running out of time in GC

[NguyenDDS]

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I have a problem 😳 I'm not sure if anyone else had or has this problem, but my problem is slowness. 90 minutes is not enough for me to go through 100 science problems. GC section on practice exams consume most of my time because of calculations and my inability to do them quickly and/or comprehend what they are asking.

What did you do to overcome this? Or do you have any advice? This has to be my biggest worry of the DAT... the timing. It would be nice if they added an extra 10-20 minutes on the sciences to minimize the pressure of timing 😀

 

[molar3]

I have a problem 😳 I'm not sure if anyone else had or has this problem, but my problem is slowness. 90 minutes is not enough for me to go through 100 science problems. GC section on practice exams consume most of my time because of calculations and my inability to do them quickly and/or comprehend what they are asking.

What did you do to overcome this? Or do you have any advice? This has to be my biggest worry of the DAT... the timing. It would be nice if they added an extra 10-20 minutes on the sciences to minimize the pressure of timing 😀

hmmm i think that 90 minutes is ample time to do all those problems. only bc usually people finnish one section faster than another section, so if u do have a trouble section u can focus on that more. however, on the real DAT i dont really think theres hardcore calculations/problems and u dont actually have to solve, they just have the equations set up for u as ur answer choices so u may have to write down on ur whiteboard how to rearrange certain equations to get the answer but u wont have actually solve it, for the most part. so that saves time.
i dont really know how to overcome a timing problem bc i never took a full length practice DAT before i took mine.....but i didnt run out of time on the real DAT either.
but in terms of gen chem, i dont think u should worry about it too much bc im presuming u wont have to do alot of heavy calculations for it

 

[yankeefan86]

I have a problem 😳 I'm not sure if anyone else had or has this problem, but my problem is slowness. 90 minutes is not enough for me to go through 100 science problems. GC section on practice exams consume most of my time because of calculations and my inability to do them quickly and/or comprehend what they are asking.

What did you do to overcome this? Or do you have any advice? This has to be my biggest worry of the DAT... the timing. It would be nice if they added an extra 10-20 minutes on the sciences to minimize the pressure of timing 😀

Im in the same exact boat as you, my DAT is thursday.🙁

 

[Noelle23]

Hello,

So, I took my DAT last November and I am retaking in early July. I do think 90 minutues is sufficient as long as you budget your time wisely and go in with an allotment of time for each section that you have practiced ahead of time. When I took it last time I got to the G-Chem section and I felt hey I can do this problem -for every problem, no matter how long it took me and I let time get away from me. So when it came time to O-chem my time was suffering and I had to really rush through it. I ended up with a 22 on G-chem and a 18 on O-chem. I know I could have done much much better on O-chem if I budgeted my time more wisely!

Also, there are going to be random questions on Bio that you just wont know so dont waste valuable time on those that you could use on the questions that you will know how to do in g-chem and o-chem. I wasted a lot of time in bio on things I probably ended up getting wrong anyway.

Hope this helps!

Good luck

 

[dentalWorks]

I have a problem 😳 I'm not sure if anyone else had or has this problem, but my problem is slowness. 90 minutes is not enough for me to go through 100 science problems. GC section on practice exams consume most of my time because of calculations and my inability to do them quickly and/or comprehend what they are asking.

What did you do to overcome this? Or do you have any advice? This has to be my biggest worry of the DAT... the timing. It would be nice if they added an extra 10-20 minutes on the sciences to minimize the pressure of timing 😀

I don't know much about timing with practice exams (topscore, kaplan, archiver, etc), but in my 5 years of visiting SDN, I have NEVER heard of anyone not having enough time for the sciences.

Its such a straight forward section that... they can probably shave it down to 75 minutes and people will still finish on time.

 

[rav4182]

the gen chem sections doesnt have too many calculations. just practice doing them on your own until you become proficient on them.

 

[Cofo]

On the real DAT, there will not be heavy calculations. Just know how to set up the problem to solve it, and that will actually be the majority of your answer choices.

Just keep practicing. Biology is usually "you either know it or you don't," so definitely try to spend the least amount of time in bio section.
What will help you the most is this: As you read the chemistry question, immediately be thinking "ok, is this question wanting me to set up an equation for vapor pressure, equilibrium constant, etc etc etc."
Then after you read the question and you are pretty sure of what the question is asking, write AS FAST AS YOU CAN the "set up" of the calculation. The "set up" of the calculation will be the answer more than likely. Remember: WRITE AS FAST AS YOU CAN...do not make your handwriting pretty or neat. Just write like lightning fast. This will save you time...so practice doing this now. You got it buddy 🙂

 

[Maygyver]

The first time I did topscore the timing was tough, but after doing the last one, you should be able to finish on time. The real DAT's GC section had a lot less calculations, but you still should be prepared to be finished on time during the practice sections.

 

[invictusx]

I have a problem 😳 I'm not sure if anyone else had or has this problem, but my problem is slowness. 90 minutes is not enough for me to go through 100 science problems. GC section on practice exams consume most of my time because of calculations and my inability to do them quickly and/or comprehend what they are asking.

What did you do to overcome this? Or do you have any advice? This has to be my biggest worry of the DAT... the timing. It would be nice if they added an extra 10-20 minutes on the sciences to minimize the pressure of timing 😀

So.. you need to go over Destroyer a couple more times to get used to the flow and learn to quickly calculate things on paper. Be familiar with the questions. Filter out the stuff you do and don't need.

You need to be able to master one of the sections, for me it was organic chemistry, so I was able to breeze through it and then review all the questions I couldn't do. Um... in regards to test-taking, I just skipped the questions I wasn't particularly sure on how to do and then went back at the very end.

 

[dantemac]

My strategy was to rush through bio, take the most time on gen chem (I struggle with it), and bust out ochem with the remaining. I still finished in time. Gen chem will probably take the most time, but make up for it on the other two sciences.