Quantitative Reasoning: 21
Perceptual Ability: 17
Reading Comprehension: 18
Biology: 19
General Chemistry: 20
Organic Chemistry: 23
Total Science: 20
Academic Average: 20
Breakdown:
Bio- As everyone has said its random. The questions I got were not too hard, but some made you think and I guessed between two. No taxonomy for me but I would say use those little pamphlets that bookstores sell for the BIO 2 class. They cover majority of the info you need for taxonomy!
Used- Cliffs, Kaplan BB, Barrons, BIO 2 Pamphlet, Destroyer and Achiever.
My Opinion- FIRST, go through Barrons as it has alot of good information for a basic understand. (Links everything together, that alot of the other books fail to do). Then do KBB & Cliffs over and over. I over studied for this section because I was scared I would forget the information or get tested on something random. Neither of which happened on my exam
Chem- Majority of them were straight forward with probably more then half being conceptual (Acidity, Polarity, etc etc..). I personally feel like half life and radioactive decay will be on majority of DAT exams. So know these topics! Calculations were mostly basic. But some of them were not as easy as everyone claims. Try and know how to do fast math to calculate molarity and stuff with decimals. I honestly thought I was going to do better on this section, but I guess I may have overlooked somethings. I DID NOT use Chad's videos but from what everyone says I wish I did.
Used- Kaplan BB, Barrons, Destroyer and Achiever. INTERNET
-
http://undergrad-ed.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/#
Opinion: Review all the concepts and trends and make sure you know them good. Do destroyer and KBB practice problems. USE THE INTERNET for practice problems. It is a free resource out there that many people overlook!
OChem- First off I want to say I was kind of surprised with my 23 because I figured I would do better in chem and probably get a 20 on Ochem. Questions were all straightforward. Not really any tricks like Achiever and Destroyer have! Focus on understanding all the basic stuff (nomenclature, functional groups, etc). Then go to reactions. *FOR ALL THOSE PEOPLE THAT SAY YOU NEED TO HAVE A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF HOW REACTIONS WORK, thats not true. To be honest, I just understood the basics. Like acid/heat are used to dehydrate. I just memorized the reactions AND then kept doing practice problems so then I just knew the product before knowing the reason behind it.
Used: KBB, Achiever, 1001 questions for MCAT Orgo!!! and the Internet
These websites I am posting below are AMAZING AND FREE..lol
1)
http://undergrad-ed.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/crd/
2) This "freelanceteach" guy on Youtube is AWESOME. He gives an in-depth explanation for the reactions. Just search for the reactions on youtube! I literally did that and 1001 the last 3 days before my DAT and I honestly believe those two things helped immensely.
Perceptual Ability: Okay this section sucked for me (17). The reason was because I did not honestly practice enough PAT because I only used Achiever which was way hard and could even have made me over analyze some of these questions. Angles were a beast like everyone said and everything else was normal. Time became a little issue for me as I had to guess on the last 3 pattern folding.
Used: KBB, Barron, Achiever
Opinion: Strongly recommended to go through Barrons Pat section and get a full understanding of each section. Then do KBB practice for PAT and probably supplement with CDP or something else. I cant really give much input because I didn't do so good on this section but I would say if I had done more TIMED PRACTICE I could have gotten a few more points for sure.
RC: The dreaded section everyone talks about. I SUCK at RC. * For everyone who says you cannot S&D anymore, they either are lying or just had an exam where they weren't able to. Majority of my exam was S&D. I actually was surprised I only got an 18 because I honestly thought I would have gotten a 20 plus after finishing the section. I had no technique going into the exam. Was just going to do either. I got a little comfortable and slowed down which was a big mistake! Always keep going at the same pace.
Opinion- Practice
QR- Kind of disappointed with my QR score. I really love math and am good at quick algebra and stuff. I got in the 96 percentile but still got a (21). Majority FOR MY EXAM were straight math and a few trig. I was worried about getting Confidence Interval questions but luckily I didn't, But still know basics.
Used: Practice Tests
Things that helped me:
I asked the person if people are allowed to bring there own erasers since according to alot of ppl on SDN there erasers suck. He said I COULD USE MY OWN ERASER/MARKER HAD I BROUGHT IT. Just bring an expo eraser and marker the day of the exam just incase.
Overall, I studied for a month straight, 6 days a week probably 6 hours a day. Trust me when I tell you, the exam is do-able. Just put your head down and study. I know if I had done this for even another 15 days I feel like I would have been done better for sure. I pushed my exam back like 3-4 times because I felt I needed more time. While this is good to do, don't just push it back because you are scared or because you dont think you know everything for bio. If you legit are having problems with chem/orgo/QR then I would say do it.
Achiever- Did not think it was worth the money to by the 5 exam set. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT, take an achiever exam the week before your DAT cuz you will feel like **** (I did). If I could go back, I would have gotten the 3 exam set and do them periodically and supplement KBB Practice exams and whatever else ppl say to use.
Lastly, USE THE INTERNET, NOT JUST SDN, but other websites to supplement with your studying. The orgo practice website I gave was amazing and I just searched on Google. Hope this helped guys..
