- Joined
- Jun 15, 2017
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 7
Hey guys, took the DAT today and I'll try to keep this brief and share what I thought the most important things were that helped me feel prepared.
I followed Ari's 10 week study schedule for about 5 weeks, then messed around and took a two week hiatus, then studied on my own for about a week until I resumed where I left off, and studied again for about another month and a half. I think this is a pretty solid schedule, and will prove to be effective if you can manage to stick with it. I studied for about most of the day every day, usually 8+ hours. I highly recommend adding exercise to your routine. There's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to study and still maintain your health at the same time. I think it will actually make you more efficient too. Also, meditation was a very powerful tool that helped me regain focus, energy and relieve stress. I think if you can incorporate both of these things into your routine, it will make this time a lot more bearable.
Materials used:
DAT Bootcamp - Hands down the most effective resource to use, especially when studying for the PAT section. You will likely not find PAT questions as difficult, and with explanations as thorough. On top of that, even the structure of their website resembles the website used by pro metrics. I believe even these subtle things do make a difference, as the psychology of testing is a legitimate concern, and commend them for going the extra mile. On top of that, their questions do reflect the types of questions that you will see on DAT in terms of wording, style, and content.
Cliff's 3rd Edition - Reading through this is a great way to familiarize yourself with the biology material. It's condensed enough to where getting through the material is manageable, but broad enough so that are still able to get an idea of the context and broader concepts behind it (rather than just a dump of facts).
DAT/Math Destroyer - These resources are considerably more difficult than anything you will see on the DAT. I think these materials are immensely helpful in probing your weakpoints, and giving you tons of practice material. Don't be discouraged after you get destroyed, for like the phoenix, you will rise from the ashes even stronger. I wrote notes for all my mistakes, and tried making flash cards as well from them. I also made flashcards for all of the synthesis maps. Just go through those until you feel comfortable, and keep doing problems. Also, don't be afraid to search the internet for extra clarity on concepts that you have trouble with. I think cross-referencing material might be one of the most helpful things that helped me solidify my knowledge of concepts.
Jacob's Notes - I used his bio notes to cross-reference ferali's notes, and his orgo notes too as cross-referencing.
Mike's Videos- I made anki cards for essentially all of his general chemistry lectures. His lectures will contain pretty much everything you need to know for this test.
Ferali's Notes - Reviewing this material was pretty helpful, but I only found it helpful after I had read Cliff's first. Only after that, did his notes make sense. I would recommend re-reading this if you can within the week or two of your test.
Crack the DAT - I just bought the 10 PAT practice tests, as I needed more practice material. This really pushed me to improve my speed, and get more comfortable with the Test.
PAT: 23 - The key to this is consistent practice. This isn't something you can cram. I think Ari was smart for adding PAT as one of the first things to familiarize yourself with in his schedule, because it is absolutely non-intuitive for most people, and requires time to get used to. I made an evernote, and would clip all of the notably difficult Keyhole problems, as this was one of the toughest sections for me. Read the explanations from bootcamp. Being thorough will help you in the long run as you do these, otherwise you will not really be learning from your mistakes and will be spinning your wheels as you do practice. If you do 10 minutes a day every day, it's better than doing 3 hours of practice another day.
QR: 24 - Math destroyer was my main guy for this. I would make sure you intuitively understand how to approach combinatorics problems. Also, have some of the essential formulas memorized. I think that making flashcards for my mistakes on this section had one of the highest yields, as there are is a relatively limited amount of the types of problems that you will see. Definitely do the bootcamp practice problems, as they have added a new type of problem, quantitative comparison.
RC: 26 - I read articles a lot in my free time so I didn't really practice this much, but if you don't read a lot I would get into the habit of doing it. Also, if you use the reading trainer app (android, but iOS might have it too) it can also improve your reading speed over time.
Biology: 21 - I thought I was going to score higher on this than I did. With studying bio, it's extremely tempting to bog yourself down in details. I had to learn pretty much all of the physiology on my own. Used Jacob's notes and That really stressed me out a lot. If you can, prioritize the overarching concepts first, and then fill in details when you feel comfortable. I know, the concept of what constitutes an "overarching" topic is almost a philosophical question.
GC: 26 - I am a Chemistry major so I felt relatively more prepared going into this. I found DAT destroyer to be particularly useful in preparing me for this section. Just a ton of problems to work through. Best way to kill this is just grind out a ton of problems, and focus on every conceptual question that you get wrong.
OC: 26 - Same process as GC. Make flashcards for the reaction maps and do a ton of problems, making sure to hit hard any conceptual gaps you have.
TS: 23
AA: 25
Sorry that the quality of this post is degrading, I'm pretty tired right now. Don't loose hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I think it's helpful to try to embrace the journey of studying for this test, rather than seeing it as a chore. I'm not a genius, far from it in fact. To work the most effectively, be consistent in your studying and really be as honest with yourself as you can about your weak points, as this is what will make you improve the fastest.
