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Hey everyone,
Warning before you read: this is a very long post, but I feel like everything I have said contains valuable information for those who are beginning to study for the DAT and want good advice. If you already have a study plan, that's cool and you might wanna skip this post so it doesn't make you nervous or anything (however, do read my part that says ********READ THIS******** if you are using Kaplan).
I took the DAT last March and did very well on it (I'd rather not share my GPA/scores, but they were both extremely good), and now that people are starting to study for it again, I just wanted to share with everyone my take on how I studied and the resources that I used. I started studying just after Christmas (for a total of just over 3 months of studying), but I never did any marathon 8+ hour study sessions until the week before the exam (although I was consistent about studying - don't take long stretches off (those long stretches hurt because 1. you're not studying and 2. you forget material you've already learned) ).
I used the following 2 items exclusively, and found them to be completely sufficient for studying for all of the DAT. You will probably want to study math more than I did, but I think you'll be in a really good position if you do what I did for the other sections.
1. Kaplan online course (DAT on demand here: http://www.kaptest.com/DAT-NBDE/Home/index.html)
Note that I took the course (which is very expensive, ~$1300). You can get away without the course (although I definitely would recommend doing it for the extras if you can afford it), but I'll address a less expensive option at the end.
2. Crack the DAT (solely the PAT portion though) (here: http://crackdat.com/)
This is $200 (get the royal flush edition if you can afford it, the extra features are worth the higher price (also compared with the Kaplan online course, an extra $100 shouldn't be that big of a deal) ).
Here's my section-by-section analysis of these 2 resources.
Science
Biology: I didn't remember any biology from high school, and I took the DAT midway through my 2nd semester of intro bio.
Strongly suggested: I strongly endorse Kaplan here. The Kaplan program was really great for studying for this section. I didn't have tons of formal preparation before the DAT, and I studied for at least 1/2 of the material without having taken a class on it. If you follow Kaplan closely on this subject, you should do very well on the DAT. With that said, there will be maybe 2-4 questions that show up on your DAT that weren't in this Kaplan book. Kaplan is not all-inclusive on this section, but here's the thing about the biology section: there is just way too many random tidbits of information for a study material to be all-inclusive on this subject. You have to balance time with efficiency, and it is simply not worth your time to try to scour a much bigger resource in the hopes of memorizing all of the tidbits. Kaplan covers almost all of what you'll see, and I suggest you study from this resource only. The only way you can get every little tidbit right is if you have a good biology background (like a bio major or something).
Gen Chem and Orgo: I was a chemistry major, so I had a very good background on this subject. With that said, I vaguely remembered orgo but still had tons of reviewing to do. I remembered gen chem pretty well, but I still studied a good amount for it.
Strongly suggested: Here is where I will give my strongest endorsement. The Kaplan program is absolutely dominant at these 2 sections. I don't care that I was a chem major, I didn't remember much orgo and I know other people who didn't remember much chemistry either and did very well here after the program. If you know the flash cards and the book sections inside and out, you will not be unprepared for a single question. The orgo flashcards were especially invaluable for this reason: (there are tons of orgo reactions out there, but only a set number that the DAT will test you on. It is a waste of time trying to memorize all of those random reactions when Kaplan has pinpointed all of the ones that have potential to show up on the DAT). Really, if you go off of Kaplan for these 2 sections, you will be golden.
PAT: None of us really have a prior advantage or disadvantage on others here, unless you are very unique individual. I did well on this part, but I could have done better (it was my worst section) and I don't want you to fall into the same pitfall that I did. Studying for the PAT is different than the other sections because it is mostly just taking practices, compared with conventional reading/studying. The reason why this is significant and that I got tripped up on it is because I was uncomfortable with getting instant feedback. I didn't like to see that my scores were below what I was aiming for. With the other sections, you can just read a ton and look at questions here and there, but with the PAT you get instant results each and every time you try studying for it, which can screw with you if the scores aren't where you want them to be. So here is my general advice for this section: you will need to practice out the ying-yang for it, and seriously don't give a crap what your scores are (just make sure to do this early enough so that you aren't feeling any pressure with the DAT creeping up on you). Keep doing them, and you will get better.
