DAT 2017 Breakdown (23AA/23TS)

[suede]

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[Anothercalidds]

Done with DAT!! This will be a quick breakdown on what resources I used. Instead of using many resources, I tried to keep it simple, but made sure I fully learned everything from the resources I have.

PAT 21
QR 21
RC 29
Bio 22
GC 22
OC 23
TS 23
AA 23

Materials/Study Method:
Chad Gchem & Ochem: I recommend writing VERY detailed notes while watching his videos and take all the quizzes to drill in concepts. Whenever I got anything incorrect on Destroyer/Bootcamp, I would refer back to Chad notes and make a flashcard for that concept/formula. Night before DAT, I reviewed all flashcards & quickly read through all Chad notes. Chad's videos do a great job of covering all bases you will need!

• DAT Bootcamp: Must get!!! BC is on target in terms of question difficulty. I assumed BC is harder than the real DAT (based on other sdn forums I read), but my exam difficulty was on par with BC. However, my scores on the real DAT were 1-2 points higher for every subject. I retook all BC tests a second time and marked any questions that I got wrong again. I just reviewed these questions during my last few days of studying.
  • Read through ALL bio solutions even for questions that you answered correctly. I tried to draw as much diagrams/color-code things while reading through each test's solution because it takes awhile and gets tiring, but the solutions are invaluable!
  • Start PAT generators early and do them everyday. Treat PAT practice as "study breaks" and aim to do at least 15 questions per section everyday. Other than HP being slightly easier on real DAT, BC generators/tests were as hard as the real exam, so I felt well prepared.
• Destroyer 2017: Another must get!!! Did around 40 questions per day for each subject & reviewed marked questions a second time leading up to the night before exam. For bio, I made my own notes using info from the solutions. Destroyer might feel like a lot of bits and pieces of info and takes awhile to get to know ~600 Destroyer bio questions, but they will save you on the couple unexpected questions on the real exam. I was able to answer ~3 questions on the real exam only because I did Destroyer, so just do it!
• Feralis notes & Cliffs: For every Cliff chapter I read, I supplemented it with Feralis notes. Cliffs covered all the general info well except for anatomy/physiology subjects. I depended on Feralis notes & random online searches for these. Even though Feralis notes are text-heavy, after drawing diagrams to memorize all the details, the gaps from just reading Cliffs were filled in. Don't get lost in all the details during your first run through of Feralis! Big concepts first.

My best advice is to learn from low practice scores & never be lazy in your studies. Think of each information as something that will show up on the real DAT because it will. If studying gets draining, do active studying (draw on whiteboards, color-coding, talking out loud, etc) and push through! Finally, I'd like to thank @Ari Rezaei , @orgoman22 , @FeralisExtremum for providing great resources and preparing me well. I couldn't have done it without your help

How long did u study for? How many hours. Day? Did u use specific schedule

 

[suede]

How long did u study for? How many hours. Day? Did u use specific schedule

I studied for ~4 months. Around 8-9hrs per day towards the last month.
I didn't use Ari's schedule because it's been awhile since I took my science prereqs and wanted more time to review those subjects. I just made my own schedule and did content review the first month. Second &third month was spent doing practice tests. During my last month, I did my second run through of questions I marked/wanted to review.

 

[htorres89]

Hey! Congrats on the awesome DAT score! Just curious, do you remember if you happened to come across any trigonometry or geometry?

 

[suede]

Hey! Congrats on the awesome DAT score! Just curious, do you remember if you happened to come across any trigonometry or geometry?

I had some trig questions but no geometry! Most of the questions were similar in difficulty to DAT BC

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Done with DAT!! This will be a quick breakdown on what resources I used. Instead of using many resources, I tried to keep it simple, but made sure I fully learned everything from the resources I have.

PAT 21
QR 21
RC 29
Bio 22
GC 22
OC 23
TS 23
AA 23

Materials/Study Method:
Chad Gchem & Ochem: I recommend writing VERY detailed notes while watching his videos and take all the quizzes to drill in concepts. Whenever I got anything incorrect on Destroyer/Bootcamp, I would refer back to Chad notes and make a flashcard for that concept/formula. Night before DAT, I reviewed all flashcards & quickly read through all Chad notes. Chad's videos do a great job of covering all bases you will need!

• DAT Bootcamp: Must get!!! BC is on target in terms of question difficulty. I assumed BC is harder than the real DAT (based on other sdn forums I read), but my exam difficulty was on par with BC. However, my scores on the real DAT were 1-2 points higher for every subject. I retook all BC tests a second time and marked any questions that I got wrong again. I just reviewed these questions during my last few days of studying.
  • Read through ALL bio solutions even for questions that you answered correctly. I tried to draw as much diagrams/color-code things while reading through each test's solution because it takes awhile and gets tiring, but the solutions are invaluable!
  • Start PAT generators early and do them everyday. Treat PAT practice as "study breaks" and aim to do at least 15 questions per section everyday. Other than HP being slightly easier on real DAT, BC generators/tests were as hard as the real exam, so I felt well prepared.
• Destroyer 2017: Another must get!!! Did around 40 questions per day for each subject & reviewed marked questions a second time leading up to the night before exam. For bio, I made my own notes using info from the solutions. Destroyer might feel like a lot of bits and pieces of info and takes awhile to get to know ~600 Destroyer bio questions, but they will save you on the couple unexpected questions on the real exam. I was able to answer ~3 questions on the real exam only because I did Destroyer, so just do it!
• Feralis notes & Cliffs: For every Cliff chapter I read, I supplemented it with Feralis notes. Cliffs covered all the general info well except for anatomy/physiology subjects. I depended on Feralis notes & random online searches for these. Even though Feralis notes are text-heavy, after drawing diagrams to memorize all the details, the gaps from just reading Cliffs were filled in. Don't get lost in all the details during your first run through of Feralis! Big concepts first.

My best advice is to learn from low practice scores & never be lazy in your studies. Think of each information as something that will show up on the real DAT because it will. If studying gets draining, do active studying (draw on whiteboards, color-coding, talking out loud, etc) and push through! Finally, I'd like to thank @Ari Rezaei , @orgoman22 , @FeralisExtremum for providing great resources and preparing me well. I couldn't have done it without your help

Congratulations!

 

[DallasCowboys]

Awesome RC score.... Congratulations!

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Awesome RC score.... Congratulations!

29 in reading is very rare indeed!