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- Feb 20, 2016
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First of all, thank you to everyone that encouraged me or helped answer questions that I had along the way. I am so happy to be done with this test I cannot express it in words. So here's my breakdown of my test day and the resources I used. I'm gonna keep it short and sweet since the long breakdowns I see are typically from amazing scores way beyond my own.
Yesterday's DAT Official Scores: 20 AA, 19 TS, 22 PAT, 20 Bio, 20 GC, 18 OC, 19 RC, 22 QR
Bio(20)- Honestly, I thought that this section was really difficult. I got some questions over things that I paid very little attention to and never really popped up on Bootcamp or Destroyer. I didn't have any plant questions, thankfully. However, my score turned out to be much better than I felt like it should have been so don't get discouraged mid-test!
Gen Chem(20)- This section honestly felt like a breeze. All of the calculation problems were simple plug n chug. I feel like the ones I got wrong must've came from the conceptual questions which I spent way too much time on. During my prep, this section always tended to eat up more of my time than it should have, and that certainly showed on test day.
OChem(18😱)- I'm pretty disappointed in my performance in this section. Unfortunately, I spent way too much time in the other sections so by the time I got to ochem(17 min left), I seriously had to fly through the questions. Which really is a shame because it didn't seem too difficult. If I had maybe 5-10 more minutes for this section I feel like I would've nailed a 20+, but it's okay. I'm glad an 18 was the worst of my mistakes on test day.
PAT(22): Hot Damn. This section was butter compared to Bootcamp, and I loved it. The angles were slightly more difficult than I anticipated so I may have missed a couple there, but everything else was cake. Unfortunately, because Bootcamp's PAT is so much more difficult I rarely practiced pattern folding because I never had time once I reached those questions! Lol. So I probably also missed some in this section of perceptual. The TFE, keyholes, cube counting, and hole punching were all easy though.
RC(19): This section was no joke. I was getting consistent 20+ scores on Bootcamp and felt super confident using a mix of S&D and actually reading the passage, but that didn't work on the real deal for me. I don't know if it was the font they used or just difficult passages overall, but I could not find anythingggg using S&D. So I was using wayyy too much time. I finally got to the last passage with 7 minutes left and just had to scrounge up whatever quick S&D points I could get. DO NOT underestimate this section on the real deal.
QR(22): This section was really easy for me. Honestly, I'm pretty mad at a couple of the questions I got because this was the one section that I thought a 30 would be possible. Had I got a luckier draw of questions on test day, I think I could've done better in this section. I finished it with plenty of time, but there were 3-4 questions that made me think WTF. For example, I had a sinusoidal equation and it wanted me to tell them what the amplitude would be. I just couldn't for the life of me remember if its 1/2 of what's in front of sine or the whole number. Anyways, I never really saw concepts during my prep like I saw on a few QR questions on the real DAT. I had learned all of the concepts at some point in my life, but I simply couldn't remember how to do them in the moment.
DAT Bootcamp- Highly Highly recommend. It's pretty much a requirement in my eyes. I used the angle and TFE generators everyday. I got Bootcamp over halfway through my prep, but it was totally worth it and representative for every section.
2016 Destroyer- I'm pretty undecided on how I feel about it. I understand that it's great practice for the sciences, however, this resource was way too difficult and killed all of my confidence. I had to put it away about 2 weeks before my test and focus on Bootcamp.
Kaplan- This was the first resource I purchased, and I think that it was a huge waste of money. DO NOT BUY IT. It wasn't representative at all and it seemed out dated. I had no probability or statistics questions on my kaplan QR tests, but that is a HUGE portion on the real deal. Would not buy/10
I'll attach my practice test scores from Kaplan, Bootcamp, and 2009 ADA for all that are interested. Thanks again.
Yesterday's DAT Official Scores: 20 AA, 19 TS, 22 PAT, 20 Bio, 20 GC, 18 OC, 19 RC, 22 QR
Bio(20)- Honestly, I thought that this section was really difficult. I got some questions over things that I paid very little attention to and never really popped up on Bootcamp or Destroyer. I didn't have any plant questions, thankfully. However, my score turned out to be much better than I felt like it should have been so don't get discouraged mid-test!
Gen Chem(20)- This section honestly felt like a breeze. All of the calculation problems were simple plug n chug. I feel like the ones I got wrong must've came from the conceptual questions which I spent way too much time on. During my prep, this section always tended to eat up more of my time than it should have, and that certainly showed on test day.
OChem(18😱)- I'm pretty disappointed in my performance in this section. Unfortunately, I spent way too much time in the other sections so by the time I got to ochem(17 min left), I seriously had to fly through the questions. Which really is a shame because it didn't seem too difficult. If I had maybe 5-10 more minutes for this section I feel like I would've nailed a 20+, but it's okay. I'm glad an 18 was the worst of my mistakes on test day.
PAT(22): Hot Damn. This section was butter compared to Bootcamp, and I loved it. The angles were slightly more difficult than I anticipated so I may have missed a couple there, but everything else was cake. Unfortunately, because Bootcamp's PAT is so much more difficult I rarely practiced pattern folding because I never had time once I reached those questions! Lol. So I probably also missed some in this section of perceptual. The TFE, keyholes, cube counting, and hole punching were all easy though.
RC(19): This section was no joke. I was getting consistent 20+ scores on Bootcamp and felt super confident using a mix of S&D and actually reading the passage, but that didn't work on the real deal for me. I don't know if it was the font they used or just difficult passages overall, but I could not find anythingggg using S&D. So I was using wayyy too much time. I finally got to the last passage with 7 minutes left and just had to scrounge up whatever quick S&D points I could get. DO NOT underestimate this section on the real deal.
QR(22): This section was really easy for me. Honestly, I'm pretty mad at a couple of the questions I got because this was the one section that I thought a 30 would be possible. Had I got a luckier draw of questions on test day, I think I could've done better in this section. I finished it with plenty of time, but there were 3-4 questions that made me think WTF. For example, I had a sinusoidal equation and it wanted me to tell them what the amplitude would be. I just couldn't for the life of me remember if its 1/2 of what's in front of sine or the whole number. Anyways, I never really saw concepts during my prep like I saw on a few QR questions on the real DAT. I had learned all of the concepts at some point in my life, but I simply couldn't remember how to do them in the moment.
DAT Bootcamp- Highly Highly recommend. It's pretty much a requirement in my eyes. I used the angle and TFE generators everyday. I got Bootcamp over halfway through my prep, but it was totally worth it and representative for every section.
2016 Destroyer- I'm pretty undecided on how I feel about it. I understand that it's great practice for the sciences, however, this resource was way too difficult and killed all of my confidence. I had to put it away about 2 weeks before my test and focus on Bootcamp.
Kaplan- This was the first resource I purchased, and I think that it was a huge waste of money. DO NOT BUY IT. It wasn't representative at all and it seemed out dated. I had no probability or statistics questions on my kaplan QR tests, but that is a HUGE portion on the real deal. Would not buy/10
I'll attach my practice test scores from Kaplan, Bootcamp, and 2009 ADA for all that are interested. Thanks again.
