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So I took my DAT yesterday and was pretty satisfied with my results. I was initially very nervous for this test because I ran out of time to study and was not able to finish either Bootcamp or Destroyer. If I had finished both I am sure I could have got an even high score, and I am by no means a genius in any way shape or form. However, in the end it worked out just fine. I studied for about 7 weeks for an average of about 6 hours a day.
Reading DAT breakdowns here on SDN and seeing what materials yielded great results is one of the key reasons I was able to get the score I got, so I felt it was only right that I return the favor and explain what worked for me
Scores
BIO: 24
GC: 19
OC: 30
PAT: 21
RC: 23
QR: 20
TS: 22
AA: 23
Bootcamp Averages
Bio: 21.4
GC: 21.2
OC: 21.0
PAT: 18.7
RC: 18.7
QR: 17.7
Review of Materials Used
Bootcamp (15/10): I cannot recommend this resource enough. I genuinely feel that a score of 22+ is achievable with Bootcamp alone as they have everything you could possibly need. The Bio notes include everything you need to know for the Biology section and they full of colorful and helpful illustrations. They have new question banks and flash card to test you knowledge for bio as well. Mike's videos go over the essentials that are needed for the chemistries (Chad's videos are better in my opinion but I will go into that later). For PAT you really just need to practice on the generators and overtime you will get better there is no better resource out there for PAT. Meanwhile their tests for RC and QR overprepare you for anything you could potentially see on the test and their tests for these sections are much harder than the actual DAT. My favorite thing about Bootcamp as a whole is the amount of depth seen with their practice exam solutions. Ari and his team have a done a remarkable job with Bootcamp and I can't recommend it enough
Destroyer (10/10): Another excellent resource that you really can't go wrong with. Destroyer exposes you to so many different kinds of question and the material is meant to prepare you for the test. That being said I wasn't even able to finish half of destroyer due to time constraints so I can't really say it is essential, but I did gain quite a bit of knowledge from the parts I did finish, and had I finished it I am sure I would have gotten an even higher score.
Qvault (9/10): Hands down the most underrated resource out there. I am shocked more people don't reccomend it. Like with Bootcamp and Destroyer, I wasn't able to finish all the practice tests, but I feel this is great for extra practice. In fact their BIO and RC tests were more similar to the actual DAT than Bootcamps BIO and RC tests were. Their OC is overkill hard and harder than anything you will see in Bootcamp and the actual DAT. Their QR is pretty good as well and now incorporates quantitative comparison questions. However, their GC exams are on the easy side and kind of repetitive. Their PAT exams are also pretty easy outside of TFE which is insanely difficult on Qvault.
Course Saver or Chad's Videos (9/10): People have been reccomending Chad's videos for a long while and I can see why. This man is an excellent teacher and goes over everything you need to know for the exam and nothing you don't. He had great analogies for difficult to understand topics and explains everything in an easy to understand fashion without dumbing it down to the point that it becomes hard to watch which is my biggest gripe with Mike's videos.
Crack DAT (5/10): I bought the RC and PAT sections for extra practice, but I really wouldn't recommend this resource. It is pricey and all the materials listed above offer better bang for your buck. But if you have extra money and time, go for it. More practice never hurt anyone.
The Actual Exam and Preparation for Each Section
Bio: This is probably the hardest section to prepare for. The amount of material that you need to cover is very dense and they can throw absolutely anything at you on the actual DAT. For this section I reccomend choosing either Bootcamps Bio notes or the Destroyer Dynamite BIo notes. Both are pretty similar, it just comes down to which to style you prefer. Once you choose either one or both of these notes make sure to read a certain amount of chapters a day and just continue to reread the whole damn thing until you feel you have a solid grounding of all the material. The whole point of rereading the material is to make sure you don't start forgetting things you already learned before you take your exam. This is one of the biggest hassles when preparing for Bio.
My actual bio test was straightforward and simple. It was much easier than your average Bootcamp exam and very similar to Qvault Bio. I had quite a bit of evolution and taxonomy questions on my test and I feel a lot of students neglect to study these sections on the DAT because they think of them as low yield. Don't do that. These are easy sections to prepare for and in the case of Taxonomy simply memorizing phyla and a few key features associated with each could yield you a few extra easy points on the test. Don't neglect studying for this!!
GC: This is the only section where I am truly shocked and disappointed at my score and feel I shouldn't be giving advice on. I used Chad's videos to refresh my memory on gen chem topics and then just started hitting practice problems in Bootcamp, Destroyer, and Qvault.
My actual test was a lot harder than the ones I took on Bootcamp and Qvault. It had a lot of strange wording that threw me for a loop and made me make me panic and answer questions carelessly to avoid wasting too much time. I feel I just got some bad luck on this section. Just goes to show that even though Bootcamp's exams are almost always harder than what you will see on the actual test, you also need to be prepared for the small chance that you get a hard test in a certain section. If this happens you need to avoid panicking like I did on this section, and just take the best educated guesses you can. Don't linger on a question you don't know how to answer, it will only waste your time and potentially make you lose points on questions you do know how to answer, because you are running out of time.
OC: Pretty shocked at my score in this section. I really was not expecting a 30 at all. Despite having a strong background in organic chemistry from classes I took earlier this year, I was initially having a very hard time with my first practice exams. I began to feel discouraged and even postponed the date of my exam simply because I felt so unprepared with o chem. After this I decided to watch Mike's videos along with Chad's videos to make sure I had everything down and sure enough my scores began to improve. I also memorized every reaction on Bootcamps list of reactions to know.
My actual exam was about on par with bootcamp. There were a few wtf questions that required a little more thought than you average question, but for the most part it was all very basic o chem. Make sure you know your grignard and wittig reactions!!
PAT: Bootcamp is all you need here. I watched most of the PAT academy videos and after that I hit the practice problems and generators hard. I improved my practice exam scores from an abysmal 14 all the way to a 21.
My actual test was a mixed bag. Certain sections like keyholes and pattern folding were actually harder than what I saw in bootcamp. While other sections like TFE and cube counting were much easier on the actual test. In fact my TFE was an absolute joke compared to Bootcamp and Qvault, so much so that it actually saved me a good five minutes at the end of the exam to review questions on keyholes and pattern folding that I was unsure of.
RC: Wasn't able to really prepare for this section much. I was able to do about 5 practice tests each for both Qvault and Bootcamp. Search and destroy worked for Qvault and not for Bootcamp while passage mapping worked for Bootcamp but not Qvault.
On the actual exam I ended up having one passage that was very search and destroy friendly with all the questions in order while the other two asked questions out of order with a few tone questions. Because of this my strategy ended up utilizing a combination of S&D and passage mapping. With that being said the actual questions on the DAT were a lot easier than the ones on Bootcamp. I would always get discouraged with my RC practice scores but it turned out to be overkill in comparison to what I saw on test day.
QR: This is the section I put the least amount of time into because I had always heard that it was least important section. That being said it is important not to neglect this section either because it can easily bring down your AA if you really screw up on it. For this section I simply did all of the QR questions in destroyer (not math destroyer) and about half of both Bootcamps and Qvaults test, making flashcards for question types I missed.
My actual tests ended up being way easier than what I saw on Bootcamp and Destroyer. There was far less emphasis on tedious algebra and more emphasis on simple statistics and probability. I had a grand total of 0 Trig questions. I have always been strong with mental math so this type of test played to my strengths and I ended up with about 5 minutes to spare. That being said there were still about 5-8 questions that I really didn't know how to do (complex probability and strange QC questions) so had I put more time into this section I am sure I could have gotten a better score. I was feeling very discouraged because my practice scores for this section were so low, but it is unlikely that your test will be as difficult as what you see on Bootcamp and Destroyer. Just make sure to learn from your mistakes and not to take your practice test scores too seriously. Don't neglect this section!
Closing Thoughts
With all this being said I hope this post ended up being helpful to all of you. Without all of these helpful DAT breakdowns here on SDN and the excellent materials by @Ari Rezaei and @orgoman22 I wouldn't have gotten the score I did, and had I utilized the materials to their fullest I know I could have gotten an even higher score. Don't feel discouraged with bad practice exam scores, I had plenty of them and it all worked out in the end. DAT preparation is all about learning from your mistakes. Best of luck to all of you still preparing for you exam! Hopefully I was able to be of some help.
