Hey everyone, been lurking a while and thought I'd give you guys a quick breakdown of my DAT. I studied for ~7 weeks, and really picked it the pace with about 4 weeks left before the exam, probably studying about 9-10 hours a day.
Scores:
Bio 22
Gchem 23
Ochem 21
PAT 22
RC 24
QR 19
TS: 22
AA: 22
Bio:
Materials - Cliffs AP Bio 3rd edition, Ferali's, DAT Destroyer, DAT Bootcamp
Started by thoroughly going through sections I was unfamiliar with on Cliffs and skimming through sections I was comfortable with. I went through 2-3 chapters a night after I finished studying for other things. After the review, I went through 40 questions on the DAT Destroyer per day. On some of the days I went through Bootcamp instead. DAT Destroyer was harder than the real thing and Bootcamp only slightly harder. Used Ferali's to go over things I got wrong on practice tests. I would recommend both for practice. I knew the actual test would be random going in and it was. My bio section has a pretty even spread of topics. There were like 3-4 taxonomy questions, 1 anatomy question. All of it was pretty straightforward and were either know it or don't know it questions. I marked about 12 questions in this section and thought I might get a 19, but I guess I got lucky on some of my guesses.
Gchem/Ochem:
Materials - Chads, DAT Destroyer, DAT Bootcamp
I was the most worried about these sections and put in a lot of time to study them. Started with Chad's Gchem. Went through a "day" of Chad's lecture's every day and took notes/made flashcards. Did the quizzes right after each section. Did the same thing for Ochem. Chad's quizzes are probably the level of difficulty you should expect on the real thing. Got killed by these sections in destroyer and would definitely say it was overkill. I thought Bootcamp chem's were hard too but a lot more reasonable/useful in my opinion. I would recommend using both, Destroyer has the quantity of question's you'll need to solidify concepts into long term memory, and Bootcamp questions are more representative and have great explanations to go along with them. I probably has about 10 calculation questions on gchem, all pretty simple stuff, and the rest was conceptual. My Ochem section had 5-6 laboratory technique questions which I thought was pretty odd, probably missed a couple of them, the rest was pretty straightforward.
PAT:
Materials - Crack DAT PAT, DAT Bootcamp
Bought the 10 test version crack dat pat. Went through all of them first before going through bootcamp. Crack DAT PAT is easier than bootcamp but both valuable in my opinion. I averaged 19-21 on CDP and 18-20 on bootcamp. The more practice you get for this section, the better. Keyholes on the real thing were harder than CDP but much easier than bootcamp. TFE was about the same for both, Angles were easier in the real thing, don't think I missed a single one, Cube counting was easier than CDP and same as bootcamp, Pattern folding was easier than CDP and same as bootcamp. I went through one round of Bootcamps Angle generator and cube counting generator every night, and I think it paid off.
RC
Materials: Bootcamp
Just went through Bootcamp for practice along with the 2007 and 2009 ADA Tests. All the practice tests were harder than the real thing but good practice. I averaged 20 on Bootcamp and got even lower on the 2007 and 2009 practices. I think I had a lot more focus for this section on the real thing. My passages weren't that interesting but they weren't too hard to read.
QR:
Materials: DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Bootcamp, Chads
My math was pretty weak to begin with. Went over Chad's videos first to get general concepts down, then dove into Math destroyer to get totally pooped on. Did the tests untimed and it wasn't until about test 5 that I finally started getting things down. The math on the back of the DAT Destroyer were about the same level of difficulty as the real thing. The Bootcamp QR was difficult, but I averaged 19-20 on bootcamp and ended up getting a 19. The real test had a pretty even spread of all types of problems. A lot of similar problems show up on the math destroyer.
2007 ADA scores:
Bio 24
gchem 23
Ochem 28
PAT 20
RC 18
QR 22
2009 ADA scores:
Bio 26
Gchem 23
ochem 23
PAT 21
RC 18
QR 16
Good luck to everyone on your studies. Let me know if you have any questions.
