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Hello everyone! 🙂 Thank you everyone for all your support and help this past week! This was my second DAT attempt and I'm content with my new scores 🙂 although... not as great as some of you SDNers 😛
2011 DAT ----------> NEW SCORES
AA 18 -------------------> 20
TS 19 -------------------> 20
PA 18 -------------------> 22
GC 21 -------------------> 22
OC 20 -------------------> 20
BS 17 -------------------> 19
RC 18 -------------------> 19
QR 15 -------------------> 21 😀
FIRST DAT ATTEMPT:
- Chad's GC/OC videos (10/10)
- GC/OC Destroyer (10/10)
- CDP (8/10)
- CDR (7/10)
- TopScore (7/10)
First time I took my DAT... I made so many mistakes. lol. I studied for about 2 weeks and didn't have time to study for the other sections. I showed up to my DAT without food in my tummy. I didn't take that optional 15 minute break and just kept going, and again, without food in my tummy. I love food and cannot function without it. I listened to this one song over and over during studying, and also in the car on the way to my DAT. So, when my DAT timer started... I had that particular song playing in my head during my test lol It was so hard to ignore it and kept me unfocused. And I relied on CDP.
When I studied, I studied a subject at a time. For instance, I would take X days to study GC and then after I finished, I would take Y days to study OC, etc... But I realized that this wasted more time in the end because by the time I finished studying for OC, I became rusty in GC and had to review it again. This studying method may work for some, but overall... my advice is that it's important to keep constant exposure to all subjects throughout your studies.
SECOND DAT ATTEMPT:
- Chad's videos NOTES I took from my first time (10/10)
- Chad's OC/GC quizzes.. $20 for 1 month (9/10)
- GC/OC Destroyer (10/10)
- ACHIEVER (9/10)
- CDR
- Math Destroyer (10/10)
- Cliff's AP Bio (8/10)
- Alan's Bio notes.. but I modified it A LOT (9/10)
- DATqvault for bio (7/10)
- 2007 ADA DAT (5/10)
I ate steak with A1 sauce and grilled zucchini when I woke up at 11:30AM lol My DAT was at 1:30PM. I packed some fresh strawberries for the optional break, WHICH I TOOK and I believe everyone needs to take this optional break and eat a little something something to refuel yourself. This may seem a bit weird... but for you ladies, I recommend to schedule your DAT right after your menstrual cycle. Why? Loss of iron from loss of blood will make your more unfocused and fatigued than usual. To make up for this, I had to eat some iron-rich foods the night before. During my test, the person next to me kept banging at the keyboards... noises that even the noise-canceling headphones couldn't cancel out. lol. I recommend bringing your own ear plugs 🙂 😀 I studied all the way up until this morning.
This time, I studied without music. Instead, I put on a movie/tv show while studying. Last night, I watched an all new episode of THE WALKING DEAD and SPARTACUS while studying because I have a hard time studying in silence. If I study in silence, I become bored and start doing something else. It's important to do things you enjoy also. It keeps you from getting burnt out from studying. Oh, and every night before I go to bed, I played video games. I conditioned my body to become drowsy after an hour of video games. I studied lightly for about 1.5 months... and then the last week when I took off from work.. I studied 12 hours a day for 4 days.
The markers are better now. Fine-point markers with not erasable laminated-graphed paper. During the tutorial, write down equations, PAT Hole punch grids. During your break, eat, go to the restroom, get new laminated paper, and write down math equations.
HOW THE REAL DAT COMPARED TO STUDY MATERIALS
PAT (22) -- CDP makes me upset. Yes, it's great practice and all.. but I don't think it deserves all the credit compared to Achiever PAT. The first time I took my DAT, I only used CDP. I scored an 18 on the first CDP test I took.. then made my way up to an average of 24-25 on the rest of the tests. But when I first took the DAT, I was surprised when I got to the PAT section and ended up making an 18. Keyhole, holepunch, and pattern folding were much harder on the real PAT than CDP. The other sections are on par. On the contrary, Achiever is beautiful for this section. I mean BEAUTIFUL. It is the closest to the real thing as you can get in terms of difficulty (but not score). Achiever PAT is what got me that 22 the second time around. It prepared me well and I highly recommend it. The best advice I can give you is to keep constant exposure to the PAT section until your test day... don't study early and then suddenly stop midway.. keep going at it even if you are scoring well on practice tests.