Reading DAT breakdowns here on SDN and seeing what materials yielded great results is one of the key reasons I was able to get the score I got, so I felt it was only right that I return the favor and explain what worked for me
Scores
BIO: 24
GC: 19
OC: 30
PAT: 21
RC: 23
QR: 20
TS: 22
AA: 23
Bootcamp Averages
Bio: 21.4
GC: 21.2
OC: 21.0
PAT: 18.7
RC: 18.7
QR: 17.7
Review of Materials Used
Bootcamp (15/10): I cannot recommend this resource enough. I genuinely feel that a score of 22+ is achievable with Bootcamp alone as they have everything you could possibly need. The Bio notes include everything you need to know for the Biology section and they full of colorful and helpful illustrations. They have new question banks and flash card to test you knowledge for bio as well. Mike's videos go over the essentials that are needed for the chemistries (Chad's videos are better in my opinion but I will go into that later). For PAT you really just need to practice on the generators and overtime you will get better there is no better resource out there for PAT. Meanwhile their tests for RC and QR overprepare you for anything you could potentially see on the test and their tests for these sections are much harder than the actual DAT. My favorite thing about Bootcamp as a whole is the amount of depth seen with their practice exam solutions. Ari and his team have a done a remarkable job with Bootcamp and I can't recommend it enough
Destroyer (10/10): Another excellent resource that you really can't go wrong with. Destroyer exposes you to so many different kinds of question and the material is meant to prepare you for the test. That being said I wasn't even able to finish half of destroyer due to time constraints so I can't really say it is essential, but I did gain quite a bit of knowledge from the parts I did finish, and had I finished it I am sure I would have gotten an even higher score.
Qvault (9/10): Hands down the most underrated resource out there. I am shocked more people don't reccomend it. Like with Bootcamp and Destroyer, I wasn't able to finish all the practice tests, but I feel this is great for extra practice. In fact their BIO and RC tests were more similar to the actual DAT than Bootcamps BIO and RC tests were. Their OC is overkill hard and harder than anything you will see in Bootcamp and the actual DAT. Their QR is pretty good as well and now incorporates quantitative comparison questions. However, their GC exams are on the easy side and kind of repetitive. Their PAT exams are also pretty easy outside of TFE which is insanely difficult on Qvault.
Course Saver or Chad's Videos (9/10): People have been reccomending Chad's videos for a long while and I can see why. This man is an excellent teacher and goes over everything you need to know for the exam and nothing you don't. He had great analogies for difficult to understand topics and explains everything in an easy to understand fashion without dumbing it down to the point that it becomes hard to watch which is my biggest gripe with Mike's videos.
Crack DAT (5/10): I bought the RC and PAT sections for extra practice, but I really wouldn't recommend this resource. It is pricey and all the materials listed above offer better bang for your buck. But if you have extra money and time, go for it. More practice never hurt anyone.
The Actual Exam and Preparation for Each Section
Bio: This is probably the hardest section to prepare for. The amount of material that you need to cover is very dense and they can throw absolutely anything at you on the actual DAT. For this section I reccomend choosing either Bootcamps Bio notes or the Destroyer Dynamite BIo notes. Both are pretty similar, it just comes down to which to style you prefer. Once you choose either one or both of these notes make sure to read a certain amount of chapters a day and just continue to reread the whole damn thing until you feel you have a solid grounding of all the material. The whole point of rereading the material is to make sure you don't start forgetting things you already learned before you take your exam. This is one of the biggest hassles when preparing for Bio.
My actual bio test was straightforward and simple. It was much easier than your average Bootcamp exam and very similar to Qvault Bio. I had quite a bit of evolution and taxonomy questions on my test and I feel a lot of students neglect to study these sections on the DAT because they think of them as low yield. Don't do that. These are easy sections to prepare for and in the case of Taxonomy simply memorizing phyla and a few key features associated with each could yield you a few extra easy points on the test. Don't neglect studying for this!!
