DAT Complete: 2/3

[RypTide11]

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First off, let me thank everyone that participates in this forum, because it had helped me get through this ordeal we call the DAT. Without you all I would have surely not have done as well as I did. Thanks! Without further ado here is my personal account of my DAT journey.

Let me start out by telling you what kind of student I am. I consider myself one of those slackers who barely get by. I would do barely enough to get an A, but sometimes I **** up somewhere and end of with a B. This is pretty evident in my 3.3 cumGPA. I should try harder, but I don't... I don't know why.

So when studying for the DAT it was something I've never experienced before. I never had to sit down and study for 8 hours straight, like I did this past 2 weeks. I started studying seriously at the start of winter break for 2-4 hrs/day until yesterday. This past 2 weeks I studied 6-10 hrs/day. It was miserable to say the least.

For study materials I used:
- Blue Kaplan book (memorized the damn thing)
- Schaum's Bio (great for plants/ecology)
- ExamKrackers Bio (great for detailed explanations w/ pictures)
- TopScore (very demoralizing software)
- DAT Destroyer (absolute must have)
For me, the materials were essential to my studying. Also, DAT Destroyer is great at testing you on the little things after you have a good foundation of the material.

Going into this I already knew I had to spend most of time studying biology, because I forgot pretty much EVERYTHING. So if you breakdown which subjects I studied it would be 70%-bio, 15%-gchem, then 15%-ochem. I basically spent most of my time studying bio. It sucks but I had to do it. For gchem/ochem all I did was memorize the formulas and reactions. I didn't study for QR/RC/PAT at all. I wish I did go over some math. I think I underestimated QR.... oh well.

Now on to my scores. It is not as great as most of the people in the forums, but I am proud of them.

PAT: 22/99.6
QR: 19/86.5
RC: 19/60.2
BIO: 20/90.0
GChem: 20/86.1
OChem: 21/91.5
TS: 20/90.0
AA: 20/90.0

If I had to do this again, I would spend more time studying DAT Destroyer and alittle more QR.

If you got any questions just ask.

 

[Lonely Sol]

Hey man, congrats on your scores i am happy for you!

-I was wondering was RC hard or it was managable?!
-Also, how does DAT destroyer compare to the real DAT in each of the four section (bio/Gchem/Orgo./QR)
-Was there any bio question that thought was just out of this world if so, do you remember it by any chance?

 

[RypTide11]

Hey man, congrats on your scores i am happy for you!

-I was wondering was RC hard or it was managable?!
-Also, how does DAT destroyer compare to the real DAT in each of the four section (bio/Gchem/Orgo./QR)
-Was there any bio question that thought was just out of this world if so, do you remember it by any chance?

When I did my pre-test for the DAT, I got a 21 on it so I didn't bother to do anymore RC stuff. But during the actual exam, I thought the RC was pretty easy. I was suprised at a 19.

DAT Destroyer is alot harder than the real DAT. DAT Destroyer gets into the minute details you would look over when studying the Kaplan blue book.

There were couple bio questions I had trouble on. They were over vascular system (circulation,blood,lymph,immunology,etc). Thats all I'll say about that.

 

[siba]

Wow! Congrats on your scores! 👍

I got a question: I am a 2nd-year pre-dent and will be finishing with ochem, gchem, and bio by the end of this school year. I heard taking DAT right after taking all the relevant classes is a plus. (As you mentioned, trying to remember everything you learned a long time ago can be painful.) So, I want to take DAT this summer in August. The problem is, I won't be applying untill 09' or 10' cycle (depending on how I do on everything else). However, do you think it is too early to take DAT now because I'm going to apply in maybe two years? Will it be helpful to DAT after taking upper div. bio classes?

Also, If I plan to hardcore study for DAT this summer, is one summer (7/8 weeks with a 5-week summer class) enough for studying everything? And you only studied for 2 weeks? That's crazy if you really did! I read how you broke down each section of DAT to study. That's pretty helpful. Can you give us a more detailed description of how you arranged your study daily?

Thanks man!

 

[RypTide11]

Wow! Congrats on your scores! 👍

I got a question: I am a 2nd-year pre-dent and will be finishing with ochem, gchem, and bio by the end of this school year. I heard taking DAT right after taking all the relevant classes is a plus. (As you mentioned, trying to remember everything you learned a long time ago can be painful.) So, I want to take DAT this summer in August. The problem is, I won't be applying untill 09' or 10' cycle (depending on how I do on everything else). However, do you think it is too early to take DAT now because I'm going to apply in maybe two years? Will it be helpful to DAT after taking upper div. bio classes?

Also, If I plan to hardcore study for DAT this summer, is one summer (7/8 weeks with a 5-week summer class) enough for studying everything? And you only studied for 2 weeks? That's crazy if you really did! I read how you broke down each section of DAT to study. That's pretty helpful. Can you give us a more detailed description of how you arranged your study daily?

Thanks man!

Your in a tough situation. It would be ideal to take your DAT after taking your core science classes, but some schools are picky about the time between application and your DAT exam. So if I were you, I check out the schools you want to apply to and make sure they accept scores that are ~3 years old. If I'm not mistaken, most schools only take scores that are 2 years old. You probably will have to end up taking it summer of '08 or '09.

I studied seriously for 7-8 weeks, and I wish i had 2 more... Everyone studies differently so you shouldn't follow exactly how I studied. But, here is my study schedule.
- First memorized (bio,gchem,ochem) parts of the kaplan blue book. Took notes, made outlines, and ALOT of flashcards. I must have read the bio part 5-6 times.
- Went over plant/ecology in Schaum's
- Read Examkracker's Bio
- Took TopScore and got depressed at my 16-18 scores
- Last week of studying was over DAT Destroyer
- Then morning of DAT, tried to memorize as many trig functions as i can.. haha

 

[quikag1]

Hey
congrats on those scores they are nothing to be ashamed of, they are pretty solid

 

[gogiantsss]

congratulations! you did great. i was wondering how the PAT section compared to topscore and achiever

 

[Law0830]

Great scores congradss!!

 

[RypTide11]

congratulations! you did great. i was wondering how the PAT section compared to topscore and achiever

I didn't buy achiever because I already had topscore and destroyer. I thought I would just be overwhelming myself if I bought achiever. So, I just focused on topscore and destroyer. The DAT PAT is harder than topscore especially the top/front/end and angle ranking. I was forced to guess on multiple top/front/end and angle ranking questions because I was just liked "wtf is that".

 

[pudz]

Hey!
You rocked it! congrats!
pudz