Scores:
Bio 22
Gchem 23
Ochem 21
PAT 22
RC 24
QR 19
TS: 22
AA: 22
Bio:
Materials - Cliffs AP Bio 3rd edition, Ferali's, DAT Destroyer, DAT Bootcamp
Started by thoroughly going through sections I was unfamiliar with on Cliffs and skimming through sections I was comfortable with. I went through 2-3 chapters a night after I finished studying for other things. After the review, I went through 40 questions on the DAT Destroyer per day. On some of the days I went through Bootcamp instead. DAT Destroyer was harder than the real thing and Bootcamp only slightly harder. Used Ferali's to go over things I got wrong on practice tests. I would recommend both for practice. I knew the actual test would be random going in and it was. My bio section has a pretty even spread of topics. There were like 3-4 taxonomy questions, 1 anatomy question. All of it was pretty straightforward and were either know it or don't know it questions. I marked about 12 questions in this section and thought I might get a 19, but I guess I got lucky on some of my guesses.
Gchem/Ochem:
Materials - Chads, DAT Destroyer, DAT Bootcamp
I was the most worried about these sections and put in a lot of time to study them. Started with Chad's Gchem. Went through a "day" of Chad's lecture's every day and took notes/made flashcards. Did the quizzes right after each section. Did the same thing for Ochem. Chad's quizzes are probably the level of difficulty you should expect on the real thing. Got killed by these sections in destroyer and would definitely say it was overkill. I thought Bootcamp chem's were hard too but a lot more reasonable/useful in my opinion. I would recommend using both, Destroyer has the quantity of question's you'll need to solidify concepts into long term memory, and Bootcamp questions are more representative and have great explanations to go along with them. I probably has about 10 calculation questions on gchem, all pretty simple stuff, and the rest was conceptual. My Ochem section had 5-6 laboratory technique questions which I thought was pretty odd, probably missed a couple of them, the rest was pretty straightforward.
PAT:
Materials - Crack DAT PAT, DAT Bootcamp
Bought the 10 test version crack dat pat. Went through all of them first before going through bootcamp. Crack DAT PAT is easier than bootcamp but both valuable in my opinion. I averaged 19-21 on CDP and 18-20 on bootcamp. The more practice you get for this section, the better. Keyholes on the real thing were harder than CDP but much easier than bootcamp. TFE was about the same for both, Angles were easier in the real thing, don't think I missed a single one, Cube counting was easier than CDP and same as bootcamp, Pattern folding was easier than CDP and same as bootcamp. I went through one round of Bootcamps Angle generator and cube counting generator every night, and I think it paid off.
RC
Materials: Bootcamp
Just went through Bootcamp for practice along with the 2007 and 2009 ADA Tests. All the practice tests were harder than the real thing but good practice. I averaged 20 on Bootcamp and got even lower on the 2007 and 2009 practices. I think I had a lot more focus for this section on the real thing. My passages weren't that interesting but they weren't too hard to read.
QR:
Materials: DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Bootcamp, Chads
My math was pretty weak to begin with. Went over Chad's videos first to get general concepts down, then dove into Math destroyer to get totally pooped on. Did the tests untimed and it wasn't until about test 5 that I finally started getting things down. The math on the back of the DAT Destroyer were about the same level of difficulty as the real thing. The Bootcamp QR was difficult, but I averaged 19-20 on bootcamp and ended up getting a 19. The real test had a pretty even spread of all types of problems. A lot of similar problems show up on the math destroyer.
2007 ADA scores:
Bio 24
gchem 23
Ochem 28
PAT 20
RC 18
QR 22
2009 ADA scores:
Bio 26
Gchem 23
ochem 23
PAT 21
RC 18
QR 16
Good luck to everyone on your studies. Let me know if you have any questions.
Last edited:
I do have a question: you said you went through about 2-3 chapters in cliffs a day. I'm having extreme problems with studying for bio and just curious how you went through them so fast? Any tricks or tips? I think I'm just getting really bogged down in the tiny details and stressing myself put trying to memorize every single detail. I'm maybe finishing 1 chapter every two days!!
