Preparing to RETAKE!!

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sportygirl

Junior Member
15+ Year Member
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After a week of feeling horrible about messing up the QR section of my DAT, I decided to get back on track to retake. How long do most people study to retake? Do you get right back into it or take a month or so off? I am currently taking Bio II and Orgo II so I still have to complete my school work, but I'm not sure how to approach preparing for the retake. These are my stats:
AA 17
TS 19
PAT 16
RC 19
QR 11
BIO 21
GC 17
OC 18

I hope my Organic will go up from taking Orgo II now. I know I definately need to work on QR, but I really don't know where to begin. Math was always my best subject, but when taking the test I feel like a went into a twilight zone or something. Anyway, as far as bio, I hope to maintain my score. I didn't think that part was that difficult and I didn't prepare to much for it. I feel like I got an easy test for that section...is that possible? Especially since I didn't have Bio II yet.

By the way, I used Kaplan Blue Book, Cliff's AP Bio, read the first 22 chapters of Campbell's (for Biology class), Topscore, some Destroyer and 3 Crack The PAT tests.

I know I am rambling on, but input is appreciated!

THANKS!
 
I took a month off. I want to peak for my next exam, and being bored/burned out before October hits was something I was trying to avoid. I took the exam at the end of July, and will retake it in early November. I think the preparation this time will be easier and somewhat more boring because it's still fresh. A few hours a night after I get home from work for a few weeks, and I think I'll be good to go.

Someone on here gave a really great idea on how to practice for QR - have a sheet laminated at Staples, and start using that to acclimate yourself to written calculations with markers.
 
Hey for QR,
if you haven't already, try doing easy questions first. I mean, real easy ones. Towards the end, I got questions like 3x+5=-3+7x, what is x? type of questions. Take a glance at the question and if you think you can solve the question in less than 30 seconds, go for it. If not, skip it. On my real DAT, after finishing easy questions I got like 11 quesions remaining with over 20 minutes. After that, i did the "possible" questions where I could solve it but takes a bit of time. I made an educated guess for "impossible" questions but still had the mark. After finishing the "possible" questions I had about 4 impossible remaining with ~2 minutes left. Just go back to "impossible" questions and try reasoning it out.
I think the questions in QR is not that difficult. It is the time management that is challenging. Good luck on ur 2nd try. If you have any tips for RC please let me know. U've done pretty well.