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- Jan 24, 2016
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- Reaction score
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Hello!
I've been a lurker on this site for the couple of months that I spent studying and found these breakdowns helpful. My section scores were:
PA: 25
QR: 17
RC: 22
BIO: 22
GC: 21
OC: 23
TS: 22
AA: 21
GPA: 3.7
sGPA: 3.7
I "started" studying for the DAT in September of 2015. I only was doing basic review of General Chemistry and Biology at that point out. Maybe putting in like an hour a day. Towards December I started putting in closer to 3 hours in a day. By the end of December (when my school semester ended) until yesterday I went hard putting in 8-10 hours days. I will just do a basic outline of what I used for each section and how the DAT compared.
Biology - Cliff's AP Bio/Feralis, DAT Bootcamp, Destroyer
First of all, the most important way to do well on the biology section of the DAT is to focus more on "big picture" knowledge rather than detailed oriented knowledge. This is why I think the optimal way to utilize the study materials should be:
1. Cliff's AP Bio - I made notecards for every chapter. Literally, I made over 2000 Anki notecards in total. This was incredibly important for me to do because I found rewriting the material aided my memorization greatly and if you design notecards correctly you can understand anything.
2. Feralis - A more detailed version of Cliffs. Go through this after you've done some studying of cliffs. I made a separate anki deck for each chapter from Cliff's so when I was going through Feralis's notes I could simply add in facts/details that I did not know.
3. Destroyer - Good for gauging your knowledge. Harder than the real DAT. Use after you've done some decent studying of both Feralis and Cliff's. If you have time it may be worth it to memorize some of the answers to the more detailed questions. If you are running out of time just try to get through the questions so you can get some good practice on "test-style" questions.
4. Bootcamp - Very very very very similar to the DAT. I was scoring 22-23 on Bootcamp's Bio and that score was reflected on my DAT. Optimally you should begin to use this resource about 1 or 1.5 months away from your DAT.
Like I said, my DAT was very similar to Bootcamp's question style. I ran into a few questions that required merely fact-based knowledge. I would say there were probably 5 of those total. The rest were very straightforward.
General Chemistry: Chad's Videos, Bootcamp
General Chemistry was my strongest section in practice, but my worst science section on the DAT. For the life of me I can't actually remember what questions I struggled with. The whole test was just a blur. Chad's video's and quizzes are all you need to know to score 20+ on this section. Use Bootcamp to test where you are weak. Again, Bootcamp was very representative of the actual exam. If you have a lot of extra time, go through destroyer. It is harder than the real thing but can provide some good insights, much like the biology section.
Organic Chemistry: Chad's Videos, Bootcamp
Ironically, this was my worst section in practice but my highest science section on the actual DAT. I think I may have gotten a couple of lucky guesses. Again, Chad's videos and quizzes will get you that 20+ score. I printed out the reaction list that he provides on his website and made notecards for every reaction on there (I like notecards, okay???). Test yourself with bootcamp. Bootcamp's exams were similar to the real thing. I would say Destroyer was almost too hard to compare to the real DAT. It may cause you more stress by going through it. My only tip would be to practice lab techniques, because I had at least 6 questions having to deal with them. Another strange thing, but make sure you are capable of figuring out reactions when the molecules are written like this: CH3CH2OHCH2CH2OH. At my university they never wrote in that way so it took me some time to get used to.
Reading Comprehension: Bootcamp
Honestly, just do one or two practice tests on Bootcamp to see what the format is like. My DAT had 95% Search and Destroy questions. I finished with 10 minutes to spare, which gave me time to write out some trig identites on my scratch papers (they didn't help much, if you notice my score
).
Quantitative Reasoning: Chad, Destroyer, Math Destroyer/Bootcamp
This section was easily the hardest (easily the hardest?....) on my exam. The questions themselves were, for the most part, very similar to things you see in the Destroyer books. I think I just got unlucky with a a lot of questions that required time consuming setups to solve. I had to guess completely on at least 10 questions. I'm actually a little surprised I ended up with a 17. I think the optimal way to study for this would be the following:
1. Chad's Videos - Not sufficient by themselves for the DAT but give a good foundation.
2. Destroyer - These questions are the most representative of the DAT's questions. Really work on timing when solving them and try to pick up little tricks to allow yourself to solve certain questions faster. I wish I would have put more practice into my timing.
