- Joined
- Jan 4, 2016
- Messages
- 149
- Reaction score
- 90
Just took the DAT recently and thought I'd do a quick breakdown to help others since I would've never gotten these scores if it weren't for all the great breakdowns I read on SDN.
My scores:
23AA 23TS 27Bio 22GC 24OC 22RC 27PAT 20QR
Like most others, I would say that Chad, Destroyer, Bootcamp are the three must-haves for doing well on the DAT. Chad for learning/reviewing the basics (probably 80% of the test), Destroyer for the more difficult problems (20% of the test), and Bootcamp for simulating the real test.
List of material used:
Chad's video (Both coursesaver and chadsvideos.com.) - The quizzes from coursersaver are helpful in that they cover some common tricky problems that may appear on the DAT.
Bootcamp - Make the PAT generators your best new friends! Practicing with the generators every day will definitely get you a 20+ in this section.
DAT Destroyer - Confidence-crushing material that will boost your scores above 20+ if you learn from it.
Math Destroyer - GREAT practice for QR. More below.
Kaplan Bluebook - Ehh, not worth buying it. A lot of important vocabs were missing in the bio section. I checked it out from the library for the diagnostics test
Feralis notes - I'd recommend going through these at least once including the excel sheet with taxonomy.
Cliff notes - Great for initial bio review, though need to be supplemented with Feralis or Destroyer.
Khan academy - The videos on human physiology are very well done. Easy to understand and concise. You can also speed up the videos to save time.
Craig Savage youtube videos - Very good videos for reviewing taxonomy and chordate evolution. Haven't seen too many people mention them but I'd highly recommend going through his videos on taxonomy if you'd rather watch than read.
I studied for about three months, 6-7 hours each day, but I think it was a bit too long for me. If I could do it again I'd definitely cut it down to two and a half or less. By the end of the third month I was starting to forget some stuff that I'd reviewed the first month:/ I didn't really follow a strict study plan but for the first four weeks I followed dentalWorks 4 week review using Chad's video and Cliff notes. Then I basically started going through Destroyer and Bootcamp for practice in each section.
BIO:
No idea how I got a 27 here... I must've marked at least 5-8 questions where the answer choices were very similar. I probably got lucky with my test, I had very few application-type questions. Bootcamp bio questions were similar in terms of the wording but a bit harder than the real ones.
GC:
I was surprised by the number of calculation problems I saw on my test. Luckily, most of the problems only wanted the numbers plugged into an equation. I was able to finish this section in about 20 min, unlike bootcamp GC which usually takes me the whole 30 min. A few of the destroyer problems showed up here!
OC:
Very basic compared to the problems I encountered when reviewing OC. Almost all the problems were covered in either Destroyer or bootcamp in one way or another. I would start by watching Chad's OC videos (only available on coursesaver at the moment), taking the quizzes for each video, and doing Destroyer problems to solidify what I learned. Bootcamp should be saved for last, after you've memorized most of the reactions including ones found in the Destroyer roadmaps.
PAT:
I never expected this high of a score when practicing with the bootcamp generators every day mainly because Id always miss about 5 angle problems in the practice tests. Fortunately, the angles were very easy compared to the ones from the generator. Be prepared to see inconsistency in the hole punch section of the test. Some of the pictures had clear lines like what you'd see in bootcamp, others had very pixelated lines which made it hard to tell where the holes were. Otherwise, they were a bit easier than the ones in bootcamp. TFE and pattern fold were both about the same difficulty as bootcamp problems but the keyholes....so much easier! I did get a few boulders but besides those, the rest were pretty easy to visualize. I didn't have to look for small differences between answer choices like in bootcamp.
RC:
I only used bootcamp to practice for the RC and the questions were pretty similar to the real ones. However, my passages were a lot shorter and easier to read in my opinion. For this section, it's hard to improve quickly over time. Just like the PAT, it's a skill that you need to practice often.
QR:
Math destroyer is probably the best practice for this section. Bootcamp QR was way too easy as you can see from my bootcamp average below. I regret not going over Math destroyer more than once as the questions are very similar to the ones I saw on my test. I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Romano was a test writer for the ADA
2009 DAT and Kaplan scores:
Bootcamp scores:
Like others have said, the 2009 DAT is the best predictor of your actual scores. I actually found the RC and QR section to be pretty representative of the real test. Definitely do the 2009 test last, maybe a day or two before your test date. I didn't do the 2007 DAT since most people seem to agree that it's way too easy compared to the real thing. Hopefully this will help someone out there struggling with getting started on beating the DAT.
