Hello fellow SDNers, it is another one of those wonderful DAT breakdowns that I guarantee will shock you even more than your normal breakdowns! Guaranteed! So let's get on with the good stuff.
This is my second time taking the DAT and I've learned some important lessons after my first time being destroyed that I wanted to quickly share.
So to the scores!
........2010........2011
PAT_15 (23.4)__19 (69.4)
QR__16 (53.2)__19 (92.9)
RC__24 (97.2)__19 (67.6)
Bio__15 (21.9)__16 (41.0)
GC__17 (49.1)__21 (91.6)
OC__21 (87.6)__25 (98.4)
TS__17 (50.4)__19 (82.8)
AA__19 (77.2)__20 (93.4)
I would like to say first of all...if all that mattered from the DAT was just the AA/TS/PAT, we are good to go! Of course they don't, talk about a nasty situation to be in. Anyways continuing on this breakdown!
Preparation Materials and Costs
1) Crack DAT PAT ACE Edition ($129)
2) Cliff's AP Biology Review ($9.23)
3) Barron's AP Biology Review ($10.52)
4) Chad's Videos ($30 for a month)
5) TopScore 3 Practice Exams ($54.95)
6) Math Destroyer ($199.95 with the DAT Destroyer book)
7) Kaplan Blue Book ($41) I'd pass on it.
Total: $433.65 ($474.65 with KBB)
Study Schedule
I actually started studying for the DAT after watching my Dallas Mavericks get redemption over the Miami Heat! So on June 21st, I started to follow dentalWorks (thanks!) schedule. It was hard adjusting from celebrating my graduation and the Mavs victory to studying, but I eventually got it rolling into lockdown mode! I spent three weeks for my review phase, studying from about 1pm-2 am with a few breaks of course (you have to eat and get some exercise). Then I deviated from dentalWorks schedule and headed into my own plan of CDP practice and Math Destroyer for a few days or did TopScore. Chad happened to release his Quantitative Reasoning videos, so I watched those and broke it up into two days. I took a TopScore exam one two weeks before my exam, another 1 week before, and the last one two days ago. I felt confident because I was making errors during chemistry and organic that could be easily fixed. The questions I missed in biology I felt were decent and just needed a refresher, since I finished Cliff's about two weeks ago and hadn't touched bio. I got Barron's for this and felt it was a much easier read than Cliff's and supplemented Barron's with details from Cliff's.
Study Breakdown
PAT: The only way to get better is practicing! I used Crack DAT PAT and started out with Keyholes 8, TFE 10, Angles 9, Hole Punching 13, Cube 10, Pattern Folding 11, PAT 18 and my last scores were 14, 14, 13, 15, 15, 13, 24 on the 9th exam. I felt everything improved from when I began, except for angles. I mean when I saw that 13 in angles I jumped for joy, but I knew deep down it was a fluke since I was ranging 6-10 for the other exams. I highly recommend not timing yourself the first 1-3 exams, so you're able to develop techniques on solving them.
PAT Tips
Keyholes: Plenty of practice here helps, as long as you're noticing the little subtle differences in the keyholes, see if it matches up with your figure. Eliminating wrong answer choices throughout the PAT is a must!
Top-Front-End: I used the line counting method last year. I learned a new method, which many line counting people will find hard. Try to visualize the figure out instead! I struggled horribly at first, but with plenty of practice I got it down (missing 1-2 per CDP exam).
Angles: I have no secret method, besides the usual use the answer choices and move through ASAP. Don't waste time staring at them.
Hole Punching: Practice plenty here. I also tried to visualize out the folding after the hole punch and it actually worked pretty well (I started to miss 2-3 at the beginning, but would spend 10+ minutes and noticed after the 5th exam I would get every single one correct and used less time).
Cube Counting: Use the tally mark method and the DAT is not as tricky as CDP is with their wonderful "illusion" cubes.
Pattern Folding: I thought this would be difficult, but if you have ten minutes, you'll be able to do it! First thing I look as is the prominent shapes that should be in the figure, then I look for any shading or special patterns, then I start eliminating what shading or shapes can't be next to each other in the answer choices. I skip the more difficult ones (where you have to fold it, but the figure is upside down) and if I can eliminate the others, it's usually that one I skipped.
