- Joined
- May 18, 2012
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 9
Edit: I took it on 6/12, my bad. I lost count of the days while studying aha
It feels good to be on the other side. First off, thank you SDN community for pushing to go places where I never thought I would have gone. I used to see it as just another standardized test I was going to be average in, but that all changed as soon as I signed up to the SDN forums. I wanted to prove myself among the ranks of the SDN community, and ultimately dental schools. The great thing about this forum is that it helps people motivate each other to do better and we all benefit from it without a doubt. Although I thought I could have done better, that's just me being competitive with myself. 6 months ago, I would have been ecstatic to receive a 21. I greatly appreciated the breakdowns provided by others, so I am more than happy to continue the trend.
PAT: 23
QR: 26
RC: 20
BIO: 24
GC: 20
OC:27
TS: 23
AA: 23
Study materials:
I dropped $$$ on dat materials. you absolutely do not need to do the same.
kaplan online classroom (accompanied by the white review book)
barron's dat
campbell's ap bio guide
random ap bio books
alan's bio notes
chad's gc and oc videos
qvault bio, gc, oc
destroyer
crack dat science
cdr
cdp
random supplemental notes online
Study schedule:
For starters, I actually started studying through Kaplan online classroom during December for 4 weeks while on break, but didn't see myself getting anywhere close to the scores that I wanted/needed, so I decided to do so as soon as I got out of spring semester.
-first two weeks were fairly stagnant focusing mainly on the kaplan review book (it's huge btw)
-significant development: studying took a hit when the Lakers lost
1st week: Kaplan review book
2nd week: Kaplan review book
-discovered SDN mid-2nd week and started to pick up on a few study materials
-began to take a practice test every other day from 3rd week til 2 days before
3rd week: Barron's and supplemental notes
-insane week of chads and destroyer
4th week: don't know how i did this, but finished chads gc, oc videos, and destroyer oc, gc, bio
5th week: review ALL materials
individual sections:
PAT: CDP was my only source. looking at my scores, it's needless to say it was spot on. from previous breakdowns, people have discussed how some parts were harder than others, it's true. but ultimately you'll get around the same score. the angles were my biggest fear and there is a huge gap in the difficulty level (way easier on the test, so don't stress that). didn't really study outside of practice tests. my advice is train your eye, and train your mind to visualize 3D structures. this was one of the areas I thought I was definitely going to do better in during the test.
cdp: 23/23/22/22/24/21/23/23/23
kaplan: 19/21/23/22/24/22 (don't rely on this, but it seems fairly accurate as well)
QR: did not study for this. it seemed like I knew the stuff from the practice tests and just needed to remember the trig functions. test was even simpler. I had math hammered into me at high school so as long as you learn the fundamentals and learn from the practice tests, you should be solid. read the word problems carefully, and remember that you don't need all the information provided to solve the problem (like in gc sometimes)
RC: never did well in this... my whole life. search and destroy. easier than cdr. got so pissed off with this section while studying, I didn't bother to practice it, which I'd like to think helped the other scores at least
cdr: 19/19/17
kaplan: 18/20/18/20/20/19
BIO: I'm a bio major. haven't been doing well in my bio classes, but I believe it's because the classes are hard. this is something I hoped to do best on, simply because in preparation for this test, I had taken gen bio, micro, histo, physio, and genetics. I think it really helped with certain intangibles on the test that you would not get in prep books or even in gen bio. I hope the dental schools see this as a testament to my school's bio program which doesn't get much recognition.
outside of that, QVAULT. I enjoy this program immensely. these provide real thinkers that prove similar to the conceptual questions that you get on the test. I am 100% sold on their product. destroyer bio was solid too, in that when doing them, you had to read every answer choice, and you basically learned from the test. kaplan review was eh, had a great volume of information for certain areas, but who knows... maybe it would have helped with another version of the test. barron's was solid for certain parts (don't do the barron's tests, btw. I got real frustrated when I had to go over all the 'wrong' answers that were really mistakes of the test itself) and alan's bio notes were not bad either. I skimmed through multiple ap bio books
GC: really wish I could have done better, and I don't know what went wrong, but didn't really study for it. chad's videos are great in that they challenge you to understand exceptions and core concepts that the DAT asks. practice is key and learn your weaknesses, and work through each of your mistakes on practice tests (explain to yourself why all other answer choices are wrong)
OC: surprised at how this turned out. very excited about this score. this is usually my lowest score on practice tests. look at me now o chem! and that's all thanks to chad and his videos, and not to forget his quizzes as well! I don't like to promote products, but I think this guy works magic on us. sometimes I wonder why all professors weren't like this. he makes it look so simple, and is to the point. I did not have to spend time playing back parts because I understood things the first time around. this was essential, especially since I only committed a week to chad's videos (oc and gc) on my schedule, while doing the destroyer.
