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Tjharden15

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So I just took my DAT a few days ago and wanted to post something because when I was studying I didn't see many posts that struggled with the things I did (aka QR, Gen. Chem, and RC mostly) so I thought this might help those who feel less confident about the DAT leading up to it.

So for study materials I used Chad's Video's, DAT Bootcamp, DAT Destroyer/Math Destroyer and I did DAT Destroyer twice in every subject while going through all the ones I missed a third time in Biology (ESSENTIAL for Bio section). I studied for two months and used my entire summer for this test. I would wake up at 7am everyday and would study until about 8 and sometimes 10pm. I used a timer to make sure I was separating subjects evenly and I highly advise the same to those currently studying but it's not essential. My total hours of studying for each subject were: Biology- 170hrs; Gen. Chem- 145hrs; Org. Chem- 85hrs; QR-48hrs; PAT- 20 and total for 468hrs over the summer give or take about 5hrs when I left the timer running or something. This is accurate only to a certain degree but it gives you a rough estimate to what subjects received more attention then others and how I divided my time. I followed the study schedule made by bootcamp until the end of the first month but started making my own schedule at the beginning of the second month.

Biology:
This was the section I felt the most confident on and you can see my score isn't incredible by any means so that should tell you right away this section is tough. I think the most important part to the biology section that helped me was using DAT Destroyer while I studied Bootcamps Biology notes. Making mental notes on the things I didn't understand really helped me retain the information when I came to it in the notes and gradually developed the full picture. This section is dense and since I had just taken Bio 3 having all these A & P concepts fresh on my mind was big. I also made over 700 flashcards that I studied heavily throughout the first month.

Chemistry:
This was easily the hardest subject for me to learn. Usually when looking up breakdowns I would see quite a few people that had an easy time with this section and so I just practiced and practiced. I made comprehensive notes of everything I needed to memorize and studied it constantly usually a couple times a week and before big tests. I watched Mike's videos and still didn't really understand the concepts so I bought Chad's videos to explain the concepts that give me the most issue such as ICE tables and battery cells. This section ended up being easier then I anticipated it being and I had hardly scored this high before in Bootcamp. Overall persistence is what made this section happen for me.

Organic Chemistry:
This section gave me little trouble but I was still surprised to get as high as I did but the test seemed almost identical to a bootcamp test. For this section I used Chad's videos almost exclusively after going through all of Mike's and finding little result. As with General Chemistry I found Chad's videos went slower and more at my own pace for me to memorize the reactions. I organized all the reactions in one set of notes and reviewed that set of notes about twice a week sometimes more to really memorize the reactions. One huge bit of advance I would give to anyone looking to take the DAT is to take it right after you get done with Organic Chemistry so this topic will be fresh on you mind. This is what I did and i'm pleased with how easy Organic ended up being for me.

PAT:
Used exclusively bootcamp for this section and this felt identical to a typical bootcamp PAT test. I didn't expect to have an easier time on the actual test PAT but it felt easier in the angle ranking and keyhole sections. Everything else was pretty much on par with bootcamp. I emphasized the high yield sections like cube counting and hole punching and whenever I had extra time I would double check my cube counting to make sure I at least got 15/15 in this section.

Reading Comp:
I really struggled with this section leading up to the DAT. I even got a 16 on one of my reading comp practice test. I just kept changing my strategy when I took practice tests and focused on their effectiveness for me. I ended up scoring highest when I read the first half of the passage and then answer until I couldn't and kept reading. 20 was a rare score for me in this section but the passages were straight forward and simple. My last passage was super easy and this was my saving grace for getting the score that I did. This definitely felt easier then bootcamp tests.

QR:
I started on this section late so I ended up having to play catch up throughout my summer. One of the abnormal challenges I faced was I was really bad at math. Like REALLY bad. So I tried to game the questions, figuring out what i could plug in to solve and what kinda questions this test would throw at you. Made sheets were I wrote out the different question types and would write out how to solve them. I improved my probability calculations considering that is usually a large portion of practice tests that I lacked skill and and eventually made that my strength. The bootcamp math videos were not effective for me but the practice test were incredibly realistic to what I found on test day being slightly harder then the actual test itself and helped me learn question types. Chad's math videos helped me a little as well for some of the plug and chug strategies.

My bootcamp practice scores:
Bio: 21; 18; 20; 21; 20
OC: 22; 20; 18; 23; 21
GC: 16*; 17*; 18; 20; 19
PAT: 19; 19; 21; 19; 20
QR: 16; 17; 17; 17; 19*
RC: 19; 16; 19; 19; 20
------------------------------
Full Test #6- RC: 18 QR: 18 PAT: 21 GC: 20 Bio: 20 OC: 22 AA: 20
Full Test #7- RC: 18 QR: 17 PAT: 19 GC: 21 Bio: 19 OC: 24 AA: 20
Full Test #8- RC: 19 QR: 17 PAT: 21 GC: 22 Bio: 22 OC: 21 AA: 20
Full Test #9- RC: 20 QR: 18 PAT: 20 GC: 19 Bio: 22 OC: 21 AA: 20
Full Test#10-RC: 19 QR: 18 PAT: 20 GC: 19 Bio: 20 OC: 25 AA: 20

I'm so excited to be done with this test and never have to take it again. Looking forward to applying next cycle and if anyone has any questions or anything of that nature I will help anyway I can! Most important is to keep studying. I am not an exceptional student I pushed this test back from July 25th to August 18th because I knew I wouldn't be ready for it and I was freaking out about it constantly. It gave me plenty of anxiety and many times I'll admit I lost hope from practice tests and assumed I would have to retake. I say all this to say I know if you are studying now you feel the same way but I promise you your hard work will give you results. Your Bootcamp scores are not the final scores and you will be amazed how you actually perform on test day! Studying for this test is TOUGH, I am starting my Junior year of college this week and had to constantly say no to seeing my friends throughout the summer. I suffer from severe testing anxiety as well so this began to eat away at me as the weeks wore on and I highly recommending finding time for physical activity and if things aren't clicking some days, step away from it and do something fun for yourself so you don't burn yourself out. I had multiple days (about 3 to be exact) in my last two weeks where all I wanted to do was stop studying so I did to give my brain a breather. Lots of work pays off and don't stop working towards your goals!

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So I just took my DAT a few days ago and wanted to post something because when I was studying I didn't see many posts that struggled with the things I did (aka QR, Gen. Chem, and RC mostly) so I thought this might help those who feel less confident about the DAT leading up to it.

So for study materials I used Chad's Video's, DAT Bootcamp, DAT Destroyer/Math Destroyer and I did DAT Destroyer twice in every subject while going through all the ones I missed a third time in Biology (ESSENTIAL for Bio section). I studied for two months and used my entire summer for this test. I would wake up at 7am everyday and would study until about 8 and sometimes 10pm. I used a timer to make sure I was separating subjects evenly and I highly advise the same to those currently studying but it's not essential. My total hours of studying for each subject were: Biology- 170hrs; Gen. Chem- 145hrs; Org. Chem- 85hrs; QR-48hrs; PAT- 20 and total for 468hrs over the summer give or take about 5hrs when I left the timer running or something. This is accurate only to a certain degree but it gives you a rough estimate to what subjects received more attention then others and how I divided my time. I followed the study schedule made by bootcamp until the end of the first month but started making my own schedule at the beginning of the second month.

Biology:
This was the section I felt the most confident on and you can see my score isn't incredible by any means so that should tell you right away this section is tough. I think the most important part to the biology section that helped me was using DAT Destroyer while I studied Bootcamps Biology notes. Making mental notes on the things I didn't understand really helped me retain the information when I came to it in the notes and gradually developed the full picture. This section is dense and since I had just taken Bio 3 having all these A & P concepts fresh on my mind was big. I also made over 700 flashcards that I studied heavily throughout the first month.

Chemistry:
This was easily the hardest subject for me to learn. Usually when looking up breakdowns I would see quite a few people that had an easy time with this section and so I just practiced and practiced. I made comprehensive notes of everything I needed to memorize and studied it constantly usually a couple times a week and before big tests. I watched Mike's videos and still didn't really understand the concepts so I bought Chad's videos to explain the concepts that give me the most issue such as ICE tables and battery cells. This section ended up being easier then I anticipated it being and I had hardly scored this high before in Bootcamp. Overall persistence is what made this section happen for me.

Organic Chemistry:
This section gave me little trouble but I was still surprised to get as high as I did but the test seemed almost identical to a bootcamp test. For this section I used Chad's videos almost exclusively after going through all of Mike's and finding little result. As with General Chemistry I found Chad's videos went slower and more at my own pace for me to memorize the reactions. I organized all the reactions in one set of notes and reviewed that set of notes about twice a week sometimes more to really memorize the reactions. One huge bit of advance I would give to anyone looking to take the DAT is to take it right after you get done with Organic Chemistry so this topic will be fresh on you mind. This is what I did and i'm pleased with how easy Organic ended up being for me.

PAT:
Used exclusively bootcamp for this section and this felt identical to a typical bootcamp PAT test. I didn't expect to have an easier time on the actual test PAT but it felt easier in the angle ranking and keyhole sections. Everything else was pretty much on par with bootcamp. I emphasized the high yield sections like cube counting and hole punching and whenever I had extra time I would double check my cube counting to make sure I at least got 15/15 in this section.

Reading Comp:
I really struggled with this section leading up to the DAT. I even got a 16 on one of my reading comp practice test. I just kept changing my strategy when I took practice tests and focused on their effectiveness for me. I ended up scoring highest when I read the first half of the passage and then answer until I couldn't and kept reading. 20 was a rare score for me in this section but the passages were straight forward and simple. My last passage was super easy and this was my saving grace for getting the score that I did. This definitely felt easier then bootcamp tests.

QR:
I started on this section late so I ended up having to play catch up throughout my summer. One of the abnormal challenges I faced was I was really bad at math. Like REALLY bad. So I tried to game the questions, figuring out what i could plug in to solve and what kinda questions this test would throw at you. Made sheets were I wrote out the different question types and would write out how to solve them. I improved my probability calculations considering that is usually a large portion of practice tests that I lacked skill and and eventually made that my strength. The bootcamp math videos were not effective for me but the practice test were incredibly realistic to what I found on test day being slightly harder then the actual test itself and helped me learn question types. Chad's math videos helped me a little as well for some of the plug and chug strategies.

My bootcamp practice scores:
Bio: 21; 18; 20; 21; 20
OC: 22; 20; 18; 23; 21
GC: 16*; 17*; 18; 20; 19
PAT: 19; 19; 21; 19; 20
QR: 16; 17; 17; 17; 19*
RC: 19; 16; 19; 19; 20
------------------------------
Full Test #6- RC: 18 QR: 18 PAT: 21 GC: 20 Bio: 20 OC: 22 AA: 20
Full Test #7- RC: 18 QR: 17 PAT: 19 GC: 21 Bio: 19 OC: 24 AA: 20
Full Test #8- RC: 19 QR: 17 PAT: 21 GC: 22 Bio: 22 OC: 21 AA: 20
Full Test #9- RC: 20 QR: 18 PAT: 20 GC: 19 Bio: 22 OC: 21 AA: 20
Full Test#10-RC: 19 QR: 18 PAT: 20 GC: 19 Bio: 20 OC: 25 AA: 20

I'm so excited to be done with this test and never have to take it again. Looking forward to applying next cycle and if anyone has any questions or anything of that nature I will help anyway I can! Most important is to keep studying. I am not an exceptional student I pushed this test back from July 25th to August 18th because I knew I wouldn't be ready for it and I was freaking out about it constantly. It gave me plenty of anxiety and many times I'll admit I lost hope from practice tests and assumed I would have to retake. I say all this to say I know if you are studying now you feel the same way but I promise you your hard work will give you results. Your Bootcamp scores are not the final scores and you will be amazed how you actually perform on test day! Studying for this test is TOUGH, I am starting my Junior year of college this week and had to constantly say no to seeing my friends throughout the summer. I suffer from severe testing anxiety as well so this began to eat away at me as the weeks wore on and I highly recommending finding time for physical activity and if things aren't clicking some days, step away from it and do something fun for yourself so you don't burn yourself out. I had multiple days (about 3 to be exact) in my last two weeks where all I wanted to do was stop studying so I did to give my brain a breather. Lots of work pays off and don't stop working towards your goals!
Congratulations!
 
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