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- Apr 16, 2014
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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What's up!
So I just finished my DAT this morning and just thought I would share my breakdown. I owe a lot of my success to the wonderful people on SDN. Shout-out to my homies @ktran17 ,@BrazilianRider ,@stomatology,@sjv and @distressstudent (Yes, I just did a shout-out). You guys helped me out tremendously and gave me more support and confidence. Anywho, here are my scores:
Scores:
AA: 22
TS: 22
OC: 22
GC: 26
BIO: 21
RC: 22
QR: 20
PAT: 21
Timeline:
I started studying in the earlier half of May and so I probably got in a good month of studying. I guesstimate that I studied on average 4-5 hours a day. These 4-5, however were SOLID study sessions with no messing around on youtube and what not. I personally cannot effectively study longer than 5 hours so I commend those of you who can. ONWARDS to the subjects and study materials.
Subjects and Materials Used:
BIO: Initially I read over Cliff's AP Biology and re-read over sections I was weak in. I made some cuecards but ended up only using them twice...I probably learned more from making them than actually using them haha. I learn better by practice (compared to reading) and so I used Bootcamp and all 10 QVAULT Biology tests for this. To be quite honest, the two resources were good in the sense that they helped me approach the questions in the right way, however, I feel that biology is too random and covers so much material that my knowledge improved only slightly. I did maybe ~100 questions from DAT Destroyer but didn't end up finishing it.
Bootcamp scores: 21/18/21/17/20 (re-take of the 4th test was a 27)
QVault scores: 20/21/19/18/19/22/18/18/19/18
CHEM: I am going to put organic and general chemistry under the same section, as I studied the same for both of them. I first used Chad's videos which were an amazing resource, as he simplifies everything and makes it easy to remember. I then did his quizzes which, I have to admit, were not that helpful as they more tested your knowledge of small things in his videos. I then moved on to do DAT Destroyer and did about ~250 questions from each section. DAT Destroyer is really good for general chemistry, however, I found it only somewhat useful for organic chemistry (Chad's was sufficient for Ochem). After getting slaughtered by DAT Destroyer, I moved onto Bootcamp tests. Bootcamp tests were EXTREMELY useful for these two sections!! I highly recommend Bootcamp.
Bootcamp GCHEM scores: 18/19/24/19/19 (re-take of 1st test was a 27)
Bootcamp OCHEM scores: 18/17/21/22/20 (re-take of 2nd test was a 26)
RC: Didn't study.
QR: I currently tutor grade 10 math, so I was already exposed to a lot of the material. I probably studied 3 days for this section and did 5 tests from Math Destroyer. I spent most of the time memorizing formulae and conversions.
PAT: Didn't really study that much either. I did 3 Bootcamp tests and was satisfied with my scores.
Bootcamp scores: 18/19/19
TEST DAY!
My test was at 8:30AM and I woke up at 6:00AM. I was pretty damn nervous and shuffled through some of my notes to find answers to questions I had while thinking in my bed the night before. Eventually I was like "**ck it, stop being such a worry-wart and just go in confident". Thus I left my notes at home and arrived at the test center at around 7:50AM. They let me take my exam right away and so I started at around 8:00AM. During the test, I used earplugs, however, my test center had huge noise cancelling headphone things (not sure what they are called).
First off was biology. Holy **** it was random. I honestly felt like I was getting obliterated the whole time and was praying for even a 17. I got a lot of lab questions and just really random application questions. I feel like biology majors (which I am not) would have a huge edge here...
Second was general chemistry and organic chemistry. Super easy. I was only unsure of one or two questions and I am guessing I got them wrong. General chemistry was MUCH easier than Bootcamp and Destroyer. Organic chemistry was pretty straight forward, minus a few strange questions that were worded weirdly. Again, Bootcamp and Destroyer were much harder. I finished the natural sciences with 20 minutes left.
For perceptual ability, my order of attack was angles -> cube counting -> pattern-folding -> keyhole and finally TFE. Pretty straight forward, no real surprises except angles were hard as hell to compare. ***MY ******** COMPUTER CRASHED NEAR THE END*** It took tech support about 5-10 minutes to get my computer running again, as I sat there like a nervous wreck. Despite this, I finished with about 5 minutes.
For reading comprehension, I am a little surprised by my mark. I thought I found almost every answer, however, there were a few tone type questions. My method was S&D for this section. I finished with about 10 minutes.
Lastly was quantitative reasoning. Most of the questions were really basic algebra or plug-into-the-calculator questions. I skipped the long word questions for last. Thanks @ktran17 for giving me huge advice on this section. The advice boils down to: skip hard questions, know your conversions and don't be afraid to use the calculator. Time is a huge limiting factor for people who don't know how to approach this section properly. I finished with about 5 minutes to spare.
Again, I would love to thank all of SDN for helping me out with this exam! It means a lot and I hope I see some of you in dental school (whenever I get in)!
