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Hello everyone!
I've finally taken the DAT, and I decided to write my own DAT breakdown to encourage any fellow Non-traditional students / Career Changers like me. I am also an Enginerd and I suck at writing, so I just bullet-pointed everything. Lastly, I want to give a huge shoutout to Orgoman Team for this amazing tool called DAT Destroyer! I couldn't have done it without this amazing book. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!
My DAT Scores:
PAT 23, QR 22, RC 22, BIO 23, GC 24, OC 30
AA 24 and TS 25
My background:
- BS in Civil Engineering '14
- No college-level Biology or Chemistry between 2010 - 2018
- Took GC, BIO, and OC at a near Community College during Summer and Fall of 2018 and Spring of 2019
- Full-time job with 1-2 hours of commute every day
- A father of a beautiful 14-month old girl
What I used to study for the exam:
1. DAT Bootcamp
2. DAT Destroyer
3. Kahn Academy + youtube videos
What would have I done IF I had more time:
1. PAT Booster for PAT - actual PAT Keyhole/TFE questions were considerably harder. I almost panicked during the exam.
2. DAT Math Destroyer - wish I would have practiced more for speed
3. Finish Bootcamp Practice Exams
4. Start DAT Destroyer early instead of cramming 300 problems/day 10 days before the exam.
Quick tips for the actual exam:
1. Use earplugs + headphones for extra noise canceling
2. Ask for sharper marker pen for QR section. Having a mushy end sharpie REALLY threw me off during the QR because I already had a horrible Enginerd handwriting
Study Strategy
Hours studied:
1. Mon - Friday: 4 -5 hours
2. Sat / Sun: 8 - 9 hours
3. Ten (10) days before the exam: 12 - 14 hours (I took 6 workdays off to dedicate my time to studying)
4. Total months studied: 4 months
How I studied:
1. From April 2019 to mid-July 2019
Primary Resource was Bootcamp and Kahn Academy, but Destroyer was used from time to time (30-40 questions at max).
Primary Resource was Destroyer for questions, but I constantly reviewed my Bootcamp Bio, GC, OC notes from time to time.
The primary resources were ADA 2007 practice test, DAT Destroyer, and my notes.
DAT is a tough exam. Coming from a totally different background without any Biology or Chemistry background was challenging. However, with dedication and hard work, you can definitely tackle the DAT exam. I personally had to give up a lot of time with my daughter. It was very tough, but it was well worth it now that I'm looking back. As I was studying for this exam, I also came to the realization that the Dental School curriculum (if accepted) will only be harder, so I think it's very important to do your BEST on the DAT exam.
Think 30, study hard, put in hundreds of hours, and you will get a great score.
If I can do it, you can do it as well.
Good luck!
I've finally taken the DAT, and I decided to write my own DAT breakdown to encourage any fellow Non-traditional students / Career Changers like me. I am also an Enginerd and I suck at writing, so I just bullet-pointed everything. Lastly, I want to give a huge shoutout to Orgoman Team for this amazing tool called DAT Destroyer! I couldn't have done it without this amazing book. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!
My DAT Scores:
PAT 23, QR 22, RC 22, BIO 23, GC 24, OC 30
AA 24 and TS 25
My background:
- BS in Civil Engineering '14
- No college-level Biology or Chemistry between 2010 - 2018
- Took GC, BIO, and OC at a near Community College during Summer and Fall of 2018 and Spring of 2019
- Full-time job with 1-2 hours of commute every day
- A father of a beautiful 14-month old girl
What I used to study for the exam:
1. DAT Bootcamp
2. DAT Destroyer
3. Kahn Academy + youtube videos
What would have I done IF I had more time:
1. PAT Booster for PAT - actual PAT Keyhole/TFE questions were considerably harder. I almost panicked during the exam.
2. DAT Math Destroyer - wish I would have practiced more for speed
3. Finish Bootcamp Practice Exams
4. Start DAT Destroyer early instead of cramming 300 problems/day 10 days before the exam.
Quick tips for the actual exam:
1. Use earplugs + headphones for extra noise canceling
2. Ask for sharper marker pen for QR section. Having a mushy end sharpie REALLY threw me off during the QR because I already had a horrible Enginerd handwriting
Study Strategy
Hours studied:
1. Mon - Friday: 4 -5 hours
2. Sat / Sun: 8 - 9 hours
3. Ten (10) days before the exam: 12 - 14 hours (I took 6 workdays off to dedicate my time to studying)
4. Total months studied: 4 months
How I studied:
1. From April 2019 to mid-July 2019
Primary Resource was Bootcamp and Kahn Academy, but Destroyer was used from time to time (30-40 questions at max).
