Hello, kids. I took the DAT this morning and figured I'd go over how I arrived at my scores. I don't frequent sdn too much, but I know how you all like these things. Anyways...time to dive in.
SCORES:
PAT--24--(98.0)
QR--24--(99.4)
RC--20--(78.5)
BIO--26--(99.8)
GC--21--(91.6)
OC--24--(97.9)
TS--23--(99.3)
AA--23--(99.7)👍
My Resources:
Topscore
DAT Destroyer
Math Destroyer
Chad's (Course Saver)
Achiever
7th Edition Campbell's (c19-21 chapter summaries)
DATqVault
Feralis Notes
Alan's Notes
Cliff's AP Bio
A little bit of Kaplan's Blue Book
Crack DAT PAT
DAT Bootcamp (the free stuff because I found out a little too late to make a purchase worthwhile)
Overall Recap:
I started studying very informally in early June, but couldn't stay focused for long periods of time. It was around this time where I watched all of Chad's videos and did the corresponding quizzes. By the time mid-June hit I started into DAT Destroyer; I initially made a plan to get through it in 7 days, but it took about 2 weeks total because of skipping days and doing only portions of my daily goals. These were the only times I went through these two resources, though given more time I would have probably gone through them at least once more, especially Destroyer. Late-June I started through Alan's notes and Cliff's and those both took some time getting through due to laziness. Around this time I started going through qVault and some Crack DAT PAT. The first week of July my family went on vacation to the Grand Canyon, but I brought notes along to study (Chad's outlines that I had taken notes on and those bio notes). Once I got back I noticed that I had 15 days left so I printed out a little calendar and made a rough schedule of what I hoped to accomplish. I did a pracitce exam pretty much every other day for the last 2 weeks with gap days reserved for reviewing material, doing more PAT practice, Math Destroyer, and qVaults. I found out about Bootcamp around the 16th and used the abundance of free practice sections in place of my third Achiever test. Now for some analyses of the practice exams...
Practice Exams (in order of when they were taken):
TEST:BIO/OC/GC/TS/PAT/RC/QR// AA
Topscore 1: 19/28/19/21/19/23/22// 22
Achiever 1: 19/19/18/19/18/17/22// 19
Achiever 2: 19/18/19/19/20/17/22// 19
Topscore 2: 19/25/19/20/25/21/20// 20
Bootcamp: 24/24/24/24/22/20/23// 23?
Topscore 3: 19/23/21/21/20/25/24// 22 (PAT was from Achiever instead)
Topscore definitely reflected well on my overall performance, but I think I liked DAT Bootcamp a little bit better. As I mentioned earlier, I was too close to my test date when I learned about Bootcamp so I didn't purchase the full package, but DEFINITELY would have given more time. I really liked the explanations provided, the question wording/difficulty, and it was a very close match to my actual performance in several areas. Achiever was definitely difficult relative to the two aforementioned resources, but they were definitely worth it for the practice (nearly identical interface) and very useful to push yourself to get that extra advantage going in to the actual exam.
Analysis of Resources:
Topscore (8/10)
---See above
DAT Destroyer (9/10)
---Tough (I averaged about a "17" for each of the covered sections...I calculated # wrong and used the chart in Kaplan to figure out what my score would have been on a standardized DAT scale). I would definitely have gone through it at least once more (even if it was just reading over answers) not only because I didn't really have it fresh in my memory, but because it would have been useful seeing what weak areas remained. That being said, even going through it once will get you into the spirit of the test, show you weak spots, and help toward over-preparing. I did this very early on, but I would recommend studying up on topics before you get to it so you don't go through the first day missing everything!
Math Destroyer (9/10)
---Best resource for math. It is very nice how it is split up into full length QR tests that you can work through timed with a nice even proportion of questions (that is, you'll have a variety of problem types per test). I only did the first 10 tests, but it covered pretty much all that I needed to know for my actual DAT. Also, it has an awesome formula section at the front that is worth memorizing. My scores for this:19/21/23/22/25/25/24/22/23/23
Chad's (9.5/10)
---You don't need me to tell you that this is essential. I met Chad once on my way to OChem lab, so you could say that he and I are pretty tight. 😀
Achiever (8/10)
---Harder than the actual exam, but again, over-preparation>under-preparation. I think the PAT section on this was worth going through because the exam difficulty could be pretty close to this!
