First off, I call this a surprise not because I was shocked by my score. But to show how you can prepare for low cost and be prepared with less studying and preparation. Also, I did not use all the fancy and suggested sources people recommend except for bootcamp.
Where to begin, where to begin? First I would like to say the journey was crazy, stressful, and enjoyable in the end.
My scores are as follows
QR - 18 (so hard I was happy with this, no joke).
Reading - 22
Gen Chem - 19
Biology - 22
Organic - 22 ( IM IN LOVE with the ORGO) sing it to the tune of "Im in love with the coco"
PAT - 20
TS -21
AA -21
WOW WOW WEEEE WOW ( for all you borat fans)
-------------------------------------------------
Ok on to the break down.
Sources I used. This is the surprise part as I used only a few cheap sources.
-DAT BOOTCAMP, thank you Ari. I loved the exams. I did not follow his schedule, you can message me for my DAT Bootcamp schedule. PAT made me well prepared. Used this for reading.
-Feralis' Notes for Bio, I read this maybe one whole time, and reviewed random parts.
-Organic Chemistry 4th edition Janice Gorzynski Smith. This was my textbook from school. ( I bought it so why pay for more stuff)
-General chemistry - Youtube, and mostly just pure memory from school.
Now for youtube I used it for all subjects. Biology, GChem, Organic. Those are listed in most to least.
SHOUT OUT TO MY MAN MR. ANDERSON from Bozeman Science. That guy not only makes Bio easy to learn but provides analogies and his videos are not long lectures. For biology i would watch his videos the night before i went in depth on the specific topic the next day.
I want to say i saw like 2-3 chad's videos. It is not time efficient at all. they were ok at best. I don't think chad's is essential. I learned more form 5 hours in my test book, and covered all organic than 5 lectures that covers like 3 things in chad's. If you need a full course review to for every detail, then use chads.
***I bought cliffs and some kaplan strategies book 2016 13 and 48 dollars respectively. I barely looked at them***
Study schedule- I went with the exposure over time method. Id study 3-4 hours a day and take every 4th day off on average. Im a psychology major and this is the key to memory, you just get used to hearing and seeing the same things over. Part of the surprise is that you don't need to spend month and months studying hours and hours a day. Just pace yourself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The exam itself.
Biology - I thought this section was very fair. A mix of very easy questions, medium questions. A good amount of genetics. There were a few questions that made you think it all out in the situation provided. Also, some situational things. For example, in situation X. What will be the result. This was for a few topics. There was a lot of breadth, but definitely a good amount of depth (There are trying to see if you know your stuff, so it makes sense.
General Chemistry - Not happy, but 100% not upset with this. I am a great chemistry student. I geek on it hard. Some questions were pretty analytical. Felt there was a lot of lab technique on the exam. Otherwise, just variable manipulation and seeing if you can conceptualize the chemistry. I thought it was a fair representation of chemistry.
ORGO!!!!!! - I personally LOVE organic chemistry, to me it is way easier than general chemistry. There was a lot of synthesis type problems and conceptual problems. My text book honestly refreshed the WHOLE course in like 2 days of like 2 hours of studying. I would just look at the reactions, pKa, stability, and rules. There was like 2-3 questions that were tricky. otherwise all basic organic. If you know your rules you can do well. Acid base chemistry and understanding its effects on products will help you find the tricky answers. Thinking out the problems really can help you in a bind, using stability and resonance and all the major concepts.
Reading - I was most scared for this section, thought I would get a 18 on it, but got a 22. The passages were ridiculously easy. I thought I may have gotten like 5-6 wrong max. The questions were all in order, with tone questions in the end. I had a practice test with a passage almost 80% identical to my DAT passage. The questions were almost all spitting back facts. I finished with 8 minutes left and I had reviewed my answers. I actually gave myself a massage and head massage in this time to get me fresh for QR. Overall I read the first half of the passage, answered questions, read the next 3 paragraphs answer. Then S&D the last 2-3 paragraphs. The passages were easy, with one that was more dense. Reading was a lot easier than Bootcamp, but i guess each test id different, as other breakdowns were different.
