Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Thank you to all of the people on the board for providing great advice and study tips! I'm so glad the DAT is finally over 😀 Here are my results:
PA 20 95.5%
QR 20 91.2%
RC 29 100%
BIO 28 100%
GC 27 100%
OC 23 97.1%
TS 29 100%
AA 25 100%
I prepared with Kaplan, Topscore, Barron's, Schaum's Bio and Examkracker's MCAT Bio. All of these helped a lot; I especially liked the color illustrations and charts in Examkracker's for anatomy and physiology subjects (none of my bio classes have focused on human A&P, so I had to start from scratch on that 😱 ). I've been studying for 2.5 months, about 5-6 hours a day.
Here are my thoughts on each area:
*BIO: my test had several genetics questions, probably 6 or 7. Just a few ecology and classification type questions, not too tough. I'm sad I didn't get the famous sea urchin question, since I have fertilized sea urchin eggs myself in a lab, lol 😛 Really, some of the questions seemed rather random, I think I was just lucky to have guessed correctly on some of them On my practice tests, I averaged around 20 on Bio.
*GChem: verrrrry very very easy compared to Kaplan and Topscore. Not many calculations. I barely remember this section.. It was pretty basic, acid-base stuff, stoichiometry, etc. I averaged about 20 on my practice tests. Kaplan has all you need for this.
*OChem: Tons of E1/E2/SN1/SN2! Some were tricky. I averaged about 22-23 on practice tests for OChem. Kaplan is enough for this section, I think.
*PAT: pretty tough. angles weren't as bad as I expected from reading the board, lol. But they were definitely a bit harder than Kaplan and Topscore. Similar to the angles on the ADA sample exam. Keyhole, top-front-end, Hole punch, cube counting, and pattern folding were about the same as kaplan/topscore. I averaged about 21-22 on my practice tests. Just practice a lot 🙂
*RC: passages on cancer, stock, nervous system. Really easy, but RC has always been my strongest point on practice exams. I read the passage first and jotted down a little outline w/ keywords from each paragraph, then answered the questions. I averaged about 25 on my practice tests.
*QR: this has been my weakest area since I started preparing 😳 I haven't taken any math courses in well over a year. I probably should have studied more, lol. The Kaplan and Barron's QR chapters and pratice tests helped me brush up, though. I average 19-20 on practice tests.
Sorry if parts of my post don't make much sense, I'm sleep-deprived, lol 😳 I'm very happy overall! I'm applying next year, so hopefully Pacific's PAT average won't be like 24 by then, haha 😛 It is my top choice school at the moment.
PA 20 95.5%
QR 20 91.2%
RC 29 100%
BIO 28 100%
GC 27 100%
OC 23 97.1%
TS 29 100%
AA 25 100%
I prepared with Kaplan, Topscore, Barron's, Schaum's Bio and Examkracker's MCAT Bio. All of these helped a lot; I especially liked the color illustrations and charts in Examkracker's for anatomy and physiology subjects (none of my bio classes have focused on human A&P, so I had to start from scratch on that 😱 ). I've been studying for 2.5 months, about 5-6 hours a day.
Here are my thoughts on each area:
*BIO: my test had several genetics questions, probably 6 or 7. Just a few ecology and classification type questions, not too tough. I'm sad I didn't get the famous sea urchin question, since I have fertilized sea urchin eggs myself in a lab, lol 😛 Really, some of the questions seemed rather random, I think I was just lucky to have guessed correctly on some of them
On my practice tests, I averaged around 20 on Bio.*GChem: verrrrry very very easy compared to Kaplan and Topscore. Not many calculations. I barely remember this section.. It was pretty basic, acid-base stuff, stoichiometry, etc. I averaged about 20 on my practice tests. Kaplan has all you need for this.
*OChem: Tons of E1/E2/SN1/SN2! Some were tricky. I averaged about 22-23 on practice tests for OChem. Kaplan is enough for this section, I think.
*PAT: pretty tough. angles weren't as bad as I expected from reading the board, lol. But they were definitely a bit harder than Kaplan and Topscore. Similar to the angles on the ADA sample exam. Keyhole, top-front-end, Hole punch, cube counting, and pattern folding were about the same as kaplan/topscore. I averaged about 21-22 on my practice tests. Just practice a lot 🙂
*RC: passages on cancer, stock, nervous system. Really easy, but RC has always been my strongest point on practice exams. I read the passage first and jotted down a little outline w/ keywords from each paragraph, then answered the questions. I averaged about 25 on my practice tests.
*QR: this has been my weakest area since I started preparing 😳 I haven't taken any math courses in well over a year. I probably should have studied more, lol. The Kaplan and Barron's QR chapters and pratice tests helped me brush up, though. I average 19-20 on practice tests.
Sorry if parts of my post don't make much sense, I'm sleep-deprived, lol 😳 I'm very happy overall! I'm applying next year, so hopefully Pacific's PAT average won't be like 24 by then, haha 😛 It is my top choice school at the moment.
