Scores were all over the place...

[accidental]

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I swore I would never do one of these posts but I'm really not sure what to do here. Here's what I got:

AA: 18
PAT: 18
QR: 15
RC: 23
BIO: 16
GC: 16
OC: 20
TS: 18

GPA: 3.46
Sci GPA: 3.48
BCP: 3.63

Here's where I applied:
UoP, Colorado, Nova, Iowa, U of Louiville, Maryland, Buffalo, OSU, Oklahoma, Oregon, Temple, Virg. Commonwealth, Washington, and Case.

I really got killed on Bio and GC. My Bio test was about 1/3 ecology and 1/3 genetics, and the other 1/4 (hence my low math score) were really obscure questions over stuff that I would have never thought of studying even if I studied another two months. The Kaplan book does a horrible job on covering Bio. PM me if you have specific ?'s.

My averages aren't terrible but I think the individual Bio and GC scores might hurt me. I'll call the schools to see what they think. I know at some of them I won't be considered but I really don't want to take it again if at least one of those schools will let me in.

 

[Sprgrover]

Not bad scores, accidental! Overall, an 18/18 is a fairly safe score, and believe me, I empathize 100% when you stated that you don't want to take the DAT again!

UoP, Oregon, and Washington are very competitive schools. Oregon and Washington in particular seem to really desire both high gpa's and DAT scores from out-of-staters. Though I think that you have a good shot at some of the other schools on your list, such as Louisville, Virginia Commonwealth, and Case. Now what you need to do is sit back and let your mind rest!!

 

[wimmcs]

Accidental - hey, why aren't you applying to AZ? Just curious...

Not bad scores, how long did you study? I'm planning on taking it next month and I'm dying with the PAT.. you didn't do too bad!! You did great in RC!! Also, your OC score was good. Congratulations. The only "issuy" score that I see in your DAT is your bio score, other than that you did pretty good. So, what specifically killed you about bio and gchem? what do you mean 1/3 genetics? Are you serious? Did you have things like you see a tree and you have to determine genotype and that stuff? Man, I absoulutely HATE genetics!! Tell me about gen chem?! I'm dying with this subject!!! I'm only in chapter 6 in Kaplan, but this is enough to just want to set the book down and saying "heck with it!!" I'm pretty frustrated because most of the time when I read a chpt in Gen Chem and I see the questions at the end, I'm like "what??!!" What the heck are they talking about? Did I actually read something like that in the chapter?? I just am having some big issues with it. I haven't even touched math... I'm soooo scared!! And not the mention the PAT!!!!!!! I am sooooo discouraged by it, I just don't get it!! I have Barrons, Kaplan books (blue one that you buy off the store and the one used by the class) and a crapload of science books and topscore, but I want to use it towards the end, only for test taking, not to learn from it.

I know the test bank is quite big, but would you please direct me on what to make sure I know? For example you said genetics and ecology in biol, so that's great and at least for ecology I've heard this and taxonomy and evolution are big on the test and yet covered poorly in Kaplan. what should I know for gen chem? Also, how did you manage to do so well in ochem and in the reading portion? Altogether I'm praying I get something like your scores, obviously I want them the best, but I just doubt that I'll ever get there, especially in the PAT section... I'm totally clueless... any help is appreciated!!

 

[RachMSU]

Hey accidental,
I'm also dying to know everything the above poster asked so any advice would be great!!! I am mainly getting killed on PAT.

 

[accidental]

Accidental - hey, why aren't you applying to AZ? Just curious...

Not bad scores, how long did you study? I'm planning on taking it next month and I'm dying with the PAT.. you didn't do too bad!! You did great in RC!! Also, your OC score was good. Congratulations. The only "issuy" score that I see in your DAT is your bio score, other than that you did pretty good. So, what specifically killed you about bio and gchem? what do you mean 1/3 genetics? Are you serious? Did you have things like you see a tree and you have to determine genotype and that stuff? Man, I absoulutely HATE genetics!! Tell me about gen chem?! I'm dying with this subject!!! I'm only in chapter 6 in Kaplan, but this is enough to just want to set the book down and saying "heck with it!!" I'm pretty frustrated because most of the time when I read a chpt in Gen Chem and I see the questions at the end, I'm like "what??!!" What the heck are they talking about? Did I actually read something like that in the chapter?? I just am having some big issues with it. I haven't even touched math... I'm soooo scared!! And not the mention the PAT!!!!!!! I am sooooo discouraged by it, I just don't get it!! I have Barrons, Kaplan books (blue one that you buy off the store and the one used by the class) and a crapload of science books and topscore, but I want to use it towards the end, only for test taking, not to learn from it.

I know the test bank is quite big, but would you please direct me on what to make sure I know? For example you said genetics and ecology in biol, so that's great and at least for ecology I've heard this and taxonomy and evolution are big on the test and yet covered poorly in Kaplan. what should I know for gen chem? Also, how did you manage to do so well in ochem and in the reading portion? Altogether I'm praying I get something like your scores, obviously I want them the best, but I just doubt that I'll ever get there, especially in the PAT section... I'm totally clueless... any help is appreciated!!

