PAT - 24
QR - 21
RC - 21
Bio - 22
GC - 24
OC - 24
TS - 23
AA - 22
I'm so relieved and glad it's over, but now, it feels weird to not be studying…rofl
I was really hesitant on writing a breakdown, because there are so many out there already (with better scores too) and I didn't think I can add onto anything. But I know how much I stressed over the DAT from the very beginning all the way to the very few days before the actual test, reading people's breakdowns from a few days beforehand to see if I'd get anything similar to what was hinted and stuff… so I decided, if this can calm anyone's nerves out there, or give lower GPAers some hope to doing decently on the DAT, then I'm accomplishing something.
My background
Rising senior
Major – Biomedical Engineering
sGPA – 3.17
cGPA – 3.19
Applying next cycle
I studied about 2 months, about 4 hours a day the first 5 weeks, and then went crazy the last 3 weeks studying about 10-12 hours a day. Hahahah what can I say, I'm a procrastinator.
I haven't taken any upper bio courses. Yes, I'm sure it helps tremendously to have taken higher level bio courses, but it's definitely not necessary. If you've taken your first year bio, I think you have a good enough foundation to study for the DAT. Heck, we're studying from AP Bio books; if high schoolers can do it, so can we!
The exam:
Sciences: Honestly, there were no surprises anywhere. All the sciences questions were straight forward, and everything was covered in Cliff's, Feralis's and Chad's. I got some pH question that I just for some reason couldn't get the answer for… but I probably interpreted the question wrong or something. One lab question that was covered in destroyer
PAT: Angles were about the same level as CDP; pattern folding was just a hair more difficult than CDP; but you definitely should use Achiever to practice for TFE and keyhole. The hole punches threw me of a little because the holes are centered in the square more, but LOS method worked great for me. I had some 1/3 folds, but nothing too crazy. Cube counting, well, is just cube counting. Haha.
RC: There was a passage that was the same topic as one of the practice exams that I took. I was seriously surprised and thought that it was a demo/example or something. And then there also was a passage that was non-science and I absolutely hated it…. But keep calm and carry on, haha. I had 6 minutes left for 8 questions, and I freaked a bit, but I guessed A for everything, and then worked backwards. One passage was really short (8 paragraphs I think?) but the others were longer at 12-13 paragraphs. No tone/inference but I had TONS of "A is correct, B is also correct; A is incorrect but the reason B is correct…etc." Gosh I hate those questions. I'd say I had at least 7 of those.
QR: DO MATH DESTROYER. DO IT ALL. I went through it once in the first month of my studying, but didn't touch it afterwards because I thought I'd remember a few concepts I didn't quite get. Nope, big mistake. Keep practicing!
Now for some study tips if you want?
My study materials
- **Chad's videos**
- **DAT and Math Destroyer**
- ** Cliff's AP Bio 3rd edition**
- CDP 10 tests** as a starting point
- Barron's AP Bio and Feralis's notes for light reading/review
- **Achiever 2 tests (Started the 3rd, said "WTH!?" and stopped)** esp. for proportions in PAT
- Topscore 3 tests
- Qvault 10 tests
- Youtube and Wikipedia!
- TONS of quizlet flashcards (or however you study best!)
** is a must, the rest are for exposure, and imo, the more, the better
Bio:
For those of you who still are in the process of studying/learning the material
- 1. DON'T GET THE 4th EDITION OF CLIFF'S AP BIO
Yes, they included small details as well as some graphics that may be helpful that are absent in the 3rd edition; but they're nothing that you don't see in other sources such as Feralis's notes. I think the 3rd edition was too detailed for the actual AP exam, and a lot of sections are abridged. Biological diversity and the plant (plant anatomy and stuff) chapters were basically gone, and you do need to know them. I personally didn't get any plant questions, but the wide breadth of biology is being condensed into 40 questions. People in the past have, and someone sometime is bound to get plant questions. Use the 3rd edition!!
