- Joined
- Nov 13, 2014
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 8
- Points
- 4,671
- Pre-Dental
Hey SDN, I would like to start by thanking this website for all it has given me in DAT wisdom. As a long time lurker, I can say that this site is crucial in helping pre-dentals understand the beast that is the DAT. I am very excited to give back! Now to the breakdown.
Scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 22
RC: 20 👍
Bio: 26
GC: 25
OC: 29
TS: 26
AA: 24 🙂
Preface: I am going into my senior year at a small liberal arts college. I started studying for the DAT casually during the spring semester (watching chad, reading science articles, etc.) and then buckled down to study every day for 39 days until my exam. I probably ranged from 6-9 hours each day. I was accepted into an Early Assurance program at my state school the summer after my sophomore year which means that I have a seat when I graduate from undergrad as long as I maintain a 3.7 oGPA/sGPA and receive a 20AA/20TS/20RC on the DAT. This was HUGE motivation for me to do well because I only want to go to that school. I currently have a 3.9 oGPA/4.0 sGPA so it is looking like I will be heading to dental school in the fall of 2017!
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Study Materials:
- Crack DAT PAT (9/10): Felt very comparable to my test. I would say though that there are way too many cubes in the cube counting section of CDP and keyholes are too easy. I used the angle generator on this and it helped a little. Also the videos about TFE and Keyhole are helpful but DO NOT use the line counting method for TFE
- Crack DAT Reading (8/10): I really liked using CDR and scored well, but it was not very comparable to my test. There are too many tone questions and the passages are too narrative based and not enough science based.
- Crack DAT Science (-5/10): DO NOT BUY. It is awful. Many mistakes and not even close to resembling the real dat. I am so sad that I purchased this garbage.
- Bootcamp (11/10): Hands down the best resource for DAT practice exams. Bootcamp makes you really know the content so that you are ready for the real test. I would say that I found BC more difficult than the real test but I am so glad it was because I was so ready for the sciences/math/pat sections. The PAT generators are also AMAZING. Seriously. Also, Ari is definitely the best at being available to his customers. He (or someone from BC) actually emailed me a few times to see how BC was going and I did not have time to respond because I was so busy studying. Sorry Ari!
- Chad's Videos (20/10): Like a broken record, Chad is the man. Everything he says is relatable and easy to understand which makes learning the chemistry's so much easier. He deserves every dollar I spent with those monthly payments to course saver.
- DatQVault (8/10): Qvault is awesome for the sheer amount of practice tests (I think theres over 45). The sciences were good although I don't think they were that comparable to my test. I definitely recommend RC because the passages are very close to the types of passages you will see on the real DAT and there are a lot of S&D type questions which is mostly what you will see on the DAT RC from my experience.
- Cliff Note's (11/10): Read through this twice. I think every question I had could be found in this book. The quizzes and full length tests are very helpful.
- Feralis' notes (10/10): This is a great supplement for the A&P section since Cliff's is lacking in that respect. I would say knowing all of Feralis' notes is overkill but if you really want a 30 then read the whole thing. It is definitely the most comprehensive source for bio.
- Kaplan Blue Book (6/10): This book is OK. Definitely NOT enough on its own. The practice test in the back of the book was not very comparable to my test. Also did not use the PAT section at all because it is insanely easy.
- DAT Destroyer (11/10): This book is SO important! It will destroy you (as the name implies) but it teaches you concepts from every corner of chemistry so that you are prepared for anything. After going through the OC and GC sections of this it was SO EASY to do bootcamp/qvault practice exams. I would say that the Destroyer is like a 200 lb. barbell and once you workout with it for a while transitioning to the 50lb. barbells (BC, qvault, etc.) is a piece of cake.
-Math Destroyer (9/10): I went through 7 of these tests untimed to get a better understanding of the types of QR questions I would see on the DAT. I would say Math destroyer is more difficult than the real DAT.
-Scientific American (10/10): I had to buildup my reading speed so I read just about every article on this website until I felt comfortable reading dense science passages. This helped me transition to RC practice tests.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test day
Let me start by saying that I get pretty bad test anxiety. I even did the Prometric test drive to ease myself into the testing site logistics so I would feel more comfortable on test day. The people at my center were very nice and let me ask tons of questions which was helped calm my nerves a bit. On the actual test day my heart did not stop pounding from the moment I left my house to go to the test until I got my score report at the end. If you are in your test and feel like you are drowning and will have to retake it don't worry! Take a deep breath and keep going because you are probably doing better than you think.
Test by section:
Bio (26)- I only had a few difficult questions here. Most were very basic (cell bio, animal relationships, etc.)
GC (25)- There were a few questions here that made me go Huh? Stuff that I had never seen in all my study endeavors. Overall though it was also basic stuff.
OC (29)- Not bad at all. All basic reactions and only simple NMR/IR questions. One easy lab question and one easy biochem question.
PAT (23)- Keyholes were difficult. Those rocks though... Eveything else was not bad. Bootcamp will train you well for this section.
RC (20)- Out of all of my scores this is the one I am most excited about. I knew I needed a 20 specifically in this section for my Early Assurance contract and RC has never been a strong area of mine so when I got to this section of this test I kinda freaked out and wasn't able to really comprehend any of the passages I read. My strategy was to read the article in 6 minutes and then answer the question using S&D after mapping the passage in my head. The #1 way to do well on this section is to keep calm and focus. If I would have been able to do that yesterday I feel like I could have done a lot better here.
QR (22)- Pretty basic overall. I marked about 5 questions and was able to answer three of them at the end. A few questions were really out there like one was 2 paragraphs long and asked about sufficiency of terms. Really weird.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practice test Scores:
Bootcamp
Bio: 21, 20, 24, 21, 20
GC: 22, 23, 30, 24, 23
OC: 22, 21, 21, 29, 28
PAT: average of 21 from all 10 tests with scores 18-23
RC: 19, 17, X, 25, 22
QR: average of 19 from all 10 tests with scores 18-22
QVault
Bio: 21, 22, 21, 19, 22, 19, 22, 21, 20, 20
GC: 29, 26, 22, 24, 26, 20, 22, 20, 22
OC: 22, 22, 22, 20, 22, 26, 19, 26, 20, 20
PAT: X
RC: X, 26, 22, 22, 20
QR: 25, 23, 23, 22, 25
CDR:
I did 5 tests starting with test 6. scored 23, 21, 21, 20, 22, 21
CDP:
Also five tests starting with test 1: 24, 20, 21, 22, 22, 21
KBB Full length:
Bio: 21
GC: 19
OC: 29
PAT (supplemented with CDP 21)
RC: 19
QR: 21
2009 DAT:
Bio: 21
GC: 30
OC: 21
PAT: 22
RC: 20
QR: 18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is how I feel about being done:
😍
🤣
Doing well on the dat takes a lot of hard work and discipline, but trust me when I say that walking out of that test center knowing you killed it makes every second of studying worthwhile. Good luck to anyone studying and please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions!
Scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 22
RC: 20 👍
Bio: 26
GC: 25
OC: 29
TS: 26
AA: 24 🙂
Preface: I am going into my senior year at a small liberal arts college. I started studying for the DAT casually during the spring semester (watching chad, reading science articles, etc.) and then buckled down to study every day for 39 days until my exam. I probably ranged from 6-9 hours each day. I was accepted into an Early Assurance program at my state school the summer after my sophomore year which means that I have a seat when I graduate from undergrad as long as I maintain a 3.7 oGPA/sGPA and receive a 20AA/20TS/20RC on the DAT. This was HUGE motivation for me to do well because I only want to go to that school. I currently have a 3.9 oGPA/4.0 sGPA so it is looking like I will be heading to dental school in the fall of 2017!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Study Materials:
- Crack DAT PAT (9/10): Felt very comparable to my test. I would say though that there are way too many cubes in the cube counting section of CDP and keyholes are too easy. I used the angle generator on this and it helped a little. Also the videos about TFE and Keyhole are helpful but DO NOT use the line counting method for TFE
- Crack DAT Reading (8/10): I really liked using CDR and scored well, but it was not very comparable to my test. There are too many tone questions and the passages are too narrative based and not enough science based.
- Crack DAT Science (-5/10): DO NOT BUY. It is awful. Many mistakes and not even close to resembling the real dat. I am so sad that I purchased this garbage.
- Bootcamp (11/10): Hands down the best resource for DAT practice exams. Bootcamp makes you really know the content so that you are ready for the real test. I would say that I found BC more difficult than the real test but I am so glad it was because I was so ready for the sciences/math/pat sections. The PAT generators are also AMAZING. Seriously. Also, Ari is definitely the best at being available to his customers. He (or someone from BC) actually emailed me a few times to see how BC was going and I did not have time to respond because I was so busy studying. Sorry Ari!
- Chad's Videos (20/10): Like a broken record, Chad is the man. Everything he says is relatable and easy to understand which makes learning the chemistry's so much easier. He deserves every dollar I spent with those monthly payments to course saver.
