- Joined
- Dec 5, 2013
- Messages
- 110
- Reaction score
- 66
Since it's fresh in my head I thought I'd share my break down. I have read so many breakdowns and they have given me a lot of hope and inspiration. After reading so many 23+AA breakdowns I am a little on the border about writing it but maybe it'll help someone have a little hope.
PAT:20
QR:20
RC:21
BIO:21
GC:20
OC:22
TS:21
AA:21
cGPA:3.75
sGPA:3.6
Background: I just finished my junior year. I never scored an A in any chemistry class and even got a C in gen chem my freshmen year. I started "studying" for the DAT around May 25th. That's a little over 5 weeks. I put studying in quotes because for the first couple weeks, I didn't take it seriously at all. I regret this 100% and so take note, STUDY STUDY STUDY as soon as you can. You don't want to be in the shoes I was in for these last 2 weeks.
DAT Bootcamp practice tests:
2 weeks out from DAT (#2): BIO: 14 GC:16 OC:16 PAT:19 RC:21 QR:18 ~~~At this point in my study schedule I had already spent 3 weeks doing Chad's videos and KBB (worthless) and thought I could take my test the next day. Oh how wrong I was. I didn't know anything. That night I was on the verge of tears and I just stared into nothingness thinking, okay time to go hard. *Take a full DAT Bootcamp test all the way through as a diagnostic*
1 week out from DAT (#3): BIO:16 GC:19 OC:17 PAT:20 RC:21 QR:17 ~~~At this point I had gone through DAT Destroyer GC and OC sections twice in a week. I didn't do anything else but DAT Destroyer and Feralis' Notes. I was studying about 8-10 hours a day for the week. I still didn't feel comfortable about my test and was thinking about postponing it, but opted to take one more test in order to determine if I should or shouldn't.
2 days out from the DAT (#5): BIO:19 GC:19 OC:19 PAT:19 RC:19 QR:16 ~~~ A lot happened in my last week of studying. I went over a ton of biology on youtube using HTML5. I was watching khan academy, Bozeman Science, and Craig Savage at 2x the speed. I also studied for about 14 hours a day. Ranging from rewatching chad's videos in Fastplay, and taking all of his ochem and chem quizzes. (Chad's video's are amazing and his quizzes are golden.)
My test was scheduled for 0800 so I switched my sleeping schedule to 5pm - 1am. I crammed and crammed and crammed some more. In a way I was used to this because before any final I pull an all nighter before my test. However, I DO NOT recommend for anyone to do this but drastic times called for drastic measures.
Materials: Chad's videos, KBB, Datqvault (Bio), Feralis' Bio Notes, DAT Destroyer, and DAT Bootcamp
PAT (20): I didn't study for this section much. I took all the Dat Bootcamp tests and just made sure to time myself and understand which sections I was strongest at. During the DAT, I did all of the keyholes and made sure they were correct. I then skipped TFE completely and went straight to angles, and did those as quick as possible because it is one of the parts where the answer isn't always clear, and sometimes you have to just use your gut. I took my time with hole punching because I knew I could answer 15/15 if I took my time. I did cube counting as quick as possible (tally method) and made sure to count my tally's to ensure I counted all of my cubes. I took my time with pattern folding then afterward tackled the TFE section, then my marked questions.
QR (20): The night before the test I was frantic about QR. I made it my business to memorize the conversion factors and random stuff. During the test I knew I couldn't answer any trigonometry/advanced geometry questions because I just didn't put the time into memorizing the trig functions. I got a couple trig questions and I just clicked C and moved on to things I knew I could do. I didn't even mark it, because it wouldn't help me staring at the problems any longer than 2 seconds. As a result of this I had a lot more time to complete the combination problems and other advanced word problems. Also the calc on the real dat is the same as the windows calc, and I got to use the keypad.
RC (21): I just read the passages and then answer the questions. I did run into time issues on the last one, but it very scientific and I easily used search and destroy. Oh and DAT Bootcamp is a good comparison score wise. I thought the actual paper on the DAT is way more dry than DAT Bootcamp's which made it hard, but the questions on the real DAT were a lot easier because there was a lot of Search and destroy.
BIO (21): First 5 questions were super easy, then the next 10 questions I was hitting myself thinking, "why didn't I put time into memorizing that chart/ information". It was very random, but Feralis' Bio notes hit on every one of my questions, except one I think. Who knows it could have been in 8pt font at the bottom of a page. I did get a couple questions on plants, I can't remember if they were easy or not because I just took Plant Physiology last semester.
GC (2o): I thought this section was really easy on my test, and I thought I would pull a better score. It was crazy that I barely got any equation questions. A lot of it was theoretical. So watch chad's videos and not just his equation ones.
OC (22): Chad's quizzes were representative of this, DAT Destroyer was not. DAT Destroyer was so much overkill compared to the real thing, but who knows if I spent more time with it I might have gotten a 25-30. For the road maps I didn't put the time into memorizing them, instead I memorized all of the reactions on Chad's print outs for OC.
FINAL NOTE: Please, do not procrastinate or take this as some sort of guide to get a decent score in a short amount of time. If I could do it all over again I would have studied hard for the first 2 weeks and then reviewed and reinforced for the next 3 weeks.
Oh and I definitely did not feel ready to take the test. (People always say, no one ever does) And during my bio section I kept thinking, wow this is a shame I'm going to have to retake this again. But NEVER give up. I powered through the rest of it with a TON of confidence and to my surprise my scores were a lot better than I expected. (I never scored above a 20 in any of my Dat Bootcamp science tests)
LASTLY, GOOD LUCK!!!
