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hey everyone!!! i just took the 4pm DAT today and i am effing tired, but very happy. i can't believe i finally get to do a breakdown! this site has been a tremendous help and i want to thank everyone for answering all my questions!!! seeing everyone's crazy good scores only inspired and motivated me to study more. i was a slave to the DAT for the past 2 months, but hopefully these scores will get me in somewhere. here they are:
PA: 23 (98.7) 😀
BIO: 19 (75.3)
GC: 24 (94.5) 👍
OC: 21 (86.3) 🙄
RC: 19 (53.3) eh...
QR: 16 (50.9) 🙁 uhhhhhhhh... f*ck.
TS: 21 (91.3)
AA: 20 (84.0)
i took the kaplan course from june to mid-july and tried to keep up with the reading, but didn't really feel like i was absorbing any information. after the course ended, i studied hardcore for another 4 weeks... rescheduled my test 3 times, u know how it is.
i used kaplan materials (book, online stuff like workshops, subject tests, practice tests, flashcards), topscore, CDP, CDM, destroyer, AP cliff's, chad's videos, some wikipedia, and a lot of sdn website. you guys are awesome 👍
PAT: everything was very close to CDP, but holepunching was weird as hell. i thought i was gonna get a 17 here bc i was so unsure about a lot of the angles and punches and pattern folding, but i guess all my CDP practice paid off. instead of doing tests over and over on CDP, i did the mini-tests and practiced each section individually. i tried to do keyholes and TFE in 10 minutes or less, and angles in 5 minutes or less. this really helped out with my timing because pattern folding is the most time consuming (for me) so i needed all the time i could get for that last section.
BIO: i didn't really think this was that random. mostly everything i studied was there. AP cliff's definitely covered most of it. there were some questions that i didn't know how to approach, couldn't even make an educated guess, so i just chose "D". i was actually flipping out during bio because i literally marked about 15 problems... thankfully, i had time to go back and change a few answers and i think that's how i managed to pull a 19 (which isn't so hot, but i am not the best at bio).
GCHEM: pretty easy. if you understand the basics, you can do well in this section. like everyone said, a lot of the problems were set up for you so it wasn't really time consuming at all. make sure you understand the concepts and do a lot of practice problems.
ORGO: you need to know concepts here too, not just reactions; stereochemistry, acidity/basicity, lab separation, etc. the reactions i got were pretty basic and i just made flashcards from kaplan and destroyer roadmaps.
RC: i got crocodile, vision, fungi. i almost ran out of time here and could have easily lost points in the fungus section, but thankfully, i got to the end with about 30 seconds left to go. i suck at RC and the highest i got on any practice test was a 20, so i will take my 19 and be happy. i used the kaplan mapping method. i try to map out the passage in 8 minutes while skimming/reading it. then i go to the questions, refer back to my map, find the corresponding paragraph, and read what i have to. it takes practice and it can be time consuming, but i was most comfortable with this method.
QR: well, it really wasn't that bad, but obviously, i didn't do so great. i got through all the questions, and pretty much chose "d" for all the word problems i had no clue how to solve. i think the best thing to do is practice word problems like crazy, any problem you can get your hands on. once you get good at solving them, then try solving them FASTER. i purchased CDM only a week before my exam, and got through 3 tests before running out of study time... oh well...
here's some info about me and if you don't care, stop reading here. 😎
i'm 27, a postbacc student living in new york city. my cGPA is 3.67 and my sGPA is 3.63. i went to a music conservatory as an undergrad, majoring in violin performance. got my master's degree in music at another university after that. took a yr off, went through some huge life changes, and decided i wanted to pursue dentistry. it's been a loooooong journey, but i can almost see the light. anyway, i applied to 16 schools, but i really want to stay in new york. the inevitable question: what are my chances?? nyu? columbia?
ok this is a really long post, but i really wanted to write this before going out and partying tonight. if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!!!!!
PA: 23 (98.7) 😀
BIO: 19 (75.3)
GC: 24 (94.5) 👍
OC: 21 (86.3) 🙄
RC: 19 (53.3) eh...
QR: 16 (50.9) 🙁 uhhhhhhhh... f*ck.
TS: 21 (91.3)
AA: 20 (84.0)
i took the kaplan course from june to mid-july and tried to keep up with the reading, but didn't really feel like i was absorbing any information. after the course ended, i studied hardcore for another 4 weeks... rescheduled my test 3 times, u know how it is.
i used kaplan materials (book, online stuff like workshops, subject tests, practice tests, flashcards), topscore, CDP, CDM, destroyer, AP cliff's, chad's videos, some wikipedia, and a lot of sdn website. you guys are awesome 👍
PAT: everything was very close to CDP, but holepunching was weird as hell. i thought i was gonna get a 17 here bc i was so unsure about a lot of the angles and punches and pattern folding, but i guess all my CDP practice paid off. instead of doing tests over and over on CDP, i did the mini-tests and practiced each section individually. i tried to do keyholes and TFE in 10 minutes or less, and angles in 5 minutes or less. this really helped out with my timing because pattern folding is the most time consuming (for me) so i needed all the time i could get for that last section.
BIO: i didn't really think this was that random. mostly everything i studied was there. AP cliff's definitely covered most of it. there were some questions that i didn't know how to approach, couldn't even make an educated guess, so i just chose "D". i was actually flipping out during bio because i literally marked about 15 problems... thankfully, i had time to go back and change a few answers and i think that's how i managed to pull a 19 (which isn't so hot, but i am not the best at bio).
GCHEM: pretty easy. if you understand the basics, you can do well in this section. like everyone said, a lot of the problems were set up for you so it wasn't really time consuming at all. make sure you understand the concepts and do a lot of practice problems.
ORGO: you need to know concepts here too, not just reactions; stereochemistry, acidity/basicity, lab separation, etc. the reactions i got were pretty basic and i just made flashcards from kaplan and destroyer roadmaps.
RC: i got crocodile, vision, fungi. i almost ran out of time here and could have easily lost points in the fungus section, but thankfully, i got to the end with about 30 seconds left to go. i suck at RC and the highest i got on any practice test was a 20, so i will take my 19 and be happy. i used the kaplan mapping method. i try to map out the passage in 8 minutes while skimming/reading it. then i go to the questions, refer back to my map, find the corresponding paragraph, and read what i have to. it takes practice and it can be time consuming, but i was most comfortable with this method.
QR: well, it really wasn't that bad, but obviously, i didn't do so great. i got through all the questions, and pretty much chose "d" for all the word problems i had no clue how to solve. i think the best thing to do is practice word problems like crazy, any problem you can get your hands on. once you get good at solving them, then try solving them FASTER. i purchased CDM only a week before my exam, and got through 3 tests before running out of study time... oh well...
here's some info about me and if you don't care, stop reading here. 😎
i'm 27, a postbacc student living in new york city. my cGPA is 3.67 and my sGPA is 3.63. i went to a music conservatory as an undergrad, majoring in violin performance. got my master's degree in music at another university after that. took a yr off, went through some huge life changes, and decided i wanted to pursue dentistry. it's been a loooooong journey, but i can almost see the light. anyway, i applied to 16 schools, but i really want to stay in new york. the inevitable question: what are my chances?? nyu? columbia?
ok this is a really long post, but i really wanted to write this before going out and partying tonight. if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!!!!!
