- Joined
- Sep 18, 2012
- Messages
- 179
- Reaction score
- 200
INTRO
First thing's first, my scores are not as high as many of the breakdowns here on SDN, but I would like to share my experience with all of the forum members here as you guys have done for me! I am very happy with my scores and I can't believe that I am done with my DAT!
SCORES
Perceptual Ability: 23
Quantitative Reasoning: 20
Reading Comprehension: 18
Biology: 22
General Chemistry: 21
Organic Chemistry: 20
Total Science: 21
Academic Average: 20
STUDY TIME
6/16/14~9/15/14
I started studying the week following the end of Spring quarter. I started out following dentalWorks study schedule, and followed it very strictly for a week. After that week, I realized that when I read the KBB and Cliffs fast for the first time, and second time take notes, it was the same to me as if I just took notes on the first time. It took up a lot of my time and I didn't benefit as much as I felt like I should, so I immediately stopped doing the schedule's method of reading twice. I read once and took notes instead. Whenever a topic was extremely new and I didn't understand, I would watch a YouTube video. I'm a very visual learner and when I watch videos I can remember material a lot better. Special shoutout to Khanacademy, Craig Savage, and Bozeman Science. After I finished watching Chad's videos and doing quizzes according to dentalWorks' schedule, I started doing DAT Destroyer. DAT Destroyer was overkill (but in a good way). I then started to do DAT Destroyer, which took me around 2 weeks, because I did it at different pace than the schedule. I believe that the most important part of studying is recognizing your own needs and not to always follow the schedule letter by letter. The second time I went through DAT Destroyer, it only took me a week. During this second round of DAT Destroyer, I followed Ahri's schedule more. This is also when I started to do Bootcamp. As the test got closer, I took the 2007 exam, and then the 2009 3 days before. As my studying started getting closer to exam date, at times I felt three months felt too long to be studying for it. But then, I take more time in studying, and the initial preparatory period was beneficial to my biology, organic chem, and chemistry review.
STUDY MATERIALS
Chad's Videos: GOOOLDEN. The way he teaches is very very close to how the DAT is supposed be like. In his videos, when a topic starts to become complicated, he reassures us that it is too complicated and will be out of scope for the DAT, and he is right. Chad is very good in explaining both GC and OC in a way that a huge majority of pre-health students can understand, even if they're super smart. Chad helps you remember topics easier, and helps you do it even faster.
KBB 8th Edition: I stopped using it several weeks into studying. Kaplan was way too simple and did not provide enough information. However, Kaplan covers fetal circulatory system and the auditory anatomy, which is done pretty well. It's simple though, only two pages for each. I would recommend to not buy KBB and save your $40.
Cliffnotes 3rd Edition: I first bought the 4th Edition, and realized a few weeks into reading that the 3rd edition is the correct one to buy. Cliffnotes 4th Edition is missing much of the plants chapter, and completely misses the biological diversity portion, which is constantly tested portion on the DAT. Cliffnotes was very detailed but not TOO detailed that it gives you excess information that you don't need on the DAT.
Barron's AP Biology 3rd Edition: For visual learners, this book is a very good addition to your studies. The way this book is set up, the topics are covered on a more easily understandable scale than Cliffnotes. Cliffnotes is essential in understanding the ENTIRE topic.
Orgoman DAT Destroyer 2014: ESSENTIAL. If there is one book you must buy and nothing else, it has to be this one. I take that back. At least DAT Destroyer AND Cliff's. When I first started doing DAT Destroyer, i got 50-60% right. These problems were very different than I have seen before and I had trouble figuring out where to start, especially on the Chemistry section, which is my weakest science subject. GC is a lot easier on the DAT. The OC section of the DAT Destroyer was very helpful and almost parallels what is on the DAT. All in all, DAT Destroyer helps you focus on where you keep slowing down, and where you keep getting topics wrong. But remember, it's the most important thing (stressed by many of the members on SDN), that when you get something wrong, you must look at your notes, look at youtube videos, and try to solve it without looking at the solutions. When the exam date got closer, I took out a new notebook and re-did the problems that I constantly kept getting wrong.
