- Joined
- Jan 30, 2019
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 25
I would like to give a huge thank you to Feralis, Dr. Jim Romano and Nancy Steen, Ari and the entire bootcamp team, and the entire booster team. None of this would be possible without you guys! I think we all should be very grateful to all of these men and women as they do a lot of selfless work for the predental community. Again huge thank you to y'all and this is not just my score but I feel like this is our score! Now onto the breakdown.
Background: 4.0 Microbiology major (Chemistry minor) student going into my junior year at a state school in Texas. I originally planned to take the exam on August 14th, but realized I should just take it as soon as possible, but we will get into that later. I am, I guess, what you would consider a conventional "nerd." I graduated around 23ish in my high school class school of around 800+ kids and got a 1500+ SAT score (out of the 1600 one), but I never felt as though that qualified me to not study for an exam, especially one of this magnitude. Hard work beats talent every single time. Being humble is the greatest gift that I was given growing up, and I feel like that has pushed me to work my hardest in everything I do because there is always someone smarter out there.
Materials
Keep is simple:
Booster
DAT Destroyer + Math Destroyer
Bootcamp (If you can afford it)
DAT Destroyer is not overkill. Don't get me wrong, it is hard as **** compared to the real DAT and there will be plenty of times where you want to throw your book into a burning fire but it is absolutely necessary for your baseline information and to really talk about getting into the 23+ realm. Same thing with Booster and Bootcamp. Both are harder than the real thing but you need to learn from your mistakes and not look at the score that pops up at the end of each exam.
Overall Schedule
I studied for about 9 weeks and about 12 hours a day for the first 7 weeks and about 4-6 the last 2 weeks. I do not think how long you study determines the effectiveness of studying. I am not a very efficient learner so you can likely learn just as much by putting in less time than me. I followed my own schedule based on what I thought I needed to work on. I felt as though it was not that hard to study for so long because I was studying alongside my brother who was a second year MD student who was studying for his USMLE Step 1 exam at the same time. It was nice to have basically a walking biology almanac studying next to me not going to lie lol. Find someone and study alongside them. It will help keep you accountable and productive.
Sciences Schedule
I started studying May 14th, 2021 right after my organic chemistry 2 final. I began by reading through Dr. Romano's bio notes but I found that to be extremely tedious, and I was not retaining much. So after I went through the notes once, I started using Feralis anki deck and what I did was I would supplement new ideas/concepts from Feralis's deck with Dr. Romano's notes by command F searching through them. I found that to be extremely beneficial.
Once I finished that I went on bootcamp and started using Mike's videos but honestly I had a solid foundation for chemistry and organic chemistry because I took the ACS exam for both of them and score above the 95th percentile in both so I just used his videos to fill in the gaps that I had from not taking chem in over a year and I really did not use him for organic other than just nomenclature which is a topic that I just find annoying lol.
We are about 3 weeks in
At about 3 weeks I finished the content review and began working on destroyer. It took me 2 weeks to finish all of the destroyers and make new cards for all the bio questions I missed. What I did was make a separate anki deck with all the bio questions missed or that I got lucky by guessing on (destroyer + 10 bootcamp exams + 10 booster exams). I only did this for bio. For organic and gen chem I just used the destroyer and then went through my mistakes 2 more times and then I felt ready to move onto the practice test phase.
We are now 5 weeks in
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS but I took practice exams everyday for bootcamp and ended up finishing all 10 within about 2 weeks. Then I moved to booster and I finished one practice exam. I went through each test that same day after finishing the full length test, and I made cards in an anki deck for the Bio questions I missed. I recommend putting the missed questions for Destroyer bootcamp and booster in a separate deck like I said above and label it "bio missed." For the chem/orgo questions I missed I would look at the question and if it was not a stupid mistake on my end (meaning it was concept I was genuinely unfamiliar with), I would write it down on a sheet of notebook paper. This is the crazy thing that I did which was dumb. I basically only had a single sheet of notebook paper with all the concepts for both gen chem and organic chem. Granted the paper was not full, it was just difficult for me to look at the paper and learn things when I had to discern whether I was looking at something orgo or GC related lol. I recommend a better system for learning from your practice test mistakes than mine lol.
We are now 7 weeks in
The date is July 13th and I had a serious talk with my entire family and decided to push my test date up to next week. I then decided to just do all of Bio, Chem, and Orgo from DATBooster. OMG BOOSTER IS GOLDEN. I SAW AT LEAST 10 QUESTIONS IN TOTAL ACROSS BIO, CHEM, AND ORGO DIRECTLY FROM THE 10 TESTS DO BOOSTER'S EXAMS!!!!!!!!
Anyways after that I took my exam and here I am. I would say that Destroyer and Bootcamp are very key in the beginning. I Used destroyer a lot to gauge my strengths and most importantly my weaknesses. I then used Booster as a little icing on the cake of knowledge and can really help to push you into the 24+ conversation (at least from my experience and talking to people I know). I saw questions on my exam from all platforms (Destroyer, Bootcamp, and Booster). But I will say Booster likely did have the most. I think all three are great resources and to be honest anyone can do well with Destroyer + either bootcamp/booster.
The best advice I could give to someone would be to know your strengths. I knew the chems would not be a problem for me but the bio was something I needed to work on. Ironically, gen chem was my lowest science score lololololol.
QR and RC
Math destroyer and practice for RC. Nothing else is needed or worth getting. Real DAT RC is a joke compared to bootcamp and booster. QR compared to mathdestroyer, bootcamp, and booster is even more of a joke.
PAT
IDK I thought I could at least get a 19/20 on this section but I ran out of time and was completely caught off guard. I wish I prioritized this section more. I just never really "got" this section.
Final thoughts
Below I attached my practice scores and my score report. Notice that my practice scores are not as high as my real. It is possible to jump as I think all of these platforms are under representative of what your real scores will be. Keep that in mind when you are upset with your practice exam scores. The black boxes means I did not take those portions of the exam. Also my bootcamp scores are in order of when I took them (meaning I took bootcamp 9 first and 1 last).
Thank you SDN this could not have been possible without this amazing group of selfless people. There are hundreds of breakdowns that I read, and it is impossible to name them all but I had a few I wanted to personally thank before I conclude. Newtonstar, RainbowSheep5, platypus2187, and Dota 2 Player.
As my name suggests, I have always had big dreams for myself. I believe dreaming big is the first step in achieving success. I have quite a way to go before I even achieve success but guys when I say "think 30" works. It really does work. Put in the time and put in the effort and I promise the results will come (except for PAT idk how that is supposed to come lol). But in all seriousness I hope that this is just the first step of my journey and please if you guys have any questions do not hesitate to reach out. Two months ago I was in y'all's position. I was reading hundreds of these breakdowns, and I hope that I can be as helpful as all the ones that helped me. If I can do this guys, I know you guys can too! When I said I am a conventional "nerd" I do not think that comes naturally. I believe hard work is the most important thing.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Thank you everyone, and I hope you guys have a bless day!
Background: 4.0 Microbiology major (Chemistry minor) student going into my junior year at a state school in Texas. I originally planned to take the exam on August 14th, but realized I should just take it as soon as possible, but we will get into that later. I am, I guess, what you would consider a conventional "nerd." I graduated around 23ish in my high school class school of around 800+ kids and got a 1500+ SAT score (out of the 1600 one), but I never felt as though that qualified me to not study for an exam, especially one of this magnitude. Hard work beats talent every single time. Being humble is the greatest gift that I was given growing up, and I feel like that has pushed me to work my hardest in everything I do because there is always someone smarter out there.
Materials
Keep is simple:
Booster
DAT Destroyer + Math Destroyer
Bootcamp (If you can afford it)
DAT Destroyer is not overkill. Don't get me wrong, it is hard as **** compared to the real DAT and there will be plenty of times where you want to throw your book into a burning fire but it is absolutely necessary for your baseline information and to really talk about getting into the 23+ realm. Same thing with Booster and Bootcamp. Both are harder than the real thing but you need to learn from your mistakes and not look at the score that pops up at the end of each exam.
Overall Schedule
I studied for about 9 weeks and about 12 hours a day for the first 7 weeks and about 4-6 the last 2 weeks. I do not think how long you study determines the effectiveness of studying. I am not a very efficient learner so you can likely learn just as much by putting in less time than me. I followed my own schedule based on what I thought I needed to work on. I felt as though it was not that hard to study for so long because I was studying alongside my brother who was a second year MD student who was studying for his USMLE Step 1 exam at the same time. It was nice to have basically a walking biology almanac studying next to me not going to lie lol. Find someone and study alongside them. It will help keep you accountable and productive.
Sciences Schedule
I started studying May 14th, 2021 right after my organic chemistry 2 final. I began by reading through Dr. Romano's bio notes but I found that to be extremely tedious, and I was not retaining much. So after I went through the notes once, I started using Feralis anki deck and what I did was I would supplement new ideas/concepts from Feralis's deck with Dr. Romano's notes by command F searching through them. I found that to be extremely beneficial.
Once I finished that I went on bootcamp and started using Mike's videos but honestly I had a solid foundation for chemistry and organic chemistry because I took the ACS exam for both of them and score above the 95th percentile in both so I just used his videos to fill in the gaps that I had from not taking chem in over a year and I really did not use him for organic other than just nomenclature which is a topic that I just find annoying lol.
We are about 3 weeks in
At about 3 weeks I finished the content review and began working on destroyer. It took me 2 weeks to finish all of the destroyers and make new cards for all the bio questions I missed. What I did was make a separate anki deck with all the bio questions missed or that I got lucky by guessing on (destroyer + 10 bootcamp exams + 10 booster exams). I only did this for bio. For organic and gen chem I just used the destroyer and then went through my mistakes 2 more times and then I felt ready to move onto the practice test phase.
We are now 5 weeks in
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS but I took practice exams everyday for bootcamp and ended up finishing all 10 within about 2 weeks. Then I moved to booster and I finished one practice exam. I went through each test that same day after finishing the full length test, and I made cards in an anki deck for the Bio questions I missed. I recommend putting the missed questions for Destroyer bootcamp and booster in a separate deck like I said above and label it "bio missed." For the chem/orgo questions I missed I would look at the question and if it was not a stupid mistake on my end (meaning it was concept I was genuinely unfamiliar with), I would write it down on a sheet of notebook paper. This is the crazy thing that I did which was dumb. I basically only had a single sheet of notebook paper with all the concepts for both gen chem and organic chem. Granted the paper was not full, it was just difficult for me to look at the paper and learn things when I had to discern whether I was looking at something orgo or GC related lol. I recommend a better system for learning from your practice test mistakes than mine lol.
We are now 7 weeks in
The date is July 13th and I had a serious talk with my entire family and decided to push my test date up to next week. I then decided to just do all of Bio, Chem, and Orgo from DATBooster. OMG BOOSTER IS GOLDEN. I SAW AT LEAST 10 QUESTIONS IN TOTAL ACROSS BIO, CHEM, AND ORGO DIRECTLY FROM THE 10 TESTS DO BOOSTER'S EXAMS!!!!!!!!
Anyways after that I took my exam and here I am. I would say that Destroyer and Bootcamp are very key in the beginning. I Used destroyer a lot to gauge my strengths and most importantly my weaknesses. I then used Booster as a little icing on the cake of knowledge and can really help to push you into the 24+ conversation (at least from my experience and talking to people I know). I saw questions on my exam from all platforms (Destroyer, Bootcamp, and Booster). But I will say Booster likely did have the most. I think all three are great resources and to be honest anyone can do well with Destroyer + either bootcamp/booster.
The best advice I could give to someone would be to know your strengths. I knew the chems would not be a problem for me but the bio was something I needed to work on. Ironically, gen chem was my lowest science score lololololol.
QR and RC
Math destroyer and practice for RC. Nothing else is needed or worth getting. Real DAT RC is a joke compared to bootcamp and booster. QR compared to mathdestroyer, bootcamp, and booster is even more of a joke.
PAT
IDK I thought I could at least get a 19/20 on this section but I ran out of time and was completely caught off guard. I wish I prioritized this section more. I just never really "got" this section.
Final thoughts
Below I attached my practice scores and my score report. Notice that my practice scores are not as high as my real. It is possible to jump as I think all of these platforms are under representative of what your real scores will be. Keep that in mind when you are upset with your practice exam scores. The black boxes means I did not take those portions of the exam. Also my bootcamp scores are in order of when I took them (meaning I took bootcamp 9 first and 1 last).
Thank you SDN this could not have been possible without this amazing group of selfless people. There are hundreds of breakdowns that I read, and it is impossible to name them all but I had a few I wanted to personally thank before I conclude. Newtonstar, RainbowSheep5, platypus2187, and Dota 2 Player.
As my name suggests, I have always had big dreams for myself. I believe dreaming big is the first step in achieving success. I have quite a way to go before I even achieve success but guys when I say "think 30" works. It really does work. Put in the time and put in the effort and I promise the results will come (except for PAT idk how that is supposed to come lol). But in all seriousness I hope that this is just the first step of my journey and please if you guys have any questions do not hesitate to reach out. Two months ago I was in y'all's position. I was reading hundreds of these breakdowns, and I hope that I can be as helpful as all the ones that helped me. If I can do this guys, I know you guys can too! When I said I am a conventional "nerd" I do not think that comes naturally. I believe hard work is the most important thing.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Thank you everyone, and I hope you guys have a bless day!
