- Joined
- Sep 30, 2014
- Messages
- 176
- Reaction score
- 124
- Points
- 4,671
- Pre-Dental
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Decided to finally contribute after lurking for the past couple months while I studied for my DAT. I just wanted to give my insight into the exam to possibly help others out as the previous breakdowns did for me!
SCORES:
Perceptual Ability: 24
Quantitative Reasoning: 24
Reading Comprehension: 22
Biology: 27
General Chemistry: 23
Organic Chemistry: 26
Total Science: 25
Academic Average: 24
Background:
I am a non-trad student; I graduated from UVA in 2013 and decided to go into cancer research, but this past summer after a year and half into it I realized that I not only despised my job, but was also worried about the uncertainty of my future and the dependence on the mercurial nature of grant based funding for research endeavors. As a result I started to explore other possible career opportunities. My brother, who is in his final year of dental school told me to take a look at dentistry since I did enjoy the hands on approach of bench work in the lab. I found the field quite fascinating and after some serious thought, I decided that I would make the switch and apply to dental school.
Duration of Study: 2 months, 4-5 hours/day
Exam Preparation:
Biology
Although I graduated with a BS in Biology, since my main focus was on cell/molec bio I forgot a decent amount of the extraneous biology (eg plant, ecology, biological diversity, etc) For that I used the Cliff's 3rd Edition pdf and the Feralis notes that past members had suggested. I thought that these effectively summarized all of the information that you would possibly need to know for the exam. Make sure you actually read all of the information rather than skimming for general conceptual understanding, because some of the specifics can come up on the exam. These two were the only things I used as a source of material to study for the biology section.
Chemistry
Many people suggested using Chad's videos, but honestly I was too lazy to watch them and takes notes on them, so I just bought a Princeton Review MCAT study guide for chemistry and studied that on my own. I supplemented this knowledge with information from random websites such as the UC Davis Chem Wiki http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/ which I found to be extremely helpful at explaining things. All in all it may have indirectly been more laborious to search for answers on my own, but it ended up working fine for me. Inorganic chemistry is one of my least favorite subjects so it took me longer to get all of the fundamental concepts down than for the other sciences.
Organic Chemistry
I simply purchased the Mastering Organic Chemistry cheat sheet that condensed the first semester into a pdf and also used the information for all of the types of reactions in the 5th edition of the Carey Organic Chemistry textbook found at http://www.chem.ucalgary.ca/courses/350/Carey5th/Carey.html I did well in Organic Chemistry in uni so I was able to cover this material pretty quickly. Studying all of the possible reactions was honestly overkill, but I wasn't sure of the difficulty and the breadth of the material they would cover so I decided to familiarize myself with everything again.
Quantitative Reasoning
I didn't really study for this section since I have always been good at math, but I looked up all of the trig identities again and also the geometrical equations.
Reading Comprehension
Not much you can do to study other than get faster at reading.
Simulation Testing Materials:
To actually test my knowledge of the information that I studied, I used DAT Bootcamp, DAT Qvault (Bio and Chem only), DAT Destroyer, and the 2009 DAT exam.
DAT Bootcamp: Definitely a great purchase. They give you a varying number of practice tests for each section and also separate the questions into question banks based on subject matter for you to go over again once you have done all of the full length exams. The question difficulty is a little harder than on the actual DAT, but overall it is a good source in terms of range of information tested for all of the subjects. I think the quantitative section was a little easier than on the actual DAT, though. The hands down best part is the PAT material. They have unlimited question generators for all of the sections except for TFE and Keyhole so you can practice as much as you want. I spent the majority of my time doing a bunch of these with the timer on so I could increase my speed and accuracy.
DAT Qvault: Also a great purchase! I only purchased the bio and chem sections for Qvault, and actually bought them a week ago. I honestly wish I bought them sooner, because these questions actually turned out to be the best representation of the questions that you will receive on the DAT for these two sections. They also provide a varying number of practice exams and then have question banks separated by subject. These questions can be trickier than the ones in Bootcamp, but overall contain a decent number that a worded in a similar fashion to what I received on the exam. I had previously read mix reviews about the orgo so I decided against buying that and therefore can't comment.
DAT Destroyer: Good purchase for peace of mind. From the forums, I was prepared to get "destroyed" by the DAT Destroyer, but when I went through it I honestly didn't think it was that bad, and actually got most of the questions correct. The questions are harder and take longer to answer, but if you can do them then you definitely have a good basis in understanding of the subject matter. Like others have mentioned, use DAT Destroyer as another source of study material rather than testing material since the questions are on average harder than anything you will get on the DAT and also aren't worded the same. The explanations are a great source of help for understanding concepts. In the Orgo solution section there are six "Road Maps" for various reactions from different starting material. I think this is a great guide as your ability to follow and understand all of the steps will allow you to gauge whether you know all of the different reactions or not.
2009 DAT exam: I took this a week ago in a simulated testing environment as others suggested. I thought my exam was harder, but that can be subjective based on what material you know well and what you struggle with. Overall, the questions were fairly similar, so this is another good indicator of what to expect.
Test Day/Thoughts on the exam:
- I signed up for the 8 am exam, which meant that I would have to get up early. I was so anxious the night before that I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. I spent those long hours alternating between reddit and going over the bio study material and looking at the qvault bio and chem questions.
- Overall, as I said before the qvault questions gave me some perspective so I thought the whole sciences section was pretty easy and finished it in 50 minutes. I checked over my answers and a couple tricky questions that I marked but then still had 20 minutes to spare so I chugged along. Again, PAT sections wasn't too bad with the ample preparation that the Bootcamp generator provided. I didn't think the reading comprehension was that bad either, although my score suggests differently. I probably should have checked my answers, but at that point I was starting to get antsy to hurry up and finish. The quantitative section does keep you pressed for time, and I actually wasn't able to answer one of the questions. Overall I thought that they were a mix of the DAT Destroyer math and the bootcamp math in terms of difficulty. There were some that took longer than I expected with the limited calculation capability.
- If I could do anything differently, I probably would have practiced chem more since I didn't do as well as I thought I would. The same goes for quantitative reasoning. With regards to my study method, I thought that since my base understanding of the material was decent, I essentially only needed an expedited review. I think what helped me the most was doing all of the practice problems, and figuring out what mistakes I made so that I could understanding that aspect of the material better, and then reviewing these questions over and over. This may not work for everyone, but if you succeeded on exams in college by doing more problems rather than just studying material then I think it is a good fit.
SCORES:
Perceptual Ability: 24
Quantitative Reasoning: 24
Reading Comprehension: 22
Biology: 27
General Chemistry: 23
Organic Chemistry: 26
Total Science: 25
Academic Average: 24
Background:
I am a non-trad student; I graduated from UVA in 2013 and decided to go into cancer research, but this past summer after a year and half into it I realized that I not only despised my job, but was also worried about the uncertainty of my future and the dependence on the mercurial nature of grant based funding for research endeavors. As a result I started to explore other possible career opportunities. My brother, who is in his final year of dental school told me to take a look at dentistry since I did enjoy the hands on approach of bench work in the lab. I found the field quite fascinating and after some serious thought, I decided that I would make the switch and apply to dental school.
Duration of Study: 2 months, 4-5 hours/day
Exam Preparation:
Biology
Although I graduated with a BS in Biology, since my main focus was on cell/molec bio I forgot a decent amount of the extraneous biology (eg plant, ecology, biological diversity, etc) For that I used the Cliff's 3rd Edition pdf and the Feralis notes that past members had suggested. I thought that these effectively summarized all of the information that you would possibly need to know for the exam. Make sure you actually read all of the information rather than skimming for general conceptual understanding, because some of the specifics can come up on the exam. These two were the only things I used as a source of material to study for the biology section.
Chemistry
Many people suggested using Chad's videos, but honestly I was too lazy to watch them and takes notes on them, so I just bought a Princeton Review MCAT study guide for chemistry and studied that on my own. I supplemented this knowledge with information from random websites such as the UC Davis Chem Wiki http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/ which I found to be extremely helpful at explaining things. All in all it may have indirectly been more laborious to search for answers on my own, but it ended up working fine for me. Inorganic chemistry is one of my least favorite subjects so it took me longer to get all of the fundamental concepts down than for the other sciences.
