Took DAT and yes it seemed much harder

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sickeye29

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PA- 18
QR- 16
RC- 16
BS- 18
GC- 21
OC- 25
TS- 20
AA- 19

All right so im pretty much bummed out. Iv been studying for 3 months for this test and pretty much felt ready to the point where i would score a 21 or 22. i knew everything there was to know for all the science sections of the DAT written in Achiever, topscore, kaplin and Destroyer. on top of that i supplemented most of my questions with information from wiekapedia.

Like most people who have been posting lately i thought ochem and gchem were pretty easy and strait forward, but bio, what the hell! They had questions on there that came out of no where, covering material not mentioned on any of the study aids i purchased.

As for QR, i pretty much thought i was prepared. i was scoring 18-20 on achiever and top score. mostly my questions were of word problem proportions, and even the simple math was hard to do because of the laminated red paper sheet and marker they gave me made my 5, s, z, 8, 9, 2 and any other number look all the same.

RC no excuses it’s never been my strong point and i pretty much freaked myself out. Although i want to mention that i was scoring 18 and 19 on achiever and 19-20 on top score on RC

PAT thought i did much better but what can i say other than it was much easier than achiever but for some reason i was also scoring 18-19 on achiever and 20-21 on top score (just a little harder than top score). angle ranking was a bitch.

So overall i dont know what to do, i guess im going to retake it again in 3 months and try to improve on both RC, QR and maybe some more bio even though i dont know what to study when it comes to bio. maybe ill just read through cambel 4th ed. that should just about cover everything.

GPA 3.4, major BioChem, not much research experience, and decent amount of volunteer work.

SOOOO what do you guys think?
Quick before I go do something irrational and decide to become a pharmacist. Just kidding I love pharmacist they hand out all those wonderful drugs.

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You have good AA and TS, I think you should be fine! If you think you can do better than what you did, then by all means, take it!!!

Was bio really tough!! I have done and spent most of my time in bio, and am getting high scores on practice tests, but since everyone is saying bio is hard on it, i am a little scared now and you know practice tests can be very decieving!!!

Also, did you study out of schaums for bio or just kaplan and DAT destroyer
 
Your overall scores seem great. The only reason I would recommend taking it again is to improve RC. Other than that, your scores are pretty solid.
 
i didnt use schaums, because i thought i had a strong backround i biology considering my major was biochem. bio was much tougher than i expected, i was scoring 18 on acheiver and 19-20 on topscore. i feel niether was comparible to the DAT although they did help answer some of the questions on the DAT
 
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i didnt use schaums, because i thought i had a strong backround i biology considering my major was biochem. bio was much tougher than i expected, i was scoring 18 on acheiver and 19-20 on topscore. i feel niether was comparible to the DAT although they did help answer some of the questions on the DAT

Hey, my background is in biochemistry as well (graduated last year). Anyways...I take it the oddball problems weren't biochem related?

Seems like a lot of the oddball questions are coming from physiology...wierd. Back in Jan it seemed they were coming from animal classification (like the infamous version wit 10 questions on annelids).

I'm taking the test late May...maybe I'll get lucky and they'll start pulling their oddball questions from biochemistry.
 
Hey, my background is in biochemistry as well (graduated last year). Anyways...I take it the oddball problems weren't biochem related?

Seems like a lot of the oddball questions are coming from physiology...wierd. Back in Jan it seemed they were coming from animal classification (like the infamous version wit 10 questions on annelids).

I'm taking the test late May...maybe I'll get lucky and they'll start pulling their oddball questions from biochemistry.

Yea, I remember ppl talking about 10 Annelids questions!! I got my animal bio down (or so I think), I am just a little worried about ecology crap! I am studying human physiology from Schaums and Gen. Bio Textbook, do you think that will be enough or is it very detailed?
 
A lot of the stuff from physiology seems to be revolving around the integumentary system (an area of the DAT syllabus that was highly neglected in the past). Just keep in mind that Schuams does not even cover the integumentary system. I think I am just going read as much as I can from my anatomy physiology book about the integumentary system. Also, Schuams provides no help with histology....something else to keep in mind.
 
Ecology??? that seemed to be the oddball source over the summer...haha
 
never used schaums, but i will this time around

May I make a suggestion....if you are hell bent on doing well on the biology...get this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Probl...5143346?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175918416&sr=8-1

That book is about 100 times better than Schuams. I know several people who used this book alone to score really well on the biology GRE. The chapters on each subject are composed of essay questions with ultra super detailed solutions. Everything in Campbells is in this book minus the BS (also the historical bs you see in schuams). The format of the book makes it much easier to digest than Schuams. Also, as a bonus, at the end of each chapter are multiple choice/true false/fill in the blank questions (no solutions only answers). The questions at the end of the chapter are difficult and much like the type you would expect to see in a large weed out biology course. The essay questions themselves are also the type that always seem to appear in exams. I would use the book myself, but don't really have the time for it...but if literally knowing everything is the only thing that can get you
20+ on biology...this book is it!
 
If they keep making the bio this ridiculously hard....why stop there??? Why not just can the DAT and just have us all take the MCAT?
 
If they keep making the bio this ridiculously hard....why stop there??? Why not just can the DAT and just have us all take the MCAT?

Dude. Even the review material for MCAT isn't that much. It's just comprehension. The DAT is practically asking us to memorize everything we've come across. Hello, DAT, I'm an encyclopedia.
 
All I gotta say is that there is some sadistic test writer out there who is laughing his/her a$$ off. He/she must be getting his/her kicks from writing BS bio questions.
 
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All I gotta say is that there is some sadistic test writer out there who is laughing his/her a$$ off. He must be getting his/her kicks from writing BS bio questions.

Probably ask the mass of some random protein in some obsolete measuring unit.
 
Aiite so ... we all know that BIo has gotten harder... but the question is... will the chem and orgo become harder in thsi cycle too? i took my exam on 4/4/07 and my scores are
Bio: 16
GChem:21
OChem: 23

and all i have to say is... bio was mad hard in kaplan i was scoring 24s in the bio mideterm and final. so teh main question here is .... we all know bio has gotten harder but will chem and ochem become harder in liek the summer when some of us have to take it a second time? IF so i am gonan shoot someone...
 
To those who took the exam recently, what kind of bio material was on there that made it harder? Would you say it's MCAT material, crazy phylogeny material, etc?
 
So i remember someone posted that they scored a 24 on there bio a couple days ago. what i want to know if there's a proper way to ask if he got the same test as us. if so i bow down to him cause that's awesome. Well either ways that's awesome. if not i just have supper mixed emotions on why the ADA would make one version of the test so difficult. I mean do they do that? Would they make one test with bio and read comp section supper hard and then make ochem and gchem semi easy. Cause seriously that's what it seemed like to me. Who knows maybe I deserved the score and wasn't ready enough for bio and math but I swear math and bio are my strongest points since I was in grade school. I need to vent.
 
I didn't take it recently, but I thought the bio was difficult... it's all the plant and ecology questions that have nothing to do with dentistry.
 
I think the kind of posts we should be looking forward to now are the ones from people who have done well on the Bio section recently. It would be kind of these people to advise us on how we can study and what to study so we don't fall into this trap that the DAT is setting for us.
 
Is there any book I can purchase to review how to do the angle numbering? I haven't had geometry since my sophomore year in high-school. Would this be on the DAT Destroyer or Kaplan?

I'm going to be a college sophomore in the fall, but I would like to start preparing for the DAT.
 
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