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Hello everybody,
I'm not a regular on this network, however I just took the DAT on Aug 22nd and thought I'd shed some light on the format/question style as well as how I studied (and what materials you should use).
Biology portion: much harder than I anticipated; they used a few tricky diagram questions that I was unprepared for and had a tough time understanding
Chemistry: Very "average," meaning that they didn't present much material that you likely haven't encountered within your practice tests.
Organic Chemistry: surprisingly difficult, as it actually tested my knowledge of the subject rather than the brute memorization of reactions and concepts that I was anticipating. Be ready to spend a little more time on this section than you're used to
PAT: very easy, in comparison to what you'll be used to
Math and Reading comp: exactly what you're expecting
Study Method: I used Kaplan's online program as a foundation, however you'll require supplementary materials since it just doesn't give you enough practice questions or background knowledge about the subjects. I had the Princeton Review MCAT subject books for the sciences, which were very beneficial because it gave an alternative perspective and generally asked more difficult questions than would appear on the DAT. When I ran out of problems, I purchased Crack DAT (the whole package) but found that it was really only useful for the PAT (but you MUST use this as it will prepare you better than any other PAT resource). I purchased TopScore,which was equally as useful as the Kaplan tests and gave me a good idea of how I'd do on the real thing. I also use DAT achiever, but learned that you should take your scores from that 'with a grain of salt.' It was very difficult, and often times irrelevant, testing on material that wasn't likely to show on the actual test. Barron's turned out to be a surprisingly good resource. You can get a used one for cheap on Amazon, and it gave 4 pretty solid practice tests (the book has plenty of mistakes in it though so be ready to question it when you get a problem wrong) I would still suggest using it if you need extra problems, though. Good luck on your respective tests, and I hope you succeed in your future endeavors.
Scores (in case you need them to validate what I'm saying):
Biology: 22
G-Chem: 24
O-Chem: 24
Math: 24
Reading: 20
PAT 25
AA: 23
TS: 23
I'm not a regular on this network, however I just took the DAT on Aug 22nd and thought I'd shed some light on the format/question style as well as how I studied (and what materials you should use).
Biology portion: much harder than I anticipated; they used a few tricky diagram questions that I was unprepared for and had a tough time understanding
Chemistry: Very "average," meaning that they didn't present much material that you likely haven't encountered within your practice tests.
Organic Chemistry: surprisingly difficult, as it actually tested my knowledge of the subject rather than the brute memorization of reactions and concepts that I was anticipating. Be ready to spend a little more time on this section than you're used to
PAT: very easy, in comparison to what you'll be used to
Math and Reading comp: exactly what you're expecting
Study Method: I used Kaplan's online program as a foundation, however you'll require supplementary materials since it just doesn't give you enough practice questions or background knowledge about the subjects. I had the Princeton Review MCAT subject books for the sciences, which were very beneficial because it gave an alternative perspective and generally asked more difficult questions than would appear on the DAT. When I ran out of problems, I purchased Crack DAT (the whole package) but found that it was really only useful for the PAT (but you MUST use this as it will prepare you better than any other PAT resource). I purchased TopScore,which was equally as useful as the Kaplan tests and gave me a good idea of how I'd do on the real thing. I also use DAT achiever, but learned that you should take your scores from that 'with a grain of salt.' It was very difficult, and often times irrelevant, testing on material that wasn't likely to show on the actual test. Barron's turned out to be a surprisingly good resource. You can get a used one for cheap on Amazon, and it gave 4 pretty solid practice tests (the book has plenty of mistakes in it though so be ready to question it when you get a problem wrong) I would still suggest using it if you need extra problems, though. Good luck on your respective tests, and I hope you succeed in your future endeavors.
Scores (in case you need them to validate what I'm saying):
Biology: 22
G-Chem: 24
O-Chem: 24
Math: 24
Reading: 20
PAT 25
AA: 23
TS: 23
