to people that have taken the DAT

[Alekshura2]

How close is the practice DAT test to the real thing?

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[Contach]

what practice DAT?

welcome to the forums

 

[NyCzPeter]

If you mean the practice DAT found on the ADA website... it is complete joke. I would say about 1000000x easier than the real test. Lets just say on that "practice test" I got about a 27AA, while on the real DATs, well ALOT worse than that.

 

[bjhath]

How close is the practice DAT test to the real thing?

It depends:
Kaplan - some practice tests are about the same difficulty as the DAT; others are easier
DAT Achiever - harder
Barron's - easier, except for the PAT which is harder
Top Score - N/A (didn't buy it)
ADA - N/A (didn't try it)

Hope this helps. Good luck on your studies!

 

[ldm0208]

you can go to DAT discussions forum and search for it. I bet you will find coutless answers/info you want.

 

[FutureDocBerg]

I took the practice test as fast as I could thinking, and got a 22. I took the read DAT 4 days later, and got a 21. I think its a bit easier, more cut and dry. The real DAT seems to have answers that are right, and ones that are more right. Good luck

 

[shinbone86]

I used the DAT achiever. From my experience, the science and PA are harder on their practice exams than the real, but the reading and math is easier on the practice than for the actual exam.

 

[AlwaysImproving]

I kept doing really well on the practice DAT exams and kept consistently getting really high numbers. However, 3 days before the test, I started freaking out and would only sleep ~3hrs/night. The day of the real thing, it was really hard to stay awake (much less concentrate) throughout the exam and particularly the RC. I nodded like 2-3 times and had to really push myself to finish that exam.

All in all, I hope that you can rest and eat well so that you are at your best on exam day. I wish you the best of luck!!! It is a though day (need to have that endurance) but you can do it and soon you will be done with it forever .

 

[BillytheEchidna]

I practiced with the Kaplan disc. Most of the practice test was comparable to the actual DAT, but the PA section was much easier than the real thing -- It was way oversimplified. Just as an example, I don't think there were any paper-foldings with more than three folds on Kaplan. The actual DAT had more folds and more complicated shapes, so I would advise you to find better software to prepare for the PA section. I had time to spare on the practice test but ran out of time on the real thing.

I also vaguely recall that the Kaplan disc had a bug with the reading comprehension section where you couldn't scroll down to read the whole thing.