7th Edition Campbell's (4/10)
---I was advised to read those 3 chapters (19-21); I read the chapter summaries and looked over the quiz solutions, but if you don't have the time, I'd say don't bother. I've heard that some "random" looking bio questions can originate here, but you'd probably be better off just memorizing the other million bio things to improve your bio score.
DATqVault (8/10)
---Great for testing your knowledge and illuminating what areas you need to review more. Just like Math Destroyer, it has a variety of questions that is similar proportionally to what you'll see on the real DAT. Good explanations...questions often have a DAT writing style to them...etc.
My scores for this: 21/19/21/21/25/22/20/23/21/22
Feralis Notes (9/10)
---Probably my favorite source for biology review. I'm a Bio major, but a lot of the information had both entered and exited my brain long before I set out upon this DAT adventure so I needed a pretty heavy review. These notes were VERY thorough and organized. I could answer most DAT exam questions using this bio resource alone, but the more exposure (via additional resources) can help improve your knowledge tank. (Obviously)
Alan's Notes (7/10)
---A weaker form of Feralis, but I looked through it before any other bio resource and it did a good job at creating a foundation.
Cliff's AP Bio (7/10)
---It's a good source of Bio material...it has more depth in some areas (compared to the aforementioned notes), but less range.
A little bit of Kaplan's Blue Book (used too little of it to give it a value)
---I mostly used it for the periodic table and the DAT scoring scale lol. The PAT was super easy in this, but it might help with getting a starting ability for the section.
Crack DAT PAT (7/10) (too easy)
---Good resource for repeatedly going through tests to work on pacing and a strong grasp on how to attack problems. Keyholes here are pretty mediocre (worry more about shapes while the real DAT was almost 100% about proportions). PF, hole punch, and cubes were pretty much spot on with my PAT. Angles were maybe a tad harder here than on the real thing. TFE was easier here. My Crack DAT PAT scores: 22/22/23/22/23 (didn't do any more than the first 5 except a few extra angle practice and TFE practice).
DAT Bootcamp (9.5/10)
---Really liked it and would have definitely purchased the entirety of it had I heard about it in June. The sciences were very similar to the actual exam as was the QR.
The Exam Itself
Biology (26):
I scored higher than I anticipated. As I mentioned before, I am a biology major so I have seen all of this material at some point in my life, it just wasn't all there until I started studying it again. The first question on the exam I didn't know the answer to right away, so it shook me a little, but going through the rest of the section wasn't very rough. I had seen almost everything in what I had studied, so as long as I could remember it all or logistically rule out answers I was good. Closest in difficulty: DAT Bootcamp
Gen. Chem (21):
Disappointed this isn't higher, but I'll take it of course. I took AP Chem in high school and 2 semesters of it again in college, so I figured I was pretty good at this stuff. I reviewed the notes I took watching Chad's the night before and re-did his quizzes for chemistry a few days prior. I think I may have gotten more right had I gone back through Destroyer and picked up a few things that may have been left out of Chad's videos. Most of the calculation type problems were set-up, so no math was really required. Dimensional analysis could have helped solve a lot of the problems even if you didn't know formulas or relationships.
OChem (24):
Really was hoping to go flawlessly through this one haha. I just finished up OChem in the spring under the tutelage of one of my favorite professors of all time, Dr. Ian Gould. The man is a legend and cares so much about his teaching and students. If you Google his name you can find a website he runs where he puts up all of his lecture videos, gapped notes, etc. If you struggle with some of this stuff I would recommend looking at some of his material. That being said, he does clear the website toward the beginning of each semester and adds the new lectures as he goes through the material with a new batch of students. So the resources he has created may not be available year-round. That being said, Chad covers most of what you need to know and the roadmaps in DAT Destroyer were useful in ensuring you know your reagents. Nothing too extraneous popped up here, but having a knowledge of mechanisms and the logistics of OChem can really help in this section (especially if they are trying to trick you).
[[[TS I finished ~30min. early and spent a long time going over 90% of the questions to check for dumb mistakes; I know I fixed at least two things in this time!]]]
