Hey guys! I've been reading these forums for a while but never posted anything so I figured now would be a good time to contribute. I had a short amount of time to study but reading through here really helped me out! Just finished taking my DAT so thought I'd share my breakdown.
Scores: http://i.imgur.com/UMdxTfE.jpg
Bio:
I started studying around the end of May, I think the 26th, so I really didn't have a lot of time. I had the Cracking the DAT book by the Princeton Review which I used as a basis for all my sciences. I started by going through and outlining that entire book right from the start. As far as bio goes, I read through the pdf version of Cliffs AP Bio (http://www.bths.edu/ourpages/auto/2007/1/29/1170088457797/CliffsAP Biology.pdf) once which helped a bit more.
As far as practice questions/tests go, I used DAT Bootcamp and Crack the DAT. I bought the $290 ultimate bundle for Crack out of panic when I first started studying which was a big MISTAKE. Crack the DAT is definitely most useful for PAT and probably math and reading. Science absolutely sucks and covered a wide range of material, lots of times very specific, especially in bio. I never scored above a 19 in any test I took. I did all the bootcamp tests as well which helped as well. For me, bio was mostly about just knowing facts and concepts, so most of the days I just spent reading my notes and outlines.
Chem/Orgo:
I basically did the same thing I did for Bio for Chem and Orgo. Chad's Videos (http://www.coursesaver.com/videos/DAT/) definitely helped a lot! I didn't buy all the videos but did on the topics that I struggled most with. Besides the crack and bootcamp tests, the quizzes from chads helped as extra practice questions. Again, a lot of time was spent reading and understanding concepts (trends, mechanisms, etc.) more-so than straight memorization.
QR:
As far as math goes, I only used the practice tests from Crack the DAT. I've always been good at math so I didn't find it bad. My biggest problem was just time management. I had a couple practice tests where I didn't finish in time but after taking 4-5 tests that became fine.
RC:
I didn't really study for this. I took one practice test off Crack and did well, way better than my science scores, so I figured to just leave it alone.
PAT:
As far as the PAT goes, I didn't really study anything besides taking practice tests. I took about 5-10 off of bootcamp and crack. I youtube'd a couple tips that I found really helpful which I'll talk about next.
Strategies:
Because of the short amount of time I had to study, I never actually took a full test. Today was the first time I actually sat down and completed an entire DAT! Through my practice tests, time management was always a problem. The best thing I found, especially for sciences, was that if there were any questions that I was unsure/hesitant I'd automatically mark it and move on. I'd rather have time finishing all the questions and knocking out the ones I 100% knew rather than being stuck on a few questions and having to rush to finish the rest.
For the PAT, my scores greatly improved after I watched this video (). Prior to this, I was just eyeballing everything. I used this during my DAT today as well, setting up one of my boards to look like this. It really helps! It makes hole punching easier to visualize and keep track of. For cube counting, at every new cube structure, I went through the entire structure tallying up all the different sides. To make it easier to keep track, I went through each level (bottom to up) one at a time and counted my tally after each level to make sure I didn't miss any. I didn't really have any strategies for keyhole, pattern folding, and angles though. Angles sucks btw but I just used process of elimination by finding the biggest/smallest and going from there.
Today (Test Day):
My DAT was at 430 pm and I didn't get out until about 9 I think. I'm really happy with my score considering the short amount of time I had to study and feel like I really lucked out. For sciences, I felt that bio was really broad. I marked like the first 3 questions and was just uneasy the rest of the way. GC and Orgo were better with a couple here and there. After finishing science, I was felt as if I just did average and pretty down (to my surprise). PAT seemed routine and a bit easier when compared to the Crack PATS, especially in hole punching. I didn't know they don't let you bring water into the test rooms, so by the time the break rolled around I had a pretty ****ty headache which lasted til the end. Reading was boring, all the passages were really scientifical, but I was really happy with math being able to finish and feel confident in all my answers.
If there were anything I'd do different, I'd skip science on crack the DAT and obviously just study more. I'm not complaining though! There were definitely days where I was getting real down, so I just took a afternoon/day off. Studying 8+ hours a day everyday is NOT good. I wanna thank you guys again for advice and hope the rest of you guys kill your DAT!!!
