Took DAT today

First, I only took the Kaplan blue book practice exam and the ADA exam posted after studying notes and flash cards I accumulated over the years at school, that includes bio notes, general chem and organic chem. I spent a lot of time learning math strategy and CrackPAT for that portion.

My scores were:

PAT - 18
QR - 14
RC - 17 (of course I got the piano passage, now I know whats it all about)
Bio - 17
Gen Chem - 18
Organic Chem - 18

Really dissapointed in my PAT score vs my expectations, I was averaging 20-21 on the last 3-4 CrackPAT exams and the real one seemed so much easier for some reason, I really thought I killed it and was very surprised that I got an 18. Really can't put my mind on where I screwed up, on Crack I averaged about 13 on keyholes, 13 on TFE, 8 on angles, 14 hole punch, mostly 15s on cube count besides thole illusion (cube count on real DAT felt like a joke to be honest compared to Crack) and around 10 on pattern folding.

QR is unreal with the time restrictions, its so frustrating knowing how to do the problem but not being able to do it cuz of time. When I did Kaplan practice exam I got like 15 out of 40 right timed but when I reviewed it I knew how to do about 35 out of 40 easily (this is of course after about 2-4 week of learning how to solve these types of problems, basically brain teasers which I never had to do until this test so I spent a lot of effort learning methods.... but timing is what makes it super hard, not the material) . Gonna have to find methods to improve time here, prolly Crack.

Bio is my thing, very dissapointed with this score. My major was bio and most of my electives dealt with molecular bio like biochem, genetics, endo, histo etc and I studied that information which turned out to be totally useless. The questions were really broad and I had trouble recalling some basic questions.... I really wish this section was more molecular level bio oriented which 90% of my understanding involves around.

gen Chem and organic were pretty straight forward, I did really well in organic at school and once again spent a good amount of time reviewing mechanisms and all reagents.... but questions were pretty general and I wish I would of focused on the bigger picture again which probably would of raised my score.

For the next time I take it, I'm gonna utilize all availible resources to study like Achiever or Topscore, definatly gonna grab CrackMath and hope I don't screw up on the PAT again since I felt that is my strongest seciton of the test.


I developed study habits at school where I always learned material from notes and textbooks 110% before going over a back exams if they were availible and had a lot of success (graduated with a 3.6 over and a 3.7 in science gpa) and I tired to apply this apporoach for studying here. I do not think this is a good strategy, I hsould of taken practice exams liek Achiever and build on top of that through notes/cards instead of doing the opposite and I think that cost me the potential on this exam (besides the math which will require a lot of practice to get the timing down).

If you guys have any specific quesitons, I will answer since everything is very fresh in my head.

 

So the version of the test with the piano passage has all other sections the same for everyone who takes it? And when I take the test again, I'll get a totally new test withough the piano?

 

I was wondering that myself before I took the test but unfortunatley I had to find out the hard way. Its about the structure of a piano with questions that can't really be found directly in the passage so its pretty time consuming to get the gist of what is being said and relate it to the questions.

My 1st passage was on cAMP, luckily I knew how the entire system works with G proteins so I flew through most of it, forget what the 2nd one was but I also knew the info and ended up having around 25 mins for the piano passage which still didnt seem like enough time to get all the detail questions.

Also, is there any way to challenge the PAT score or at least see the section scores? I can't accept the fact that I got an 18, that PAT seemed pretty easy (I even stopped a few times and thought if they're really asking these questions especially for cubes and hole punches) compared to the Crack tests and there were only a few problem that I wasnt sure about... just curious where exactly I screwed up.