Quantitative Reasoning: Yes Chad's has videos over this now and they are quite informative. Some math stuff you may have forgotten, but he does an awesome job refreshing your memory. I then did the Math Destroyer exams I got from a friend, using the first four exams as my learning techniques phase. Then I started timing myself, learning more lessons!
QR Tips
1) Learn how to set up different types of problems, since that will be half the battle.
2) Select a logical (or random) answer to the question(s) you can't answer without a bunch of thinking and writing, there will be questions after that you can answer with 100% confidence. Come back if you have time obviously. I recall spending more than four minutes trying to figure out this question I knew I could get, but ran out of time. The practice exam had five questions left, which I could have easily gotten to improve my score.
3) Do eclipse problems ever show up on the DAT?
Reading Comprehension: After getting a 24 last year with the method of spending ~5 minutes writing what the paragraph was dealing with and the keywords. Then spend 15 minutes answering questions with search and destroy, I only practiced this during TopScores RC. There were tone or "which sentence could be added to the end of so and so paragraph" type questions that appeared on the DAT this year.
RC Tips
1) Find a method you like (either heading straight to the questions, reading it, or outlining/keywords) and stick with it.
2) Be able to read scientific articles and not fall asleep or lose focus.
Biology: I spent two weeks reading through Cliff's AP Biology and bought Barron's as a quick review. I finished Barron's in three days (two days before my DAT) and flipped back into Cliff's for certain details. I used the end of chapter problems and TopScore to prepare.
Biology Tips
1) *point at score* moving along folks!
General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry: Chad's video was beneficial for a review and then TopScore once again to prepare.
Chemistry Tips
1) Take notes while watching Chad's and go back through them after a few days. If you forget why you wrote something the way you did, rewatch that part of Chad's video.
2) Those outlines Chad has is a good thing to print out and review (I only printed the Day 3 and 4 of organic chemistry with all the reagents).
Exam Day
I felt awesome going into the exam and felt confident 20+ in every section was manageable. I was a bit nervous about the randomness I heard about in biology, so I decided to skip straight to the chemistry and do biology last. Little did I realize that doing 40 biology questions in 25 minutes, as I double checked everything in chemistry, would be pretty difficult! During the PAT I was nervous by what just happened with biology, but had to try to focus and move along. Everything seemed easier on the DAT, except for keyholes and top-front-end. I had to spend more time than I originally budgeted (10 minutes keyholes, 15 minutes TFE), but flew through the angles, which I thought were more manageable than CDP. The last three parts of the PAT were easier and straight forward compared to CDP in my opinion.
During the break I had a drink of Gatorade, still nervous and thinking about what happened during biology. I used my usual method for reading comprehension, but started to panic after spending 25 minutes on the first article. I deviated from my plan by just reading and writing down few keywords so I knew what paragraphs I needed to go back to for them. I couldn't seem to use search and destroy as effectively as I thought and even had to guess on plenty of questions. Answering those reading questions made me even more nervous about my scores, as time ran out with a few questions left. I got to the math and felt it was doable; I even used the enemy (calculator) for only three questions and finished just a few seconds before the exam ended. After taking the survey of the testing environment, bam on the screen comes the scores. I close my eyes, breathe a sigh of relief, and then look from the bottom up. Whoa this is awesome, then Biology comes up and I stare at it for a long long time. I could not tell you what topics biology I thought were hard, since I just flew by each question and it was a blur.
I already decided I was going to retake the exam, not sure when yet. Getting a degree in biology with my biology score has not made me content with any of my other scores. Plus I know I could answer the bio questions if I had not started panicking about the time. I'm still applying for my second cycle and hope to at least receive an interview. I know some/most schools have a cut off at 17 for all sections unfortunately, so I'll need to figure that out beforehand. I've been waiting on my last letter of recommendation to arrive forever now before submitting, but I might just go ahead and submit on Monday.
Thanks for reading and any suggestions, questions, or comments are welcomed!
This is my second time taking the DAT and I've learned some important lessons after my first time being destroyed that I wanted to quickly share.
- 1) Kaplan's $1k+ DAT preparation (especially the PAT) will make you look like a fool on DAT day (as angle rankings was my favorite from kaplan, I went straight there and my morale dropped faster than 299,792,458 m/s and that people is pretty fast.
- 2) Using the calculator for every problem in the quantitative reasoning might help you get the exact answer, but clicking takes forever and you'll run out of time (8 questions left with a few minutes is a horrible feeling).
- 3) SDN has nice information, too bad I found out about this afterwards
So to the scores!
........2010........2011
PAT_15 (23.4)__19 (69.4)
QR__16 (53.2)__19 (92.9)
RC__24 (97.2)__19 (67.6)
Bio__15 (21.9)__16 (41.0)
GC__17 (49.1)__21 (91.6)
OC__21 (87.6)__25 (98.4)
TS__17 (50.4)__19 (82.8)
AA__19 (77.2)__20 (93.4)
I would like to say first of all...if all that mattered from the DAT was just the AA/TS/PAT, we are good to go! Of course they don't, talk about a nasty situation to be in. Anyways continuing on this breakdown!
Preparation Materials and Costs
1) Crack DAT PAT ACE Edition ($129)
2) Cliff's AP Biology Review ($9.23)
3) Barron's AP Biology Review ($10.52)
4) Chad's Videos ($30 for a month)
5) TopScore 3 Practice Exams ($54.95)
6) Math Destroyer ($199.95 with the DAT Destroyer book)
7) Kaplan Blue Book ($41) I'd pass on it.
Total: $433.65 ($474.65 with KBB)
Study Schedule
I actually started studying for the DAT after watching my Dallas Mavericks get redemption over the Miami Heat! So on June 21st, I started to follow dentalWorks (thanks!) schedule. It was hard adjusting from celebrating my graduation and the Mavs victory to studying, but I eventually got it rolling into lockdown mode! I spent three weeks for my review phase, studying from about 1pm-2 am with a few breaks of course (you have to eat and get some exercise). Then I deviated from dentalWorks schedule and headed into my own plan of CDP practice and Math Destroyer for a few days or did TopScore. Chad happened to release his Quantitative Reasoning videos, so I watched those and broke it up into two days. I took a TopScore exam one two weeks before my exam, another 1 week before, and the last one two days ago. I felt confident because I was making errors during chemistry and organic that could be easily fixed. The questions I missed in biology I felt were decent and just needed a refresher, since I finished Cliff's about two weeks ago and hadn't touched bio. I got Barron's for this and felt it was a much easier read than Cliff's and supplemented Barron's with details from Cliff's.
Study Breakdown
PAT: The only way to get better is practicing! I used Crack DAT PAT and started out with Keyholes 8, TFE 10, Angles 9, Hole Punching 13, Cube 10, Pattern Folding 11, PAT 18 and my last scores were 14, 14, 13, 15, 15, 13, 24 on the 9th exam. I felt everything improved from when I began, except for angles. I mean when I saw that 13 in angles I jumped for joy, but I knew deep down it was a fluke since I was ranging 6-10 for the other exams. I highly recommend not timing yourself the first 1-3 exams, so you're able to develop techniques on solving them.
PAT Tips
Keyholes: Plenty of practice here helps, as long as you're noticing the little subtle differences in the keyholes, see if it matches up with your figure. Eliminating wrong answer choices throughout the PAT is a must!
Top-Front-End: I used the line counting method last year. I learned a new method, which many line counting people will find hard. Try to visualize the figure out instead! I struggled horribly at first, but with plenty of practice I got it down (missing 1-2 per CDP exam).
Angles: I have no secret method, besides the usual use the answer choices and move through ASAP. Don't waste time staring at them.
Hole Punching: Practice plenty here. I also tried to visualize out the folding after the hole punch and it actually worked pretty well (I started to miss 2-3 at the beginning, but would spend 10+ minutes and noticed after the 5th exam I would get every single one correct and used less time).
Cube Counting: Use the tally mark method and the DAT is not as tricky as CDP is with their wonderful "illusion" cubes.
