Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
It gives me great pleasure to finally be able to say that to the DAT considering how much grief it caused me these past few months.Hey thanks so much to everyone for the encouraging words, prayers, good luck and support up until and during my exam. I really appreciate it and it made a difference for sure!
Thanks to everyone who answered questions on the board as it gave me a chance to learn via lurking. I had a ton of threads bookmarked and now I look forward to deleting them once and for all.
Now for the good stuff. It's going to be long, I apologize, but I wanted to be thorough.
Let's start off with a little jingle...
It started back in May
Without much delay
Shortly after final exams
So much for a summer jam
Studying all day and night
Hidden out of sight
Started with the Kaplan White Book
What a big darn crook
Charging people 1200 dollars
Dude I got scammed and just wanna holler
Then came talented Chad
His videos were so rad
From Ksp to nuclear chemistry
To CARDIO and everything else you need
Then Uncle Cliff helped out with biology
Too bad he sucked at physiology
Gotta give props to Crack PAT
For showing angles at 3 degrees
And what the heck is wrong with TopScore
Their software is so frickin' old
Just collecting money like a dirty *****
Can't forget da Destroyer
Kicks ass like a dragon slayer
Thank goodness I skipped Achiever
It would've given me a headache and a fever
Coming on to SDN every day
Hearing what the high scorers have to say
Getting pumped, getting stressed
Feeling like I'm wearing a big pink dress
Studying intensely for 3 months straight
Didn't even have time to masturbate
Then forgetting so much stuff I learned from two months ago
Dang, my memory must be really slow
Finally came the day to take the exam
Wham bam and thank you ma'am
Now I can enjoy my summer jam
PAT 23
QR 19
RC 22
Bio 23
GC 21
OC 24
TS 23
AA 22
I am very happy with these scores. My goal a year ago when I started thinking about the DAT was to achieve 22. But over this summer on SDN, especially these past couple of weeks with 24 scoring studs such as Froggbuster, my goal increased to 24. But with about a week to go with the stress kicking in, I was hoping for a 20 score.
I'm also surprised that Bio was higher than GC. I am much stronger in GC both at school and in DAT prep. But heck, I'm not complaining!
Materials Used
Destroyer
Math Destroyer
Chad's
Cliffs AP Bio
datQvault
Crack PAT
Crack Reading
TopScore
2007 ADEA exam
2009 ADEA exam
Kaplan course (I'm such a fool)
Kaplan White Book (very similar to KBB -- it's the one that comes with course)
PAT 23
Crack PAT is da way to go! When I first started CDP, I scored 18 and my weaknesses were TFE, Hole Punching and Angles. Then I read a posting about the Mozart effect and started doing PAT with Mozart playing in the background. This seemed to work well as it kept me on pace, in a rhythm and helped me to think perceptually. Soon enough, TFE and Hole Punching became strengths and my approach was to be strong in everything else which would compensate for my angle deficiencies. Frogg made a good point about needing to score well in Angles for a high PAT score. So I practiced the rapid glance technique two weeks ago and this worked extremely well. I went from scoring 8-9 on Angles to scoring 13-15 in CDP. I even scored 15/15 on the 2009 ADEA exam. So just keep glancing back and forth like a total eye freak. Hopefully this will work for you too.
On the actual exam, Keyholes, TFE, Angles were very similar to CDP. Hole Punches and Cube Counting were easier. And Pattern Folding was harder. I ran out of time as I got into a "let's make sure and double check" mode (so stupid of me) on most questions up until question #83 and winded up completely guessing on the last three with 20 seconds left, which was a shame b/c Pattern Folding is my strongest. So I kinda wonder what my PAT score could've been. I suggest to have confidence in your answer choices, move on and avoid my mistake. Not finishing a section on time is like arriving at a party late when all the booze and food is gone (and hot women too) and you're stuck with the unwanted leftovers. Such an empty feeling.
QR 19
Man, I don't know what happened here. It was frustrating. On the first question, I spent a minute, got the wrong answer and had to mark it for later. Same thing with question #2. And the same thing with question #4. So about 4-5 minutes into QR, I got wrong answers for 3 out of the 4. Fantastic. But I picked up the pace after that and was able to finish on time as well as return to all the marked ones.