kaplan scores:
Diag/mid1/final/prac1/prac2/prac3
BIO: 17/17/20/19/18/26
GC: 17/19/18/19/21/17
OC: 13/18/18/20/16/18
PAT: (posted above, sorry)
RC: (posted above, sorry)
QR: 22/20/23/22/23/23
qvault scores:
1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10
BIO: 22/20/20/21/20/20/21/22/19/19
GC: 21/24/22/26/26/20/29/20/20/26
OC:22/26/21/20/26/20/19/22/18/20
-kaplan online quizzes/subject tests: great conceptual questions; tougher, but closer to the real DAT than destroyer
-crack dat science: not worth the money, not worth the time
-not everything is right in the books. be open to discover why things happen a certain way (such as in bio) rather than knowing the explicit answer.
-PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. practice doesn't make perfect, but it will help force yourself to find your weaknesses, learn how questions can be presented, how you can eliminate answer choices, and find how much harder you need to push yourself to get where you need to go.
I know it wasn't pretty/organized, but that's my breakdown. for alot of these materials, although they might not have helped with these tests, I can really learned alot from them. you really never know what comes up on these tests, and you just have to be prepared and commit yourself to absorbing, and RETAINING a wide range of information.
overall, this has been a very humbling experience. I always wondered what my breakdown would look like, and here it is. 5 weeks of studying on the daily, and I have finally realized my potential. I'm into motivational stuff, and my advice is just "be the best you, you can be". having put in the work, I hope these scores take me where I want to go, but right now I'm just living in the moment. feel free to ask, and I will either reply or edit the breakdown accordingly. thanks again SDN!
It feels good to be on the other side. First off, thank you SDN community for pushing to go places where I never thought I would have gone. I used to see it as just another standardized test I was going to be average in, but that all changed as soon as I signed up to the SDN forums. I wanted to prove myself among the ranks of the SDN community, and ultimately dental schools. The great thing about this forum is that it helps people motivate each other to do better and we all benefit from it without a doubt. Although I thought I could have done better, that's just me being competitive with myself. 6 months ago, I would have been ecstatic to receive a 21. I greatly appreciated the breakdowns provided by others, so I am more than happy to continue the trend.
PAT: 23
QR: 26
RC: 20
BIO: 24
GC: 20
OC:27
TS: 23
AA: 23
Study materials:
I dropped $$$ on dat materials. you absolutely do not need to do the same.
kaplan online classroom (accompanied by the white review book)
barron's dat
campbell's ap bio guide
random ap bio books
alan's bio notes
chad's gc and oc videos
qvault bio, gc, oc
destroyer
crack dat science
cdr
cdp
random supplemental notes online
Study schedule:
For starters, I actually started studying through Kaplan online classroom during December for 4 weeks while on break, but didn't see myself getting anywhere close to the scores that I wanted/needed, so I decided to do so as soon as I got out of spring semester.
-first two weeks were fairly stagnant focusing mainly on the kaplan review book (it's huge btw)
-significant development: studying took a hit when the Lakers lost
1st week: Kaplan review book
2nd week: Kaplan review book
-discovered SDN mid-2nd week and started to pick up on a few study materials
-began to take a practice test every other day from 3rd week til 2 days before
3rd week: Barron's and supplemental notes
-insane week of chads and destroyer
4th week: don't know how i did this, but finished chads gc, oc videos, and destroyer oc, gc, bio
5th week: review ALL materials
individual sections:
PAT: CDP was my only source. looking at my scores, it's needless to say it was spot on. from previous breakdowns, people have discussed how some parts were harder than others, it's true. but ultimately you'll get around the same score. the angles were my biggest fear and there is a huge gap in the difficulty level (way easier on the test, so don't stress that). didn't really study outside of practice tests. my advice is train your eye, and train your mind to visualize 3D structures. this was one of the areas I thought I was definitely going to do better in during the test.