PAT (24):
I'm left-handed (representing the 10%
) so I like to think that I'm decent with spatial reasoning, but the score you'll get here is proportional to the effort you put into practicing. I'd recommend going over a few to work on pacing, then go over sub-sections that you are weak in, then go back to full tests for pacing/getting in shape for the real thing. I used strategies I found on YouTube, this site, etc. One thing that I feel like I haven't seen much in terms of tips is using mirror imagery for Pattern Folding. If the problem involves shapes with patterns of colors on it, look in the answers for mirrors of that image (and they will be wrong if there is no mirror version somewhere else in the pre-folded image). Another tip could be unfolding the answers and comparing to the pre-folded image (this is a bit time consuming so narrow down your answer choices before attempting this). If you want any elaboration on some PAT tips or want to know how I approached the various subsections, just let me know and I'll try to get back to you.
[[[Here I finished ~10min. early and went through marked]]]
Reading Comp. (20):
I've never been a big fan of reading...especially dry, dull science articles that I don't have much interest in. Why can't this section be watching a movie instead?! Anyways, coming back from my break I felt like I had a very strong morning and was ready to knock out the final two sections. The passages definitely made me feel not so great anymore. I tried a combination of Search and Destroy while reading a few questions at a time so I could keep an eye out for multiple things as I went through looking for key terms. This worked for about 70% of the problems (even if time consuming), but tone and related questions definitely took some guessing, logical assumptions, and some degree of actually reading the content of the passages. My least favorite section and very glad I managed to pull off a 20 here.
QR (24):
Felt pretty strong going into this one. Math Destroyer definitely made me feel confident in all the subject area. Chad gave a good foundation with his videos, but most of my performance here was from practice problems and going over the solutions. There were three problems (all with the same basic problem solving route) that I just COULD NOT remember how to solve. I had about 8 minutes left to go through the 3 of them, but my brain was pretty much done testing by then and I had to make some educated guesses.
I don't know what else to say...make sure you treat it like you would any other test. If you're used to cramming all night before the exam, stick to your code. I usually try to get at least some sleep (even if it is an hour and a half haha) so my brain can organize or whatever it is supposed to do when I'm unconscious in bed. Eat a good breakfast, but again, don't change your routine too much. One last thing, I recommend listening to some song to get you into the zone right before you enter the testing center. My weapon of choice is "Short Hair" from the Mulan soundtrack (not the one on the album, but from the movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilR3Z1sASY). haha. On a more serious note, good luck to those that still have yet to tackle the great beast and let me know if you need any of my advice. And finally, a big thank you to all the very helpful people on this site!
SCORES:
PAT--24--(98.0)
QR--24--(99.4)
RC--20--(78.5)
BIO--26--(99.8)
GC--21--(91.6)
OC--24--(97.9)
TS--23--(99.3)
AA--23--(99.7)👍
My Resources:
Topscore
DAT Destroyer
Math Destroyer
Chad's (Course Saver)
Achiever
7th Edition Campbell's (c19-21 chapter summaries)
DATqVault
Feralis Notes
Alan's Notes
Cliff's AP Bio
A little bit of Kaplan's Blue Book
Crack DAT PAT
DAT Bootcamp (the free stuff because I found out a little too late to make a purchase worthwhile)
Overall Recap:
I started studying very informally in early June, but couldn't stay focused for long periods of time. It was around this time where I watched all of Chad's videos and did the corresponding quizzes. By the time mid-June hit I started into DAT Destroyer; I initially made a plan to get through it in 7 days, but it took about 2 weeks total because of skipping days and doing only portions of my daily goals. These were the only times I went through these two resources, though given more time I would have probably gone through them at least once more, especially Destroyer. Late-June I started through Alan's notes and Cliff's and those both took some time getting through due to laziness. Around this time I started going through qVault and some Crack DAT PAT. The first week of July my family went on vacation to the Grand Canyon, but I brought notes along to study (Chad's outlines that I had taken notes on and those bio notes). Once I got back I noticed that I had 15 days left so I printed out a little calendar and made a rough schedule of what I hoped to accomplish. I did a pracitce exam pretty much every other day for the last 2 weeks with gap days reserved for reviewing material, doing more PAT practice, Math Destroyer, and qVaults. I found out about Bootcamp around the 16th and used the abundance of free practice sections in place of my third Achiever test. Now for some analyses of the practice exams...
Practice Exams (in order of when they were taken):
TEST:BIO/OC/GC/TS/PAT/RC/QR// AA
Topscore 1: 19/28/19/21/19/23/22// 22
Achiever 1: 19/19/18/19/18/17/22// 19
Achiever 2: 19/18/19/19/20/17/22// 19
Topscore 2: 19/25/19/20/25/21/20// 20
Bootcamp: 24/24/24/24/22/20/23// 23?
Topscore 3: 19/23/21/21/20/25/24// 22 (PAT was from Achiever instead)
Topscore definitely reflected well on my overall performance, but I think I liked DAT Bootcamp a little bit better. As I mentioned earlier, I was too close to my test date when I learned about Bootcamp so I didn't purchase the full package, but DEFINITELY would have given more time. I really liked the explanations provided, the question wording/difficulty, and it was a very close match to my actual performance in several areas. Achiever was definitely difficult relative to the two aforementioned resources, but they were definitely worth it for the practice (nearly identical interface) and very useful to push yourself to get that extra advantage going in to the actual exam.
Analysis of Resources:
Topscore (8/10)
---See above
DAT Destroyer (9/10)
---Tough (I averaged about a "17" for each of the covered sections...I calculated # wrong and used the chart in Kaplan to figure out what my score would have been on a standardized DAT scale). I would definitely have gone through it at least once more (even if it was just reading over answers) not only because I didn't really have it fresh in my memory, but because it would have been useful seeing what weak areas remained. That being said, even going through it once will get you into the spirit of the test, show you weak spots, and help toward over-preparing. I did this very early on, but I would recommend studying up on topics before you get to it so you don't go through the first day missing everything!
Math Destroyer (9/10)
---Best resource for math. It is very nice how it is split up into full length QR tests that you can work through timed with a nice even proportion of questions (that is, you'll have a variety of problem types per test). I only did the first 10 tests, but it covered pretty much all that I needed to know for my actual DAT. Also, it has an awesome formula section at the front that is worth memorizing. My scores for this:19/21/23/22/25/25/24/22/23/23
Chad's (9.5/10)
---You don't need me to tell you that this is essential. I met Chad once on my way to OChem lab, so you could say that he and I are pretty tight. 😀
Achiever (8/10)
---Harder than the actual exam, but again, over-preparation>under-preparation. I think the PAT section on this was worth going through because the exam difficulty could be pretty close to this!
7th Edition Campbell's (4/10)
---I was advised to read those 3 chapters (19-21); I read the chapter summaries and looked over the quiz solutions, but if you don't have the time, I'd say don't bother. I've heard that some "random" looking bio questions can originate here, but you'd probably be better off just memorizing the other million bio things to improve your bio score.
DATqVault (8/10)
---Great for testing your knowledge and illuminating what areas you need to review more. Just like Math Destroyer, it has a variety of questions that is similar proportionally to what you'll see on the real DAT. Good explanations...questions often have a DAT writing style to them...etc.
My scores for this: 21/19/21/21/25/22/20/23/21/22
Feralis Notes (9/10)
---Probably my favorite source for biology review. I'm a Bio major, but a lot of the information had both entered and exited my brain long before I set out upon this DAT adventure so I needed a pretty heavy review. These notes were VERY thorough and organized. I could answer most DAT exam questions using this bio resource alone, but the more exposure (via additional resources) can help improve your knowledge tank. (Obviously)
Alan's Notes (7/10)
---A weaker form of Feralis, but I looked through it before any other bio resource and it did a good job at creating a foundation.
Cliff's AP Bio (7/10)
---It's a good source of Bio material...it has more depth in some areas (compared to the aforementioned notes), but less range.
A little bit of Kaplan's Blue Book (used too little of it to give it a value)
---I mostly used it for the periodic table and the DAT scoring scale lol. The PAT was super easy in this, but it might help with getting a starting ability for the section.
Crack DAT PAT (7/10) (too easy)
---Good resource for repeatedly going through tests to work on pacing and a strong grasp on how to attack problems. Keyholes here are pretty mediocre (worry more about shapes while the real DAT was almost 100% about proportions). PF, hole punch, and cubes were pretty much spot on with my PAT. Angles were maybe a tad harder here than on the real thing. TFE was easier here. My Crack DAT PAT scores: 22/22/23/22/23 (didn't do any more than the first 5 except a few extra angle practice and TFE practice).
DAT Bootcamp (9.5/10)
---Really liked it and would have definitely purchased the entirety of it had I heard about it in June. The sciences were very similar to the actual exam as was the QR.