Scores: http://i.imgur.com/UMdxTfE.jpg
Bio:
I started studying around the end of May, I think the 26th, so I really didn't have a lot of time. I had the Cracking the DAT book by the Princeton Review which I used as a basis for all my sciences. I started by going through and outlining that entire book right from the start. As far as bio goes, I read through the pdf version of Cliffs AP Bio (http://www.bths.edu/ourpages/auto/2007/1/29/1170088457797/CliffsAP Biology.pdf) once which helped a bit more.
As far as practice questions/tests go, I used DAT Bootcamp and Crack the DAT. I bought the $290 ultimate bundle for Crack out of panic when I first started studying which was a big MISTAKE. Crack the DAT is definitely most useful for PAT and probably math and reading. Science absolutely sucks and covered a wide range of material, lots of times very specific, especially in bio. I never scored above a 19 in any test I took. I did all the bootcamp tests as well which helped as well. For me, bio was mostly about just knowing facts and concepts, so most of the days I just spent reading my notes and outlines.
Chem/Orgo:
I basically did the same thing I did for Bio for Chem and Orgo. Chad's Videos (http://www.coursesaver.com/videos/DAT/) definitely helped a lot! I didn't buy all the videos but did on the topics that I struggled most with. Besides the crack and bootcamp tests, the quizzes from chads helped as extra practice questions. Again, a lot of time was spent reading and understanding concepts (trends, mechanisms, etc.) more-so than straight memorization.
QR:
As far as math goes, I only used the practice tests from Crack the DAT. I've always been good at math so I didn't find it bad. My biggest problem was just time management. I had a couple practice tests where I didn't finish in time but after taking 4-5 tests that became fine.
RC:
I didn't really study for this. I took one practice test off Crack and did well, way better than my science scores, so I figured to just leave it alone.
PAT:
As far as the PAT goes, I didn't really study anything besides taking practice tests. I took about 5-10 off of bootcamp and crack. I youtube'd a couple tips that I found really helpful which I'll talk about next.
Strategies:
Because of the short amount of time I had to study, I never actually took a full test. Today was the first time I actually sat down and completed an entire DAT! Through my practice tests, time management was always a problem. The best thing I found, especially for sciences, was that if there were any questions that I was unsure/hesitant I'd automatically mark it and move on. I'd rather have time finishing all the questions and knocking out the ones I 100% knew rather than being stuck on a few questions and having to rush to finish the rest.
For the PAT, my scores greatly improved after I watched this video (). Prior to this, I was just eyeballing everything. I used this during my DAT today as well, setting up one of my boards to look like this. It really helps! It makes hole punching easier to visualize and keep track of. For cube counting, at every new cube structure, I went through the entire structure tallying up all the different sides. To make it easier to keep track, I went through each level (bottom to up) one at a time and counted my tally after each level to make sure I didn't miss any. I didn't really have any strategies for keyhole, pattern folding, and angles though. Angles sucks btw but I just used process of elimination by finding the biggest/smallest and going from there.
Today (Test Day):
My DAT was at 430 pm and I didn't get out until about 9 I think. I'm really happy with my score considering the short amount of time I had to study and feel like I really lucked out. For sciences, I felt that bio was really broad. I marked like the first 3 questions and was just uneasy the rest of the way. GC and Orgo were better with a couple here and there. After finishing science, I was felt as if I just did average and pretty down (to my surprise). PAT seemed routine and a bit easier when compared to the Crack PATS, especially in hole punching. I didn't know they don't let you bring water into the test rooms, so by the time the break rolled around I had a pretty ****ty headache which lasted til the end. Reading was boring, all the passages were really scientifical, but I was really happy with math being able to finish and feel confident in all my answers.
If there were anything I'd do different, I'd skip science on crack the DAT and obviously just study more. I'm not complaining though! There were definitely days where I was getting real down, so I just took a afternoon/day off. Studying 8+ hours a day everyday is NOT good. I wanna thank you guys again for advice and hope the rest of you guys kill your DAT!!!
Last edited:
