make here is, if you were one of you those took the test and rocked a 25 AA (congrats to you).... I am almost certain that if you went back 2 days later and took a different version of the test, your going to score well, but I highly doubt you'll get another 25AA.... Obviously since this statment can't be proven by anyone, it stands still as an my personal opinion.
Another thing, you guys are talking about the difference between 23-25 is just 1 question, that is true if your talking about ONE SPECIFIC section of the DAT.... but I was mostly referring to the AA. A score of 24 AA (or higher) IS REALLY hard to get, you basically have to ace EVERYTHING.
And my point is the more of #1 you have, the less of #3 you need. Luck is even less of a variable for someone who scores a straight 24 vs someone who lucks out once and scores a 24 on one section.
Luck is just something people can blame for being under-prepared.
Luck is just something people can blame for being under-prepared.
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Agree that to a point if you know your stuff you should be able to get a 18-20. The rest is critical thinking and solving questions that you may not have encountered before which I think is what is referred to as luck sorta. I think the luck part comes into play the most when trying to decide betweeen 2 choices on the PAT angles part say or maybe math guessing on a question because you know you dont have enough time to answer.
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I think luck really only applies to Biology. If you know your Chemistry and OC, it is doubtful you will see questions you didn't at least look over. As for RC, the piano passage sucks, but it won't make a significant difference on your overall score. QR and PAT just take practice.
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I think "luck" does have an effect. But it is what the definition of luck is.
For me, I remember on my ACT back in the days, on the science section where you had to read a passage and then answer questions, there was a HUGE passage about nuclear reaction in nuclear weapons and stuff. It was lucky for me because I was really into that stuff and had read tons of books about it. This isn't anything that was ever taught in high school since the science passage is more about how well you process the info, but since i know the info beforehand, I just went right to the questions and aced it.
just like how if you read quickly skimmed some practice questions before your exam and the same exact one you remembered was on the exam. That's luck.
For me, I remember on my ACT back in the days, on the science section where you had to read a passage and then answer questions, there was a HUGE passage about nuclear reaction in nuclear weapons and stuff. It was lucky for me because I was really into that stuff and had read tons of books about it. This isn't anything that was ever taught in high school since the science passage is more about how well you process the info, but since i know the info beforehand, I just went right to the questions and aced it.
just like how if you read quickly skimmed some practice questions before your exam and the same exact one you remembered was on the exam. That's luck.