Orgoman MATH Destroyer 2014: The bank of questions in this book are very similar to what you will see on the actual exam. MATH Destroyer helped teach me how to do the very hard application questions (which are not too bad, but when under pressure, everything seems extremely hard).
DAT Bootcamp: I love this product, and I love the personal touch Ari gives to each and every one of his students. I don't even want to say customers, because I don't feel like that. I felt like Ari cares a lot about pre-dental students, and he wants us to succeed. Besides the customer service, I can say that DAT Bootcamp helped me achieve my score the most out of all the DAT prep materials I bought.
Feralis Notes: This is a very comprehensive resource of all the biology that is possibly tested on the DAT. The way i used this was printing out all the notes on paper, then putting them in a binder, with ruled paper in between each Feralis' notes page. I took notes on the topics that I believed were to be the highest yield and also the topics which were hardest to me.
Crack the DAT PAT: Many people on SDN say that it's easier than Bootcamp and they are right. It's easier than Bootcamp, and it is close to the difficulty you will see on the actual test. It is expensive though, but what you are paying for is the ability to use it any time you want and keep it forever. I think this can be helpful when you want to dip your feet in the waters of PAT.
THE REAL TEST
REGRETS:
None really, I tried my hardest and that is all that matters to me. I went out of that test knowing that my summer was well spent and the work I put in was of my own mind and body.
First thing's first, my scores are not as high as many of the breakdowns here on SDN, but I would like to share my experience with all of the forum members here as you guys have done for me! I am very happy with my scores and I can't believe that I am done with my DAT!
SCORES
Perceptual Ability: 23
Quantitative Reasoning: 20
Reading Comprehension: 18
Biology: 22
General Chemistry: 21
Organic Chemistry: 20
Total Science: 21
Academic Average: 20
STUDY TIME
6/16/14~9/15/14
I started studying the week following the end of Spring quarter. I started out following dentalWorks study schedule, and followed it very strictly for a week. After that week, I realized that when I read the KBB and Cliffs fast for the first time, and second time take notes, it was the same to me as if I just took notes on the first time. It took up a lot of my time and I didn't benefit as much as I felt like I should, so I immediately stopped doing the schedule's method of reading twice. I read once and took notes instead. Whenever a topic was extremely new and I didn't understand, I would watch a YouTube video. I'm a very visual learner and when I watch videos I can remember material a lot better. Special shoutout to Khanacademy, Craig Savage, and Bozeman Science. After I finished watching Chad's videos and doing quizzes according to dentalWorks' schedule, I started doing DAT Destroyer. DAT Destroyer was overkill (but in a good way). I then started to do DAT Destroyer, which took me around 2 weeks, because I did it at different pace than the schedule. I believe that the most important part of studying is recognizing your own needs and not to always follow the schedule letter by letter. The second time I went through DAT Destroyer, it only took me a week. During this second round of DAT Destroyer, I followed Ahri's schedule more. This is also when I started to do Bootcamp. As the test got closer, I took the 2007 exam, and then the 2009 3 days before. As my studying started getting closer to exam date, at times I felt three months felt too long to be studying for it. But then, I take more time in studying, and the initial preparatory period was beneficial to my biology, organic chem, and chemistry review.
STUDY MATERIALS
Chad's Videos: GOOOLDEN. The way he teaches is very very close to how the DAT is supposed be like. In his videos, when a topic starts to become complicated, he reassures us that it is too complicated and will be out of scope for the DAT, and he is right. Chad is very good in explaining both GC and OC in a way that a huge majority of pre-health students can understand, even if they're super smart. Chad helps you remember topics easier, and helps you do it even faster.
KBB 8th Edition: I stopped using it several weeks into studying. Kaplan was way too simple and did not provide enough information. However, Kaplan covers fetal circulatory system and the auditory anatomy, which is done pretty well. It's simple though, only two pages for each. I would recommend to not buy KBB and save your $40.