3. Math Destroyer/Bootcamp: Both of these sources are harder than the DAT but essential if you are aiming for the 20+. I think you should probably try to get through math destroyer at least once, just don't let it destroy your spirits because it is much harder than the real thing.
*Last note: Don't underestimate this section. It's just as hard as the science sections in my opinion. I didn't put sufficient time into the material and my score shows that.*
Perceptual Ability: Bootcamp
Let me first start off by saying that PAT always came somewhat naturally to me. Pretty much you just have to practice these with the generators and take the tests timed. It's really important to get the timing down on this section.
1. Keyhole - The keyholes on the real DAT are very similar to Bootcamp's. Maybe slightly easier. These just take practice. I didn't get any "rocks" but I think they are being incorporated into the DAT now so hopefully bootcamp will include those in the future.
2. TFE: Bootcamp's are essentially spot on in terms of difficulty. My advice is to really use the visualizer that Bootcamp provides. This section is a cakewalk if you can visualize the objects in your head.
3. Angles - Similar to bootcamp. I used the needle trick. Essentially you ask yourself "which angle would form the sharper needle?" The sharper the needle the smaller the angle. Honestly I was getting close to 100% on bootcamp's generator with this strategy.
4. Hole Punch: Slightly harder than bootcamp. I had some with really large and small holes (phrasing?). I was caught a little off guard with these but I used the grid method and it seemed to work okay.
5. Cube Counting - Easier than Bootcamp (less cubes). Just make a table for each question and you should be golden.
6. Pattern Folding: My least favorite section and probably where the 5 points came off from. My experience was that it was about same difficulty as bootcamp. There were some incredibly detailed objects on there that were shaded so intricately that they would have been near impossible to figure out in the given time limit.
I've been a lurker on this site for the couple of months that I spent studying and found these breakdowns helpful. My section scores were:
PA: 25
QR: 17
RC: 22
BIO: 22
GC: 21
OC: 23
TS: 22
AA: 21
GPA: 3.7
sGPA: 3.7
I "started" studying for the DAT in September of 2015. I only was doing basic review of General Chemistry and Biology at that point out. Maybe putting in like an hour a day. Towards December I started putting in closer to 3 hours in a day. By the end of December (when my school semester ended) until yesterday I went hard putting in 8-10 hours days. I will just do a basic outline of what I used for each section and how the DAT compared.
Biology - Cliff's AP Bio/Feralis, DAT Bootcamp, Destroyer
First of all, the most important way to do well on the biology section of the DAT is to focus more on "big picture" knowledge rather than detailed oriented knowledge. This is why I think the optimal way to utilize the study materials should be:
1. Cliff's AP Bio - I made notecards for every chapter. Literally, I made over 2000 Anki notecards in total. This was incredibly important for me to do because I found rewriting the material aided my memorization greatly and if you design notecards correctly you can understand anything.
2. Feralis - A more detailed version of Cliffs. Go through this after you've done some studying of cliffs. I made a separate anki deck for each chapter from Cliff's so when I was going through Feralis's notes I could simply add in facts/details that I did not know.
3. Destroyer - Good for gauging your knowledge. Harder than the real DAT. Use after you've done some decent studying of both Feralis and Cliff's. If you have time it may be worth it to memorize some of the answers to the more detailed questions. If you are running out of time just try to get through the questions so you can get some good practice on "test-style" questions.
4. Bootcamp - Very very very very similar to the DAT. I was scoring 22-23 on Bootcamp's Bio and that score was reflected on my DAT. Optimally you should begin to use this resource about 1 or 1.5 months away from your DAT.
Like I said, my DAT was very similar to Bootcamp's question style. I ran into a few questions that required merely fact-based knowledge. I would say there were probably 5 of those total. The rest were very straightforward.
