So I just got back from the DAT testing center, and I would like to share my scores with you!
I did better than I expected, I was going for 25AA
PA: 28 (100)
QR: 23 (97.1) Could have done much better, I was just so tired at the end
RC: 28 (99.8)
BS: 29 (99.9) I shoulda gotten 30!! I didn't miss anything
GC: 30 (100)
OC: 23 (94.3) WTF! This is my strongest section.
TS: 28 (99.9)
AA: 27 (100)
Guys, don't be afraid of DAT sciences.
They are super basic, and I had time to check them over 3 times for GC and Bio, and 2 times for OC.
Nothing surprising, there were oddball questions in Bio, but I used logic to eliminate all of the answer choices. They are straight forward.
RC, I got Piano passage, and it ISN'T hard, as you can see from my score. I am an Anthropology major, and I do read a lot, so maybe it helped.
I am also NOT native English speaker, I came to US about 6 years ago. So now you see how easy Piano passage actually is!
I will answer questions regarding the tests if you have any
Thank you for everyone who answered my questions!
My dream school is Columbia. I have 3.90 GPA and 3.95 sGPA, do you think I would have a good chance?
Study techniques:
I studied over.. I am not sure. I think 5 months, but I didn't actually start until 2 months before. Other 3 months, I probably studied once every week, so it didn't do much. Last 2 months, though, I studied 8-10 hours a day. I only ate, went to bathroom, slept, and studied.
Some people have been asking question if I had school or work, in fact, yes I did.. I am taking 17 quarter unit (4 classes, one of them upper division writing course.. so time consuming) and also research 15 hours a week. I still found time to do everything, so it definitely is possible to study while taking full course load/work
It took a big toll in my health, I lost over 40 lbs in course of 2 months of studying. I was sleep deprived, and I stopped going to the gym completely. Before I started studying, I was 220 lbs bench pressing 315, but when I went to the gym today, I was weighing merely 175 lbs and I could barely do full rep of 225 lb.
People also have been asking me how I studied with all the classes and all. This has been my schedule for the past 2 months:
So I have class everyday from 8AM to 1PM or 2PM.
I get up at 7AM, get ready for classes, go to class from 8AM to 1 or 2PM, then I would go to my research lab until 4PM or 5PM. So around 3 hours of research. I can go collect research data whenever I want (I have the key to the laboratory and I do independent work) so sometimes I do it later at night, after my studying. But typically, at 4/5PM, when I am done with researching for the day, I would go eat Panda Express (I never went back to my apartment, it's too noisy), then I would stay in my research office until 1-2AM or so studying My office is very quiet, and everything is there for me.
Like I said, it took a big toll on my health! Don't study like me.
QR: I went through MATH destroyer once. I didn't miss much in it and people said it was good enough so I just stuck with reviewing it once. I swear I could have done much better in QR, I just got really tired and my hands started shaking. It is very easy. I think the actual DAT may be a little more time consuming than MATH destroyer, because it definitely had more word problems.
PA: I ended up not finishing CDP Ace version, I still had last test undone My score for test 1 was 23, score for test 9 was 28. So CDP is around there with difficulty, although I think CDP is harder. Angles aren't as bad as they say, I don't think I missed any on the angle section, but in the key holes... There were some keyhole questions that seemed like they had multiple answers. I finished this section with 20 minutes to go, and had time to check over everything once again and recount all the cubes and all. I think the hole punch question is the only thing I missed.
RC: Did not study for this, I read 60 pages a day of detailed articles in my anthro classes.. I got to the level where I can skim through passage retaining quite a bit. I finished this section 20 minutes early, even with the Piano passage. Piano passage is just overrated, don't worry about it! Yes it has a lot of inference questions, but they are not meant to be hard. My strategy for this section is, I just read through the exhibit as I would read through any other article, until I find the clue about the first question. If the answer to the first question is inference, I would just read everything through first. Once I read through, it's very easy to answer general "which is true EXCEPT" questions, and it's really easy to go back to the article for detailed based questions since you would remember where the topic was discussed. If you stay calm and read stress-free, I think everyone can do well on this section.
Bio: Went through cliff's.. I don't know how many times, I think I read through them every day, and every 2 days I would recycle. Yes, I memorized cliff's back and forth! I also did Destroyer 2 times. Most of my studying for bio was just reading, I read Campbell's thick bio book every day 200 pages a day. I guess that helps with RC too! So read Campbell's It will help you in Bio and RC.
GC: Destroyer 2 times, nothing more... GC is very straight forward, no tricks at all. I think GC is on par with TopScore, and a little easier than Achiever. There are some tricky questions to get you to fall into the trap, just make sue you go over it fast in the first time so you have time to do it once more after.
OC: Destroyer 2 times, I also did all the questions in my chem book chapters... I thought I would definitely do better in this section, I thought this was my strongest section.. I wonder what I missed. There were some questions that I had never seen before, but OC is very much based on logic so I wasn't worried too much about them. I think the difficulty is around the same with TopScore, a little easier than Achiever.
Let me know if you have any questions Feel free to PM me
Due to requests, I've decided to upload an image file of the score report.
