Hi everyone. I've been getting a lot of help from SDN and I thought I share a bit of what I did to study for the DAT.
My scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 24
RC: 24
BIO: 21
GC: 24
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 23
Background: I'm currently a 2nd year Biochemistry major that's planning graduating a year early. Because of pre-reqs, I haven't been able to take Organic Chem 2 before taking the DAT so OC was my biggest worry. Since I wanted to start applying this upcoming summer, I thought that the winter break was the best and only time to study for DAT. I gave myself about 4 weeks to study everything (~40hrs/wk of studying), but it would have been nice to have a extra week or so.
Materials Used:
DAT/Math Destroyer, Chad's Video, DAT Bootcamp, Cliff's AP Bio
Biology (21) - Alright, this was my lowest score and probably the hardest section for me. I started studying bio section first because I knew there were so much info that I needed to cover and wasn't sure how much time I needed. Since I took Intro Bio 1 and 2 during my freshmen year, the info was relatively fresh so there wasn't much need to "learn" the concepts again. I first used the DAT destroyer to review questions and used Cliff's to review the concepts. The key is understanding the concepts and learning which part of bio you were weak at (my weak point was genetics) and reviewing them. I took a look at Feralis bio notes, but decided it wasn't necessary for me (I can see it helping other people for sure though). After all the studying, I did the bootcamp biology tests to see where I would be at. I got 24/18/22/21 (not in order) and thought that the actual DAT test was harder than bootcamp bio section. This is probably due to bio being so random.
General Chemistry (24) - I've always been strong in General Chemistry and was the most confident in this section. For GC, I first used Chad's video to review the concepts again. I focused on Electrochemistry, Thermodynamics, Equilibrium, and Kinetics because those were my weak points. I highly recommend Chad's video because he reviews everything you need to know about GC in my opinion. After Chad's videos, I used DAT destroyer to review what I've learned through Chad, and did my best to understand all the wrong answers. In this section I think Chad's > Destroyer. Also for bootcamp, I don't remember the exact scores but I got around 21 on most of them. DAT test was a bit easier than bootcamp genchem section.
Organic Chemistry (22) - As I said previously, I only took first semester of Organic Chemistry, so I was really worried about the stuff I haven't learned yet. To make up for this fact, I took the most time to study OC. I started with DAT destroyer but there were many concepts on there that I had no idea about so I switched to Chad's video to learn the new materials and came back to destroyer. Although I missed a lot of question on the destroyer, I took the time to understand the answers and did my best to learn the new materials. For this section, Chad's video was a lifesaver and destroyer helped me review the materials I learned. Chad's and destroyer were equally helpful in my opinion. For bootcamp, I got 17,18,20,21 (in no order) and thought that bootcamp was pretty accurate compared to real DAT.
PAT (23) - I didn't have much time to study for PAT, so I only looked at what I needed to improve on.. I took the 1st test on DAT bootcamp (full) and looked at my strengths and weaknesses. My worst section was the angle section but I kept using the angle generator to get a feel of it. I started with around 33% accuracy on angle, but went up around 66% by the end. Cube counting, hole punch, and pattern folding came naturally to me so I didn't bother that much to do those problems. What I did notice was that I ran out of time on bootcamp, so on real DAT I did my best to keep track of time. DAT bootcamp was definitely helpful for me.
Quantitative Reasoning (24) - Math was one of my strengths in high school, but I still took couple tests on the math destroyer to see what kind of questions might show up on DAT. I took 5 tests total in destroyer and thought that was enough. Formulas on the front of the destroyer was a good review/reminder. Just knowing what kind of questions might show up on DAT helped me. I didn't use bootcamp for this section so I can't comment of that.
Reading Comprehension (24) - I did absolutely nothing for this section because I just ran out of time to do study. I also thought that there was no real way to study for RC so I wasn't too worried about not studying for it. I was never strong in RC, but it turned out okay. What I did in DAT was write down key words/ main point (not a sentence, just words) of each body paragraph and that was really helpful. By writing those key points, I didn't spend much time looking at wrong paragraphs or anything. I heard that many people ran out of time on RC, so I did my best to read the articles as fast as I could. In the end, I had enough time to review.
Basically, I used Destroyer for all the science section and thought those really helped me. I've met people who never used destroyer and got 21+ TS, but I really recommend it. Chad's video was a must for me because of OChem, but also super helpful for Gen Chem. Also using the bootcamp was nice addition, but not necessary in my opinion (for science). For PAT, I really needed bootcamp. I didn't have time to do all 10 tests, but the explanation on keyhole, and TFE section was super helpful. For QR, just knowing the formulas will help you a lot. I'm not sure what to say about RC since I did nothing to prepare for it.
I'm so glad I'm done with the DAT. If you anyone has any questions, I'll be glad to answer them, and good luck to all of you!
My scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 24
RC: 24
BIO: 21
GC: 24
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 23
Background: I'm currently a 2nd year Biochemistry major that's planning graduating a year early. Because of pre-reqs, I haven't been able to take Organic Chem 2 before taking the DAT so OC was my biggest worry. Since I wanted to start applying this upcoming summer, I thought that the winter break was the best and only time to study for DAT. I gave myself about 4 weeks to study everything (~40hrs/wk of studying), but it would have been nice to have a extra week or so.
Materials Used:
DAT/Math Destroyer, Chad's Video, DAT Bootcamp, Cliff's AP Bio
Biology (21) - Alright, this was my lowest score and probably the hardest section for me. I started studying bio section first because I knew there were so much info that I needed to cover and wasn't sure how much time I needed. Since I took Intro Bio 1 and 2 during my freshmen year, the info was relatively fresh so there wasn't much need to "learn" the concepts again. I first used the DAT destroyer to review questions and used Cliff's to review the concepts. The key is understanding the concepts and learning which part of bio you were weak at (my weak point was genetics) and reviewing them. I took a look at Feralis bio notes, but decided it wasn't necessary for me (I can see it helping other people for sure though). After all the studying, I did the bootcamp biology tests to see where I would be at. I got 24/18/22/21 (not in order) and thought that the actual DAT test was harder than bootcamp bio section. This is probably due to bio being so random.
General Chemistry (24) - I've always been strong in General Chemistry and was the most confident in this section. For GC, I first used Chad's video to review the concepts again. I focused on Electrochemistry, Thermodynamics, Equilibrium, and Kinetics because those were my weak points. I highly recommend Chad's video because he reviews everything you need to know about GC in my opinion. After Chad's videos, I used DAT destroyer to review what I've learned through Chad, and did my best to understand all the wrong answers. In this section I think Chad's > Destroyer. Also for bootcamp, I don't remember the exact scores but I got around 21 on most of them. DAT test was a bit easier than bootcamp genchem section.
Organic Chemistry (22) - As I said previously, I only took first semester of Organic Chemistry, so I was really worried about the stuff I haven't learned yet. To make up for this fact, I took the most time to study OC. I started with DAT destroyer but there were many concepts on there that I had no idea about so I switched to Chad's video to learn the new materials and came back to destroyer. Although I missed a lot of question on the destroyer, I took the time to understand the answers and did my best to learn the new materials. For this section, Chad's video was a lifesaver and destroyer helped me review the materials I learned. Chad's and destroyer were equally helpful in my opinion. For bootcamp, I got 17,18,20,21 (in no order) and thought that bootcamp was pretty accurate compared to real DAT.
PAT (23) - I didn't have much time to study for PAT, so I only looked at what I needed to improve on.. I took the 1st test on DAT bootcamp (full) and looked at my strengths and weaknesses. My worst section was the angle section but I kept using the angle generator to get a feel of it. I started with around 33% accuracy on angle, but went up around 66% by the end. Cube counting, hole punch, and pattern folding came naturally to me so I didn't bother that much to do those problems. What I did notice was that I ran out of time on bootcamp, so on real DAT I did my best to keep track of time. DAT bootcamp was definitely helpful for me.
Quantitative Reasoning (24) - Math was one of my strengths in high school, but I still took couple tests on the math destroyer to see what kind of questions might show up on DAT. I took 5 tests total in destroyer and thought that was enough. Formulas on the front of the destroyer was a good review/reminder. Just knowing what kind of questions might show up on DAT helped me. I didn't use bootcamp for this section so I can't comment of that.
Reading Comprehension (24) - I did absolutely nothing for this section because I just ran out of time to do study. I also thought that there was no real way to study for RC so I wasn't too worried about not studying for it. I was never strong in RC, but it turned out okay. What I did in DAT was write down key words/ main point (not a sentence, just words) of each body paragraph and that was really helpful. By writing those key points, I didn't spend much time looking at wrong paragraphs or anything. I heard that many people ran out of time on RC, so I did my best to read the articles as fast as I could. In the end, I had enough time to review.
Basically, I used Destroyer for all the science section and thought those really helped me. I've met people who never used destroyer and got 21+ TS, but I really recommend it. Chad's video was a must for me because of OChem, but also super helpful for Gen Chem. Also using the bootcamp was nice addition, but not necessary in my opinion (for science). For PAT, I really needed bootcamp. I didn't have time to do all 10 tests, but the explanation on keyhole, and TFE section was super helpful. For QR, just knowing the formulas will help you a lot. I'm not sure what to say about RC since I did nothing to prepare for it.
I'm so glad I'm done with the DAT. If you anyone has any questions, I'll be glad to answer them, and good luck to all of you!
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