- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 4
Hi guys, I learned so much from SDN and now it's my time to give back to you all. First here is my scores:
BIO 28
GC 22
OC 27
PAT 20
RC 23
QR 23
AA 25
TS 25
Currently I'm a full time employee and married. I graduated from college 6 years ago and English is my second language. So if I can make it, you guys surely will beat the DAT.
Material I used as follows.
BIO:
Cliff's AP 3rd (8/10), Ferali's Biology Notes (10/10), wikipedia and google image search (yeah that's really helpful).
My major back in college was human health related. So BIO was not so random to me, expect for the plant section. Actually I didn't read the Plant section at all (as section X in Ferali's notes) and I didn't have any question about plant in the real DAT. Also I remembered other guys mentioned that they didn't have plant questions either. However I did reviewed both photosynthesis and Kingdom Plantae thoroughly. What I had done in order was that first I read Cliff's AP for 2 times and then jumped into Ferali's notes only. Ferali's notes was condensed and covered more topics than Cliff's AP. I think Ferali's alone is enough for BIO. Almost all answers to any question, whether in read DAT or those practise tests, could be found in Ferali's notes. I went through Ferali's notes for nearly 5 times. Just tried to remember as much as possible from Ferali's notes and every time I had difficult understanding a concept or topic I searched image from wikipedia or google. I think pictures really helped to learn BIO because basically most of the points in Ferali's notes were originally transformed from pictures or videos into words. I made like 100 notes of images into my Evernote BIO notebook.
GC
Chad's video(10/10), Princeton review Crack the DAT (10/10).
Liked I said, I left college since 2008 and all the chemistry classes I took was way earlier than that. So both chemistry sections were totally like never learned for me. I first read Princeton review Crack the DAT GC section. It was well organised and very detailed. Then I watched Chad's video like 3 times. Actually GC was easier than OC for me. In real DAT the questions were straight forward and I was expecting a higher score. Couldn't know why I only get 22.
OC
Chad's video, Chad's OC outlines, Chad's summary of all the reactions (10/10), Organic Chemistry as a Second Language (10/10).
I was trying to read Princeton review first like I did for GC. However OC section was not so well organised. Then I tried to watch Chad's video. However Chad instructed all points in a way that he supposed you had a basic knowledge of OC. Like I said I nearly forgotten all chemistry I had learned in college. So watching Chad's video alone didn't work for me either. Then I got my great books: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language. Everything was clear after I spent 2 days reading the books. After that when I watched Chad's video again I was never so sure about OC than before. I printed Chad's summary of all the reactions and reviewed them like 50 times.
PAT
Qvault (8/10), Bootcamp (8/10), Crack the DAT PAT (7/10).
None of the above was perfect for PAT in my opinion. Maybe because I did get the score I was expecting for. Bootcamp was definitely the most difficult and Crack the DAT PAT was the easiest (I even got 86/90 in one of the tests). Paper folding and Top End Front view questions from Qvault were great. Angles were really killing section for me. I really don't have much to say about PAT. Just keeping practicing until get yourself comfortable. If did it again, I will only buy Qvault and Bootcamp for PAT section.
RC
Topscore (9/10), Bootcamp (7/10), Crack the DAT RC (7/10), Qvault (6/10).
I didn't spent much time practicing and preparing for RC simply because all the practice tests were shocking me. Couldn't finish on time and easily got nervous when doing those tests. Of all the tests I think Topscore was most representative of real RC. Crack the DAT RC so not science related and bootcamp articles were close to real things but the questions were different from real RC. Qvault were way different from real RC. Articles were much longer and I never finished one on time. Got totally shocked from the practice tests. I almost give up the RC section. For no reason I just believed the real DAT should be human health or biology related. As a result in the real DAT two of them were articles just like those from Topscore which was human body health related and the other one was biology related. Search and Destroy could work for most of the time and there were few tone questions in my real RC. At the end I was lucky enough to finished all three articles on time. I think nothing can expose you to real RC since there were nothing really close to real RC in the market. From my experience leaning English as a second language and attending tons of standardised English reading tests (like GRE or TOEFL), only articles and questions from or close to real thing will prepare you well for the real things. Believe me other material only makes you disoriented. From that point of view, I think Topscore is the most representative of the real DAT according to my test. I was very comfortable doing Topscore maybe because my major in college and current job were about human health.
