- Joined
- Feb 22, 2018
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 5
I appreciated the insight I got from reading others' DAT breakdown posts, especially pointing me towards the best study materials (before looking around here I'd assumed the expensive prep courses were the only option), so I thought I'd give back and contribute my own experience since I just took my DAT.
Scores
PAT-22
QR-28
RC-27
Bio-25
G.Chem-30
O.Chem-30
TS-28
AA-28
Background
I graduated this past December with a degree in Biology and a 4.0 GPA.
Materials
1. DAT Bootcamp- An absolutely amazing resource. Very representative in look, feel and scope of every section. If you can only buy one study resource, make it Bootcamp.
2. DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer (both 2018 versions)- Another very good resource. Like others have said in their breakdowns, the chemistry and bio parts are more complex than the actual test, but they do a good job making sure you really understand the subjects. Better over prepared than underprepared. Math destroyer is awesome; the only math I'd taken in college was a stats class and this brought me back up to snuff in all the other areas.
3. Chad's videos- I paid for a subscription before I knew Bootcamp had Mike's chemistry videos. I ended up using Mike's and not using Chad's at all.
Study Strategy
I studied for 6 weeks for 5-6 hours per day, studying PAT, bio, gen. chem, math, and organic for about an hour each. For PAT, I most just used the BC generators for practice. For bio, I read an old version of Feralis notes (the new version on BC was only a third complete) once through for a refresher during my first few days of studying. For the rest of the time I would either do 40 questions in Destroyer and review the previous day's 40, or do one BC practice test and review the previous day's test. Any questions I missed or concepts I thought were tricky I'd write down for further review later. For the chemistries, I took a couple weeks to watch all of Mike's videos on BC to get back up to speed, especially on the gen. chem stuff that I hadn't seen since high school. Once I did that, I followed the same study format as bio. For QR, I went through one Destroyer or BC test per day. The key for QR is just understanding how each type of question works. Once you do that, you don't need a ton of practice to stay sharp. I didn't really study for RC; I've always done fairly well on this type of test. I only did one BC RC test mostly just to get a feel for the type and structure of questions. As for full-length tests, I only did one of the BC ones.
Real DAT Sections
Bio (25)- Very basic and straightforward. No trick questions, only one or two basic ones on photosynthesis and taxonomy.
Gen. Chem (30)- Very similar to BC, much easier than Destroyer. There was only one question I'd never seen (calculating a boiling point from heats of formation and standard entropies), and even that was fairly easy to figure out just by looking at how the answers were written.
Organic (30)- Like gen. chem, this was similar to BC and way easier than Destroyer. No obscure reactions or anything like that.
PAT (22)- This section pushed me right up to the time limit. I almost exclusively used the BC generators and practice questions instead of the full practice PAT tests, so the keyhole and pattern folding questions were more difficult than I was used too and I didn't have much practice with the same time constraints as the real test. I was unlucky enough to get a few rock keyholes, too, which slowed me down a bit. I'd definitely recommend doing more than a couple of the BC full PAT tests like I did so you can get more of a feel for the timing.
RC (27)- Almost all the questions could be Search-and-Destroyed, and the few tone/inference questions were very easy.
QR (28)- Math Destroyer and BC were very representative of this section. I think mental fatigue was setting in though; none of the questions were much harder than I'd seen before, but it was slow going and I had to rush through the last several questions to make it under the time limit. There were a couple trig questions, but they were pretty basic.
Final thoughts/Advice
-DAT Bootcamp is a 100% must-have, it will work wonders.
-The keys for studying are consistence and discipline. Focused studying for reasonable lengths of time every day will do you much more good than missing/skipping days and trying to make up for it by studying for 10-12 hours a day, cramming in as much as possible, and burning out.
-Practice under real test conditions, especially for the PAT. The clock and mental fatigue are your biggest enemies.
-Get a good night's rest before the test and eat a good breakfast.
-When taking the test, RELAX; it's not the be-all end-all. Being too nervous and keyed up will throw you off your game. Go in confident in yourself and the work you've put in.
-Good luck to everyone else on their DAT!
Score confirmation
Scores
PAT-22
QR-28
RC-27
Bio-25
G.Chem-30
O.Chem-30
TS-28
AA-28
Background
I graduated this past December with a degree in Biology and a 4.0 GPA.
Materials
1. DAT Bootcamp- An absolutely amazing resource. Very representative in look, feel and scope of every section. If you can only buy one study resource, make it Bootcamp.
2. DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer (both 2018 versions)- Another very good resource. Like others have said in their breakdowns, the chemistry and bio parts are more complex than the actual test, but they do a good job making sure you really understand the subjects. Better over prepared than underprepared. Math destroyer is awesome; the only math I'd taken in college was a stats class and this brought me back up to snuff in all the other areas.
3. Chad's videos- I paid for a subscription before I knew Bootcamp had Mike's chemistry videos. I ended up using Mike's and not using Chad's at all.
Study Strategy
I studied for 6 weeks for 5-6 hours per day, studying PAT, bio, gen. chem, math, and organic for about an hour each. For PAT, I most just used the BC generators for practice. For bio, I read an old version of Feralis notes (the new version on BC was only a third complete) once through for a refresher during my first few days of studying. For the rest of the time I would either do 40 questions in Destroyer and review the previous day's 40, or do one BC practice test and review the previous day's test. Any questions I missed or concepts I thought were tricky I'd write down for further review later. For the chemistries, I took a couple weeks to watch all of Mike's videos on BC to get back up to speed, especially on the gen. chem stuff that I hadn't seen since high school. Once I did that, I followed the same study format as bio. For QR, I went through one Destroyer or BC test per day. The key for QR is just understanding how each type of question works. Once you do that, you don't need a ton of practice to stay sharp. I didn't really study for RC; I've always done fairly well on this type of test. I only did one BC RC test mostly just to get a feel for the type and structure of questions. As for full-length tests, I only did one of the BC ones.
Real DAT Sections
Bio (25)- Very basic and straightforward. No trick questions, only one or two basic ones on photosynthesis and taxonomy.
Gen. Chem (30)- Very similar to BC, much easier than Destroyer. There was only one question I'd never seen (calculating a boiling point from heats of formation and standard entropies), and even that was fairly easy to figure out just by looking at how the answers were written.
Organic (30)- Like gen. chem, this was similar to BC and way easier than Destroyer. No obscure reactions or anything like that.
PAT (22)- This section pushed me right up to the time limit. I almost exclusively used the BC generators and practice questions instead of the full practice PAT tests, so the keyhole and pattern folding questions were more difficult than I was used too and I didn't have much practice with the same time constraints as the real test. I was unlucky enough to get a few rock keyholes, too, which slowed me down a bit. I'd definitely recommend doing more than a couple of the BC full PAT tests like I did so you can get more of a feel for the timing.
RC (27)- Almost all the questions could be Search-and-Destroyed, and the few tone/inference questions were very easy.
QR (28)- Math Destroyer and BC were very representative of this section. I think mental fatigue was setting in though; none of the questions were much harder than I'd seen before, but it was slow going and I had to rush through the last several questions to make it under the time limit. There were a couple trig questions, but they were pretty basic.
Final thoughts/Advice
-DAT Bootcamp is a 100% must-have, it will work wonders.
-The keys for studying are consistence and discipline. Focused studying for reasonable lengths of time every day will do you much more good than missing/skipping days and trying to make up for it by studying for 10-12 hours a day, cramming in as much as possible, and burning out.
-Practice under real test conditions, especially for the PAT. The clock and mental fatigue are your biggest enemies.
-Get a good night's rest before the test and eat a good breakfast.
-When taking the test, RELAX; it's not the be-all end-all. Being too nervous and keyed up will throw you off your game. Go in confident in yourself and the work you've put in.
-Good luck to everyone else on their DAT!
Score confirmation
