My DAT experience

[croco]

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Hey guys, I took my DAT on Sept. 9 and here is how I did

Academic Avg: 22 (98.7 percentile)
PAT: 18 (82.7 percentile)
General Chem: 21 (91.2 percentile)
QR: 20 (87.7 percentile)
Biology: 23 (99.4 percentile)
Organic Chem: 27 (100 percentile)
Reading Comprehension: 21 (92.4 percentile)
Total Science: 24 (99.8 percentile) 😎

Here are my views on each segment:
Biology -- This section to me was not a "bear" but I would consider it "Bearish." So much inofrmation to stack up, and in my case, so little time. I would recommend all those who are studying on this section to not only focus on the anatomy and physiology portions of the human body, but also to focus on ecology and non vertebrate biology. Amazingly few questions popped up on the human body in my case.

General Chemistry -- This section was probably more difficult than I had anticipated. To really prepare myself on this section, i pulled out my brothers old analytic chemistry book, and did a bunch of problems on molarity and pH which proved valuable on the actual DAT. Other than that focus on "facts" as well as the problems.

Organic Chemistry: This was my best subject at the University of Houston, and I really did not have trouble with this section. i would recommend that not only should students focus on the reactions (SN1, E1, etc...), but to also focus on the laboratory techniques which frequently came up on the DAT (on mine anyway). I think I only missed 1 question on this section

PAT: This section was never y strong point (as you can see from my score). The front view, end view stuff is and was really easy for my even on the actual DAT, but I have to warn all of you about the angle ranking. Boy, the last five or six questions on angle ranking were so freaking similar, I was going dizzy trying to figure them out. The paper folding had a few weird folds, but nothing you guys can't handle if you study. Paper folding again was paper folding, something I have had trouble with, and really didnt have time to learn well. Keyholes were not extremely wild, but some required extreme focus.

QR: This section was in my opinion a piece of cake. I did not even study on this section for more than a couple of days and I came out with a 20 (although I thought I had done better). Just focus on trig and word problems and you guys should be fine.

Reading Comprehension: Another bearing section. I swear to God I had 3 passages and one of them was 21 paragraphs. The tip I would give students on this section, and what I did continually was that I made sure that I would get as many "correct" answers on the first two passages as I could and with the time I had left over, answer as many as I could on the 3rd with the time I had left over. three obscure passages I had no previous knowledge about did not help me on this section😡

What I studied: I did not take the Kaplan course, but I did borrow my friends DAT final examination that he took while he was taking the course. I found the Kaplan exam to be very analogous to the actual exam as far as difficulty level goes. I had also bought that big fat Kaplan Blue book, which i read and took notes off of. I read my notes over and over about 4 times. I also bought Barrons DAT booklet, and i know what you guys have been hearing about this book (zillions of mistakes), but I have to tell you that it really gives good tips on the PAT and some sections of biology that were not focused in KAPLANS book. That's it, if you guys have any more questions feel free to ask, and I will check the posts from time to time, ususally at nights when i get home from work.

 

[Mo007]

Thats so PERFECT my friend. You got the job DONE.

Now sit back and let the schools knock the door on you.

Wooosaaah!

 

[DDSdude]

You rocked the DAT! It's time for the schools to convince YOU to attend their school!

 

[PERFECT3434]

no disrespect, but can you check your ochem score again.
are you sure you got a 27? and your bio 23?

actually never mind i'll check for ya.

according to barrons, a score of 27 in ochem and a 23 in bio is impossible so i don't know who is lying here!

 

[croco]

Listen man,
Why would I lie about something like this. Do you think it some sort of fetish for me to lie about scores to make myself feel better? I took the exam and Im here to point out things that might help others on the examination. If you really think i am lying I can fax you my scores. it is a bit disrespectful to accuse me of lying when what I am trying to do is help others.

 

[PERFECT3434]

oh no,

i am just confused about the stats. Barrons and some other book says that the DAT scores are fixed on a curve and those scores aren't possible.

so i don't get it thats all!

 

[DDSdude]

PERFECT3434. First off, that was completely out of line and uncalled for. Hopefully you did not intend it to come off the way it has. Secondly, barrons is not the end all answer to DAT info. In fact, they are well known for making mistakes in pretty much all of their publications. And lastly, why would someone want to lie about their scores and if they do, why do you feel it necessary to call them out on it by purely speculation and no hard facts.

It isn't fair to Croco for studying hard and sacrificing to do that well and it isn't fair to the rest of us who want to learn what he/she did to score that well Your comments are taking away credibility to his/her posts with your negativity. Please explain yourself a little bit better.

 

[PERFECT3434]

i honestly did not intend it to sound the way it did. i am very upset over the fact that Barrons would have included those fatcs about the DAT if they aren't true.

as far as lying is concerned ddsdude, i know people have lied about their stats here so yes i think people do lie here.(you know who you are).

i really appologize to you croco if i came across the wrong way. i hope i am able to get some answers from Barrons for misleading people!

congratulations to you and you desrve it!

