DAT Breakdown - How to score competitively average

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I felt the need to post my breakdown considering how so many people lurking on this side of the forum have a misrepresented idea of what the DAT frequency is on SDN. Almost everyone who scores well does a breakdown but everyone else (average and below average) don't. That makes sense since who wants a breakdown from someone else who scored a below average DAT.
I didn't dedicate any time solely for just studying. I had obligations to a full time research fellowship. Biggest mistake ever but also the best decision I ever made because I found out that I don't want to make research a career but rather make it an interest that I would like to develop only in dental school and possibly a few years after dental school. I studied in the late afternoon, weekends, and between breaks during lab. So if you just want 20's and have a busy summer, maybe my breakdown is worth a read.

Biology: 20
General Chemistry: 21
Organic Chemistry: 20
Reading: 20
Quantitative: 18
PAT: 22

Chemistry
I watched Chad's videos and took notes. I barely did any of his practice problems. I condensed my notes from Chad's into about 4 pages and memorized the 4 pages. I did this for General and Organic Chemistry. Then I moved onto Destroyer. I went through all of the General Chemistry problems once. For the questions that I got wrong, I wrote the question on one side of an index card and the answer on the other side. I drilled myself with those index cards when I was on the bus, working in the lab, and volunteering. I did the same thing with Organic except I didn't get through all of the questions on Destroyer.

Biology
I watched Chad's Biology videos (I don't recommend it at all). I looked at ADEA's website to see what was going to be tested on the Biology section and just reviewed the sections with Cliff's and Campbell & Reece. Mostly reviewed plants, hormones, and biochemistry.

Quantitative
I first watched Chad's videos on math. It was helpful for learning a few shortcuts and how to solve some problems. I think his videos lacked on the kind of probability problems that were on the DAT. I went through a little over 1/3 of Destroyer's math and memorized all the equations. I tried to memorize how to solve certain problems and use some short cuts.

Reading
Nothing really to prepare. I just did a few practice passages.

PAT
Crack the PAT. Tic-tac-toe method.

Practice Tests
I used the 2007 test (too easy), TopScore (I didn't do full-length for the first two tests but I did the third one for full-length where the QR was much harder than the previous ones, and the 2009 test (Very good correlation to how I scored on the actual test).
I took several practice tests the week before the actual test to build endurance. On the practice tests, I consistently scored 19-21. I should have taken the tests at intervals instead of taking them back to back over a week so I could figure out what my weaknesses were and address them.

WHAT I WISH I DID:
I should have dedicated a full month to this and did all of Chad's quizzes and Destroyer problems. I also should have read through Cliff's. I definitely regret not taking the practice tests at weekly intervals so I could actually have time to figure out my weaknesses and address them. Don't take all of the tests in one week.
 
20/20/22? You are set! Especially with doing research on the side. I took my DAT today too and my scores aren't amazing, but they are good enough and much similar to yours. This is still above average, and you are right - most of the breakdowns on here are not the norm. Congratulations.
 
regarding Chad's BIO, which I'm studying off of and find it useful,

WHY do you NOT recommend it?
Is it too detailed/not detailed enough on some of the topics?

obviously, he doesn't cover about half of what's going to to be on the DAT, BUT
on topics he does cover, I find it helpful and is enough for me NOT to read it in the text.

some feedback would be nice!
 
regarding Chad's BIO, which I'm studying off of and find it useful,

WHY do you NOT recommend it?
Is it too detailed/not detailed enough on some of the topics?

obviously, he doesn't cover about half of what's going to to be on the DAT, BUT
on topics he does cover, I find it helpful and is enough for me NOT to read it in the text.

some feedback would be nice!

Biology is just facts. It's not as concept ridden as Chemistry. You really don't need someone to walk you in baby steps to understand Biology.
The main reason is that I can absorb a lot more information at a lot faster pace by reading. Chad even in 1.5x fast forward takes too long to give too little information. If you have the time that I didn't have, go ahead and watch Chad's but be sure to use other resources.
It's too detailed in the Biochemistry and very bleak in everything else. Majority of what is shown should be common knowledge for Biology majors or anyone else who has taken Cell Biology. It's better to review plant, evolution, ecology, etc. with Cliff's or Campbell's.
Lately, Chad has been branching out to Biology and Quantitative Reasoning. They're not as good as his Chemistry videos, which are hard to top.

I also used QVault.
 
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Biology is just facts. It's not as concept ridden as Chemistry. You really don't need someone to walk you in baby steps to understand Biology.
The main reason is that I can absorb a lot more information at a lot faster pace by reading. Chad even in 1.5x fast forward takes too long to give too little information. If you have the time that I didn't have, go ahead and watch Chad's but be sure to use other resources.
It's too detailed in the Biochemistry and very bleak in everything else. Majority of what is shown should be common knowledge for Biology majors or anyone else who has taken Cell Biology. It's better to review plant, evolution, ecology, etc. with Cliff's or Campbell's.
Lately, Chad has been branching out to Biology and Quantitative Reasoning. They're not as good as his Chemistry videos, which are hard to top.

I also used QVault.

thanks for your feedback!
so you think other than cellular respiration, all the topics are NOT detailed enough?
 
I actually found his QR videos to be very helpful as I was really struggling with probability questions and I think he covered that part well. Bio vids... You could prolly skip them lol.

Nice scores btw. Gluck with ur app.
 
Biology is just facts. It's not as concept ridden as Chemistry. You really don't need someone to walk you in baby steps to understand Biology.
The main reason is that I can absorb a lot more information at a lot faster pace by reading. Chad even in 1.5x fast forward takes too long to give too little information. If you have the time that I didn't have, go ahead and watch Chad's but be sure to use other resources.
It's too detailed in the Biochemistry and very bleak in everything else. Majority of what is shown should be common knowledge for Biology majors or anyone else who has taken Cell Biology. It's better to review plant, evolution, ecology, etc. with Cliff's or Campbell's.
Lately, Chad has been branching out to Biology and Quantitative Reasoning. They're not as good as his Chemistry videos, which are hard to top.

I also used QVault.
Completely agree with this. It's hard to say anything bad about Chad since his chem videos are in my opinion the best thing you can do for yourself to prepare, but you're better off studying on your own for bio. If it's something you absolutely can't grasp and he happens to have a video on it, watch it, but the problem with bio is, you'll study something for days and you won't even have a question on it on your real test.
 
Nicely done!! Great breakdown. I have to agree with you about chad's bio vids. Videos are more for mcat imo. His quizzes were decent, but I think they were more detailed than the real DAT. Good luck this cycle!
 
It was relatively accurate to how I scored on the real thing. I got a couple 22's but mostly 20's.

Well I am stressing about bio, my avg on qvault is 16-17 is so.....not to hot. When I go back and do the I get 19-21. I am doing good on the chems 20+ on o chem and g chem but bio I'm getting destroyed. So my question is if I understand the answers do you think I'll do well in bio?
 
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