- Joined
- Jul 22, 2013
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
PAT: 25 (99.0)
QR: 24 (99.0)
RC: 24 (94.0)
BIO: 24 (98.9)
GC: 23 (95.4)
OC: 24 (95.7)
TS: 24 (99.1)
AA: 24 (99.6)
Got done with the DAT yesterday! I studied for 10 weeks and roughly 8-10 hours a day. Started with dentalworks 8 week schedule and eventually modified after about week 6 to fit the practice tests in.
Materials used: KBB, Cliff's 4th edition, Cliff's 3rd edition for plants, Chad's, Crack DAT PAT/RC, qVault Bio, Bootcamp, DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer, DAT Achiever, Ferali's Notes. ADA 2007/2009
Most useful materials: Cliff's 3rd/4th edition, Chad's, Ferali's Notes, DAT Destroyer, Achiever for PAT, and Bootcamp.
GC/OC:
GC and OC on my exam was pretty much what Chad and Bootcamp covered.
I started with Dentalworks 8 week schedule and read through KBB and Cliff's and taking notes in three weeks. Overall the chemistry sections were not explained clearly in for both GC/OC so I decided since I had an extra week before needing to start Destroyer, I decided to try out Chad's. Like everyone else before me, Chad's is a must. He breaks down the concepts down in a way that is easy to understand. I took copious notes the first time and making sure I got everything to avoid wasting time to rewatch the videos. I played everything at 1.5x the speed but paused when necessary to understand the topics. However, I do recommend going through KBB for the OC mechanisms that Chad did not specifically go through like the Wittig reaction or the Hoffman degradation etc as I felt it made the reactions stick better in my head. I recommend doing Destroyer right after finishing all of Chad's chem videos and test how well you understood the topic. Overall, I went through Destroyer twice. Went over it the first time in 8 days and then the second time in about four days.
BIO:
The Bio section was rather straightforward on the test with a couple questions that seemed like it came out of nowhere.
What I found useful for BIO was Cliff's AP Bio but be sure to get the 3rd edition and not make the mistake of going through the whole 4th edition and then realizing that the 3rd edition covered sections that are not included in the 4th. KBB was alright if you just want a refresher before hitting the more dense materials like Cliff's or Ferali's. I felt qVault Bio was the best practice for Bio out of all the materials as far as practice test goes. Destroyer and Achiever were just too random in my opinion. However, I do not recommend the extra unseen questions on qVault that do not show up on the diagnostic tests since they were just too random and not really relevant to the test.
My Bootcamp scores for Bio was 21/23/24/21/25, GC was 23/23/25/24/23, and for OC 24/20/21/30/23.
And for qVault Bio it was: 22/20/20/22/22/22/22/27/23/22
PAT:
The difficulty on my exam was a mix between CDP, Achiever, KBB, and Bootcamp. With Keyholes/TFE/Hole punch closer to CDP and luckily the angles halfway between KBB and Bootcamp. The cube counting did not have any complex structures but the pattern folding was the hardest of all the sections. My pattern folding section was closer to Achiever pattern folding difficulty and I spent a good 15-18 minutes on the section.
I started using Crack DAT PAT/RC on my fifth week of studying and did one test test everyday alternating between PAT and RC. Overall, I felt CDP was alright, the keyholes were too easy in my opinion and the angles were too hard. Oddly enough, I liked Achiever PAT the best maybe because I had gotten use to the non-explanations from CDP. I also did Bootcamp PAT and felt that the Keyholes were challenging but personally the explanations on Bootcamp made the whole process too mechanical for me and I did not like it as much. However, I do recommend the Bootcamp pattern explanations.
RC:
I was not comfortable going into the RC section but wound up with topics that were interesting. The passage difficulty was closer to Crack Reading but with questions more in line with the ones found on Bootcamp.
I used Crack reading but I don't recommend using it as your only source for reading since the passages are fairly easy reads compared to Bootcamp and Achiever. Overall Bootcamp is the best representation of the difficulty but doing achiever will really prepare you for the test.
QR:
QR was much easier on the exam after going through Math Destroyer and Bootcamp. I started with Math destroyer and then got really discouraged after doing well for the first 6 tests and then suddenly missing a lot from test 7 and on. I timed myself for every test and eventually the tests in destroyer was too difficult to finish within 45 minutes. I recommend going through the questions untimed from test 7 and on and just work through it to understand the concepts.
Overall I got the same TS score as I got on ADA 2009 but my RC/QR scores improved by 6 points and PAT was up by 4 points. My only advice to offer is try to relax as much as possible going into the test and simulate your practice tests as close to the test conditions as possible.