BS (19) --- I wish I studied more for this section. I had a couple of taxonomy questions that Cliff's AP Bio did not cover. Cliff's AP Bio is a great source, however, it doesn't cover absolutely everything. I think it slightly lacks in the systems such as immune system, skeletal, etc.. I got a question about the immune system that was not touched in Cliffs. I recommend supplementing Cliffs with another source to cover the weaker sections. Also, I realized there are 3 types of questions in the biology section: straightforward, calculations, or applying. A lot of the questions required applying/brainstorming... comes next is the straightforward questions... and then a couple of calculations. Some of the questions from DATqvault gives a good idea of what I mean by applying your knowledge. I think DAT Achiever was the closest to this section than anything else (not in terms of score but in terms of difficulty). After I was done with this section, I thought I failed. I never got above 16 on Achiever Bio.
GC (22) -- When I took my first DAT, I used Chad's videos with destroyer. I can confidently say that if you understand Chad... it's a guarantee 20+. I watched his videos one time for my first DAT and took good notes. For my second DAT attempt, I just reviewed my notes from his videos and did Destroyer. Destroyer is basically harder than the questions on the real DAT... but I think Chad's quizzes are the closest to the real thing. TopScore GC is also pretty close to the real thing (although the scores are not). There were a few questions I marked that I knew how to do (just took too long) but didn't have time to go back to it. My advice for this section is... to first watch Chad's videos and take good notes while watching. If you don't understand a topic after watching his videos, you can always rewind back. Take the corresponding quiz after each video. After you watched and took the quizzes to all his videos, go through Destroyer and use your notes as your main resource.
OC (20) -- Chad's videos the first DAT attempt... and my notes from Chad's videos for the second DAT attempt. I used Destroyer for both attempts also. Again, Chad + Destroyer is all you need. I think doing Chad's OC quizzes really helped too.
RC (19) -- Reading/verbal has always been my worse section on all standardized tests. It is my weakness. I was very worried about this section. I took 8 CDR tests for my first DAT attempt. And then I took 2 CDR tests for the second DAT attempt. It gives good practice for non-SnD questions and gets the timing down, otherwise the real RC is harder. You can't really improve on this section in a short time... but you can definitely find the best technique for you. I, fortunately, got 2 passages on biology and my third passage was on physics (yuck!). I first read the passage, then answered the questions. If I didn't remember something, I'd go back and SnD. My first passage was 7 paragraphs long... secon was about 14 paragraphs long, and the third was about 14 paragraphs long. I tried to divide the time up where I would give ~8 minutes for reading the passage and 12 minutes to answer questions. I went over time for the first passage so I had to shorten the time length on the remaining passages. After this section, I was hoping to get a 17. lol I thought I failed. On one of the passages, I had to guess on 3/4 of the questions.
QR (21) -- Math has always been my strongest section. I love math. Math loves me. But math didn't love me on my first DAT attempt. I made a 15 the first time with no time to spare. But I didn't study. You should AT LEAST review this section. Don't under estimate it. This section can either bring your AA score down (like it did to my first DAT) or it can help keep your AA up. The second time around, I had about 5 minutes left because I studied. lol. I abused the calculator. I found it useful. It can be a little slow though. In the end, Math Destroyer is all you need. Questions were pretty similar to destroyer 🙂 In the beginning of my studies, I did about 20 problems per day from Math Destroyer (untimed) and then worked my way up to doing a test daily (untimed). I never timed myself, because if you work on understanding how to do the questions very well... the timing will fall into place.
2007 ADA DAT (too easy.. taken 2/6)
BS 17
GC 23
OC 28
RC 17
QR 19
TS 20
AA 21
PAT 21
Achiever 1 (taken 2/26)
OC 18
GC 16
BIO 16
PAT 17
Achiever 2 (taken 3/2)
OC 17
GC 17
BIO 16
PAT 19
Achiever 3 (taken 3/5)
OC 17
GC 16
BIO 16
PAT 18
Whenever I wanted to give up or had doubts, I would read this quote:
"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison
EDIT:
I also want to add that its important to take your practice test in testing conditions. When I took my practice test, I wore what I would wear during my test... and also took the practice tests at 1:30pm each time to mimic the real DAT. For me, comfort is important when I take tests. So, I basically wore pajamas to my test lol. I kid you not. Be comfortable and also prepare for either warm, humid testing conditions or cold conditions. The first time I took the DAT, it was cold.. and I wore uncomfortable clothing (jeans). This time, I wore a loose long sleeve shirt and a hoody with leggings. But this time, the room was warm and stuffy. lol If you're prone to headaches when studying, prepare for that also. I had a headache (due to the warm temperature and not-so-bright display of the monitor screen) but I didn't bring an advil and I wish I did.
Good luck to all of you who are going to take the DAT! Everyone can do well in it if the right amount of effort is put in. Never give up.
