- Joined
- Mar 16, 2013
- Messages
- 129
- Reaction score
- 81
Introduction: Hi everyone, I go to a school in Atlanta. I just wanted to share with you (not brag) my decent DAT scores and what I did to achieve them. I took the DAT on 01/13/14. As you can tell, I did not do amazing. However, I am very proud of myself for putting in and sacrificing an absurd amount of time during the past 3 weeks studying for this exam. I got up at 7:30 AM every morning and went to bed at 11:00 PM. Of course, I did not study every single minute of everyday, but I would definitely say I studied around somewhere 8 hours each day.
I will keep this breakdown as concise as possible. Before I start though, I would like to thank a number of members on here for posting their breakdowns, especially jimmpannzee. His schedule was exactly what I needed because I did not want to spend any more than this winter break studying for this monster.
Scores:
PAT: 22
Quantitative Reasoning: 22
Reading Comprehension: 20
Biology: 19
General Chemistry: 21
Organic Chemistry: 23
Total Science: 21
Academic Average: 21
PAT (22): It was overall not too bad. I have always thought of PAT as a game, so I did not really use any techniques. I played around with PAT when I was bored or did not feel like studying. The key to this section is to get exposed to the types of problems as early as possible and training your eyes to observe keenly. If you practice with CDT and some DATQvault for extra practice, you should be golden. I averaged around 23 on CDT and 21 on Qvault. DAT Achiever was way too hard, lol. I averaged around 19 there.
KH & TFE: These sections turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated because many breakdowns I have read on here said they were immensely more difficult than CDT. I felt like they were on par with CDT. Practice with CDT and even DATQvault if you have time.
AR: Around the same difficulty as CDT. Nothing much to say here. On some practice tests I did well and on others I did terribly. It was always down to two answer choices...ughhh
HP & CC: The easiest sections on the PAT for sure. If you can do well on CDT, you will be fine. These sections are where you should maximize your PAT score. By maximize, I mean do not miss a single one. Also, get these puppies done fast so that you have more time for other sections.
PF: A little harder than CDT. I needed a little more than 10 minutes to finish. But once you get comfortable with CDT, you should be okay.
Quantitative Reasoning (22):
Damn, I thought I scored a 30. Very disappointed. I was hoping to inflate my AA with math. After practicing numerous times with Math Destroyer, every question was so much easier. I would definitely say Math Destroyer is overkill because the questions on the real test was drastically more simple than what you will see on that book. Nonetheless, it never hurts to over-prepare. I did not run out of time on a single question, thanks to the Destroyer.
Reading Comprehension (20):
Very disappointed with my score because I thought it was much easier than the practice exams I have done. The passages weren't too long like the ones from DATQvault. I guess reading will always be one of my weaker sections because English is my third language. If you are a fast reader who can recall things quickly, you are set. Doing some practice on CDT or DATQvault would not hurt either.
Biology (19):
I was so mad during this section. I literally wanted to quit and walk out of the room. I found this section to be extremely difficult even after memorizing an absurd amount of new materials. I used Alan's notes, Feralis' notes, Cliff's AP Biology, Barron's AP Biology, and practiced repeatedly using DATQvault. Nothing was really random, but almost all the specific, detailed concepts and vocabularies, like the hormones, that I happened to have memorized were not on there. It is such a shame because I am a biology major. Biology is definitely a section I underestimated.
General Chemistry (21) & Organic Chemistry (23):
Just like how majority of the people say on here, Chad is your man for these sections. I watched all of his videos once and took notes. It was sort of a relief after thinking I completely bombed the bio section. I thought I would get at least a 25 on general chemistry, but wow, I ****ed up. My general chemistry section barely had any calculations, which was not what I expected. All the questions were pretty simple compared to the problems that I have been practicing with DAT Destroyer and DATQvault. Again, there weren't anything too specific. I was surprised and even disappointed because I memorized all these reagents, rules, etc. endlessly. Spend some time with Chad, and know all of your concepts, calculations, reactions, reagents, and you should be fine. Also, use the destroyer to learn, not to test and see how high of a score you can earn.
Final thoughts/advice:
It is different for every person, but I personally think it is not effective to study for 2-3 months. I don't think my body can take that. I am an impatient person who is willing to sacrifice whatever he needs to get what he wants. Yes, perhaps I could have done better if I studied for more than 3 weeks, but I think it could easily have gone the other way around.
No matter what though, I think the most important thing to keep in mind while studying is that you have to ask yourself what is more important to you at the moment. Friends? Parties? Girlfriend? Dental School? With a GPA that is sitting right in the meaty part of the curve, I was determined to destroy this test (even though I didn't).
Even though studying took a good 99% of my time here at home, I still did other fun activities to keep myself from going insane. Being a huge fitness fanatic, I exercised/worked out every night to get rid of all the stress I got from studying. If I ever felt unmotivated, I imagined how happy and ecstatic I would be after successfully taking this exam and walking out of the test center.
Practice exams? I took a lot of DATQvault. I purchased DAT Achiever, but they were hard as *********. If you are mentally/emotionally weak and unstable, I highly suggest you don't take their exams.