QR: 24 (99.0)
RC: 24 (94.0)
BIO: 24 (98.9)
GC: 23 (95.4)
OC: 24 (95.7)
TS: 24 (99.1)
AA: 24 (99.6)
Got done with the DAT yesterday! I studied for 10 weeks and roughly 8-10 hours a day. Started with dentalworks 8 week schedule and eventually modified after about week 6 to fit the practice tests in.
Materials used: KBB, Cliff's 4th edition, Cliff's 3rd edition for plants, Chad's
, Crack DAT PAT/RC, qVault Bio, Bootcamp, DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer, DAT Achiever, Ferali's Notes. ADA 2007/2009Most useful materials: Cliff's 3rd/4th edition, Chad's, Ferali's Notes, DAT Destroyer, Achiever for PAT, and Bootcamp.
GC/OC:
GC and OC on my exam was pretty much what Chad and Bootcamp covered.
I started with Dentalworks 8 week schedule and read through KBB and Cliff's and taking notes in three weeks. Overall the chemistry sections were not explained clearly in for both GC/OC so I decided since I had an extra week before needing to start Destroyer, I decided to try out Chad's. Like everyone else before me, Chad's is a must. He breaks down the concepts down in a way that is easy to understand. I took copious notes the first time and making sure I got everything to avoid wasting time to rewatch the videos. I played everything at 1.5x the speed but paused when necessary to understand the topics. However, I do recommend going through KBB for the OC mechanisms that Chad did not specifically go through like the Wittig reaction or the Hoffman degradation etc as I felt it made the reactions stick better in my head. I recommend doing Destroyer right after finishing all of Chad's chem videos and test how well you understood the topic. Overall, I went through Destroyer twice. Went over it the first time in 8 days and then the second time in about four days.
BIO:
The Bio section was rather straightforward on the test with a couple questions that seemed like it came out of nowhere.
What I found useful for BIO was Cliff's AP Bio but be sure to get the 3rd edition and not make the mistake of going through the whole 4th edition and then realizing that the 3rd edition covered sections that are not included in the 4th. KBB was alright if you just want a refresher before hitting the more dense materials like Cliff's or Ferali's. I felt qVault Bio was the best practice for Bio out of all the materials as far as practice test goes. Destroyer and Achiever were just too random in my opinion. However, I do not recommend the extra unseen questions on qVault that do not show up on the diagnostic tests since they were just too random and not really relevant to the test.
My Bootcamp scores for Bio was 21/23/24/21/25, GC was 23/23/25/24/23, and for OC 24/20/21/30/23.
And for qVault Bio it was: 22/20/20/22/22/22/22/27/23/22
PAT:
The difficulty on my exam was a mix between CDP, Achiever, KBB, and Bootcamp. With Keyholes/TFE/Hole punch closer to CDP and luckily the angles halfway between KBB and Bootcamp. The cube counting did not have any complex structures but the pattern folding was the hardest of all the sections. My pattern folding section was closer to Achiever pattern folding difficulty and I spent a good 15-18 minutes on the section.
I started using Crack DAT PAT/RC on my fifth week of studying and did one test test everyday alternating between PAT and RC. Overall, I felt CDP was alright, the keyholes were too easy in my opinion and the angles were too hard. Oddly enough, I liked Achiever PAT the best maybe because I had gotten use to the non-explanations from CDP. I also did Bootcamp PAT and felt that the Keyholes were challenging but personally the explanations on Bootcamp made the whole process too mechanical for me and I did not like it as much. However, I do recommend the Bootcamp pattern explanations.
RC:
I was not comfortable going into the RC section but wound up with topics that were interesting. The passage difficulty was closer to Crack Reading but with questions more in line with the ones found on Bootcamp.
I used Crack reading but I don't recommend using it as your only source for reading since the passages are fairly easy reads compared to Bootcamp and Achiever. Overall Bootcamp is the best representation of the difficulty but doing achiever will really prepare you for the test.
QR:
QR was much easier on the exam after going through Math Destroyer and Bootcamp. I started with Math destroyer and then got really discouraged after doing well for the first 6 tests and then suddenly missing a lot from test 7 and on. I timed myself for every test and eventually the tests in destroyer was too difficult to finish within 45 minutes. I recommend going through the questions untimed from test 7 and on and just work through it to understand the concepts.
Overall I got the same TS score as I got on ADA 2009 but my RC/QR scores improved by 6 points and PAT was up by 4 points. My only advice to offer is try to relax as much as possible going into the test and simulate your practice tests as close to the test conditions as possible.
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