Can I get away with a 21 AA by just doing Bootcamp?

[Confidence23]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Don't have time for destroyer and chads. Taking test in 2 weeks so I need to just start taking practice exams.

 

[LilyBrunes]

it'd help if we knew your science background. How confident are you in each section. If you're proficient in gen chem and orgo and you've taken MANY upper level bios and have done well, then yes, I'd say 2 weeks is good enough. But if you stlll need refreshers then I'd take a little more time than 2 weeks.

 

[Confidence23]

I just finished my prereqs. I feel good about chem and bio. Ochem/QR/PAT- I have gaps. Hoping to fill those gaps with 2 weeks of bootcamp and CDP software (I have 8 exams left).

 

[mightymoose02]

I just finished my prereqs. I feel good about chem and bio. Ochem/QR/PAT- I have gaps. Hoping to fill those gaps with 2 weeks of bootcamp and CDP software (I have 8 exams left).

I would never tell anybody that they can't do something but this is a little risky and I'm not sure why you are in such a rush to take the test. I would reconsider and at least give yourself a good 4 weeks at minimum.

We can also give better advice if you can tell us your diagnostic practice test score because that should indicate how you would score and how much time you may need to work on your weaknesses.

 

[Confidence23]

Congrats on your scores. Solid. I haven't taken any diagnostic other than bootcamp's bio exam 1. I got a 20. This will suffice. What did you think of bootcamp? Does it cover all the material on the DAT? I feel like the best way to prepare for an exam is to take practice exams and learn as you go. That's just my style.

 

[Soleus715]

It barely covers the all material on the DAT. This is true for ALL practice exam resources. They can only offer so many questions to cover the topics and material that may come up on the DAT.

The reason why people LOVE the bootcamp is because of how close it is to the actual format and difficulty of the DAT, not because it covers everything.

A great example is the biology section. There is so much to know about it but you only need to answer 40 questions. How do you know if you're gonna get asked how many chambers of the heart alligators have vs what a pistil of a plant consists of? It's very random in terms of what you're gonna be asked.

If you really want to cover all your bases with the least amount of resources, then I would get:

Bio: Feralis' notes (free)
GC/OC: Chad's videos ($43 with coupon code)
QR: Chads/ Bootcamp
PAT: CDP/ Bootcamp
RC: Bootcamp/ And lots of articles from science publications.

Practice exams: Bootcamp, ADA 2007 (free), ADA 2009 (~$37)


Feralis notes will probably cover everything you need to know. (72 pages of highly condensed detailed material)

I think you can do chads in 1 week no problem. I watched all of GC/OC in 4 days. It is about 28 hours of video but you can watch it at 1.33x speed. It is THE bible of GC/OC, nothing will be left out.


Good luck! 👍

 

[mightymoose02]

Congrats on your scores. Solid. I haven't taken any diagnostic other than bootcamp's bio exam 1. I got a 20. This will suffice. What did you think of bootcamp? Does it cover all the material on the DAT? I feel like the best way to prepare for an exam is to take practice exams and learn as you go. That's just my style.

SOLEUS715 is right about Chad's Videos. I would at least invest in those to ensure a high score in the Chemistries. If there's a sure thing, it's Chad's Videos and it's pretty much a consensus that it covers all of the material. That's money in the bank right there.

$200 of DAT material -

$43* - Chad's Videos (normally $50 for 30 days) - covers OC/GC/QR
$87* - BootCamp (normally $97 for 3 months) - covers all subjects equally
Free - Feralis' Notes - covers entire BIO section
Free - Youtube Videos (see my breakdown for some links) - covers PAT strategy
Free - DAT QVAULT BIO Section Test 1 - covers BIO section
Free - Alan's DAT Notes - covers BIO section
Free - Craig Savage Biology Youtube Videos - covers BIO section
Free - 2007 ADA Test + BootCamp's 2007 ADA Answer Solutions
Free - DAT Question of the Day by BootCamp - covers all subjects
$70 - Achiever Test 1, 2, 3 - covers all subjects (challenging tests)

Total - $200 😀

*discounted price

With this package, you have 9 full tests (Bootcamp + Achiever + 2007 ADA). This means that you will get to practice PAT, QR and RC sections NINE times. That should be more than enough for those sections. It should be sufficient for 2 weeks of studying. On top of that, you have Chad's Videos that will thoroughly cover OC, GC and QR with quizzes after each lecture. Again, more practice. All the Free stuff will mainly help you in Biology for the most part because this is the section that needs the most attention since it covers more material than any other section of the test.

Achiever and BootCamp are either on-par with the real test or more challenging. Usually the latter. Your score on Achiever is not representative, however, BootCamp's scores are closer to the real thing.

If you have other questions on material, let me know. If you are confident you can do it in 2 weeks, I suggest using those materials if you are not going to shell out $200 for the DAT/Math Destroyer combination.

Let me know how it goes! 👍

 

[Confidence23]

How did you maximize the chad's videos learning experience? I watched a couple videos and then got confused on whether or not I should take notes on the quiz questions. How did you retain all the information?

 

[Gaucho4Life]

How did you maximize the chad's videos learning experience? I watched a couple videos and then got confused on whether or not I should take notes on the quiz questions. How did you retain all the information?

2 weeks? Are you trying to apply this cycle?

 

[Confidence23]

Yup

 

[aht12]

how do you get the discounted prices for chad's videos and dat bootcamp?

 

[mightymoose02]

how do you get the discounted prices for chad's videos and dat bootcamp?

Search the SDN for Chad's Videos discounts. One of the threads has it. It's some weird combination of letters.

BootCamp, I don't remember if it was their Facebook page or SDN. But search both.

It's out there for sure.

👍

 

[mightymoose02]

How did you maximize the chad's videos learning experience? I watched a couple videos and then got confused on whether or not I should take notes on the quiz questions. How did you retain all the information?

Maximize by making sure you understand what he's saying. Take notes whenever he dives deeper into a concept. Print out his outlines to give you a map of what he's going to teach you for that lecture. After the videos, take the quizzes and make sure you know how to do those word problems and calculations. All of them are fair game for the DAT.

Know your single-step reactions very well so that multi-step synthesis won't be so hard for you on the test. Chad does a good job giving you a general outline for every single type of reaction that may show up on the test.

Don't focus on one thing too much since you have limited time. Just get through the videos as quickly as possible so you can go over your weaknesses by watching only specific lectures to address those weak areas.

 

[J777]

Have you submitted your application yet?

 

[Confidence23]

Alright thanks.