QR
Used nothing.
I was well trained in maths in high school. I only did Destroy and Maths Destroy. Reviewed all the necessary formulas. I was expecting a higher score but I got so exhausted at the end of the test. Nothing much to say about QR.
Here's all the tests I bought and used.
1. Bootcamp. Best of all. Bought them 1 week away from my DAT. All sections were more difficult than real DAT. The styles of questions were close to real DAT but on a more difficult level. I did all BIO, OC, GC, Top End Front View and Hole Puncture sections.
2. Chad's OC and GC quizzes. Helped to digest what he instructed. In terms of difficulty I think they were actually close to real OC an GC. I did all OC and GC 3 times.
3. Destroyer. All were more difficult than real DAT. Totally must have for higher scores. I did BIO, OC and GC at least 3 times.
4. Qvault. Used BIO, GC, OC and PAT. Didn't do any RC or QR. For the PAT section, TEF, Hole Puncturing and Paper Folding were great questions. Difficult but still doable. So many questions in BIO, GC and OC sections that made me realised where my weak points were.
5. Crack the DAT. I got the biggest package and now feel regretted. It is the most expensive. The questions were either easier or wired. Tutorial videos of PAT were not helpful.
6. I also got the Kaplan blue book and Barron DAT book. Compared with Princeton, They were also waste of money. Didn't use them both.
On the test day morning I began my test 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. There were other people entering or leaving the test room during my test so I put on the noise cancellation headsets on all the time. The questions were easier than bootcamp, qvault or destroyer. At long last I finished DAT gratefully. Thanks to my wife. We used to eat out everyday. However since I began my DAT journey she learned to cook at home and did all the houseworks. Also thanks to my two dogs, being by my side all the time when I reviewing books, watching Chad's videos and doing practice tests. I spent almost 4 months preparing the DAT at the office, in the car and at home, gave up all weekends and holidays and never went to bed before 2AM. Again I am a full time employee, married and graduated from college 6 years ago, if I can make it, you guys will surly beat the DAT.
BIO 28
GC 22
OC 27
PAT 20
RC 23
QR 23
AA 25
TS 25
Currently I'm a full time employee and married. I graduated from college 6 years ago and English is my second language. So if I can make it, you guys surely will beat the DAT.
Material I used as follows.
BIO:
Cliff's AP 3rd (8/10), Ferali's Biology Notes (10/10), wikipedia and google image search (yeah that's really helpful).
My major back in college was human health related. So BIO was not so random to me, expect for the plant section. Actually I didn't read the Plant section at all (as section X in Ferali's notes) and I didn't have any question about plant in the real DAT. Also I remembered other guys mentioned that they didn't have plant questions either. However I did reviewed both photosynthesis and Kingdom Plantae thoroughly. What I had done in order was that first I read Cliff's AP for 2 times and then jumped into Ferali's notes only. Ferali's notes was condensed and covered more topics than Cliff's AP. I think Ferali's alone is enough for BIO. Almost all answers to any question, whether in read DAT or those practise tests, could be found in Ferali's notes. I went through Ferali's notes for nearly 5 times. Just tried to remember as much as possible from Ferali's notes and every time I had difficult understanding a concept or topic I searched image from wikipedia or google. I think pictures really helped to learn BIO because basically most of the points in Ferali's notes were originally transformed from pictures or videos into words. I made like 100 notes of images into my Evernote BIO notebook.
GC
Chad's video(10/10), Princeton review Crack the DAT (10/10).
Liked I said, I left college since 2008 and all the chemistry classes I took was way earlier than that. So both chemistry sections were totally like never learned for me. I first read Princeton review Crack the DAT GC section. It was well organised and very detailed. Then I watched Chad's video like 3 times. Actually GC was easier than OC for me. In real DAT the questions were straight forward and I was expecting a higher score. Couldn't know why I only get 22.
OC
Chad's video, Chad's OC outlines, Chad's summary of all the reactions (10/10), Organic Chemistry as a Second Language (10/10).
