Never thought to do this but why not! I took the DAT on 06/07/17. Been heavily stalking SDN for 6 months and there were times that it killed my confidence haha. Anywho, I studied for "6 months." Technically, on and off during the spring semester and didn't hardcore study until after my finals. I am one of those students that take forever to understand a concept so I usually take longer than most people to study. This exam made me so nervous that I cried the night before the DAT (I know, pathetic.) I have extreme anxiety and stayed up to 3am every night studying (terrible habit, don't do this.) My overall GPA is 3.96 and this is embarrassing but I'm not too sure how to calculate my science GPA 
but I've only made 1 B in bio. Hoping to get into my state school! Anyways, let's get on with the breakdown! Warning, this will be a pretty thorough breakdown.
19 PAT
19 QR
22 RC
21 BIO
30 GC
24 OC
24 TS
23 AA
Warning, I made over 2000 flashcards (overkill, I know) but for some reason, writing something down always helped me! I used Chad's Videos, DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Bootcamp, Feralis Notes Cliff's, AP Bio, 2009 DAT (Science Only.) Oh, I also took advantage of the 15 minute tutorial in the beginning to calm me down, it worked!
PAT: I mainly used BC. I bought CrackDat as well but realized it was too easy. I kept making 17s on the PAT section on BC. Initially I was doing so horrible on Hole Punching! It freaked me out because everyone was saying how this should be one of the easy sections (it was btw.) I downloaded "Speedster DAT" app and I just used the Hole punching generator in my spare time and I used the same exact "cross" technique on the DAT.
DAT PAT: First, I skipped around on the DAT. I skipped to Cube Counting > Hole Punch > Angles > Pattern Folding > TFE > Keyholes. Angle ranking and cube counting was on par with BC. Pattern folding wasn't bad! There were some extremely complex shapes that I had to straight up guess. Keyholes and TFE... man oh man. This was hard. Harder than BC hands down. Honestly I don't know how else to prepare for this section except for BC. Just prepare for the worse! I had 5 minutes left on this section.
QR: I hate math. I can't math. This section was such a PAIN to study for. I had the 2016 Math Destroyer and I went through 13 tests. But it was so hard I couldn't stop looking in the back of the book for the answers! I know, I'm ashamed of myself. But eventually I caught on with the rate and probability problems. But I still sucked at it. On BC I kept making 15s and 16s. I did ALL of the BC math and just went over the solutions repetitively. I wrote many flashcards with formulas, sample questions, and trig stuff. I also did the subject specific QR for Quantitative Comparison on BC. This helped me SO much. I kept reading the solutions to fully understand why I got it wrong or why the answer is the way it is. This definitely prepared me for the QC questions on the DAT.
DAT QR: I also had simple data interpretation questions (thank goodness) like graphs. Since I hate math so much, during the real DAT I had 15 questions left in 5 minutes (please don't do what I did, lol.) But I was SO happy to see that I didn't totally bomb it! Haha. I had no trig but I definitely had some simple geometry questions and it was embedded in the actual QC questions.
RC: I had a hard time on studying for the RC. I kept making 17's on BC and it was totally killing my mood! So I tried to do this "method" of writing the questions down first (keywords) and then writing down key words or ideas for each paragraph. It brought me up to a 21 on the BC. English is also my 2nd language so I've always sucked at reading.
DAT RC: On the real thing, I tried to do the same method thing but my fat hand kept erasing what I just wrote so I totally ditched the whole "method" I had, haha. Plus, I realized how much easier the DAT was and the questions were really easy to find in the paragraph. Plus, my articles were interesting so that helps! There were maybe a couple of tone questions and I know for sure I missed them because they were using like SAT type of vocabulary lol! I had 10 minutes left on this section.
BIO: I made over 1000 flashcards for bio. This is overkill. I only did the flashcards because it helps me remember when I write them down. I went through cliff's once during the spring semester. I went through Destroyer once. I wrote down EVERYTHING that I was not sure about for each destroyer question. Not just the question, but in the actual answer choices. I was very thankful for Destroyer. I didn't try to remember the answers but I try to understand what they're asking me. This took me a while to get through but it's SO worth it. I also went through Feralis Notes. I made flashcards for concepts I haven't encountered in Destroyer. I went through Feralis once, took me a couple of days. I finished all 10 BC Biology exams. I was making an average of 20. I recommend doing exam 6-10 FIRST. These are from DAT Genius. These are HARDER than 1-5. But the explanations are phenomenal! I also made flashcards from BC biology!
