MATH Destroyer

[happy123]

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Hi,
I was wondering how similar the math destroyer is to the real test in terms of difficulty. I hear that some of the questions are exactly the same as those you may see on the real DAT so I'm guessing that they are pretty similar. I've been using 2009 version with 10 practice tests. Each time I do a practice test I time myself for 45 minutes, but I always seem to run out of time. It's not that I don't know how to do the problems, I just need more time to do them. After I take a test, I check my answers and score it with the standard raw score conversion that's located on the DAT practice test posted on the website. So far, I've been getting in the 18-20 range. I guess what I'm looking for is tips to improve my time or improve my score.
Any suggestions?

 

[mprs]

I was in the exact same position. In fact I can get to 30-35 questions and get them all right until I run out of time. Here is what worked for me.

Go to a test (old one you did or not, doesn't really matter), and do the questions 1 by 1. Basically just note the amount of things you write down. What I did was I actually timed the question individually. I would do it, and then evaluate what I wrote down. I noticed some inefficiencies, like my work was WAY too neat. Some few things to note:

1) Skip steps. I was writing steps down as if I was in grade 7 and I just learned algebra. Look at everything in that piece of paper and try to minimize some of the stuff you wrote. As an example, instead of multiplying both sides of an equation by 2 and rearranging in 2 steps, do it in one. Also, cut down on drawing diagrams already drawn for you. This was a big thing for me. I would see a shape and they would want me to find the area of the shaded region. So I would redraw the whole thing nice and neat with the labels and the whole works. It was great and I never made a mistake on it, but after some practice, I just tried to imagine it on the screen.

2) Skip questions you do not know how to tackle ABSOLUTELY immediately. If it requires any type of thinking, I just generally skip it. For example, I hate tax/interest stuff just because the numbers get big and I have to do some mental math. So when I see it, I skip it and move on.

3) Do a test by giving yourself 1 minute per question. Have a timer and just set it to one minute intervals. With the MATH destroyer, you won't know what questions you are spending too much time on (since its not on computer). Some questions are assumed to take you 20 seconds. The rest of that time can be used on other questions. So if a simple (90000)^1/2 = ? is taking you longer than 20 seconds, you should focus on these types.

Obviously you shouldn't break up these tests too much. Studying them as a whole is also very good practice. But this will help you find the inefficiency in your math and will help you speed up. Also make sure you don't cut a step and go out of your comfort zone. Getting an easy question wrong to speed up is still not a good thing.

Also as a last thing, some questions might be faster done while brute forcing. More specifically, ones that require quadratics. Experiment and see what happens.

I guess I should end on "this worked for me". I can point some things wrong with my techniques this way and I tried my best to fix them.

 

[azar87]

Math destroyer is probably the best studying tool you cud use to prepare for math.........but i must warn you the questions are difficult but they are meant to challenge you liek the real exam will............but go ahead and get the book and do some prep work before hand like going over basic math with kaplan and topscore..........then utilize destroyer to its fullest and understand each question and how to solve it........because it will get you in good shape for the exam and time urself..........you def. want this book to help you do well on this exam i dont see anything else out there that has so many problems