So I just finished my DAT this morning and just thought I would share my breakdown. I owe a lot of my success to the wonderful people on SDN. Shout-out to my homies @ktran17 ,@BrazilianRider ,@stomatology,@sjv and @distressstudent (Yes, I just did a shout-out). You guys helped me out tremendously and gave me more support and confidence. Anywho, here are my scores:
Scores:
AA: 22
TS: 22
OC: 22
GC: 26
BIO: 21
RC: 22
QR: 20
PAT: 21
Timeline:
I started studying in the earlier half of May and so I probably got in a good month of studying. I guesstimate that I studied on average 4-5 hours a day. These 4-5, however were SOLID study sessions with no messing around on youtube and what not. I personally cannot effectively study longer than 5 hours so I commend those of you who can. ONWARDS to the subjects and study materials.
Subjects and Materials Used:
BIO: Initially I read over Cliff's AP Biology and re-read over sections I was weak in. I made some cuecards but ended up only using them twice...I probably learned more from making them than actually using them haha. I learn better by practice (compared to reading) and so I used Bootcamp and all 10 QVAULT Biology tests for this. To be quite honest, the two resources were good in the sense that they helped me approach the questions in the right way, however, I feel that biology is too random and covers so much material that my knowledge improved only slightly. I did maybe ~100 questions from DAT Destroyer but didn't end up finishing it.
Bootcamp scores: 21/18/21/17/20 (re-take of the 4th test was a 27)
QVault scores: 20/21/19/18/19/22/18/18/19/18
CHEM: I am going to put organic and general chemistry under the same section, as I studied the same for both of them. I first used Chad's videos which were an amazing resource, as he simplifies everything and makes it easy to remember. I then did his quizzes which, I have to admit, were not that helpful as they more tested your knowledge of small things in his videos. I then moved on to do DAT Destroyer and did about ~250 questions from each section. DAT Destroyer is really good for general chemistry, however, I found it only somewhat useful for organic chemistry (Chad's was sufficient for Ochem). After getting slaughtered by DAT Destroyer, I moved onto Bootcamp tests. Bootcamp tests were EXTREMELY useful for these two sections!! I highly recommend Bootcamp.
Bootcamp GCHEM scores: 18/19/24/19/19 (re-take of 1st test was a 27)
Bootcamp OCHEM scores: 18/17/21/22/20 (re-take of 2nd test was a 26)
RC: Didn't study.
QR: I currently tutor grade 10 math, so I was already exposed to a lot of the material. I probably studied 3 days for this section and did 5 tests from Math Destroyer. I spent most of the time memorizing formulae and conversions.
PAT: Didn't really study that much either. I did 3 Bootcamp tests and was satisfied with my scores.
Bootcamp scores: 18/19/19
TEST DAY!
My test was at 8:30AM and I woke up at 6:00AM. I was pretty damn nervous and shuffled through some of my notes to find answers to questions I had while thinking in my bed the night before. Eventually I was like "**ck it, stop being such a worry-wart and just go in confident". Thus I left my notes at home and arrived at the test center at around 7:50AM. They let me take my exam right away and so I started at around 8:00AM. During the test, I used earplugs, however, my test center had huge noise cancelling headphone things (not sure what they are called).
First off was biology. Holy **** it was random. I honestly felt like I was getting obliterated the whole time and was praying for even a 17. I got a lot of lab questions and just really random application questions. I feel like biology majors (which I am not) would have a huge edge here...
Second was general chemistry and organic chemistry. Super easy. I was only unsure of one or two questions and I am guessing I got them wrong. General chemistry was MUCH easier than Bootcamp and Destroyer. Organic chemistry was pretty straight forward, minus a few strange questions that were worded weirdly. Again, Bootcamp and Destroyer were much harder. I finished the natural sciences with 20 minutes left.
For perceptual ability, my order of attack was angles -> cube counting -> pattern-folding -> keyhole and finally TFE. Pretty straight forward, no real surprises except angles were hard as hell to compare. ***MY ******** COMPUTER CRASHED NEAR THE END*** It took tech support about 5-10 minutes to get my computer running again, as I sat there like a nervous wreck. Despite this, I finished with about 5 minutes.
For reading comprehension, I am a little surprised by my mark. I thought I found almost every answer, however, there were a few tone type questions. My method was S&D for this section. I finished with about 10 minutes.
Lastly was quantitative reasoning. Most of the questions were really basic algebra or plug-into-the-calculator questions. I skipped the long word questions for last. Thanks @ktran17 for giving me huge advice on this section. The advice boils down to: skip hard questions, know your conversions and don't be afraid to use the calculator. Time is a huge limiting factor for people who don't know how to approach this section properly. I finished with about 5 minutes to spare.
Again, I would love to thank all of SDN for helping me out with this exam! It means a lot and I hope I see some of you in dental school (whenever I get in)!
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