DAT Breakdown for all the non-science majors!

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

BD2014

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2014
Messages
23
Reaction score
17
I am not a science major so I had to work a little harder at studying for the DAT as compared to the science majors. My scores are:
Bio-22
Ochem-20
Gen Chem-20
PAT-21
QR-20
Reading-22
AA-21

To me, my scores are pretty average, at least from what I keep seeing people post. However, when I first started studying, my tests scores were horrible!!(Around 15's). I wanted to let people know who aren't science majors the materials I used since I haven't seen bio or gen chem in three years.
Biology- Kaplan, Cliffs, Barrons(mostly just to see if anything was different in that book as compared to Kaplan and Cliffs and to use it just as a review), and DAT Destroyer( This to me was a must! Super broad and tons of ridiculously hard questions but the explanations in the back for each question made the book so worth it!! ). Also Chad's videos were awesome! He doesn't have them for every topic but he covered probably 10 of the questions that were on my test.
General Chemistry- I used the same books as Bio. The DAT Destroyer does a good job of incorporating all of them formulas. However, on my DAT I only had 8 problems that needed to be mathematically solved. 22 of them were concept questions. I wish I would've focused more on concepts vs. formulas(you still need to know all of them but I did a ridiculous amount of practice problems!) Wish I would've gotten Chad's videos but I discovered them only two days before my test.
Ochem- I used Kaplan and DAT Destroyer. None of the predicted the product questions were as hard as the Destroyer books. I also didn't have any IR questions which I spent a lot of time memorizing(don't quote me on that, that may just have been the version of my test).
QR- DAT Destroyer. Biggest thing is to remember it is a test of time. All of the problems are basic but some require more time. Skip those and go to the ones that you can do right away! Luckily I didn't have too many word problems. I only had one that was a word problem and had no idea how to solve it!
Reading- Crack the DAT Reading. I bought the 5 test version. I used the Kaplan method of writing down main ideas of each paragraph. This method worked well for me.
PAT- Crack the PAT!! I bought 10 practice tests! IMO, angle ranking was easier! However hole punching was way more difficult. Many folds I'd never seen before. Key Holes and Pattern Folding each had really hard ones and then really easy ones. TFE had some really easy ones and then some that you could not use event theory on and had to visualize the image(So be able to count events but when you can't, be able to visualize!) Cube Counting only had about 15 cubes as compared to CRACK the PAT having sometimes up to 40 cubes.

Overall, this is a veryyy important test which you already know! However, don't stress too much!! Keep your confidence up. I bought that DAT Achiever and found it to be a horrible study material to use! I was getting horrible scores (sometimes as low as 15-16 and each 13's on bio!!>this was only a week before the test too!) It didn't teach me anything! All it did was ruin my confidence. I wish I would've gotten DAT Bootcamp or Top Score given what I've recently read on here! However, the DAT is very doable and once it's done it is an amazing feeling!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Good Scores , competitive...... what was/is your major? if not science.

did you have any plant questions for bio?
what were the common topics for bio?
 
I am Health and Rehabilitation Sciences(which has science in the name but is all about the healthcare system). The only additional class I have had to take beneficial to the DAT was Pathophysiology. The only question about plants I had was "What in the cell tells you that it is an autotroph?" It was of course super easy to figure out. The answers were really silly. The main topics on mine were DNA (had about 5) and cell structure(I'd say about 8). Only had one question on the Endocrine system and none over digestion(Wasn't happy about that because I focused a lot on that!). One question was when is Progesterone the highest. For the most part, the questions were extremely broad!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
I memorized the reactions that were in the DAT Destroyer but there were none that hard. All were two steps and majority had to deal with activating vs deactivating groups so you need to know whether it adds para, meta or ortho. Majority of my ochem was over nomenclature. I did have a question about what elutes first, so be familiar with polarity.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I memorized the reactions that were in the DAT Destroyer but there were none that hard. All were two steps and majority had to deal with activating vs deactivating groups so you need to know whether it adds para, meta or ortho. Majority of my ochem was over nomenclature. I did have a question about what elutes first, so be familiar with polarity.


Congrats!

Did you memorized by using the road maps?
 
I memorized as much as I could but none that I saw were that hard. The OChem section was nothing compared to ochem classes in college!! Process of elimination on the answers also helps in this section because some of the answers are far out there.
 
Nice work!

I have a question on the format of the exam that I've been trying to figure out. Is the DAT like CDP were you can easily skip by only clicking next, without marking them or choosing a question? and then at the end of the PAT were it shows you questions you've skipped can you just click the # you've left blank and brings you right to that question like CDP?
 
Thank you very much for the breakdown. Where the naming for the structures as hard as the one in the destroyers? what practice test would you think compares it closest to the actual test?
 
Thanks for the breakdown. What topics did you get for RC?
Could you please elaborate how you used the Kaplan method?
 
Last edited:
All I did for RC was buy the Crack the DAT RC. I bought the 5 tests option. The method I used was to just go through the passage writing down the main points or anything big that might be a question. Once you start taking practice tests you will notice the types of questions being asked and get an idea of the details that you should be writing down( names, dates, methods, etc). I am a pretty good reader so I was able to write down notes while still continuing to read the passage at the same time. Crack the DAT was most realistic of the actual DAT. DAT Achiever RC passages were ridiculous!! 75% of the questions couldn't be found even in the passage, you had to infer them. On the actual DAT, all but about two questions per passage can be found within the reading. However, they might ask about tone or which statement would the author disagree with. I won't lie, my vocab is average so some of the words that they used for "What is the author's tone?" I didn't even know what they meant.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Top