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Hi everyone 🙂 Just took my DAT Friday and I am so happy to be finished! A little about me, I am a rising junior and I wont be applying until next summer. I decided to take my DAT earlier than most people because I took ochem my sophomore year along with cell bio and physiology. I studied for 2 months, about 5 hours per day for the first month, and then about 4 hours per day for the next 3 weeks, and then about 12-14 hours per day for the last week before the exam. Before I share what I got, I just want everyone to know that my scores are average, they aren't anything compared so some of you guys here on SDN (you guys rule by the way) but I figured I would come write a breakdown anyway since I read so many and got so much advice from all of you. My scores paired with my GPA and extracurriculars will be enough to get me in to my state schools so that is all I am worried about!
Kaplan Practice Tests(4)/Actual DAT Scores
PAT: 14/20/19/20/20
QR: 18/18/18/16/17
RC: 19/16/17/17/20
BIO: 12/15/14/15/18
GC: 12/11/12/12/19
OC: 14/12/13/15/19
TS: 13/13/13/14/18
AA:15/14/15/15/19
Test Day:
On test day I had a mental breakdown before I left my house. I was so nervous and I felt like I couldn't breathe and I was crying and it was horrible. I drove myself to my testing center and I rolled down all the windows and I blasted my favorite album and I sang at the top of my lungs all the way there. When I got there, I signed in and they went over the rules with me and I put my water and granola and my purse in a locker. Not sure if all places are like this, but the people at my testing center said that if I wore a jacket or sweater into the testing room, I wasn't allowed to take it off until I took my break. I decided not to wear it and I was fine. When my exam started I took the tutorial time to set up an elimination grid on my wet erase board and try to calm myself down a bit. By this point I was really nervous again and I felt like crying. I ended the tutorial with 8 minutes to go because by sitting there, I think I was making myself more nervous and I decided it would just be best to start. When I finished the sciences section I was sure I was going to have to retake the DAT. I thought I literally got a 14 in gen chem and ochem. During my break I ate my granola and drank some water and used the bathroom and tried to prepare myself for the horrible score I knew I got. After the break, I felt like I did well on RC but I ran out of time on QR and it worked me up really badly. I seen that my time was halfway gone on question number 15 and from there on, I marked questions that I knew i couldn't figure out in a minute or less. My stomach was in knots the whole time I was taking the test. When I seen my score, I cried. I did not expect to do that well at all.
*Study Materials Used*
Chad's Videos(11/10):
AMAZING. BUY THEM. SERIOUSLY JUST BUY THEM RIGHT NOW. Okay I know I'm a little enthusiastic about Chad, but anyone who has watched his videos knows he's the best. I took a Kaplan course and the organic and gen chem sections for it were garbage. Chad explains things so anyone can understand and his quizzes are awesome as well. I watched all of Chad's videos for gen chem and ochem and I just wish I would have bought them sooner. THE BEST resource for the chemistry sections of the DAT BY FAR!
Kaplan(6/10):
To start off my studying, I did a Kaplan course. Not so sure if I would recommend for everyone. My course was in person and only lasted for 3.5 weeks, so there was a lot of information being thrown at us at one time, and I am not so sure if I was able to retain as much as I needed to. It was set up this way because it was a collaboration with one of my state schools for a program they were doing for DAT prep. You had to apply to go to the program and if you got accepted, the Kaplan course and all materials were free if your household brought in less than a certain income, so that's why I did it.
My favorite thing about Kaplan were the strategies. The mapping helped me a ton with reading and the "stop think predict match" strategy worked GREAT for me as well. I feel like I do worse on multiple choice tests and the stop think predict and match was amazing and I will continue to use it for any multiple choice test I have for the remainder of my time in college.
Kaplan was the only resource I used to study for PAT, but I will tell you right now that the DAT is way harder than anything Kaplan will show you. I have no idea how I got the score I did on this section. Kaplan biology is the bomb.com. The bio section of the DAT is so broad, and I really feel like Kaplan does a good job at breaking it down into sections based on what's most important and telling you what you need to know. Maybe it was just the course I took, but Kaplan ochem and gen chem did not help me. They just weren't enough.
The review book is nice, but WAY too detailed for the DAT in my opinion. We also got Kaplan flash cards and they were great. I used them every day for around 20 minutes. I used them at random times and always brought them with me everywhere.
I took 3 full length Kaplan DAT practice tests, and I thought they were harder than the actual DAT. The last practice test I took was one week before my exam, which is why I studied for ~12-14 hours per day my last week. In a way, I think that's a good thing because it made me study harder to try and get my predicted DAT score up, but at the same time it destroyed my confidence. I went in to the DAT thinking I would have to retake it based on what I was getting on Kaplan and that wasn't the case at all. The whole last week of my studying was filled with so much stress and crying and bad vibes and it was not fun at all.
Although some aspects of the Kaplan course are nice, if I would have had to pay full price I don't think I would have taken it. There are so many other resources out there for so much cheaper.
DAT Destroyer(8/10):
Awesome biology practice. Awesome gen chem practice. Ochem, not so much. A lot of people feel a lot of ways about the destroyer, but that's my opinion. Questions were definitely harder than the DAT on all the sections, but they made you think which helped. I only started using the destroyer on my last week of studying so I only made it about halfway through bio and half way through gen chem. The ochem section was just weird for me. I don't know if I was just exhausted from studying all the time or what, but I was only getting about half the questions on this section right. I only did about 50 ochem questions. The ochem road maps were nice, but I wouldn't memorize them. I knew most of the reagents from my ochem class at school last semester but if you haven't had it in awhile they would probably help you.
Okay I think that's it!! Like I said, I know my scores are pretty average but I'm more than happy with them. If anyone has any other questions just let me know!
Kaplan Practice Tests(4)/Actual DAT Scores
PAT: 14/20/19/20/20
QR: 18/18/18/16/17
RC: 19/16/17/17/20
BIO: 12/15/14/15/18
GC: 12/11/12/12/19
OC: 14/12/13/15/19
TS: 13/13/13/14/18
AA:15/14/15/15/19
Test Day:
On test day I had a mental breakdown before I left my house. I was so nervous and I felt like I couldn't breathe and I was crying and it was horrible. I drove myself to my testing center and I rolled down all the windows and I blasted my favorite album and I sang at the top of my lungs all the way there. When I got there, I signed in and they went over the rules with me and I put my water and granola and my purse in a locker. Not sure if all places are like this, but the people at my testing center said that if I wore a jacket or sweater into the testing room, I wasn't allowed to take it off until I took my break. I decided not to wear it and I was fine. When my exam started I took the tutorial time to set up an elimination grid on my wet erase board and try to calm myself down a bit. By this point I was really nervous again and I felt like crying. I ended the tutorial with 8 minutes to go because by sitting there, I think I was making myself more nervous and I decided it would just be best to start. When I finished the sciences section I was sure I was going to have to retake the DAT. I thought I literally got a 14 in gen chem and ochem. During my break I ate my granola and drank some water and used the bathroom and tried to prepare myself for the horrible score I knew I got. After the break, I felt like I did well on RC but I ran out of time on QR and it worked me up really badly. I seen that my time was halfway gone on question number 15 and from there on, I marked questions that I knew i couldn't figure out in a minute or less. My stomach was in knots the whole time I was taking the test. When I seen my score, I cried. I did not expect to do that well at all.
*Study Materials Used*
Chad's Videos(11/10):
AMAZING. BUY THEM. SERIOUSLY JUST BUY THEM RIGHT NOW. Okay I know I'm a little enthusiastic about Chad, but anyone who has watched his videos knows he's the best. I took a Kaplan course and the organic and gen chem sections for it were garbage. Chad explains things so anyone can understand and his quizzes are awesome as well. I watched all of Chad's videos for gen chem and ochem and I just wish I would have bought them sooner. THE BEST resource for the chemistry sections of the DAT BY FAR!
Kaplan(6/10):
To start off my studying, I did a Kaplan course. Not so sure if I would recommend for everyone. My course was in person and only lasted for 3.5 weeks, so there was a lot of information being thrown at us at one time, and I am not so sure if I was able to retain as much as I needed to. It was set up this way because it was a collaboration with one of my state schools for a program they were doing for DAT prep. You had to apply to go to the program and if you got accepted, the Kaplan course and all materials were free if your household brought in less than a certain income, so that's why I did it.
My favorite thing about Kaplan were the strategies. The mapping helped me a ton with reading and the "stop think predict match" strategy worked GREAT for me as well. I feel like I do worse on multiple choice tests and the stop think predict and match was amazing and I will continue to use it for any multiple choice test I have for the remainder of my time in college.
Kaplan was the only resource I used to study for PAT, but I will tell you right now that the DAT is way harder than anything Kaplan will show you. I have no idea how I got the score I did on this section. Kaplan biology is the bomb.com. The bio section of the DAT is so broad, and I really feel like Kaplan does a good job at breaking it down into sections based on what's most important and telling you what you need to know. Maybe it was just the course I took, but Kaplan ochem and gen chem did not help me. They just weren't enough.
The review book is nice, but WAY too detailed for the DAT in my opinion. We also got Kaplan flash cards and they were great. I used them every day for around 20 minutes. I used them at random times and always brought them with me everywhere.
I took 3 full length Kaplan DAT practice tests, and I thought they were harder than the actual DAT. The last practice test I took was one week before my exam, which is why I studied for ~12-14 hours per day my last week. In a way, I think that's a good thing because it made me study harder to try and get my predicted DAT score up, but at the same time it destroyed my confidence. I went in to the DAT thinking I would have to retake it based on what I was getting on Kaplan and that wasn't the case at all. The whole last week of my studying was filled with so much stress and crying and bad vibes and it was not fun at all.
Although some aspects of the Kaplan course are nice, if I would have had to pay full price I don't think I would have taken it. There are so many other resources out there for so much cheaper.
DAT Destroyer(8/10):
Awesome biology practice. Awesome gen chem practice. Ochem, not so much. A lot of people feel a lot of ways about the destroyer, but that's my opinion. Questions were definitely harder than the DAT on all the sections, but they made you think which helped. I only started using the destroyer on my last week of studying so I only made it about halfway through bio and half way through gen chem. The ochem section was just weird for me. I don't know if I was just exhausted from studying all the time or what, but I was only getting about half the questions on this section right. I only did about 50 ochem questions. The ochem road maps were nice, but I wouldn't memorize them. I knew most of the reagents from my ochem class at school last semester but if you haven't had it in awhile they would probably help you.
Okay I think that's it!! Like I said, I know my scores are pretty average but I'm more than happy with them. If anyone has any other questions just let me know!
