- Joined
- May 31, 2017
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 20
First off, thank you Ari Rezaei and the Bootcamp Team, FeralisExtremum, BYU4you, Chad McAllister, and Dr. Romano and the Destroyer Team. The resources you have created have been such valuable learning tools on this journey. I also want to thank everyone on SDN. You guys are an awesome community and your contributions have been really helpful. I want to dedicate this breakdown to you guys. Reading some of your breakdowns really helped me along the way and I hope mine helps anyone about to take their DAT too.
Here are my scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 24
RC: 21
Bio: 26
GC: 27
OC: 24
TS: 25
AA: 24
I’ll start the breakdown with MY MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Practice exams are not score indicators. They are learning tools. Use them to identify your weaknesses and then address those weaknesses. After you do that, be confident that you will score better on the real thing. Don’t let practice exam scores discourage you in any way.
Having said that, here are my bootcamp averages for each section:
PAT: 19.1
QR: 20.5
RC: 20
Bio: 19.9
GC: 21
OC: 19.8
AA: 20
I’ve also attached an image of my scores for each section. I bolded my highest and lowest scores.
Duration: 14 weeks, 7 days a week, 5-6 hours a day) Took a 1 week vacation at around week 10. Everyone has their own study habits/preferences so if you can do 7+ hours a day and spend less days studying, go for it. There's no right or wrong way for this in my opinion, just do you.
Here’s how it went for me:
Weeks 1-7: Watched Chad’s videos (gen chem and orgo) and took notes. Also read Cliffs AP Biology 3rd edition and Ferallis Notes and made my own notes based off of them. Did 30 minutes of PAT bootcamp generators everyday.
Weeks 8-9: Reviewed everything I learned in weeks 1-7 and took a few Chad’s quizzes for things I wasn’t good at. Started using Anki everyday for bio (Ferallis anki deck). Took bootcamp practice exam 1 to see where my weaknesses were.
Week 10: Vacation - did 200 problems of Orgo Destroyer and 2 days worth of Anki.
Week 11: Finished Orgo and Gen Chem Destroyer. Did PAT and reading practice exams.
Week 12: Studied my orgo & gen chem notes, started Bio Destroyer, started Math Destroyer, and took science bootcamp exam 10 to see my weaknesses again. Did a few more reading practice exams and did PAT generators everyday too.
Week 13: Did GC/Orgo Destroyer a second time, finished Math Destroyer up to exam 5, continued Bio Destroyer (up to 450). Did a few PAT, reading, and QR bootcamp exams.
Week 14: Practiced with bootcamp everyday and reviewed my weaknesses after every exam. Watched some great bio videos and Mike’s videos. Also used Defeat the DAT. Worked out my strategy for reading and PAT.
Weekend before the exam: Only practiced PAT and Reading. I just reviewed all my notes for everything and reviewed old practice exams.
Breakdown by Section:
PAT (23): all you need to prepare for this is Bootcamp. I think the most important thing for this section is timing. If you can get timing down and score around 19-20 on Bootcamp, you're ready.
Exam experience: Keyholes, TFE, and angles were easier on the real exam. I didn’t get any rocks. Hole punching and pattern folding were the same. And cubes were somehow harder. They gave me 6 different figures which threw me off.
Quantitative Reasoning (24): Between Math Destroyer and Bootcamp, I definitely think that Bootcamp is a better resource because the questions are a lot more similar to the real DAT. Do destroyer if you have the time though.
Exam experience: I was really surprised at this score because I felt it didn't go too well during the exam. There were around 5 weird questions that I had never seen anything like but all of the others were similar to Bootcamp.
Reading Comprehension (21): I've always been a slow reader so I wasn’t surprised that this was my lowest score. For this section, just practice using Bootcamp and you should be fine. I think it's as hard on Bootcamp as it is on the real DAT.
Exam experience: I used BYU4you's method which worked great for the first two passages. I messed up on the last one with my time and had to guess on the last 3.
Biology (26): I'm a bio major so I had a great background going into this. I had just taken physiology in the spring so all of that stuff was fresh in my mind. Definitely agree with most users on this website: go for breadth over depth. First expose yourself to every topic in general and understand it and then go back and memorize the details. YouTube videos and cliffs helped me the most with understanding and review. Ferallis notes helped me the most with memorization. Bootcamp was great for practice.
Exam experience: I marked around 5 questions which I wasn't sure of. Most of the other questions were easy. Nothing crazy on taxonomy thankfully but not a lot of genetics questions which is my strength. Most of my questions were molecular bio, anatomy, and eco/evo related.
