Plz help! question about real DAT pacing

[evanyou]

Hello, everyone!
I am taking DAT soon. I've heard the science section is little easier than the achiever and topscore.
were you guys able to manage to finish little eariler compare to the practice tests?
I couldn't make it on time when I was trying the practice tests.
Even if I did, I made so many silly mistakes because I push myself.
I am not a native speaker, not fast reader either.
I almost have straight A's in my upper division science classes including all biochem, physical chem, physiology so I thought i am a good test-taker.
but now I think it's because i had enough time to go over test one by one.

I would appreciate any input!
You guys are always awesome

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[dentalWorks]

I can't tell you how I did on my practice tests cause I didn't do many. I only did 1 practice test and I didn't go over the time at all, matter of fact, I ended up with a 17AA and I never took another practice test cause I was too demoralizing.

On the real DAT, I remember I had like 4 orgo questions left and I had about 2 minutes left on the clock. I did rush a little through those 4, but overall throughout the whole test, I felt comfortable.

You have 90 minutes and 100 questions, which gives you 54 seconds to answer each question. thats sort of alot of time since many of the science questions are answerable in less than 20-30 seconds (from personal experience).... The only thing that threw me off my timing was my orgo was weird as hell, I had some weirddddd reactions on it, sometimes I had problems come up where I would just sit there and stair at it for more than a minute trying to figure out where bonds were breaking / reforming.

 

[srb711]

Timing was an issue for me in the sciences at first... but I took all three topscore tests and about five kaplan practice tests and this helped my timing immensely. What I would recommend is setting a goal for each section... say 25 minutes for bio, 30 for gen chem, and 25 for o chem (completely random times, as I didn't use these numbers). This totals to 80 minutes so that would give you 10 minutes to go back and review any problems that you marked (I think I had around 15-20 minutes left). Once you've determined how long you want to spend on each section (I based it on my strengths and weaknesses in each subject) then go ahead and practice it a few times if you still have some practice tests left.

Good Luck!

 

[evanyou]

Timing was an issue for me in the sciences at first... but I took all three topscore tests and about five kaplan practice tests and this helped my timing immensely. What I would recommend is setting a goal for each section... say 25 minutes for bio, 30 for gen chem, and 25 for o chem (completely random times, as I didn't use these numbers). This totals to 80 minutes so that would give you 10 minutes to go back and review any problems that you marked (I think I had around 15-20 minutes left). Once you've determined how long you want to spend on each section (I based it on my strengths and weaknesses in each subject) then go ahead and practice it a few times if you still have some practice tests left.

Good Luck!

Thanks

I wish I could do that fast. Did you usually have some time left when you were doing topscore?

 

[Maygyver]

Thanks

I wish I could do that fast. Did you usually have some time left when you were doing topscore?

I usually flew through the bio section of topscore. I would say I took around 15 minutes on the bio and then like 30-35 on gen chem and then maybe 20 on ochem. On the real thing, I feel like you can get through gen chem much quicker because the questions involve less looking at the periodic table and adding masses, etc. The bio section I thought was a little more involved on the real thing and I would say ochem was about the same. I was finishing topscore with like 20 minutes left or so and on the real thing I would say I had about 15 minutes to review thing maybe. My advice would be to go with your gut feeling for bio questions you might not know and just mark them because most of bio is either you know it or you don't so try not to waste time thinking. Just mark it and then when you come back see if you agree with your past answer and move on. I hope this helps.

 

[evanyou]

I usually flew through the bio section of topscore. I would say I took around 15 minutes on the bio and then like 30-35 on gen chem and then maybe 20 on ochem. On the real thing, I feel like you can get through gen chem much quicker because the questions involve less looking at the periodic table and adding masses, etc. The bio section I thought was a little more involved on the real thing and I would say ochem was about the same. I was finishing topscore with like 20 minutes left or so and on the real thing I would say I had about 15 minutes to review thing maybe. My advice would be to go with your gut feeling for bio questions you might not know and just mark them because most of bio is either you know it or you don't so try not to waste time thinking. Just mark it and then when you come back see if you agree with your past answer and move on. I hope this helps.

Thanks! is M.W. given in the real DAT? I thought it's was very annoying to take a look at the periodic table and calculate it in top score. Thanks

 

[srb711]

Yeah, I was usually able to finish with a little extra time on Topscore. Like Maygyver said, the real GC section makes it a lot easier to get through that section faster (mainly by giving MW's and by the answer choices having the formulas instead of an actual answer).

 

[Maygyver]

Thanks! is M.W. given in the real DAT? I thought it's was very annoying to take a look at the periodic table and calculate it in top score. Thanks

I think I remember being given the MW for one problem at least. I remember reading that the real DAT's gen chem involved the periodic table a lot less than topscore, but couldn't really understand how. After taking it, I definitely agree that I only looked at the table maybe 5 times at most. If you can pace yourself through topscores gen chem then you should be good for the real thing.

 

[shahis45]

I can't tell you how I did on my practice tests cause I didn't do many. I only did 1 practice test and I didn't go over the time at all, matter of fact, I ended up with a 17AA and I never took another practice test cause I was too demoralizing.

On the real DAT, I remember I had like 4 orgo questions left and I had about 2 minutes left on the clock. I did rush a little through those 4, but overall throughout the whole test, I felt comfortable.

You have 90 minutes and 100 questions, which gives you 54 seconds to answer each question. thats sort of alot of time since many of the science questions are answerable in less than 20-30 seconds (from personal experience).... The only thing that threw me off my timing was my orgo was weird as hell, I had some weirddddd reactions on it, sometimes I had problems come up where I would just sit there and stair at it for more than a minute trying to figure out where bonds were breaking / reforming.

I was just wondering did you get accepeted anywhere with a 17AA?