I've been browsing studentdoctor for a couple months, and I've been very grateful for the insights and breakdowns from previous DAT takers. I took the DAT today, and I'm very happy with my scores, so I thought I would give back by sharing my breakdown. I studied for about 2 months straight averaging about 8-9 hours a day. It was a grueling process. I'm not one to sit down and study for hours upon hours (especially for 2 months), but I did not want to take the DAT again, and repeat the whole process, so that was the motivation I needed. Here are my scores:
PAT: 22
RC: 22
QR: 18
Bio: 24
GenChem:23
OChem: 30
TS: 25
AA: 23
I was pretty ecstatic to see my scores, and see all the hard work pay off. I am about as average as it gets as far as academic standings go, so I promise anyone can do well on the DAT if they work hard enough at it.
My study materials:
PAT:
CDP, Bootcamp, DATCrackers. I was absolutely terrible at keyholes and TFE at the beginning. I was getting maybe 3 or 4 out of 15 right in the beginning. This can definitely be learned through tons and tons of practice. The trick is just getting exposure to tons of problems. That's what CDP is good for. The video explanations are alright and all, but it's really just good for the multitude of practice problems. I started with CDP and went through those for the first few weeks, and then tried out Bootcamp. Bootcamp has much better explanations, and again is great for the extra exposure to practice problems. The DATCrackers was only $10, so I figured I'd give it a shot, and it actually helped me a lot. They have decent explanations, but once again, the extra exposure to problems is just what you need to get good at PAT. In my experience, Bootcamp was much more difficult than the actual DAT. I'd probably say CDP was the closest to the actual DAT.
RC:
I didn't study for this at all, besides a couple of full length practice exams. My strategy for this was read the first few paragraphs intently, and then skim the rest of the passage picking out the main points of each paragraph to get an idea of where to look for each question. I thought writing down sentences to summarize paragraphs was a waste of time, but it works for some people.
QR:
Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer (not Math Destroyer), CrackDAT Math. I didn't care much about this section. Chad's videos are worth going through at least once, but I didn't spend too much time on them. They were helpful, but just like PAT I think you need a lot of exposure to practice problems. DAT Destroyer Math is awesome. I went through all of these questions 3 times, and made sure I understood how to do all of them. There were a lot of problems on DAT Destroyer that were really similar to the questions on the DAT. I'm actually really glad I got the CrackDAT Math section. If I could do it again, I would only buy the CrackDAT PAT and Math. CD sciences are a waste of time. Stay away from those. Anyways, the explanations on CrackDAT Math really helped a lot. There were also a lot of questions on the actual DAT that were very similar to the questions on CrackDAT Math.
Bio:
AP Cliffs, DAT Destroyer, Old class materials. AP Cliffs is sweet. It's the single best resource I used for studying Bio. If you know all the bolded terms in AP Cliffs, you should get in the 20's, easy. I went through AP Cliffs a lot. I'm thankful I did because there were a few questions on the DAT that could be found word for word from Cliffs. I was most nervous for taxonomy information, but thankfully I found out that Cliffs is all you need. I only went through the DAT Destroyer Bio questions once, which was good, but I don't think it helped me much. If anything I guess, it helped me identify areas i really needed to improve on. To sum it up, AP Cliffs is the way to go.
GenChem:
Chad's, DAT Destroyer. Chad is the man. Every word he says is gold. No seriously, pay attention to every word he says because even the things he says you don't think are important probably are. I watched his videos like 3 times, and went through his quizzes twice. He's money. Use him. DAT Destroyer was also great. There were a couple questions on the actual DAT that were exactly from the Destroyer. I went through Destroyer questions 3 times, and it helped a ton. I wouldn't have changed anything for studying GenChem.
Ochem:
Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer. Fortunately, I'm fresh off Ochem, and it came pretty naturally for me, so while I was studying for Ochem, it was really just to refresh my memory. Chad did that well, and I'm sure he's great for people learning Ochem for the first time. DAT Destroyer questions were too difficult, but good exposure I guess.
The actual DAT was easier in my mind than any practice test I took. Especially DAT Bootcamp. I averaged 18-19 on the Bio section, 20-21 GenChem, 22-23 Ochem on Bootcamp tests, and I did much better on the actual DAT. I think my best piece of advice is to get a ton of exposure to practice problems. I saw a lot of questions on the actual DAT that I had already seen from practice problems in Destroyer, Bootcamp, CDP, and DAT Crackers. I was getting super frustrated with my practice scores (especially Bio), but I figured as long as I retained all the information I had learned from the problems in each practice test, I would be fine. I'm really shocked about my Bio score, as I never scored above a 19. I was sure my GenChem score would be much higher than Bio, but I definitely spent more time studying Bio, so I'm glad it payed off. Anyways, hope that was worth a read. If you have any more questions or want anything else, just let me know!
