DAT Breakdown 5/26/17 (22 AA, 21 TS, 20 PAT)

[davdango]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the forums but I want to say that SDN has really helped me a lot in terms of resources, reassurance, and knowing what to do moving forward. I found other people's breakdowns super helpful so I wanted to give back. I registered for my DAT in December 2016 and started studying January 2017. I finished studying right before June 2017 (5-6 months later) and did total of about 300 hours of studying.

For my DAT, I kept track of my studying in an Excel sheet, including study materials, checklists, and practice test scores. I also kept a daily log of what was studied and how many hours I spent studying each day. My study style wasn't very structured; I simply made a checklist of important tasks (e.g. finish Destroyer) and tackled them one at a time. More than half of my studying hours were completed during the month of my exam, so I followed a start-slow-finish-strong kind of regime.

5/26/17 DAT

BIO: 20
GC: 22
OC: 26
RC: 22
QR: 20
PAT: 20
TS: 21
AA: 22

Practice Test Scores: (BIO/GC/OC/RC/QR/PAT/TS/AA) [~1 per week, taken in order shown]

• DAT Bootcamp FL 1 (17/17/16/20/17/16/18/17)
• DAT Bootcamp FL 2 (16/22/18/19/17/17/19/18)
• DAT Bootcamp FL 3 (17/23/18/19/19/17/19/19)
• DAT Bootcamp FL 4 (17/19/22/24/19/18/23/20)
• 2009 ADA DAT ---- (20/22/18/19/---/22/19/20)
  
• 2007 ADA DAT ---- (18/23/30/19/23/20/22/23)
• Average ---------- (18/21/20/20/19/18/20/20)

Actual Exam (Section Breakdown):

Overall, I thought the sciences and RC were okay, but the PAT and QR were harder than expected! This was my experience and it may be different for other DAT versions.

• BIO (20): This section was very broad and, for most questions, it focused more on precise recollection as opposed to application. There were a few application questions, however. I got a molarity question on my exam about bacteriophages that I probably got wrong.
  • Slightly less difficult than DAT Destroyer BIO
  • Equally as difficult as DAT Bootcamp BIO
  • Slightly more difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• GC (22): I didn't remember anything at all after taking this section, which probably meant that it was pretty simple and straightforward. There were some conceptual questions but they were pretty easy. Furthermore, given values were usually easy to use in calculations (e.g. given grams of X usually ended up being 1 mole of X).
  • Much less difficult than DAT Destroyer GC
  • Slightly less difficult than DAT Bootcamp GC
  • Slightly less difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• OC (26): I also didn't remember anything at all after taking this section. The concepts were straightforward and reagents encountered were not that difficult to remember. The only thing that caught my eye was stereochemistry, which has always been a struggle for me.
  • Much less difficult than DAT Destroyer OC
  • Slightly less difficult than DAT Bootcamp OC
  • Slightly less difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• PAT (20): I actually ran out of time for this section and found it very challenging! I finished up to 85, guessed for the rest, and was expecting a lower score.
  • Hole Punching and Cube Counting less difficult than DAT Bootcamp PAT
  • Angle Ranking and TFE slightly more difficult than DAT Bootcamp PAT
  • Keyholes and Pattern Folding more difficult than DAT Bootcamp PAT
  • Overall more difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• RC (22): I found this section to be pretty straightforward and doable. For my exam, the question order was usually related to paragraph order, but not always. For instance, the first question of one of my passages asked about something near the end of the passage.
  • Slightly less or equally as difficult as DAT Bootcamp RC
  • Much less difficult than 2009 DAT
  • 2007 DAT was not very representative
• QR (20): I was very surprised with my score because the problems were very different from what I had studied. They recently added quantitative comparison problems and I'm pretty sure I saw at least 5-10 of those. I knocked out the easy questions as fast as I could and came back to the harder ones later. I definitely ran out of time and had to guess on some of them.
  • Slightly less difficult than Math Destroyer
  • More difficult than DAT Bootcamp
  • More difficult than 2007 DAT (not sure about 2009)

Review of Study Materials:

• Cliffs AP Biology Third Edition and Feralis' Notes + Taxonomy Sheet: I read and highlighted these very carefully and closely (1x each) in the last few weeks. These were the backbone of my Biology score. After closely reading through Cliffs and supplementing with Feralis' materials, I started to score higher on BIO practice tests. The amount of information can be intimidating, but the benefits outweigh the costs in my opinion. (10/10)
  
• DAT Destroyer: This is an absolute must if you want to do well on the chemistry sections and good for improving on biology! I actually didn't go over the chemistry sections as many times as I wanted but I carefully learned from the solutions. I didn't go over the QR section. (10/10)
  • BIO: I only had time to look over half the questions and solutions for this section. From my experience and from what I've heard, I don't think this Destroyer section is meant to be your only resource for studying BIO. It's definitely helpful though!
  • GC: I completed this section and closely reviewed my answers 1 time. It definitely helped me reinforce important concepts and calculations and made some problems on the real test a lot easier (e.g. Free Energy concept questions).
  • OC: I completed this section and closely reviewed my answers 1.5 times. Although the problems were very difficult, learning from the solutions helped me tremendously. There were also very helpful roadmaps in the OC solutions.
• DAT Bootcamp: I took 4 full length exams, reviewed 1 full length in depth, and reviewed the rest briefly. Bootcamp is a splendid classroom and highly comprehensive resource! It is also known for providing top-notch PAT practice! I used the PAT generators all the time when getting the hang of things. (10/10)
• Chad's Videos, Quizzes, and Notes: Chad is the man! His videos were concise and effective in helping me learn and relearn concepts. The quizzes are good for practicing and understanding concepts but they aren't very representative of the real DAT. His notes are also great, especially the OC reactions sheet, which I looked over multiple times! (10/10)
  
• Math Destroyer: I only had time to do 3 exams but I believe this is the best resource for QR. I would recommend taking the tests untimed and supplementing with a timed resource (i.e. Bootcamp). (9/10)
  
• 2007 and 2009 DAT: I would recommend taking these for practice and timing yourself. They give you a good feel for the real DAT, except for the QR and RC sections. (9/10)
  
• YouTube: I used this mainly for PAT and RC strategies. For example, I learned the line of symmetry technique for hole punching on YouTube and it helped me greatly. I also used a paragraph numbering strategy for RC. (?/10)
  
• Other Materials: I also used some premade flashcards online and read over some of my old class notes very briefly. There also is a phone app called DAT Mastery that I found somewhat helpful at times. (?/10)

My Background and Testing Experience:

I am an undergraduate Biology major in my last year and decided to take this exam right before graduation (and AADSAS). I think I would have had more time to focus and study if I took it the summer before my last year. Taking it during school can be pretty difficult since it gets really busy!

I wish that I took better care of my health and sleeping schedule before the DAT. Going into my exam, which started at 1:30 PM, I slept for only 2 hours. This was probably due to consecutive nights of staying up late (4-6 AM every day) to study for my exam. Then, because I slept only 2 hours, I drank coffee for the first time in years. The coffee upset my stomach during my exam and I had to rush to the bathroom in the middle of the Biology section. Everything went fine though!

Ending Notes:

So that's pretty much the end of my breakdown! I also attached my Excel sheet in case anyone is interested. It has additional information that I didn't cover in this breakdown. For future test takers, I would recommend sleeping well and taking good care of your health before going into the exam.

In the end, after taking all of the necessary steps, I think it's really important to just trust in yourself and believe in all of the hard work you did!

Hope this helps and best of luck!

---

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[Faefly]

Welcome to SDN. Great scores and very thorough break down. Thank you for sharing these tips with us. What was your strategy in RC?
Best of luck!

 

[davdango]

Welcome to SDN. Great scores and very thorough break down. Thank you for sharing these tips with us. What was your strategy in RC?
Best of luck!

Thanks Faefly! For, RC I based my strategy off of this Youtube Video:



I definitely numbered the paragraphs and wrote down keywords. However, sometimes I would skip numbering/keywords and just do search and destroy!

 

[Faefly]

Thanks Faefly! For, RC I based my strategy off of this Youtube Video:



I definitely numbered the paragraphs and wrote down keywords. However, sometimes I would skip numbering/keywords and just do search and destroy!

Thank you so much for sharing this, the only problem I am slow writer as well, I'll do my best to be faster

 

[Prima Donna]

Congrats. Really nice and consistent scores. Would you say studying just Cliffs AP would be enough along with Destroyer and Bootcamp. Or would you say that Feralis Notes were necessary for your success in biology ?

 

[I-hate-alginate]

Congratulations!!

 

[davdango]

Congrats. Really nice and consistent scores. Would you say studying just Cliffs AP would be enough along with Destroyer and Bootcamp. Or would you say that Feralis Notes were necessary for your success in biology ?

Thanks! It depends on how you study them. I read every detail in Cliffs very closely, then I filled in any gaps in my knowledge with Feralis' notes. I read through Feralis with a different focus: closely looking for things I didn't know. Then I finished up with Feralis' Taxonomy sheet. What helped was that the tables of contents for both resources are very similar, 14 chapters. In short, for me, Cliffs was like in-depth exposure and Feralis was a high yield supplement to solidify my knowledge, if that makes sense. The thing is... the amount of information is high and dense for both materials so it can be difficult to power through everything in close detail.

EDIT: Cliffs and Destroyer together are pretty good! I didn't have time to go through Destroyer BIO completely, but I've heard wonders about it from those that did!

 

[tyjacobs]

Hey everyone! I'm new to the forums but I want to say that SDN has really helped me a lot in terms of resources, reassurance, and knowing what to do moving forward. I found other people's breakdowns super helpful so I wanted to give back. I registered for my DAT in December 2016 and started studying January 2017. I finished studying right before June 2017 (5-6 months later) and did total of about 300 hours of studying.

For my DAT, I kept track of my studying in an Excel sheet, including study materials, checklists, and practice test scores. I also kept a daily log of what was studied and how many hours I spent studying each day. My study style wasn't very structured; I simply made a checklist of important tasks (e.g. finish Destroyer) and tackled them one at a time. More than half of my studying hours were completed during the month of my exam, so I followed a start-slow-finish-strong kind of regime.

5/26/17 DAT

BIO: 20
GC: 22
OC: 26
RC: 22
QR: 20
PAT: 20
TS: 21
AA: 22

Practice Test Scores: (BIO/GC/OC/RC/QR/PAT/TS/AA) [~1 per week, taken in order shown]

• DAT Bootcamp FL 1 (17/17/16/20/17/16/18/17)
• DAT Bootcamp FL 2 (16/22/18/19/17/17/19/18)
• DAT Bootcamp FL 3 (17/23/18/19/19/17/19/19)
• DAT Bootcamp FL 4 (17/19/22/24/19/18/23/20)
• 2009 ADA DAT ---- (20/22/18/19/---/22/19/20)
  
• 2007 ADA DAT ---- (18/23/30/19/23/20/22/23)
• Average ---------- (18/21/20/20/19/18/20/20)

Actual Exam (Section Breakdown):

Overall, I thought the sciences and RC were okay, but the PAT and QR were harder than expected! This was my experience and it may be different for other DAT versions.

