Question about arithmetic on DAT QR

[branmasterflash]

Hi all,

I've worked through the QR section on DAT Destroyer and a few practice QR exams in Math Destroyer. As of now, I'm taking some of the QR quizzes from Chad's website and I notice that all 3 have basic arithmetic questions, usually concerning the square root of some decimal.

I know the calculator on the DAT can be fairly laggy and unreliable, but is it really worth investing the time to learn how to calculate these quickly by hand? I can punch through said problems via mouse much quicker than I can crunch them manually. After seeing so many, it's making me a little paranoid and I feel that I should learn how to do them quickly by hand. What do you guys think? For those who have taken the DAT, does learning how to approximate quickly help, even if you can figure it out quickly on the calculator?

An example problem would be:

The area of a square field is 0.000324 km^2. What is the length of one side?

Thanks in advance for the help!

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[BeaverLover]

Going into the test I definitely felt more efficient with the calculator than doing everything by hand. Finished QR with spare time to review

 

[HelicaseInitiator]

My calculator for the DAT was not laggy at all, it was quicker than DAT bootcamp and Crack the DAT QR. If you can go I would recommend going to the testing center and see if they allow a trial run to test out the calculator (prometric has trial runs for $30).

 

[sochers]

I've heard the rumor about a laggy calc is inaccurate (or maybe outdated). The calc is supposed to be fine

 

[danchoi03]

The calculator is not lagging at all when I took the exam. However, it is best for you to learn how to convert decimal number to scientific notation in order to cut down the calculation time. Also, learn how to roughly estimate square root number. For example, if given square root 5, you should know that square root 5 is roughly between square root 9 and 4 which is around 2.3. This skill is very handy when you need to estimate pH for GC problems or solve the last 8 QR problems in 6 minutes.

 

[branmasterflash]

Awesome! Thanks for your advice guys. I'll definitely check out the test center beforehand, but will be sure to brush up on my scientific notation and whatnot beforehand!

 

[tyunup]

The calculator is formatted properly right? Not like the messed up formatting on the prometric site?

 

[BeaverLover]

The calculator is formatted properly right? Not like the messed up formatting on the prometric site?

Correct, more like the one you would see when you bring up Windows one excluding trig functions. Has sq root tho