2011 DAT ----------> NEW SCORES
AA 18 -------------------> 20
TS 19 -------------------> 20
PA 18 -------------------> 22
GC 21 -------------------> 22
OC 20 -------------------> 20
BS 17 -------------------> 19
RC 18 -------------------> 19
QR 15 -------------------> 21 😀
FIRST DAT ATTEMPT:
- Chad's GC/OC videos (10/10)
- GC/OC Destroyer (10/10)
- CDP (8/10)
- CDR (7/10)
- TopScore (7/10)
First time I took my DAT... I made so many mistakes. lol. I studied for about 2 weeks and didn't have time to study for the other sections. I showed up to my DAT without food in my tummy. I didn't take that optional 15 minute break and just kept going, and again, without food in my tummy. I love food and cannot function without it. I listened to this one song over and over during studying, and also in the car on the way to my DAT. So, when my DAT timer started... I had that particular song playing in my head during my test lol It was so hard to ignore it and kept me unfocused. And I relied on CDP.
When I studied, I studied a subject at a time. For instance, I would take X days to study GC and then after I finished, I would take Y days to study OC, etc... But I realized that this wasted more time in the end because by the time I finished studying for OC, I became rusty in GC and had to review it again. This studying method may work for some, but overall... my advice is that it's important to keep constant exposure to all subjects throughout your studies.
SECOND DAT ATTEMPT:
- Chad's videos NOTES I took from my first time (10/10)
- Chad's OC/GC quizzes.. $20 for 1 month (9/10)
- GC/OC Destroyer (10/10)
- ACHIEVER (9/10)
- CDR
- Math Destroyer (10/10)
- Cliff's AP Bio (8/10)
- Alan's Bio notes.. but I modified it A LOT (9/10)
- DATqvault for bio (7/10)
- 2007 ADA DAT (5/10)
I ate steak with A1 sauce and grilled zucchini when I woke up at 11:30AM lol My DAT was at 1:30PM. I packed some fresh strawberries for the optional break, WHICH I TOOK and I believe everyone needs to take this optional break and eat a little something something to refuel yourself. This may seem a bit weird... but for you ladies, I recommend to schedule your DAT right after your menstrual cycle. Why? Loss of iron from loss of blood will make your more unfocused and fatigued than usual. To make up for this, I had to eat some iron-rich foods the night before. During my test, the person next to me kept banging at the keyboards... noises that even the noise-canceling headphones couldn't cancel out. lol. I recommend bringing your own ear plugs 🙂 😀 I studied all the way up until this morning.
This time, I studied without music. Instead, I put on a movie/tv show while studying. Last night, I watched an all new episode of THE WALKING DEAD and SPARTACUS while studying because I have a hard time studying in silence. If I study in silence, I become bored and start doing something else. It's important to do things you enjoy also. It keeps you from getting burnt out from studying. Oh, and every night before I go to bed, I played video games. I conditioned my body to become drowsy after an hour of video games. I studied lightly for about 1.5 months... and then the last week when I took off from work.. I studied 12 hours a day for 4 days.
The markers are better now. Fine-point markers with not erasable laminated-graphed paper. During the tutorial, write down equations, PAT Hole punch grids. During your break, eat, go to the restroom, get new laminated paper, and write down math equations.
HOW THE REAL DAT COMPARED TO STUDY MATERIALS
PAT (22) -- CDP makes me upset. Yes, it's great practice and all.. but I don't think it deserves all the credit compared to Achiever PAT. The first time I took my DAT, I only used CDP. I scored an 18 on the first CDP test I took.. then made my way up to an average of 24-25 on the rest of the tests. But when I first took the DAT, I was surprised when I got to the PAT section and ended up making an 18. Keyhole, holepunch, and pattern folding were much harder on the real PAT than CDP. The other sections are on par. On the contrary, Achiever is beautiful for this section. I mean BEAUTIFUL. It is the closest to the real thing as you can get in terms of difficulty (but not score). Achiever PAT is what got me that 22 the second time around. It prepared me well and I highly recommend it. The best advice I can give you is to keep constant exposure to the PAT section until your test day... don't study early and then suddenly stop midway.. keep going at it even if you are scoring well on practice tests.
BS (19) --- I wish I studied more for this section. I had a couple of taxonomy questions that Cliff's AP Bio did not cover. Cliff's AP Bio is a great source, however, it doesn't cover absolutely everything. I think it slightly lacks in the systems such as immune system, skeletal, etc.. I got a question about the immune system that was not touched in Cliffs. I recommend supplementing Cliffs with another source to cover the weaker sections. Also, I realized there are 3 types of questions in the biology section: straightforward, calculations, or applying. A lot of the questions required applying/brainstorming... comes next is the straightforward questions... and then a couple of calculations. Some of the questions from DATqvault gives a good idea of what I mean by applying your knowledge. I think DAT Achiever was the closest to this section than anything else (not in terms of score but in terms of difficulty). After I was done with this section, I thought I failed. I never got above 16 on Achiever Bio.
