I would like to first thank all the contributors on this forum who had previously posted breakdowns to help future DAT takers like me. The insight into study materials and study methods helped contribute to the score I earned today,
I will first list my study materials, then how I felt about each section on the real DAT, and finally end with my scores (build some suspense as well as let you guess what score I would have achieved based on the first two parts).
Study materials:
I was financially limited so the only study materials I purchased were Kaplan DAT 2013, Cliff AP Bio 3rd Edition, and 2009 Barrons DAT 2nd Edition from eBay. The total cost, shipped, was ~$35.00. The free materials I used were the free GC and OC videos from Chad's, Feralis Bio notes v2, DAT questions of the day, the free practice test from DAT Bootcamp and QVault, and Kaplan MCAT subject review textbooks (donated by my roommate who took the MCAT).
In my opinion, the Kaplan MCAT subject review textbooks were better than the Kaplan DAT 2013. In fact, they were the exact same material, word for word, figure for figure. However, the Kaplan MCAT subject review textbooks had review questions at the end of every chapter unlike the Kaplan DAT 2013.
For biology, I would say Cliff AP Bio 3rd Edition and Feralis Bio notes v2 were enough study material for the real DAT.
My practice test scores from the study materials are as follows (All scores scaled of the ADA 2009 scale):
BIO: 1) Free Bootcamp test: 40/40 = 30
2) Free QVault test: 40/40 = 30
3) 2007 ADA exam: 40/40 = 30
4) 2009 ADA exam with errors: 37/40 = 24
5) 2009 ADA exam with corrections: 39/40 = 28
6) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam A: 40/40 = 30
7) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam B: 40/40 = 30
8) 2013 Kaplans DAT: 39/40 = 28
GC: 1) Free Bootcamp test: 27/30 = 23
2) Free QVault test: 26/30 = 22
3) 2007 ADA exam: 30/30 = 30
4) 2009 ADA exam with errors: 30/30 = 30
5) 2009 ADA exam with corrections: 30/30 = 30
6) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam A: 28/30 = 24
7) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam B: 27/30 = 23; with errors corrected: 29/30 = 26
8) 2013 Kaplans DAT: 28/30 = 24
OC: 1) Free Bootcamp test: 29/30 = 27
2) Free QVault test: 26/30 = 21
3) 2007 ADA exam: 30/30 = 30
4) 2009 ADA exam with errors: 24/30 = 19
5) 2009 ADA exam with corrections: 25/30 = 20
6) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam A: 27/30 = 22
7) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam B: 27/30 = 23; with errors corrected: 29/30 = 27
8) 2013 Kaplans DAT: 27/30 = 22
My thoughts on the DAT test:
BIO: On my test, the first 5 questions were so obscure and specific that it makes finding Waldo look easy. The material on the questions were not covered in any of my study materials, not even Feralis bio notes. I was seriously depressed after the first five questions, but fortunately, the remaining 35 questions were rather straightforward.
GC: I thought the section was fair and can't really think of a question that really bothered me.
OC: The questions were straightforward. No complicated multi-step synthesis reactions.
PAT: I entered this section thinking it would be a breeze. I would always get 88-90/90 on all the practice exams for this section. Whoever wrote some of these question for this test must have smoked a ton of drugs. I had a keyhole question where the figure had over 20 faces. Yes, over 20, because I counted them all and none of the keyholes worked for it. I must have spent a good whole 5 minutes trying to figure that one problem out before I gave up and just picked a random answer. The angle rankings were somewhat more difficult than I was used to. The majority of angles were positioned sideways so it made it harder to compare to each other. My hole punching section was out of this world. I had multiple problems were there would be 3+ folds in one step. One problem had a total of 8 folds. Another problem had only half a hole punched. Cube counting was just slightly harder than normal with ALOT of hidden blocks that you would have missed if you didn't pay enough attention. I was only left with 3 minutes to finish the last section of the PAT with the folding patterns. Needless to say, I ran out of time and just picked random answers for the last 10 questions without even looking at the questions. It's pretty hard trying to click answers for 10 questions in under 15 seconds, but I managed to put a answer for each question.
RC: The easiest part of the test. In my opinion, you do not need to study for this section. It was a simple search and destroy. Just find the keyword in the question and quickly zoom through the text to find the same keyword, then answer the question. I averaged about 17 questions/20 minutes.
QR: Same as the PAT, I thought this section would be easy. 800 on SAT math, so this should be a breeze right? Well, they threw some complex questions at me and I ended up running out of time. One problem even had a number raised to the power of -2.5 in the equation and expected me to be able to solve that using the calculator since all the answers were in decimals. Same as the PAT, I had to just fill in random answers for the last 10 questions.
So, pretty bad performance right?
DAT Test Scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 19
RC: 25
Bio: 21
GC: 22
OC: 20
TS: 21
AA: 21
Although I am glad that I got 20+ for the majority of the sections, I am pretty disappointed by my performance. I know that I could have done better in the PAT and QR sections if I had just skipped the complicated questions and had came back to them afterwards when I had spare time. Instead, I just invested too much time into those few questions that I ran out of time.
As for the sciences, I expected a better performance based on my practice scores. My score in Bio was understandable due to the first 5 questions, but my scores in GC and OC were much lower than I expected since I did not have difficulty in those sections. I have a sinking suspicion that I may have missed clicking on the answer for some of the questions. I only noticed it when I was doing the RC section, but I was not picking an answer when I only clicked on the answer and not the bubble. I caught myself not filling in 2 bubbles in the RC sections because I only clicked on the text and not the bubble, so I made sure that the bubble was filled for every question after that. I fear I may have missed a few in the Science sections due to this.
