I don't do much posting on sdn, but I've looked through a lot of these breakdowns, which helped me a lot when studying. First of all, my biggest word of advice is not to underestimate yourself early on because you can improve A LOT from beginning to end of studying as long as you put in some time! I spent about 2 months studying, 4-6 hours at first and increasing up to sometimes even 12 hours a day (though that I do not recommend...)
My scores were:
PAT 24
QR 30
RC 26
BIO 24
GCHEM 28
OCHEM 29
TS 26
AA 27
PAT: 24
The most helpful thing for this was most definitely DAT bootcamp. Do not be fooled by other practice tests: the DAT is close to the difficulty of bootcamp, especially with keyholes, which are my biggest weakness. Also, I'm not sure whether Crack the PAT used to be a good resource or not, but it was way too easy in my experience and not worth the money.
Bootcamp: 23/25/23/22/23/21/23/21/22/23
CDP: 23/23/22
QR: 30
I'm relatively good at math on my own, so I mostly looked through the equations provided in Kaplan and Math destroyer and took 5 of the math destroyer tests. Math destroyer is very representative of the actual test. DAT bootcamp is also really good for preparing you for this section because bootcamp is more difficult and thus helps you practice timing. I ended up finishing my actual QR section with 10 minutes to spare.
Bootcamp: 26/23/24/23/22
Destroyer: 24/25/29/29/30
RC: 26
In my opinion, there is no real way to practice for this. However, I found that a method that worked for me was writing down key words from each paragraph so that I could quickly locate the answer to a question. Bootcamp was pretty helpful on this because it helped on timing (again) because many of the questions required you to locate 2 different facts from the passage with the statement/reason questions.
Bootcamp: 23/22/25/26/22
BIO: 24
Not much I can say for this one other than you really do have to put in a lot of time to remember all these facts. I used Kaplan blue book as my basis (read twice), then built on it with the Princeton Review DAT/OAT Hyperlearning Biological Sciences book (the one only given to students in the class) which I was so lucky to borrow from a friend (also read twice). I LOVED the princeton review book because it gave me all the information I needed to know and more, so that I could really understand the concepts. I also read through cliff notes AP biology (once), but liked the princeton review book much more. I built a study guide (much like Feralis's) from what I didn't know that well in the two books and studied that for the last week. Bootcamp questions are pretty representative of the types of things you need to know and will accurately assess your knowledge, but I would recommend taking bootcamp after you do the bulk of your studying for it to be especially useful. I also did all the destroyer questions twice and felt that there was a lot of knowledge to be gained there as well.
Bootcamp: 23/30/26/26/25
GCHEM: 28
I only used Kaplan blue book to study for gchem because I had just finished general chemistry 2 and felt that it was pretty fresh on my mind. I also did all the destroyer questions twice, which helped me with applying to formulas I was still hazy on. I ended up buying Chad's quizzes with 3 days left in my studying and did them all, but didn't find them all that useful. Destroyer was much more helpful, in my opinion. Bootcamp was really helpful and slightly more difficult.
Bootcamp: 23/23/24/24/22
OCHEM: 29
Basically the exact same as biology: kaplan, princeton review, destroyer, bootcamp.
Bootcamp: 27/21/22/29/26
2007 DAT: 22/26/21/22/28/30/27/25
2009 DAT: 25/22/20/26/25/28/27/24
Achiever 1: 18/20/18/17/21/19/19/19
Achiever 2: 21/21/20/17/17/18/18/19
Kaplan Blue Book: 23/26/24/19/19/28/21/23
All in all, I would say that my favorite study resource was the princeton review hyperlearning biological sciences book and DAT bootcamp. I only bought DAT bootcamp 1 week before my test, but I did every single practice test it had to offer and thought it was EXTREMELY representative of the actual DAT.
Furthermore, I would recommend NOT buying Achiever, which I only did 2 tests from then quit, and crack the DAT science or PAT. Crack the DAT science quizzes on facts absolutely unnecessary to know for the DAT, and CDP is just too easy.
A big thanks to everyone on sdn with helping me out on any questions I had about the process!
My scores were:
PAT 24
QR 30
RC 26
BIO 24
GCHEM 28
OCHEM 29
TS 26
AA 27
PAT: 24
The most helpful thing for this was most definitely DAT bootcamp. Do not be fooled by other practice tests: the DAT is close to the difficulty of bootcamp, especially with keyholes, which are my biggest weakness. Also, I'm not sure whether Crack the PAT used to be a good resource or not, but it was way too easy in my experience and not worth the money.
Bootcamp: 23/25/23/22/23/21/23/21/22/23
CDP: 23/23/22
QR: 30
I'm relatively good at math on my own, so I mostly looked through the equations provided in Kaplan and Math destroyer and took 5 of the math destroyer tests. Math destroyer is very representative of the actual test. DAT bootcamp is also really good for preparing you for this section because bootcamp is more difficult and thus helps you practice timing. I ended up finishing my actual QR section with 10 minutes to spare.
Bootcamp: 26/23/24/23/22
Destroyer: 24/25/29/29/30
RC: 26
In my opinion, there is no real way to practice for this. However, I found that a method that worked for me was writing down key words from each paragraph so that I could quickly locate the answer to a question. Bootcamp was pretty helpful on this because it helped on timing (again) because many of the questions required you to locate 2 different facts from the passage with the statement/reason questions.
Bootcamp: 23/22/25/26/22
BIO: 24
Not much I can say for this one other than you really do have to put in a lot of time to remember all these facts. I used Kaplan blue book as my basis (read twice), then built on it with the Princeton Review DAT/OAT Hyperlearning Biological Sciences book (the one only given to students in the class) which I was so lucky to borrow from a friend (also read twice). I LOVED the princeton review book because it gave me all the information I needed to know and more, so that I could really understand the concepts. I also read through cliff notes AP biology (once), but liked the princeton review book much more. I built a study guide (much like Feralis's) from what I didn't know that well in the two books and studied that for the last week. Bootcamp questions are pretty representative of the types of things you need to know and will accurately assess your knowledge, but I would recommend taking bootcamp after you do the bulk of your studying for it to be especially useful. I also did all the destroyer questions twice and felt that there was a lot of knowledge to be gained there as well.
Bootcamp: 23/30/26/26/25
GCHEM: 28
I only used Kaplan blue book to study for gchem because I had just finished general chemistry 2 and felt that it was pretty fresh on my mind. I also did all the destroyer questions twice, which helped me with applying to formulas I was still hazy on. I ended up buying Chad's quizzes with 3 days left in my studying and did them all, but didn't find them all that useful. Destroyer was much more helpful, in my opinion. Bootcamp was really helpful and slightly more difficult.
Bootcamp: 23/23/24/24/22
OCHEM: 29
Basically the exact same as biology: kaplan, princeton review, destroyer, bootcamp.
Bootcamp: 27/21/22/29/26
2007 DAT: 22/26/21/22/28/30/27/25
2009 DAT: 25/22/20/26/25/28/27/24
Achiever 1: 18/20/18/17/21/19/19/19
Achiever 2: 21/21/20/17/17/18/18/19
Kaplan Blue Book: 23/26/24/19/19/28/21/23
All in all, I would say that my favorite study resource was the princeton review hyperlearning biological sciences book and DAT bootcamp. I only bought DAT bootcamp 1 week before my test, but I did every single practice test it had to offer and thought it was EXTREMELY representative of the actual DAT.
Furthermore, I would recommend NOT buying Achiever, which I only did 2 tests from then quit, and crack the DAT science or PAT. Crack the DAT science quizzes on facts absolutely unnecessary to know for the DAT, and CDP is just too easy.
A big thanks to everyone on sdn with helping me out on any questions I had about the process!