2. Give yourself some context when studying
I study better with flashcards, so I made probably a thousand quizlet flashcards for bio from Cliff's AP Bio and questions that I got wrong on the practice tests. Try to remember that it's a multiple choice test, and the answer IS in front of you. When you're studying, you don't need to make it harder for yourself and plan to know everything that is there to know about a term right away; rather, give yourself some context. For example, I know a lot of pre-made flashcards have a single term on one side and a definition/function on the other. It'd make it much easier for you to study, and more efficient imo, to make flashcards that's fill in the blank style (which gives you some context without giving everything away). Drawing diagrams and pictures (watching youtube videos too. See my third bullet below) also helped me really commit things to memory. I'm still contemplating on if I should make my quizlet flashcards public. It's currently private, because I feel like trying to word it in a correct fill-in-the-blank style was good practice in itself. I think it's a process you have to make personally, but if I change my mind, I'll post it in a different thread.
3. I heard great things about DAT Bootcamp, but I unfortunately got to it too late because I have already purchased other materials. However, I did get to use the 2007 answer key which gave good explanations, and the Bio lab techniques. Bio labs at my school are SUPER disorganized so that chart was a nice compilation to study. Thanks Ari!
For those of you who're done with going through Cliff's, feralis's notes, etc…
- The key to this section is EXPOSURE. I gritted my teeth and purchased as many practice tests that I thought I could finish before my test date.
- Another key to this section is REVIEW
There's tons of information that we have to know for this section. And I know that I'd forget some details that I may have known just a few days ago. As you keep taking practice exams towards the end of your studying, make sure you review a good deal. I personally reviewed 1-2 chapters a day over and over the last 2 weeks.
- Watching youtube videos of different pathways (organ systems, sensory stuff, lac/trp operon, DNA replication...anything you can think of!) helped me visualized everything. Sometimes I would mute the video and watch the graphics, just so that I can explain what's what and what's doing what to myself. Again, this falls under review
GC:
Highly recommend: Chad's videos
I took AP Chem in high school, and did well in Chem 1 and 2 in college, but Chad gave SUCH a nice review and his quizzes are superb. I did his 200 GC questions in one sitting twice…(It was getting a bit close to my test date). I don't suggest you doing it in one sitting, but group them so that you can take 30 or so questions randomly, instead of per section after you're done going through the videos and doing the quizzes right after. This will help you identify your weak areas and rewatch the videos/do more questions in that section. Destroyer is an amazing resource to practice/apply but it can be difficult to work on a specific area. I took out my 5 Steps to a 5 AP Chem book from high school and used those questions for acid/base equilibrium/titration because I kept getting them wrong. But yeah. Know EVERYTHING Chad teaches you in the videos and master EVERY QUESTION in the quizzes and you're golden for this section. Again, exposure to different kinds of questions through practice exams really helps
OC:
Highly recommend: Chad's videos, Destroyer Roadmaps
I have a confession to make. I got the average score for every test in Ochem in college and ended up with C's both semesters. Seriously, if I get the average, they should at least give me a B- but anyway, Chad's videos clarified EVERYTHING. I felt like I was relearning the whole course from him, and again, his quizzes helped a lot. Destroyer is, as everyone says, overkill, but it does help you understand the concepts and improve your test taking by seeing things in a new perspective. Reactions can be mastered by understanding it, but if that's not coming naturally to you, memorize destroyer's roadmaps and you're good. It's simply A + B does C, and everyone should be able to get any sort of reaction questions. Again, do as many practice exams as you can!
PAT:
I used CDP, Achiever and Topscore. CDP is a great place to start, but I highly recommend doing Achiever too to see the subtle differences in proportions. LOS for hole punching. And I actually just used my fingers to cube counting because I kept getting them wrong when I tallied them up.
RC:
Recommend: Achiever
I hate reading comp. This was my worst section on the SAT's and heck! I'm an engineer, I like bullets. Concise cause and effect, statement and reason. All I can tell you for this section is to come up with a strategy early on, and practice. I don't think you need to practice this section as much as the sciences or PAT, but I think it's important to come up with a strategy that works best for YOU. I didn't like search and destroy because I like to understand the passage context and not simply find an answer. I read about 3 questions, then started reading/skimming while looking for the answers for those 3 questions. If the next three questions can be answered by what I read already, then yay! If not, I just continued where I left off and finished the passage. By then I knew where I can find answers to certain topics and just went with that… Sorry this isn't too much help, but it made sense to me, and the key is that the strategy works for you! I'm naturally bad at RC, so I'm very happy with a 21. Also, I don't recommend Topscore's RC section. The answers on the actual DAT are not so copy and pasted like it is in Topscore. Achiever is a bit harder, but definitely a better practice resource.
QR:
I wish I had studied this section more. I went through math destroyer once in the first month and didn't touch it after that. Bit mistake. Math destroyer is harder than the actual test, but it covers all the topics and gives a great explanation/method to solving it. So practice practice!
EXTRA TIP:
I got burnt out the last week. I just couldn't handle any more studying. It's really important for you to be EFFICIENTLY studying, so if you're getting burnt out, take a break. Seriously. Don't study. Now, this is different from when you don't want to be studying and aren't being efficient. That's different. Think of your goal, re-evaluate and KEEP GOING!
To sum it up:
* The time you put into studying is directly proportional to your scores (except for bio. Geez I spent so much time on bio!).
* Don't get the 4rd edition of Cliff's AP Bio!
* After a good overview of everything, EXPOSURE/REVIEW is key!
* Don't take scores of practice tests too seriously. There's reason why I didn't post my scores here. It ranged depending on my mood/how tired I was..etc… Use practice tests as study material and for exposure!
* If you get burnt out, REST! It's just as important as your studying.
WOW that was long. I'm so sorry I rambled on and on and made this post so long x__x I know I repeated a lot of stuff that's already on this forum. But I don't know, I learned a lot from reading people's breakdowns (Shoutout to Glimmer1991, THANK YOU SO MUCH), so I hope I was able to help someone out there. And sorry, I'm not going to proofread this xD
As for me, I plan to do well this year and make it into the 1st batch for the next cycle. I'm still trying to make a list of where I'm applying, so do help me out when I'm finalizing my list next year As you can see, my GPA is below average of those dental school acceptees. It's not quite sub 3.0, but it's almost there. That being said, I took about 20+ credits worth every semester including freshmen year where the ~17 of those credits were hard engineering-y sciences and higher maths… life of an engineer. whoooo… hopefully the admissions people will take that into consideration and I'll get in somewhere... fingers crossed!
Rest well the night before your test, eat bananas for nervousness, take deep breaths and GO GET ‘EM! Good luck everyone!
QR - 21
RC - 21
Bio - 22
GC - 24
OC - 24
TS - 23
AA - 22
I'm so relieved and glad it's over, but now, it feels weird to not be studying…rofl
I was really hesitant on writing a breakdown, because there are so many out there already (with better scores too) and I didn't think I can add onto anything. But I know how much I stressed over the DAT from the very beginning all the way to the very few days before the actual test, reading people's breakdowns from a few days beforehand to see if I'd get anything similar to what was hinted and stuff… so I decided, if this can calm anyone's nerves out there, or give lower GPAers some hope to doing decently on the DAT, then I'm accomplishing something.
My background
Rising senior
Major – Biomedical Engineering
sGPA – 3.17
cGPA – 3.19
Applying next cycle
I studied about 2 months, about 4 hours a day the first 5 weeks, and then went crazy the last 3 weeks studying about 10-12 hours a day. Hahahah what can I say, I'm a procrastinator.
I haven't taken any upper bio courses. Yes, I'm sure it helps tremendously to have taken higher level bio courses, but it's definitely not necessary. If you've taken your first year bio, I think you have a good enough foundation to study for the DAT. Heck, we're studying from AP Bio books; if high schoolers can do it, so can we!
The exam:
Sciences: Honestly, there were no surprises anywhere. All the sciences questions were straight forward, and everything was covered in Cliff's, Feralis's and Chad's. I got some pH question that I just for some reason couldn't get the answer for… but I probably interpreted the question wrong or something. One lab question that was covered in destroyer
PAT: Angles were about the same level as CDP; pattern folding was just a hair more difficult than CDP; but you definitely should use Achiever to practice for TFE and keyhole. The hole punches threw me of a little because the holes are centered in the square more, but LOS method worked great for me. I had some 1/3 folds, but nothing too crazy. Cube counting, well, is just cube counting. Haha.
RC: There was a passage that was the same topic as one of the practice exams that I took. I was seriously surprised and thought that it was a demo/example or something. And then there also was a passage that was non-science and I absolutely hated it…. But keep calm and carry on, haha. I had 6 minutes left for 8 questions, and I freaked a bit, but I guessed A for everything, and then worked backwards. One passage was really short (8 paragraphs I think?) but the others were longer at 12-13 paragraphs. No tone/inference but I had TONS of "A is correct, B is also correct; A is incorrect but the reason B is correct…etc." Gosh I hate those questions. I'd say I had at least 7 of those.
QR: DO MATH DESTROYER. DO IT ALL. I went through it once in the first month of my studying, but didn't touch it afterwards because I thought I'd remember a few concepts I didn't quite get. Nope, big mistake. Keep practicing!
Now for some study tips if you want?
My study materials
- **Chad's videos**
- **DAT and Math Destroyer**
- ** Cliff's AP Bio 3rd edition**
- CDP 10 tests** as a starting point
- Barron's AP Bio and Feralis's notes for light reading/review
- **Achiever 2 tests (Started the 3rd, said "WTH!?" and stopped)** esp. for proportions in PAT
- Topscore 3 tests
- Qvault 10 tests
- Youtube and Wikipedia!
- TONS of quizlet flashcards (or however you study best!)
** is a must, the rest are for exposure, and imo, the more, the better
Bio:
For those of you who still are in the process of studying/learning the material
- 1. DON'T GET THE 4th EDITION OF CLIFF'S AP BIO
Yes, they included small details as well as some graphics that may be helpful that are absent in the 3rd edition; but they're nothing that you don't see in other sources such as Feralis's notes. I think the 3rd edition was too detailed for the actual AP exam, and a lot of sections are abridged. Biological diversity and the plant (plant anatomy and stuff) chapters were basically gone, and you do need to know them. I personally didn't get any plant questions, but the wide breadth of biology is being condensed into 40 questions. People in the past have, and someone sometime is bound to get plant questions. Use the 3rd edition!!
2. Give yourself some context when studying
I study better with flashcards, so I made probably a thousand quizlet flashcards for bio from Cliff's AP Bio and questions that I got wrong on the practice tests. Try to remember that it's a multiple choice test, and the answer IS in front of you. When you're studying, you don't need to make it harder for yourself and plan to know everything that is there to know about a term right away; rather, give yourself some context. For example, I know a lot of pre-made flashcards have a single term on one side and a definition/function on the other. It'd make it much easier for you to study, and more efficient imo, to make flashcards that's fill in the blank style (which gives you some context without giving everything away). Drawing diagrams and pictures (watching youtube videos too. See my third bullet below) also helped me really commit things to memory. I'm still contemplating on if I should make my quizlet flashcards public. It's currently private, because I feel like trying to word it in a correct fill-in-the-blank style was good practice in itself. I think it's a process you have to make personally, but if I change my mind, I'll post it in a different thread.
3. I heard great things about DAT Bootcamp, but I unfortunately got to it too late because I have already purchased other materials. However, I did get to use the 2007 answer key which gave good explanations, and the Bio lab techniques. Bio labs at my school are SUPER disorganized so that chart was a nice compilation to study. Thanks Ari!
For those of you who're done with going through Cliff's, feralis's notes, etc…
- The key to this section is EXPOSURE. I gritted my teeth and purchased as many practice tests that I thought I could finish before my test date.
- Another key to this section is REVIEW
There's tons of information that we have to know for this section. And I know that I'd forget some details that I may have known just a few days ago. As you keep taking practice exams towards the end of your studying, make sure you review a good deal. I personally reviewed 1-2 chapters a day over and over the last 2 weeks.
