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- Feb 19, 2016
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Finally...after one month filled with pain and suffering this thing is over.
Total time studying: ~12 hours a day for a month.
Main resources used: DAT Bootcamp, DAT Destroyer, Chad's videos.
Bio: Honestly I did not study very much for this. I was really worried about this section because I was averaging around 19-21 on my DAT Bootcamp practice exams. I told myself that it was better to just study for gen chem and organic because it would be easier to bring those scores up. With only 1 month to study, I didn't have much time. I am a good student so I learned a lot from the biology classes I've taken, which helped me establish a strong foundation. The questions on the DAT didn't seem that random like people said. There were a few questions that used terms I had never heard of, but I could make educated guesses based on the other answer choices. I only ended up going through 400 DAT Destroyer Biology questions. I would DEFINITELY emphasize knowing the overarching concepts more than tiny details/facts.
Materials: Feralis Notes (thank goodness for these), DAT QVault, DAT Destroyer/Math destroyer, DAT Bootcamp.
***I would highly highly encourage you to take as many Biology practice tests as you can. I took 15 in total (10 from Qvault and 5 from Bootcamp). Exposing yourself to as many biology test questions is KEY to doing well!***
Gen Chem: Dang! My test had a lot of calculations and some of them were difficult! Half way through this section I started panicking because the questions were hard, I wasn't too sure about my answers, and I was running out of time. I told myself to stop panicking and carried on. I, unfortunately, cut into my Orgo time by 10 mins! This left me with 20 minutes to do orgo. Usually I split them up 30/30/30, but Gen chem was taking me so much time. Definitely do DAT Destroyer 2x I'd say. The first time I got around 60% of the questions correct and the next time I got 80%. If you want above a 20, do DAT destroyer.
Organic: Destroyerrrrr. That's all I can say. It really helps you learn all the concepts and teaches you the "trickiest" questions that they can ask on the exam. Bootcamp really helped me gauge the difficulty of questions that would be asked on the real exam. Just know all your reactions, understand the main concepts, and you'll be sure to get 20+. I literally had like 19 minutes left when i started this section and I rushed through it. All those DAT Destroyer problems made answering the problems pretty easy.
PAT: I was scoring around a 19-20 on the practice Bootcamp exams, so I hoped for a little higher than a 21. But, a 21 is nothing to complain about. I really slacked on doing the generators near the end, which I think hurt me a little. Also, I spent too much time on the angles during the real exam so I had to guess on the last 8 questions of the exam. Whoops. Side note: I was unable to make my boxes for the hole punching section beforehand, so I'm not sure if that's a universal rule or just the prometric I went to. It threw me off during the real exam.
RC: Honestly I was baffled by this section to say the least. My Bootcamp scores ranged from 19-26. The passages I got were IMPOSSIBLY HARD. Of the 50 questions asked, I am not kidding you when I say 40/50 of them were tone/inference questions. There were HARDLY any "search and destroy" type of questions. I was even required to do math on one of the passages.....I understand I am not the best reader but there is seriously no way I should have gotten a 16. The three passages I got were extremely science heavy and the questions required you to actually understand the science. I'm talking like understanding mechanisms for how a drug in the passage worked in the human body. I was absolutely flabbergasted while I was doing this section. I seriously do not want to retake the DAT, so I'm hoping to just apply everywhere and hope I get accepted somewhere with this score.
Also, I got asked a lot of questions on there like "If so and so were wanting to perform an experiment, how would they do so?" I was just like ugh...fml.
QR: I'm pretty good at math but like everyone else, I haven't used algebra and geometry since like 10th grade. Taking two years of calculus in college really doesn't help your algebra or geometry either lol. This section was definitely fair. As the saying goes, I could've done better if I had more time. I think I struggled a bit more because I finished math destroyer two weeks before my DAT and stopped studying for it, so I forgot some things.
DAT Bootcamp scores:
Bio: 19-21
Gen Chen: 19-24
Organic: 19-25
PAT: 19-21
Reading: 19-26
QR: 18-21
QVault:
Bio: 19-21
2007 DAT:
Bio: 18
Gen Chem: 25
Orgo: 30
2009 DAT:
Bio: 23
Gen Chem: 20
Organic: 20
Good luck to everyone else taking it this break. I understand how crappy it is to have to miss spending time with your family, but it'll all pay off in the end. Also, if reading is really the only weak spot in my application, is it still a huge deal I did poorly on this section?
