- Joined
- Aug 14, 2011
- Messages
- 169
- Reaction score
- 152
First of all, I want to thank SDN for this amazing community. Without this website and the people, I may not have attained these scores. This breakdown is for all my fellow non-traditional students. I have a lot to say, so please brace yourself for a long breakdown.
My scores:
PAT: 20
QR: 19
RC: 22
BIO: 26
GC: 25
OC: 26
TS: 26
AA: 24
Background: First of all, I want to preface this by saying that I was not one of those 3.5-4.0 students in undergrad. I actually graduated a few years ago with a sub-3.1 GPA. Since then however, I have enrolled in a postbac program and have been able to maintain a 3.99 GPA. Going into DAT studying, I had A LOT of information I needed to master in a short amount of time; I took GC and OC 6-7 years ago. To anyone reading this who is doubting their ability to perform on the DAT, please don't let your GPA stress you out, you can overcome a lower GPA. There will be hard work involved but you can succeed if you want something badly enough!
How I Studied & Logistics: I was originally planning on taking the exam in September but due to personal reasons, I had to stop studying in July and postpone my exam. Over the summer, I was following Ari's 10 week schedule, however I felt that it was spread out a bit too long for me. By the time October rolled around, it was time to resume my DAT studies. This time, I knew I didn't want to follow a longer 10 week schedule, I did some research and found @jimmpannzee's 3 week breakdown. So I went ahead and scheduled my exam 3 weeks from my start date. This schedule however was way too accelerated, given my background. So I had to push my date 3 more weeks to give me enough time to get through Destroyer.
I was able to go through the OC and GC sections of Destroyer twice, and only 200 Biology questions (didn't get a chance go back to questions I got wrong in Bio).
In total I studied 6 weeks anywhere from 10-12 hours a day.
As you can see below, I was not able to get to all the practice tests on Bootcamp or qVault. I also was not able to get to the 2007 or 2009 ADA exams.
Review Materials:
Chad's Videos! - 10/10
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language (Klein) - 10/10 !
Cliffs AP Biology - 9/10
Barrons AP Biology - 9/10
Practice Materials:
DAT Destroyer - 10/10
DAT Bootcamp - 10/10
qVault Bio - 9/10
Organic Chemistry Odyssey - 10/10
General Chemistry Destroyer - 10/10
Practice Test Scores for qVault:
Bio: 22/19/27/20/22/22/25/22
OC: 22/21
Practice Test Scores for DAT Bootcamp:
PAT: 18/20/18/19
RC: 23/21/25
QR: 17/21/19/19
GC: 18/22/24/21
BIO: 24/24/20/23/25
OC: 18/22/21
Biology 26
Review
I actually already had a decent Biology background as I had taken some kind of Biology class every year since 9th grade. I also have taken a full course load of Bio upper-divs during my postbac and I feel like this helped me a lot. Despite that, it still had been a few years since I had taken basic biology courses and so I started my review off with Cliffs AP Bio and Barrons AP Biology. I would first read a chapter of Cliffs and then read the corresponding chapter in Barrons right after. I thought both were decent and maybe it helped see the information presented in slightly different ways. However, I don't think it is absolutely necessary to read both. Either one will suffice. If you have a weaker Biology background, I would suggest reading either Feralis' Notes or TyJacobs Biology Notes (russelldw's biology notes are really good too!). I, however, never personally went through any of these. Feralis notes were too dense for me and so dry to read. After going over Cliffs and Barrons, I felt like I was "ready" to do Destroyer.
I also tried using the Feralis Anki deck which has over 2000 flashcards. I only did this for about 5 days. I felt like starting Anki was mainly useful if you still have plenty of time before your test date. Anki is a wonderful flashcard app that emphasizes spaced-repetition learning. I didn't find it useful for me personally since I only had 6 weeks to learn 2000 terms. I felt doing Destroyer/practice exams was a better use of time.
Practice
I jumped right into Destroyer and I felt like it wasn't too bad. There were of course a lot of new things that I had never heard of before. Don't get overwhelmed! Just keep calm and look up what you don't know. If it was in Cliff's, go back and quickly read the relevant info. What I did was make a google doc in which I typed notes for problems I missed as well as those that I was a little unsure about. Right before my exam, I quickly read through the document. It was about 11 pages long. Overall, I was getting about 80-85% of the Biology questions right. I was only able to get through 200 Biology questions and didn't have a chance to go over them another time besides quickly looking at my Google doc.
