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I took the DAT this morning and thought I would make a breakdown because I would like to give back to this amazing community. So here it goes.
First and foremost, a HUGE thanks to this site for providing me with so much, whether it be tips to studying, tricks, resources, or even motivation to study for this exam. Also a big shoutout to @Ari Rezaei for extending my BC subscription after I had to reschedule my exam for a later date (thanks Ari, you're awesome!). I was planning on taking the exam in June, but I knew I wouldn't be ready with just 4 weeks of preparation. I pushed it back so that I would have myself 8 weeks to study (5 full weeks + the last 3 weeks while working full time).
Scores:
PAT: 24
QR: 23
RC: 27
Bio: 22
GC: 26
OC: 22
TS: 23
AA: 24
Resources used (aka the "typical combo"): BootCamp, Chad's GC/OC vids, Feralis' Notes (@FeralisExtremum thank you so much!), Cliff's AP 3rd edition, DAT Destroyer (@orgoman22 major props!), Math Destroyer.
PAT, 24: I'm comparing each section with BootCamp because it's all I used to practice.
-Angle ranking was as hard as BC generator (perhaps harder), but I do think that part of it was my lack of confidence during the exam. During practice exams, I would fly by these questions and go with my gut, as one should say, and I would do pretty decent (averaging 13/15). However, during the actual exam I was really struggling to make quick decisions on the angles, and I kept looking at the angles which made it much harder to differentiate!
-TFE was straightforward, similar in difficulty to BC; in my opinion, I think TFE is the best opportunity to get better. Trust me, after practice, you WILL get better. I was scoring 5/15 in the beginning, but after a few days of practice, I scored 14-15/15 on subsequent practice exams. Practice, practice, practice and eventually it will get perfect.
-Keyholes was just weird. I don't know how to feel about this one. I thought it was as difficult as BC, but in different ways. Keyholes on the actual DAT seems to focus more on shape than proportion.
-Cube counting was easier than BC. Pretty simple.
-Holepunch was similar to BC. I used the tic-tac-toe method, it works everytime. This is also the best opportunity to get those free points. Practice and you WILL do better on this.
-Pattern folding was similar to BC. This is also the best opportunity to become better. Practice as much as you can with the BC generator and you will be able to solve any type of question. It's just a matter of whether your brain can mentally fold and visualize the final product with precision and speed.
QR, 23: Slightly harder than BC but easier than Destroyer. I thought I did so poorly on this section, I can't believe I pulled this through! To study for this, I used Math Destroyer and BC. There were several Quantitative Reasoning questions (bar graph, A&B statements) I was only able to complete 10 Destroyer exams, but I would suggest going through all of them, because the key to this section is speed (you will get faster with Destroyer!). I had 5 minutes left at the end and still had about 8 questions to go, so I did my best to finish all of them. Had I managed my time more properly, I'm positive I would have gotten a better score. Can't complain much with a 23, though!
RC, 27: So much easier than BC (which I'm sure everyone knows by now). Although not to brag, I did score a 25 on one of the practice BC exams, so I expected to do pretty solid on this section. I'm a pretty slow reader, though, and English was not my first language. I used Search & Destroy: read question first, then read passage; when you get an answer, you move on to the next question and continue reading until you find the answer again and so forth.Most of the questions were really straightforward, I was actually surprised by how easy some of them were! Most of them were also in order, so I didn't have to go back that much.
Bio, 22: Similar in difficulty to BC. I was pretty content with this score, I didn't study as much as I could have for this. I started by reading Cliff's and taking my own notes and looking at Feralis' notes for additional info, while also answering about 30-40 Destroyer questions daily for the first 4 weeks and also taking additional notes. Following that, I started taking BC subject practice exams (#6-10) and took more notes from it. I reviewed my notes in the last few days of study. As usual, breadth over depth.
GC, 26: Similar to BC in difficulty. For the last few days, I went through Chad's FREE GC questions. This is such an amazing resource, I strongly believe I did well on this section because of these questions! Here is the link to the website (it also offers OC and QR questions free of charge).
OC, 22: Similar to BC and Destroyer in difficulty. Mehhh, I thought I would do better, considering I went through Destroyer OC questions a second time. Still happy to be over 21. There were a lot of questions on basicity/acidity, which was one of my main weaknesses.
Practice exam scores:
BC: (1-10)
-Bio 23/25/24/23/22/20/20/20/20/24
-GC --/22/30/23/20/21/20/19/19/20
-OC --/29/24/22/22/20/21/21/22/21
-PAT 23/24/22/23/20/20/--/20/21/--
-QR --/--/30/19/21/19/19/22/21/20
2009 Test (2 days before exam):
22/25/23/23/23/22 (Bio/GC/OC/TS/PAT/QR), skipped RC.
Final words: If others can do it, you can do it! This is what I always tell myself whenever I face an obstacle or a challenge. DAT was definitely a big challenge for me, but hard work does pay off at the end.
Good luck to those who will be destroying the DAT in the future!
First and foremost, a HUGE thanks to this site for providing me with so much, whether it be tips to studying, tricks, resources, or even motivation to study for this exam. Also a big shoutout to @Ari Rezaei for extending my BC subscription after I had to reschedule my exam for a later date (thanks Ari, you're awesome!). I was planning on taking the exam in June, but I knew I wouldn't be ready with just 4 weeks of preparation. I pushed it back so that I would have myself 8 weeks to study (5 full weeks + the last 3 weeks while working full time).
Scores:
PAT: 24
QR: 23
RC: 27
Bio: 22
GC: 26
OC: 22
TS: 23
AA: 24
Resources used (aka the "typical combo"): BootCamp, Chad's GC/OC vids, Feralis' Notes (@FeralisExtremum thank you so much!), Cliff's AP 3rd edition, DAT Destroyer (@orgoman22 major props!), Math Destroyer.
PAT, 24: I'm comparing each section with BootCamp because it's all I used to practice.
-Angle ranking was as hard as BC generator (perhaps harder), but I do think that part of it was my lack of confidence during the exam. During practice exams, I would fly by these questions and go with my gut, as one should say, and I would do pretty decent (averaging 13/15). However, during the actual exam I was really struggling to make quick decisions on the angles, and I kept looking at the angles which made it much harder to differentiate!
-TFE was straightforward, similar in difficulty to BC; in my opinion, I think TFE is the best opportunity to get better. Trust me, after practice, you WILL get better. I was scoring 5/15 in the beginning, but after a few days of practice, I scored 14-15/15 on subsequent practice exams. Practice, practice, practice and eventually it will get perfect.
-Keyholes was just weird. I don't know how to feel about this one. I thought it was as difficult as BC, but in different ways. Keyholes on the actual DAT seems to focus more on shape than proportion.
-Cube counting was easier than BC. Pretty simple.
-Holepunch was similar to BC. I used the tic-tac-toe method, it works everytime. This is also the best opportunity to get those free points. Practice and you WILL do better on this.
-Pattern folding was similar to BC. This is also the best opportunity to become better. Practice as much as you can with the BC generator and you will be able to solve any type of question. It's just a matter of whether your brain can mentally fold and visualize the final product with precision and speed.
QR, 23: Slightly harder than BC but easier than Destroyer. I thought I did so poorly on this section, I can't believe I pulled this through! To study for this, I used Math Destroyer and BC. There were several Quantitative Reasoning questions (bar graph, A&B statements) I was only able to complete 10 Destroyer exams, but I would suggest going through all of them, because the key to this section is speed (you will get faster with Destroyer!). I had 5 minutes left at the end and still had about 8 questions to go, so I did my best to finish all of them. Had I managed my time more properly, I'm positive I would have gotten a better score. Can't complain much with a 23, though!
RC, 27: So much easier than BC (which I'm sure everyone knows by now
). Although not to brag, I did score a 25 on one of the practice BC exams, so I expected to do pretty solid on this section. I'm a pretty slow reader, though, and English was not my first language. I used Search & Destroy: read question first, then read passage; when you get an answer, you move on to the next question and continue reading until you find the answer again and so forth.Most of the questions were really straightforward, I was actually surprised by how easy some of them were! Most of them were also in order, so I didn't have to go back that much.Bio, 22: Similar in difficulty to BC. I was pretty content with this score, I didn't study as much as I could have for this. I started by reading Cliff's and taking my own notes and looking at Feralis' notes for additional info, while also answering about 30-40 Destroyer questions daily for the first 4 weeks and also taking additional notes. Following that, I started taking BC subject practice exams (#6-10) and took more notes from it. I reviewed my notes in the last few days of study. As usual, breadth over depth.
GC, 26: Similar to BC in difficulty. For the last few days, I went through Chad's FREE GC questions. This is such an amazing resource, I strongly believe I did well on this section because of these questions! Here is the link to the website (it also offers OC and QR questions free of charge).
OC, 22: Similar to BC and Destroyer in difficulty. Mehhh, I thought I would do better, considering I went through Destroyer OC questions a second time. Still happy to be over 21. There were a lot of questions on basicity/acidity, which was one of my main weaknesses.
Practice exam scores:
BC: (1-10)
-Bio 23/25/24/23/22/20/20/20/20/24
-GC --/22/30/23/20/21/20/19/19/20
-OC --/29/24/22/22/20/21/21/22/21
-PAT 23/24/22/23/20/20/--/20/21/--
-QR --/--/30/19/21/19/19/22/21/20
2009 Test (2 days before exam):
22/25/23/23/23/22 (Bio/GC/OC/TS/PAT/QR), skipped RC.
Final words: If others can do it, you can do it! This is what I always tell myself whenever I face an obstacle or a challenge. DAT was definitely a big challenge for me, but hard work does pay off at the end.
Good luck to those who will be destroying the DAT in the future!
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