I was trying to read Princeton review first like I did for GC. However OC section was not so well organised. Then I tried to watch Chad's video. However Chad instructed all points in a way that he supposed you had a basic knowledge of OC. Like I said I nearly forgotten all chemistry I had learned in college. So watching Chad's video alone didn't work for me either. Then I got my great books: Organic Chemistry as a Second Language. Everything was clear after I spent 2 days reading the books. After that when I watched Chad's video again I was never so sure about OC than before. I printed Chad's summary of all the reactions and reviewed them like 50 times.
PAT
Qvault (8/10), Bootcamp (8/10), Crack the DAT PAT (7/10).
None of the above was perfect for PAT in my opinion. Maybe because I did get the score I was expecting for. Bootcamp was definitely the most difficult and Crack the DAT PAT was the easiest (I even got 86/90 in one of the tests). Paper folding and Top End Front view questions from Qvault were great. Angles were really killing section for me. I really don't have much to say about PAT. Just keeping practicing until get yourself comfortable. If did it again, I will only buy Qvault and Bootcamp for PAT section.
RC
Topscore (9/10), Bootcamp (7/10), Crack the DAT RC (7/10), Qvault (6/10).
I didn't spent much time practicing and preparing for RC simply because all the practice tests were shocking me. Couldn't finish on time and easily got nervous when doing those tests. Of all the tests I think Topscore was most representative of real RC. Crack the DAT RC so not science related and bootcamp articles were close to real things but the questions were different from real RC. Qvault were way different from real RC. Articles were much longer and I never finished one on time. Got totally shocked from the practice tests. I almost give up the RC section. For no reason I just believed the real DAT should be human health or biology related. As a result in the real DAT two of them were articles just like those from Topscore which was human body health related and the other one was biology related. Search and Destroy could work for most of the time and there were few tone questions in my real RC. At the end I was lucky enough to finished all three articles on time. I think nothing can expose you to real RC since there were nothing really close to real RC in the market. From my experience leaning English as a second language and attending tons of standardised English reading tests (like GRE or TOEFL), only articles and questions from or close to real thing will prepare you well for the real things. Believe me other material only makes you disoriented. From that point of view, I think Topscore is the most representative of the real DAT according to my test. I was very comfortable doing Topscore maybe because my major in college and current job were about human health.
QR
Used nothing.
I was well trained in maths in high school. I only did Destroy and Maths Destroy. Reviewed all the necessary formulas. I was expecting a higher score but I got so exhausted at the end of the test. Nothing much to say about QR.
Here's all the tests I bought and used.
1. Bootcamp. Best of all. Bought them 1 week away from my DAT. All sections were more difficult than real DAT. The styles of questions were close to real DAT but on a more difficult level. I did all BIO, OC, GC, Top End Front View and Hole Puncture sections.
2. Chad's OC and GC quizzes. Helped to digest what he instructed. In terms of difficulty I think they were actually close to real OC an GC. I did all OC and GC 3 times.
3. Destroyer. All were more difficult than real DAT. Totally must have for higher scores. I did BIO, OC and GC at least 3 times.
4. Qvault. Used BIO, GC, OC and PAT. Didn't do any RC or QR. For the PAT section, TEF, Hole Puncturing and Paper Folding were great questions. Difficult but still doable. So many questions in BIO, GC and OC sections that made me realised where my weak points were.
5. Crack the DAT. I got the biggest package and now feel regretted. It is the most expensive. The questions were either easier or wired. Tutorial videos of PAT were not helpful.
6. I also got the Kaplan blue book and Barron DAT book. Compared with Princeton, They were also waste of money. Didn't use them both.
On the test day morning I began my test 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. There were other people entering or leaving the test room during my test so I put on the noise cancellation headsets on all the time. The questions were easier than bootcamp, qvault or destroyer. At long last I finished DAT gratefully. Thanks to my wife. We used to eat out everyday. However since I began my DAT journey she learned to cook at home and did all the houseworks. Also thanks to my two dogs, being by my side all the time when I reviewing books, watching Chad's videos and doing practice tests. I spent almost 4 months preparing the DAT at the office, in the car and at home, gave up all weekends and holidays and never went to bed before 2AM. Again I am a full time employee, married and graduated from college 6 years ago, if I can make it, you guys will surly beat the DAT.
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