• BIO (20): This section was very broad and, for most questions, it focused more on precise recollection as opposed to application. There were a few application questions, however. I got a molarity question on my exam about bacteriophages that I probably got wrong.
  • Slightly less difficult than DAT Destroyer BIO
  • Equally as difficult as DAT Bootcamp BIO
  • Slightly more difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• GC (22): I didn't remember anything at all after taking this section, which probably meant that it was pretty simple and straightforward. There were some conceptual questions but they were pretty easy. Furthermore, given values were usually easy to use in calculations (e.g. given grams of X usually ended up being 1 mole of X).
  • Much less difficult than DAT Destroyer GC
  • Slightly less difficult than DAT Bootcamp GC
  • Slightly less difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• OC (26): I also didn't remember anything at all after taking this section. The concepts were straightforward and reagents encountered were not that difficult to remember. The only thing that caught my eye was stereochemistry, which has always been a struggle for me.
  • Much less difficult than DAT Destroyer OC
  • Slightly less difficult than DAT Bootcamp OC
  • Slightly less difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• PAT (20): I actually ran out of time for this section and found it very challenging! I finished up to 85, guessed for the rest, and was expecting a lower score.
  • Hole Punching and Cube Counting less difficult than DAT Bootcamp PAT
  • Angle Ranking and TFE slightly more difficult than DAT Bootcamp PAT
  • Keyholes and Pattern Folding more difficult than DAT Bootcamp PAT
  • Overall more difficult than 2007 and 2009 DATs
• RC (22): I found this section to be pretty straightforward and doable. For my exam, the question order was usually related to paragraph order, but not always. For instance, the first question of one of my passages asked about something near the end of the passage.
  • Slightly less or equally as difficult as DAT Bootcamp RC
  • Much less difficult than 2009 DAT
  • 2007 DAT was not very representative
• QR (20): I was very surprised with my score because the problems were very different from what I had studied. They recently added quantitative comparison problems and I'm pretty sure I saw at least 5-10 of those. I knocked out the easy questions as fast as I could and came back to the harder ones later. I definitely ran out of time and had to guess on some of them.
  • Slightly less difficult than Math Destroyer
  • More difficult than DAT Bootcamp
  • More difficult than 2007 DAT (not sure about 2009)

Review of Study Materials:

• Cliffs AP Biology Third Edition and Feralis' Notes + Taxonomy Sheet: I read and highlighted these very carefully and closely (1x each) in the last few weeks. These were the backbone of my Biology score. After closely reading through Cliffs and supplementing with Feralis' materials, I started to score higher on BIO practice tests. The amount of information can be intimidating, but the benefits outweigh the costs in my opinion. (10/10)
  
• DAT Destroyer: This is an absolute must if you want to do well on the chemistry sections and good for improving on biology! I actually didn't go over the chemistry sections as many times as I wanted but I carefully learned from the solutions. I didn't go over the QR section. (10/10)
  • BIO: I only had time to look over half the questions and solutions for this section. From my experience and from what I've heard, I don't think this Destroyer section is meant to be your only resource for studying BIO. It's definitely helpful though!
  • GC: I completed this section and closely reviewed my answers 1 time. It definitely helped me reinforce important concepts and calculations and made some problems on the real test a lot easier (e.g. Free Energy concept questions).
  • OC: I completed this section and closely reviewed my answers 1.5 times. Although the problems were very difficult, learning from the solutions helped me tremendously. There were also very helpful roadmaps in the OC solutions.
• DAT Bootcamp: I took 4 full length exams, reviewed 1 full length in depth, and reviewed the rest briefly. Bootcamp is a splendid classroom and highly comprehensive resource! It is also known for providing top-notch PAT practice! I used the PAT generators all the time when getting the hang of things. (10/10)
• Chad's Videos, Quizzes, and Notes: Chad is the man! His videos were concise and effective in helping me learn and relearn concepts. The quizzes are good for practicing and understanding concepts but they aren't very representative of the real DAT. His notes are also great, especially the OC reactions sheet, which I looked over multiple times! (10/10)
  
• Math Destroyer: I only had time to do 3 exams but I believe this is the best resource for QR. I would recommend taking the tests untimed and supplementing with a timed resource (i.e. Bootcamp). (9/10)
  
• 2007 and 2009 DAT: I would recommend taking these for practice and timing yourself. They give you a good feel for the real DAT, except for the QR and RC sections. (9/10)
  
• YouTube: I used this mainly for PAT and RC strategies. For example, I learned the line of symmetry technique for hole punching on YouTube and it helped me greatly. I also used a paragraph numbering strategy for RC. (?/10)
  
• Other Materials: I also used some premade flashcards online and read over some of my old class notes very briefly. There also is a phone app called DAT Mastery that I found somewhat helpful at times. (?/10)

My Background and Testing Experience:

I am an undergraduate Biology major in my last year and decided to take this exam right before graduation (and AADSAS). I think I would have had more time to focus and study if I took it the summer before my last year. Taking it during school can be pretty difficult since it gets really busy!