All in all, I thought my performance on the DAT today was decent, but could have been improved upon.
I will first list my study materials, then how I felt about each section on the real DAT, and finally end with my scores (build some suspense as well as let you guess what score I would have achieved based on the first two parts).
Study materials:
I was financially limited so the only study materials I purchased were Kaplan DAT 2013, Cliff AP Bio 3rd Edition, and 2009 Barrons DAT 2nd Edition from eBay. The total cost, shipped, was ~$35.00. The free materials I used were the free GC and OC videos from Chad's, Feralis Bio notes v2, DAT questions of the day, the free practice test from DAT Bootcamp and QVault, and Kaplan MCAT subject review textbooks (donated by my roommate who took the MCAT).
In my opinion, the Kaplan MCAT subject review textbooks were better than the Kaplan DAT 2013. In fact, they were the exact same material, word for word, figure for figure. However, the Kaplan MCAT subject review textbooks had review questions at the end of every chapter unlike the Kaplan DAT 2013.
For biology, I would say Cliff AP Bio 3rd Edition and Feralis Bio notes v2 were enough study material for the real DAT.
My practice test scores from the study materials are as follows (All scores scaled of the ADA 2009 scale):
BIO: 1) Free Bootcamp test: 40/40 = 30
2) Free QVault test: 40/40 = 30
3) 2007 ADA exam: 40/40 = 30
4) 2009 ADA exam with errors: 37/40 = 24
5) 2009 ADA exam with corrections: 39/40 = 28
6) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam A: 40/40 = 30
7) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam B: 40/40 = 30
8) 2013 Kaplans DAT: 39/40 = 28
GC: 1) Free Bootcamp test: 27/30 = 23
2) Free QVault test: 26/30 = 22
3) 2007 ADA exam: 30/30 = 30
4) 2009 ADA exam with errors: 30/30 = 30
5) 2009 ADA exam with corrections: 30/30 = 30
6) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam A: 28/30 = 24
7) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam B: 27/30 = 23; with errors corrected: 29/30 = 26
8) 2013 Kaplans DAT: 28/30 = 24
OC: 1) Free Bootcamp test: 29/30 = 27
2) Free QVault test: 26/30 = 21
3) 2007 ADA exam: 30/30 = 30
4) 2009 ADA exam with errors: 24/30 = 19
5) 2009 ADA exam with corrections: 25/30 = 20
6) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam A: 27/30 = 22
7) 2009 Barron's DAT Exam B: 27/30 = 23; with errors corrected: 29/30 = 27
8) 2013 Kaplans DAT: 27/30 = 22
My thoughts on the DAT test:
BIO: On my test, the first 5 questions were so obscure and specific that it makes finding Waldo look easy. The material on the questions were not covered in any of my study materials, not even Feralis bio notes. I was seriously depressed after the first five questions, but fortunately, the remaining 35 questions were rather straightforward.
GC: I thought the section was fair and can't really think of a question that really bothered me.
OC: The questions were straightforward. No complicated multi-step synthesis reactions.
PAT: I entered this section thinking it would be a breeze. I would always get 88-90/90 on all the practice exams for this section. Whoever wrote some of these question for this test must have smoked a ton of drugs. I had a keyhole question where the figure had over 20 faces. Yes, over 20, because I counted them all and none of the keyholes worked for it. I must have spent a good whole 5 minutes trying to figure that one problem out before I gave up and just picked a random answer. The angle rankings were somewhat more difficult than I was used to. The majority of angles were positioned sideways so it made it harder to compare to each other. My hole punching section was out of this world. I had multiple problems were there would be 3+ folds in one step. One problem had a total of 8 folds. Another problem had only half a hole punched. Cube counting was just slightly harder than normal with ALOT of hidden blocks that you would have missed if you didn't pay enough attention. I was only left with 3 minutes to finish the last section of the PAT with the folding patterns. Needless to say, I ran out of time and just picked random answers for the last 10 questions without even looking at the questions. It's pretty hard trying to click answers for 10 questions in under 15 seconds, but I managed to put a answer for each question.
RC: The easiest part of the test. In my opinion, you do not need to study for this section. It was a simple search and destroy. Just find the keyword in the question and quickly zoom through the text to find the same keyword, then answer the question. I averaged about 17 questions/20 minutes.
QR: Same as the PAT, I thought this section would be easy. 800 on SAT math, so this should be a breeze right? Well, they threw some complex questions at me and I ended up running out of time. One problem even had a number raised to the power of -2.5 in the equation and expected me to be able to solve that using the calculator since all the answers were in decimals. Same as the PAT, I had to just fill in random answers for the last 10 questions.
So, pretty bad performance right?
DAT Test Scores:
PAT: 23
QR: 19
RC: 25
Bio: 21
GC: 22
OC: 20
TS: 21
AA: 21
Although I am glad that I got 20+ for the majority of the sections, I am pretty disappointed by my performance. I know that I could have done better in the PAT and QR sections if I had just skipped the complicated questions and had came back to them afterwards when I had spare time. Instead, I just invested too much time into those few questions that I ran out of time.
As for the sciences, I expected a better performance based on my practice scores. My score in Bio was understandable due to the first 5 questions, but my scores in GC and OC were much lower than I expected since I did not have difficulty in those sections. I have a sinking suspicion that I may have missed clicking on the answer for some of the questions. I only noticed it when I was doing the RC section, but I was not picking an answer when I only clicked on the answer and not the bubble. I caught myself not filling in 2 bubbles in the RC sections because I only clicked on the text and not the bubble, so I made sure that the bubble was filled for every question after that. I fear I may have missed a few in the Science sections due to this.
All in all, I thought my performance on the DAT today was decent, but could have been improved upon.
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