DAT Day Done!!! 9.9.11 breakdown!

dmdluffy said:

PAT: 24 (97.2) - CDP
QR: 20 (88.3) - Math Destroyer
RC: 24 (94.4) - CDR
B: 20 (86.5) - KBB, AP Bio, Destroyer, Alan's Notes
GC: 24 (96.1) - Chads, Destroyer
OC: 22 (88.7) - Chads, Destroyer
TS: 21 (90.3)
AA: 22 (95.7) - Achiever, ADA 2006 Sample Test, KBB Sample Test

Just finished my DAT today and I still can't wipe the stupid happy grin off my face!

I listed the study material I used above next to the relevant category and I'll give my breakdown on each section below.

PAT: As everyone has said before, CDP is hands down the best practice tool available. Achiever practice tests gave me some trouble because of the drawings are crappier, but it prepared me for the poorer drawings on the actual test. On the test, I don't know what happened. I absolutely got steam rolled by keyhole but somehow still managed to pull 24! I was getting 23-25 consistently on CDP. Word of warning, I was originally only missing angle rankings (which is really the only ones you should miss according to my brother who got a 30 on his PAT), but on the actual test, I found that keyholes were probably the hardest and everything else was pretty easy. About same, if not a little easier, than CDP.

QR: Seemed pretty easy, I was surprised I got a 20. Math Destroyer definitely helps a lot. There was an emphasis on trig for sure.

RC: CDR seemed to be about the same difficulty as the passages I got. I had one physics, one on H. pylori, and one on hurricanes. Overall, easy (especially when compared to Achiever!)

B: I actually went into the test feeling like bio was my strongest science and am disappointed I got a 20. Questions were half/half of straight memorizing and applying/inferring from what you memorized. Destroyer bio is pretty good prep! AP Bio was good review, KBB is trash.

GC: Like everyone has said, Chad's is awesome. I took notes and went through all of destroyer once. Overall, problems weren't too bad.

OC: Chads! I actually didn't make it all the way through destroyer, but that said, destroyer is definitely over kill.

YAY for being done!

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dmdluffy said:

I started in mid/late June. I hit it pretty hard, I did the bulk of my PAT/RC/QR/B studying in the first month. I rescheduled a few times because I realized my GC/OC skills needed work. I did some light studying after my first month, and started studying OC/GC pretty hard in the last month leading up til today.

In hindsight, I feel if someone does well on CDP/CDR/Math Destroyer, watches/take notes on all of chads videos they should be ready for. Bio is the tricky one because it can be kind of random. AP bio is good for review. I really liked destroyer for bio problems and MCAT audio osmosis was pretty good too.

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dmdluffy said:

Thanks everyone!

To be honest, I didn't really feel like I knew OC/GC that well. I covered all of Chad's videos, did all of the destroyer problems for GC and like 50 for OC and that's it. Before the test, I didn't review GC at all and kept reading over my OC notes that I took while watching Chads.

I think Chad's videos help because he basically highlights the types of question the DAT will ask you so if you understand what he's saying in the videos, you should be alright. As far as equation memorizing, PV=nRT was useful and the mcat one was too. But I noticed that many problems can be solved using dimensional analysis or just plugging in numbers so the units matched up with constants. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you're worried about chem/ochem, chads gives good material to study because there are only certain kinds of questions the DAT can ask you (as opposed to college chem/ochem when you had to know more stuff).

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