Organic Chemistry
I simply purchased the Mastering Organic Chemistry cheat sheet that condensed the first semester into a pdf and also used the information for all of the types of reactions in the 5th edition of the Carey Organic Chemistry textbook found at http://www.chem.ucalgary.ca/courses/350/Carey5th/Carey.html I did well in Organic Chemistry in uni so I was able to cover this material pretty quickly. Studying all of the possible reactions was honestly overkill, but I wasn't sure of the difficulty and the breadth of the material they would cover so I decided to familiarize myself with everything again.
Quantitative Reasoning
I didn't really study for this section since I have always been good at math, but I looked up all of the trig identities again and also the geometrical equations.
Reading Comprehension
Not much you can do to study other than get faster at reading.
Simulation Testing Materials:
To actually test my knowledge of the information that I studied, I used DAT Bootcamp, DAT Qvault (Bio and Chem only), DAT Destroyer, and the 2009 DAT exam.
DAT Bootcamp: Definitely a great purchase. They give you a varying number of practice tests for each section and also separate the questions into question banks based on subject matter for you to go over again once you have done all of the full length exams. The question difficulty is a little harder than on the actual DAT, but overall it is a good source in terms of range of information tested for all of the subjects. I think the quantitative section was a little easier than on the actual DAT, though. The hands down best part is the PAT material. They have unlimited question generators for all of the sections except for TFE and Keyhole so you can practice as much as you want. I spent the majority of my time doing a bunch of these with the timer on so I could increase my speed and accuracy.
DAT Qvault: Also a great purchase! I only purchased the bio and chem sections for Qvault, and actually bought them a week ago. I honestly wish I bought them sooner, because these questions actually turned out to be the best representation of the questions that you will receive on the DAT for these two sections. They also provide a varying number of practice exams and then have question banks separated by subject. These questions can be trickier than the ones in Bootcamp, but overall contain a decent number that a worded in a similar fashion to what I received on the exam. I had previously read mix reviews about the orgo so I decided against buying that and therefore can't comment.
DAT Destroyer: Good purchase for peace of mind. From the forums, I was prepared to get "destroyed" by the DAT Destroyer, but when I went through it I honestly didn't think it was that bad, and actually got most of the questions correct. The questions are harder and take longer to answer, but if you can do them then you definitely have a good basis in understanding of the subject matter. Like others have mentioned, use DAT Destroyer as another source of study material rather than testing material since the questions are on average harder than anything you will get on the DAT and also aren't worded the same. The explanations are a great source of help for understanding concepts. In the Orgo solution section there are six "Road Maps" for various reactions from different starting material. I think this is a great guide as your ability to follow and understand all of the steps will allow you to gauge whether you know all of the different reactions or not.
2009 DAT exam: I took this a week ago in a simulated testing environment as others suggested. I thought my exam was harder, but that can be subjective based on what material you know well and what you struggle with. Overall, the questions were fairly similar, so this is another good indicator of what to expect.
Test Day/Thoughts on the exam:
- I signed up for the 8 am exam, which meant that I would have to get up early. I was so anxious the night before that I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. I spent those long hours alternating between reddit and going over the bio study material and looking at the qvault bio and chem questions.
- Overall, as I said before the qvault questions gave me some perspective so I thought the whole sciences section was pretty easy and finished it in 50 minutes. I checked over my answers and a couple tricky questions that I marked but then still had 20 minutes to spare so I chugged along. Again, PAT sections wasn't too bad with the ample preparation that the Bootcamp generator provided. I didn't think the reading comprehension was that bad either, although my score suggests differently. I probably should have checked my answers, but at that point I was starting to get antsy to hurry up and finish. The quantitative section does keep you pressed for time, and I actually wasn't able to answer one of the questions. Overall I thought that they were a mix of the DAT Destroyer math and the bootcamp math in terms of difficulty. There were some that took longer than I expected with the limited calculation capability.
- If I could do anything differently, I probably would have practiced chem more since I didn't do as well as I thought I would. The same goes for quantitative reasoning. With regards to my study method, I thought that since my base understanding of the material was decent, I essentially only needed an expedited review. I think what helped me the most was doing all of the practice problems, and figuring out what mistakes I made so that I could understanding that aspect of the material better, and then reviewing these questions over and over. This may not work for everyone, but if you succeeded on exams in college by doing more problems rather than just studying material then I think it is a good fit.
you did amazing!