QR- WOW lowest score. But I was happy with an 18 after I saw what I was asked. THAT **** was hard. BC scores were about a 18.5, but this exam was just a lot of arithmetic comparisons. Don't really know what to say about this. Just know how variable are related and how to make statements from them. Just happy it was an 18. If you haven't taken a math class in a while spend a good amount of time on this, and make sure you just get faster at the basic stuff. Otherwise that will hurt you on time. Be quick and know when to skip a question if you need to, rather have more time for the ones you know and can get right.
PAT- Bootcamp prepared me very well. I got 19's and 20's. The hole punching, angles, cubes and pattern folding was pretty easy, with a few challengers in there. Id say keyhole and TPE were pretty hard. The rock structures made it hard. Keyholes were easier to find wrong answers than BC. I would say angles were my worst on bootcamp, but on the test they were A LOT easier. A little more spaced out, or they had them orientated in favorable ways. Cubes, symmetry came up, so it made counting easier. The test was not bad. Again, if you are doing 19-20 on bootcamp you are very much ready.
------------------
That is my breakdown. I didn't use all the resources that others used. I read over and over Destroyer is the key to success and without it you would be no where. Bootcamp was all the practice testing I needed. I wanted to show, you don't need all the prep stuff out there to be successful.
To all my fellow pre-dents, relax I can not stress this. Take the last 5 days before the exam to wind down and do light reviews. You want to rest your brain. Like when you work out, it takes a week to heal up, but after you heal you are PRIMED!!!
Also, don't get freaked out by the SDN scores, a lot of them are really good, and it even made me feel like I wasn't going to do well if I didn't get a 22AA 22TS or above.
Hope this helps, I will answer all CONTENT, STUDY, and STRATEGY questions. I am on the other side now, and those who aren't I officially know the pain and the process. If you want to know how to study for the exam and not dish out $$$. I can help you, I got the scores to prove it!
Thank you all!!!
I am not going to upload the score sheet. -----> I put it up... Picture I texted my family ha.
Where to begin, where to begin? First I would like to say the journey was crazy, stressful, and enjoyable in the end.
My scores are as follows
QR - 18 (so hard I was happy with this, no joke).
Reading - 22
Gen Chem - 19
Biology - 22
Organic - 22 ( IM IN LOVE with the ORGO) sing it to the tune of "Im in love with the coco"
PAT - 20
TS -21
AA -21
WOW WOW WEEEE WOW ( for all you borat fans)
-------------------------------------------------
Ok on to the break down.
Sources I used. This is the surprise part as I used only a few cheap sources.
-DAT BOOTCAMP, thank you Ari. I loved the exams. I did not follow his schedule, you can message me for my DAT Bootcamp schedule. PAT made me well prepared. Used this for reading.
-Feralis' Notes for Bio, I read this maybe one whole time, and reviewed random parts.
-Organic Chemistry 4th edition Janice Gorzynski Smith. This was my textbook from school. ( I bought it so why pay for more stuff)
-General chemistry - Youtube, and mostly just pure memory from school.
Now for youtube I used it for all subjects. Biology, GChem, Organic. Those are listed in most to least.
SHOUT OUT TO MY MAN MR. ANDERSON from Bozeman Science. That guy not only makes Bio easy to learn but provides analogies and his videos are not long lectures. For biology i would watch his videos the night before i went in depth on the specific topic the next day.
I want to say i saw like 2-3 chad's videos. It is not time efficient at all. they were ok at best. I don't think chad's is essential. I learned more form 5 hours in my test book, and covered all organic than 5 lectures that covers like 3 things in chad's. If you need a full course review to for every detail, then use chads.
***I bought cliffs and some kaplan strategies book 2016 13 and 48 dollars respectively. I barely looked at them***
Study schedule- I went with the exposure over time method. Id study 3-4 hours a day and take every 4th day off on average. Im a psychology major and this is the key to memory, you just get used to hearing and seeing the same things over. Part of the surprise is that you don't need to spend month and months studying hours and hours a day. Just pace yourself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The exam itself.