- Watching youtube videos of different pathways (organ systems, sensory stuff, lac/trp operon, DNA replication...anything you can think of!) helped me visualized everything. Sometimes I would mute the video and watch the graphics, just so that I can explain what's what and what's doing what to myself. Again, this falls under review
GC:
Highly recommend: Chad's videos
I took AP Chem in high school, and did well in Chem 1 and 2 in college, but Chad gave SUCH a nice review and his quizzes are superb. I did his 200 GC questions in one sitting twice…(It was getting a bit close to my test date). I don't suggest you doing it in one sitting, but group them so that you can take 30 or so questions randomly, instead of per section after you're done going through the videos and doing the quizzes right after. This will help you identify your weak areas and rewatch the videos/do more questions in that section. Destroyer is an amazing resource to practice/apply but it can be difficult to work on a specific area. I took out my 5 Steps to a 5 AP Chem book from high school and used those questions for acid/base equilibrium/titration because I kept getting them wrong. But yeah. Know EVERYTHING Chad teaches you in the videos and master EVERY QUESTION in the quizzes and you're golden for this section. Again, exposure to different kinds of questions through practice exams really helps
OC:
Highly recommend: Chad's videos, Destroyer Roadmaps
I have a confession to make. I got the average score for every test in Ochem in college and ended up with C's both semesters. Seriously, if I get the average, they should at least give me a B-
but anyway, Chad's videos clarified EVERYTHING. I felt like I was relearning the whole course from him, and again, his quizzes helped a lot. Destroyer is, as everyone says, overkill, but it does help you understand the concepts and improve your test taking by seeing things in a new perspective. Reactions can be mastered by understanding it, but if that's not coming naturally to you, memorize destroyer's roadmaps and you're good. It's simply A + B does C, and everyone should be able to get any sort of reaction questions. Again, do as many practice exams as you can!PAT:
I used CDP, Achiever and Topscore. CDP is a great place to start, but I highly recommend doing Achiever too to see the subtle differences in proportions. LOS for hole punching. And I actually just used my fingers to cube counting because I kept getting them wrong when I tallied them up.
RC:
Recommend: Achiever
I hate reading comp. This was my worst section on the SAT's and heck! I'm an engineer, I like bullets. Concise cause and effect, statement and reason. All I can tell you for this section is to come up with a strategy early on, and practice. I don't think you need to practice this section as much as the sciences or PAT, but I think it's important to come up with a strategy that works best for YOU. I didn't like search and destroy because I like to understand the passage context and not simply find an answer. I read about 3 questions, then started reading/skimming while looking for the answers for those 3 questions. If the next three questions can be answered by what I read already, then yay! If not, I just continued where I left off and finished the passage. By then I knew where I can find answers to certain topics and just went with that… Sorry this isn't too much help, but it made sense to me, and the key is that the strategy works for you! I'm naturally bad at RC, so I'm very happy with a 21. Also, I don't recommend Topscore's RC section. The answers on the actual DAT are not so copy and pasted like it is in Topscore. Achiever is a bit harder, but definitely a better practice resource.
QR:
I wish I had studied this section more. I went through math destroyer once in the first month and didn't touch it after that. Bit mistake. Math destroyer is harder than the actual test, but it covers all the topics and gives a great explanation/method to solving it. So practice practice!
EXTRA TIP:
I got burnt out the last week. I just couldn't handle any more studying. It's really important for you to be EFFICIENTLY studying, so if you're getting burnt out, take a break. Seriously. Don't study. Now, this is different from when you don't want to be studying and aren't being efficient. That's different. Think of your goal, re-evaluate and KEEP GOING!
To sum it up:
* The time you put into studying is directly proportional to your scores (except for bio. Geez I spent so much time on bio!).
* Don't get the 4rd edition of Cliff's AP Bio!
* After a good overview of everything, EXPOSURE/REVIEW is key!
* Don't take scores of practice tests too seriously. There's reason why I didn't post my scores here. It ranged depending on my mood/how tired I was..etc… Use practice tests as study material and for exposure!
* If you get burnt out, REST! It's just as important as your studying.
WOW that was long. I'm so sorry I rambled on and on and made this post so long x__x I know I repeated a lot of stuff that's already on this forum. But I don't know, I learned a lot from reading people's breakdowns (Shoutout to Glimmer1991, THANK YOU SO MUCH), so I hope I was able to help someone out there. And sorry, I'm not going to proofread this xD
As for me, I plan to do well this year and make it into the 1st batch for the next cycle. I'm still trying to make a list of where I'm applying, so do help me out when I'm finalizing my list next year
As you can see, my GPA is below average of those dental school acceptees. It's not quite sub 3.0, but it's almost there. That being said, I took about 20+ credits worth every semester including freshmen year where the ~17 of those credits were hard engineering-y sciences and higher maths… life of an engineer. whoooo… hopefully the admissions people will take that into consideration and I'll get in somewhere... fingers crossed!Rest well the night before your test, eat bananas for nervousness, take deep breaths and GO GET ‘EM! Good luck everyone!
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