I wish that I took better care of my health and sleeping schedule before the DAT. Going into my exam, which started at 1:30 PM, I slept for only 2 hours. This was probably due to consecutive nights of staying up late (4-6 AM every day) to study for my exam. Then, because I slept only 2 hours, I drank coffee for the first time in years. The coffee upset my stomach during my exam and I had to rush to the bathroom in the middle of the Biology section. Everything went fine though!

Ending Notes:

So that's pretty much the end of my breakdown! I also attached my Excel sheet in case anyone is interested. It has additional information that I didn't cover in this breakdown. For future test takers, I would recommend sleeping well and taking good care of your health before going into the exam.

In the end, after taking all of the necessary steps, I think it's really important to just trust in yourself and believe in all of the hard work you did!

Hope this helps and best of luck!

congrats on the great scores!!! let me know if you have any dental school app questions

 

[Prima Donna]

Thanks! It depends on how you study them. I read every detail in Cliffs very closely, then I filled in any gaps in my knowledge with Feralis' notes. I read through Feralis with a different focus: closely looking for things I didn't know. Then I finished up with Feralis' Taxonomy sheet. What helped was that the tables of contents for both resources are very similar, 14 chapters. In short, for me, Cliffs was like in-depth exposure and Feralis was a high yield supplement to solidify my knowledge, if that makes sense. The thing is... the amount of information is high and dense for both materials so it can be difficult to power through everything in close detail.

EDIT: Cliffs and Destroyer together are pretty good! I didn't have time to go through Destroyer BIO completely, but I've heard wonders about it from those that did!

Okay thank you, that helps me !

 

[keep learning]

In RC section, how many paragraphs did you see? Thanks!

 

[FeralisExtremum]

In RC section, how many paragraphs did you see? Thanks!

Chances are you aren't going to get the same number of paragraphs, or have an accurate idea of how long the paragraphs were, for an answer to this question to have any value. Study so that you are prepared for passages of any length on the DAT, not for what one person may have encountered.

 

[davdango]

In RC section, how many paragraphs did you see? Thanks!

I would agree with what Feralis said. For mine, I had 7 paragraphs for the first one (was surprised, fun and about prions), about 14 for the second one, and about 18 for the last one. The last one was about nucleic acids though, which is a common biology concept. I remember that my first and third passages were pretty fun and easy to remember. Second one was about bone fractures and was similar to Bootcamp RC (esp. in question difficulty). I found that if it has less paragraphs, the paragraphs are likely to be more dense, which can potentially slow people down. Also, passages with more paragraphs tend to have shorter paragraphs, but the topic separation is much higher so it can be easier to find what you need. Some people might be given passages with many paragraphs that are long (Godspeed) but RC has seemed to follow the pattern I described, even in Bootcamp. Maybe someone can chime in about this!

 

[keep learning]

Thanks you two for answering the question! Thank you!

 

[Queen Beach]

Awesome and thanks for the tips!

 

[Orka]

Amazing scores! Best of luck

 

[StudentDentistsRock]

Did the line counting method seem to work for you on the TFE?

Nice scores and good luck with the cycle!

 

[davdango]

Did the line counting method seem to work for you on the TFE?

Nice scores and good luck with the cycle!

Thanks! I didn't really do line counting for TFE. I just mentally visualized things. My PAT strategy was to do the things I was fastest at first (I.e. Angles, hole punch and cubes) then focus on visualizing the other sections. I do remember accounting for lines in TFE but the figures were more complex so I had to think it through usually.