- Joined
- Dec 16, 2009
- Messages
- 116
- Reaction score
- 5
PAT: 25 (99.0)
QR: 22 (97.9)
RC: 22 (84.4)
BIO: 20 (88.0)
GC: 20 (79.8)
OC: 22 (90.4)
TS: 21 (91.6)
AA: 21 (93.4)
I am so happy to be done and not have to worry about this again! I wouldn't have been able to make anywhere near these scores without everyone on here, and even though I don't really post much and generally just browse, I figured I would post my breakdown to hopefully help other people out as these boards have helped me. I started watching Chad's GC videos during early April but didn't really get that into it because I got interrupted by finals and probably watched 1/2 of the GC videos. I finished my finals May 4th, took the weekend off, and started it strong on Tuesday. I was taking 1 summer class during the first session, but it was an online class that I was taking with both my roommates that was very easy and took up very little time. I also worked about 4 hours a week in the tutoring center at my school helping with general biology, which was actually fairly helpful to reinforce some basic topics. My study schedule during the week was generally from about 9-1, go eat lunch, and then study again from 2-5. Weekends was slightly altered because the library had different hours, but I generally got about 5-6 hours a day in on the weekends. For the last week leading up to the test I've been studying and reviewing for closer to 8-10 hours a day. I've had plenty of time to still go work out, play basketball, and do other things besides studying. My social life definitely suffered, but I would still go out with friends once a week or so. Overall, if you have good time management, you can definitely still enjoy yourself while studying for this test!
Here is what I used to study for each section and how I thought they compared to the real thing. The things that have an asterisk are the ones that were the most important for each section.
PAT (*CrackDATPAT, TopScore, ADA Practice): I pretty much only used the CrackDATPAT 10 test practice edition. I also did the tests on TopScore and the two ADA practice tests. When I first started, I found this section to be incredibly difficult and was getting between 15-17 on the first couple CDP tests. The main thing here is to just keep practicing and try to figure out what works for you on each section. Once I got the hang of it I was generally hitting 21-23 with one 25 on CDP for the last 5 or 6 tests. I was very surprised with my results here as there were quite a few I wasn't sure about and was expecting a 21-22.
Keyhole: I thought this was fairly similar to CDP, maybe slightly harder. I found a big difference about this section was that a lot of it had to do with proportions rather than shapes, and the shapes didn't have that clear of edges on the computer I was using. If you're doing well and understand what you're doing right/wrong on CDP you should be good to go.
TFE: I thought that this section was slightly harder than CDP. Not much to say here besides don't use the line counting method. It would have been very difficult on some of the questions, and it's definitely better to actually be able visualize the objects in questions.
Angles: SO much easier than CDP. Even towards the end of my CDP tests I was still averaging probably a 60% on the angles and just wasn't consistent with it. The real test was much easier, and if you're doing decent on the practice tests you'll do well on the real thing.
Hole Punch: Easier than CDP for sure. This was one of my better sections to begin with, and thought it was very easy. There aren't really any complex folds and some of these were a joke compared to most of the CDP problems.
Cube Counting: Much easier than CDP. I never really found this section to be all that difficult, but the cube structures on the real thing were much easier than CDP. The biggest was probably about 20 cubes and there weren't really any difficult shapes. If you're good with CDP you'll kill this section.
Folding: Pretty close to CDP, maybe a little bit harder. This section was probably one of the hardest for me from the beginning and required the most work to improve on. Was similar to some of the CDP problems but I thought it was slightly harder. I had one or two very oddly folded shapes that I was completely baffled by, but must have made a good guess on.
QR (Math Destroyer, *DATQVault, Chad's Videos): I've always been good at math so I didn't do nearly as much studying on this section as some of the other sections. The main thing I worked on were my trig equations and permutations, both of which I recommend Chad's videos for because he does a good job explaining what you need to know. I did about 5-6 of the Math Destroyer tests which ranged from 28/40 to 36/40. Math Destroyer was MUCH harder than the real thing and if you're doing well on this then you will be fine for the real thing. I also did several DATQVault which I felt were a better representation of the actual difficulty level, but still slightly harder. I thought most of the math questions on my DAT were fairly simple and the trig questions I got were a joke compared to what I was preparing for (one simply asked which of the following is not a trig identity and gave 4 of the most common identities and one that was obviously wrong). Overall I felt that I was very prepared and there were only a couple that I didn't know. I actually expected to maybe get a 24-25 on this section but am still very happy with my score.
RC (*DATQVault, TopScore): I didn't do much to prepare for this section. Did a couple practice tests from DATQ vault and did the TopScore tests and mostly used the Search and Destroy method. I'm a pretty fast reader so this section was pretty easy for me. I scored a 22, 23, and 21 on the DATQVault tests I did and scored a 22, 29, and 21 on the TopScore tests. The actual test was pretty similar to the practice tests in terms of difficulty level.
BIO (*DATDestroyer, *Cliff's AP Bio, DATQVault,): This section was pretty tough; I was actually really worried I had bombed it after I was done. I read the entire Cliff's AP bio over a couple weeks and took really detailed notes in a notebook that I could review every once in a while. Overall this was a very good basis for which to start my studying and know what my weak points were. Then I went through all of the DATQVault and Destroyer tests, taking notes on all the things and topics that I was unsure of. Destroyer is an awesome tool if you use it right. At first I just did the practice problems and saw what I got right/wrong. I realized I wasn't really learning all that much and began taking notes on EVERYTHING I wasn't sure of, whether or not I got it right. I did the same thing with all the DATQVault questions. I reviewed all these notes for the last couple days before the test. As people have said before, breadth before depth . It's better to just have a basic understanding about all the topics so that you can reason your way through the ones that you aren't that sure of.
GC (*Chad's Videos/Quizzes, DATDestroyer, DATQVault): I figured this section would be my weakest point because I took GC two years ago and had pretty bad teachers that I didn't really learn much from. I didn't think that this section was overly difficult, but I am definitely happy with my score for this section. Chad is the man! Tells you everything you need to know and doesn't go too in depth. His quizzes are very similar to a lot of the questions on the actual test, just wish there were more because I got to the point where I basically memorized the answers. DAT Destroyer was pretty good but was much more difficult than the actual thing. DATQVault was good as well, but was slightly easier than the real thing and felt somewhat repetitive. Overall Chad's is definitely the best for this, with DATDestroyer and DATQvault being fairly even.
OC (*Chad's Videos/Quizzes, DATDestroyer, DATQVault): I was really happy about this score, as I didn't do that great in Organic 1 and 2 (C+ and B), so I figure this will help make up for my ok grades in this. Chad's videos and quizzes were again the most helpful thing for me. I focused mainly on the sections that I knew I wasn't that great at and then just did problems in Destroyer and QVault. As everyone says, destroyer was MUCH harder than the real thing. I actually wasn't that big of a fan of destroyer for this, as I just felt it was overkill. I actually really liked DATQVault for this, as I think that they were pretty close to the real thing, maybe slightly harder.
If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask! Thanks again SDN community!
QR: 22 (97.9)
RC: 22 (84.4)
BIO: 20 (88.0)
GC: 20 (79.8)
OC: 22 (90.4)
TS: 21 (91.6)
AA: 21 (93.4)
I am so happy to be done and not have to worry about this again! I wouldn't have been able to make anywhere near these scores without everyone on here, and even though I don't really post much and generally just browse, I figured I would post my breakdown to hopefully help other people out as these boards have helped me. I started watching Chad's GC videos during early April but didn't really get that into it because I got interrupted by finals and probably watched 1/2 of the GC videos. I finished my finals May 4th, took the weekend off, and started it strong on Tuesday. I was taking 1 summer class during the first session, but it was an online class that I was taking with both my roommates that was very easy and took up very little time. I also worked about 4 hours a week in the tutoring center at my school helping with general biology, which was actually fairly helpful to reinforce some basic topics. My study schedule during the week was generally from about 9-1, go eat lunch, and then study again from 2-5. Weekends was slightly altered because the library had different hours, but I generally got about 5-6 hours a day in on the weekends. For the last week leading up to the test I've been studying and reviewing for closer to 8-10 hours a day. I've had plenty of time to still go work out, play basketball, and do other things besides studying. My social life definitely suffered, but I would still go out with friends once a week or so. Overall, if you have good time management, you can definitely still enjoy yourself while studying for this test!
Here is what I used to study for each section and how I thought they compared to the real thing. The things that have an asterisk are the ones that were the most important for each section.
PAT (*CrackDATPAT, TopScore, ADA Practice): I pretty much only used the CrackDATPAT 10 test practice edition. I also did the tests on TopScore and the two ADA practice tests. When I first started, I found this section to be incredibly difficult and was getting between 15-17 on the first couple CDP tests. The main thing here is to just keep practicing and try to figure out what works for you on each section. Once I got the hang of it I was generally hitting 21-23 with one 25 on CDP for the last 5 or 6 tests. I was very surprised with my results here as there were quite a few I wasn't sure about and was expecting a 21-22.
Keyhole: I thought this was fairly similar to CDP, maybe slightly harder. I found a big difference about this section was that a lot of it had to do with proportions rather than shapes, and the shapes didn't have that clear of edges on the computer I was using. If you're doing well and understand what you're doing right/wrong on CDP you should be good to go.