DAT BIO: This was extremely straightforward. I was so surprised. I was a big triggered te bhe honest, haha! Nothing that I haven't encountered. I made some stupid choices that I should have stuck with my gut. Everything was SURFACE LEVEL. There were also questions I felt like I've seen before while studying for this section!!
GC: GC was one of my weaknesses while studying. Maybe it had something to do with math? Lol, i don't know. But I used Chad's videos during the spring semester. Watched it once and wrote thorough notes. I even wrote down all the quiz questions and worked them out. I went over Destroyer twice. I probably studied this section the hardest because I was scared of those equilibrium problems! I went through my Chad's notes once and wrote flashcards for stuff I knew I was probably going to forget. I went through BC and made 17's and 18's. Of course this scared me, but I went through the solutions and wrote down flashcards for every question that had a concept I should be familiar with.
DAT GC: No joke. I had NO clue I would make a 30 on this section. I was extremely surprised because I sucked at GC so I guess I studied the hardest on this section! Everything was extremely straightforward with minimal calculations (thank goodness.) And for questions that DO require calculations, all of mine was already set up for me! Don't count on what I said though, everyone's exam will be different!
OC: Chad's videos once, went through my notes on the week of my exam once. Wrote flashcards for conceptual concepts (SN1, SN2, E1, E2, ect.) and for reactions (like knowing if it's syn, anti, mark, anti-mark ect.) I went through BC and was making 20s on every exam. I went through DAT Destroyer twice and wrote flashcards for reactions I haven't seen before.
DAT OC: Again, like a broken record, this section was very straightforward. A lot of conceptual questions rather than reaction type questions but it was literally questions about the basics of organic chemistry. I took a lot of time going over my flashcards that had lots of mechanisms, and my real DAT only had like 2 reaction questions.
On my sciences, I had 40 minutes left. I just went over all of my marked questions and went through the whole entire science section once.
Any questions, feel free to ask! Now I can finally sleep!
Appreciation post: I'm EXTREMELY thankful for DAT Destroyer, Bootcamp, Chad's videos and Feralis!!!!
but I've only made 1 B in bio. Hoping to get into my state school! Anyways, let's get on with the breakdown! Warning, this will be a pretty thorough breakdown.19 PAT
19 QR
22 RC
21 BIO
30 GC
24 OC
24 TS
23 AA
Warning, I made over 2000 flashcards (overkill, I know) but for some reason, writing something down always helped me! I used Chad's Videos, DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Bootcamp, Feralis Notes Cliff's, AP Bio, 2009 DAT (Science Only.) Oh, I also took advantage of the 15 minute tutorial in the beginning to calm me down, it worked!
PAT: I mainly used BC. I bought CrackDat as well but realized it was too easy. I kept making 17s on the PAT section on BC. Initially I was doing so horrible on Hole Punching! It freaked me out because everyone was saying how this should be one of the easy sections (it was btw.) I downloaded "Speedster DAT" app and I just used the Hole punching generator in my spare time and I used the same exact "cross" technique on the DAT.
DAT PAT: First, I skipped around on the DAT. I skipped to Cube Counting > Hole Punch > Angles > Pattern Folding > TFE > Keyholes. Angle ranking and cube counting was on par with BC. Pattern folding wasn't bad! There were some extremely complex shapes that I had to straight up guess. Keyholes and TFE... man oh man. This was hard. Harder than BC hands down. Honestly I don't know how else to prepare for this section except for BC. Just prepare for the worse! I had 5 minutes left on this section.
QR: I hate math. I can't math. This section was such a PAIN to study for. I had the 2016 Math Destroyer and I went through 13 tests. But it was so hard I couldn't stop looking in the back of the book for the answers! I know, I'm ashamed of myself. But eventually I caught on with the rate and probability problems. But I still sucked at it. On BC I kept making 15s and 16s. I did ALL of the BC math and just went over the solutions repetitively. I wrote many flashcards with formulas, sample questions, and trig stuff. I also did the subject specific QR for Quantitative Comparison on BC. This helped me SO much. I kept reading the solutions to fully understand why I got it wrong or why the answer is the way it is. This definitely prepared me for the QC questions on the DAT.
