I am familiar with both exams at length and here is my take on it -
The MCAT covers organic chemistry, biology, and general chemistry just like the DAT, but the format is VERY different. IMHO the organic chemistry on the MCAT is easier than the DAT. The content of general chemistry is the same, but the testing style is very different. If you enjoy reasoning through problems, then you will like the MCAT more. The majority of the science portion in the MCAT is passage based so if you master that, you should be is great shape. You much also know how to appropriately extrapolate information from the MCAT passages to answer the questions correctly. On the DAT one question is completely independent of the next. Ont he MCAT you have a a few questions on a passage. Therefore, if you do not understand the passage you could be screwed with several questions. The biology on the MCAT is very much genetics, immunology, physiology, and human related. The DAT is not like that. Let me emphasize that again - the DAT is NOT like that. On the DAT you have to know all of that MCAT biology stuff PLUS ecology, classification, and plant biology. Additionally, the MCAT has physics, but DAT does not. Instead the DAT has the PAT section that you must master yourself. It takes time to master that section. I personally would have perfered physics over the PAT section. But I had to suck it up and deal with the PAT section. The verbal section on the MCAT is different that that of the DAT in that the MCAT passages are not science based and often less dense. However, the MCAT has more inference question that search and destroy questions which I would have preferred to have since I read the passage first prior to answering the questions on the DAT. if you head straight to the questions on the MCAT and attempt to do search and destroy and work backwards, you will be screwed. The reading section on the DAT is a crap-shoot. I suggest you pray on test day. Good luck!