By the time I finished 200 Bio questions, my test date was only about 2 weeks away. I decided I better take a DAT Bootcamp bio subject exam soon to help gauge where I stood. I ended up getting a 25 on the first exam. This sort of influenced my decision to not finish the rest of Biology destroyer, especially in the interest of time. I decided to focus more on my weaker areas - GC/OC/QR.
Although I stopped doing Destroyer, I still kept taking qVault Bio exams as well as the rest of the BC bio exams spread out over the next two weeks. qVault was decent. It helped expose me to a greater variety of questions. Try to find a discount code.
Test
Since I was scoring fairly decent on practice exams, I felt like I was decently ready for Bio, but I still felt pretty stressed out about bio before my exam because most people advised me to finish Destroyer at least once. However, I trusted myself that I knew enough Biology to make educated guesses on anything I was unsure about. The bio section on my exam tested a variety of concepts so definitely expose yourself to a breadth of information. Remember, breadth over depth.
General Chemistry 25
Review
So I took GC about 6-7 years ago and did okay in undergrad but I had to refresh pretty much everything. If you are in my position, definitely use Chad's Videos and take detailed notes the first time watching them. Since it had been a while since I had watched Chad's Videos (I watched them last year during summer), I decided to do a quick refresh. I watched all the videos on 2x speed during my first week of studying and finished the videos in 7 days. I took all the quizzes after finishing each chapter of videos. Even though I studied within the span of 6 weeks, I still forgot some of the stuff in Chad's videos since I had watched them in the first week of studying. So please make sure to take good notes which you will have to refer to from time to time to refresh concepts.
Tyjacob's GC notes were decent as well, I only got through 35 pages of these however. I had these on my phone in iBooks and would look at them whenever I had the chance. Did the same for Feralis notes for bio, but I only got through 10-20 pages of those.
Practice
After Chad's I started Destroyer. This was the more discouraging part. I was getting around 65%-67% of the questions right. It took me a while to get through the questions the first time through. However, I stuck with it and finished the problems in a few days. For Destroyer, I also took notes on a Google doc for any problems that I missed or any formulas I needed to memorize. I ended up not going back to review this however.
After Destroyer, I took my first DAT Bootcamp practice exam. I got an 18. This was about one week before my test date. I freaked out and spent the next the next two days redoing the GC section of Destroyer for the second time. I kept telling myself not to freak out over practice scores and to use them as a study tool like countless people had advised, but it was hard not to. I literally spent the entire next two days on GC in hopes of improving and focusing on my weak areas. I believe this helped a lot. After those two days, I took my second GC bootcamp exam and scored a 22 and felt much more relieved.
Something that I found later in my studying was a website that was recently created by Chad. It's called DefeatTheDAT. He doesn't have any videos up on it yet and I don't think he plans to upload any, but there are a bunch of free quizzes! It essentially has similar quizzes to the old ones on the coursesaver website but this one has many more questions. Some of the questions were very similar to the kinds of questions I was asked on my DAT! Just Google DefeatTheDAT, it should be the first link. Check this out for sure! I didn't get through of all of the quizzes on the website, only did the topics that I felt I needed to brush up on.
Another underrated resource is General Chemistry Destroyer. While going through regular Destroyer, if I kept getting certain questions consistently wrong such as Acid/Base problems, I would go to the corresponding chapter in GC Destroyer. This helped me solidify knowledge from Chad's as well as regular Destroyer. I only went through a few chapters of this however. If I had time, I would have gone through more questions.
Test
The test was honestly a blur. I don't think I remember it being too difficult. Destroyer and Chad prepared me extremely well. Going through Destroyer a second time days before my exam, and making sure I understood the background concept behind questions was key. I marked a couple of questions but I think for the most part this section was not bad at all.
Organic Chemistry 26
Review
Did the same thing as GC above. I was pretty worried about this section as well since it had also been years since I took OC. In addition to Chad's, one of the best materials I used was Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, this book breaks it down so nicely and helped me understand so much more. It has two parts, 1st and 2nd semester. If you have time, try to go through both and do the problems. It's an easy read and can be gone through quickly.
Practice
An underrated resource for OC is Organic Chemistry Odyssey, also by Orgoman. This book breaks OC problems into chapters, so it is very convenient to hone in and do practice problems related to topics you are weak on. Definitely did not get through most of this, I only did about 2-3 chapters on topics I felt I was weak on.