Sorry for the phone camera
I did better than I expected, I was going for 25AA
PA: 28 (100)
QR: 23 (97.1) Could have done much better, I was just so tired at the end
RC: 28 (99.8)
BS: 29 (99.9) I shoulda gotten 30!! I didn't miss anything
GC: 30 (100)
OC: 23 (94.3) WTF! This is my strongest section.
TS: 28 (99.9)
AA: 27 (100)
Guys, don't be afraid of DAT sciences.
They are super basic, and I had time to check them over 3 times for GC and Bio, and 2 times for OC.
Nothing surprising, there were oddball questions in Bio, but I used logic to eliminate all of the answer choices. They are straight forward.
RC, I got Piano passage, and it ISN'T hard, as you can see from my score. I am an Anthropology major, and I do read a lot, so maybe it helped.
I am also NOT native English speaker, I came to US about 6 years ago. So now you see how easy Piano passage actually is!
I will answer questions regarding the tests if you have any
Thank you for everyone who answered my questions!
My dream school is Columbia. I have 3.90 GPA and 3.95 sGPA, do you think I would have a good chance?
Study techniques:
I studied over.. I am not sure. I think 5 months, but I didn't actually start until 2 months before. Other 3 months, I probably studied once every week, so it didn't do much. Last 2 months, though, I studied 8-10 hours a day. I only ate, went to bathroom, slept, and studied.
Some people have been asking question if I had school or work, in fact, yes I did.. I am taking 17 quarter unit (4 classes, one of them upper division writing course.. so time consuming) and also research 15 hours a week. I still found time to do everything, so it definitely is possible to study while taking full course load/work
It took a big toll in my health, I lost over 40 lbs in course of 2 months of studying. I was sleep deprived, and I stopped going to the gym completely. Before I started studying, I was 220 lbs bench pressing 315, but when I went to the gym today, I was weighing merely 175 lbs and I could barely do full rep of 225 lb.
People also have been asking me how I studied with all the classes and all. This has been my schedule for the past 2 months:
So I have class everyday from 8AM to 1PM or 2PM.
I get up at 7AM, get ready for classes, go to class from 8AM to 1 or 2PM, then I would go to my research lab until 4PM or 5PM. So around 3 hours of research. I can go collect research data whenever I want (I have the key to the laboratory and I do independent work) so sometimes I do it later at night, after my studying. But typically, at 4/5PM, when I am done with researching for the day, I would go eat Panda Express (I never went back to my apartment, it's too noisy
), then I would stay in my research office until 1-2AM or so studying My office is very quiet, and everything is there for me.Like I said, it took a big toll on my health! Don't study like me.
QR: I went through MATH destroyer once. I didn't miss much in it and people said it was good enough so I just stuck with reviewing it once. I swear I could have done much better in QR, I just got really tired and my hands started shaking. It is very easy. I think the actual DAT may be a little more time consuming than MATH destroyer, because it definitely had more word problems.
PA: I ended up not finishing CDP Ace version, I still had last test undone
My score for test 1 was 23, score for test 9 was 28. So CDP is around there with difficulty, although I think CDP is harder. Angles aren't as bad as they say, I don't think I missed any on the angle section, but in the key holes... There were some keyhole questions that seemed like they had multiple answers. I finished this section with 20 minutes to go, and had time to check over everything once again and recount all the cubes and all. I think the hole punch question is the only thing I missed.RC: Did not study for this, I read 60 pages a day of detailed articles in my anthro classes.. I got to the level where I can skim through passage retaining quite a bit. I finished this section 20 minutes early, even with the Piano passage. Piano passage is just overrated, don't worry about it! Yes it has a lot of inference questions, but they are not meant to be hard. My strategy for this section is, I just read through the exhibit as I would read through any other article, until I find the clue about the first question. If the answer to the first question is inference, I would just read everything through first. Once I read through, it's very easy to answer general "which is true EXCEPT" questions, and it's really easy to go back to the article for detailed based questions since you would remember where the topic was discussed. If you stay calm and read stress-free, I think everyone can do well on this section.
Bio: Went through cliff's.. I don't know how many times, I think I read through them every day, and every 2 days I would recycle. Yes, I memorized cliff's back and forth! I also did Destroyer 2 times. Most of my studying for bio was just reading, I read Campbell's thick bio book every day 200 pages a day. I guess that helps with RC too! So read Campbell's
It will help you in Bio and RC.GC: Destroyer 2 times, nothing more... GC is very straight forward, no tricks at all. I think GC is on par with TopScore, and a little easier than Achiever. There are some tricky questions to get you to fall into the trap, just make sue you go over it fast in the first time so you have time to do it once more after.
OC: Destroyer 2 times, I also did all the questions in my chem book chapters... I thought I would definitely do better in this section, I thought this was my strongest section.. I wonder what I missed. There were some questions that I had never seen before, but OC is very much based on logic so I wasn't worried too much about them. I think the difficulty is around the same with TopScore, a little easier than Achiever.
Let me know if you have any questions
Feel free to PM meDue to requests, I've decided to upload an image file of the score report.
Sorry for the phone camera
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