General Chemistry: Chad's Videos, Bootcamp
General Chemistry was my strongest section in practice, but my worst science section on the DAT. For the life of me I can't actually remember what questions I struggled with. The whole test was just a blur. Chad's video's and quizzes are all you need to know to score 20+ on this section. Use Bootcamp to test where you are weak. Again, Bootcamp was very representative of the actual exam. If you have a lot of extra time, go through destroyer. It is harder than the real thing but can provide some good insights, much like the biology section.
Organic Chemistry: Chad's Videos, Bootcamp
Ironically, this was my worst section in practice but my highest science section on the actual DAT. I think I may have gotten a couple of lucky guesses. Again, Chad's videos and quizzes will get you that 20+ score. I printed out the reaction list that he provides on his website and made notecards for every reaction on there (I like notecards, okay???). Test yourself with bootcamp. Bootcamp's exams were similar to the real thing. I would say Destroyer was almost too hard to compare to the real DAT. It may cause you more stress by going through it. My only tip would be to practice lab techniques, because I had at least 6 questions having to deal with them. Another strange thing, but make sure you are capable of figuring out reactions when the molecules are written like this: CH3CH2OHCH2CH2OH. At my university they never wrote in that way so it took me some time to get used to.
Reading Comprehension: Bootcamp
Honestly, just do one or two practice tests on Bootcamp to see what the format is like. My DAT had 95% Search and Destroy questions. I finished with 10 minutes to spare, which gave me time to write out some trig identites on my scratch papers (they didn't help much, if you notice my score
).Quantitative Reasoning: Chad, Destroyer, Math Destroyer/Bootcamp
This section was easily the hardest (easily the hardest?....) on my exam. The questions themselves were, for the most part, very similar to things you see in the Destroyer books. I think I just got unlucky with a a lot of questions that required time consuming setups to solve. I had to guess completely on at least 10 questions. I'm actually a little surprised I ended up with a 17. I think the optimal way to study for this would be the following:
1. Chad's Videos - Not sufficient by themselves for the DAT but give a good foundation.
2. Destroyer - These questions are the most representative of the DAT's questions. Really work on timing when solving them and try to pick up little tricks to allow yourself to solve certain questions faster. I wish I would have put more practice into my timing.
3. Math Destroyer/Bootcamp: Both of these sources are harder than the DAT but essential if you are aiming for the 20+. I think you should probably try to get through math destroyer at least once, just don't let it destroy your spirits because it is much harder than the real thing.
*Last note: Don't underestimate this section. It's just as hard as the science sections in my opinion. I didn't put sufficient time into the material and my score shows that.*
Perceptual Ability: Bootcamp
Let me first start off by saying that PAT always came somewhat naturally to me. Pretty much you just have to practice these with the generators and take the tests timed. It's really important to get the timing down on this section.
1. Keyhole - The keyholes on the real DAT are very similar to Bootcamp's. Maybe slightly easier. These just take practice. I didn't get any "rocks" but I think they are being incorporated into the DAT now so hopefully bootcamp will include those in the future.
2. TFE: Bootcamp's are essentially spot on in terms of difficulty. My advice is to really use the visualizer that Bootcamp provides. This section is a cakewalk if you can visualize the objects in your head.
3. Angles - Similar to bootcamp. I used the needle trick. Essentially you ask yourself "which angle would form the sharper needle?" The sharper the needle the smaller the angle. Honestly I was getting close to 100% on bootcamp's generator with this strategy.
4. Hole Punch: Slightly harder than bootcamp. I had some with really large and small holes (phrasing?). I was caught a little off guard with these but I used the grid method and it seemed to work okay.
5. Cube Counting - Easier than Bootcamp (less cubes). Just make a table for each question and you should be golden.
6. Pattern Folding: My least favorite section and probably where the 5 points came off from. My experience was that it was about same difficulty as bootcamp. There were some incredibly detailed objects on there that were shaded so intricately that they would have been near impossible to figure out in the given time limit.
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