GC (22) -- When I took my first DAT, I used Chad's videos with destroyer. I can confidently say that if you understand Chad... it's a guarantee 20+. I watched his videos one time for my first DAT and took good notes. For my second DAT attempt, I just reviewed my notes from his videos and did Destroyer. Destroyer is basically harder than the questions on the real DAT... but I think Chad's quizzes are the closest to the real thing. TopScore GC is also pretty close to the real thing (although the scores are not). There were a few questions I marked that I knew how to do (just took too long) but didn't have time to go back to it. My advice for this section is... to first watch Chad's videos and take good notes while watching. If you don't understand a topic after watching his videos, you can always rewind back. Take the corresponding quiz after each video. After you watched and took the quizzes to all his videos, go through Destroyer and use your notes as your main resource.
OC (20) -- Chad's videos the first DAT attempt... and my notes from Chad's videos for the second DAT attempt. I used Destroyer for both attempts also. Again, Chad + Destroyer is all you need. I think doing Chad's OC quizzes really helped too.
RC (19) -- Reading/verbal has always been my worse section on all standardized tests. It is my weakness. I was very worried about this section. I took 8 CDR tests for my first DAT attempt. And then I took 2 CDR tests for the second DAT attempt. It gives good practice for non-SnD questions and gets the timing down, otherwise the real RC is harder. You can't really improve on this section in a short time... but you can definitely find the best technique for you. I, fortunately, got 2 passages on biology and my third passage was on physics (yuck!). I first read the passage, then answered the questions. If I didn't remember something, I'd go back and SnD. My first passage was 7 paragraphs long... secon was about 14 paragraphs long, and the third was about 14 paragraphs long. I tried to divide the time up where I would give ~8 minutes for reading the passage and 12 minutes to answer questions. I went over time for the first passage so I had to shorten the time length on the remaining passages. After this section, I was hoping to get a 17. lol I thought I failed. On one of the passages, I had to guess on 3/4 of the questions.
QR (21) -- Math has always been my strongest section. I love math. Math loves me. But math didn't love me on my first DAT attempt. I made a 15 the first time with no time to spare. But I didn't study. You should AT LEAST review this section. Don't under estimate it. This section can either bring your AA score down (like it did to my first DAT) or it can help keep your AA up. The second time around, I had about 5 minutes left because I studied. lol. I abused the calculator. I found it useful. It can be a little slow though. In the end, Math Destroyer is all you need. Questions were pretty similar to destroyer 🙂 In the beginning of my studies, I did about 20 problems per day from Math Destroyer (untimed) and then worked my way up to doing a test daily (untimed). I never timed myself, because if you work on understanding how to do the questions very well... the timing will fall into place.
2007 ADA DAT (too easy.. taken 2/6)
BS 17
GC 23
OC 28
RC 17
QR 19
TS 20
AA 21
PAT 21
Achiever 1 (taken 2/26)
OC 18
GC 16
BIO 16
PAT 17
Achiever 2 (taken 3/2)
OC 17
GC 17
BIO 16
PAT 19
Achiever 3 (taken 3/5)
OC 17
GC 16
BIO 16
PAT 18
Whenever I wanted to give up or had doubts, I would read this quote:
"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." - Thomas Edison
EDIT:
I also want to add that its important to take your practice test in testing conditions. When I took my practice test, I wore what I would wear during my test... and also took the practice tests at 1:30pm each time to mimic the real DAT. For me, comfort is important when I take tests. So, I basically wore pajamas to my test lol. I kid you not. Be comfortable and also prepare for either warm, humid testing conditions or cold conditions. The first time I took the DAT, it was cold.. and I wore uncomfortable clothing (jeans). This time, I wore a loose long sleeve shirt and a hoody with leggings. But this time, the room was warm and stuffy. lol If you're prone to headaches when studying, prepare for that also. I had a headache (due to the warm temperature and not-so-bright display of the monitor screen) but I didn't bring an advil and I wish I did.
Good luck to all of you who are going to take the DAT! Everyone can do well in it if the right amount of effort is put in. Never give up.
Last edited:
Thanks preDENT1210! Nothing compares to a delicious meal to jump start the day
for the both of us in waiting this cycle. If anything though, you are golden next cycle if you apply early! 
