Plz help me with DAT

[psychoboylol123]

Hi everyone, I'm a Junior ( UC in Cali)
I kind of forget GChem,Orgo,Bio which I studied 2 years ago.
How should I study for the DAT?
doing Destroyer,TopScore,Archiever,CrackPat and review the concepts
or vice versa????
I plan to take the DAT in Jan or Feb 2009
and if the result is not good, I will retake it in the summer (What you think?)
For the RC, it's my weakest part cuz im non native speaker. Anyone got any idea how to improve that skill?
PAT: i have some problem with Top Front End, Cube Counting, Pattern Folding. Plz share your methods how to solve them.
Plz give me some advice if you have experience about DAT and high DAT score.
Good luck to all-Future Dentists
Sincerely, PSC

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[curiosteph]

I was also out of school for 2+ years when I took the DAT. If you did well in school and just need to be refreshed, Kaplan works well. If you need more than just a refresher, I'd try something(s) else.

I do think it helps to actually cut out patterns for pattern folding until you can start visualizing it in your head. I think with all of the questions on the PAT, practice is what really helps. They are very obscure problems, but once you get used to them and learn some tricks, they are much easier! I don't remember all of the tricks, but I used the Kaplan online course and they had a few good ones.


Hope that helps!

 

[psychoboylol123]

thanks for your advice curio.
by the way, i like your avatar.it is really funny.

 

[jntruong2003]

Yeah, don' t worry about forgetting things at the uc school. i go to irvine and i hate the way they teach/test.

my game plan would be:
1) since reading composition is your worst subject, just start reading daily. you can read the economist, scientific journals, or even just read the campbell book. any reading is good. even if english isn't your native language, most of the questions deal with just finding the answer in the passage. don't worry too much. most people don't even understand most of the passages b/c they are too concerned about finding answers and sometimes it is not that necessary.
2) read the kaplan blue book from front to back. it is the necessary beginning to all DAT studying i believe. usually the ochem/gchem is well supplemented in that book, but do destroyer questions afterwards. if there are questions you didn't find in the kaplan blue book, just wikipedia the stuff or search for it online b/c it's fast. biology, i think cliff's AP is a good resource. again, same thing. do the destroyer questions and for any answer choices you don't know even, look them up online/books.
3) A PAT test should be done daily to just let you move fast through this section. Crack PAT is great for practice.
4)When you finish studying, just take topscore & achiever.

i would recommend you taking the DAT sooner like maybe 4-5 months. i only say this b/c if you do not do very well, you cannot expect to have another 9+ months to study for the next DAT test. 2-3 months of 4-5 hours studying is good.

for TFE, first use the line counting method to make sure the figure has the correct # of horizontal/vertical lines. make sure that the dotted lines and solid lines are correct. compare answer choices that are incorrect and look for the fine difference between the last choices. lastly, visualize that last detail to choose the correct answer.

cube counting should be EASY. just keep on practicing and checking why you did it wrong.

pattern folding- just remember that you are folding the pattern away from you. focus on one area of the pattern fold and visualize if it makes sense. again practice is the only way out of this. kaplan has a few good practice tests to help beginners in the area...

 

[smile101]

[/quote] for TFE, first use the line counting method to make sure the figure has the correct # of horizontal/vertical lines. make sure that the dotted lines and solid lines are correct. compare answer choices that are incorrect and look for the fine difference between the last choices. lastly, visualize that last detail to choose the correct answer.

...[/quote]

hey jntroung...can you please elaborate this a bit more!

Now..psuchoboylol123, cube counting is the easiest part...start with counting from the top and write down the number of sides then draw a line and count the number of sides of cubes on the middle row, then draw a line again and write the number of sides of cubes on bottom row. All you gotta do now is to count the total number of cubes with same number of sides and answer the question.