I also suggest sitting back once and a while and evaluating your strategy on this section. Onto the reviews
Recommended, but not strongly: Kaplan was a decent starting point, but you cannot rely on Kaplan for this section. There simply isn't enough practice, which is what you will ultimately need. Onto my strongly suggested section, let me tell you the one instance where Kaplan will straight-up screw you (the one and only part of Kaplan that will actually harm you if you follow it. For everything else, it will help you to one degree or another, but this will actually hurt you!)
Strongly recommended: *************READ THIS****************** Kaplan angle ranking will absolutely screw you like nobody's business if you take that for all of your practice for the DAT. The angle ranking on Kaplan is stupid easy - you will miss only 1 or 2 out of 15 on Kaplan without even trying, but the DAT is nothing like that. I realized this about 4 days before the test, and it stressed me out like crazy. Now for the real recommendation: The Crack the DAT (the PAT section) is all you need to study for this section. Practice this tons, and you will do well (I know someone who studied this a lot more than me and got a 26 on it). I will give you some general pro-tips on this section.
Pro tip #1: You will probably suck at angle ranking small differences in angles (and maybe even larger ones for Crack the PAT), and I am not even sure if it is possible for normal humans to tell a difference between 3 degrees. You can probably get to be 50/50 on these, but don't worry too much. The real DAT isn't going to throw a bunch of mega-hard ones at you, just practice a lot and do the best you can.
Pro tip #2: Do the angle ranking in practice mode - you will get better at telling small differences
Pro tip #3: Kaplan (and others) likes to tell you a lot of bogus strategies for the PAT section. They are a company, and you paid to have them show you something useful. If the only useful information to show is exceedingly obvious, they might come up with stupid strategies that aren't actually useful just so that they have something to show. For example, they recommend making a tally of the cubes and their sides; however, I found this to take up too much time and it was super-easy to do these questions on the fly anyways. Another issue is whether you should try to search for the correct answer, or cross of the wrong answers to find the right one. Also for angle-ranking, some people say hold your finger up to the screen, tilt your head a certain way, imagine an alligator's mouth clamping down, imagine a ski slope, etc. All of these recommendations are a thought, but I wouldn't pay much attention to any of them. Practice a lot and come up with what works well for you.
Pro tip #4: Both Kaplan and Crack the DAT have some questions interspersed that are rather difficult/impossible/(possibly straight-up incorrect). They are uncommon, but don't be surprised if you see one either. This is especially true with keyholes, but be careful: with keyhole questions, you really have to look for small details in the way things are drawn to find the correct answer.
Pro tip #5: Time: manage it well for this section.
Ones you should burn through: cube counting, angle ranking
Ones you should semi-burn through: hole punching
The other 3 are pretty variable from person to person, depending on what you're good at. Just make it work
Pro tip #6: Line counting is a valuable tool for top/front/end. Definitely don't rely on it too much, but it is nice to know.
Summary of PAT: I could talk some more about PAT, but I don't wanna make this even longer than it already is. Basically, practice Crack the PAT a lot for this section, and don't let Kaplan pull a fast one on you with their bs angle ranking.
Reading: You can't really practice too much for this one. As for strategy, I would definitely recommend just reading the paragraph quickly and then try to answer the questions.
1. Don't not read the passages and just scan for the answer (ugly phrasing, sorry, I know). They definitely give you enough time to read all the way through (I accidentally kicked the power cord from the outlet, and was still fine) (by the way, you just plug it back in and you still have your test, nothing bad happens).
2. Don't try taking notes or otherwise waste your time. Just read it quickly, go to the questions, and go back to the passage for scanning purposes if you don't know the answer.
Math: I can't really offer too much advice on this subject, because I was already pretty prepared for it coming in. The first practice test I took, I got smoked on the math section because of a lack of time, but it went well after that. I can't give you advice for a "Oh hey, go look here for everything that you need to know" resource. I'll tell you what I did notice from Kaplan and the DAT, though.
1. Kaplan's online stuff is pretty good at some of the more uncommon/tricky math questions that most people aren't as used to doing. I am talking about stuff like:
-Combinations/permutations
-Probability
2. Know your trig for the DAT. I especially mean like the sin/cos/tan for 30,45,60,90 degrees etc.
Honestly, I don't really feel too qualified to grade Kaplan (or give advice) on the math section because I was already prepared for the section coming in and didn't use it as a resource. I glanced over the book, and my gut feeling is you probably need a little more practice than Kaplan gives you.
If you cannot afford the Kaplan course
Here is my section if you want the advantages of the Kaplan studying but don't want to pay the price. Let me say before-hand though that it is worth the price and you should get it if you can afford it. Buying the Kaplan study program is an investment in your future, and I think it will pay for itself in the long-term benefits you reap (your score will improve, and I believe it will be good). If getting the program is simply not an option, then my "Plan B" would be to find someone on ebay who has taken the course and get all of their materials except their online access (make sure to get both the book and the flashcards. The others (like the crappy review sheets, and I don't even know if there's anything else) aren't necessary, but those other 2 are definitely worth it). If you can't get your hands on the flashcards, you can always just try getting the book. However, the flashcards were super-valuable for Orgo, and very valuable for gen chem and biology.
That's my advice for the DAT. I hope that the information was useful for you if you stuck through the entire post. Also if you have any questions about how much it costs to apply or any other financial stuff (or logistics of interviews or anything else), let me know and I'll try to get back to you. I've never read any posts here and I don't really plan on coming back either, so post in this thread if you have a question so I get an email alert. Anyways, good luck with studying and have fun!!!
For google purposes: How to study for the DAT
Warning before you read: this is a very long post, but I feel like everything I have said contains valuable information for those who are beginning to study for the DAT and want good advice. If you already have a study plan, that's cool and you might wanna skip this post so it doesn't make you nervous or anything (however, do read my part that says ********READ THIS******** if you are using Kaplan).
I took the DAT last March and did very well on it (I'd rather not share my GPA/scores, but they were both extremely good), and now that people are starting to study for it again, I just wanted to share with everyone my take on how I studied and the resources that I used. I started studying just after Christmas (for a total of just over 3 months of studying), but I never did any marathon 8+ hour study sessions until the week before the exam (although I was consistent about studying - don't take long stretches off (those long stretches hurt because 1. you're not studying and 2. you forget material you've already learned) ).
I used the following 2 items exclusively, and found them to be completely sufficient for studying for all of the DAT. You will probably want to study math more than I did, but I think you'll be in a really good position if you do what I did for the other sections.
1. Kaplan online course (DAT on demand here: http://www.kaptest.com/DAT-NBDE/Home/index.html)
Note that I took the course (which is very expensive, ~$1300). You can get away without the course (although I definitely would recommend doing it for the extras if you can afford it), but I'll address a less expensive option at the end.
2. Crack the DAT (solely the PAT portion though) (here: http://crackdat.com/)
This is $200 (get the royal flush edition if you can afford it, the extra features are worth the higher price (also compared with the Kaplan online course, an extra $100 shouldn't be that big of a deal) ).
Here's my section-by-section analysis of these 2 resources.
Science
Biology: I didn't remember any biology from high school, and I took the DAT midway through my 2nd semester of intro bio.
Strongly suggested: I strongly endorse Kaplan here. The Kaplan program was really great for studying for this section. I didn't have tons of formal preparation before the DAT, and I studied for at least 1/2 of the material without having taken a class on it. If you follow Kaplan closely on this subject, you should do very well on the DAT. With that said, there will be maybe 2-4 questions that show up on your DAT that weren't in this Kaplan book. Kaplan is not all-inclusive on this section, but here's the thing about the biology section: there is just way too many random tidbits of information for a study material to be all-inclusive on this subject. You have to balance time with efficiency, and it is simply not worth your time to try to scour a much bigger resource in the hopes of memorizing all of the tidbits. Kaplan covers almost all of what you'll see, and I suggest you study from this resource only. The only way you can get every little tidbit right is if you have a good biology background (like a bio major or something).
Gen Chem and Orgo: I was a chemistry major, so I had a very good background on this subject. With that said, I vaguely remembered orgo but still had tons of reviewing to do. I remembered gen chem pretty well, but I still studied a good amount for it.
Strongly suggested: Here is where I will give my strongest endorsement. The Kaplan program is absolutely dominant at these 2 sections. I don't care that I was a chem major, I didn't remember much orgo and I know other people who didn't remember much chemistry either and did very well here after the program. If you know the flash cards and the book sections inside and out, you will not be unprepared for a single question. The orgo flashcards were especially invaluable for this reason: (there are tons of orgo reactions out there, but only a set number that the DAT will test you on. It is a waste of time trying to memorize all of those random reactions when Kaplan has pinpointed all of the ones that have potential to show up on the DAT). Really, if you go off of Kaplan for these 2 sections, you will be golden.
PAT: None of us really have a prior advantage or disadvantage on others here, unless you are very unique individual. I did well on this part, but I could have done better (it was my worst section) and I don't want you to fall into the same pitfall that I did. Studying for the PAT is different than the other sections because it is mostly just taking practices, compared with conventional reading/studying. The reason why this is significant and that I got tripped up on it is because I was uncomfortable with getting instant feedback. I didn't like to see that my scores were below what I was aiming for. With the other sections, you can just read a ton and look at questions here and there, but with the PAT you get instant results each and every time you try studying for it, which can screw with you if the scores aren't where you want them to be. So here is my general advice for this section: you will need to practice out the ying-yang for it, and seriously don't give a crap what your scores are (just make sure to do this early enough so that you aren't feeling any pressure with the DAT creeping up on you). Keep doing them, and you will get better.
I also suggest sitting back once and a while and evaluating your strategy on this section. Onto the reviews
Recommended, but not strongly: Kaplan was a decent starting point, but you cannot rely on Kaplan for this section. There simply isn't enough practice, which is what you will ultimately need. Onto my strongly suggested section, let me tell you the one instance where Kaplan will straight-up screw you (the one and only part of Kaplan that will actually harm you if you follow it. For everything else, it will help you to one degree or another, but this will actually hurt you!)
Strongly recommended: *************READ THIS****************** Kaplan angle ranking will absolutely screw you like nobody's business if you take that for all of your practice for the DAT. The angle ranking on Kaplan is stupid easy - you will miss only 1 or 2 out of 15 on Kaplan without even trying, but the DAT is nothing like that. I realized this about 4 days before the test, and it stressed me out like crazy. Now for the real recommendation: The Crack the DAT (the PAT section) is all you need to study for this section. Practice this tons, and you will do well (I know someone who studied this a lot more than me and got a 26 on it). I will give you some general pro-tips on this section.
Pro tip #1: You will probably suck at angle ranking small differences in angles (and maybe even larger ones for Crack the PAT), and I am not even sure if it is possible for normal humans to tell a difference between 3 degrees. You can probably get to be 50/50 on these, but don't worry too much. The real DAT isn't going to throw a bunch of mega-hard ones at you, just practice a lot and do the best you can.