I followed Ari's 10 week study schedule for about 5 weeks, then messed around and took a two week hiatus, then studied on my own for about a week until I resumed where I left off, and studied again for about another month and a half. I think this is a pretty solid schedule, and will prove to be effective if you can manage to stick with it. I studied for about most of the day every day, usually 8+ hours. I highly recommend adding exercise to your routine. There's really no reason why you shouldn't be able to study and still maintain your health at the same time. I think it will actually make you more efficient too. Also, meditation was a very powerful tool that helped me regain focus, energy and relieve stress. I think if you can incorporate both of these things into your routine, it will make this time a lot more bearable.
Materials used:
DAT Bootcamp - Hands down the most effective resource to use, especially when studying for the PAT section. You will likely not find PAT questions as difficult, and with explanations as thorough. On top of that, even the structure of their website resembles the website used by pro metrics. I believe even these subtle things do make a difference, as the psychology of testing is a legitimate concern, and commend them for going the extra mile. On top of that, their questions do reflect the types of questions that you will see on DAT in terms of wording, style, and content.
Cliff's 3rd Edition - Reading through this is a great way to familiarize yourself with the biology material. It's condensed enough to where getting through the material is manageable, but broad enough so that are still able to get an idea of the context and broader concepts behind it (rather than just a dump of facts).
DAT/Math Destroyer - These resources are considerably more difficult than anything you will see on the DAT. I think these materials are immensely helpful in probing your weakpoints, and giving you tons of practice material. Don't be discouraged after you get destroyed, for like the phoenix, you will rise from the ashes even stronger. I wrote notes for all my mistakes, and tried making flash cards as well from them. I also made flashcards for all of the synthesis maps. Just go through those until you feel comfortable, and keep doing problems. Also, don't be afraid to search the internet for extra clarity on concepts that you have trouble with. I think cross-referencing material might be one of the most helpful things that helped me solidify my knowledge of concepts.
Jacob's Notes - I used his bio notes to cross-reference ferali's notes, and his orgo notes too as cross-referencing.
Mike's Videos- I made anki cards for essentially all of his general chemistry lectures. His lectures will contain pretty much everything you need to know for this test.
Ferali's Notes - Reviewing this material was pretty helpful, but I only found it helpful after I had read Cliff's first. Only after that, did his notes make sense. I would recommend re-reading this if you can within the week or two of your test.
Crack the DAT - I just bought the 10 PAT practice tests, as I needed more practice material. This really pushed me to improve my speed, and get more comfortable with the Test.
PAT: 23 - The key to this is consistent practice. This isn't something you can cram. I think Ari was smart for adding PAT as one of the first things to familiarize yourself with in his schedule, because it is absolutely non-intuitive for most people, and requires time to get used to. I made an evernote, and would clip all of the notably difficult Keyhole problems, as this was one of the toughest sections for me. Read the explanations from bootcamp. Being thorough will help you in the long run as you do these, otherwise you will not really be learning from your mistakes and will be spinning your wheels as you do practice. If you do 10 minutes a day every day, it's better than doing 3 hours of practice another day.
QR: 24 - Math destroyer was my main guy for this. I would make sure you intuitively understand how to approach combinatorics problems. Also, have some of the essential formulas memorized. I think that making flashcards for my mistakes on this section had one of the highest yields, as there are is a relatively limited amount of the types of problems that you will see. Definitely do the bootcamp practice problems, as they have added a new type of problem, quantitative comparison.
RC: 26 - I read articles a lot in my free time so I didn't really practice this much, but if you don't read a lot I would get into the habit of doing it. Also, if you use the reading trainer app (android, but iOS might have it too) it can also improve your reading speed over time.
Biology: 21 - I thought I was going to score higher on this than I did. With studying bio, it's extremely tempting to bog yourself down in details. I had to learn pretty much all of the physiology on my own. Used Jacob's notes and That really stressed me out a lot. If you can, prioritize the overarching concepts first, and then fill in details when you feel comfortable. I know, the concept of what constitutes an "overarching" topic is almost a philosophical question.
GC: 26 - I am a Chemistry major so I felt relatively more prepared going into this. I found DAT destroyer to be particularly useful in preparing me for this section. Just a ton of problems to work through. Best way to kill this is just grind out a ton of problems, and focus on every conceptual question that you get wrong.
OC: 26 - Same process as GC. Make flashcards for the reaction maps and do a ton of problems, making sure to hit hard any conceptual gaps you have.
TS: 23
AA: 25
Sorry that the quality of this post is degrading, I'm pretty tired right now. Don't loose hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I think it's helpful to try to embrace the journey of studying for this test, rather than seeing it as a chore. I'm not a genius, far from it in fact. To work the most effectively, be consistent in your studying and really be as honest with yourself as you can about your weak points, as this is what will make you improve the fastest.