- DatQVault (8/10): Qvault is awesome for the sheer amount of practice tests (I think theres over 45). The sciences were good although I don't think they were that comparable to my test. I definitely recommend RC because the passages are very close to the types of passages you will see on the real DAT and there are a lot of S&D type questions which is mostly what you will see on the DAT RC from my experience.
- Cliff Note's (11/10): Read through this twice. I think every question I had could be found in this book. The quizzes and full length tests are very helpful.
- Feralis' notes (10/10): This is a great supplement for the A&P section since Cliff's is lacking in that respect. I would say knowing all of Feralis' notes is overkill but if you really want a 30 then read the whole thing. It is definitely the most comprehensive source for bio.
- Kaplan Blue Book (6/10): This book is OK. Definitely NOT enough on its own. The practice test in the back of the book was not very comparable to my test. Also did not use the PAT section at all because it is insanely easy.
- DAT Destroyer (11/10): This book is SO important! It will destroy you (as the name implies) but it teaches you concepts from every corner of chemistry so that you are prepared for anything. After going through the OC and GC sections of this it was SO EASY to do bootcamp/qvault practice exams. I would say that the Destroyer is like a 200 lb. barbell and once you workout with it for a while transitioning to the 50lb. barbells (BC, qvault, etc.) is a piece of cake.
-Math Destroyer (9/10): I went through 7 of these tests untimed to get a better understanding of the types of QR questions I would see on the DAT. I would say Math destroyer is more difficult than the real DAT.
-Scientific American (10/10): I had to buildup my reading speed so I read just about every article on this website until I felt comfortable reading dense science passages. This helped me transition to RC practice tests.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test day
Let me start by saying that I get pretty bad test anxiety. I even did the Prometric test drive to ease myself into the testing site logistics so I would feel more comfortable on test day. The people at my center were very nice and let me ask tons of questions which was helped calm my nerves a bit. On the actual test day my heart did not stop pounding from the moment I left my house to go to the test until I got my score report at the end. If you are in your test and feel like you are drowning and will have to retake it don't worry! Take a deep breath and keep going because you are probably doing better than you think.
Test by section:
Bio (26)- I only had a few difficult questions here. Most were very basic (cell bio, animal relationships, etc.)
GC (25)- There were a few questions here that made me go Huh? Stuff that I had never seen in all my study endeavors. Overall though it was also basic stuff.
OC (29)- Not bad at all. All basic reactions and only simple NMR/IR questions. One easy lab question and one easy biochem question.
PAT (23)- Keyholes were difficult. Those rocks though... Eveything else was not bad. Bootcamp will train you well for this section.
RC (20)- Out of all of my scores this is the one I am most excited about. I knew I needed a 20 specifically in this section for my Early Assurance contract and RC has never been a strong area of mine so when I got to this section of this test I kinda freaked out and wasn't able to really comprehend any of the passages I read. My strategy was to read the article in 6 minutes and then answer the question using S&D after mapping the passage in my head. The #1 way to do well on this section is to keep calm and focus. If I would have been able to do that yesterday I feel like I could have done a lot better here.
QR (22)- Pretty basic overall. I marked about 5 questions and was able to answer three of them at the end. A few questions were really out there like one was 2 paragraphs long and asked about sufficiency of terms. Really weird.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practice test Scores:
Bootcamp
Bio: 21, 20, 24, 21, 20
GC: 22, 23, 30, 24, 23
OC: 22, 21, 21, 29, 28
PAT: average of 21 from all 10 tests with scores 18-23
RC: 19, 17, X, 25, 22
QR: average of 19 from all 10 tests with scores 18-22
QVault
Bio: 21, 22, 21, 19, 22, 19, 22, 21, 20, 20
GC: 29, 26, 22, 24, 26, 20, 22, 20, 22
OC: 22, 22, 22, 20, 22, 26, 19, 26, 20, 20
PAT: X
RC: X, 26, 22, 22, 20
QR: 25, 23, 23, 22, 25
CDR:
I did 5 tests starting with test 6. scored 23, 21, 21, 20, 22, 21
CDP:
Also five tests starting with test 1: 24, 20, 21, 22, 22, 21
KBB Full length:
Bio: 21
GC: 19
OC: 29
PAT (supplemented with CDP 21)
RC: 19
QR: 21
2009 DAT:
Bio: 21
GC: 30
OC: 21
PAT: 22
RC: 20
QR: 18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is how I feel about being done:
😍
🤣Doing well on the dat takes a lot of hard work and discipline, but trust me when I say that walking out of that test center knowing you killed it makes every second of studying worthwhile. Good luck to anyone studying and please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions!
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