DAT breakdown 27AA/29TS

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jLaws

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Hey everyone, I spent a TON of time reading other people's breakdowns so I thought I'd give back and share some strategies for success.

I did not follow the traditional plan of taking 6-10 weeks and studying 6-10 hours a day. I have no idea how you people pull that off, 10 hour days of studying would fry my brain and I'd probably walk off the nearest bridge. If you're like me and you're willing to study an extra month or two, this test can be killed with 3-5 hour days. The trick is to cycle through a variety of resources and hammer stuff down with redundancy and repetition. As you get closer to the test you will have the basics down like the back of your hand and this will free up time to learn all of those small details as you get closer to the test. I should mention I had just finished Orgo II 2 months before my DAT so I did not have to do any major content review. This is what I did:

4-5 Months Out
- Go through all of your biology slides from your Bio 1 and 2 lectures. If you don't have slides, PM me, and I'll give you mine. (takes 1 week)
- Next, read a chapter of cliff's bio and do the problems at the end of the chapter. The next day, do the same chapter in Barron's AP Biology and answer the questions. Just alternate back and forth instead of rereading from the same book. I used 5th edition cliff's and 6th edition Barron's (These books are cheap!). (takes a few weeks)

3-4 Months Out
If you were weak in the chems do all of Chad's and take exceptional notes that you can understand. If you are solid do Cliff's AP chemistry instead, take exceptional notes and do all the problems (watching all those videos takes too long if you are solid already). This takes probably 2 weeks. Next start the Destroyer and do 50 questions of Bio a day until you finish. Review your chem notes for 30 min a day too. Next, go through the ACS orgo book. Look up any weaknesses in your textbook. This book is small and it will prob take you 3-4 days. After that, hit up the Destroyer Ochem section, 30-50 problems a day. Once you're done with that grab the ACS gen chem book and do that in 3-4 days. Follow it up with Destroyer GChem 30-50 problems a day.

2-3 Months Out
Buy Qvault and do the whole thing. Do it however you're comfortable and take about 2-3 weeks. Next do the destroyer again, but do it fast this time, you no longer have to take notes since you took them the first time. Finish the whole thing in <2 weeks.

1-2 Months Out
Get bootamp. Crush it. At this point you should be pulling down high 20's and even a few 30's here and there. My RC and QR were trash in bootcamp and qvault, don't stress just improve. Skip all the chem videos (you should be straight with chem by now). READ THROUGH ALL 500+ SLIDES OF THE BIO NOTES BEFORE TOUCHING A SINGLE BIO TEST!!!! All their content is sourced from there and seeing 26's and 30's will be a HUGE confidence booster. I did tests 6-10 as individual subjects and 1-5 as full lengths.

1 week out
Review every problem you got wrong from every source. I also redid all the qvault science tests. DO NOT DO A SINGLE PRACTICE TEST OF ANY KIND WITHIN 2 DAYS OF YOUR DAT. One garbage score will psych you out, you don't want to put a chink in your armor at this point, absolute confidence is a must.

During the test: gchem and ochem will be a joke, you won't get one answer wrong. If you're like me, you might get a garbage test that tops out at <30 for those sections. You will encounter a WTF bio question. There is nothing you can do, you will have to guess. Go with the most obvious choice. Use the root word/suffix/prefix combined with your knowledge and take your best shot. I'm pretty sure one bio question stood between me and a 30TS and if I had gone with my first instinct I would have had it, TRUST YOURSELF.

****My QR practice tests were always garbage and I hated math destroyer (forgot to mention math destroyer, I did one test every 3 days or so, basically whenever I felt like it, untimed). The real QR is a test of your attention to detail and reasoning skills. The math itself is easier than any practice test. I got an 18 on a bootcamp QR 3 days out because of lack of attention to detail. On the real test, read EXACTLY what they are looking for. DO NOT GO ON AUTOPILOT BECAUSE THE QUESTION LOOKS FAMILIAR, THAT IS HOW THEY GET YOU!!! That goes for all the other sections as well! Read CAREFULLY and double check your work! I have nothing good to say about RC, I'm a slow methodical reader, and this whole skimming, mapping, scanning thing had me way out of my element. You can do better than me.