 

[DDSdude]

Maybe I was a little harsh. It wasn't aimed completely towards you. I fully believe some may stretch their scores here as they do anywhere on any test. I just didn't want to take any wind out of Croco's sail. Those scores are great and congratulations is in order.

Barron's needs to update their publications and correct their mistakes. Any publlication giving specifics on the DAT are to be taken with a grain of salt unless they are published by the ADA themselves. Things may change from year to year and some companies are many times behind trying to catch up as changes occur.

 

[croco]

Listen Perfect,
I am not the kind of person who would make something up in order to lead people towards a greater state of confusion. i understand that some people in these forums lie about their scores, but I would never do something like that. Lying to people who are trying to achieve their goals, in my opinion, is very devious. Believe me, everything I posted in my scores is valid and if you, or anyone else has questions on the difficulty on each section, please feel free to post it and I will answer the question as honestly as I can. To the part of your statement about Barron's scoring of the examination, I have the Barrons booklet turned to the page about scoring, and it does not note what scores are possible or not possible. All that it states is that the scores are based on yearly logrithmic levels along with how they base their standard deviations.

 

[DDSdude]

I understand your frustration croco.

Let's move on and give croco some high fives and ask some questions if we have any regarding how he went about studying or strategies for the test and turn it into a positive/beneficial thread!!

 

[DDSdude]

Croco, did you use the tutorial and strategize? For example, writing down things that can help you during the test. ie, mechanisms, systems, equations, etc? I have heard others do this and it was beneficial to them. I am taking the DAT soon and am looking for the little things that can raise my score. Even if it can get me to the next point higher. Thanks.

 

[croco]

One more thing I forgot to mention, reading back on my original post was on the topscore CD. This CD, I believe more than anything, is the Golden Jewel on the Nile. I was scoring around 17-20 on many of sections including general chem. I personally believe this CD was more difficult than the actual DAT (personal view) except for the PAT's angle ranking section, which was more difficult on the real PAT. The format of the topscore tests were almost identical to the real thing (99%).

 

[croco]

To reply to the comment you made on strategies while taking the exam. Here are my list of them and I hope they help
1) I personally believe memorizing is more important than doing problems over and over again. Although doing problems is beneficial, going over your notes and picing up small details is very important. DDSDUDE, on the bio section read the non vertebrate bio section in your textbook the day before the test. Also, if your test is in the morning, which mine was, I would review the notes on hormones (which I extracted from Kaplans book) the morning before examination. There is a lot of hormones to memorize and if you read it prior to the exam and a question pops up on it, you will thank me.
2) On your question about using strategies during the test, mechanisms, etc..., I would not bother wasting time with that crap. The mechanism is not what you need to know, all you need to know is what the reactions do. for example (OCHEM) if a carboxylic acid and an alcohol react with each other under acid or base conditions an ester will form and due to the loss of water. What kinds of molecules cause optical activity ,etc...
3)On the reading section do not read and try to "understand" the passage. Read it as to know here everything will be when the questions pop up. For example if the topic was something on politics, you should not try to surmise the details of the story. Just try to remember where you can find certain things, and try to understand the basic understandings of what the story is trying to imply.
--If I'm being to vague, give me questions a bit more specific and Ill answer them the best I can.

 

[Mo007]

Do all topscore CD's have the same pool of questions. In other-words, will each CD carry the same amount of questions for each section, cause if that's the case Croco , I should do well too (am scoring about 20's right now on my 1st and 2nd attempts).

Did you leave any questions un-answered? if yes, will they count as incorrect?

 

[croco]

Mo, If you are getting 20's w/o cheating yourself on the exams you are good to go. Do not forget though what i mentioned earlier, memorizng small details , especially on the bio section can be crucial to how successful you are on the actual DAT

 

[Mo007]

I hope you are right my friend. If I end up with scores like yours, I will take you out for a drink!...

Tell us more about your academic status, and the schools you applied to.

 

[Dentaldreams]

WOW! I wanna be you in two weeks!

Anyways, how were you doing on your topscore and kaplan tests?..im just trying to get an idea of what i should be scoring before taking the test...

congratulations again!

 

[croco]

My academic status = GPA:3.85 -- science: 4.0
Couple of govt classes bore me to sleep and ended up with a B and B- in them. I have a BS in biochem and the schools I applied to are:
UT Houston
UT San Antonio
Baylor
UCLA
UNC

If you do good, drinks are on YOU!😱

 

[mcataz]

Croco

Great post! Thanks for taking the time to provide great follow up e-mails. You have inspired me to memorize more than do problem sets. I think I was too concerned with understanding the material as opposed to being immediately able to recall information instantly. Thanks again

 

[2pac]

good job croco. props.

 

[croco]

If you guys can, put up your percentiles. I just want to see how accurate they are.

Thanks