I shouldn't be giving any tips on how to prepare for this with my subpar score, but I'll share it anyway as it was a good game plan for a 24+ QR IMO. I went thru Math Destroyer three times. First time was untimed. Second time was timed. The third time I made a list of every wrong answer or ones I needed to know better, and then did those problems over and over until it became second nature. The strategy was to become a mechanical robot so I could save huge amounts of time by solving a problem quickly with minimal effort--the thinking was that DAT can only ask so many questions in so many different ways. Thus, I had the entire Math Destroyer memorized and could solve any similar problems the DAT could throw at me, except today of course.
On the actual exam, there were some conversions including feet/miles/km, lbs/kg/oz, Fahrenheit/Celsius (but they provided the F-C formula). The calculator operated decently until near the end when it locked up on me and went berserk. Nevertheless, I think I was able to save a lot of time by resorting to the calculator and I'm thankful for that.
RC 22
Preparing for RC was a hemorrhoid. Initially I used Kaplan's mapping strategy of jotting down key words/phrases/themes for each paragraph. However, this consumed too much time. So I then started S&D and that didn't work so well with tone questions. Next approach was a hybrid skim first and then S&D but that caused even more rectal inflammation.
I said screw it, just read the darn thing! But I employed the strategy of jotting down 4-5 key words, dates, names and/or terms for each paragraph. It was similar to Kaplan but much faster. In the end, you will still have to go back and S&D to confirm your answers, but this approach provided a nice index to find the appropriate paragraphs quickly and effortlessly.
I realized it took 2 min. longer to write down key words than just reading from start to finish, but I would save about 5 min. from not needing to search back and forth for the correct paragraph, especially when arriving at the end of the passage with no success and having to start over. Plus, my reading speed and comprehension did improve during these past few weeks as I practiced this approach.
I used Crack Reading as my main prep material. I started with 18 scores on the first three tests using S&D and then it bounced to 20-21 when I employed this approach. Eventually I became faster and more efficient at it and started to score 23-24, even on the test with two 22-paragraph passages.
Going into today's exam I was very apprehensive about receiving the dreaded physics passage. Based on the feedback, I knew it would derail my score. This passage seemed to have appeared at the end of July, following a few weeks of quite a few 22-24 scores, and everyone was getting hosed left and right on it, not to mention the other sections being more relatively difficult. And then it disappeared and reappeared at the beginning of this week, again following a few weeks of 22-24 scores. With my luck, I felt doomed as I was bound to see it on test day. So I said a prayer, few Hail Mary's and Our Father's during both the tutorial and break, asking for no physics passage but for some manageable ones.
Ask and you shall receive! I got passages on herbal medicine, antibiotics, and bone fractures, all 14 paragraphs each. The herbal medicine was relatively simple and straightforward and actually enjoyable to read. I finished this passage in 17 min. Wow, I never finished a passage this early and now I gained 3 min. The antibiotics was more difficult but still very manageable and took me a little longer to complete -- 23 min. The bone fractures was most difficult and included many details and terms. The whole time I was thinking I wished I had spent more time on bones during my Bio prep. On a bunch of questions I didn't feel too good about my answers but didn't have the time to confirm as time was running out. So at this point I felt my RC score would be shot and I was disappointed considering how strong I finished the first passage. I'm so happy that I scored 22 -- don't know how it happened.
Btw, the passages were easier than both 2007 and 2009 ADEA exams. The complexity was similar to Crack Reading and NY Times science articles.
Bio 23
I first went thru Kaplan White Book and Cliffs AP Bio making my own notes. I typed up over 80 pages of notes which consumed a great deal of time. Unfortunately, I never really had time to go over these notes except once. What a waste! I wish I had spent that note-making time doing something else and used Alan's Notes instead. A week before the exam I went thru Cliffs AP Bio a second time and was surprised how quickly one can get thru this book when not typing up notes lol.
Then, (I'm embarrassed to say this), but I will admit that I went thru Destroyer 14 times. That's right, this is not a typo, 14 frickin' times no joke. I read a lot of score report threads when I started my prep and noticed the difference between 22 scorers and 24+ were the number of times a person went thru Destroyer and Chad's. Most 22 scorers went thru Destroyer 2-3 times while 24 scorers went thru it 4-5 times. So I figured the more times I went thru it, the better it would be. So I basically knew every answer in this book cover to cover as well as why the other answer choices were wrong.
I also got datQvault a week before the exam, but only had time to do half of the 10 tests, including doing one this morning. I wish I had started this months earlier.