That is all, good luck!
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Wow, those are insane scores, awesome job. You are right, repetition is one of the keys to learning imo.
 
what are your thoughts on the Qvault sciences? are they representative in content/difficulty?

I bought the ochem section and have been finishing the tests in 10 minutes scoring 27/30's. I feel like I wasted $50.
 
what are your thoughts on the Qvault sciences? are they representative in content/difficulty?

I bought the ochem section and have been finishing the tests in 10 minutes scoring 27/30's. I feel like I wasted $50.

Qvault ochem is harder than the real ochem. Gchem in qvault has more calculations than the real dat but is similiar in difficulty, Bio is pretty representative.
 
Awesome scores all around! What did you find to be the most helpful source for biology? That's my weakest area and I'm doing the bootcamp notes now but finding it to be very overwhelming
 
Qvault ochem is harder than the real ochem. Gchem in qvault has more calculations than the real dat but is similiar in difficulty, Bio is pretty representative.


for real? I can't imagine it getting easier than this.
 
Awesome scores all around! What did you find to be the most helpful source for biology? That's my weakest area and I'm doing the bootcamp notes now but finding it to be very overwhelming
The Bootcamp notes have everything you need. Start smaller with cliffs and Barron’s if you need to build a better foundation. TBH I read an entire online textbook at work (the free bio textbook on lumen learning website) which covered everything in destroyer/cliffs/Bootcamp notes and it was probably a waste of time, those notes have everything you need and you won’t waste time learning about the details of every kind of protist and other assorted nonsense like I did. A top score will depend on your ability to recall a few details that you may have only seen once and more importantly your ability to apply the knowledge base you already have to novel situations. If you aren’t shooting for perfection, those tiny details probably aren’t important.
 
@jLaws

How did you study for math and PAT?

Should i just keep taking Bootcamp tests and learn then destroyer?
Not aure what the most efficient way is.. im dying on math portion

Any tips for PAT?
 
Bootcamp and Qvault were representative of my particular test to the point where a lot of the questions were almost identical. Do not worry about low QR scores, use them to learn the types of problems that will show up on your test. You can do average or below average on all the QR tests but learn from your mistakes and pull off a really high score. For PAT keep practicing and come up with your own tricks. TFE on qvault is considerably harder than bootcamp and the real test, so if you can do well there the real test will be easy (TFE was the most difficult section for me at first but became one of my strengths). For the rest of PAT bootcamp is right on the money. In PAT I got one 23, one 22 and the rest 20/21, with my real score being a 25. Make sure to improve and learn, don't get caught up on scores.
 
Congrats!!. Those are some of the highest scores I have ever seen.

I have my DAT scheduled for the 20th and I am currently getting the following scores on QVAULT
Bio: 22-24
GCHEM: 20-21
O Chem: 18-20
PAT: 19-20
Reading: 20-22
QR: 19

If I am aiming for a 22 on the actual DAT so would you say I can achieve this if I have about 10 days left of studying? (I am doing bootcamp tests next) Or is a reschedule necessary? I am asking you because it is rare to have some insight on Qvault scores and readiness for the test.
 
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You could probably pull it off as long as you are learning from your mistakes. There is a lot of carry over between qvault and bootcamp in that concepts are basically the same. Focus on using qvault to identify weaknesses, work on them everyday, and you will see a jump in scores once you start bootcamp. Good luck!
 
Congratulations!
Thanks! I remember thinking, "What is this nonsense about kangaroo rats, this kind of stuff will never show up on the DAT". Now I feel like an idiot! 😉 I think the destroyer was unique in that it really prepares you for those left field questions that require higher thinking and integration of different concepts. You've done a great job with that book! I appreciate all the effort that must have went into it.
 
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