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February 2019 DAT Thoughts


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Biol and Chem: Nothing too crazy. There were a few questions that gave me a hard time but I managed to finish with just a few minutes to spare. The questions weren't like DATBootcamp on this DAT either, they were more similar to DATCrusher.

PAT: What was up with the burry TFE questions?? I don’t remember the TFE questions being that blurry on the November DAT. The only part that gave me a hard time were the keyhole questions but the rest of the questions went well.

Reading: This section was the most tough for me. A lot of the wording threw me off, especially for that one asking about the tone of the author, I wasn't sure about what they exactly meant. I barely finished on time and had to guess on 2 questions near the end.

Overall I felt a lot more confident this time around than on the November DAT. Last time, I made the mistake of focussing on DATBootcamp when the real DAT wasn’t anything like Bootcamp’s practice tests for any of the sections. So this time around I changed my strategy and focused on DATCrusher, DATReady and used some of the IQpublications books. I definitely felt more prepared this time around.

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2 hours ago, LightningBoltz said:

Reading: This section was the most tough for me. A lot of the wording threw me off, especially for that one asking about the tone of the author, I wasn't sure about what they exactly meant. I barely finished on time and had to guess on 2 questions near the end.

 

Haha the exact same thing happened to me in RC! I had no idea what the options of that tone of the author question even meant, and guessed on 2 questions in the last passage.

Bio/Chem: Felt okay, with the exception of a couple questions that I educated-guessed on

PAT: I definitely found keyholes to be the hardest section. I ended up spending too much time in the keyhole part, and only had 4 minutes to finish the last 10 questions of the pattern folding :eek:. I could've allocated my time a little better..

Overall: Not sure how I feel about this test in comparison to the Nov 2018 one. I walked out of that one feeling good, but the scores were shockingly low. Fingers crossed for this one though!

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I didn’t know what to expect going in but I’m glad its finally over.

Biology: Was pretty straightforward with 2-3 questions I had to mark. I spent most of my time doubting my answers which I wish I didn’t looking back at how straight forward it was. Also anyone know the answer to that animal segmentation question?

Chemistry: It was very similar to DATCusher questions so there weren’t any surprises. The only question that I wasn’t sure about what the isotope one. Somehow I finished in 20 minutes with plenty of time to double check my answers.

PAT: There were also a few Keyhole and TFE questions that gave me trouble but the rest were fine. Overall, I thought it was much harder than DATBootcamp but slightly easier than the DATCrusher.

Reading: That last passage really tripped me out. Somehow I barely managed to finish just on time but I had to guess on a few questions. On a side note:  I swear the guy next to me was having a panic attack at one point, I'm pretty sure he was tripping from the last passage lol.

Overall: Looking back at the whole exam, it was a lot easier than I thought. I used DATCrusher, DATBootcamp, and CracktheDAT to prepare. Out of those three, the real DAT was closest to DATCrusher. Hopefully, this is it and I never have to prepare for the DAT again.

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BIO/CHM: Felt good about it but I felt good for the November 2018 DAT and didn't do as well as I thought sooooooo I guess I'll just need to wait for the results! On the November 2018 DAT I came home with a few questions word-for-word in mind that I couldn't stop thinking about because I had no clue how to answer them. This time around I can't remember any of the questions as clearly... not sure if that's good or bad but I'm going to take it as a good thing. One of the BIO and one of the CHM question were VERY similar to one of the Kaplan practice test questions and another BIO question was very similar to one in the practice test that you can buy from the CDA website so I know I got at least 3 right:lol: CHM was waaaay easier in terms of the type and length of calculations needed to be done. Nice whole numbers and max 3 line calculations. There was a nuclear reaction question about alpha decay which made me SO happy. Had 3 minutes remaining to review.

PAT: Oddly spent longer than I expected on the angle ranking so ran out of time in the end and had to guess 5 of the TFE questions. Yes, there were some fuzzy images but I think they were more clear this time than they were on the November 2018 DAT. Kaplans PAT on their practice tests for angle ranking was much easier. Best way to practice for this section is by doing as many timed tests as you can. It's all about working fast!

RC: What even were those answer choices for the author's tone. I needed a dictionary lol. Was able to read all the passages and had a minute remaining to review but not sure if I picked the right answer for the question that required you to infer what the author meant when they said "sense" or what the last sentence would have been. Other than that, I felt like using Kaplans strategies for this section helped save lots of time.

For those who took the test at UofT: That practitioner was SO lost LOL she stressed me out saying we had 30 minutes even though its a 60-minute test :unsure:

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8 hours ago, Ms. Chip Skylark said:

BIO/CHM: Felt good about it but I felt good for the November 2018 DAT and didn't do as well as I thought sooooooo I guess I'll just need to wait for the results! On the November 2018 DAT I came home with a few questions word-for-word in mind that I couldn't stop thinking about because I had no clue how to answer them. This time around I can't remember any of the questions as clearly... not sure if that's good or bad but I'm going to take it as a good thing. One of the BIO and one of the CHM question were VERY similar to one of the Kaplan practice test questions and another BIO question was very similar to one in the practice test that you can buy from the CDA website so I know I got at least 3 right:lol: CHM was waaaay easier in terms of the type and length of calculations needed to be done. Nice whole numbers and max 3 line calculations. There was a nuclear reaction question about alpha decay which made me SO happy. Had 3 minutes remaining to review.

PAT: Oddly spent longer than I expected on the angle ranking so ran out of time in the end and had to guess 5 of the TFE questions. Yes, there were some fuzzy images but I think they were more clear this time than they were on the November 2018 DAT. Kaplans PAT on their practice tests for angle ranking was much easier. Best way to practice for this section is by doing as many timed tests as you can. It's all about working fast!

RC: What even were those answer choices for the author's tone. I needed a dictionary lol. Was able to read all the passages and had a minute remaining to review but not sure if I picked the right answer for the question that required you to infer what the author meant when they said "sense" or what the last sentence would have been. Other than that, I felt like using Kaplans strategies for this section helped save lots of time.

For those who took the test at UofT: That practitioner was SO lost LOL she stressed me out saying we had 30 minutes even though its a 60-minute test :unsure:

Do you mind sharing what kind of strategies from Kaplan? Are you referring to strategies like "search and destroy" etc?

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6 hours ago, yampotato said:

Do you mind sharing what kind of strategies from Kaplan? Are you referring to strategies like "search and destroy" etc?

Things like mapping the passages so you know where to look when asked a question on a specific point, and understanding the different question types were helpful when trying to see which questions would be the fastest to answer 

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  • 1 month later...
2 minutes ago, Chaxon said:

Depends which sections the Uni you’re applying to is looking at. You can search up admission stats for that specific Uni and compare to see if you’re competitive.

I was trying to find stats for Dal, but they tell you absolutely nothing, so I was wondering if there was just a general rule.

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40 minutes ago, vajihollahi said:

I was trying to find stats for Dal, but they tell you absolutely nothing, so I was wondering if there was just a general rule.

The only information that I could find is that most successful applicants have an average of 21 or above, and no lower than 15 on any section. 

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