cdp: 23/23/22/22/24/21/23/23/23
kaplan: 19/21/23/22/24/22 (don't rely on this, but it seems fairly accurate as well)
QR: did not study for this. it seemed like I knew the stuff from the practice tests and just needed to remember the trig functions. test was even simpler. I had math hammered into me at high school so as long as you learn the fundamentals and learn from the practice tests, you should be solid. read the word problems carefully, and remember that you don't need all the information provided to solve the problem (like in gc sometimes)
RC: never did well in this... my whole life. search and destroy. easier than cdr. got so pissed off with this section while studying, I didn't bother to practice it, which I'd like to think helped the other scores at least
cdr: 19/19/17
kaplan: 18/20/18/20/20/19
BIO: I'm a bio major. haven't been doing well in my bio classes, but I believe it's because the classes are hard. this is something I hoped to do best on, simply because in preparation for this test, I had taken gen bio, micro, histo, physio, and genetics. I think it really helped with certain intangibles on the test that you would not get in prep books or even in gen bio. I hope the dental schools see this as a testament to my school's bio program which doesn't get much recognition.
outside of that, QVAULT. I enjoy this program immensely. these provide real thinkers that prove similar to the conceptual questions that you get on the test. I am 100% sold on their product. destroyer bio was solid too, in that when doing them, you had to read every answer choice, and you basically learned from the test. kaplan review was eh, had a great volume of information for certain areas, but who knows... maybe it would have helped with another version of the test. barron's was solid for certain parts (don't do the barron's tests, btw. I got real frustrated when I had to go over all the 'wrong' answers that were really mistakes of the test itself) and alan's bio notes were not bad either. I skimmed through multiple ap bio books
GC: really wish I could have done better, and I don't know what went wrong, but didn't really study for it. chad's videos are great in that they challenge you to understand exceptions and core concepts that the DAT asks. practice is key and learn your weaknesses, and work through each of your mistakes on practice tests (explain to yourself why all other answer choices are wrong)
OC: surprised at how this turned out. very excited about this score. this is usually my lowest score on practice tests. look at me now o chem! and that's all thanks to chad and his videos, and not to forget his quizzes as well! I don't like to promote products, but I think this guy works magic on us. sometimes I wonder why all professors weren't like this. he makes it look so simple, and is to the point. I did not have to spend time playing back parts because I understood things the first time around. this was essential, especially since I only committed a week to chad's videos (oc and gc) on my schedule, while doing the destroyer.
kaplan scores:
Diag/mid1/final/prac1/prac2/prac3
BIO: 17/17/20/19/18/26
GC: 17/19/18/19/21/17
OC: 13/18/18/20/16/18
PAT: (posted above, sorry)
RC: (posted above, sorry)
QR: 22/20/23/22/23/23
qvault scores:
1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10
BIO: 22/20/20/21/20/20/21/22/19/19
GC: 21/24/22/26/26/20/29/20/20/26
OC:22/26/21/20/26/20/19/22/18/20
-kaplan online quizzes/subject tests: great conceptual questions; tougher, but closer to the real DAT than destroyer
-crack dat science: not worth the money, not worth the time
-not everything is right in the books. be open to discover why things happen a certain way (such as in bio) rather than knowing the explicit answer.
-PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. practice doesn't make perfect, but it will help force yourself to find your weaknesses, learn how questions can be presented, how you can eliminate answer choices, and find how much harder you need to push yourself to get where you need to go.
I know it wasn't pretty/organized, but that's my breakdown. for alot of these materials, although they might not have helped with these tests, I can really learned alot from them. you really never know what comes up on these tests, and you just have to be prepared and commit yourself to absorbing, and RETAINING a wide range of information.
overall, this has been a very humbling experience. I always wondered what my breakdown would look like, and here it is. 5 weeks of studying on the daily, and I have finally realized my potential. I'm into motivational stuff, and my advice is just "be the best you, you can be". having put in the work, I hope these scores take me where I want to go, but right now I'm just living in the moment. feel free to ask, and I will either reply or edit the breakdown accordingly. thanks again SDN!
Last edited:
