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As promised, here is a detailed full DAT breakdown! I just took the test a few hours ago and scored way higher than I was expecting...
Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR (AA/TS)
24 /30 /22 /21 /21 /24 (24/25)
Background: I recently graduated with a biochemistry and cell biology degree. I have a pretty unique background so if you want to read it here it is: Low GPA and High DAT with unique circumstances. Should I apply this year?
Prep:
Unlike a lot of other high scorers, I didn't utilize DAT destroyers even though I bought them. I did less than 50 questions for each section. I will put my reasons for not using them at the very end. I owe my score almost entirely to @Ari Rezaei and his team's DAT Bootcamp!
I prepped for about 2 and a half weeks. Before that, I didn't really study but I did occasionally play with PAT generators and watched a few Chad's videos. During the first week of study, the first 3 days I finished watching all of Chad's GC videos, and the latter 4 days I watched Chad's OC videos (sections 3 and 4). During this time, I also read a few chapters of CliffsNotes Biology, about 1/3rd of the book. I attempted some destroyer questions but I felt that they didn't suit my study style too well. Then I took the first full-length BC exam on 7/24. The past 9 days (the second week and a half of studying) I took 5 full-length BC exams, 5 extra biology section exams plus 1 free Qvault, 2 extra ochem section exams, and 1 extra gen chem section exam. I will put my scores and more details down in each subsection. The day before the exam, I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep until 4 in the morning... I woke up at around 10, took a final look at scsc7211's version of Alan's Bio Notes, took a final look at Chad's ochem notes, ate a quick meal, and headed to the test center. Thank god that my exam started at 12:30 pm and not 8 am.
Biology (24)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
- @FeralisExtremum 's Notes (9/10)
- @scsc7211 's version of Alan's Bio Notes (9/10)
- My younger sister (8/10)
- CliffsNotes 4th edition (8/10)
For biology, I already have a great foundation in cell and molecular biology because I have taken upper division cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, etc. I reviewed them a bit, especially mitosis/meiosis, using CliffsNotes. I also have a decent knowledge of ecology because I took an environmental class last quarter where I learned quite a bit of ecology and basic evolution theory. However, because of the DAT Bootcamp full-length exam 1, I found out that I was very weak at taxonomy, embryology and developmental biology, and physiology. For taxonomy, my sister pretty much taught me most of it. She recently learned about taxonomy in great detail in her college biology class and remembered a lot of it. For physiology and developmental biology, I mainly learned them through Bootcamp and Feralis's notes. Feralis's notes were dense but very informative and helpful. The day before the exam, I found out scsc7211's version of Alan's Bio Notes and found it super SUPER useful and concise. I read through most of it right before heading to sleep, especially reviewing the developmental biology, physiology, taxonomy, and plants again. Also a day or two before the exam, I played with the section specific exams on Bootcamp and reviewed my weaker areas like taxonomy and physiology. Very useful!
On the real DAT exam, I got lucky and didn't see any questions that I never saw before. I had a few that I wasn't completely sure on but I was able to make some decent educated guesses. My exam didn't have too much physiology, and no taxonomy. A pretty good mix of everything else, including developmental biology, plant biology, evolution, and others that are typically on DAT Bootcamp bio exams.
Biology BC scores:
Took with full-lengths- 19, 17, 19, 20, 18
Exam 6-10- 20, 20, 20, 20, 20
Qvault- 2x (I forgot...)
2009 score (2 days before the exam)- 22
Retook exams 5 and 7 the day before the exam- 24, 24
My first few scores were pretty low because I took them before learning physiology, taxonomy, and developmental biology so I missed most of the questions on those areas. DAT Bootcamp was very helpful at identifying my weak areas!!!
General Chemistry (30)
- Chad's Videos (10/10)
- DAT Bootcamp (9/10)
General chem is probably my best non-math subject out of all the classes I have taken since kindergarten. I got a 5 on AP chem during my sophomore year of high school. I am especially good at all the calculation questions. To refresh the materials, Chad is definitely the man! He's one of the best teachers out there who explains things crystal clear and with a great sense of humor as well. I watched all of his videos and took all the corresponding quizzes as well as taking pretty good notes as I watched the videos. Because my Bootcamp scores for general chem were pretty high from the start, (missed mainly on the laboratory questions), I didn't study for them that much.
On the real exam, I was very confident on most of the questions except just one question that I had to guess between the two (well apparent I guessed the right one!) It was a good mix of calculation questions and theory questions (1/3-half are calculations, rest are theory questions).