Cliffnotes 3rd Edition: I first bought the 4th Edition, and realized a few weeks into reading that the 3rd edition is the correct one to buy. Cliffnotes 4th Edition is missing much of the plants chapter, and completely misses the biological diversity portion, which is constantly tested portion on the DAT. Cliffnotes was very detailed but not TOO detailed that it gives you excess information that you don't need on the DAT.
Barron's AP Biology 3rd Edition: For visual learners, this book is a very good addition to your studies. The way this book is set up, the topics are covered on a more easily understandable scale than Cliffnotes. Cliffnotes is essential in understanding the ENTIRE topic.
Orgoman DAT Destroyer 2014: ESSENTIAL. If there is one book you must buy and nothing else, it has to be this one. I take that back. At least DAT Destroyer AND Cliff's. When I first started doing DAT Destroyer, i got 50-60% right. These problems were very different than I have seen before and I had trouble figuring out where to start, especially on the Chemistry section, which is my weakest science subject. GC is a lot easier on the DAT. The OC section of the DAT Destroyer was very helpful and almost parallels what is on the DAT. All in all, DAT Destroyer helps you focus on where you keep slowing down, and where you keep getting topics wrong. But remember, it's the most important thing (stressed by many of the members on SDN), that when you get something wrong, you must look at your notes, look at youtube videos, and try to solve it without looking at the solutions. When the exam date got closer, I took out a new notebook and re-did the problems that I constantly kept getting wrong.
Orgoman MATH Destroyer 2014: The bank of questions in this book are very similar to what you will see on the actual exam. MATH Destroyer helped teach me how to do the very hard application questions (which are not too bad, but when under pressure, everything seems extremely hard).
DAT Bootcamp: I love this product, and I love the personal touch Ari gives to each and every one of his students. I don't even want to say customers, because I don't feel like that. I felt like Ari cares a lot about pre-dental students, and he wants us to succeed. Besides the customer service, I can say that DAT Bootcamp helped me achieve my score the most out of all the DAT prep materials I bought.
Feralis Notes: This is a very comprehensive resource of all the biology that is possibly tested on the DAT. The way i used this was printing out all the notes on paper, then putting them in a binder, with ruled paper in between each Feralis' notes page. I took notes on the topics that I believed were to be the highest yield and also the topics which were hardest to me.
Crack the DAT PAT: Many people on SDN say that it's easier than Bootcamp and they are right. It's easier than Bootcamp, and it is close to the difficulty you will see on the actual test. It is expensive though, but what you are paying for is the ability to use it any time you want and keep it forever. I think this can be helpful when you want to dip your feet in the waters of PAT.
THE REAL TEST
BIO: Random as always. You must be comfortable with all of Feralis. Make sure you know the topics that are tested the most: genetics, hardy Weinberg,
GC: I started freaking out when my time hit the 40 min left mark, and I was only halfway through GC. This was when I started to feel that I had to pee, and it kept bugging me that for a second I thought I was gonna fail. It was really important for me to not think like that though. Your mind is very powerful, and what you think you can or cannot do, is truth. So you have to make sure your mind speaks the truth of you being able to do well.
OC: It was easy, so I don't know where I went wrong. I might have second guessed myself or over-thought some problems. OC is the usual stuff you see in DAT Destroyer and Bootcamp. Again Bootcamp is the closest to this.
PAT:
and also the score that brought down my AA. I'm happy that I didn't get lower than an 18 on it. I got 2 hard passages and medium passage, a setup very similar to Bootcamp. Bootcamp's RC section is very close to how the real DAT is, but my RC section always varied on Bootcamp, 19 being the lowest and 25 being the highest. They can ask you about anything. I used a combination of Kaplan's Road Mapping method, and a SDN user's advice of only reading 2-3 paragraphs at a time, then looking at a question. This was the best approach for me because I would remember more information this way. I used search and destroy on my last passage, a method that I did not use a lot because I didn't need it for the practice tests. However, there were a lot of questions where I had to know much of the background of the passage, so I ended up speed reading it anyways. The search and destroy definitely helped me on 3-4 questions though.