Total time studying: ~12 hours a day for a month.
Main resources used: DAT Bootcamp, DAT Destroyer, Chad's videos.
Bio: Honestly I did not study very much for this. I was really worried about this section because I was averaging around 19-21 on my DAT Bootcamp practice exams. I told myself that it was better to just study for gen chem and organic because it would be easier to bring those scores up. With only 1 month to study, I didn't have much time. I am a good student so I learned a lot from the biology classes I've taken, which helped me establish a strong foundation. The questions on the DAT didn't seem that random like people said. There were a few questions that used terms I had never heard of, but I could make educated guesses based on the other answer choices. I only ended up going through 400 DAT Destroyer Biology questions. I would DEFINITELY emphasize knowing the overarching concepts more than tiny details/facts.
Materials: Feralis Notes (thank goodness for these), DAT QVault, DAT Destroyer/Math destroyer, DAT Bootcamp.
***I would highly highly encourage you to take as many Biology practice tests as you can. I took 15 in total (10 from Qvault and 5 from Bootcamp). Exposing yourself to as many biology test questions is KEY to doing well!***
Gen Chem: Dang! My test had a lot of calculations and some of them were difficult! Half way through this section I started panicking because the questions were hard, I wasn't too sure about my answers, and I was running out of time. I told myself to stop panicking and carried on. I, unfortunately, cut into my Orgo time by 10 mins! This left me with 20 minutes to do orgo. Usually I split them up 30/30/30, but Gen chem was taking me so much time. Definitely do DAT Destroyer 2x I'd say. The first time I got around 60% of the questions correct and the next time I got 80%. If you want above a 20, do DAT destroyer.
Organic: Destroyerrrrr. That's all I can say. It really helps you learn all the concepts and teaches you the "trickiest" questions that they can ask on the exam. Bootcamp really helped me gauge the difficulty of questions that would be asked on the real exam. Just know all your reactions, understand the main concepts, and you'll be sure to get 20+. I literally had like 19 minutes left when i started this section and I rushed through it. All those DAT Destroyer problems made answering the problems pretty easy.
PAT: I was scoring around a 19-20 on the practice Bootcamp exams, so I hoped for a little higher than a 21. But, a 21 is nothing to complain about. I really slacked on doing the generators near the end, which I think hurt me a little. Also, I spent too much time on the angles during the real exam so I had to guess on the last 8 questions of the exam. Whoops. Side note: I was unable to make my boxes for the hole punching section beforehand, so I'm not sure if that's a universal rule or just the prometric I went to. It threw me off during the real exam.
RC: Honestly I was baffled by this section to say the least. My Bootcamp scores ranged from 19-26. The passages I got were IMPOSSIBLY HARD. Of the 50 questions asked, I am not kidding you when I say 40/50 of them were tone/inference questions. There were HARDLY any "search and destroy" type of questions. I was even required to do math on one of the passages.....I understand I am not the best reader but there is seriously no way I should have gotten a 16. The three passages I got were extremely science heavy and the questions required you to actually understand the science. I'm talking like understanding mechanisms for how a drug in the passage worked in the human body. I was absolutely flabbergasted while I was doing this section. I seriously do not want to retake the DAT, so I'm hoping to just apply everywhere and hope I get accepted somewhere with this score.
Also, I got asked a lot of questions on there like "If so and so were wanting to perform an experiment, how would they do so?" I was just like ugh...fml.
QR: I'm pretty good at math but like everyone else, I haven't used algebra and geometry since like 10th grade. Taking two years of calculus in college really doesn't help your algebra or geometry either lol. This section was definitely fair. As the saying goes, I could've done better if I had more time. I think I struggled a bit more because I finished math destroyer two weeks before my DAT and stopped studying for it, so I forgot some things.
DAT Bootcamp scores:
Bio: 19-21
Gen Chen: 19-24
Organic: 19-25
PAT: 19-21
Reading: 19-26
QR: 18-21
QVault:
Bio: 19-21
2007 DAT:
Bio: 18
Gen Chem: 25
Orgo: 30
2009 DAT:
Bio: 23
Gen Chem: 20
Organic: 20
Good luck to everyone else taking it this break. I understand how crappy it is to have to miss spending time with your family, but it'll all pay off in the end. Also, if reading is really the only weak spot in my application, is it still a huge deal I did poorly on this section?
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