mcataz said:
Hi everyone,
I know most people in here have successfull averaged 20+ on the academic and PAT section of the DAT. Could you answer the following.
1. What were your DAT scores?
2. What books/prep courses did you use?
3. When did you start studying for the DAT?
4. How did you prepare for the exam? How many hours a day did you study?
5. What study methods were a waste of time? What methods do you wish you spent more time working on?
6. How much material did you remember prior to studying for the DAT? Were you clueless in the beginning or did you feel that you had a firm understanding of the material?
7. Do you believe that you can work your way to a 20 regardless of your intelligence and test-taking ability?
Just took the DAT today, thought I could share some thoughts since I got so many valuable tips from this forum.
1. My DAT score is 23 (TS), 23 (AA) and 20 PAT.
2.
Biology: Kaplan, Schaum (very helpful after reading kaplan- Thank you SDN for recommending this book- This is a must read), Campbell (very useful for connecting different concepts together, but may be too much detail), Topscore (most similar to the real DAT), DAT achiever (harder than the real thing), Barron (lots of mistakes, but the difficulties is about the same as the real one).
Chemistry: Kaplan, Barron, Topscore, and DAT achiever. For this section, Kaplan is enough, but some of the concepts are not well explained. I just browsed through the web. it's amazing how many useful websites there are. The most important thing in this section is practice, practice and practice a lot of problems. The real thing is a lot more easier than all of the practice tests.
Organic Chemistry: Kaplan, Topscore, Barron and DAT achiever. Also went through my textbook and study guides for the textbook, and make up reaction sheets. Again, just do a lot of problems from practice tests and textbook. I find the real organic chem test harder than the practice tests. Know your concepts: Markovnikov, anti-Markovnikov, radical stability and stereoisomers (chirality).
Reading Comprehension: The passages were very easy (easier than all of the practice tests), I was a little surprised at the test. I just scan the passage for the first 8 minutes (I just jot down numbers and names of studies only). The questions are very similar to top score, but there are also a lot of tone and purpose questions. There's no need to practice for this section, just make sure you manage your time well. Once you know you can finish the test on time, thre is no problem at all.
Quantitative: There weren't that many words problems, mainly a lot of algebra. Know your probability and trignometry relations. The section isn't that hard. Just pace yourself throughout the test. My strategy is to skip the hard questions and do all the easy ones as fast as possible. Then I go back to the hard questions. Just make sure you get at least 30 questions right. The real test is about the level of Barron, and easier than Kaplan and DAT achiever.
PAT: This is the hardest section of the DAT. I thought I was ready because I did so many practice tests. The real thing is easier than DAT achiever, but harder than Kaplan, Barron and topscore. I guess you can't really improve on perceptual ability. The angles were pretty hard, some angles were very similar. Top front end, keyholes and cube counting were extremely easy and very similar to that of Topscores. Aperture passing and pattern recognition were very hard. The most important thing is to pace yourself, just make sure you can finish the test on time. I finished it with 3 minutes to go. DAT achiever is the best for studying PAT! Study DAT achiever first and then do the other practice tests.
3,4. Started studying at May this year, and at least 7 hours every day. However, I thought I overstudied for the DAT. I probably was ready at August.
5. Study method:
First of all, the Kaplan course is useless. Just buy the book and the review material and don't waste money on the course. I can't believe I wasted close to a thousand dollar on this bad review course. The instructors just basically repeat the same thing in the textbook. I get better studying by myself than in class.
I thought Kaplan reading comprehension method was useless. The keyword method really wasted a lot of time. I just jot down numbers and names of specific study only. There's just too many scientific terms to jot down. I regretted practicing so much for the reading comprehension, I did like 18 reading comprehension tests.
6. Before studying for the DAT, I only know the molecular biology and microbiology stuff. Never took any human biology, physiology and Ecology courses in University. Schaum was the best in integrating all the concepts together. I was totally clueless with all the classification and ecology concepts until I read Schaum (kaplan is really bad at explaining ecology and classification concepts).
I took Organic chem like 3 years ago. I forgot everything already. I just read through Kaplan and then my textbook again.
7. I think hard work can lead to a respectable score, but test taking ability is the most important thing for the DAT. You need to know how to pace yourself for the whole test. Also, don't dwell too much time on one question, and make sure you do all the easy questions on the test as fast as possible.
Just study a lot and do a lot of practice tests, and you will do fine.
Thank you SDN for many advices on the DAT!