Not so quick breakdown.
Biology
- Kaplan Blue Book - didn't quite finish reading, but Almost finished reading (felt that it was not detailed enough or maybe it was just borin....gg)
- Cliff's Ap bio - didn't quite finish reading the whole book, but finished reading about half (was sort of boring and too dry)
- destroyer biology section - did about 50 problems a day, but kept having difficulties with biome, taxonomy, plant physiology and human embryology (sections that we least likely to pay attention during undergrad years) Took pretty long to finish 450~500 problems. Ended up going over the bio section twice but taxonomy, plant physiology, and biomes were still giving me issues almost until the test day. Very frustrated but had no choice but to keep going over the one I got wrong. Didn't feel too confident even until the test day. Coelom? pseudo-coelom? what the f???? Who cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pistil???????Anther????????????????????????????? Who cares!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
((((
Gen chem
- didn't bother with KBB because I didn't like the bio section of KBB.
- Having been out of gen chem class for almost a decade, had to review it somehow, so purchased chad's videos which helped me tremendously. After becoming pretty familiar with concepts that are tested for DAT, started going over destroyer gen chem section. I was pretty frustrated the first time I went over it. It almost depressed me because the calculations were too complex and the depth the destroyer went into was overbearing. Still went over it twice and circled the problems that I got wrong the both times and kept doing those problems until I got them perfectly.
- Now that I think about it, gen chem section might be an overkill, but if you master all or most of them, you are pretty much set for the real test because the real test is much simpler and easier (at least in my opinion) I think the most helpful prep materials for gen chem was Chad's video (pretty comprehensive) and destroyer (comprehensive and builds your psychological stamina hahaha)
O chem
- This was my fav class from undergrad years that I went so far as to tutor orgo 1 and 2 after taking both classes. Even about 6 years, i remembered most of the basic reactions, so I didn't need a super review like gen chem. Went right into destroyer section. Unlike gen chem, it was a breeze to go over the entire section. However, still got pretty significant number of Q's wrong because of the way questions were written (tricks and traps) (about 50 question wrong out of entire ochem section). Went over it second time, got much better, but still got about 30 questions wrong. Just like gen chem section, circled the ones I got wrong both times, and focused on going over them till I got them perfectly.
- Just to make sure I had no holes in my knowledge, proceeded to watching chad's review videos after going over destroyer 2.5~3 times. Chad's video was kind of too "simple" but was still pretty informative especially when he talked about vague subjects like ranking acidity, basicity, nucleophilicity, etc, etc. The area that I got most help from Chad's video were the lab technique, IR, NMR and carbohydrate section. Those sections were covered in depth, but were not and were explained very effectively without being too overbearing. Gotta love chad for those sections!!
Reading comprehension
- Gave up on this section because I had no time to focus on this section because there were just too many other areas that I felt pretty weak (gen chem, bio, QR, and PAT). I've been trying to read economist, newyorker, and other various types of articles just to increase my reading speed, but didn't do many practice tests.
QR
- watched Chad's videos to start with. Felt pretty comfortable with the materials covered, but as soon as I started doing math destroyer, again, my confidence level went down because it involved a little more than what Chad covered in his videos.
- there were about 14 different full QR sections on the math destroyer section and I got about 12-14 wrong out of 40 questions. I got better as I did more problems. When I almost finished going over the destroyer book, I was getting between 8~10 out of 40 wrong. Still didn't feel TOO comfortable or confident, but didn't have energy nor time to over the destroyer again. So that was it.
- average 32/40 on math destroyer
PAT
- only had time to devote a couple of days to introduce myself to the types of problems in PAt section and do sample tests on each section from KBB. I believe it was 15 questions per section on KBB.
- Literally, this is pretty much all I did for the PAT section. 15 problems for each section. Felt pretty confident about cube counting, felt semi-confident with hole punch, ok with angle ranking. However, the other three sections, TFE, key hole, and pattern folding were the hardest sections for me. But I didn't have time to tackle those section, so I left it at that, which is probably why I got 18. But I was kind of pleasantly surprised when I got 18 on the real test because I ran out of time so badly that I needed about 3 minutes just to fill in(guess) marked/incomplete problems.
After KBB, Chad's video, destroyer, I went ahead and purchased DATBOOTCAMP subscription because I wanted to know how I would do if I did problems in a timed setting.
DATBOOTCAMP summary
1.Gen chem - Was easier than destroyer, got about
22~23 average. I should say much easier than destroyer and pretty comparable to the real thing.
2.Organic chem - Was easier than destroyer even more so than the gen chem was,
24~25 average
3. Quantitative reasoning - Freaking too hard!!! Problems required too complex calculations that I didn't even finish 20 problem in time. I still tried to do all 5 practice tests with the timer off (not really off), but was
averaging 17~18 because the level of difficulty was too high compared to the destroyer AND THE REAL THANG!
4. Reading comprehension - Didn't have much time, so I did 1 practice test, got 21. That was it.
5. Bio - wasn't too difficult, but wasn't too easy either. Got about 21~22 avg.
6. PAT section - Dabbled with hole punching section only because I didn't exactly have too much time to conquer the entire PAT sections. Angle ranking practice was helpful, but I am not sure if it really helped me prepare for the real test.
The night before the test, I went over all of the problems that I got wrong on the destroyer (except math destroyer). And also went over DATBOOTCAMP science practice tests (got about same avg scores on most or 1~2 points higher)
Quick summary or my suggestion for those of you starting to prepare for your test.
1. Start with Chad's videos and warm yourelf up to the material. You can watch while kinda chillaxing.
2. Then when you are a little familiar with the material tested on the DAT, start doing practice problems on destroyers.
3. When you are done brushing up your skills with the destroyer, test your knowledge with DATBOOTCAMP practice tests.
4. Go over the problems that you got wrong on both datbootcamp and destroyer, especially if you got them wrong more than once.
5. Et-OH....... x 1000.... yeah baby.. you need this..
There are more prep materials out there such as topscore, qvault, DATachiever, but I feel like that Chad's videos, destroyer and DATBOOTCAMP is more than sufficient to cover the materials that are on DAT. However, if you have time and money, more practice you do, the better it is, so knock yourself out and get those extra practice problems and do them.
Thanks to everyone who replied.
Sorry my quick breakdown is so long
