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- Aug 28, 2004
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Well, took the DAT today...
For all you future test takers out there I hope my experience may help you in some way shape or form.
Some background..
Non-science major. Total GPA 3.7 and 3.8 science
Studied for 6 weeks 5-6 days/week for about 8 hours a day.. Pure torture but definitely worth it all.
Many of the things I found and read on this site I found to be extremely useful.. So read as many as you can.
As for the exam... Bio I thought was quite different than both Kaplan and Topscore. I guess I can't complain much considering I did well with it but I think a few too many came down to strategic guessing (good ones I guess).
Chem was not all 'set-up' problems as I have read that many people have experienced on this site. Pretty much every chem problem was a workout problem and involved doing some calculations. I had banked on having plenty of time for the sciences but the curve balls in bio and the math in chem slowed me down.
Orgo was a piece of cake. Very straight forward. Then again I have recently taken orgo and did well in it.
As for the ugg PA.. I had been scoring between 19 and 22 in Kaplan and topscore and am pretty surprised with my score on the actual exam. I heard on this site that many people go down by 3 points on this section and this was exactly my experience. I don't know what to tell you about it other than it was much more difficult that both Kaplan and Topscore.
RC.. Pretty much same as Topscore except that the passages were much longer (one was like 20 paragraphs, however each was fairly short). I scored pretty much as I did on all my practice exams. Nothing surprising nothing disappointing.
QR.. Very surprised with my score. I hadn't gotten below a 19 on any of the practice exams. This one surprised me more so than the PA. Trust me I am not one to make excuses but I can think of one thing that I know slowed me down. This is something that I had no idea about till today when I got to the testing center. SCRAP paper! They are so friggin stingy with it (DAT rules I believe). You get 4 pieces at a time. You can go out and get more but if your center was anything like mine, it takes the people there 2 minutes to realize what you are asking for (not exactly satisfied with the service). Not something you want to deal with when the clock is ticking I got to the point where I had to erase previous calculations before I could do new ones. Even ran down the erasers on the their pencils. Very big PIA. I knew they gave you a numbered amount of scrap but I didn't know the number was 4! Just beware. I wasted precious seconds erasing instead of calculating.
Other than that everything else was okay. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I am happy it's over but my nasty PA score I think will keep me out of some of the schools I applied to. Hopefully, my good GPA and AA will help them overlook the less than stellar PA score. I hope!
Good luck to all.
For all you future test takers out there I hope my experience may help you in some way shape or form.
Some background..
Non-science major. Total GPA 3.7 and 3.8 science
Studied for 6 weeks 5-6 days/week for about 8 hours a day.. Pure torture but definitely worth it all.
Many of the things I found and read on this site I found to be extremely useful.. So read as many as you can.
As for the exam... Bio I thought was quite different than both Kaplan and Topscore. I guess I can't complain much considering I did well with it but I think a few too many came down to strategic guessing (good ones I guess).
Chem was not all 'set-up' problems as I have read that many people have experienced on this site. Pretty much every chem problem was a workout problem and involved doing some calculations. I had banked on having plenty of time for the sciences but the curve balls in bio and the math in chem slowed me down.
Orgo was a piece of cake. Very straight forward. Then again I have recently taken orgo and did well in it.
As for the ugg PA.. I had been scoring between 19 and 22 in Kaplan and topscore and am pretty surprised with my score on the actual exam. I heard on this site that many people go down by 3 points on this section and this was exactly my experience. I don't know what to tell you about it other than it was much more difficult that both Kaplan and Topscore.
RC.. Pretty much same as Topscore except that the passages were much longer (one was like 20 paragraphs, however each was fairly short). I scored pretty much as I did on all my practice exams. Nothing surprising nothing disappointing.
QR.. Very surprised with my score. I hadn't gotten below a 19 on any of the practice exams. This one surprised me more so than the PA. Trust me I am not one to make excuses but I can think of one thing that I know slowed me down. This is something that I had no idea about till today when I got to the testing center. SCRAP paper! They are so friggin stingy with it (DAT rules I believe). You get 4 pieces at a time. You can go out and get more but if your center was anything like mine, it takes the people there 2 minutes to realize what you are asking for (not exactly satisfied with the service). Not something you want to deal with when the clock is ticking I got to the point where I had to erase previous calculations before I could do new ones. Even ran down the erasers on the their pencils. Very big PIA. I knew they gave you a numbered amount of scrap but I didn't know the number was 4! Just beware. I wasted precious seconds erasing instead of calculating.
Other than that everything else was okay. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I am happy it's over but my nasty PA score I think will keep me out of some of the schools I applied to. Hopefully, my good GPA and AA will help them overlook the less than stellar PA score. I hope!
Good luck to all.