General Chemistry BC scores:
Took with full-lengths- 22, 21, 26, 21, 20
Exam 6- 30
2009 score (If I count the pipet question as correct)- 30
Organic Chemistry (22)
- Chad's Videos (10/10)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
Organic chem is definitely my weakest subject. I took it two years ago back at a community college when I didn't have good study habits (received a B and a C). I didn't learn anything except stereochemistry and NMR/IR. I relearned the entire ochem contents pretty much from Chad's videos. Again, he is THE man! I took very detailed notes (copied down what he wrote on the boards) and reviewed the notes before every ochem bootcamp exam! On bootcamp exams, I wasn't very confident on a lot of questions, but I ended up scoring fairly high. In the end, I realized that ochem doesn't really require a lot of memorizations (like I initially thought), but rather understanding of the material such as substitution, elimination, nucleophilic attack, acidity, etc. You can make a good guess on a question without knowing exact details. I watched Mike's explanation videos on the questions that I missed. Very good quality videos!
On the real exam, again, I wasn't very confident on some of the questions, but I guess I ended up doing pretty good based on the score.
Organic Chemistry BC scores:
Took with full lengths- 19, 20, 21, 22, 17 (ran out of time)
Exam 6- 21
Exam 7- 20
2009 score (so many errors in this section and some out-of-scope questions)- 19
Perceptual Ability (21)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
- DAT Bootcamp Generators (9/10)
I actually didn't spend much time prepping for this one. All I did were a few days of generators and PAT sections of full-length exams 1-4. PAT sections of full-length exams are pretty representative of actual PAT on the DAT.
In my opinion, from easiest to hardest:
Cube counting, Hole punching, Angle ranking, Pattern folding, Keyholes, TFE
On the real exam, pretty much like a Bootcamp PAT exam, but with easier cube counting and TFE. I think hole punching was slightly easier too. I did keyholes first, then pattern folding, then cube counting, then hole punching, then angle ranking, then finally TFE.
PAT BC scores:
Took with full lengths- 18, 20, 21, 19
Reading Comprehension (21)
- DAT Bootcamp (9/10)
I'm a decent reader but sometimes can have problems staying focused on a reading when I became uninterested on the topic. English is my second language and a reading can become gibberish and random words when I lose my focus. I didn't have a strategy for reading when I took my first BC full-length exam and scored below a 15. The second exam I tried highlighting and search and destroy and boosted my score to a 17. The third and fourth exam where I tried mapping the new method got me 21s.
On the real exam, the 1st passage was interesting because it was in molecular scale biology. For this passage, I am pretty sure I got at most one question wrong. Most questions in this passage are search and destroy-type questions. However, the 2nd passage which was in construction/material engineering cost me so much time and I still had to guess on a lot of the questions. In this 2nd passage, a lot of questions are statement questions which made it worse. Because of this passage, I only had 15 minutes for 3rd passage. Thankfully, the 3rd passage was also in molecular scale biology and I managed to do okay in the limited amount of time I have left.
RC BC scores:
Took with full lengths- <15, 17, 21, 21
Quantitative Reasoning (24)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
If you were wondering why I said "General chem is probably my best non-math subject," it is because math is by far my best subject. I learned mental math for 7 years at a young age and participated in many math competitions similar to Math AMC. I am especially good at algebra-type questions. The only prep I did for this section was taking this section on full-length BC exams. The reason why I still give BC a 10 out of 10 is that their questions ARE HIGHLY REPRESENTATIVE of the actual DAT exam, especially the quantitative comparison questions. I was weak at probability questions and I learned quite a lot through Bootcamp.
On the real exam, I flew through most of the questions quickly. But just like BC exams, I always could not score perfectly because there were those two or three questions that were pretty tough to solve.
QR BC scores:
Took with full lengths- 20, 20, 22, 24, 22
Whew... That's it, folks. That was my journey to get the scores I got. I am very satisfied with my scores
and am very thankful to @Ari Rezaei and his team for developing DAT Bootcamp. It is by far the best, in my opinion, prep program for DAT. Their exams are so representative of the actual DAT! Lastly, the reason why I didn't do many destroyer questions, is because they include so much information that I don't think are necessary to know or too detailed. Also, I have a fairly good memory and extraneous information tends to jumble my memory up. Another reason is that I dislike "all of the above" or "none of the above"-type questions with a passion... I, however, still pay my respects to @orgoman22 Nancy and Dr. Romano because their materials seem to work well for a lot of other students!
That's really it! Thank you all for reading this breakdown and I wish you, the future DAT takers, the best of luck.
Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR (AA/TS)
24 /30 /22 /21 /21 /24 (24/25)
Background: I recently graduated with a biochemistry and cell biology degree. I have a pretty unique background so if you want to read it here it is: Low GPA and High DAT with unique circumstances. Should I apply this year?
Prep:
Unlike a lot of other high scorers, I didn't utilize DAT destroyers even though I bought them. I did less than 50 questions for each section. I will put my reasons for not using them at the very end. I owe my score almost entirely to @Ari Rezaei and his team's DAT Bootcamp!
I prepped for about 2 and a half weeks. Before that, I didn't really study but I did occasionally play with PAT generators and watched a few Chad's videos. During the first week of study, the first 3 days I finished watching all of Chad's GC videos, and the latter 4 days I watched Chad's OC videos (sections 3 and 4). During this time, I also read a few chapters of CliffsNotes Biology, about 1/3rd of the book. I attempted some destroyer questions but I felt that they didn't suit my study style too well. Then I took the first full-length BC exam on 7/24. The past 9 days (the second week and a half of studying) I took 5 full-length BC exams, 5 extra biology section exams plus 1 free Qvault, 2 extra ochem section exams, and 1 extra gen chem section exam. I will put my scores and more details down in each subsection. The day before the exam, I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep until 4 in the morning... I woke up at around 10, took a final look at scsc7211's version of Alan's Bio Notes, took a final look at Chad's ochem notes, ate a quick meal, and headed to the test center. Thank god that my exam started at 12:30 pm and not 8 am.
Biology (24)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
- @FeralisExtremum 's Notes (9/10)
- @scsc7211 's version of Alan's Bio Notes (9/10)
- My younger sister (8/10)
- CliffsNotes 4th edition (8/10)
For biology, I already have a great foundation in cell and molecular biology because I have taken upper division cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, biochemistry, etc. I reviewed them a bit, especially mitosis/meiosis, using CliffsNotes. I also have a decent knowledge of ecology because I took an environmental class last quarter where I learned quite a bit of ecology and basic evolution theory. However, because of the DAT Bootcamp full-length exam 1, I found out that I was very weak at taxonomy, embryology and developmental biology, and physiology. For taxonomy, my sister pretty much taught me most of it. She recently learned about taxonomy in great detail in her college biology class and remembered a lot of it. For physiology and developmental biology, I mainly learned them through Bootcamp and Feralis's notes. Feralis's notes were dense but very informative and helpful. The day before the exam, I found out scsc7211's version of Alan's Bio Notes and found it super SUPER useful and concise. I read through most of it right before heading to sleep, especially reviewing the developmental biology, physiology, taxonomy, and plants again. Also a day or two before the exam, I played with the section specific exams on Bootcamp and reviewed my weaker areas like taxonomy and physiology. Very useful!
On the real DAT exam, I got lucky and didn't see any questions that I never saw before. I had a few that I wasn't completely sure on but I was able to make some decent educated guesses. My exam didn't have too much physiology, and no taxonomy. A pretty good mix of everything else, including developmental biology, plant biology, evolution, and others that are typically on DAT Bootcamp bio exams.
Biology BC scores:
Took with full-lengths- 19, 17, 19, 20, 18
Exam 6-10- 20, 20, 20, 20, 20
Qvault- 2x (I forgot...)
2009 score (2 days before the exam)- 22
Retook exams 5 and 7 the day before the exam- 24, 24
My first few scores were pretty low because I took them before learning physiology, taxonomy, and developmental biology so I missed most of the questions on those areas. DAT Bootcamp was very helpful at identifying my weak areas!!!
General Chemistry (30)
- Chad's Videos (10/10)
- DAT Bootcamp (9/10)
General chem is probably my best non-math subject out of all the classes I have taken since kindergarten
. I got a 5 on AP chem during my sophomore year of high school. I am especially good at all the calculation questions. To refresh the materials, Chad is definitely the man! He's one of the best teachers out there who explains things crystal clear and with a great sense of humor as well. I watched all of his videos and took all the corresponding quizzes as well as taking pretty good notes as I watched the videos. Because my Bootcamp scores for general chem were pretty high from the start, (missed mainly on the laboratory questions), I didn't study for them that much.On the real exam, I was very confident on most of the questions except just one question that I had to guess between the two (well apparent I guessed the right one!) It was a good mix of calculation questions and theory questions (1/3-half are calculations, rest are theory questions).
