Hello all,
Been following SDN for a while but didn't register til now. So, my first post is going to be about my first DAT I just took on 4/17 🙂, I just thought I'd share my joy and experience. Also congrats to other members who've scored well!
Background: Graduated from undergrad in '07, went to med school for 1.5yrs, withdrew (I know, big "!", buy me a cup 'o coffee and I'll tell you the story, maybe 🙂), did postbacc last Fall at alma mater, and now applying dent.
The good stuff: AA23/TS23/BIO21/GC29/OC25/RC22/QR20/PA21
Overall: Was supposed to start studying since August but with class and work, I kept procrastinating. Borrowed books from library but didn't study much. Took some upper level science classes at alma mater to boost GPA and get fresh req letters. I really hit the book starting in March. Huge bio/biochem background (major) plus 1.5 years worth of med school stuff, you'd think I'd knock Bio out of the park... didn't happen. All in all I'd say if you're still green (still in undergrad), do NOT take the route I took.
Materials used:
All right I just wanted to gloat that I spent $0.00 minus gas on this.
Cliff DAT '07: Borrowed from library, maybe not complete crap but pretty useless to me, had lots of errors, typos, etc.
Kaplan Blue Book '07-'08: Also borrowed from library, the only edition available as there was only 1 copy of the '08-'09 and someone had it 🙁. Pretty good for overall info but after taking the test I realize the bio section was too limited, as others have pointed out. Also contained errors and typos. The full sample test hasn't changed from a version I saw in '03 edition.
Barron's DAT: The ONLY DAT prep book I found at Borders/B&N, unbelievable! I studied in the bookstore for this 😀. Sample material also OK, errors/typos. I liked its bio section better than Kaplan's, but probably inadequate too.
Chad's GC & Orgo Videos: I LOVE THIS GUY!! If I ever meet Chad I'd give him a BIG Asian hug and kiss his shiny cranium if he'd let me. My goodness, I didn't know how I was going to study Orgo before this since I was done with OChem in 2005 and studied it in 2006/'07 for MCAT. I signed up for OChem II last Fall and quickly dropped... it was all Greek to me 😳. Though, I think DAT Orgo is a lot easier than MCAT, if I remember correctly, or it could just be that Chad's videos are awesomely awesome.
Breakdown:
BIO: I got a lot of genetics related questions, and a few on plant and evolution that were fuzzy. I wish I'd hit the AP Bio books (which I had at home, DOH!) I don't know how I got a 21, I thought it'd be lower, unsure of a lot of stuff.
GC: Thank you again Mr. Chad! Calculations were pretty simple and straightforward, only a few of the concept questions required a little extra thinking (like left shift vs right shift, acid/base, G H S, and redox).
OC: Chad is all you need, all you need is Chad 😎. Pay attention to Chad and I'd guarantee a 20+. (I play Chad's videos at 1.5x, helps alot).
Had a few minutes to spare to go over marked questions, took up whole time, whew!
PAT: I don't know what the heck happened here. Key-hole was pretty easy and so was 2D projections and cube counting, but the angles were CRAZY, the hole-punch was HORRIBLE (multidiagonal-folds), and half of the folding was eh. I thought I'd nail this section 😡. I ran out of time and some of the questions weren't even answered. I did get cautious and spent more time on the first couple of sections than I did during practice, and had to rush through the last section. Also, practice tests only have 1-5 max in the cube counting answer choices, on the actual test it was just everywhere. By the time 30 minutes passed, I still had 50 questions left to answer...😱! The Kaplan sample test and the one from ADA were wholly inadequate to prepare you for the real angle ranking and hole-punching. A 21 meant I probably missed ~25 questions.
Here I should note a few things I had going against me for the first 2 sections: Though I had a good 7 hours of sleep the night before, I only had a light breakfast and DID NOT EAT LUNCH 🙁. I drank some milk and ate some homemade pancakes w/ honey. My test was at 1:30 and so I looked over stuff in the morning. I guess the fight to calm my anxiety made me not hungry, and I drank a lot of water. Next, I didn't think of bringing a snack, DOH. Third, toward the end of OC I needed to go relieve "that pressure" really badly (thanks nephrons) but guess what, no breaks. It was really tough to scrutinize those angles with that pressure in your pelvis. Fourth, I had the luck of picking 2 markers that both ran out in the middle of taking the GC, one marker had 1 side of the tip that worked and the other side would "erase". During the optional break I could really tell that my sugar level was getting low, like my gas tank, and mr. stomach was groaning. Yay me 🙄.
Part deux
RC: I was pretty comfortable with this section. Search and destroy is probably the best strategy, and pacing was not a problem. A few tone and feeling questions, which I think are dumb. I'm surprised I didn't get a better score, but can't complain.
QR: Alright, home stretch. DOH, forgot to review conversions, confound the US system! I spent 2-3 min trying to convert F to C, playing with 5/9 and 32, and kept getting it backward. Other conversions weren't so bad. The onscreen calculator is crap, so slow, and clicking the = sign doesn't reset the next operation (gotta click C to clear). I got a LOT of trig problems: sin, cos, periods (had no clue), had to reason unit circle out. LEARN THE UNIT CIRCLE and trig/radian stuff. It also doesn't help that by this time I'm running on just air.
I skipped the stupid survey, I hope it was really optional. Seeing the scores made my jaws dropped, I just didn't have the strength to celebrate. It was about 6PM when I got out of there, probably the last person out. Anyway, thanks for reading through my rant. Good luck to everyone applying and who are going to take the DAT. Don't stress too much, trust yourself, get a good night's sleep, and EAT BREAKFAST/LUNCH/BRUNCH!
