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[deleted816661]

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Hey guys and gals!
I have been currently studying for the DAT for the past month and have made great strides. Now there is two weeks left and I am very nervous. I have finished my first run of Destroyer for the sciences and am currently on Test 6 for Math Destroyer. My two worst sections are biology and PAT. For biology, I feel like Destroyer has taught me a lot but when I go back to Ferali's, I feel like I am missing alot of knowledge/details. For PAT, biggest issue is timing (I just started doing PAT after the first week of studying two days ago lol). I took a PAT section of Bootcamp, got a 20 but I ran 11 mins over time. Math seems straight forward. For sciences, I am planning on going through the lab techniques for both ochem and general chem and will go through a second run. However, I do not know exactly how to take practice exams along with this. I have 4 bootcamp tests to go through (as one of them I just did random parts of already). Also I have the ADA tests. Any advice? I am extremely nervous and have been dreaming about this test every night, not a good thing. How should I go about the next two weeks?

 

[dentalstar100]

Oh lol. I am also two weeks out but you are way ahead of me. I haven't even started DAT destroyer lol. I take my DAT on January 21st, should I be worried ?

 

[eb3093]

Oh lol. I am also two weeks out but you are way ahead of me. I haven't even started DAT destroyer lol. I take my DAT on January 21st, should I be worried ?

I took my DAT today and I just want to reassure you both that DAT destroyer GenChem is significantly harder than what you will see on your test. All the calculation problems were very simple. Similarly, the Ochem test is also quite easy - make sure you know can interpret NMR/IR data with only numbers and no graphics. The biology section is very random. Even as a self-proclaimed biology freak, I struggled on this section. Many questions were not material covered in Feralis, Bootcamp, or Destroyer. My advice would be to have all of your developmental bio and anything that has to do with the reproductive system very solidified in your brain. Overall, my actual scores were very similar to the scores I received on Bootcamp practice exams. Good luck to you both!

 

[dentalstar100]

I took my DAT today and I just want to reassure you both that DAT destroyer GenChem is significantly harder than what you will see on your test. All the calculation problems were very simple. Similarly, the Ochem test is also quite easy - make sure you know can interpret NMR/IR data with only numbers and no graphics. The biology section is very random. Even as a self-proclaimed biology freak, I struggled on this section. Many questions were not material covered in Feralis, Bootcamp, or Destroyer. My advice would be to have all of your developmental bio and anything that has to do with the reproductive system very solidified in your brain. Overall, my actual scores were very similar to the scores I received on Bootcamp practice exams. Good luck to you both!

Oh my gosh that sounds so reassuring because I am struggling on DAT Destroyer Genchem on the first 50 problems lol. I am just on Test 3 on Math destroyer right now, but its good practice.

 

[digzthis]

Did the questions just go deeper than what all the sources cover, EB? Also, what'd you think about QR?

 

[eb3093]

Did the questions just go deeper than what all the sources cover, EB? Also, what'd you think about QR?

The bio questions that I struggled with the most were the ones that were only very briefly covered in Feralis/Cliff's. I would recommend watching many Khan Academy MCAT prep videos about developmental bio/the reproductive system and taking notes over them. If you are a visual learner, CrashCourse videos on youtube are also very helpful for the anatomy & physiology questions. The videos are also generally humorous, so you don't feel like you are studying as much. I don't mean to scare anyone, I still ended the bio section with a score in the mid-20s, I was just expecting a little higher. QR was hard, but I also did not study for it like I should have. I watched Chad's videos twice and did the associated quizzes and then just did Bootcamp practice tests. I ended with the same score I averaged on Bootcamp.

 

[digzthis]

ok thanks!

 

[debelli2]

So do you have a subscription to DAT BC? If so, did you do all of the practice exams for each section? If no, my advice would be to do all of those first and learn as much as possible. About a week before the exam take all 5 of the full length practice tests just as you would the real thing. Being that you said you ran out of time on PAT, with two weeks to go DO NOT take any of the tests on bc untimed. I took my DAT today and honestly time is the worst aspect about the test it goes by way faster than it did while doing the full length practice ones. Even if you find yourself running out of time during the bc tests, it's much better to do that on those and try to improve your speed than take the real one in a shorter amount of time than what you've been practicing you know? I was a complete nervous wreck about my test as well and was so scared but you really do just need to have confidence in all of the work you've put in and know that you're going to give it your all. BREATHE, you'll do great 🙂 Good luck!

 

[deleted816661]

.

 

[deleted816661]

So do you have a subscription to DAT BC? If so, did you do all of the practice exams for each section? If no, my advice would be to do all of those first and learn as much as possible. About a week before the exam take all 5 of the full length practice tests just as you would the real thing. Being that you said you ran out of time on PAT, with two weeks to go DO NOT take any of the tests on bc untimed. I took my DAT today and honestly time is the worst aspect about the test it goes by way faster than it did while doing the full length practice ones. Even if you find yourself running out of time during the bc tests, it's much better to do that on those and try to improve your speed than take the real one in a shorter amount of time than what you've been practicing you know? I was a complete nervous wreck about my test as well and was so scared but you really do just need to have confidence in all of the work you've put in and know that you're going to give it your all. BREATHE, you'll do great 🙂 Good luck!

Thanks! I have taken two practice exams on bootcamp (one was broken into sections and one was stimulated as if it was the real thing). I did well on the FL test but I feel like I might have gotten lucky? I definitely have trouble finishing the PAT section so I will definitely take them timed. The PAT practice #10 was very difficult for me (compared to the FL and generators). How did you do btw? I finished my second run of Destroyer for Ochem and have been going through 1/5 of Ferali's notes a day. I took a test run today and my test center allows me to make my grids for the punch hole section. How was each section?

 

[debelli2]

It was okay! Today was my second time taking it. I took it back in 2014 and got 20 PAT, 17 QR, 21 RC, 18 Bio, 20 GC, 19 OC- AA19. Today I got 20 PAT, 19 QR, 21 RC, 19 Bio, 19 GC, 19 OC- AA20. My full length bc averages were 21.3 PAT, 19.6 QR, 20.75 RC, 19.8 Bio, GC 22.2, and OC 20.6. I'm happy I did overall better than my first DAT but am a little bummed that most of my bc averages were higher than the real scores. I feel like 95% of the people on SDN all had higher real scores than bc scores so I wonder what happened to make me the other 5% lol. Each section did seem really representative of BC though. I thought that PAT (TFE and key hole) and QR were harder on the real test. The RC was much easier on the real thing, way more S&D, so out of all scores I'm really surprised I didn't do better on this section because of that. But honestly I think for me it all boiled down to time not necessarily content, especially in QR- I felt like I had at least 5 that I had put a random answer and marked to come back to but didn't have time to come back to. Back in 2014 I specifically remember QR flying by and not finishing as well maybe because its the last section idk?.

 

[debelli2]

On the other hand though, I feel like some of my BC averages could have been inflated being that for most the questions it wasn't the first time I was seeing them, but like I said I feel like 95% of the posts I read everyone got better than their BC scores so I'm sure you will be too!