TwoPrudentialPl said:
DAT Science - knowledge-based
MCAT Science - knowledge+reasoning-based
This is a bit of an oversimplification, but I would say that it's generally true for the science sections. The DAT is completely comprised of individual questions like the discretes on the MCAT. In other words, there are no passage-based questions on the DAT, while the MCAT is predominantly passage-based. There is also no physics or essay section on the DAT. In addition, the DAT has a reading comprehension section instead of the MCAT's VR section. (The difference is essentially that you are asked to locate details in the passage for RC versus being asked about the author's argument in VR.)
However, the DAT has some additional sections that the MCAT lacks, including a quantitative section that covers math up through trig, and a perceptual ability test. The PAT is unique to the DAT, and asks you to do six different tasks: figure out where a hole will appear in a folded up piece of paper once you unfold it, pass an object through a hole of the correct shape, rank angles by size, count the number of cubes with a certain number of sides exposed, figure out the third orientation of an object using the two perspectiveless orientations provided, and fold a pattern into the correct shape. This is a very difficult section for many people; keep in mind that the DAT is completely computerized (like the MCAT soon will be!), and so all of this must be done on a computer. The DAT also covers ecology and organismal biology that is not tested on the MCAT. (Remember all of those phyla of vertebrates you learned about in gen bio??? That's all tested on the DAT.)
I would not say that the DAT is easier than the MCAT overall because of the PAT section, but the science sections *are* probably easier for most people compared with the MCAT science sections. This is true not only because there are no passages, but also because there is no physics. After all, most pre-health students are bio majors.