General Chemistry BC scores:
Took with full-lengths- 22, 21, 26, 21, 20
Exam 6- 30
2009 score (If I count the pipet question as correct)- 30
Organic Chemistry (22)
- Chad's Videos (10/10)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
Organic chem is definitely my weakest subject. I took it two years ago back at a community college when I didn't have good study habits (received a B and a C). I didn't learn anything except stereochemistry and NMR/IR. I relearned the entire ochem contents pretty much from Chad's videos. Again, he is THE man! I took very detailed notes (copied down what he wrote on the boards) and reviewed the notes before every ochem bootcamp exam! On bootcamp exams, I wasn't very confident on a lot of questions, but I ended up scoring fairly high. In the end, I realized that ochem doesn't really require a lot of memorizations (like I initially thought), but rather understanding of the material such as substitution, elimination, nucleophilic attack, acidity, etc. You can make a good guess on a question without knowing exact details. I watched Mike's explanation videos on the questions that I missed. Very good quality videos!
On the real exam, again, I wasn't very confident on some of the questions, but I guess I ended up doing pretty good based on the score.
Organic Chemistry BC scores:
Took with full lengths- 19, 20, 21, 22, 17 (ran out of time)
Exam 6- 21
Exam 7- 20
2009 score (so many errors in this section and some out-of-scope questions)- 19
Perceptual Ability (21)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
- DAT Bootcamp Generators (9/10)
I actually didn't spend much time prepping for this one. All I did were a few days of generators and PAT sections of full-length exams 1-4. PAT sections of full-length exams are pretty representative of actual PAT on the DAT.
In my opinion, from easiest to hardest:
Cube counting, Hole punching, Angle ranking, Pattern folding, Keyholes, TFE
On the real exam, pretty much like a Bootcamp PAT exam, but with easier cube counting and TFE. I think hole punching was slightly easier too. I did keyholes first, then pattern folding, then cube counting, then hole punching, then angle ranking, then finally TFE.
PAT BC scores:
Took with full lengths- 18, 20, 21, 19
Reading Comprehension (21)
- DAT Bootcamp (9/10)
I'm a decent reader but sometimes can have problems staying focused on a reading when I became uninterested on the topic. English is my second language and a reading can become gibberish and random words when I lose my focus. I didn't have a strategy for reading when I took my first BC full-length exam and scored below a 15. The second exam I tried highlighting and search and destroy and boosted my score to a 17. The third and fourth exam where I tried mapping the new method got me 21s.
On the real exam, the 1st passage was interesting because it was in molecular scale biology. For this passage, I am pretty sure I got at most one question wrong. Most questions in this passage are search and destroy-type questions. However, the 2nd passage which was in construction/material engineering cost me so much time and I still had to guess on a lot of the questions. In this 2nd passage, a lot of questions are statement questions which made it worse. Because of this passage, I only had 15 minutes for 3rd passage. Thankfully, the 3rd passage was also in molecular scale biology and I managed to do okay in the limited amount of time I have left.
RC BC scores:
Took with full lengths- <15, 17, 21, 21
Quantitative Reasoning (24)
- DAT Bootcamp (10/10)
If you were wondering why I said "General chem is probably my best non-math subject," it is because math is by far my best subject. I learned mental math for 7 years at a young age and participated in many math competitions similar to Math AMC. I am especially good at algebra-type questions. The only prep I did for this section was taking this section on full-length BC exams. The reason why I still give BC a 10 out of 10 is that their questions ARE HIGHLY REPRESENTATIVE of the actual DAT exam, especially the quantitative comparison questions. I was weak at probability questions and I learned quite a lot through Bootcamp.
On the real exam, I flew through most of the questions quickly. But just like BC exams, I always could not score perfectly because there were those two or three questions that were pretty tough to solve.
QR BC scores:
Took with full lengths- 20, 20, 22, 24, 22
Whew... That's it, folks. That was my journey to get the scores I got. I am very satisfied with my scores
and am very thankful to @Ari Rezaei and his team for developing DAT Bootcamp. It is by far the best, in my opinion, prep program for DAT. Their exams are so representative of the actual DAT! Lastly, the reason why I didn't do many destroyer questions, is because they include so much information that I don't think are necessary to know or too detailed. Also, I have a fairly good memory and extraneous information tends to jumble my memory up. Another reason is that I dislike "all of the above" or "none of the above"-type questions with a passion... I, however, still pay my respects to @orgoman22 Nancy and Dr. Romano because their materials seem to work well for a lot of other students!That's really it! Thank you all for reading this breakdown and I wish you, the future DAT takers, the best of luck.
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