Pro tip #2: Do the angle ranking in practice mode - you will get better at telling small differences
Pro tip #3: Kaplan (and others) likes to tell you a lot of bogus strategies for the PAT section. They are a company, and you paid to have them show you something useful. If the only useful information to show is exceedingly obvious, they might come up with stupid strategies that aren't actually useful just so that they have something to show. For example, they recommend making a tally of the cubes and their sides; however, I found this to take up too much time and it was super-easy to do these questions on the fly anyways. Another issue is whether you should try to search for the correct answer, or cross of the wrong answers to find the right one. Also for angle-ranking, some people say hold your finger up to the screen, tilt your head a certain way, imagine an alligator's mouth clamping down, imagine a ski slope, etc. All of these recommendations are a thought, but I wouldn't pay much attention to any of them. Practice a lot and come up with what works well for you.
Pro tip #4: Both Kaplan and Crack the DAT have some questions interspersed that are rather difficult/impossible/(possibly straight-up incorrect). They are uncommon, but don't be surprised if you see one either. This is especially true with keyholes, but be careful: with keyhole questions, you really have to look for small details in the way things are drawn to find the correct answer.
Pro tip #5: Time: manage it well for this section.
Ones you should burn through: cube counting, angle ranking
Ones you should semi-burn through: hole punching
The other 3 are pretty variable from person to person, depending on what you're good at. Just make it work
Pro tip #6: Line counting is a valuable tool for top/front/end. Definitely don't rely on it too much, but it is nice to know.
Summary of PAT: I could talk some more about PAT, but I don't wanna make this even longer than it already is. Basically, practice Crack the PAT a lot for this section, and don't let Kaplan pull a fast one on you with their bs angle ranking.
Reading: You can't really practice too much for this one. As for strategy, I would definitely recommend just reading the paragraph quickly and then try to answer the questions.
1. Don't not read the passages and just scan for the answer (ugly phrasing, sorry, I know). They definitely give you enough time to read all the way through (I accidentally kicked the power cord from the outlet, and was still fine) (by the way, you just plug it back in and you still have your test, nothing bad happens).
2. Don't try taking notes or otherwise waste your time. Just read it quickly, go to the questions, and go back to the passage for scanning purposes if you don't know the answer.
Math: I can't really offer too much advice on this subject, because I was already pretty prepared for it coming in. The first practice test I took, I got smoked on the math section because of a lack of time, but it went well after that. I can't give you advice for a "Oh hey, go look here for everything that you need to know" resource. I'll tell you what I did notice from Kaplan and the DAT, though.
1. Kaplan's online stuff is pretty good at some of the more uncommon/tricky math questions that most people aren't as used to doing. I am talking about stuff like:
-Combinations/permutations
-Probability
2. Know your trig for the DAT. I especially mean like the sin/cos/tan for 30,45,60,90 degrees etc.
Honestly, I don't really feel too qualified to grade Kaplan (or give advice) on the math section because I was already prepared for the section coming in and didn't use it as a resource. I glanced over the book, and my gut feeling is you probably need a little more practice than Kaplan gives you.
If you cannot afford the Kaplan course
Here is my section if you want the advantages of the Kaplan studying but don't want to pay the price. Let me say before-hand though that it is worth the price and you should get it if you can afford it. Buying the Kaplan study program is an investment in your future, and I think it will pay for itself in the long-term benefits you reap (your score will improve, and I believe it will be good). If getting the program is simply not an option, then my "Plan B" would be to find someone on ebay who has taken the course and get all of their materials except their online access (make sure to get both the book and the flashcards. The others (like the crappy review sheets, and I don't even know if there's anything else) aren't necessary, but those other 2 are definitely worth it). If you can't get your hands on the flashcards, you can always just try getting the book. However, the flashcards were super-valuable for Orgo, and very valuable for gen chem and biology.
That's my advice for the DAT. I hope that the information was useful for you if you stuck through the entire post. Also if you have any questions about how much it costs to apply or any other financial stuff (or logistics of interviews or anything else), let me know and I'll try to get back to you. I've never read any posts here and I don't really plan on coming back either, so post in this thread if you have a question so I get an email alert. Anyways, good luck with studying and have fun!!!
For google purposes: How to study for the DAT
Last edited:
Good luck studying!