Biology - I thought this section was very fair. A mix of very easy questions, medium questions. A good amount of genetics. There were a few questions that made you think it all out in the situation provided. Also, some situational things. For example, in situation X. What will be the result. This was for a few topics. There was a lot of breadth, but definitely a good amount of depth (There are trying to see if you know your stuff, so it makes sense.
General Chemistry - Not happy, but 100% not upset with this. I am a great chemistry student. I geek on it hard. Some questions were pretty analytical. Felt there was a lot of lab technique on the exam. Otherwise, just variable manipulation and seeing if you can conceptualize the chemistry. I thought it was a fair representation of chemistry.
ORGO!!!!!! - I personally LOVE organic chemistry, to me it is way easier than general chemistry. There was a lot of synthesis type problems and conceptual problems. My text book honestly refreshed the WHOLE course in like 2 days of like 2 hours of studying. I would just look at the reactions, pKa, stability, and rules. There was like 2-3 questions that were tricky. otherwise all basic organic. If you know your rules you can do well. Acid base chemistry and understanding its effects on products will help you find the tricky answers. Thinking out the problems really can help you in a bind, using stability and resonance and all the major concepts.
Reading - I was most scared for this section, thought I would get a 18 on it, but got a 22. The passages were ridiculously easy. I thought I may have gotten like 5-6 wrong max. The questions were all in order, with tone questions in the end. I had a practice test with a passage almost 80% identical to my DAT passage. The questions were almost all spitting back facts. I finished with 8 minutes left and I had reviewed my answers. I actually gave myself a massage and head massage in this time to get me fresh for QR. Overall I read the first half of the passage, answered questions, read the next 3 paragraphs answer. Then S&D the last 2-3 paragraphs. The passages were easy, with one that was more dense. Reading was a lot easier than Bootcamp, but i guess each test id different, as other breakdowns were different.
QR- WOW lowest score. But I was happy with an 18 after I saw what I was asked. THAT **** was hard. BC scores were about a 18.5, but this exam was just a lot of arithmetic comparisons. Don't really know what to say about this. Just know how variable are related and how to make statements from them. Just happy it was an 18. If you haven't taken a math class in a while spend a good amount of time on this, and make sure you just get faster at the basic stuff. Otherwise that will hurt you on time. Be quick and know when to skip a question if you need to, rather have more time for the ones you know and can get right.
PAT- Bootcamp prepared me very well. I got 19's and 20's. The hole punching, angles, cubes and pattern folding was pretty easy, with a few challengers in there. Id say keyhole and TPE were pretty hard. The rock structures made it hard. Keyholes were easier to find wrong answers than BC. I would say angles were my worst on bootcamp, but on the test they were A LOT easier. A little more spaced out, or they had them orientated in favorable ways. Cubes, symmetry came up, so it made counting easier. The test was not bad. Again, if you are doing 19-20 on bootcamp you are very much ready.
------------------
That is my breakdown. I didn't use all the resources that others used. I read over and over Destroyer is the key to success and without it you would be no where. Bootcamp was all the practice testing I needed. I wanted to show, you don't need all the prep stuff out there to be successful.
To all my fellow pre-dents, relax I can not stress this. Take the last 5 days before the exam to wind down and do light reviews. You want to rest your brain. Like when you work out, it takes a week to heal up, but after you heal you are PRIMED!!!
Also, don't get freaked out by the SDN scores, a lot of them are really good, and it even made me feel like I wasn't going to do well if I didn't get a 22AA 22TS or above.
Hope this helps, I will answer all CONTENT, STUDY, and STRATEGY questions. I am on the other side now, and those who aren't I officially know the pain and the process. If you want to know how to study for the exam and not dish out $$$. I can help you, I got the scores to prove it!
Thank you all!!!
I am not going to upload the score sheet. -----> I put it up... Picture I texted my family ha.
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and we switched gen chem and bio scores lol. But good job!!!