Raise your AA with QR, don't lower it...

[ruomengd2000]

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Recently there have been many posts relating to how hard QR is and how people have done so poorly on it. I have gotten a lot of pm's relating to QR so i'm just gonna try and compile it into this thread. I am confident that everyone here has the ability to do phenomenally on QR if they just spend a little time on it. I have read many times from people who scored poorly on their QR section and the reasoning for it was "i didn't really study for it". This i completely don't understand because right above, they would have solid science scores because they studied months for that. Quick peice of advice, it takes so so so much less effort to raise your QR score by 5+ than it would be for any other section on the DAT. I'm quite confident that if you just spend maybe 2 weeks learning the tricks of QR, then your AA will get a nice boost instead of getting dragged down.

First and most important thing to consider when dealing with QR is of course, timing. Timing is just something you need to get used to. If your anything like me, you haven't had to do quick mental math since freshmen year of highschool because of our trusty TI's. It just gets down to practice. At the start of summer, i had trouble finishing the test. I started out with about 5-6 that i couldn't get to. By the end of summer, i got it to where i had about 3-4 minutes to check over stuff. Now don't think i spent the entire summer practicing it, i probably spent a total of 2 weeks doing 1 practice section a day until my speed caught up.

Also another thing to always have in your mind is that the question is never that time consuming. The people that designed this test didn't want us sitting there trying to prove theorems. If your taking too long on a problem, you probably missed the potential shortcuts. EX. if a right triangle has ridiculously weird/high value sides and they want you to figure for a third, then it's probably a 3-4-5 triangle or a 5-12-13 triangle. Don't pythagorean theorom out ridiculous numbers (that would take ages). Learn shortcuts and tricks. The rabbit wasn't so silly afterall. Tricks AREN'T just for kids.😛

Finally, everyone knows the math section of the DAT is the last section and yet no one thinks to prepare for it under the same rigorous conditions. When they get to the actual test, they wonder why the scores are so much lower than the practice ones they did before. Well it's because after 3 hours of stressed out test taking, your brain is fried. To prepare your brain for this, study quant after you've already put in a couple hours of studying for other subjects. Don't practice it when your fresh and ready to take on the world because during the actual exam, you won't be, trust me.

These are just a few simple peices of advice that i think could benefit some of you out there. It is an absolute shame when i see someone with science scores of 20's and 21's and then have their otherwise 20 AA be dragged down to a 19 or even 18 by a quant score of 15. Study smart and there's no reason why everyone shouldn't be able to kill that section.

 

[sunshine222]

Good advice. Wish I'd been in this mindset about a month ago 🙂

 

[ruomengd2000]

Good advice. Wish I'd been in this mindset about a month ago 🙂

Somehow, i think you'll be fine😉.

 

[keliao]

great advise.!!!!!!!....therefore i must continue..and finish all 25 test from crackthedat......

 

[doc3232]

Some of the best advice on this site...thank you. You gave me some motivation.

 

[ruomengd2000]

Some of the best advice on this site...thank you. You gave me some motivation.

I'm glad, btw, when are you planning on taking?

 

[Contach]

I really hope all of you have considered these 3 very basic points some time before reading this message. I admire the OPs intentions of trying to help - but really.. isn't this common sense? Or am I overestimating my peers' capabilities?

 

[sunshine222]

No need to be condescending about it. The point is, a lot of us focused so heavily on the sciences and PAT that we didn't spend nearly enough time preparing for QR - personally, I hardly put in any time and I'll be the first to admit that it shows. I think a lot of us wish we'd put a little more emphasis on getting ready for QR, including taking the advice in this post.

 

[ruomengd2000]

I really hope all of you have considered these 3 very basic points some time before reading this message. I admire the OPs intentions of trying to help - but really.. isn't this common sense? Or am I overestimating my peers' capabilities?

I really don't care if you think this thread is helpful or not. The only thing i know is that many people are choosing to ignore QR because they think it's not worth it to put in any work. All i'm trying to do is to let people know that it's quite simple to improve on the AA by spending just a little time on the QR. I have had many people pm me about tips on QR and they all found this very useful. Also if Doc, Keliao, and sunshine even found it remotely helpful, then i'm glad i put it up. BTW, for someone with a QR that clearly brought down their AA, why in the world are you so hostile to what i'm trying to do?

 

[doc3232]

I really hope all of you have considered these 3 very basic points some time before reading this message. I admire the OPs intentions of trying to help - but really.. isn't this common sense? Or am I overestimating my peers' capabilities?

Obviously considered it, but I need to be reminded that all the sections have an equal effect on your AA.

 

[eldirty]

easier said then done but nice post ...