GC: This is the only section where I am truly shocked and disappointed at my score and feel I shouldn't be giving advice on. I used Chad's videos to refresh my memory on gen chem topics and then just started hitting practice problems in Bootcamp, Destroyer, and Qvault.
My actual test was a lot harder than the ones I took on Bootcamp and Qvault. It had a lot of strange wording that threw me for a loop and made me make me panic and answer questions carelessly to avoid wasting too much time. I feel I just got some bad luck on this section. Just goes to show that even though Bootcamp's exams are almost always harder than what you will see on the actual test, you also need to be prepared for the small chance that you get a hard test in a certain section. If this happens you need to avoid panicking like I did on this section, and just take the best educated guesses you can. Don't linger on a question you don't know how to answer, it will only waste your time and potentially make you lose points on questions you do know how to answer, because you are running out of time.
OC: Pretty shocked at my score in this section. I really was not expecting a 30 at all. Despite having a strong background in organic chemistry from classes I took earlier this year, I was initially having a very hard time with my first practice exams. I began to feel discouraged and even postponed the date of my exam simply because I felt so unprepared with o chem. After this I decided to watch Mike's videos along with Chad's videos to make sure I had everything down and sure enough my scores began to improve. I also memorized every reaction on Bootcamps list of reactions to know.
My actual exam was about on par with bootcamp. There were a few wtf questions that required a little more thought than you average question, but for the most part it was all very basic o chem. Make sure you know your grignard and wittig reactions!!
PAT: Bootcamp is all you need here. I watched most of the PAT academy videos and after that I hit the practice problems and generators hard. I improved my practice exam scores from an abysmal 14 all the way to a 21.
My actual test was a mixed bag. Certain sections like keyholes and pattern folding were actually harder than what I saw in bootcamp. While other sections like TFE and cube counting were much easier on the actual test. In fact my TFE was an absolute joke compared to Bootcamp and Qvault, so much so that it actually saved me a good five minutes at the end of the exam to review questions on keyholes and pattern folding that I was unsure of.
RC: Wasn't able to really prepare for this section much. I was able to do about 5 practice tests each for both Qvault and Bootcamp. Search and destroy worked for Qvault and not for Bootcamp while passage mapping worked for Bootcamp but not Qvault.
On the actual exam I ended up having one passage that was very search and destroy friendly with all the questions in order while the other two asked questions out of order with a few tone questions. Because of this my strategy ended up utilizing a combination of S&D and passage mapping. With that being said the actual questions on the DAT were a lot easier than the ones on Bootcamp. I would always get discouraged with my RC practice scores but it turned out to be overkill in comparison to what I saw on test day.
QR: This is the section I put the least amount of time into because I had always heard that it was least important section. That being said it is important not to neglect this section either because it can easily bring down your AA if you really screw up on it. For this section I simply did all of the QR questions in destroyer (not math destroyer) and about half of both Bootcamps and Qvaults test, making flashcards for question types I missed.
My actual tests ended up being way easier than what I saw on Bootcamp and Destroyer. There was far less emphasis on tedious algebra and more emphasis on simple statistics and probability. I had a grand total of 0 Trig questions. I have always been strong with mental math so this type of test played to my strengths and I ended up with about 5 minutes to spare. That being said there were still about 5-8 questions that I really didn't know how to do (complex probability and strange QC questions) so had I put more time into this section I am sure I could have gotten a better score. I was feeling very discouraged because my practice scores for this section were so low, but it is unlikely that your test will be as difficult as what you see on Bootcamp and Destroyer. Just make sure to learn from your mistakes and not to take your practice test scores too seriously. Don't neglect this section!
Closing Thoughts
With all this being said I hope this post ended up being helpful to all of you. Without all of these helpful DAT breakdowns here on SDN and the excellent materials by @Ari Rezaei and @orgoman22 I wouldn't have gotten the score I did, and had I utilized the materials to their fullest I know I could have gotten an even higher score. Don't feel discouraged with bad practice exam scores, I had plenty of them and it all worked out in the end. DAT preparation is all about learning from your mistakes. Best of luck to all of you still preparing for you exam! Hopefully I was able to be of some help.
