How should I approach studying with 45 days left until my exam?

[dentist409]

I recently finished all of Mike's gen chem and organic chem videos and questions. I took very thorough notes and made sure to understand each problem. However, I did not memorize everything such as the formulas and how to approach the problems. In other words, I understand why the approach to a problem is correct when I look at my notes, but I probably couldn't come up with that on my own yet. How do you recommend memorizing everything for orgo and especially gen chem? Do I just dive into bootcamp practice exams or should I stare at my notes and memorize them? I tried making condensed study guides of my notes for chemistry, but it was taking up a lot of time.

For bio, I read the 500 paged notes and added any extra info into the 120 paged notes so that I have a very thorough condensed version of notes. I was planning on reading through some of it each day over and over again until I felt I had it memorized. Is this a good strategy? I don't learn from flashcards very well.

For QR, I have finished 6 practice exams in the Math destroyer book. I feel like I understand the general pattern now and have taken notes as well. I was planning on finishing the rest of these practice exams and then moving onto the bootcamp practice question banks and exams.

As far as PAT, I haven't looked at it as much. I scored an 18 on the PAT booster practice exam 1 (I probably could have scored higher if I hadn't been interrupted several times throughout taking it while being timed). I'm planning on setting aside an hour each day to do generators on bootcamp and PAT booster to bring up this score.

For RC, I have just been trying to read everyday and plan to just use the bootcamp exams as practice.

I really hope I am in a position where I can take the exam on the day I have scheduled. I don't want to pay to reschedule it and especially don't want to retake it. But I feel like I am running out of time. I would greatly appreciate any comments or advice!

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[marshaaa]

This is just what worked for me but everyone is different! For GC and OC I think that it would be best to start to tackle the bootcamp practice exams. It will give you a good indication of what you know and what you don't. It was very helpful for me to take them, slowly review them, and handwrite out the steps or answers to any questions that I was not 100% sure about. I also reviewed GC and OC bootcamp notes in their entirety once a week including the notes taken on practice questions that I got wrong for the last month before my test. By the end I felt very confident about the information but don't worry I didn't feel that confident about it 45 days out. Reviewing the reaction summary sheet for OC once a week for the last month was also a huge help for me.
BIO I reread the 120 page bootcamp notes three times in total before my test but did not read the 500 page version. the second time I went through them I did not make flashcards but I did highlight things that I knew I was having difficulty remembering so that I was able to focus only on that information the third time around. Flashcards for me would have been a waste of time but highlighting worked well. Feralis notes were great as well, I looked over them twice in the last thirty days before the test, again highlighting what I didn't know the first time through and only reading the highlighted portion the second time through.
QR the bootcamp tests and the math destroyer tests do a great job of preparing you for anything, I felt like their tests were much more difficult than the actual exam. Your strategy is great here.
PAT I would recommend using the DAT bootcamp generator and doing 15 minutes a day of it, the section is really just about timing.
RC that's what I did as well, the bootcamp tests were more difficult than the actual exam in my opinion.
Don't stress, 45 days out I was feeling so unprepared and only in the last 2 weeks did I start to feel ready and like I knew the information.
Hope this helps some! Good Luck!!

-My scores: 27AA, 29TS, 27Bio, 28GC, 30OC, 26QR, 26RC, 27PAT-

 

[his989]

45 days is a lot of time, and it sounds like you are well ahead of most students.

Now it's time to tackle tons of problems. In addition to the Bootcamp practice exams, I would also start doing DAT Destroyer problems at least 50-100 a day. DAT Destroyer is really what solidified my understanding of the content.

Good luck.