Another thread on how to study for DAT

dreaming2k5 · Jul 22, 2005

I took my DAT a little over a month ago, and I was satisfied with how I did except for the PAT section. I really think PAT can't be practiced for, and no matter how well I did on the Kaplan review, the real PAT was much harder (I blame the monitor).

Biology
I used the Kaplan review book. Because I kept falling asleep reading it, I decided to rewrite the entire section in outline form. I think it worked for me, and would work for anyone willing to put in the effort. Some would just copy verbatum from the book what they think are important -- that's ineffective. Rewrite everything in your own word works a lot better. And if you are copying from the book, you tend to fall asleep too.

Biology outline is what I wrote (open link with Internet Explorer). It's done with Kaplan Review Notes as source along with an anatomy book, websites, and etc. There's more I wanted to do with the outline, like go over all the biology practice exams I had, and update the content with questions I miss -- but I stopped, deciding there's just too much little things they can test you on.

I believe having basic working knowledge of every section in the biology section, would be enough to score really high.

Inorganic Chemistry
I studied this section using only Kaplan materials. By taking the class (worthless), they gave me tons of practice tests on the website which is really good. In the beginning, I was only scoring 16 on Kaplan Practice tests, and I didn't know any of the formulas. I literally stumbled through every question, guessing at the answer.

When I first started working this section, I fought against the practice tests... and just worked the problem then looked at the answer and said, "grr, I almost got it." It sort of worked -- but it's until I decided to work with solutions guide, did I really start to understand.

Inorganic Chemistry is something like math. I would work the practice tests, and treat them as homework. One glance at the question, I would know if I could do it or not. When I didn't know, I went straight for the solutions manual, and studied the steps. Once I think I know how, I would work the problem without looking at the manual, and move to the next. When I come upon the same kind of question again... repeat and rinse until I got it.

I did a marathon of this for 4 days straight, until I saw every kind of inorganic chem problem.

Organic Chem

I think this is one section where having a good organic chem teacher is very important. I love my organic chem teacher (same for 1 & 2), and when I took the national standard exam, I scored well. I didn't even flip to the organic section of the review book, and studied straight from the American Chemical Society's study guide on the national exam. It's a much better book with great explanations behind every possible types of question.

When I took Organic Chem, I literally worked every problem in every chapter covered. Often times, homework for Organic Chem took 6 hours to do. So... it's a long process, and very difficult to study for if you don't know anything to start with. So I wouldn't recommend taking the DAT without having done organic 1 & 2.

Reading Comprehension
I thought the DAT computer screwed up in this section for me and gave me the simplest of essays to read. They were so easy to read, the questions weren't a problem at all.

I have no tips on how to study for this section... I think it's luck of the draw. If I had an essay from Kaplan book, I would've gotten a much lower score.

Quantative Reasoning
Even though I'm a computer engineer, this section proves to be one of the most difficult for me. I hate this section because I always run out of time. I think they know this, and put very easy questions at the end of the test. So, for this section, when you get stuck, jump to the end and start working backward immediately.

When you get stuck working backward, start jumping around and answer all that you can.

That's about it. I know most of you took the test already and scored really well =) But I wanted to contribute something to the forum. Hope it's somewhat helpful.

yebin012 · Jul 23, 2005

thanks for your advice. I did not take any courses, I studied Kaplan as best as I can and am probably the most nervous about biology. From what you say though, it seems that studying Kaplan is enough. Were you able to get the scores you aimed for? I'm hoping to get 21-22 on each of the science sections. I'm taking the test this Friday.

So on the real test, would you say that the questions aren't AS detailed as some of the ones in the Kaplan book or other practice tests? Did you use any other books? And compared to practice tests...was the real DAT easier/harder? Any things that surprised you?

dreaming2k5 · Jul 23, 2005

yebin012 said:
thanks for your advice. I did not take any courses, I studied Kaplan as best as I can and am probably the most nervous about biology. From what you say though, it seems that studying Kaplan is enough. Were you able to get the scores you aimed for? I'm hoping to get 21-22 on each of the science sections. I'm taking the test this Friday.

So on the real test, would you say that the questions aren't AS detailed as some of the ones in the Kaplan book or other practice tests? Did you use any other books? And compared to practice tests...was the real DAT easier/harder? Any things that surprised you?

Yes, in my personal opinion, studying Kaplan is enough. I was able to get what I aimed. In the real test, I would say Biology is really divided into two ... either the questions are really easy and the answers obvious, or they're super difficult (only a couple). Overall, I would say the real DAT is easier than the practice (other than the PAT).

I didn't really use any other book for the academic part... but parts of Kaplan are inadequate, and you know they're inadequate. So for those, I would look it up on websites. The best example I can think of is the explanation of human heart on pg 584 (just looked it up, no photographic memory here unlike another poster on this forum). They got one stinking paragraph on one of the most tested subject! So I went to look that up on some website I found.. analyzed it, and wrote it in my own words.

Code:

II. The Heart
	a. The right side
		i. Responsible for oxygenating the blood, this is called pulmonary circulation
		ii. Right Atrium
			1) Thin walled
			2) Receives the deoxygenated blood from 3 sources
				a) Superior vena cava - from head, arms, and thorax
				b) Inferior vena cava - lower parts of the body
				c) Coronary sinus - blood from walls of the heart
		iii. Right ventricle 
			1) Muscular
			2) Receives blood from the right atrium
				a) Through the right atrio-ventricular opening
			3) Pumps the blood through pulmonary arteries to the lungs
				a) The opening of this is guarded by a tri-cuspid valve called "semi-lunar valves of pulmonary artery"
				b) When the ventricle contracts, the semi-lunar valve closes and blood is forced past through the pulmonary artery
	b. The left side
		i. Responsible for circulation of oxygenated blood, this is called systemic circulation
		ii. Left Atrium
			1) Thin walled
			2) Receives oxygenated blood from the lung via 4 pulmonary veins
			3) Pumps the blood through mitral valve to the left ventricle
		iii. Left ventricle
			1) Extremely muscular
			2) Receives blood from left atrium through the mitral valve
			3) Pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body through aorta and the semi-lunar valve of aorta

As for other books, I also used The Baron's guide for PAT. Their instructions on how to do PAT is pretty good I thought, even though I still didn't do very well. The best thing I got from the whole book would be their cube counting techniques!

Step 1: Start at the very top level and treat it by itself. Imagine yourself looking down on the top most level.

Step 2: Count the number of faces exposed starting from the top-left. Work your way to the down then right. Jot down the number of faces of EACH cube.

Step 3: Once you are done with the top most level, draw a slash through your paper, and go to the second level. Repeat step 2.

Step 4: Once all the cubes are account for, count how many cubes total you have, and double check against how many numbers you wrote down.

Step 5: Now, when the question asks, "how many cubes have 3 faces?" Count the number of times "3" appears on your paper!

For example
---------------

Your scrap sheet would look like...

5
5
5
---
4
4
3
3
3
3
4
---
2
3
3
2
2
3
2
2
1
4
4

Total number of cubes: 21
Double check against the list.. top level = 3, middle = 7, bottom = 11
Matches!

Richnator · Jul 23, 2005

Are you a chick? If you are, you definitely turned me on. Smart chicks are hot imho ^_^

Richnator · Jul 23, 2005

Doh, just checked your profile. Ok, I take back my last comment ^_^

sailinx · Jul 23, 2005

dreaming2k5 said:
.........

Biology
I used the Kaplan review book. Because I kept falling asleep reading it, I decided to rewrite the entire section in outline form. I think it worked for me, and would work for anyone willing to put in the effort. Some would just copy verbatum from the book what they think are important -- that's ineffective. Rewrite everything in your own word works a lot better. And if you are copying from the book, you tend to fall asleep too.

Thanks dreaming2k5 for a very good post. I just looked at the bio outline you made. It seems like a good idea to have this outline. I wish, I had seen something like this before (I am taking DAT next week). I have a question about the outline, seems like you covered quite a bit, can you say the level of detail information you have in the outline is good enough for DAT and secondly, how many questions you were able to answer with this level of information (outline).

Thanks for the help.
sailinx

dreaming2k5 · Jul 23, 2005

sailinx said:
I have a question about the outline, seems like you covered quite a bit, can you say the level of detail information you have in the outline is good enough for DAT and secondly, how many questions you were able to answer with this level of information (outline).

The point isn't having the outline, but rather writing it yourself to be familiar with the material. The DAT covers a huge range of material, and knowing everything is important. I would say with this outline, I was able to answer 90% of the questions on the Biology Section (I got 22, I don't know how it translate to number of questions correct)

Of course, this would vary from test to test. No one book can have all the information you'd need because DAT can get incredibly specific about the material -- you wouldn't have a clue what the answer is.

dreaming2k5 · Jul 23, 2005

Richnator said:
Are you a chick? If you are, you definitely turned me on. Smart chicks are hot imho ^_^

Sorry if I sounded like a chick. I'd try harder to be manly from this point forward!

dreaming2k5 · Sep 7, 2005

It's been a couple months, gonna give myself a bump here.

lhnguyen · Sep 7, 2005

What is this "bump" thing I keep seeing people write? I'm lost.

dreaming2k5 said:
It's been a couple months, gonna give myself a bump here.

tRNA · Sep 8, 2005

thanks dreaming for VERY helpful advices, I wish more pple who took the DAT would do what you did,
Good luck in d-school

karla · Sep 10, 2005

Thank you dreaming,you are so good, a ? an the cubes I'm only counting 20
What I'm doing wrong ?

iambatman · Sep 10, 2005

lhnguyen said:
What is this "bump" thing I keep seeing people write? I'm lost.

i think bump means people want the thread to be available to read by others, so it get's to the top of the 'list' of threads.

burton117 · Nov 2, 2005

Yeah... this thread is helpful!

dreaming2k5 · Jun 4, 2007

It felt as if I was staying up all night cramming for the god forsaken test - and now, I have friends asking me about how to apply for Dental School =) Heh, so a bump to myself from the past!

Sillygirl · Jun 4, 2007

lol on one part of your outline i saw you started studying at 4:08am!! you definitely deserve that 22!!! congrats!

jeezy · Jun 4, 2007

wow impressive... i was looking to see if you had anything about phyla and subclasses but you havent.. so are all the really picky taxonomy Qs just a crapdraw, or do some people know it

Another thread on how to study for DAT

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