The Exam Itself
Biology (26):
I scored higher than I anticipated. As I mentioned before, I am a biology major so I have seen all of this material at some point in my life, it just wasn't all there until I started studying it again. The first question on the exam I didn't know the answer to right away, so it shook me a little, but going through the rest of the section wasn't very rough. I had seen almost everything in what I had studied, so as long as I could remember it all or logistically rule out answers I was good. Closest in difficulty: DAT Bootcamp
Gen. Chem (21):
Disappointed this isn't higher, but I'll take it of course. I took AP Chem in high school and 2 semesters of it again in college, so I figured I was pretty good at this stuff. I reviewed the notes I took watching Chad's the night before and re-did his quizzes for chemistry a few days prior. I think I may have gotten more right had I gone back through Destroyer and picked up a few things that may have been left out of Chad's videos. Most of the calculation type problems were set-up, so no math was really required. Dimensional analysis could have helped solve a lot of the problems even if you didn't know formulas or relationships.
OChem (24):
Really was hoping to go flawlessly through this one haha. I just finished up OChem in the spring under the tutelage of one of my favorite professors of all time, Dr. Ian Gould. The man is a legend and cares so much about his teaching and students. If you Google his name you can find a website he runs where he puts up all of his lecture videos, gapped notes, etc. If you struggle with some of this stuff I would recommend looking at some of his material. That being said, he does clear the website toward the beginning of each semester and adds the new lectures as he goes through the material with a new batch of students. So the resources he has created may not be available year-round. That being said, Chad covers most of what you need to know and the roadmaps in DAT Destroyer were useful in ensuring you know your reagents. Nothing too extraneous popped up here, but having a knowledge of mechanisms and the logistics of OChem can really help in this section (especially if they are trying to trick you).
[[[TS I finished ~30min. early and spent a long time going over 90% of the questions to check for dumb mistakes; I know I fixed at least two things in this time!]]]
PAT (24):
I'm left-handed (representing the 10%
) so I like to think that I'm decent with spatial reasoning, but the score you'll get here is proportional to the effort you put into practicing. I'd recommend going over a few to work on pacing, then go over sub-sections that you are weak in, then go back to full tests for pacing/getting in shape for the real thing. I used strategies I found on YouTube, this site, etc. One thing that I feel like I haven't seen much in terms of tips is using mirror imagery for Pattern Folding. If the problem involves shapes with patterns of colors on it, look in the answers for mirrors of that image (and they will be wrong if there is no mirror version somewhere else in the pre-folded image). Another tip could be unfolding the answers and comparing to the pre-folded image (this is a bit time consuming so narrow down your answer choices before attempting this). If you want any elaboration on some PAT tips or want to know how I approached the various subsections, just let me know and I'll try to get back to you.[[[Here I finished ~10min. early and went through marked]]]
Reading Comp. (20):
I've never been a big fan of reading...especially dry, dull science articles that I don't have much interest in. Why can't this section be watching a movie instead?! Anyways, coming back from my break I felt like I had a very strong morning and was ready to knock out the final two sections. The passages definitely made me feel not so great anymore. I tried a combination of Search and Destroy while reading a few questions at a time so I could keep an eye out for multiple things as I went through looking for key terms. This worked for about 70% of the problems (even if time consuming), but tone and related questions definitely took some guessing, logical assumptions, and some degree of actually reading the content of the passages. My least favorite section and very glad I managed to pull off a 20 here.
QR (24):
Felt pretty strong going into this one. Math Destroyer definitely made me feel confident in all the subject area. Chad gave a good foundation with his videos, but most of my performance here was from practice problems and going over the solutions. There were three problems (all with the same basic problem solving route) that I just COULD NOT remember how to solve. I had about 8 minutes left to go through the 3 of them, but my brain was pretty much done testing by then and I had to make some educated guesses.
I don't know what else to say...make sure you treat it like you would any other test. If you're used to cramming all night before the exam, stick to your code. I usually try to get at least some sleep (even if it is an hour and a half haha) so my brain can organize or whatever it is supposed to do when I'm unconscious in bed. Eat a good breakfast, but again, don't change your routine too much. One last thing, I recommend listening to some song to get you into the zone right before you enter the testing center. My weapon of choice is "Short Hair" from the Mulan soundtrack (not the one on the album, but from the movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MilR3Z1sASY). haha. On a more serious note, good luck to those that still have yet to tackle the great beast and let me know if you need any of my advice. And finally, a big thank you to all the very helpful people on this site!
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