My scores:
23AA 23TS 27Bio 22GC 24OC 22RC 27PAT 20QR
Like most others, I would say that Chad, Destroyer, Bootcamp are the three must-haves for doing well on the DAT. Chad for learning/reviewing the basics (probably 80% of the test), Destroyer for the more difficult problems (20% of the test), and Bootcamp for simulating the real test.
List of material used:
Chad's video (Both coursesaver and chadsvideos.com.) - The quizzes from coursersaver are helpful in that they cover some common tricky problems that may appear on the DAT.
Bootcamp - Make the PAT generators your best new friends! Practicing with the generators every day will definitely get you a 20+ in this section.
DAT Destroyer - Confidence-crushing material that will boost your scores above 20+ if you learn from it.
Math Destroyer - GREAT practice for QR. More below.
Kaplan Bluebook - Ehh, not worth buying it. A lot of important vocabs were missing in the bio section. I checked it out from the library for the diagnostics test
Feralis notes - I'd recommend going through these at least once including the excel sheet with taxonomy.
Cliff notes - Great for initial bio review, though need to be supplemented with Feralis or Destroyer.
Khan academy - The videos on human physiology are very well done. Easy to understand and concise. You can also speed up the videos to save time.
Craig Savage youtube videos - Very good videos for reviewing taxonomy and chordate evolution. Haven't seen too many people mention them but I'd highly recommend going through his videos on taxonomy if you'd rather watch than read.
I studied for about three months, 6-7 hours each day, but I think it was a bit too long for me. If I could do it again I'd definitely cut it down to two and a half or less. By the end of the third month I was starting to forget some stuff that I'd reviewed the first month:/ I didn't really follow a strict study plan but for the first four weeks I followed dentalWorks 4 week review using Chad's video and Cliff notes. Then I basically started going through Destroyer and Bootcamp for practice in each section.
BIO:
No idea how I got a 27 here... I must've marked at least 5-8 questions where the answer choices were very similar. I probably got lucky with my test, I had very few application-type questions. Bootcamp bio questions were similar in terms of the wording but a bit harder than the real ones.
GC:
I was surprised by the number of calculation problems I saw on my test. Luckily, most of the problems only wanted the numbers plugged into an equation. I was able to finish this section in about 20 min, unlike bootcamp GC which usually takes me the whole 30 min. A few of the destroyer problems showed up here!
OC:
Very basic compared to the problems I encountered when reviewing OC. Almost all the problems were covered in either Destroyer or bootcamp in one way or another. I would start by watching Chad's OC videos (only available on coursesaver at the moment), taking the quizzes for each video, and doing Destroyer problems to solidify what I learned. Bootcamp should be saved for last, after you've memorized most of the reactions including ones found in the Destroyer roadmaps.
PAT:
I never expected this high of a score when practicing with the bootcamp generators every day mainly because Id always miss about 5 angle problems in the practice tests. Fortunately, the angles were very easy compared to the ones from the generator. Be prepared to see inconsistency in the hole punch section of the test. Some of the pictures had clear lines like what you'd see in bootcamp, others had very pixelated lines which made it hard to tell where the holes were. Otherwise, they were a bit easier than the ones in bootcamp. TFE and pattern fold were both about the same difficulty as bootcamp problems but the keyholes....so much easier! I did get a few boulders but besides those, the rest were pretty easy to visualize. I didn't have to look for small differences between answer choices like in bootcamp.
RC:
I only used bootcamp to practice for the RC and the questions were pretty similar to the real ones. However, my passages were a lot shorter and easier to read in my opinion. For this section, it's hard to improve quickly over time. Just like the PAT, it's a skill that you need to practice often.
QR:
Math destroyer is probably the best practice for this section. Bootcamp QR was way too easy as you can see from my bootcamp average below. I regret not going over Math destroyer more than once as the questions are very similar to the ones I saw on my test. I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Romano was a test writer for the ADA
2009 DAT and Kaplan scores:
Bootcamp scores:
Like others have said, the 2009 DAT is the best predictor of your actual scores. I actually found the RC and QR section to be pretty representative of the real test. Definitely do the 2009 test last, maybe a day or two before your test date. I didn't do the 2007 DAT since most people seem to agree that it's way too easy compared to the real thing. Hopefully this will help someone out there struggling with getting started on beating the DAT.
Last edited: