Need advice.. DAT in 5 days!!!

[Kase333]

Hi guys,

I have been studying for about 2 and a half months now and have gone through Kaplan, DAT Destroyer and Chads videos. My exam is scheduled for Dec. 15th (FIVE DAYS!!) I feel pretty confident about perceptual ability and quantitative however, I am worried about my science scores. I am aiming for an overall 21 and have not seen those scores in my practice exams! I have heard many people say that they score higher on the actual DAT, but I dont know if I really want to bank on that.

Here are my most recent practice exam scores: Bio/Chem/Orgo

(about 2 weeks ago) 2007 ADA: 21/19/20
(about a week ago) TopScore: 17/18/18 *very depressing!
(yesterday) 2009 ADA: 17/20/19 *overall 19, 2 points less than what I want to score!

*I am totally freaking out! If anyone could offer advice on how representative those practice exams are/ what I can do in the next couple days to polish everything off and increase my scores, that would be amazing! (Biology was actually my strong point, but I have kind of pushed it to the side the past couple of weeks )

*I have done absolutely nothing but study the past 2 months and I dont know how much longer I can push it without burning myself out. Should I keep my 15th date?? There is a December 20th date available... or do you all think I should push it back even further????

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[blackwaltzyo]

Well are you missing questions mainly because of careless mistakes or are you missing them because you don't understand/get them? If it's the latter then you might want to postpone because I personally believe it would be better to take it when you're fully prepared rather than winging some of it. What about your scores in the other sections? They are just as important, especially the RC and PAT.

I took my DAT in June 2011 and I used Achiever, Kaplan and Barron tests. I did okay and scored 20AA/21TS. The 1st 3 Achiever tests were reasonable compared to the real test though it was harder, probably will score 1-2 points higher on the real one from your practice. Unfortunately I never used the topscore or ADA test so I can't tell you how they compare with the real one.

To be honest, the real test is quite random at times. For example, the Biology section when I took it had nothing on hormones, proteins and all those other things I memorized. It was all just basic cell stuff with bits and pieces from each section. From what I remember, it was easier overall than my practice tests and a lot of the questions looked similar to my practice tests. If you've been studying well for the last 2 months and have a good nights sleep the day before then you should be fine. Hope this helped a little. Anyways, don't worry! Good luck!

 

[Kase333]

Thanks for the input! I've been consistently scoring a 19 on RC and 20-21 on PAT, but am hoping that I'll do a little better in both because I haven't put my full effort toward them while taking the practice exams. Is there any advice you could offer? I haven't studied at all for either of them...

 

[ushaseos]

Don't freak out. Do the other 2 topscore tests. You might have just had some bad luck on the one you did. Technically you can inform prometric 2 days before I think so just try the other Top Score tests and see what you think.

 

[Kase333]

Thats very true... But I just dont want to exhaust myself before the exam if I do end up taking it Thursday. I think I might just take the science section tomorrow and see where I'm at. Doing the full exam totally drains me & I need all the study time I can get!!! :-/

I heard that the TopScore 2 exam is very hard.. I'm the type that gets very discouraged and actually performs much worse when I'm down and too hard on myself. Does anyone have any input on how comparative the last 2 TopScore exams are to the real dat??

 

[blackwaltzyo]

Thanks for the input! I've been consistently scoring a 19 on RC and 20-21 on PAT, but am hoping that I'll do a little better in both because I haven't put my full effort toward them while taking the practice exams. Is there any advice you could offer? I haven't studied at all for either of them...

The RC is one of the hardest sections to improve in I think because it's very hard to study for. I would practice the RC and figure out a technique that you will use on the test day. For the PAT it's just practice. The more you do the better you will be at it. Your PAT score seems solid though so I wouldn't worry.

 

[ushaseos]

@Kase333- I actually really didn't notice any difference in difficulty in all of the TS tests. I can't compare to the real one since I haven't taken it yet..coming soon though (19th). Just do the Sciences to gauge yourself. If you don't feel ready and you aren't applying this cycle there is no hurry in taking the exam. That isn't meant to be discouraging or anything! If you do well on Top Score 2 you might get all the motivation you need to kick the DAT's ass!

@blackwaltzyo - RC is terrible if you don't practice. RC and PAT are both totally de-fanged with enough practice (builds familiarity and gets you used to the common questions). Like you said though there is no studying to be done, just test after test after test and eventually you get into this trance like state where for short periods of time you can remember everything and where it is in the passage.

 

[Dusk]

people told me 2009 was most representative.

for me it was not. I scored similarly, got a 20 average.
Did much better, closer to the 2007 practice test. But again, don't stress too much over your practice scores!

 

[bing12]

i did better on the real exam than i did on any practice. I had similar opinions from a great deal of my friends. Go for it

 

[ushaseos]

people told me 2009 was most representative.

for me it was not. I scored similarly, got a 20 average.
Did much better, closer to the 2007 practice test. But again, don't stress too much over your practice scores!

I am doing a little prayer that my dat is like the 2007 test, then I have no more worries since that test was not too challenging in my opinion.

 

[Kase333]

Thanks! You guys are amazing!

Another quick questions...of course... on the real DAT do you see questions that give choices and then you need to say its I, II, III or could be I and II, etc? I noticed TopScore gave a hand full of those and also questions that could have 2 or three correct answers (ex: d) A and B)

Hope that makes sense! I think I've lost all social skills/common sense!!!