Organic topics on DAT?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

mg777

Tooth Mechanic
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
373
Reaction score
0
Im taking the DAT in august. I noticed at the end of Kaplan's big blue book theyve got a few chapters(14,15) on what looks like early biochemistry topics like carbohydrates and amino acids, peptides, and proteins. I never covered this in my orgo class. Also, they have a chapter on purification/Synthesis. Anyways, i was wondering if any of you who'd taken the DAT had on any thoughts on the importance of either of these two topics( early biochemistry material and/or extraction , purification tech.) I mentioned. thanks
 
You can count on seeing some questions pertaining to those topics, mg777. I had one purification question, one dealing with amino acids (Given the following pH, what would the ion of X look like), and an aldol condensation. If you are comfortable with the first semester of organic, then you can probably work your way through those other chapters in Kaplan. While some of those reactions may seem daunting at first, many of them are just permutations of earlier concepts that you have already learned. For example, carbohydrates are merely reducing sugars and their condensation reactions are simply a reaction going from a hemiacetal (or hemiketal) to an acetal (or ketal). Aldol condensations are simply ketones and aldehydes reacting in a slightly different way with alcohols, etc. You should have covered all of the purification stuff during your first semester organic lab, so hopefully that portion is a review.

My point is that you can count on seeing questions pulled from those chapters and, depending on your understanding of organic and comfort level with the subject, you can learn those chapters and do fine. I believe it was Javadicavity that only had one semester of organic and did awesome on that portion of the DAT (heck, he did awesome on every portion of the DAT). So my friend it is possible though there will be such questions come test day.
 
well at my prof. at USF here didnt. Anyways im asking to see if anyone has seen these type of questions pop up on an actual DAT?
 
thanks for the reply sprgrover. i will look over those 2 chapters. I am very comfortable with both orgo I and II. i got an A in both courses here at USF, so i dont think those topics can be that bad. thanks for the advice
 
mg777 said:
thanks for the reply sprgrover. i will look over those 2 chapters. I am very comfortable with both orgo I and II. i got an A in both courses here at USF, so i dont think those topics can be that bad. thanks for the advice

Given your confidence and grades, then I am sure you will have no problems. Best of luck!
 
Top