Will Search and Destroy method work on DAT?

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JCLewis90

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I had originally planned on reading about 3-4 paragraphs at a time then going through the questions to answer what I could from those paragraphs. Using Crack DAT Reading, this worked fine and I was able to finish one passage and the questions in ~15 minutes.
Unfortunately, I just tried DAT Bootcamp's RC, and it just doesn't seem to work as well. I tried Search and Destroy (reading the question and searching for the answer), and I was able to finish a passage and questions in 20 minutes. I'm not the fastest reader, and I tend to stress out during this part of the test. Will search and destroy work on the real DAT?

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It all depends on how lucky you get on the DAT. Some passages are all like Search & Destroy like mine were today and some are like WTF are these passages about & all them tones. I had only 3 tone questions total. about like 25 Search and Destroy questions. And the rest were just reading the paragraph associated with the topic talked about and deducing an answer (application questions?). Anyways I have never scored above a 16 on my practice tests, and got a 19 on the real thing :D!!!
 
It all depends on how lucky you get on the DAT. Some passages are all like Search & Destroy like mine were today and some are like WTF are these passages about & all them tones. I had only 3 tone questions total. about like 25 Search and Destroy questions. And the rest were just reading the paragraph associated with the topic talked about and deducing an answer (application questions?). Anyways I have never scored above a 16 on my practice tests, and got a 19 on the real thing :D!!!

Did you use the search and destroy method?
 
Your scores are legit now go eat some halva..

I just made a 15 on the first datbootcamp test, and my test is in 2 days.. should i be worried?
 
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i only had 1 tone question out of 50
think of it as sub PAT section where you're playing finding waldo cause that's really how it is
 
i only had 1 tone question out of 50
think of it as sub PAT section where you're playing finding waldo cause that's really how it is

I'm having trouble with Search and Destroy in DAT Bootcamp now. None of the answers seem to come from one part of a passage. Seems like you have to read the entire thing to know the answers.
 
I scored a 16 on boot camp test one for RC. Thoroughly analyze exam 1 and learn how Ari phrased the questions and the different style of questions.
After I did that. I went to 17 18 19 and finally a 20. A 16 to a 20 is about 9-12 more questions answered correctly, depending on difficulty of exam. You can do it.

I personally always miss the this statement is right but reason is not type of questions.

Good luck
 
Yes I did :D

With DAT Bootcamp, it seems like you have to read the whole passage to answer most of the questions. It's like the answers to each question are from multiple parts of the passage. Was the real DAT like this? Or could you typically find the answer in one part of the passage?
 
With DAT Bootcamp, it seems like you have to read the whole passage to answer most of the questions. It's like the answers to each question are from multiple parts of the passage. Was the real DAT like this? Or could you typically find the answer in one part of the passage?

No the answers were not all over the place. It was not like you have to get the answer from paragraph 7 & 2...No you typically find that term they mention in the question read few sentences around it and deduce an answer from the choices which are sometimes obvious
 
No the answers were not all over the place. It was not like you have to get the answer from paragraph 7 & 2...No you typically find that term they mention in the question read few sentences around it and deduce an answer from the choices which are sometimes obvious

Ok we'll that's definitely a plus. I was also worried about using S&D for really scientific passages. I'm afraid it will be really hard to find the answer since key terms might show up all over the passage
 
I'm going to be honest. S&D is risky...if you straight up use it and it doesn't work for you with certain questions they put on there...then you are outta luck. Bootcamp is good practice...I tried S&D the first one got 17...after that I read the passage and wrote key words from each paragraph on a piece of paper and then answered the questions....got a 20...and Bootcamp is harder than the DAT from what I hear. The latter method is way safer and will work on any RC section...S&D is all risk...I highly recommend you actually read/skim the passage and write stuff down...it will help a ton. Hope this helps! Don't want you to panic during the actual exam :)
 
I'm going to be honest. S&D is risky...if you straight up use it and it doesn't work for you with certain questions they put on there...then you are outta luck. Bootcamp is good practice...I tried S&D the first one got 17...after that I read the passage and wrote key words from each paragraph on a piece of paper and then answered the questions....got a 20...and Bootcamp is harder than the DAT from what I hear. The latter method is way safer and will work on any RC section...S&D is all risk...I highly recommend you actually read/skim the passage and write stuff down...it will help a ton. Hope this helps! Don't want you to panic during the actual exam :)

Yea that's what I'm worried about. It doesn't waste a lot of time reading and writing stuff down, then going back to find answers? I'm not a super fast reader
 
Yea that's what I'm worried about. It doesn't waste a lot of time reading and writing stuff down, then going back to find answers? I'm not a super fast reader

The readings aren't more than 15-20 paragraphs from what I hear. If you quickly skim each paragraph just looking for key words...you don't have to legit read wholeheartedly...your adrenaline will be rushing anyways during the exam. Basically I quickly skim and write any keywords emphasized in the paragraph for every paragraph. I then go to the questions and locate each area based on my keywords of every paragraph so I don't have to go hunting for every darn question. It's safe, but a little more time consuming...but a whole lot better than pure S&D imo...and usually gets higher scores. Also while skimming you'll get the gist of the passage and won't be clueless when answering questions for tone etc.
 
Ok we'll that's definitely a plus. I was also worried about using S&D for really scientific passages. I'm afraid it will be really hard to find the answer since key terms might show up all over the passage

It shouldn't be like that on DAT Bootcamp. Most of the questions have a keyword that refer to a specific part of the passage. Make sure you're picking out the right keyword though, I think I write about this and give an example in the search and destroy guide. Some of the questions are application based and may require you to have a more thorough understanding of the passage. Just guess, mark, and move on if you're using search and destroy. After you answer all the easy questions go back to the ones you marked and work on them. You may not be able to answer every question if you use search and destroy, it's the risk of using this method, so if you can't find the answer guess your best and move on to the next passage.
 
I was looking into this before my test as well. Someone on here mentioned doing kind of a hybrid S&D. They would read the question and answers and then start reading the article, once they came to the answer, they would move on to the next question and continue reading from where they stopped.

I practiced with this method on topscore and got 20s and then got a 21 on the real deal.
 
It works for many passages, but, unfortunately, not for all. The best way to become a fast reader, is to read an article a day from Science journals, NY times or Time magazine. That definitely works.

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I had originally planned on reading about 3-4 paragraphs at a time then going through the questions to answer what I could from those paragraphs. Using Crack DAT Reading, this worked fine and I was able to finish one passage and the questions in ~15 minutes.
Unfortunately, I just tried DAT Bootcamp's RC, and it just doesn't seem to work as well. I tried Search and Destroy (reading the question and searching for the answer), and I was able to finish a passage and questions in 20 minutes. I'm not the fastest reader, and I tend to stress out during this part of the test. Will search and destroy work on the real DAT?
Hey!

I have been having trouble with RC too. I started with 15's and I am now scoring 20's.

I first read the first and last paragraph. When go through the questions and do search and destroy, I skip and bookmark the tone questions. After search and destroy, I usually have about 8 minutes left with 4 questions to go. I then read the whole passage quickly since I know what to look for, or I just go to each question and after search and destroy I can usually answer them or know where to look. Then I check them.

So basically, Skim passage, search and destroy while skipping tone questions, then with the remaining time answer the tone questions and there's usually only 4 left by then, and I usually understand the entire passage by then!

Hope this helps :)
 
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