here's a breakdown of how i studied the dat:
total time:
3 months/ 12 weeks
(during summer, thus, entire days were devoted to study... imo, more time would be needed if work and/or school subsisted)
hours of studying/day:
8
*NOTE:
PAT study is not mentioned below. You should find as many resources for PAT questions as possible and practice everyday for at least 1 to 2 hours.
Enroll in Kaplan, take the diagnostic and it should help identify your weak points and you can study accordingly thereafter, as mentioned by sprgrover-- kaplan is highly recommended for the resources and the motivation.
Weeks 1-4
i) read, read, read, read the kaplan book until you have that sucker memorized.
ii) once memorized, study bio and chem of exam krackers; eventually integrate all three.
iii) Purchase Barron's Gen/Beginning Chemistry workbook/review- this is alot better than kaplan's b/c it provides more details (a good thing b/c this book instructs at elementary level) and more questions to practice
*note: kaplan bio review lacks adequate zoology info, at weeks 1-6 i studied gen chem and bio 80% and o chem 20% of the time-- i would highly recommend taking the dat immediately after completion of o-chem.
Weeks 5-7
as much material as possible were gathered; all the dat materials were separated into: i) full length DATs (including topscore) and ii) all other study/review matrl. The full length dat's were not touched until week 10. The subject and subject review questions were worked and reference was made to the textbooks when an answer was made incorrectly. Furthermore, when an answer was not given correctly, the entire section of the subject was reviewed to understand the concept at depth.
Weeks 8-10
Increased amount of questions worked every day; began to decrease textbook referencing and focused more on questions. i was very intense and vigorous at this time; i was able to finish every subject review and then read the kaplan book and exam kracker's bio and chem reviews in a single day for about a week. This latter schedule should be maintained for the final week (answer question heavy + read textbook heavy).
Weeks 11 & 12
These 2 weeks are dedicated to training for the dat. gather all full length dat resources. personally, i had access to:
2 princeton review
3 kaplan (diagnostic, midterm, and final)
(2 barron's, not recommended)
3 kaplan pc
3 topscore pc
*note: do not use the pc versions until the very end, begin by working on paper format
days 1-7:
1 DAT per day, spend remainder of the day reviewing incorrect answers... reference entire section of textbook
days 7- 12:
accomplish 1 to 2 DATs per day, focus on explanations for incorrect answers
days 13 and 14 (2 days prior to real DAT):
2 DATs per day, preferably pc version only; try not to review the explanations in too much depth for answers marked wrong, just simulate the test and try to get your best score.
day prior to DAT:
ideally relax; i personally reviewed o chem all day b/c i was a nervous wreck!!
don't sweat it though, the test isn't all that bad
i aced bio and gen chem, got the lowest scores at pat, o chem, eng... nothing less than a 20 though. PAT i invested alot of time into and i got a 20, my lowest score. everything else was pretty straight forward-- i did not put alot of time into o chem. gen chem, the equations are way easy; many concepts, though. bio is the same, without the calculations; many concepts but definately do-able. o chem is a cinch, i studied at most 4 days total during my 3 month studying of the dat. i put a week's work into math and eng, combined. if you can get your hands on a princeton review math review, it is golden. i worked on princeton questions and it was the exact level of difficulty-- which is easy. the only thing is that kaplan and everyone else go way into detail; you basically have your simple trig and geometry... what gets everyone are the word problems and the statistics/probability. You need to practice a few series of questions in each section and i'd say you'd be good to go. english is also easy; pick up a nice journal or magazine, like new yorker, or something else at that level of difficulty; read through the articles and try to understand what is being written, then try to increase the speed at which you do it the first time. PAT there is no such thing as putting enough time in!! that sucker's confusing and sometimes makes you wonder what's the point... just practice and the kaplan method of teaching the pat helped me alot. Remember, this score will dictate the rest of your life... good luck!!