If I were to do it all over again, I would only buy CDT PAT (Not the whole package; sciences were useless. Reading was okay), DAT Qvault (Bio only), Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer (including the Math Destroyer), and DAT Bootcamp.
Well, that's it. This is my breakdown. I hope you find this helpful.
I will keep this breakdown as concise as possible. Before I start though, I would like to thank a number of members on here for posting their breakdowns, especially jimmpannzee. His schedule was exactly what I needed because I did not want to spend any more than this winter break studying for this monster.
Scores:
PAT: 22
Quantitative Reasoning: 22
Reading Comprehension: 20
Biology: 19
General Chemistry: 21
Organic Chemistry: 23
Total Science: 21
Academic Average: 21
PAT (22): It was overall not too bad. I have always thought of PAT as a game, so I did not really use any techniques. I played around with PAT when I was bored or did not feel like studying. The key to this section is to get exposed to the types of problems as early as possible and training your eyes to observe keenly. If you practice with CDT and some DATQvault for extra practice, you should be golden. I averaged around 23 on CDT and 21 on Qvault. DAT Achiever was way too hard, lol. I averaged around 19 there.
KH & TFE: These sections turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated because many breakdowns I have read on here said they were immensely more difficult than CDT. I felt like they were on par with CDT. Practice with CDT and even DATQvault if you have time.
AR: Around the same difficulty as CDT. Nothing much to say here. On some practice tests I did well and on others I did terribly. It was always down to two answer choices...ughhh
HP & CC: The easiest sections on the PAT for sure. If you can do well on CDT, you will be fine. These sections are where you should maximize your PAT score. By maximize, I mean do not miss a single one. Also, get these puppies done fast so that you have more time for other sections.
PF: A little harder than CDT. I needed a little more than 10 minutes to finish. But once you get comfortable with CDT, you should be okay.
Quantitative Reasoning (22):
Damn, I thought I scored a 30. Very disappointed. I was hoping to inflate my AA with math. After practicing numerous times with Math Destroyer, every question was so much easier. I would definitely say Math Destroyer is overkill because the questions on the real test was drastically more simple than what you will see on that book. Nonetheless, it never hurts to over-prepare. I did not run out of time on a single question, thanks to the Destroyer.
Reading Comprehension (20):
Very disappointed with my score because I thought it was much easier than the practice exams I have done. The passages weren't too long like the ones from DATQvault. I guess reading will always be one of my weaker sections because English is my third language. If you are a fast reader who can recall things quickly, you are set. Doing some practice on CDT or DATQvault would not hurt either.
Biology (19):
I was so mad during this section. I literally wanted to quit and walk out of the room. I found this section to be extremely difficult even after memorizing an absurd amount of new materials. I used Alan's notes, Feralis' notes, Cliff's AP Biology, Barron's AP Biology, and practiced repeatedly using DATQvault. Nothing was really random, but almost all the specific, detailed concepts and vocabularies, like the hormones, that I happened to have memorized were not on there. It is such a shame because I am a biology major. Biology is definitely a section I underestimated.
General Chemistry (21) & Organic Chemistry (23):
Just like how majority of the people say on here, Chad is your man for these sections. I watched all of his videos once and took notes. It was sort of a relief after thinking I completely bombed the bio section. I thought I would get at least a 25 on general chemistry, but wow, I ****ed up. My general chemistry section barely had any calculations, which was not what I expected. All the questions were pretty simple compared to the problems that I have been practicing with DAT Destroyer and DATQvault. Again, there weren't anything too specific. I was surprised and even disappointed because I memorized all these reagents, rules, etc. endlessly. Spend some time with Chad, and know all of your concepts, calculations, reactions, reagents, and you should be fine. Also, use the destroyer to learn, not to test and see how high of a score you can earn.
Final thoughts/advice:
It is different for every person, but I personally think it is not effective to study for 2-3 months. I don't think my body can take that. I am an impatient person who is willing to sacrifice whatever he needs to get what he wants. Yes, perhaps I could have done better if I studied for more than 3 weeks, but I think it could easily have gone the other way around.
No matter what though, I think the most important thing to keep in mind while studying is that you have to ask yourself what is more important to you at the moment. Friends? Parties? Girlfriend? Dental School? With a GPA that is sitting right in the meaty part of the curve, I was determined to destroy this test (even though I didn't
).Even though studying took a good 99% of my time here at home, I still did other fun activities to keep myself from going insane. Being a huge fitness fanatic, I exercised/worked out every night to get rid of all the stress I got from studying. If I ever felt unmotivated, I imagined how happy and ecstatic I would be after successfully taking this exam and walking out of the test center.
Practice exams? I took a lot of DATQvault. I purchased DAT Achiever, but they were hard as *********. If you are mentally/emotionally weak and unstable, I highly suggest you don't take their exams.
If I were to do it all over again, I would only buy CDT PAT (Not the whole package; sciences were useless. Reading was okay), DAT Qvault (Bio only), Chad's videos, DAT Destroyer (including the Math Destroyer), and DAT Bootcamp.
Well, that's it. This is my breakdown. I hope you find this helpful.
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