Of course, use DAT Bootcamp to gauge where you stand. I scored an 18 on my first OC exam about 4 days before my exam. This really stressed me out. At this point I knew I should go over Destroyer a second time. I finished all the questions a second time within the next two days. This also helped me immensely.
Test
The test was much easier than Destroyer. However, Destroyer definitely set me up for success in addition to Chad. Again, I barely remember the test but I remember it being much easier than Destroyer and Bootcamp.
Perceptual Ability 20
This section is very beatable. You just need to practice early and consistently with Bootcamp. To be honest, I neglected this section. I did do angle ranking generators for a few days but I was always pretty decent at angles. I had the basic strategies down for each section but did not practice this section besides taking a few PAT exams when I did full length BC tests. I was scoring in the 19-20 range which I thought was decent enough given that PAT is not part of the AA. I know I definitely could have scored much higher if I had dedicated time to this section but my other scores may have suffered. PAT was very similar to Bootcamp.
Reading Comprehension 22
I was a voracious reader as a child, (Thank you J.K. Rowling - my inspiration and idol haha), so I decided not to actually "study" for this section besides doing a few BC exams. I was scoring around the 24-25 range so I stopped worrying about RC. I was told that the real DAT would be easier than or on par with Bootcamp, however I felt it was much harder! I was slightly struggling to finish my questions on time and barely had enough time to go over marked questions. The articles were convoluted and technical. I honestly felt BC was easier for me personally and was a slightly disappointed with my score.
The highlighting feature could be great for some people, but currently BC and qVault have not implemented this feature themselves. Because of this, test day was the first time I practiced using the highlighting feature. You have to first drag your pointer to select the text, then a little pop-up highlighter icon appears which you then click to highlight the text. Although, you are able to practice with this feature during the tutorial (which I did), I still wish DAT software makers had updated their RC to include this new feature. It was a little distracting because it disrupted my flow while reading since I had to stop to highlight. I wish Bootcamp had implemented this feature so I could have practiced it with during RC exams.
I'm sure this section can be improved if you start reading news/scientific articles daily. Also, I know this is might be obvious, but on a daily basis, if you come across any words you don't know, use a dictionary or your phone to look them up. You will slowly build up your vocabulary doing this.
Quantitative Reasoning 19
I always loved math in elementary/middle/high school. I took up to Calc 3 in college and did well BUT it had been years since I had practiced the kind of math on the DAT. Even though the math is quite "basic", if you have not seen the material in a long time it can really mess you up. I started my QR review only a week before my exam.
I started off watching Chad's QR videos which were a decent start to review the material. I then started Math Destroyer and only got about 50% right on the first exam. I got through about 7 Math Destroyer exams. These are very helpful to prepare for the QR section. If I had more time to go through all 17 exams and go over my mistakes, I am confident I could have scored better but I am pretty happy with a 19 given how little I studied for QR.
The calculator was extremely useful. I was able to quickly punch in numbers using the keypad. I did have to guess on maybe 2-3, because I wasn't too sure on how to approach those problems. Again, if I had finished Math Destroyer, I'm sure this section would not be bad at all.
How to Use Destroyer (Important)
When I began Destroyer, I wasn't exactly sure how to best utilize it. This is just my advice based on what I felt worked for me.
Remember, Destroyer is a learning tool. Use it just like you would use any other study guide. Please don't get discouraged if you are getting a lot of the questions wrong. Keep track of questions you got wrong, guessed on, or are a little iffy about. Someone posted an Excel sheet last year for the 2015 Destroyer. I actually spent a few hours updating the spreadsheet for the 2016 version. It is essentially an answer key for the Destroyer questions and automatically grades you whenever you input your answer. One of the most useful tools I came across! Make sure you utilize this. I'll attach the updated 2016 Spreadsheet at the end of this breakdown. This allowed me to quickly see which questions I needed to go back and review and quickly calculate the ratio of questions I was getting wrong in each section. There are two sheets, the first is for regular destroyer, the second one is for Math Destroyer.
Overall Test Day Comments
Even the morning of my test, I did not feel ready at all. I was telling myself I would be so happy if I got a 20AA. Nevertheless, I was weirdly calm. Before I left the house, I looked in the mirror and gave myself a quick pep talk. I told myself that "You got this! Trust and believe in yourself." I pretended to be confident even though inside I was anything but. There were so many people that would be let down if I did not score well but I told myself that thinking about that won't help me today and so I let those thoughts drift away from my mind.
I went to bed early the night before my exam and somehow woke up extremely refreshed. My test was in the afternoon so as soon as I woke up I drank a lot of water so that I was adequately hydrated. I knew I did not want to drink too much water right before or during my break. I brought a bottled black tea and a granola bar with me to eat during my break.
My boyfriend drove me to the test center, which I'm very glad he did, I would have been too distracted to drive 40 minutes away. Check in was smooth and I started feeling slightly nervous. I just smiled to myself and tried to calm myself. As soon as I entered the center, another examinee was exiting, shaking his head and looking disappointed at his score report. This really psyched me out but I tried my best not to think about it.
When I started the exam, it felt like just another Bootcamp exam. I had taken two full length BC exams and had been studying for 10+ hours a day, so I knew I had the stamina for the exam.
I was not allowed to write anything during the tutorial unfortunately. I finished the Natural Sciences section with around 20-30 minutes left. However, I only had enough time to go over my marked questions (around 10-15 overall). I did not have time to go over any other questions.
During the exam, I thought I would have to retake. I told myself that I had to keep going because many people before me have thought the same and ended up doing well.
After PAT my mind was very drained. I took my 30 min break, used the restroom, took a few sips of my black tea, and ate my granola bar. I wasn't allowed to use my phone or look at any notes. After 20 mins I was anxious to just get back inside and finish the exam so I went in early.
RC was the section where I felt the most tired and found it difficult to focus. As I said earlier, I felt the passages were denser and longer than BC. I barely finished on time. I wasn't able to review my marked questions.
QR was not as bad as I thought it would be. My lower back started hurting during this section which had never happened to me during my studies. I just ignored it and pushed through.
I took the 15 question survey at the end. And was so nervous to click the End button. As soon as I did, my scores popped up, my heart leapt, and I couldn't stop myself from grinning. I was pretty shocked but felt extremely relieved. I couldn't believe those were my scores and felt so overjoyed!
P.S.
The cross-out feature is awesome and can be utilized in every section of the exam! It made it so much easier to eliminate the wrong answers and to just focus on the remaining answer choices. Great feature, use it to your advantage.
Closing Thoughts & Advice
I gave up a lot for this exam. I didn't do anything for Halloween or Thanksgiving, probably weakened a lot of friendships as I had to constantly refuse any invitations to go out, and also acquired 3 more gray hairs (lol). I felt a lot of pressure to succeed and prove myself worthy of admission to dental school. In the end, it has all been worth it. At the end of the day, know that not one schedule fits every individual best. Yes, you can use the schedules as a guideline, but don't be afraid to tweak it to meet your needs. You know yourself best. Don't let people tell you "That's not enough time to study for the DAT" or "That's way too long!!".
I did hours and hours of research on SDN in the year before I started studying. I can say I have easily read over 100 breakdowns. I made a list of resources from breakdowns that had a 22+ (which was my personal goal) AND who had a similar academic background as me. Make sure you do your research and know which resources to use to best prepare yourself. Try not to stress too much about practice exams if you can. You will get through this. I had so many doubts about my study schedule and study habits. My friends were asking me why I didn't study with them or why I didn't come out to eat with them. Just trust yourself, you know what is best for you. If you need any help, feel free to message me for advice!
Acknowledgements
I would not have been able to achieve my goal without the help of my boyfriend who was by my side since the beginning and supported me throughout my studying. He also sacrificed a lot for me and I am so grateful. I want to thank my parents for being supportive and caring. I also want to thank @orgoman22 for answering my questions and giving me advice. I actually won the DAT Destroyer raffle sometime last year, so thank you for your books Nancy and Dr. Romano! @Ari Rezaei is a super nice guy and helped me out when I really needed it. Thank you for answering my questions. Thanks @Alpha Centauri for adding me to the GC. And thank you to everyone in there for answering my questions. I also want to thank @jimmpannzee even though I realize you don't use SDN as often anymore. Your 3 week schedule helped me so much! Also, a special thank you to @LaughingGas, whom without I would not have joined a postbac program. Special thanks to @mOlar1! for being an awesome human being, I know you will succeed and be an amazing dentist! <3 Please forgive me if I forgot anyone. Thanks for reading!
My scores:
PAT: 20
QR: 19
RC: 22
BIO: 26
GC: 25
OC: 26
TS: 26
AA: 24
Background: First of all, I want to preface this by saying that I was not one of those 3.5-4.0 students in undergrad. I actually graduated a few years ago with a sub-3.1 GPA. Since then however, I have enrolled in a postbac program and have been able to maintain a 3.99 GPA. Going into DAT studying, I had A LOT of information I needed to master in a short amount of time; I took GC and OC 6-7 years ago. To anyone reading this who is doubting their ability to perform on the DAT, please don't let your GPA stress you out, you can overcome a lower GPA. There will be hard work involved but you can succeed if you want something badly enough!
How I Studied & Logistics: I was originally planning on taking the exam in September but due to personal reasons, I had to stop studying in July and postpone my exam. Over the summer, I was following Ari's 10 week schedule, however I felt that it was spread out a bit too long for me. By the time October rolled around, it was time to resume my DAT studies. This time, I knew I didn't want to follow a longer 10 week schedule, I did some research and found @jimmpannzee's 3 week breakdown. So I went ahead and scheduled my exam 3 weeks from my start date. This schedule however was way too accelerated, given my background. So I had to push my date 3 more weeks to give me enough time to get through Destroyer.
I was able to go through the OC and GC sections of Destroyer twice, and only 200 Biology questions (didn't get a chance go back to questions I got wrong in Bio).
In total I studied 6 weeks anywhere from 10-12 hours a day.
As you can see below, I was not able to get to all the practice tests on Bootcamp or qVault. I also was not able to get to the 2007 or 2009 ADA exams.
Review Materials:
Chad's Videos! - 10/10
Organic Chemistry as a Second Language (Klein) - 10/10 !
Cliffs AP Biology - 9/10
Barrons AP Biology - 9/10
Practice Materials:
DAT Destroyer - 10/10
DAT Bootcamp - 10/10
qVault Bio - 9/10
Organic Chemistry Odyssey - 10/10
General Chemistry Destroyer - 10/10
Practice Test Scores for qVault:
Bio: 22/19/27/20/22/22/25/22
OC: 22/21
Practice Test Scores for DAT Bootcamp:
PAT: 18/20/18/19
RC: 23/21/25
QR: 17/21/19/19
GC: 18/22/24/21
BIO: 24/24/20/23/25
OC: 18/22/21
Biology 26
Review
I actually already had a decent Biology background as I had taken some kind of Biology class every year since 9th grade. I also have taken a full course load of Bio upper-divs during my postbac and I feel like this helped me a lot. Despite that, it still had been a few years since I had taken basic biology courses and so I started my review off with Cliffs AP Bio and Barrons AP Biology. I would first read a chapter of Cliffs and then read the corresponding chapter in Barrons right after. I thought both were decent and maybe it helped see the information presented in slightly different ways. However, I don't think it is absolutely necessary to read both. Either one will suffice. If you have a weaker Biology background, I would suggest reading either Feralis' Notes or TyJacobs Biology Notes (russelldw's biology notes are really good too!). I, however, never personally went through any of these. Feralis notes were too dense for me and so dry to read. After going over Cliffs and Barrons, I felt like I was "ready" to do Destroyer.
I also tried using the Feralis Anki deck which has over 2000 flashcards. I only did this for about 5 days. I felt like starting Anki was mainly useful if you still have plenty of time before your test date. Anki is a wonderful flashcard app that emphasizes spaced-repetition learning. I didn't find it useful for me personally since I only had 6 weeks to learn 2000 terms. I felt doing Destroyer/practice exams was a better use of time.
Practice
I jumped right into Destroyer and I felt like it wasn't too bad. There were of course a lot of new things that I had never heard of before. Don't get overwhelmed! Just keep calm and look up what you don't know. If it was in Cliff's, go back and quickly read the relevant info. What I did was make a google doc in which I typed notes for problems I missed as well as those that I was a little unsure about. Right before my exam, I quickly read through the document. It was about 11 pages long. Overall, I was getting about 80-85% of the Biology questions right. I was only able to get through 200 Biology questions and didn't have a chance to go over them another time besides quickly looking at my Google doc.
By the time I finished 200 Bio questions, my test date was only about 2 weeks away. I decided I better take a DAT Bootcamp bio subject exam soon to help gauge where I stood. I ended up getting a 25 on the first exam. This sort of influenced my decision to not finish the rest of Biology destroyer, especially in the interest of time. I decided to focus more on my weaker areas - GC/OC/QR.
Although I stopped doing Destroyer, I still kept taking qVault Bio exams as well as the rest of the BC bio exams spread out over the next two weeks. qVault was decent. It helped expose me to a greater variety of questions. Try to find a discount code.
Test
Since I was scoring fairly decent on practice exams, I felt like I was decently ready for Bio, but I still felt pretty stressed out about bio before my exam because most people advised me to finish Destroyer at least once. However, I trusted myself that I knew enough Biology to make educated guesses on anything I was unsure about. The bio section on my exam tested a variety of concepts so definitely expose yourself to a breadth of information. Remember, breadth over depth.
General Chemistry 25
Review
So I took GC about 6-7 years ago and did okay in undergrad but I had to refresh pretty much everything. If you are in my position, definitely use Chad's Videos and take detailed notes the first time watching them. Since it had been a while since I had watched Chad's Videos (I watched them last year during summer), I decided to do a quick refresh. I watched all the videos on 2x speed during my first week of studying and finished the videos in 7 days. I took all the quizzes after finishing each chapter of videos. Even though I studied within the span of 6 weeks, I still forgot some of the stuff in Chad's videos since I had watched them in the first week of studying. So please make sure to take good notes which you will have to refer to from time to time to refresh concepts.
Tyjacob's GC notes were decent as well, I only got through 35 pages of these however. I had these on my phone in iBooks and would look at them whenever I had the chance. Did the same for Feralis notes for bio, but I only got through 10-20 pages of those.
Practice
After Chad's I started Destroyer. This was the more discouraging part. I was getting around 65%-67% of the questions right. It took me a while to get through the questions the first time through. However, I stuck with it and finished the problems in a few days. For Destroyer, I also took notes on a Google doc for any problems that I missed or any formulas I needed to memorize. I ended up not going back to review this however.
After Destroyer, I took my first DAT Bootcamp practice exam. I got an 18. This was about one week before my test date. I freaked out and spent the next the next two days redoing the GC section of Destroyer for the second time. I kept telling myself not to freak out over practice scores and to use them as a study tool like countless people had advised, but it was hard not to. I literally spent the entire next two days on GC in hopes of improving and focusing on my weak areas. I believe this helped a lot. After those two days, I took my second GC bootcamp exam and scored a 22 and felt much more relieved.
Something that I found later in my studying was a website that was recently created by Chad. It's called DefeatTheDAT. He doesn't have any videos up on it yet and I don't think he plans to upload any, but there are a bunch of free quizzes! It essentially has similar quizzes to the old ones on the coursesaver website but this one has many more questions. Some of the questions were very similar to the kinds of questions I was asked on my DAT! Just Google DefeatTheDAT, it should be the first link. Check this out for sure! I didn't get through of all of the quizzes on the website, only did the topics that I felt I needed to brush up on.
Another underrated resource is General Chemistry Destroyer. While going through regular Destroyer, if I kept getting certain questions consistently wrong such as Acid/Base problems, I would go to the corresponding chapter in GC Destroyer. This helped me solidify knowledge from Chad's as well as regular Destroyer. I only went through a few chapters of this however. If I had time, I would have gone through more questions.
Test
The test was honestly a blur. I don't think I remember it being too difficult. Destroyer and Chad prepared me extremely well. Going through Destroyer a second time days before my exam, and making sure I understood the background concept behind questions was key. I marked a couple of questions but I think for the most part this section was not bad at all.
Organic Chemistry 26
Review
Did the same thing as GC above. I was pretty worried about this section as well since it had also been years since I took OC. In addition to Chad's, one of the best materials I used was Organic Chemistry as a Second Language, this book breaks it down so nicely and helped me understand so much more. It has two parts, 1st and 2nd semester. If you have time, try to go through both and do the problems. It's an easy read and can be gone through quickly.
Practice
An underrated resource for OC is Organic Chemistry Odyssey, also by Orgoman. This book breaks OC problems into chapters, so it is very convenient to hone in and do practice problems related to topics you are weak on. Definitely did not get through most of this, I only did about 2-3 chapters on topics I felt I was weak on.
Of course, use DAT Bootcamp to gauge where you stand. I scored an 18 on my first OC exam about 4 days before my exam. This really stressed me out. At this point I knew I should go over Destroyer a second time. I finished all the questions a second time within the next two days. This also helped me immensely.
Test
The test was much easier than Destroyer. However, Destroyer definitely set me up for success in addition to Chad. Again, I barely remember the test but I remember it being much easier than Destroyer and Bootcamp.
Perceptual Ability 20
This section is very beatable. You just need to practice early and consistently with Bootcamp. To be honest, I neglected this section. I did do angle ranking generators for a few days but I was always pretty decent at angles. I had the basic strategies down for each section but did not practice this section besides taking a few PAT exams when I did full length BC tests. I was scoring in the 19-20 range which I thought was decent enough given that PAT is not part of the AA. I know I definitely could have scored much higher if I had dedicated time to this section but my other scores may have suffered. PAT was very similar to Bootcamp.
Reading Comprehension 22
I was a voracious reader as a child, (Thank you J.K. Rowling - my inspiration and idol haha), so I decided not to actually "study" for this section besides doing a few BC exams. I was scoring around the 24-25 range so I stopped worrying about RC. I was told that the real DAT would be easier than or on par with Bootcamp, however I felt it was much harder! I was slightly struggling to finish my questions on time and barely had enough time to go over marked questions. The articles were convoluted and technical. I honestly felt BC was easier for me personally and was a slightly disappointed with my score.
The highlighting feature could be great for some people, but currently BC and qVault have not implemented this feature themselves. Because of this, test day was the first time I practiced using the highlighting feature. You have to first drag your pointer to select the text, then a little pop-up highlighter icon appears which you then click to highlight the text. Although, you are able to practice with this feature during the tutorial (which I did), I still wish DAT software makers had updated their RC to include this new feature. It was a little distracting because it disrupted my flow while reading since I had to stop to highlight. I wish Bootcamp had implemented this feature so I could have practiced it with during RC exams.
I'm sure this section can be improved if you start reading news/scientific articles daily. Also, I know this is might be obvious, but on a daily basis, if you come across any words you don't know, use a dictionary or your phone to look them up. You will slowly build up your vocabulary doing this.
Quantitative Reasoning 19
I always loved math in elementary/middle/high school. I took up to Calc 3 in college and did well BUT it had been years since I had practiced the kind of math on the DAT. Even though the math is quite "basic", if you have not seen the material in a long time it can really mess you up. I started my QR review only a week before my exam.
I started off watching Chad's QR videos which were a decent start to review the material. I then started Math Destroyer and only got about 50% right on the first exam. I got through about 7 Math Destroyer exams. These are very helpful to prepare for the QR section. If I had more time to go through all 17 exams and go over my mistakes, I am confident I could have scored better but I am pretty happy with a 19 given how little I studied for QR.
The calculator was extremely useful. I was able to quickly punch in numbers using the keypad. I did have to guess on maybe 2-3, because I wasn't too sure on how to approach those problems. Again, if I had finished Math Destroyer, I'm sure this section would not be bad at all.
How to Use Destroyer (Important)
When I began Destroyer, I wasn't exactly sure how to best utilize it. This is just my advice based on what I felt worked for me.
Remember, Destroyer is a learning tool. Use it just like you would use any other study guide. Please don't get discouraged if you are getting a lot of the questions wrong. Keep track of questions you got wrong, guessed on, or are a little iffy about. Someone posted an Excel sheet last year for the 2015 Destroyer. I actually spent a few hours updating the spreadsheet for the 2016 version. It is essentially an answer key for the Destroyer questions and automatically grades you whenever you input your answer. One of the most useful tools I came across! Make sure you utilize this. I'll attach the updated 2016 Spreadsheet at the end of this breakdown. This allowed me to quickly see which questions I needed to go back and review and quickly calculate the ratio of questions I was getting wrong in each section. There are two sheets, the first is for regular destroyer, the second one is for Math Destroyer.
Overall Test Day Comments
Even the morning of my test, I did not feel ready at all. I was telling myself I would be so happy if I got a 20AA. Nevertheless, I was weirdly calm. Before I left the house, I looked in the mirror and gave myself a quick pep talk. I told myself that "You got this! Trust and believe in yourself." I pretended to be confident even though inside I was anything but. There were so many people that would be let down if I did not score well but I told myself that thinking about that won't help me today and so I let those thoughts drift away from my mind.
I went to bed early the night before my exam and somehow woke up extremely refreshed. My test was in the afternoon so as soon as I woke up I drank a lot of water so that I was adequately hydrated. I knew I did not want to drink too much water right before or during my break. I brought a bottled black tea and a granola bar with me to eat during my break.
My boyfriend drove me to the test center, which I'm very glad he did, I would have been too distracted to drive 40 minutes away. Check in was smooth and I started feeling slightly nervous. I just smiled to myself and tried to calm myself. As soon as I entered the center, another examinee was exiting, shaking his head and looking disappointed at his score report. This really psyched me out but I tried my best not to think about it.
When I started the exam, it felt like just another Bootcamp exam. I had taken two full length BC exams and had been studying for 10+ hours a day, so I knew I had the stamina for the exam.
I was not allowed to write anything during the tutorial unfortunately. I finished the Natural Sciences section with around 20-30 minutes left. However, I only had enough time to go over my marked questions (around 10-15 overall). I did not have time to go over any other questions.
During the exam, I thought I would have to retake. I told myself that I had to keep going because many people before me have thought the same and ended up doing well.
After PAT my mind was very drained. I took my 30 min break, used the restroom, took a few sips of my black tea, and ate my granola bar. I wasn't allowed to use my phone or look at any notes. After 20 mins I was anxious to just get back inside and finish the exam so I went in early.
RC was the section where I felt the most tired and found it difficult to focus. As I said earlier, I felt the passages were denser and longer than BC. I barely finished on time. I wasn't able to review my marked questions.
QR was not as bad as I thought it would be. My lower back started hurting during this section which had never happened to me during my studies. I just ignored it and pushed through.
I took the 15 question survey at the end. And was so nervous to click the End button. As soon as I did, my scores popped up, my heart leapt, and I couldn't stop myself from grinning. I was pretty shocked but felt extremely relieved. I couldn't believe those were my scores and felt so overjoyed!
P.S.
The cross-out feature is awesome and can be utilized in every section of the exam! It made it so much easier to eliminate the wrong answers and to just focus on the remaining answer choices. Great feature, use it to your advantage.
Closing Thoughts & Advice
I gave up a lot for this exam. I didn't do anything for Halloween or Thanksgiving, probably weakened a lot of friendships as I had to constantly refuse any invitations to go out, and also acquired 3 more gray hairs (lol). I felt a lot of pressure to succeed and prove myself worthy of admission to dental school. In the end, it has all been worth it. At the end of the day, know that not one schedule fits every individual best. Yes, you can use the schedules as a guideline, but don't be afraid to tweak it to meet your needs. You know yourself best. Don't let people tell you "That's not enough time to study for the DAT" or "That's way too long!!".
I did hours and hours of research on SDN in the year before I started studying. I can say I have easily read over 100 breakdowns. I made a list of resources from breakdowns that had a 22+ (which was my personal goal) AND who had a similar academic background as me. Make sure you do your research and know which resources to use to best prepare yourself. Try not to stress too much about practice exams if you can. You will get through this. I had so many doubts about my study schedule and study habits. My friends were asking me why I didn't study with them or why I didn't come out to eat with them. Just trust yourself, you know what is best for you. If you need any help, feel free to message me for advice!
Acknowledgements
I would not have been able to achieve my goal without the help of my boyfriend who was by my side since the beginning and supported me throughout my studying. He also sacrificed a lot for me and I am so grateful. I want to thank my parents for being supportive and caring. I also want to thank @orgoman22 for answering my questions and giving me advice. I actually won the DAT Destroyer raffle sometime last year, so thank you for your books Nancy and Dr. Romano! @Ari Rezaei is a super nice guy and helped me out when I really needed it. Thank you for answering my questions. Thanks @Alpha Centauri for adding me to the GC. And thank you to everyone in there for answering my questions. I also want to thank @jimmpannzee even though I realize you don't use SDN as often anymore. Your 3 week schedule helped me so much! Also, a special thank you to @LaughingGas, whom without I would not have joined a postbac program. Special thanks to @mOlar1! for being an awesome human being, I know you will succeed and be an amazing dentist! <3 Please forgive me if I forgot anyone. Thanks for reading!
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. Also I guess I don't mean anything 
Crazy TS and AA! Shall I add this to the breakdown list?