General Chemistry (27): Gen chem has always been my strong point among the sciences so I wasn't too worried about this section. I made a formula sheet with the formulas I kept forgetting (ex. Henderson-Hasselbach, Osmotic pressure etc..) and memorized it which really helped. Chad's Defeat the DAT was helpful in solidifying my weak spots.
Exam experience: I had 2-3 really weird questions on this section so be prepared for any curve balls. You might not have seen all the questions types that show up on your exam. But if you hammer home the major concepts, I think you can figure it out on the exam.
Organic Chemistry (24): For this section, it’s all about understanding. There are a lot of concepts but they are all related so take the time to understand all of them. Yes memorize your reactions (either using Chad’s reactions sheet which I did or Destroyer road maps or both if you have the time) but make sure you understand things like resonance, basicity, acidity of hydrogens, and stereochem. Btw, the last chapter in Chad’s videos is super low yield.
Exam experience: I had to extrapolate answers by applying concepts on 5 questions because I had never seen those types of question before. The rest were easy. Also, one of the sort of tricky questions on my exam was straight from destroyer.
Here are some awesome resources I used to study besides Ferallis notes, Cliffs, Chad’s videos, Bootcamp, and Destroyer:
Armando Hasudungan’s biology videos:
Armando Hasudungan
The most helpful resource I used for visualizing biology.
Defeat the DAT
DEFEAT the DAT
Great for working on weaknesses in GC and OC.
1 Year of AP Bio in 43 Minutes:
Good review of a fraction of what we need to know.
Bozeman Science videos:
Bozeman Science
Great for understanding.
The Organic Chemistry Tutor:
The Organic Chemistry Tutor
This guy was great for review of GC, OC, and QR concepts I still didn’t understand after Chad’s.
Crash Course: Anatomy and Physiology:
Anatomy & Physiology - YouTube
Used this if Armando didn’t have a video on something.
Khan Academy: Probability and combinatorics
Probability and combinatorics | Precalculus | Math | Khan Academy
Didn’t get permutations and combinations until I watched these videos. Saved me on 2-3 questions on my exam.
Anki:
Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards
Ferallis deck: Feralis Biology Notes Anki Deck | DAT Bootcamp
Awesome for memorization if you have the time.
Best of luck to all of you who haven’t taken the DAT yet. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.
YOU GUYS GOT THIS!
And always remember..
BOOTCAMP SCORES ARE NOT SCORE INDICATORS
Peace.
Here are my scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 24
RC: 21
Bio: 26
GC: 27
OC: 24
TS: 25
AA: 24
I’ll start the breakdown with MY MOST IMPORTANT TIP: Practice exams are not score indicators. They are learning tools. Use them to identify your weaknesses and then address those weaknesses. After you do that, be confident that you will score better on the real thing. Don’t let practice exam scores discourage you in any way.
Having said that, here are my bootcamp averages for each section:
PAT: 19.1
QR: 20.5
RC: 20
Bio: 19.9
GC: 21
OC: 19.8
AA: 20
I’ve also attached an image of my scores for each section. I bolded my highest and lowest scores.
Duration: 14 weeks, 7 days a week, 5-6 hours a day) Took a 1 week vacation at around week 10. Everyone has their own study habits/preferences so if you can do 7+ hours a day and spend less days studying, go for it. There's no right or wrong way for this in my opinion, just do you.
Here’s how it went for me:
Weeks 1-7: Watched Chad’s videos (gen chem and orgo) and took notes. Also read Cliffs AP Biology 3rd edition and Ferallis Notes and made my own notes based off of them. Did 30 minutes of PAT bootcamp generators everyday.
Weeks 8-9: Reviewed everything I learned in weeks 1-7 and took a few Chad’s quizzes for things I wasn’t good at. Started using Anki everyday for bio (Ferallis anki deck). Took bootcamp practice exam 1 to see where my weaknesses were.
Week 10: Vacation - did 200 problems of Orgo Destroyer and 2 days worth of Anki.
Week 11: Finished Orgo and Gen Chem Destroyer. Did PAT and reading practice exams.
Week 12: Studied my orgo & gen chem notes, started Bio Destroyer, started Math Destroyer, and took science bootcamp exam 10 to see my weaknesses again. Did a few more reading practice exams and did PAT generators everyday too.
Week 13: Did GC/Orgo Destroyer a second time, finished Math Destroyer up to exam 5, continued Bio Destroyer (up to 450). Did a few PAT, reading, and QR bootcamp exams.
Week 14: Practiced with bootcamp everyday and reviewed my weaknesses after every exam. Watched some great bio videos and Mike’s videos. Also used Defeat the DAT. Worked out my strategy for reading and PAT.
Weekend before the exam: Only practiced PAT and Reading. I just reviewed all my notes for everything and reviewed old practice exams.
Breakdown by Section:
PAT (23): all you need to prepare for this is Bootcamp. I think the most important thing for this section is timing. If you can get timing down and score around 19-20 on Bootcamp, you're ready.
Exam experience: Keyholes, TFE, and angles were easier on the real exam. I didn’t get any rocks. Hole punching and pattern folding were the same. And cubes were somehow harder. They gave me 6 different figures which threw me off.
Quantitative Reasoning (24): Between Math Destroyer and Bootcamp, I definitely think that Bootcamp is a better resource because the questions are a lot more similar to the real DAT. Do destroyer if you have the time though.
Exam experience: I was really surprised at this score because I felt it didn't go too well during the exam. There were around 5 weird questions that I had never seen anything like but all of the others were similar to Bootcamp.
Reading Comprehension (21): I've always been a slow reader so I wasn’t surprised that this was my lowest score. For this section, just practice using Bootcamp and you should be fine. I think it's as hard on Bootcamp as it is on the real DAT.
Exam experience: I used BYU4you's method which worked great for the first two passages. I messed up on the last one with my time and had to guess on the last 3.
Biology (26): I'm a bio major so I had a great background going into this. I had just taken physiology in the spring so all of that stuff was fresh in my mind. Definitely agree with most users on this website: go for breadth over depth. First expose yourself to every topic in general and understand it and then go back and memorize the details. YouTube videos and cliffs helped me the most with understanding and review. Ferallis notes helped me the most with memorization. Bootcamp was great for practice.
Exam experience: I marked around 5 questions which I wasn't sure of. Most of the other questions were easy. Nothing crazy on taxonomy thankfully but not a lot of genetics questions which is my strength. Most of my questions were molecular bio, anatomy, and eco/evo related.
General Chemistry (27): Gen chem has always been my strong point among the sciences so I wasn't too worried about this section. I made a formula sheet with the formulas I kept forgetting (ex. Henderson-Hasselbach, Osmotic pressure etc..) and memorized it which really helped. Chad's Defeat the DAT was helpful in solidifying my weak spots.
Exam experience: I had 2-3 really weird questions on this section so be prepared for any curve balls. You might not have seen all the questions types that show up on your exam. But if you hammer home the major concepts, I think you can figure it out on the exam.
Organic Chemistry (24): For this section, it’s all about understanding. There are a lot of concepts but they are all related so take the time to understand all of them. Yes memorize your reactions (either using Chad’s reactions sheet which I did or Destroyer road maps or both if you have the time) but make sure you understand things like resonance, basicity, acidity of hydrogens, and stereochem. Btw, the last chapter in Chad’s videos is super low yield.
Exam experience: I had to extrapolate answers by applying concepts on 5 questions because I had never seen those types of question before. The rest were easy. Also, one of the sort of tricky questions on my exam was straight from destroyer.
Here are some awesome resources I used to study besides Ferallis notes, Cliffs, Chad’s videos, Bootcamp, and Destroyer:
Armando Hasudungan’s biology videos:
Armando Hasudungan
The most helpful resource I used for visualizing biology.
Defeat the DAT
DEFEAT the DAT
Great for working on weaknesses in GC and OC.
1 Year of AP Bio in 43 Minutes:
Good review of a fraction of what we need to know.
Bozeman Science videos:
Bozeman Science
Great for understanding.
The Organic Chemistry Tutor:
The Organic Chemistry Tutor
This guy was great for review of GC, OC, and QR concepts I still didn’t understand after Chad’s.
Crash Course: Anatomy and Physiology:
Anatomy & Physiology - YouTube
Used this if Armando didn’t have a video on something.
Khan Academy: Probability and combinatorics
Probability and combinatorics | Precalculus | Math | Khan Academy
Didn’t get permutations and combinations until I watched these videos. Saved me on 2-3 questions on my exam.
Anki:
Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards
Ferallis deck: Feralis Biology Notes Anki Deck | DAT Bootcamp
Awesome for memorization if you have the time.
Best of luck to all of you who haven’t taken the DAT yet. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away.
YOU GUYS GOT THIS!
And always remember..
BOOTCAMP SCORES ARE NOT SCORE INDICATORS
Peace.