Pattern Folding: I thought this would be difficult, but if you have ten minutes, you'll be able to do it! First thing I look as is the prominent shapes that should be in the figure, then I look for any shading or special patterns, then I start eliminating what shading or shapes can't be next to each other in the answer choices. I skip the more difficult ones (where you have to fold it, but the figure is upside down) and if I can eliminate the others, it's usually that one I skipped.
Quantitative Reasoning: Yes Chad's has videos over this now and they are quite informative. Some math stuff you may have forgotten, but he does an awesome job refreshing your memory. I then did the Math Destroyer exams I got from a friend, using the first four exams as my learning techniques phase. Then I started timing myself, learning more lessons!
QR Tips
1) Learn how to set up different types of problems, since that will be half the battle.
2) Select a logical (or random) answer to the question(s) you can't answer without a bunch of thinking and writing, there will be questions after that you can answer with 100% confidence. Come back if you have time obviously. I recall spending more than four minutes trying to figure out this question I knew I could get, but ran out of time. The practice exam had five questions left, which I could have easily gotten to improve my score.
3) Do eclipse problems ever show up on the DAT?
Reading Comprehension: After getting a 24 last year with the method of spending ~5 minutes writing what the paragraph was dealing with and the keywords. Then spend 15 minutes answering questions with search and destroy, I only practiced this during TopScores RC. There were tone or "which sentence could be added to the end of so and so paragraph" type questions that appeared on the DAT this year.
RC Tips
1) Find a method you like (either heading straight to the questions, reading it, or outlining/keywords) and stick with it.
2) Be able to read scientific articles and not fall asleep or lose focus.
Biology: I spent two weeks reading through Cliff's AP Biology and bought Barron's as a quick review. I finished Barron's in three days (two days before my DAT) and flipped back into Cliff's for certain details. I used the end of chapter problems and TopScore to prepare.
Biology Tips
1) *point at score* moving along folks!
General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry: Chad's video was beneficial for a review and then TopScore once again to prepare.
Chemistry Tips
1) Take notes while watching Chad's and go back through them after a few days. If you forget why you wrote something the way you did, rewatch that part of Chad's video.
2) Those outlines Chad has is a good thing to print out and review (I only printed the Day 3 and 4 of organic chemistry with all the reagents).
Exam Day
I felt awesome going into the exam and felt confident 20+ in every section was manageable. I was a bit nervous about the randomness I heard about in biology, so I decided to skip straight to the chemistry and do biology last. Little did I realize that doing 40 biology questions in 25 minutes, as I double checked everything in chemistry, would be pretty difficult! During the PAT I was nervous by what just happened with biology, but had to try to focus and move along. Everything seemed easier on the DAT, except for keyholes and top-front-end. I had to spend more time than I originally budgeted (10 minutes keyholes, 15 minutes TFE), but flew through the angles, which I thought were more manageable than CDP. The last three parts of the PAT were easier and straight forward compared to CDP in my opinion.
During the break I had a drink of Gatorade, still nervous and thinking about what happened during biology. I used my usual method for reading comprehension, but started to panic after spending 25 minutes on the first article. I deviated from my plan by just reading and writing down few keywords so I knew what paragraphs I needed to go back to for them. I couldn't seem to use search and destroy as effectively as I thought and even had to guess on plenty of questions. Answering those reading questions made me even more nervous about my scores, as time ran out with a few questions left. I got to the math and felt it was doable; I even used the enemy (calculator) for only three questions and finished just a few seconds before the exam ended. After taking the survey of the testing environment, bam on the screen comes the scores. I close my eyes, breathe a sigh of relief, and then look from the bottom up. Whoa this is awesome, then Biology comes up and I stare at it for a long long time. I could not tell you what topics biology I thought were hard, since I just flew by each question and it was a blur.
I already decided I was going to retake the exam, not sure when yet. Getting a degree in biology with my biology score has not made me content with any of my other scores. Plus I know I could answer the bio questions if I had not started panicking about the time. I'm still applying for my second cycle and hope to at least receive an interview. I know some/most schools have a cut off at 17 for all sections unfortunately, so I'll need to figure that out beforehand. I've been waiting on my last letter of recommendation to arrive forever now before submitting, but I might just go ahead and submit on Monday.
Thanks for reading and any suggestions, questions, or comments are welcomed!