QR: The QR section is very similar to MATH Destroyer, but I would also say it's more on par with the QR section of the DAT Destroyer as a whole. MATH destroyer's different tests don't represent a QR section because there may be more difficult questions on each MATH Destroyer test. MATH destroyer's problems, however DO represent the question bank. The QR section is most close to the difficulty I saw on the 2009 exam, where there are a few application questions and a lot of simple calculations.
TIPS: GC: I started freaking out when my time hit the 40 min left mark, and I was only halfway through GC. This was when I started to feel that I had to pee, and it kept bugging me that for a second I thought I was gonna fail. It was really important for me to not think like that though. Your mind is very powerful, and what you think you can or cannot do, is truth. So you have to make sure your mind speaks the truth of you being able to do well.
OC: It was easy, so I don't know where I went wrong. I might have second guessed myself or over-thought some problems. OC is the usual stuff you see in DAT Destroyer and Bootcamp. Again Bootcamp is the closest to this.
PAT:
Keyholes: a lot easier than I expected, so it's easier than Bootcamp, and closest to CDP
TFE: very weird-looking shapes that I've never seen before, however, Bootcamp prepares you for the times when you get hard questions. TFE was initially the PAT portion where I spent the most time on, but it became the easiest for me after doing CDP and Bootcamp. After practicing with CDP and Bootcamp, I would start to only get 1 question wrong.
Angle Ranking: THE MAKE-OR-BREAK score. This is the hardest and most time-consuming part of the PAT. I learned over my practice tests that when I finished DAT with time to spare, this was my first section to come 'fix'. I would do ALL the angles again, and I would end up changing 4 or 5 questions. This would always increase my score. Also, learn all the methods possible for angle ranking. This was very important to me because when I couldn't figure out which angle was smaller/bigger, if I viewed it a different way (using a different technique) I would see it right away. remember when you first start to do these problems, you HAVE to go to the answers first, this helps eliminate choices the fastest, but on every practice exam and for the DAT, I would be able to order them without using the answer choices for one or two problems. And for the example of the method, I always started out with the 'tetherball' technique that Datrav27 mentioned, and that helped me increase my angle scores from 50% to 80%+. If that didn't work, I would try rapid-eye technique, and if that didn't work, I would use the laptop techniqe.
Hole Punching: you should not let yourself get under 100% for this. This section should be your fastest, as it helps you catch up after the angle ranking section. Hole punching was around Bootcamp's level of difficulty.
Cube Counting: Normal cubes you would see in CDP and Bootcamp. Remember to guide your mouse cursor so you don't lose track of the cubes. This section should also be your 100% section, don't let silly mistakes ruin your score here. This is the second section I double check, but I double check not by doing it again, by rather looking for the cubes individually.
Pattern Folding: Easier than BOTH CDP and Bootcamp. There were very clear answers on the DAT where I could easily pick one right away, because the others were so wrong.
RC: My lowest score TFE: very weird-looking shapes that I've never seen before, however, Bootcamp prepares you for the times when you get hard questions. TFE was initially the PAT portion where I spent the most time on, but it became the easiest for me after doing CDP and Bootcamp. After practicing with CDP and Bootcamp, I would start to only get 1 question wrong.
Angle Ranking: THE MAKE-OR-BREAK score. This is the hardest and most time-consuming part of the PAT. I learned over my practice tests that when I finished DAT with time to spare, this was my first section to come 'fix'. I would do ALL the angles again, and I would end up changing 4 or 5 questions. This would always increase my score. Also, learn all the methods possible for angle ranking. This was very important to me because when I couldn't figure out which angle was smaller/bigger, if I viewed it a different way (using a different technique) I would see it right away. remember when you first start to do these problems, you HAVE to go to the answers first, this helps eliminate choices the fastest, but on every practice exam and for the DAT, I would be able to order them without using the answer choices for one or two problems. And for the example of the method, I always started out with the 'tetherball' technique that Datrav27 mentioned, and that helped me increase my angle scores from 50% to 80%+. If that didn't work, I would try rapid-eye technique, and if that didn't work, I would use the laptop techniqe.