On the actual exam, there were quite a few random questions. I must have marked about 15 questions I was unsure of. I wasn't feeling good about this section since I essentially marked 1/3 of it. Before the exam, I was hoping to score 20+ and rely on GC and OC to pull up the average. During this section I was not confident of scoring 20. Again, I'm very happy and thankful that I scored 23.
GC 21
This is surprising and disappointing because GC was my strongest DAT subject. I was aiming for 29 and thought I achieved it during the exam as I was able to answer every question. Apparently, I was wrong in my assessment. Or perhaps just like the 2009 exam, there are some errors in the answer key for this version? Probably lol.
I mainly used Destroyer (5 times) and Chad's (1.5 times) for my prep. If I could do it over, I would do Chad's a few more times.
On the actual exam, there seemed to be more calculations than I had anticipated based on the feedback in score reports. I also anticipated the calculations to be set up without actually calculating it as many people have said. Wrong. My version had only one calculation problem not requiring a calculation. The problems were easier than Destroyer. Still, Destroyer is definitely worth the practice.
OC 24
Again Destroyer (5 times) and Chad's (1.5 times).
The questions on the exam were fairly straightforward, nothing complex or obscure. Know your basic reactions and properties. Destroyer was much more difficult, but yet good practice for learning the material.
Day Before Exam
I woke up with the plans to do nothing all day but relax and chill. I wanted to avoid insomnia the night before the exam and that could only happen if I was relaxed all day. However, since I didn't do any PAT or RC practice for a few days, I decided to do a CDP and CDR test so I can stay in top form. But after doing the PAT test, I started to stress and said forget it and shut everything down. I'm glad I did that.
I went to the movies and saw Conan and Planet of the Apes. How fitting. Conan would get me in an aggressive gladiator state of mind to attack the exam while the Apes movie could teach me a thing or two about biology. Conan was an awful movie. Bad plot, bad acting. I suggest you avoid it like the plague. Planet of the Apes was enjoyable and had some funny lines.
After the movies, I went for a run which further de-stressed me. Watched TV for the remainder of the night and went to bed popping a melatonin for just in case.
Exam Day
I woke up with a full night of sleep and felt really good. I did some problems in Destroyer, started stressing and went out for a run which calmed me down. Afterwards, I started reviewing my 900 flash cards I made and only got thru 600 of them before it was time to leave for the test center.
The test center had new fine-tipped markers that were a just a little bit thicker than a ball point pen. This was awesome because I write really big especially when I'm writing quickly.
The test goes by very quickly. I know it's a 4.5 hour exam, but the time flies. Before you know it, it's already break time and then post-survey. Before I completed the survey, I said a few more prayers and wow, 22 score. Not too shabby.
Closing Thoughts and Words of Encouragement
This DAT prep was quite a daily grind and sacrifice throughout this whole summer. For example, I declined getting laid twice with this hottie with nice big boobs because I just couldn't fit her into my schedule. I'll call her soon and hopefully the invitation will still be open (I doubt it). There were weeks in which I never left the house. I couldn't tell you what the weather was like. In fact, the day before my exam, I went outside and experienced how good fresh air smells like lol.
This was a frickin' war against DAT with all these battles that had to be won during the process. I went through a constant roller coaster of feeling stressed, nervous, frustrated, overwhelmed, hopeless, exhausted, burnt out, humbled, etc. It pushed me to limits I've never encountered before.
More importantly, this exam can certainly be conquered. It's not rocket science. You don't have to be a genius or a high GPA student to score 20+. It is a long grueling process and you just need to have the will power to get to the finish line. If you're just willing to stay motivated, dedicated and make the necessary sacrifices, then you sure can score 22. Period.
ADDENDUM:
Very Important: Do not eat too much before your exam!
The night before exam day, I loaded up on pasta for the carbs. Then on D-Day for lunch, I ate too much of the leftovers in an attempt to avoid becoming hungry later on. As a result, I had a few spaghetti burps during the exam. This didn't thrill me (nor to the girl sitting next to me lol) knowing that the blood was concentrated in my tummy and not in my brain where I needed it to be. So take it easy on your meals. You always have the break to eat a snack.
Closing Jingle
There once lived a pre-dent named LetsGo2DSchool
Who did the Destroyer 14 times like a darn fool
After the exam he got laid
With Tayloreve that fine babe
And went from being a tool to being cool
Btw, it was Tayloreve's birthday recently. Let's all wish her a Happy B-Day!
Last edited:
your post helped a lil so Thank you! :] 