 

[klutzy1987]

You do realize that with all the practice in the world, some people are just good at math and some arent. No matter how much alot of people study they just dont get it. I dont think its so much that people ignore it, as much as math is a subject that is not mastered through practice as easily as most other subjects.

 

[tranv117]

You do realize that with all the practice in the world, some people are just good at math and some arent. No matter how much alot of people study they just dont get it. I dont think its so much that people ignore it, as much as math is a subject that is not mastered through practice as easily as most other subjects.

I understand where you're coming from and also the OPs, but i do believe the OP makes a good point. On the DAT, we're talking about elementary-high school math. So the math is very doable, even if you're one of those that just suck at math. With some practice, you can really boost your QR scores up significantly, esp once you get down the timing.

 

[doc3232]

You do realize that with all the practice in the world, some people are just good at math and some arent. No matter how much alot of people study they just dont get it. I dont think its so much that people ignore it, as much as math is a subject that is not mastered through practice as easily as most other subjects.

Agreed. But people who are bad at it can practice until they have a decent score (go up a few points). And to those already good at it, can get closer to the 30.

 

[achilles2]

I agree with this post you should not enter a test with the idea to totally sacrifice an entire subject area.....

I'm sure everyone could raise there QR if under under 18 by 3 points of so with a bit more studying.

 

[Marmar tala]

Wowwww excellent job.
I am an almost new member. I just started preparing for DAT with no background in science.I have a BSc and MSc in mathematics. So probably I could do well in QR section. For the rest, I am literally "0" 🙁. Can you give me some important sources for sciences and also PAT? Please write in details. I am planning to have DAT almost one year from now.
I would appriciate anyone who would helpppp

Marmar

 

[ruomengd2000]

Wowwww excellent job.
I am an almost new member. I just started preparing for DAT with no background in science.I have a BSc and MSc in mathematics. So probably I could do well in QR section. For the rest, I am literally "0" 🙁. Can you give me some important sources for sciences and also PAT? Please write in details. I am planning to have DAT almost one year from now.
I would appriciate anyone who would helpppp

Marmar

I used Crack DAT PAT, Kaplan Blue book, DAT destroyer, Topscore, and all of my college textbooks for supplemental purposes i.e. i did not read through all of it. Also when you say you don't have a background in biology, does that mean you haven't done any of the prerequisites yet because if that's the case, you have more important things to worry about than taking the DAT.

 

[Marmar tala]

Yes, basically I have planned to take the prerequisites during this winter, spring, summer and ...
But I've started to read my friends notebooks from college. do you think it's late? or do I have enough time?
how many hours for how long gives me a result like yours 😀 cause it's just what I need.

P.S. I want to apply to UW.
Thank you

 

[MoooShuuu]

For those of you who are "worse" in math and managed to get a decent score in QR..(16++ or so) what books did you use?

What did you find to be of the most help? I have Kaplan (white and blue book), Destroyer, and GRE study book. Should I be studying something else??? I will also take achiever and topscore in a few weeks!

 

[ruomengd2000]

Yes, basically I have planned to take the prerequisites during this winter, spring, summer and ...
But I've started to read my friends notebooks from college. do you think it's late? or do I have enough time?
how many hours for how long gives me a result like yours 😀 cause it's just what I need.

P.S. I want to apply to UW.
Thank you

First of all, if your applying to UW, I hope your in-state because their out of state acceptance is astronomically low. As for me, I studied for three months (started may 19th took DAT august 14th). For the first month I spent 8 hours a day at the library, the second month i spent 10 hours, and the last 3 weeks 12+ hours. In the entire span I was studying, I probably took off 7 or 8 afternoons. I was able to go have dinner and stuff with friends constantly but everything else was pretty much shut down. The good thing though is that if you score well, your free. The day after I finished my test, I flew off to Vegas with friends and celebrated like crazy. Personally, I don't like the attitude of "i'll take the DAT to see what it's like". This is such a difficult test and so much effort has to be put in that it's worth it to just do the work and get through in one try. I'm not saying that everyone who has to retake didn't take it seriously. I know that many things such as nerves or having a bad day can influence a test greatly. I'm just saying that by test day, you should have a pretty good idea of how well your gonna score if everything goes according to plan.

As for being too late or not, it's never really too late. Your just automatically beginning with a disadvantage because most everyone else has taken these courses already and have at least been exposed to the subjects being tested. I know that my Ochem classes I took at Cal were much harder than anything on the DAT or even Destroyer so it definitely helped me when i started studying for the test. At the moment, you should just worry about getting your prereqs done. I know that dental schools will let you finish up a couple of prereqs if your not done yet but most dental schools won't even look at you unless you have most of your prereqs done. Otherwise you don't have a science GPA to go off of.