I stalked these forums quite a bit once I started studying for the DAT and I found these reviews to be somewhat helpful/insightful. So here it goes:
Background: Currently have around 3.1 GPA at a very good US public university. I took everything but Biochem and Anatomy/Physiology before starting prep. Needed a good score to compensate for poor grades. Did all the studying for this in a four week period (winter break). Decently involved in extra curriculars.
Resources:
Princeton Review Book - which turned out to be from 2012 and not 2015 because the seller on Amazon can't read the edition on their book properly
Cliff's AP Bio
DAT Bootcamp
DAT Destroyer (2014)
This forum as a whole
Checked out a Kaplan Book (2010) from the library but only went to it for Orgo reactions or for alternative explanations.
Scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 26
RC: 21
BIO: 25
GC: 20
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 23
BIO: Came in worried about taxonomy just cause there is literally so much that they could ask about. There's some excel spreadsheet I found on this site somewhere that was helpful as a extra resource for taxonomy. The Princeton Review I had didn't go into enough detail... well the 2012 version didn't...
Most questions weren't as specific as I thought they would be. I finished the Destroyer like two days before the test with this section, definitely was a good tool to use for content review. Bootcamp was good as well.
GC: Kind of annoyed with this being my lowest. I got three or four questions I wasn't sure on. There were two questions that I had no earthly idea on and never heard anything about during my time in my undergrad - which includes five chemistry classes.
Most everything was straightforward. Honestly a good mix of calculations and content/theory questions. There weren't any suuuuper complicated problems, most were a one step calculation. Although, there was one problem where I had to manually multiple significant numbers (like two numbers in the hundreds) so that was a little odd.
Destroyer and Bootcamp were a good resource for this.
OC: Didn't study this that much cause I just finished the second half of orgo in school. Pretty straightforward stuff, there were a couple multi step reactions. DAT Destroyer was definitely a little much, but it was worth it. Wish there were more reaction questions...
PAT: The quality of images on the screen at Prometric when compared to DAT Bootcamp are a lot worse looking and not nearly in the resolution that is of Bootcamp. There was a one keyhole that I narrowed it down to two, but because the object was so poorly rendered I couldn't discern the part of the image that I needed in order to between the two choices I had remaining. Wasted a solid five minutes on this question initially before realizing that I couldn't be wasting time like that.
Other than that, I think the angles were a little better than normal - no methods really work for me I just kind of do whatever feels best for each problem. I took drafting in high school so TFE came naturally. Cube counting is cube counting, just a few less cubes than Bootcamp. Folding wasn't as hard as Bootcamp, but definitely still challenging.
As a whole I'd say DAT Bootcamp does a quality job of prepping for the sections of the PAT. The review book quizzes in Kaplan and Princeton were not indicative of the difficulty that is on the DAT; however, Bootcamp was either the same difficulty or a little more difficult.
RC: Literally did nothing to prepare for this aside from taking one quiz on Bootcamp, and the ones from the 09 and 07 DAT. I've done historically bad on the reading sections of past standardized exams, so I figured I would take the L on this section. So the 21 makes me very happy.
All my passages were immensely boring, thankfully most questions were just SnD. I basically just tried to read the passage up-tempo and then go back and SnD if I couldn't recall.
QR: Just did the tests on Bootcamp and then did the QR from the Destroyer as well as like the first ten tests of the Math Destroyer. The section was the easiest for me, the calculator on the computer could be controlled by the keyboard thankfully, so that helped out significantly. One question verbatim was from one of the Math Destroyer tests so I know I got one right. Overall, not really anything too difficult, curious as to what I missed honestly I did the section three times and only caught one mistake.....
Overall: I usually finished each Bootcamp quiz (that wasn't reading or PAT) with a good chunk of time remaining. So if you're taking these and are in the same position as me, as well as scoring decently well, you should be good for the DAT in terms of pacing. Overall I'd say it was a fair exam, save the PAT's poor rendering.
Closing thoughts: That moment when you hit end on the math section your heart-rate goes 0 to 100 real quick.
Hopefully this will help compensate for my low GPA.
The people at the Prometric center weren't that nice, seemed like they had an attitude with everyone...
If you guys need any questions I'll be happy to answer.
Sorry if this isn't much help. But if it is helpful, sweet.
Congratulations!! Amazing scores.