PAT: 22
RC: 22
QR: 18
Bio: 24
GenChem:23
OChem: 30
TS: 25
AA: 23
I was pretty ecstatic to see my scores, and see all the hard work pay off. I am about as average as it gets as far as academic standings go, so I promise anyone can do well on the DAT if they work hard enough at it.
My study materials:
PAT:
CDP, Bootcamp, DATCrackers. I was absolutely terrible at keyholes and TFE at the beginning. I was getting maybe 3 or 4 out of 15 right in the beginning. This can definitely be learned through tons and tons of practice. The trick is just getting exposure to tons of problems. That's what CDP is good for. The video explanations are alright and all, but it's really just good for the multitude of practice problems. I started with CDP and went through those for the first few weeks, and then tried out Bootcamp. Bootcamp has much better explanations, and again is great for the extra exposure to practice problems. The DATCrackers was only $10, so I figured I'd give it a shot, and it actually helped me a lot. They have decent explanations, but once again, the extra exposure to problems is just what you need to get good at PAT. In my experience, Bootcamp was much more difficult than the actual DAT. I'd probably say CDP was the closest to the actual DAT.
RC:
I didn't study for this at all, besides a couple of full length practice exams. My strategy for this was read the first few paragraphs intently, and then skim the rest of the passage picking out the main points of each paragraph to get an idea of where to look for each question. I thought writing down sentences to summarize paragraphs was a waste of time, but it works for some people.
QR:
Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer (not Math Destroyer), CrackDAT Math. I didn't care much about this section. Chad's videos are worth going through at least once, but I didn't spend too much time on them. They were helpful, but just like PAT I think you need a lot of exposure to practice problems. DAT Destroyer Math is awesome. I went through all of these questions 3 times, and made sure I understood how to do all of them. There were a lot of problems on DAT Destroyer that were really similar to the questions on the DAT. I'm actually really glad I got the CrackDAT Math section. If I could do it again, I would only buy the CrackDAT PAT and Math. CD sciences are a waste of time. Stay away from those. Anyways, the explanations on CrackDAT Math really helped a lot. There were also a lot of questions on the actual DAT that were very similar to the questions on CrackDAT Math.
Bio:
AP Cliffs, DAT Destroyer, Old class materials. AP Cliffs is sweet. It's the single best resource I used for studying Bio. If you know all the bolded terms in AP Cliffs, you should get in the 20's, easy. I went through AP Cliffs a lot. I'm thankful I did because there were a few questions on the DAT that could be found word for word from Cliffs. I was most nervous for taxonomy information, but thankfully I found out that Cliffs is all you need. I only went through the DAT Destroyer Bio questions once, which was good, but I don't think it helped me much. If anything I guess, it helped me identify areas i really needed to improve on. To sum it up, AP Cliffs is the way to go.
GenChem:
Chad's, DAT Destroyer. Chad is the man. Every word he says is gold. No seriously, pay attention to every word he says because even the things he says you don't think are important probably are. I watched his videos like 3 times, and went through his quizzes twice. He's money. Use him. DAT Destroyer was also great. There were a couple questions on the actual DAT that were exactly from the Destroyer. I went through Destroyer questions 3 times, and it helped a ton. I wouldn't have changed anything for studying GenChem.
Ochem:
Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer. Fortunately, I'm fresh off Ochem, and it came pretty naturally for me, so while I was studying for Ochem, it was really just to refresh my memory. Chad did that well, and I'm sure he's great for people learning Ochem for the first time. DAT Destroyer questions were too difficult, but good exposure I guess.
The actual DAT was easier in my mind than any practice test I took. Especially DAT Bootcamp. I averaged 18-19 on the Bio section, 20-21 GenChem, 22-23 Ochem on Bootcamp tests, and I did much better on the actual DAT. I think my best piece of advice is to get a ton of exposure to practice problems. I saw a lot of questions on the actual DAT that I had already seen from practice problems in Destroyer, Bootcamp, CDP, and DAT Crackers. I was getting super frustrated with my practice scores (especially Bio), but I figured as long as I retained all the information I had learned from the problems in each practice test, I would be fine. I'm really shocked about my Bio score, as I never scored above a 19. I was sure my GenChem score would be much higher than Bio, but I definitely spent more time studying Bio, so I'm glad it payed off. Anyways, hope that was worth a read. If you have any more questions or want anything else, just let me know!
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