I would start practicing QR from the very start, I didn’t look at it until end of April and that was stupid. I will say the actual DAT was significantly easier than Bootcamp QR, the highest I ever got was a 19 once on the practice tests and ended up getting a 21 on the real thing.
Reading Comprehension
I took 2 practice tests and felt solid. The practice tests are nice to get a feel on timing and give you an idea on how to highlight and pace yourself. My strategy was read the question and hunt for an answer, if it was taking a long time like I’d read over half the story and hadn’t found an answer I’d skip it and come back, you’ll often have answers in the next few questions after scanning through for a few minutes anyways. Practice tests were all about 23-25 and I got a 25 on the real thing.
Biology
I would watch the videos and take notes on the simplified sheet they have that’s 138 pages or so. The powerpoints are great but I didn’t like how big they were having to go back through a whole slide set when I reviewed. The condensed notes were more than enough and I’d add any clarifiers or other things I wanted to remember in the margins and that worked well. I liked to wait til the next day after finishing a video to do a Bio Bites, that way I felt like I was actually testing myself rather than reiterating everything I just watched 15 minutes ago, this helped me see what I retained and what I needed to work on. I did a lot of Bio Bites on my phone, quick and easy on the move. I did all the bites on my initial studying and then in May I would read the section in the notes and redo the bites to make sure I was solid. Highest practice test was a 24 but usually was in the 22-23 range and got a 26 on the real thing.
Gen Chem
Dr. Mike is great and half the things he said left me wondering why they didn’t teach us that in my real classes. I’d watch his videos with the powerpoints and then later would make another set of notes on the main ideas and takeaways from the slides. Practice tests here were VERY helpful, great explanations of why things are right or wrong. I got 21-23 on these tests and ended up with a 20 in the real thing. I actually felt most confident in this section and scored the lowest on it go figure but that’s how it goes sometimes.
Organic Chem
I had a very diligent professor for my ochems and mainly used my notes from his class, but I loved the reaction bites to keep me fresh. I’d go and learn the Lab techniques, something we’re not all familiar with and are gimme points if you go through them a few times. I got 20-22 on the practice tests and ended up with a 22 on the real test.
Ultimately, I’d say learn the content first obviously and use the practice questions to gauge where you’re at, but don’t get caught up in making every single question a green tag. You have to remember there’s a million things they can ask so sometimes if you’re not getting it take your chances and move on. You’ll be better off knowing more about other topics then spending all your time on diversity of life or something.
The practice tests were my most useful resource because of how representative they are of the real thing. I’d finish those over bites or banks any day. My one caveat is to save 4-5 full length tests (this is why I bought the extra ones). The Bio 1 practice test has the same questions as the Full Length 1 test which is great, but I tend to remember test questions and felt like I’d get scores that weren’t representative because I was repeating questions I knew rather than figuring them out if that makes sense. So, save the last 10-15 tests for the full lengths to give yourself a real idea of where you’re at.
