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!
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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