- Joined
- Aug 17, 2011
- Messages
- 89
- Reaction score
- 50
It feels amazing to finally be able to do my own breakdown. I wanted to pass on some general advice about the test since I could not have gotten the score I got without the help of SDN.
Selling Dat stuff, price is negotiable.
Check out my thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/dat-materials-for-sale.1095721/
Some background: I am an English major with a 3.5ish gpa and a low 3.2 science gpa which is why this test was so important to me because I needed to prove my ability to excel in the sciences. My overall science gpa is low because my first 3 semesters, I loaded up on science classes and did horrendously. However, I have an EXTREME upward trend with As in all of my upper division bio/chem courses. Hopefully that, along with a highish DAT score will be enough. :?
Scores:
23AA
23TS
26GC
24OC
21Bio
21QR
22RC
22PAT
GC: Chad Chad Chad Chad Chad Chad Chad. He is king. Even one of my biology mnemonic for remembering the body parts that form from the mesoderm was "King Chad's (k)nowledge's gonna save me." Kidney circulatory notochord gonads skeletal muscular. Haha! But seriously. The night before I did my last Bootcamp test and started freaking out and was about to reschedule my test because I took too long to finish it. And lo and behold, it was my highest score! Surprisingly I saw some annoying lab questions which most likely prevented from getting a perfect score. ARGHH. Destroyer definitely helped a lot even though I only went through it once.
I have a major regret about studying for this subject. I watched the videos and took notes, and after each video I did the quiz. However, because I took the quiz immediately after, I was going off of short term memory and getting high scores. I would suggest taking the quiz the day after or even 2 days after watching the related video so you can work off of long term memory. I'd also take it one step further. For topics like acids/bases, after watching the video, I would do a whole bunch of practice problems from other sources as well to really engrain the problem solving process in my head. I found that by the time my test neared, I was having to watch the videos again to recall some of the concepts. But I suppose this was also a blessing in disguise. I watched the videos the first time in 1.5x speed, and maybe 3-4 times again at 2.5x speed. I know this might be inconceivable but you really get used to it because the concepts are drilled into your head over and over.
One note for Chad's videos: EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT. Don't ever think: "meh this will probably never be on the test" because I can guarantee you that the concept you skip studying is bound to show up."
OC: Ochem was my favorite subject in undergrad so didn't really study much except for the boiling point stuff. Destroyer didn't help me for this much and I only went through 100 problems. If you are having trouble memorizing reactions I suggest to make your own roadmaps. I did not like the ones in destroyer contrary to popular opinion simply because they were a bit disorganized. What I did (for the DAT as well as for orgo 1 and 2 in undergrad) is to make a reaction flow chart of sorts. I put one functional group in the center like alkene or alcohol and drew arrows coming out of it with the reagents on the arrow and the product that yielded. Underneath the arrow I'd write stuff like mark or antimark, syn add or anti add, etc. This helps because instead of trying to remember that "one" flashcard, you can visualize the map in your head, and better be able to recall the reaction.
Bio: SO MADDDDDDDDDD. UGHHHH. I was ranging 20-23 on Dat Qvault and was consistently getting 22s near the end. I was SUPER unlucky for this section, got 2-3 random questions + 2-3 weirdly worded questions. Plus I was extremely nervous during this section preventing me from thinking clearly. More on that later. I used solely Cliff's AP Bio 3rd edition and Feralis's notes which were more than enough I think (except for the random questions) I accompanied Feralis with Anki notecards which were awesome for retention. I was least stressed about this section in the days before the test because I had been using Anki everyday, I pretty much knew all of Feralis front and back. I strongly recommend this! Biology is mostly memorization so it's crucial that you REVIEW old material before memorizing new material.
RC: Annoyed about this too. Especially as an English major. -_- I got a 20 on the first 3 Bootcamp tests and a 24 and 25 on the last two. Used a modified version of S&D where I'd read 2 paragraphs and then look through the questions to see if there was one from the two paragraphs I had just read. I think I was so fried and discouraged from the PAT that my score was adversely affected. If I were to restudy for this, I would do it immediately after doing a PAT test +break to stimulate testing conditions.
PAT: I thought I got a 17 on this. Seriously. AAHHHHH it was hard. A smidge easer than Bootcamp. To study for this section, I started with Bootcamp and was getting 17-18s. Freaked out and bought 10 test version of CDP to practice. I only took the first 5 CDP tests and got an 18/21/22/23/25. When I hit the 25, I went back to Bootcamp, and did one test everyday in the 10 days leading up to my test. Angles were similar to Bootcamp, Cubes: easier, HP: easier but had some oddly ovalish holes which threw me off a bit, TFE: same, keyholes: easier, patterns: HARDER. ugh. I was getting 12/12 on bootcamp patterns and did pretty bad on the real ones. I was pretty discouraged about this section but thankfully didn't do too bad.
QR: Pleasantly surprised with my score. I was most stressed about this section because I was doing pretty bad on Math destroyer. But holy moly it prepared me well. My advice is to try to get at least 31-34 right within 45 minutes and you're good! Really understand the shortcuts and problem solving methods they show you because it helps a lot on the real test where there is a major need for speed.
General Advice:
One thing that I never read in any breakdown was how much this test gets into your head. In the two weeks leading up to it, I literally took sleeping pills to get myself to sleep because my brain would not stop thinking about aldosterone and topoisomerase and deltaG and the structure of glucose. Haha, I remember coming home from somewhere and while I was unbraiding my hair, it got tangled. So I thought.. "ooh so that's why DNA has topoisomerases and SSBs!" During the day this application of knowledge was wonderful, but it was at night when I'd get annoyed at not being able to catch a break to sleep. I'd have nightmares about missing my test, failing my test, getting rejected, waking up late the morning of my test, plus many more. I think the night before my test, I slept about 1 hour despite going to bed early. I got up a million times in the middle of the night, my heart pounding.
When I actually started my test, I had to remind myself to breathe. My palms were sweating so much that the marker kept smearing on the paper and getting all over my hand. I think this was one of the major factors that contributed to my lower than expected score in Bio. Those 2-3 weirdly worded question were questions I probably would have gotten right had I been more calm and thinking clearly. After the bio section, I took deep breaths, and finally calmed myself down, pretending I was in my university testing center taking a regular old chem test. All of this was, the MOST difficult aspect of the DAT. I don't know how I could have prevented this, perhaps taking more days off? I guess the reason I was so pressured is because I'm a senior, and was taking the DAT in late August, meaning that if I did bad, my chance at applying this cycle were out the window.
My last words will be that you CAN do this! I have been very humbled by the entire college experience which has proven to me that intellect plays a very trivial role in success. Your work ethic is what makes you or breaks you. I made many sacrifices for this test. My family went on vacation and I didn't go with them, knowing that it'd take too large of a chunk of time from studying. I almost gave up 1 or 2 times thinking I couldn't do it and closed my notebook, but the prospect of becoming a dentist, being able to use my creative talents to better the lives of others led me right back to my study desk 5 minutes later. And it was all worth it in the end.
"Motivation is choosing between what you want now and what you want most."
What do you want MOST? Now, stop reading breakdowns and get back to studying.
Selling Dat stuff, price is negotiable.
Check out my thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/dat-materials-for-sale.1095721/
Some background: I am an English major with a 3.5ish gpa and a low 3.2 science gpa which is why this test was so important to me because I needed to prove my ability to excel in the sciences. My overall science gpa is low because my first 3 semesters, I loaded up on science classes and did horrendously. However, I have an EXTREME upward trend with As in all of my upper division bio/chem courses. Hopefully that, along with a highish DAT score will be enough. :?
Scores:
23AA
23TS
26GC
24OC
21Bio
21QR
22RC
22PAT
GC: Chad Chad Chad Chad Chad Chad Chad. He is king. Even one of my biology mnemonic for remembering the body parts that form from the mesoderm was "King Chad's (k)nowledge's gonna save me." Kidney circulatory notochord gonads skeletal muscular. Haha! But seriously. The night before I did my last Bootcamp test and started freaking out and was about to reschedule my test because I took too long to finish it. And lo and behold, it was my highest score! Surprisingly I saw some annoying lab questions which most likely prevented from getting a perfect score. ARGHH. Destroyer definitely helped a lot even though I only went through it once.
I have a major regret about studying for this subject. I watched the videos and took notes, and after each video I did the quiz. However, because I took the quiz immediately after, I was going off of short term memory and getting high scores. I would suggest taking the quiz the day after or even 2 days after watching the related video so you can work off of long term memory. I'd also take it one step further. For topics like acids/bases, after watching the video, I would do a whole bunch of practice problems from other sources as well to really engrain the problem solving process in my head. I found that by the time my test neared, I was having to watch the videos again to recall some of the concepts. But I suppose this was also a blessing in disguise. I watched the videos the first time in 1.5x speed, and maybe 3-4 times again at 2.5x speed. I know this might be inconceivable but you really get used to it because the concepts are drilled into your head over and over.
One note for Chad's videos: EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT. Don't ever think: "meh this will probably never be on the test" because I can guarantee you that the concept you skip studying is bound to show up."