PAT:20
QR:20
RC:21
BIO:21
GC:20
OC:22
TS:21
AA:21
cGPA:3.75
sGPA:3.6
Background: I just finished my junior year. I never scored an A in any chemistry class and even got a C in gen chem my freshmen year. I started "studying" for the DAT around May 25th. That's a little over 5 weeks. I put studying in quotes because for the first couple weeks, I didn't take it seriously at all. I regret this 100% and so take note, STUDY STUDY STUDY as soon as you can. You don't want to be in the shoes I was in for these last 2 weeks.
DAT Bootcamp practice tests:
2 weeks out from DAT (#2): BIO: 14 GC:16 OC:16 PAT:19 RC:21 QR:18 ~~~At this point in my study schedule I had already spent 3 weeks doing Chad's videos and KBB (worthless) and thought I could take my test the next day. Oh how wrong I was. I didn't know anything. That night I was on the verge of tears and I just stared into nothingness thinking, okay time to go hard. *Take a full DAT Bootcamp test all the way through as a diagnostic*
1 week out from DAT (#3): BIO:16 GC:19 OC:17 PAT:20 RC:21 QR:17 ~~~At this point I had gone through DAT Destroyer GC and OC sections twice in a week. I didn't do anything else but DAT Destroyer and Feralis' Notes. I was studying about 8-10 hours a day for the week. I still didn't feel comfortable about my test and was thinking about postponing it, but opted to take one more test in order to determine if I should or shouldn't.
2 days out from the DAT (#5): BIO:19 GC:19 OC:19 PAT:19 RC:19 QR:16 ~~~ A lot happened in my last week of studying. I went over a ton of biology on youtube using HTML5. I was watching khan academy, Bozeman Science, and Craig Savage at 2x the speed. I also studied for about 14 hours a day. Ranging from rewatching chad's videos in Fastplay, and taking all of his ochem and chem quizzes. (Chad's video's are amazing and his quizzes are golden.)
My test was scheduled for 0800 so I switched my sleeping schedule to 5pm - 1am. I crammed and crammed and crammed some more. In a way I was used to this because before any final I pull an all nighter before my test. However, I DO NOT recommend for anyone to do this but drastic times called for drastic measures.
Materials: Chad's videos, KBB, Datqvault (Bio), Feralis' Bio Notes, DAT Destroyer, and DAT Bootcamp
PAT (20): I didn't study for this section much. I took all the Dat Bootcamp tests and just made sure to time myself and understand which sections I was strongest at. During the DAT, I did all of the keyholes and made sure they were correct. I then skipped TFE completely and went straight to angles, and did those as quick as possible because it is one of the parts where the answer isn't always clear, and sometimes you have to just use your gut. I took my time with hole punching because I knew I could answer 15/15 if I took my time. I did cube counting as quick as possible (tally method) and made sure to count my tally's to ensure I counted all of my cubes. I took my time with pattern folding then afterward tackled the TFE section, then my marked questions.
QR (20): The night before the test I was frantic about QR. I made it my business to memorize the conversion factors and random stuff. During the test I knew I couldn't answer any trigonometry/advanced geometry questions because I just didn't put the time into memorizing the trig functions. I got a couple trig questions and I just clicked C and moved on to things I knew I could do. I didn't even mark it, because it wouldn't help me staring at the problems any longer than 2 seconds. As a result of this I had a lot more time to complete the combination problems and other advanced word problems. Also the calc on the real dat is the same as the windows calc, and I got to use the keypad.
RC (21): I just read the passages and then answer the questions. I did run into time issues on the last one, but it very scientific and I easily used search and destroy. Oh and DAT Bootcamp is a good comparison score wise. I thought the actual paper on the DAT is way more dry than DAT Bootcamp's which made it hard, but the questions on the real DAT were a lot easier because there was a lot of Search and destroy.
BIO (21): First 5 questions were super easy, then the next 10 questions I was hitting myself thinking, "why didn't I put time into memorizing that chart/ information". It was very random, but Feralis' Bio notes hit on every one of my questions, except one I think. Who knows it could have been in 8pt font at the bottom of a page. I did get a couple questions on plants, I can't remember if they were easy or not because I just took Plant Physiology last semester.
GC (2o): I thought this section was really easy on my test, and I thought I would pull a better score. It was crazy that I barely got any equation questions. A lot of it was theoretical. So watch chad's videos and not just his equation ones.
OC (22): Chad's quizzes were representative of this, DAT Destroyer was not. DAT Destroyer was so much overkill compared to the real thing, but who knows if I spent more time with it I might have gotten a 25-30. For the road maps I didn't put the time into memorizing them, instead I memorized all of the reactions on Chad's print outs for OC.
FINAL NOTE: Please, do not procrastinate or take this as some sort of guide to get a decent score in a short amount of time. If I could do it all over again I would have studied hard for the first 2 weeks and then reviewed and reinforced for the next 3 weeks.
Oh and I definitely did not feel ready to take the test. (People always say, no one ever does) And during my bio section I kept thinking, wow this is a shame I'm going to have to retake this again. But NEVER give up. I powered through the rest of it with a TON of confidence and to my surprise my scores were a lot better than I expected. (I never scored above a 20 in any of my Dat Bootcamp science tests)
LASTLY, GOOD LUCK!!!