TFE: I thought that this section was slightly harder than CDP. Not much to say here besides don't use the line counting method. It would have been very difficult on some of the questions, and it's definitely better to actually be able visualize the objects in questions.
Angles: SO much easier than CDP. Even towards the end of my CDP tests I was still averaging probably a 60% on the angles and just wasn't consistent with it. The real test was much easier, and if you're doing decent on the practice tests you'll do well on the real thing.
Hole Punch: Easier than CDP for sure. This was one of my better sections to begin with, and thought it was very easy. There aren't really any complex folds and some of these were a joke compared to most of the CDP problems.
Cube Counting: Much easier than CDP. I never really found this section to be all that difficult, but the cube structures on the real thing were much easier than CDP. The biggest was probably about 20 cubes and there weren't really any difficult shapes. If you're good with CDP you'll kill this section.
Folding: Pretty close to CDP, maybe a little bit harder. This section was probably one of the hardest for me from the beginning and required the most work to improve on. Was similar to some of the CDP problems but I thought it was slightly harder. I had one or two very oddly folded shapes that I was completely baffled by, but must have made a good guess on.
QR (Math Destroyer, *DATQVault, Chad's Videos): I've always been good at math so I didn't do nearly as much studying on this section as some of the other sections. The main thing I worked on were my trig equations and permutations, both of which I recommend Chad's videos for because he does a good job explaining what you need to know. I did about 5-6 of the Math Destroyer tests which ranged from 28/40 to 36/40. Math Destroyer was MUCH harder than the real thing and if you're doing well on this then you will be fine for the real thing. I also did several DATQVault which I felt were a better representation of the actual difficulty level, but still slightly harder. I thought most of the math questions on my DAT were fairly simple and the trig questions I got were a joke compared to what I was preparing for (one simply asked which of the following is not a trig identity and gave 4 of the most common identities and one that was obviously wrong). Overall I felt that I was very prepared and there were only a couple that I didn't know. I actually expected to maybe get a 24-25 on this section but am still very happy with my score.
RC (*DATQVault, TopScore): I didn't do much to prepare for this section. Did a couple practice tests from DATQ vault and did the TopScore tests and mostly used the Search and Destroy method. I'm a pretty fast reader so this section was pretty easy for me. I scored a 22, 23, and 21 on the DATQVault tests I did and scored a 22, 29, and 21 on the TopScore tests. The actual test was pretty similar to the practice tests in terms of difficulty level.
BIO (*DATDestroyer, *Cliff's AP Bio, DATQVault,): This section was pretty tough; I was actually really worried I had bombed it after I was done. I read the entire Cliff's AP bio over a couple weeks and took really detailed notes in a notebook that I could review every once in a while. Overall this was a very good basis for which to start my studying and know what my weak points were. Then I went through all of the DATQVault and Destroyer tests, taking notes on all the things and topics that I was unsure of. Destroyer is an awesome tool if you use it right. At first I just did the practice problems and saw what I got right/wrong. I realized I wasn't really learning all that much and began taking notes on EVERYTHING I wasn't sure of, whether or not I got it right. I did the same thing with all the DATQVault questions. I reviewed all these notes for the last couple days before the test. As people have said before, breadth before depth . It's better to just have a basic understanding about all the topics so that you can reason your way through the ones that you aren't that sure of.
GC (*Chad's Videos/Quizzes, DATDestroyer, DATQVault): I figured this section would be my weakest point because I took GC two years ago and had pretty bad teachers that I didn't really learn much from. I didn't think that this section was overly difficult, but I am definitely happy with my score for this section. Chad is the man! Tells you everything you need to know and doesn't go too in depth. His quizzes are very similar to a lot of the questions on the actual test, just wish there were more because I got to the point where I basically memorized the answers. DAT Destroyer was pretty good but was much more difficult than the actual thing. DATQVault was good as well, but was slightly easier than the real thing and felt somewhat repetitive. Overall Chad's is definitely the best for this, with DATDestroyer and DATQvault being fairly even.
OC (*Chad's Videos/Quizzes, DATDestroyer, DATQVault): I was really happy about this score, as I didn't do that great in Organic 1 and 2 (C+ and B), so I figure this will help make up for my ok grades in this. Chad's videos and quizzes were again the most helpful thing for me. I focused mainly on the sections that I knew I wasn't that great at and then just did problems in Destroyer and QVault. As everyone says, destroyer was MUCH harder than the real thing. I actually wasn't that big of a fan of destroyer for this, as I just felt it was overkill. I actually really liked DATQVault for this, as I think that they were pretty close to the real thing, maybe slightly harder.
If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask! Thanks again SDN community!
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