study schedule for DAT

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Cofo

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I am going to study 5 weeks over xmas break to study for the DAT. will you help me devise a study schedule? I don't really know if I should study each of the subjects one at a time, or if I should study them altogether during the same day.

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take a look at dat breakdowns to guide your study schedule. i asked a similar question and got ripped apart
 
I am going to study 5 weeks over xmas break to study for the DAT. will you help me devise a study schedule? I don't really know if I should study each of the subjects one at a time, or if I should study them altogether during the same day.

Break down the subjects into parts for each day. Do not study them one at a time, too much bio memorization will blur the subject and a lot of gen chem at one time will have you mixing equations. Practice the PAT everyday. Good luck and let us know how it goes. :xf:
 
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"Break down the subjects into parts for each day. Do not study them one at a time, too much bio memorization will blur the subject and a lot of gen chem at one time will have you mixing equations. Practice the PAT everyday. Good luck and let us know how it goes. :xf:"

I Agree with this.............You'll also need an Industrial sized tub of "Ass Glue"......
 
i agree with the posts above. the worst thing to do is study one subject at a time. it gets boring but if you do it that way you won't remember the first subject you studied...AT ALL...
also, i found it helpful to take short breaks in between, like 15 minutes break for an hour study
 
I went through exactly as Kaplan BB outlined. I just first went through that book, taking notes. Then I went back through everything, highlighting points that I thought were important or more difficult to remember. Then I went through Destroyer, again, exactly as it was given, subject by subject. When I was done with all that, I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to work on, so I went back through and did more practice problems from Destroyer. Last thing was just practice practice practice. TopScore was great for that. I didn't study PAT or QR though, only did problems with my practice tests, so that might change things, but I don't know.
 
what i did was i studied one science subject per day and paired it with something else (for example QR, RC, PAT). it seemed to work for me, except i should have spent some more time on QR. i felt like i made more progress and remembered more if i concentrated on one science per day, but everyone is different.
 
I would start practicing QR immediately, especially if its been a while since you took a math class. I just did simple math in my head throughout the day (grocery shopping, mall, restaurants, etc.). I think that helped my speed and accuracy. I also sat down and played with numbers, square roots, exponents, fractions, and percentages.
 
Honestly, for the QR, if you don't have a ton of weird formulas memorized, there's almost no way you can finish it and have a very educated answered to every question. That said, you don't really have to in order to do well, because everyone has that issue.
 
Drink coffee/tea while studying. Helps the brain retain as much as possible. Don't "read" kaplan notes...skim for words you don't know and circle those to review. Break chapters down by concept and make separate (detailed) quick reference sheets with those "concepts" that are unfamiliar. Extend that 5 weeks of planned study time to 10 weeks (or double the time you were planning on spending each day). Use youtube for cell respiration/photosynth videos. Eat dark chocolate on test day...70% Cocoa. Pray.
 
I'll give you my overall study progression, which you can probably do in 5 weeks or atleast most of it. I scored 22-22-20, and wish I would have studied a little harder early because the last 2 weeks I seriously crammed.


A few months before the test, I started going through the standard Kaplan book. I read over everything and noted anything that I was unclear on. A good tip to get through material that is boring to you is to set time goals, like get 45 minutes of bio and then take a break. I also liked to study science then PAT then go back to science, because the PAT was kind of fun (I primarily did practice problems for PAT prep). The last few weeks before the test I took the 3 TopScore practice tests, and went over every answer. Anything that I didn't understand 100% I reviewed in Kaplan or wikipedia or whatever. Take as many practice tests as you can because they are probably the best study tool available, but save some for closer to your test. Finally some math advice...practice problems are best here too, but make sure you practice SPEED. There are going to be some formulas you need to remember. However, practicing shortcuts and quick math can help your score as much as anything. For example, if you have an algebra problem you know how to set up, but will take 2 minutes to do, just start plugging in the answers to the original till you find the one that fits. At worst, it takes you just as long, but if the answer is the first or second choice, you just saved a minute. I didn't review a lot of complex math(statistics) and put very little time into trig, but I got a 21 because I was able to answer every question and go back to 1 or 2 problems that I knew would take more time.
 
Just be prepared for the QR at the end to drive you up the wall. :D
 
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