OC: Ochem was my favorite subject in undergrad so didn't really study much except for the boiling point stuff. Destroyer didn't help me for this much and I only went through 100 problems. If you are having trouble memorizing reactions I suggest to make your own roadmaps. I did not like the ones in destroyer contrary to popular opinion simply because they were a bit disorganized. What I did (for the DAT as well as for orgo 1 and 2 in undergrad) is to make a reaction flow chart of sorts. I put one functional group in the center like alkene or alcohol and drew arrows coming out of it with the reagents on the arrow and the product that yielded. Underneath the arrow I'd write stuff like mark or antimark, syn add or anti add, etc. This helps because instead of trying to remember that "one" flashcard, you can visualize the map in your head, and better be able to recall the reaction.
Bio: SO MADDDDDDDDDD. UGHHHH. I was ranging 20-23 on Dat Qvault and was consistently getting 22s near the end. I was SUPER unlucky for this section, got 2-3 random questions + 2-3 weirdly worded questions. Plus I was extremely nervous during this section preventing me from thinking clearly. More on that later. I used solely Cliff's AP Bio 3rd edition and Feralis's notes which were more than enough I think (except for the random questions) I accompanied Feralis with Anki notecards which were awesome for retention. I was least stressed about this section in the days before the test because I had been using Anki everyday, I pretty much knew all of Feralis front and back. I strongly recommend this! Biology is mostly memorization so it's crucial that you REVIEW old material before memorizing new material.
RC: Annoyed about this too. Especially as an English major. -_- I got a 20 on the first 3 Bootcamp tests and a 24 and 25 on the last two. Used a modified version of S&D where I'd read 2 paragraphs and then look through the questions to see if there was one from the two paragraphs I had just read. I think I was so fried and discouraged from the PAT that my score was adversely affected. If I were to restudy for this, I would do it immediately after doing a PAT test +break to stimulate testing conditions.
PAT: I thought I got a 17 on this. Seriously. AAHHHHH it was hard. A smidge easer than Bootcamp. To study for this section, I started with Bootcamp and was getting 17-18s. Freaked out and bought 10 test version of CDP to practice. I only took the first 5 CDP tests and got an 18/21/22/23/25. When I hit the 25, I went back to Bootcamp, and did one test everyday in the 10 days leading up to my test. Angles were similar to Bootcamp, Cubes: easier, HP: easier but had some oddly ovalish holes which threw me off a bit, TFE: same, keyholes: easier, patterns: HARDER. ugh. I was getting 12/12 on bootcamp patterns and did pretty bad on the real ones. I was pretty discouraged about this section but thankfully didn't do too bad.
QR: Pleasantly surprised with my score. I was most stressed about this section because I was doing pretty bad on Math destroyer. But holy moly it prepared me well. My advice is to try to get at least 31-34 right within 45 minutes and you're good! Really understand the shortcuts and problem solving methods they show you because it helps a lot on the real test where there is a major need for speed.
General Advice:
One thing that I never read in any breakdown was how much this test gets into your head. In the two weeks leading up to it, I literally took sleeping pills to get myself to sleep because my brain would not stop thinking about aldosterone and topoisomerase and deltaG and the structure of glucose. Haha, I remember coming home from somewhere and while I was unbraiding my hair, it got tangled. So I thought.. "ooh so that's why DNA has topoisomerases and SSBs!" During the day this application of knowledge was wonderful, but it was at night when I'd get annoyed at not being able to catch a break to sleep. I'd have nightmares about missing my test, failing my test, getting rejected, waking up late the morning of my test, plus many more. I think the night before my test, I slept about 1 hour despite going to bed early. I got up a million times in the middle of the night, my heart pounding.
When I actually started my test, I had to remind myself to breathe. My palms were sweating so much that the marker kept smearing on the paper and getting all over my hand. I think this was one of the major factors that contributed to my lower than expected score in Bio. Those 2-3 weirdly worded question were questions I probably would have gotten right had I been more calm and thinking clearly. After the bio section, I took deep breaths, and finally calmed myself down, pretending I was in my university testing center taking a regular old chem test. All of this was, the MOST difficult aspect of the DAT. I don't know how I could have prevented this, perhaps taking more days off? I guess the reason I was so pressured is because I'm a senior, and was taking the DAT in late August, meaning that if I did bad, my chance at applying this cycle were out the window.
My last words will be that you CAN do this! I have been very humbled by the entire college experience which has proven to me that intellect plays a very trivial role in success. Your work ethic is what makes you or breaks you. I made many sacrifices for this test. My family went on vacation and I didn't go with them, knowing that it'd take too large of a chunk of time from studying. I almost gave up 1 or 2 times thinking I couldn't do it and closed my notebook, but the prospect of becoming a dentist, being able to use my creative talents to better the lives of others led me right back to my study desk 5 minutes later. And it was all worth it in the end.
"Motivation is choosing between what you want now and what you want most."
What do you want MOST? Now, stop reading breakdowns and get back to studying.