DAT QR: I also had simple data interpretation questions (thank goodness) like graphs. Since I hate math so much, during the real DAT I had 15 questions left in 5 minutes (please don't do what I did, lol.) But I was SO happy to see that I didn't totally bomb it! Haha. I had no trig but I definitely had some simple geometry questions and it was embedded in the actual QC questions.
RC: I had a hard time on studying for the RC. I kept making 17's on BC and it was totally killing my mood! So I tried to do this "method" of writing the questions down first (keywords) and then writing down key words or ideas for each paragraph. It brought me up to a 21 on the BC. English is also my 2nd language so I've always sucked at reading.
DAT RC: On the real thing, I tried to do the same method thing but my fat hand kept erasing what I just wrote so I totally ditched the whole "method" I had, haha. Plus, I realized how much easier the DAT was and the questions were really easy to find in the paragraph. Plus, my articles were interesting so that helps! There were maybe a couple of tone questions and I know for sure I missed them because they were using like SAT type of vocabulary lol! I had 10 minutes left on this section.
BIO: I made over 1000 flashcards for bio. This is overkill. I only did the flashcards because it helps me remember when I write them down. I went through cliff's once during the spring semester. I went through Destroyer once. I wrote down EVERYTHING that I was not sure about for each destroyer question. Not just the question, but in the actual answer choices. I was very thankful for Destroyer. I didn't try to remember the answers but I try to understand what they're asking me. This took me a while to get through but it's SO worth it. I also went through Feralis Notes. I made flashcards for concepts I haven't encountered in Destroyer. I went through Feralis once, took me a couple of days. I finished all 10 BC Biology exams. I was making an average of 20. I recommend doing exam 6-10 FIRST. These are from DAT Genius. These are HARDER than 1-5. But the explanations are phenomenal! I also made flashcards from BC biology!
DAT BIO: This was extremely straightforward. I was so surprised. I was a big triggered te bhe honest, haha! Nothing that I haven't encountered. I made some stupid choices that I should have stuck with my gut. Everything was SURFACE LEVEL. There were also questions I felt like I've seen before while studying for this section!!
GC: GC was one of my weaknesses while studying. Maybe it had something to do with math? Lol, i don't know. But I used Chad's videos during the spring semester. Watched it once and wrote thorough notes. I even wrote down all the quiz questions and worked them out. I went over Destroyer twice. I probably studied this section the hardest because I was scared of those equilibrium problems! I went through my Chad's notes once and wrote flashcards for stuff I knew I was probably going to forget. I went through BC and made 17's and 18's. Of course this scared me, but I went through the solutions and wrote down flashcards for every question that had a concept I should be familiar with.
DAT GC: No joke. I had NO clue I would make a 30 on this section. I was extremely surprised because I sucked at GC so I guess I studied the hardest on this section! Everything was extremely straightforward with minimal calculations (thank goodness.) And for questions that DO require calculations, all of mine was already set up for me! Don't count on what I said though, everyone's exam will be different!
OC: Chad's videos once, went through my notes on the week of my exam once. Wrote flashcards for conceptual concepts (SN1, SN2, E1, E2, ect.) and for reactions (like knowing if it's syn, anti, mark, anti-mark ect.) I went through BC and was making 20s on every exam. I went through DAT Destroyer twice and wrote flashcards for reactions I haven't seen before.
DAT OC: Again, like a broken record, this section was very straightforward. A lot of conceptual questions rather than reaction type questions but it was literally questions about the basics of organic chemistry. I took a lot of time going over my flashcards that had lots of mechanisms, and my real DAT only had like 2 reaction questions.
On my sciences, I had 40 minutes left. I just went over all of my marked questions and went through the whole entire science section once.
Any questions, feel free to ask! Now I can finally sleep!
Appreciation post: I'm EXTREMELY thankful for DAT Destroyer, Bootcamp, Chad's videos and Feralis!!!!
Last edited:
