DAT Done!!!!

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Hey guys,

I want to thank everyone on the boards for helping me get past my DAT. Studying for it was hard, but it really paid off! I studied all semester for it, while taking 13 credits, including orgo and biochem. It was a really intense semester, but it all paid off:

PAT-19 (69.4%)
QR- 21 (97.6%)
RC- 21 (88.9%)
Bio- 21 (95.5%)
GC- 24 (98%)
OC- 24 (97.9%)
TS- 23 (99.3%)
AA- 22 (98.9%)

I'm really happy with my scores. Being in a 7 year BS/DDS program at UB, my contract required me to get min scores of 20AA and 18 PAT, so I am very pleased with my performance. I used DAT Destroyer, KBB, Cliffs, Topscore, and CDP. I wholeheartedly recommend all of these resources, especially DAT Destroyer and CDP. Having said that, I feel that the biggest thing is being completely focused on test day, confident that you've put in your time studying and know most of the material. A lot of the test is eliminating answers that you know are completely wrong, leaving you with only a couple answer choices. It's all educated guesses from there! Nevertheless, I am super stoked and wish everyone else the best of luck with their DAT's! It feels so good to finally be done and have my life back! Cheers!

Nice looking scores, my friend! Congrats on meeting and surpassing your requirements, and best of luck in the future.

Gratz on fulfilling your contract and than some! Feel's great to be done doesn't it?
It's been almost two months since I've been done and I'm still stoked haha

Is it cool if I add your thread to a list I have compiled on my blog?

Also, if you don't mind elaborating on how you studied for the DAT with a semester of hard classes that would be awesome

I've seen a lot of questions about how to manage your time with a semester of courses and successfully study for the DAT on here.

Again, congrats on a job well done!

Yeah, add the thread man. It's cool. A bit on how I studied: Since I was only taking 13 credits, it wasn't impossible to manage my time, but definitely difficult while taking biochem and orgo. I would focus on my classes first, getting my work done for them and studying around 3 days before each of my exams. Other than that, I would constantly try to put time into DAT studying. I probably put in at least 3 hours a day on some days, to more than 6 on other when I had more free time. Taking orgo and biochem definitely helped since they're both applicable to the DAT, especially orgo. I think Destroyer helped me the most, as far as refreshing Gen Chem concepts and Math. I don't think Bio helped much, but, since I'm a Bio major, the section wasn't too bad. I'm definitely happy I did it this way. Orgo was fresh in my mind, leading to my 24 in that section , and I now have the whole summer to just work and chill. It feels really awesome to be done with it all!! Feel free to ask any other questions.

wow awesome scores! congrats! youre all set now...i was in a 7yr program but got booted my freshman year bc of GPA requirement lol but oh well i guess...

-so for math, all you used for QR section of Destroyer?
-how was the PAT compared to CDP - which sections seemed on par, easier, or harder than PAT?
-anything in GC or OC sections that wasnt covered in Destroyer?

Originally Posted by Member 8586

wow awesome scores! congrats! youre all set now...i was in a 7yr program but got booted my freshman year bc of GPA requirement lol but oh well i guess...

-so for math, all you used for QR section of Destroyer?
-how was the PAT compared to CDP - which sections seemed on par, easier, or harder than PAT?
-anything in GC or OC sections that wasnt covered in Destroyer?

thats too bad. I'm really glad I made it in (and am staying in) the 7 year program. It's saves times and the hassle of applying. Yes, for the math I just used DAT Destroyer. It wasn't very hard and, the biggest thing, was that the calculator was VERY helpful. Idk y so many people on here say not to use the calculator. It was very responsive and saved me a crapload of time on arithmetic. I think if u go through destroyer math a couple times and understand how to do most of the problems in it that youll be fine. The PAT was definetly different than CDP. Although CDP is good practice, it isn't very similar to the actual DAT. Keyholes were preety weird on the real DAT, hole punching was much easier than CDP, angles were kinda random, cubes really easy, and pattern folding much easier. Everything in GC and OC was preety much covered in Destroyer and I thought that was great practice. Bio was the most random, hardest to prepare for. I think you just have to have a solid bio background.

Originally Posted by JPevzner

thats too bad. I'm really glad I made it in (and am staying in) the 7 year program. It's saves times and the hassle of applying. Yes, for the math I just used DAT Destroyer. It wasn't very hard and, the biggest thing, was that the calculator was VERY helpful. Idk y so many people on here say not to use the calculator. It was very responsive and saved me a crapload of time on arithmetic. I think if u go through destroyer math a couple times and understand how to do most of the problems in it that youll be fine. The PAT was definetly different than CDP. Although CDP is good practice, it isn't very similar to the actual DAT. Keyholes were preety weird on the real DAT, hole punching was much easier than CDP, angles were kinda random, cubes really easy, and pattern folding much easier. Everything in GC and OC was preety much covered in Destroyer and I thought that was great practice. Bio was the most random, hardest to prepare for. I think you just have to have a solid bio background.

pattern folding was much easier...on CDP or DAT? TFE was about equivalent?

for OC - are there a lot of mechanisms questions? i basically have most reactions memorized and aren't too sure of many actual mechanisms and arrow movement etc - is this going to be a big problem?

as for QR - im pretty solid in the Destroyer QR section, but Math Destroyer makes me wanna pull my hair out! I keep thinking and hoping it's just overkill...I really hope it's more like Destroyer QR

Originally Posted by JPevzner

Yeah, add the thread man. It's cool. A bit on how I studied: Since I was only taking 13 credits, it wasn't impossible to manage my time, but definitely difficult while taking biochem and orgo. I would focus on my classes first, getting my work done for them and studying around 3 days before each of my exams. Other than that, I would constantly try to put time into DAT studying. I probably put in at least 3 hours a day on some days, to more than 6 on other when I had more free time. Taking orgo and biochem definitely helped since they're both applicable to the DAT, especially orgo. I think Destroyer helped me the most, as far as refreshing Gen Chem concepts and Math. I don't think Bio helped much, but, since I'm a Bio major, the section wasn't too bad. I'm definitely happy I did it this way. Orgo was fresh in my mind, leading to my 24 in that section , and I now have the whole summer to just work and chill. It feels really awesome to be done with it all!! Feel free to ask any other questions.

Thanks for elaborating, I'm sure a lot of other students will find this useful.

I feel your pain in studying for the DAT during the semester. My life between Jan 2012-March 2012 when I took my DAT was basically class, workout, DAT repeat haha

Congrats again on the great scores and enjoy the extra free time you will have now

Nicely done. Congratulations.

Very impressive scores . I took my DAT today and was pretty satisfied with my scores PAT-23, TS-19, AA-20. Science was always my weakest subject unfortunately so a 19 suffices for me.. I was actually a bit disappointed with my QR score of 21 because I know I made some dumb mental mistakes after I worked out some of the problems that gave me trouble afterwords. Once you hit that 20 mark its just a matter of a few more questions right to put you up in the mid-20s.

Originally Posted by Member 8586

pattern folding was much easier...on CDP or DAT? TFE was about equivalent?

for OC - are there a lot of mechanisms questions? i basically have most reactions memorized and aren't too sure of many actual mechanisms and arrow movement etc - is this going to be a big problem?

as for QR - im pretty solid in the Destroyer QR section, but Math Destroyer makes me wanna pull my hair out! I keep thinking and hoping it's just overkill...I really hope it's more like Destroyer QR

Pattern folding was MUCH easier on the REAL DAT!! CDP has too many cubes and such where you have to visualize the figure folded up and the patterns in relation to each other. On the actual DAT, at least 10 of the 15 pattern folding questions were simply a white cutout, where the answer choice was pretty obvious based on the lines of the flat cutout. I thought TFE was harder on the DAT. Towards the end of my studies, I was getting around 22 PAT on CDP, yet ended up getting only a 19 on the real thing. I wasn't the best at TFE for starters, but thought that the actual had some pretty weird ones. For OC, no mechanisms at all. Mostly just predicting products. Few NMR and theoretical sections. I thought this section was pretty straight forward. I didn't use Math Destroyer, just the regular for QR. I feel like if you understand the concepts in Destroyer that you'll be fine. I thought the calculator helped a lot. I also can't stress time management enough. If I didn't know how to approach a question within 5 seconds of reading it, I took my best guess, marked, and moved on. You have to get the most points you can!

Originally Posted by JPevzner

Pattern folding was MUCH easier on the REAL DAT!! CDP has too many cubes and such where you have to visualize the figure folded up and the patterns in relation to each other. On the actual DAT, at least 10 of the 15 pattern folding questions were simply a white cutout, where the answer choice was pretty obvious based on the lines of the flat cutout. I thought TFE was harder on the DAT. Towards the end of my studies, I was getting around 22 PAT on CDP, yet ended up getting only a 19 on the real thing. I wasn't the best at TFE for starters, but thought that the actual had some pretty weird ones. For OC, no mechanisms at all. Mostly just predicting products. Few NMR and theoretical sections. I thought this section was pretty straight forward. I didn't use Math Destroyer, just the regular for QR. I feel like if you understand the concepts in Destroyer that you'll be fine. I thought the calculator helped a lot. I also can't stress time management enough. If I didn't know how to approach a question within 5 seconds of reading it, I took my best guess, marked, and moved on. You have to get the most points you can!

OC - thats really a relief to hear, even though im hearing some people do get mechanisms, but it seems like it may not be many...i only know the products of most reactions so im really afraid of mechanisms....i also dont really understand WHY certain products are formed or WHY certain reagents do what, so basically i have the reactions memorized and its worrying me...i try to understand some of the stuff, but i just get all confused and disheartened

QR - yeah i have to work on time with the math...i usually give the word problems a shot bc some look long but are surprisingly quick and easy (might get a calculate what test score is needed for a 90 avg is Ann has a 90, 94, 91, 80 etc)..but then sometimes i read the word problems and get caught up in them bc im convinced i can figure them out lol i have to learn to save those for last

You earned yourself a very nice vacation with these scores. Congratulations.

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Was there any biochem on the DAT or just a little that people cover at the end of organic?

There was hardly and biochem explicitly, but there were some questions that asked about basic protein stuff, (folding etc.) and something about DNA replication. So pretty much no biochem.

I understand, thanks. So basically you do not need to take biochem for DAT, but if one did, it would not hurt. Am I correct?

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Thank you. Were there any glycolysis, hemoglobin and TCA cycle questions?

Like I said, biochem is not necessary but helpful nonetheless. There was definetly a hemoglobin question. Dont think there was any glycolysis or TCA cyclle questions.