Studying for DAT, with current practice scores (Kaplan and Bootcamp)

[KAU6]

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Hey everyone!
I have been studying for the DAT for the last month (over winter break) and my official test is in 6 days. I have been keeping track of my scores that I have received on my Kaplan tests and Bootcamp tests thus far. This post will mostly be for people that are studying and want to compare your practice scores to mine, and I will later update what I get on the official test. I will also later add what I get on bootcamp tests that I continue to take. I am currently done with all the Kaplan Full lenth (online... not book) tests. I'm pretty nervous, and at the same time I am ready to get it over with. Also, if anyone has any input as to how they think I am doing, that is welcome as well!
I have attached the scores. green= greater than 19, 18 = ok score, below 17 is below what I want to score.
My goal is to get at least a 21 AA.

Thank you for your time and I hope this is helpful for whoever wants to utilize it.

 

[KAU6]

So I have an updated excel with my test scores attached. From what I notice is that DAT bootcamp's QA section isn't as tricky as Kaplan's. I don't know what is up with that. Last night I took the QA test #2 and have no idea how I got a 20 on it. I never seem to be able to finish them. Their RC seems really tricky to me, but I have never been good at reading passages and answering questions about it. As far as the OC, every time I go through it I feel like I miss 1 MAYBE 2 questions and I get much lower than what I think, but I'm learning from my mistakes. I hope both the GC and OC section on the real DAT is like the one for Bootcamp. They seem very fair. The Biology sections have good explanations as to what the answers should be. So far I definitely recommend Bootcamp, but we'll see when I get the real scores.

 

[Typical Average Student]

I also took the Kaplan course (regretfully). You can take a look at my practice test full lengths for comparison if you would like.

 

[KAU6]

Hey! I've actually checked out your breakdown already. I noticed that we are getting somewhat similar scores, and I hope that the end result will be as good as yours. Congrats getting in btw!

 

[Mhines24]

I took 2 kaplan practice tests and granted I didn't try very hard and quit on some of the sections and got AA's of 13 and 16. When I took the real DAT I got a 20 AA I think kaplan is good practice but scores aren't representative of what you will do on the real dat but this can be partially contributed to the fact that you will be giving your 100% on the real DAT and usually less than 100% when taking practice tests.

Also I only studied for the dat in 12 days which is why my practice test scores were low but I don't reccommend doing this I could have done better on my QR if I had time to study for it.

 

[KAU6]

Ya, it seems to be that most people get lower on Kaplan than the actual. I was shocked when my 1st bootcamp score was a 19 for QR when I was receiving 15s on Kaplan. I already know my RC and QR will be my lowest scores.

 

[Mhines24]

Ya, it seems to be that most people get lower on Kaplan than the actual. I was shocked when my 1st bootcamp score was a 19 for QR when I was receiving 15s on Kaplan. I already know my RC and QR will be my lowest scores.

Don't worry too much about QR as long as you get around average you will be fine. However, the RC is important so you will want to do well on this section. You don't have to read like a speed demon so just remember read at your normal pace and try to absorb the main points of each paragraph and the passage as a whole. Detail questions can usually be found by reffering back to certain paragraphs and skimming for key words. If you are unsure about a question choose your best guess, mark it, and move on so that when your finished you can always go back and try to find those answers. Good luck!

 

[KAU6]

Thanks!!

 

[pulltheleverkronk]

I was bombing Kaplan and then did well on the DAT. Two days before my test I did a GC practice section and got a 17... then took the real test and got a 30. Not representative. Trust Bootcamp

 

[KAU6]

Hey guys! Thank you all for the responses! I just took the DAT yesterday.
PA:21
QR:21
RC:20
BIO:21
GC:20
OC:24
TS:21
AA:21
So happy that nothing was below 20!!!!🙂

So the whole point was for you to be able to compare your practice scores to what you could get on the actual. It seems fair to say that the QR section is not representative at all for Kaplan, and the questions are much harder. In fact, when I was taking the test I thought, "are you serious" to many of the questions and you could do them in your head really. I even had time to go back and check many of my answers. I'm not the greatest at math either.
Bootcamp seems very representative, however I'm not going to fib, I was on the Ultimate DAT breakdown collection and I was hoping that my scores would be like +4 on all the sections like many of the people there seemed to get. However, I can't complain because I am indeed happy and these are the scores after only a month of studying.
I know my scores are not out of this world excellent, but if anybody is interested I can do a breakdown of what my study schedule was like if anybody is on a time crunch for like a month or so.
Good luck to everyone and thank you all again for the responses!
Cheers

 

[KAU6]

For clarification, i know there is nothing wrong with a 19, it was just one of the first things that I noticed!