Well I studied for about 5 weeks - somedays all day and somedays very little. I read the Kaplan book once through and then went back over it taking notes on certain sections I needed help on.

It was discouraging for me to get that Bio score b/c thats what I put the most time into. Ironically I put the least amount of time into the RC and OC sections. I think I did well on OC b/c I just finished my last semester a month ago and it was the freshest. Also, I liked organic and it just seems to stick better than the other sciences.

I think I got lucky on the reading section - the first two were fairly easy - one about cancer/oncogenes the other on the stock market. I was able to just browse the section, find generally where everything was, and answer the questions. The last section was on the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system (which I got no questions on in bio) so much of that I could answer without even reading the passage.

For the PAT, I used acethedat.com which is right on. I took an acethedat practice test last night and got a 17 on the PAT section, so their's will give you a good idea of where you stand. Their practice questions are much more realistic than Kaplan and Topscore and unlike topscore it gives explainations why the right answer is correct. Some of the PAT questions on the actuall were ridiculously easy and some were very hard.

Biology was such a blur straight from the first question. I think I marked about 20 questions. Seriously, in my studies I encountered maybe only about half of what I saw on the actual test. I see 21's in Bio from some people and I really don't know how they did it. I was hit hard with ecology and genetics both of which were really weak areas for me. I didn't get one taxonomy question. Get the schaums outline or cliffs AP Biology and use that instead or in addition to kaplan. Also, I had memorized the Kaplan bio flash cards and got about 5 questions from them.

For GC I really don't know if I should be giving advice out on this section. I got A's in both semesters of it but it was over a year ago and I didn't prepare as well as I should have and I was still recovering from bio. One book that is a good refresher is called "chemistry concepts and problems" by C. Houk. It's very basic and walks you through everything step by step like a two year old - I learn best that way. Just know what's in the Kaplan book and you should be fine. Just go through it a few times. There were no surprises - I just didn't was prepared as well as I should have been.

 

[Dr. Steve Brule]

Accidental - hey, why aren't you applying to AZ? Just curious...

Not bad scores, how long did you study? I'm planning on taking it next month and I'm dying with the PAT.. you didn't do too bad!! You did great in RC!! Also, your OC score was good. Congratulations. The only "issuy" score that I see in your DAT is your bio score, other than that you did pretty good. So, what specifically killed you about bio and gchem? what do you mean 1/3 genetics? Are you serious? Did you have things like you see a tree and you have to determine genotype and that stuff? Man, I absoulutely HATE genetics!! Tell me about gen chem?! I'm dying with this subject!!! I'm only in chapter 6 in Kaplan, but this is enough to just want to set the book down and saying "heck with it!!" I'm pretty frustrated because most of the time when I read a chpt in Gen Chem and I see the questions at the end, I'm like "what??!!" What the heck are they talking about? Did I actually read something like that in the chapter?? I just am having some big issues with it. I haven't even touched math... I'm soooo scared!! And not the mention the PAT!!!!!!! I am sooooo discouraged by it, I just don't get it!! I have Barrons, Kaplan books (blue one that you buy off the store and the one used by the class) and a crapload of science books and topscore, but I want to use it towards the end, only for test taking, not to learn from it.

I know the test bank is quite big, but would you please direct me on what to make sure I know? For example you said genetics and ecology in biol, so that's great and at least for ecology I've heard this and taxonomy and evolution are big on the test and yet covered poorly in Kaplan. what should I know for gen chem? Also, how did you manage to do so well in ochem and in the reading portion? Altogether I'm praying I get something like your scores, obviously I want them the best, but I just doubt that I'll ever get there, especially in the PAT section... I'm totally clueless... any help is appreciated!!

wow i feel the exact same way as u! im glad im not the only one 😀 and to the OP..i think your scores are definitely decent and ur gpa is awesome so i wouldn't worry too much about it

 

[sinned]

I think even with bio, you gotta do alot of practice questions and review the wrong answers after...you can only make so many derivations of a certain topic, and you will see them again and again...just reading the chapters was your first mistake...

but overall, those are not bad scores, and your high gpa should make you competitive 👍

 

[accidental]

just reading the chapters was your first mistake...

For Biology, I guess I should add that reading the chapters wasn't the only thing I did - I did do the Kaplan subject tests and Topscore and did much better. I saw very few questions from that stuff on the real thing. But, I really appreciate you doing the favor of pointing out my mistakes -

 

[Sprgrover]

I think I got lucky on the reading section - the first two were fairly easy - one about cancer/oncogenes the other on the stock market. I was able to just browse the section, find generally where everything was, and answer the questions. The last section was on the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system (which I got no questions on in bio) so much of that I could answer without even reading the passage.

I had those exact, same passages and in that order too!!!

 

[RachMSU]

Well I can honestly say that I am very nervous about the bio section now after what accidental went through. I take my test in 2 weeks 😱

 

[accidental]

Don't sweat it too much, I'm sure you'll do fine. I was a bit on edge going into it and that doesn't help. Just relax.