- Learning the materials at your own pace
- Used Bootcamp's resources (Gen Chem Notes, Biology Notes, Biology Academy, and Dr. Mike's Org Chem videos)
- Solved every practice problem associated with each chapter for each subject.
- Followed Ari's 10-week schedule at my own pace (took me 3 months)
- Practice Exams
- Took 3 Practice Exams total because I didn't have enough time to take the others
- Pick sections where you need the most work on and take the individual subject exams.
- Extra things I did:
- Watched almost ALL Kahn Academy videos (watched all anatomy/physiology videos at least 3-4 times)
- Listened to Kahn Academy videos during the commute to drill the concepts into my Enginerd brain
- Made flashcards for every reaction/concept
- Reviewed the entire flashcards at least once in 4-5 days to refresh my memory
- Pros:
- Dr. Mike's videos on GC and OC were fantastic. A great learning tool.
- QR sections have some good practice problems
- Taxonomy cheat sheet, GC cheat sheet, OC rxn sheets, OC tests sheets are all great resources. I printed them out and memorized them.
- Cons:
- PAT sections (especially Keyhole, TFE) were much harder on the actual DAT.
- Not enough Biology questions
- Overall Verdict on Bootcamp
- It's a great learning tool to start with. Take notes. Follow the 10-week schedule, but do it at your own pace
- Go through 2-3 full-length tests to gauge where you stand.
- Note: Don't be discouraged with your scores! It is very likely that you really don't know anything at this point. I got 18s and 19s on all sections. It was terrifying
Primary Resource was Destroyer for questions, but I constantly reviewed my Bootcamp Bio, GC, OC notes from time to time.
- First-time through the entire DAT Destroyer
- Solved about 200-300 questions per day at (70-100 questions per each discipline)
- Detached the Answer keys from the book for easier review of solutions.
- Reviewed solution for every question. Highlighted the answer keys. Made additional flashcards and also made my own Destroyer Concept Notebook as I'm going through.
- Marked every question I got wrong in my own symbols (star, asterisk *, and !!!)
- Star - concept that I didn't know
- Asterisk* - got it right, but kind of guessed
- !!! - got it wrong for stupid reasons
- Second-time through the entire DAT Destroyer
- Reviewed every question I got wrong.
- Solved questions that I got right the first time from time to time
- Second-time through will take you literally 1/4 of the time you spent on the first-time through.
- Starting from the second time through, I felt like I had a firm grasp on concepts.
- Pros:
- This book will get you 20+ scores.
- Questions are organized in a very constructive way!
- It quizzes you on a certain concept and asks you again within the next 10-20 questions to reaffirm that you have mastered the concept.
- They are hard, but they will make you learn and own the concept.
- IMO, the organic chemistry section is the BEAST. The Roadmaps were amazing in reaffirming what you learned.
- After going through OC problems twice, I did 2007 ADA test OC section in 20 mins and got 30. The actual DAT exam I also took about 25 mins.
- Cons:
- Takes a lot of time and effort
- Going through 300 problems a day can be very tiring.
- QR section is ao
- Overall Verdict on Destroyer:
- Use the DAT Destroyer book. It is NOT an overkill, and there is a reason why this book has been around for the past decade.
- After the 2nd time through, I thought I was "feeling" the subjects. Every question came like a breeze.
- If I had more time, I would have solved Destroyer problems at least 3 times.
- IMO, it is a must need if you want 20+
The primary resources were ADA 2007 practice test, DAT Destroyer, and my notes.
- ADA 2007 Practice Test
- Only for Science. I thought PAT and QR sections were fairly outdated, so I didn't want to waste time.
- DAT Destroyer
- Reviewed problems and reviewed OC roadmaps.
- Notes
- Reviewed all of my own notes/flashcards that I created myself and my DAT bootcamp notes.
DAT is a tough exam. Coming from a totally different background without any Biology or Chemistry background was challenging. However, with dedication and hard work, you can definitely tackle the DAT exam. I personally had to give up a lot of time with my daughter. It was very tough, but it was well worth it now that I'm looking back. As I was studying for this exam, I also came to the realization that the Dental School curriculum (if accepted) will only be harder, so I think it's very important to do your BEST on the DAT exam.
Think 30, study hard, put in hundreds of hours, and you will get a great score.
If I can do it, you can do it as well.
Good luck!
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