First of all, I would like to say thank you to everyone who posts on this board and helps others who are looking for direction as far as studying, materials, etc. - As I have taken full advantage of those posts.
Study materials: Kaplan online program (w/on-demand access - but I also had a live course) & DAT Bootcamp.
*Let me say, Kaplan was good for study materials and content but their tests were ABSOLUTELY IN-NO-WAY REPRESENTATIVE OF WHAT WAS ON THE ACTUAL DAT. I got a 17 average a week and a half before I took the DAT. Their tests are way too specific and difficult and will KILL YOUR CONFIDENCE.
DAT BC was great. Worth every penny!
Scores BIO/GC/OC/PA/RC/QR/TS/AA
18/23/20/24/21/19/20/20
BIO (18): This section was difficult and obscure. Lots of critical thinking questions. The difficulty of the questions was harder than that of DAT BC but the scale must've had more grace as I was averaging 16-19 in my DAT BC tests. If there is any section that you are going to "cut" or not study as hard for, this is the one. There is simply so much material that it becomes exhausting. I was happy with my 18, as I thought I missed around 13-16 questions. I studied with Kaplan and Bootcamp - Kaplan's videos were helpful but the difficulty of their tests were not representative of the actual test.
GC (23): This section was tough. Need to know molar solubility and LOTS of physical properties/concepts. I watched the Kaplan on demand videos over this section many a time and practiced with DAT BC. I averaged 19-20 on my BC tests, as they were about the same level of difficulty.
OC (20): Lots of difficult reactions and such. IR spectrometry was hit lots. Know reactions and ideas. Difficulty was similar to BC and I averaged 19-20 on BC section tests. I studied the kaplan book and watched the on-demand videos online.
PAT (24): This was my one "wow" section. Never made above a 19 in any practice test (and never finished a practice test on time). I did do the keyhole generator on BC and I though BC was representative of the real thing - for the most part. Overall the keyholes and TFE were 100% on par with BC (very similar difficulty). The Angle rankings were about 50% as hard as bootcamp. The hole punching on BC was VERY similar to the real thing. The Cube counting was reasonably challenging, as I averaged 15-20 cubes per diagram. The pattern folding was much easier on the real DAT - I was able to clearly see the answer to each one. I finished with 2 minutes remaining and then went back and reviewed the "rock" keyhole question that I got. Don't know how I got this high of a score as it must've been the grace of God.
RC (21): This was very similar to kaplan RC. I averaged a 20 on the Kaplan ones and I got a 21 on the real thing. Pretty cut and dry. Just practice and it won't be too bad.
QR (19): DAT BC is all you need for this section. I averaged 19-20 on my BC tests and the math was very similar to what is expected there. Practice conversions and lots of logic based questions. Very few difficult problems but a lot of reasonably challenging ones. Easy overall, although I was disappointed with my score, to some extent.
I took the 2009 DAT on 8/7 and got
BIO/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR
18/19/20/19/18/16
Study materials: Kaplan online program (w/on-demand access - but I also had a live course) & DAT Bootcamp.
*Let me say, Kaplan was good for study materials and content but their tests were ABSOLUTELY IN-NO-WAY REPRESENTATIVE OF WHAT WAS ON THE ACTUAL DAT. I got a 17 average a week and a half before I took the DAT. Their tests are way too specific and difficult and will KILL YOUR CONFIDENCE.
DAT BC was great. Worth every penny!
Scores BIO/GC/OC/PA/RC/QR/TS/AA
18/23/20/24/21/19/20/20
BIO (18): This section was difficult and obscure. Lots of critical thinking questions. The difficulty of the questions was harder than that of DAT BC but the scale must've had more grace as I was averaging 16-19 in my DAT BC tests. If there is any section that you are going to "cut" or not study as hard for, this is the one. There is simply so much material that it becomes exhausting. I was happy with my 18, as I thought I missed around 13-16 questions. I studied with Kaplan and Bootcamp - Kaplan's videos were helpful but the difficulty of their tests were not representative of the actual test.
GC (23): This section was tough. Need to know molar solubility and LOTS of physical properties/concepts. I watched the Kaplan on demand videos over this section many a time and practiced with DAT BC. I averaged 19-20 on my BC tests, as they were about the same level of difficulty.
OC (20): Lots of difficult reactions and such. IR spectrometry was hit lots. Know reactions and ideas. Difficulty was similar to BC and I averaged 19-20 on BC section tests. I studied the kaplan book and watched the on-demand videos online.
PAT (24): This was my one "wow" section. Never made above a 19 in any practice test (and never finished a practice test on time). I did do the keyhole generator on BC and I though BC was representative of the real thing - for the most part. Overall the keyholes and TFE were 100% on par with BC (very similar difficulty). The Angle rankings were about 50% as hard as bootcamp. The hole punching on BC was VERY similar to the real thing. The Cube counting was reasonably challenging, as I averaged 15-20 cubes per diagram. The pattern folding was much easier on the real DAT - I was able to clearly see the answer to each one. I finished with 2 minutes remaining and then went back and reviewed the "rock" keyhole question that I got. Don't know how I got this high of a score as it must've been the grace of God.
RC (21): This was very similar to kaplan RC. I averaged a 20 on the Kaplan ones and I got a 21 on the real thing. Pretty cut and dry. Just practice and it won't be too bad.
QR (19): DAT BC is all you need for this section. I averaged 19-20 on my BC tests and the math was very similar to what is expected there. Practice conversions and lots of logic based questions. Very few difficult problems but a lot of reasonably challenging ones. Easy overall, although I was disappointed with my score, to some extent.
I took the 2009 DAT on 8/7 and got
BIO/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR
18/19/20/19/18/16