Hole Punching: you should not let yourself get under 100% for this. This section should be your fastest, as it helps you catch up after the angle ranking section. Hole punching was around Bootcamp's level of difficulty.
Cube Counting: Normal cubes you would see in CDP and Bootcamp. Remember to guide your mouse cursor so you don't lose track of the cubes. This section should also be your 100% section, don't let silly mistakes ruin your score here. This is the second section I double check, but I double check not by doing it again, by rather looking for the cubes individually.
Pattern Folding: Easier than BOTH CDP and Bootcamp. There were very clear answers on the DAT where I could easily pick one right away, because the others were so wrong.
and also the score that brought down my AA. I'm happy that I didn't get lower than an 18 on it. I got 2 hard passages and medium passage, a setup very similar to Bootcamp. Bootcamp's RC section is very close to how the real DAT is, but my RC section always varied on Bootcamp, 19 being the lowest and 25 being the highest. They can ask you about anything. I used a combination of Kaplan's Road Mapping method, and a SDN user's advice of only reading 2-3 paragraphs at a time, then looking at a question. This was the best approach for me because I would remember more information this way. I used search and destroy on my last passage, a method that I did not use a lot because I didn't need it for the practice tests. However, there were a lot of questions where I had to know much of the background of the passage, so I ended up speed reading it anyways. The search and destroy definitely helped me on 3-4 questions though.QR: The QR section is very similar to MATH Destroyer, but I would also say it's more on par with the QR section of the DAT Destroyer as a whole. MATH destroyer's different tests don't represent a QR section because there may be more difficult questions on each MATH Destroyer test. MATH destroyer's problems, however DO represent the question bank. The QR section is most close to the difficulty I saw on the 2009 exam, where there are a few application questions and a lot of simple calculations.
- Oh my god, don't drink 3 cups of water like I did. I never had to pee this much since I watched Dark Knight Rises in theaters (hell no I was NOT missing the last 30 minutes of Batman just so I could pee) I ate a Costco muffin that morning, and I did my best to use the restroom for my morning poop and pee.
- Do your problems in WAVES. Probably the best advice I can give in scoring higher. All questions are weighted equally, so do what you can first, then go back and fix your problems.
- Do breathing exercises before your test
- Pee before your test
- Eat enough in the morning so you don't get hungry during Reading and QR.
- Utilize your 15 minute break! I didn't use all of my time, I used up 10 minutes, but its safer for you to be back in your seat because it can take a while for the test center to sign you back in.
- Go to your test center a week before your test. I was going to also do my 2007 and 2009 exams there, but I don't think you can do that. I had a telephone seating area outside where I could possibly do the exams, but there was construction so I didn't practice there.
- Watch motivational videos. Surround yourself with people who support you and bring you up. This is a test of mental and physical fitness so you have be emotionally stable. It will be nerveracking when you sit in your seat, so don't click start until you are ready, and when you do, go at it with all your might and you'll do great.
- The testing center gives a very sharp pen that is used on the laminated papers. I was worried that the pens would be too thick but my suspicions were cleared and I practiced with my Lamy Safari and graph paper.
- During the tutorial I was not allowed to prepare formulas or create graphs for hole punching. What I did was when I finished checking my Science portion, I quickly a few lines to make a 4x4 square (by that I mean, not wasting time making each individual 1x1 box). Because it's on graph paper this is easy to do, and only took me 10 seconds.
- Make to-do lists for your studies so you get them done. Think quality and NOT quantity. You will waste time if you try to do too much in a day
REGRETS:
None really, I tried my hardest and that is all that matters to me. I went out of that test knowing that my summer was well spent and the work I put in was of my own mind and body.
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