Love,
LT
Been following SDN for a while but didn't register til now. So, my first post is going to be about my first DAT I just took on 4/17 🙂, I just thought I'd share my joy and experience. Also congrats to other members who've scored well!
Background: Graduated from undergrad in '07, went to med school for 1.5yrs, withdrew (I know, big "!", buy me a cup 'o coffee and I'll tell you the story, maybe 🙂), did postbacc last Fall at alma mater, and now applying dent.
The good stuff: AA23/TS23/BIO21/GC29/OC25/RC22/QR20/PA21
Overall: Was supposed to start studying since August but with class and work, I kept procrastinating. Borrowed books from library but didn't study much. Took some upper level science classes at alma mater to boost GPA and get fresh req letters. I really hit the book starting in March. Huge bio/biochem background (major) plus 1.5 years worth of med school stuff, you'd think I'd knock Bio out of the park... didn't happen. All in all I'd say if you're still green (still in undergrad), do NOT take the route I took.
Materials used:
All right I just wanted to gloat that I spent $0.00 minus gas on this.
Cliff DAT '07: Borrowed from library, maybe not complete crap but pretty useless to me, had lots of errors, typos, etc.
Kaplan Blue Book '07-'08: Also borrowed from library, the only edition available as there was only 1 copy of the '08-'09 and someone had it 🙁. Pretty good for overall info but after taking the test I realize the bio section was too limited, as others have pointed out. Also contained errors and typos. The full sample test hasn't changed from a version I saw in '03 edition.
Barron's DAT: The ONLY DAT prep book I found at Borders/B&N, unbelievable! I studied in the bookstore for this 😀. Sample material also OK, errors/typos. I liked its bio section better than Kaplan's, but probably inadequate too.
Chad's GC & Orgo Videos: I LOVE THIS GUY!! If I ever meet Chad I'd give him a BIG Asian hug and kiss his shiny cranium if he'd let me. My goodness, I didn't know how I was going to study Orgo before this since I was done with OChem in 2005 and studied it in 2006/'07 for MCAT. I signed up for OChem II last Fall and quickly dropped... it was all Greek to me 😳. Though, I think DAT Orgo is a lot easier than MCAT, if I remember correctly, or it could just be that Chad's videos are awesomely awesome.
Breakdown:
BIO: I got a lot of genetics related questions, and a few on plant and evolution that were fuzzy. I wish I'd hit the AP Bio books (which I had at home, DOH!) I don't know how I got a 21, I thought it'd be lower, unsure of a lot of stuff.
GC: Thank you again Mr. Chad! Calculations were pretty simple and straightforward, only a few of the concept questions required a little extra thinking (like left shift vs right shift, acid/base, G H S, and redox).
OC: Chad is all you need, all you need is Chad 😎. Pay attention to Chad and I'd guarantee a 20+. (I play Chad's videos at 1.5x, helps alot).
Had a few minutes to spare to go over marked questions, took up whole time, whew!
PAT: I don't know what the heck happened here. Key-hole was pretty easy and so was 2D projections and cube counting, but the angles were CRAZY, the hole-punch was HORRIBLE (multidiagonal-folds), and half of the folding was eh. I thought I'd nail this section 😡. I ran out of time and some of the questions weren't even answered. I did get cautious and spent more time on the first couple of sections than I did during practice, and had to rush through the last section. Also, practice tests only have 1-5 max in the cube counting answer choices, on the actual test it was just everywhere. By the time 30 minutes passed, I still had 50 questions left to answer...😱! The Kaplan sample test and the one from ADA were wholly inadequate to prepare you for the real angle ranking and hole-punching. A 21 meant I probably missed ~25 questions.
Here I should note a few things I had going against me for the first 2 sections: Though I had a good 7 hours of sleep the night before, I only had a light breakfast and DID NOT EAT LUNCH 🙁. I drank some milk and ate some homemade pancakes w/ honey. My test was at 1:30 and so I looked over stuff in the morning. I guess the fight to calm my anxiety made me not hungry, and I drank a lot of water. Next, I didn't think of bringing a snack, DOH. Third, toward the end of OC I needed to go relieve "that pressure" really badly (thanks nephrons) but guess what, no breaks. It was really tough to scrutinize those angles with that pressure in your pelvis. Fourth, I had the luck of picking 2 markers that both ran out in the middle of taking the GC, one marker had 1 side of the tip that worked and the other side would "erase". During the optional break I could really tell that my sugar level was getting low, like my gas tank, and mr. stomach was groaning. Yay me 🙄.
Part deux
RC: I was pretty comfortable with this section. Search and destroy is probably the best strategy, and pacing was not a problem. A few tone and feeling questions, which I think are dumb. I'm surprised I didn't get a better score, but can't complain.
QR: Alright, home stretch. DOH, forgot to review conversions, confound the US system! I spent 2-3 min trying to convert F to C, playing with 5/9 and 32, and kept getting it backward. Other conversions weren't so bad. The onscreen calculator is crap, so slow, and clicking the = sign doesn't reset the next operation (gotta click C to clear). I got a LOT of trig problems: sin, cos, periods (had no clue), had to reason unit circle out. LEARN THE UNIT CIRCLE and trig/radian stuff. It also doesn't help that by this time I'm running on just air.
I skipped the stupid survey, I hope it was really optional. Seeing the scores made my jaws dropped, I just didn't have the strength to celebrate. It was about 6PM when I got out of there, probably the last person out. Anyway, thanks for reading through my rant. Good luck to everyone applying and who are going to take the DAT. Don't stress too much, trust yourself, get a good night's sleep, and EAT BREAKFAST/LUNCH/BRUNCH!
Love,
LT
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