- Joined
- Dec 27, 2015
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 29
Hey guys!
I've lurked on so many breakdown threads over the past month and felt like they helped me a lot, so here's mine.
I studied for about a month, give or take - from December 19 when school ended until the day before my test. However, I only went as hard as I planned for around the 1st week, which I devoted to starting and finishing all of Chad's Orgo and GC videos as well as read through Cliff's AP Bio twice, typing my own notes up the second time. The 2nd week, family came and I was way more distracted but devoted that to doing Destroyer problems (both DAT and math). The 3rd week, I got sick and got little done except finish the Destroyer problems and do one bootcamp full practice test. I got back to school on January 12 and had to balance my hardest course load with studying. I wouldn't recommend registering for a date too far into the new semester because it's really frustrating to have to do school stuff instead of study, and you can't focus entirely on DAT or school! I finished all the bootcamp tests, then basically went over typed notes a couple of times and took it easy the last couple of days before my test (I felt like I was starting to get sick so I basically slept a lot, took vitamins, and avoided going outside in the snow).
Here's what I used. It's different for everyone and for some this may seem like the bare minimum, but I don't know if I would have had the willpower to get through any more prep material in detail.
Chad's videos for OC and GC (9/10)
These were a lifesaver for general chemistry because I hadn't had general chemistry in a year and a half. Chad also went over some things that I never even learned in class but was on the DAT. Organic was a little redundant because I had just finished the orgo 1 and 2 sequence, but it was good for review. I would recommend watching these and taking notes on anything that you're not sure you know 100%. I watched them all on 1.5 speed and finished them in under a week, so it's doable!
DAT & math destroyer (10/10)
I would give these books a 100000/10 if I could. Really, these are gold. While they are harder than the actual questions you would get, it makes you comfortable with almost anything you could ever get tested on. Bio was especially great because it exposed me to a crazy amount of things that I have never seen before. Don't get discouraged if you don't know over half the questions, but make sure you understand every single answer choice and every word in the question. It helps to create a document with all of your notes so that you don't have to go back and redo all the questions (it's a waste of time to redo things you know 100%). Math destroyer was painful to get through because there were so much and some of it was really hard, but it definitely made bootcamp and the actual DAT seem easier.
Bootcamp (10/10)
Bootcamp was great practice for the DAT because it had a very similar online format and got me used to marking questions. The bio questions I felt like were pretty on par with the actual DAT, while GC, OC, RC, and QR were a bit harder. I actually thought that the PAT section was similar to the actual DAT except for keyholes (keyholes MUCH easier on actual DAT) but otherwise reflected the difficulty of the DAT. I never got more than a 23 on bootcamp PAT though, so perhaps the scoring was a little harder. Loved that you couldn't fudge on the timing because the test automatically stops after the given time. I would try to mirror real test conditions as much as possible and take the sciences and PAT in succession, then RC and QR.
Cliff's AP Bio (7/10)
I would get the book and perhaps read through once, taking note of all the sections that you are shaky on. I personally never took developmental bio and didn't know much about animal diversity, so I made sure to take copious notes on those sections. Overall, this book was great for giving me most of what I needed to know, but you'll see that there's so much you're missing when you do destroyer bio. I would recommend reviewing this as one of your first steps in studying though so you aren't missing key basic chunks of knowledge.
Kaplan Blue Book (4/10)
I felt like this was a waste of money. The Kaplan test was very weird and mistake-riddled, and neither the PAT nor the QR section were representative. Actually, none of it was that representative (refer to my scores). The bio section of Kaplan might actually be helpful to fill in a couple of holes that Cliff's didn't cover, but I'm not sure it was enough to make this book worth it.
2009 DAT (7/10)
The science scores were very representative of what I got on the actual DAT (but make sure you look up the known errors in the answer key or you'll be super concerned!). PAT was pretty good too, but RC and QR were substantially harder than what I got on the actual test. It was pretty concerning because I did this 2 nights before my test and I couldn't even figure out a couple of QR questions after looking at the answers.
That's all I used! I feel like it was enough, but everyone's different. I've read good reviews about Crack PAT, but I was so over the PAT after the 10 bootcamp tests that I decided not to spend more money and time.
As far as the actual test, the sciences were manageable and expected, PAT seemed harder than I would've liked (very very surprised about my score - was expecting around a 21), and RC and QR were SO EASY. I do think it's luck of the draw because I got 3 very straightforward articles that were biology-related. QR was actually laughably easy. I was initially most concerned about this section because it's usually a hit or miss for me, and I don't know if I also just got lucky but I even had 5 minutes left over after checking answers. On all of my practice tests, I always had around 3 or 4 questions I couldn't even get to and a bunch marked that I half guessed on.
So last thing I'll leave y'all with is my practice test scores. You'll see that I did better on the actual exam than in practice, and from the many threads I've read this is pretty typical.
Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR
Bootcamp:
30/23/24/22/21/23
25/22/22/23/21/23
26/30/22/22/24/24
23/23/30/22/30/23
25/22/24/20/25/18
Kaplan:
22/18/28/21/22/29
2009 DAT:
25/24/27/24/21/19
Good luck everyone!! You can do it! Hope this helps.
I've lurked on so many breakdown threads over the past month and felt like they helped me a lot, so here's mine.
I studied for about a month, give or take - from December 19 when school ended until the day before my test. However, I only went as hard as I planned for around the 1st week, which I devoted to starting and finishing all of Chad's Orgo and GC videos as well as read through Cliff's AP Bio twice, typing my own notes up the second time. The 2nd week, family came and I was way more distracted but devoted that to doing Destroyer problems (both DAT and math). The 3rd week, I got sick and got little done except finish the Destroyer problems and do one bootcamp full practice test. I got back to school on January 12 and had to balance my hardest course load with studying. I wouldn't recommend registering for a date too far into the new semester because it's really frustrating to have to do school stuff instead of study, and you can't focus entirely on DAT or school! I finished all the bootcamp tests, then basically went over typed notes a couple of times and took it easy the last couple of days before my test (I felt like I was starting to get sick so I basically slept a lot, took vitamins, and avoided going outside in the snow).
Here's what I used. It's different for everyone and for some this may seem like the bare minimum, but I don't know if I would have had the willpower to get through any more prep material in detail.
Chad's videos for OC and GC (9/10)
These were a lifesaver for general chemistry because I hadn't had general chemistry in a year and a half. Chad also went over some things that I never even learned in class but was on the DAT. Organic was a little redundant because I had just finished the orgo 1 and 2 sequence, but it was good for review. I would recommend watching these and taking notes on anything that you're not sure you know 100%. I watched them all on 1.5 speed and finished them in under a week, so it's doable!
DAT & math destroyer (10/10)
I would give these books a 100000/10 if I could. Really, these are gold. While they are harder than the actual questions you would get, it makes you comfortable with almost anything you could ever get tested on. Bio was especially great because it exposed me to a crazy amount of things that I have never seen before. Don't get discouraged if you don't know over half the questions, but make sure you understand every single answer choice and every word in the question. It helps to create a document with all of your notes so that you don't have to go back and redo all the questions (it's a waste of time to redo things you know 100%). Math destroyer was painful to get through because there were so much and some of it was really hard, but it definitely made bootcamp and the actual DAT seem easier.
Bootcamp (10/10)
Bootcamp was great practice for the DAT because it had a very similar online format and got me used to marking questions. The bio questions I felt like were pretty on par with the actual DAT, while GC, OC, RC, and QR were a bit harder. I actually thought that the PAT section was similar to the actual DAT except for keyholes (keyholes MUCH easier on actual DAT) but otherwise reflected the difficulty of the DAT. I never got more than a 23 on bootcamp PAT though, so perhaps the scoring was a little harder. Loved that you couldn't fudge on the timing because the test automatically stops after the given time. I would try to mirror real test conditions as much as possible and take the sciences and PAT in succession, then RC and QR.
Cliff's AP Bio (7/10)
I would get the book and perhaps read through once, taking note of all the sections that you are shaky on. I personally never took developmental bio and didn't know much about animal diversity, so I made sure to take copious notes on those sections. Overall, this book was great for giving me most of what I needed to know, but you'll see that there's so much you're missing when you do destroyer bio. I would recommend reviewing this as one of your first steps in studying though so you aren't missing key basic chunks of knowledge.
Kaplan Blue Book (4/10)
I felt like this was a waste of money. The Kaplan test was very weird and mistake-riddled, and neither the PAT nor the QR section were representative. Actually, none of it was that representative (refer to my scores). The bio section of Kaplan might actually be helpful to fill in a couple of holes that Cliff's didn't cover, but I'm not sure it was enough to make this book worth it.
2009 DAT (7/10)
The science scores were very representative of what I got on the actual DAT (but make sure you look up the known errors in the answer key or you'll be super concerned!). PAT was pretty good too, but RC and QR were substantially harder than what I got on the actual test. It was pretty concerning because I did this 2 nights before my test and I couldn't even figure out a couple of QR questions after looking at the answers.
That's all I used! I feel like it was enough, but everyone's different. I've read good reviews about Crack PAT, but I was so over the PAT after the 10 bootcamp tests that I decided not to spend more money and time.
As far as the actual test, the sciences were manageable and expected, PAT seemed harder than I would've liked (very very surprised about my score - was expecting around a 21), and RC and QR were SO EASY. I do think it's luck of the draw because I got 3 very straightforward articles that were biology-related. QR was actually laughably easy. I was initially most concerned about this section because it's usually a hit or miss for me, and I don't know if I also just got lucky but I even had 5 minutes left over after checking answers. On all of my practice tests, I always had around 3 or 4 questions I couldn't even get to and a bunch marked that I half guessed on.
So last thing I'll leave y'all with is my practice test scores. You'll see that I did better on the actual exam than in practice, and from the many threads I've read this is pretty typical.
Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR
Bootcamp:
30/23/24/22/21/23
25/22/22/23/21/23
26/30/22/22/24/24
23/23/30/22/30/23
25/22/24/20/25/18
Kaplan:
22/18/28/21/22/29
2009 DAT:
25/24/27/24/21/19
Good luck everyone!! You can do it! Hope this helps.
