DAT Destroyer Hype??

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So what's all this DAT Destroyer hype all about? Is it genius potion or what?

 

[yuppers]

Not sure, I did just fine and I still have 200 in the bank. 🙂

 

[wigglytooth]

Moving to DAT discussions...

 

[mathcod]

People find comfort in having completed a guide advertising itself to be a destroyer of a large hurdle in front of them - the DAT.

Why do you think my friend got male enhancement drugs?

 

[doc3232]

Hidden advertisements...

 

[alanan84]

Hidden advertisements...

I'm not so sure about that. I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't happen but there are some very established SDNers that hype Destroyer. Personally I think it's a great tool and wouldn't recommend studying without it. I guess it just depends on how much help you need or how much you're willing to spend.

 

[achilles2]

You the usual groupies.


Its the cool thing to do now and say "Kaplan is overrated and destroyer cured my cancer"

Destroyer is a GOOD resource, but its not the end all and doesn't replace practice tests and questions.

 

[doc3232]

I'm not so sure about that. I mean, I'm not saying it doesn't happen but there are some very established SDNers that hype Destroyer. Personally I think it's a great tool and wouldn't recommend studying without it. I guess it just depends on how much help you need or how much you're willing to spend.

You mean Romano's students that know him on a personal level?

 

[Svart Aske]

Destroyer is useful for directing your studies, but not for actual learning.

 

[alanan84]

You mean Romano's students that know him on a personal level?

No I mean people like me who don't know romano, I didn't even buy it from him. (found someone selling a copy on craigslist)

Look if you don't think it's a good resource, thats fine, there's nothing wrong with saying "I don't think it was very beneficial to me". There's no need to ignorantly accuse anyone's who's said good things about destroyer as personal friends and advertisers of romano.

 

[alanan84]

By the way, I totally agree on the price. It's isanely overpriced. I decided awhile back to not buy new textbooks unless the price was reasonable. The same goes for destroyer, until he comes down on the price, don't buy it new. It's just not worth it.

 

[doc3232]

No I mean people like me who don't know romano, I didn't even buy it from him. (found someone selling a copy on craigslist)

Look if you don't think it's a good resource, thats fine, there's nothing wrong with saying "I don't think it was very beneficial to me". There's no need to ignorantly accuse anyone's who's said good things about destroyer as personal friends and advertisers of romano.

Sorry, I think I should be more clear. There was a period of a month or so when there was a dat done thread where someone who ridiculously promote DAT Destroyer with 1-5 posts. Now they are rather rare.
Also, do you know how many of Romano's students are on this site? 😉

 

[alanan84]

Sorry, I think I should be more clear. There was a period of a month or so when there was a dat done thread where someone who ridiculously promote DAT Destroyer with 1-5 posts. Now they are rather rare.
Also, do you know how many of Romano's students are on this site? 😉

No, do you?

 

[doc3232]

No, do you?

Enough to say I lost count...

 

[alanan84]

Enough to say I lost count...

Oh yeah, well my Dad is cooler than your Dad!

 

[gentile1225]

blah blah blah, everyone on this forum is such a hater. damn, if i wrote a book like destroyer i would charge $200 too! everyone hates on romano, but no one hates on kaplan because there isn't one specific person for them to hate on. HI HATERZ! everyone get over it. the book is good, kaplan is good, it all depends on what you like to study.

 

[joonkimdds]

DAT destroyer is a good book and that's only because it got plenty of questions. If Kaplan blue book had 1000 questions, I would say it's as good as destroyer, and if Kaplan book had 2000 questions, I would say it's twice better than destroyer.

Thus, I would say it's tempting to buy a new edition of destroyer since it got more questions to practice.

Besides the quantity of questions in Destroyer, I don't see anything good about it.
It doesn't teach you first and test which Kaplan blue book does(even though they are missing many stuffs). It rather tests you first and then teaches you with explanation and the answer key. I think it is still necessary but it's definitely not for beginners.


I am planning to write a book that far surpasses Kaplan, Destroyer, Crack DAT...etc, but it won't happen until I take DAT first 😀

 

[whateveryoulike]

i (personally) am a bit suspicious of where he gets the questions. Some of his answers arent just wrong, but theyre wrong enough that it looks like he didnt even read all the available options. ive seen the following concerns:

1) questions that had the "2 or more" type answers but he only chose one of the 2. ive seen this twice now and both times were blatantly obvious so there is 0% chance its a mistake on my part. then theres plenty of iffy ones where im simply suspicious of it being wrong.

2) reactions that are flat out wrong, like a few examples where it shows a grignard reagent being applied WITH h30+ and his answer reflects as if the grignard actually worked instead of just deprotonating the acid.

3) he draws basic line drawings as if theyre 3d and assumes because one line goes up and the other goes down, that it must form a trans product (as if a single bond doesnt rotate) despite him not showing enough to base that assumption on steric hindrance or anti-coplanar arrangement.

4)orientation drawings where you have the forward ligand and backward ligand seperated by the ligands that lie in the plane of the page? both orgo textbooks i have specifically state NOT to do that since its physically impossible and not visually accurate. i would have assumed someone titled "Dr" Romero would have known that.

5)"in depth explanations" in the odyssey book are often times less than a full sentence and only state what his answer is without actually explaining how he got to it.

6)random questions that are completely irrelavent to the test and far to specific to be useful.

ps - alot of my complaints stem from the odyssey book more so than the destroyer book. but since its the same author, most of them translate to the destroyer book as well. i have both and wouldnt recommend purchasing either of them from him. i would try my hardest to purchase them used. i bought mine new because i couldnt find any used copies when i was looking to order. the budget quality of both books makes me think neither could cost more than 10 dollars to make. so a 500% profit margin is actually FAR understating it. at the price hes charging, im suprised someone hasnt scanned the book and put it on a torrent website.

 

[eldirty]

Destroyer is alright for practicing but its not going to teach you much of anything ... its a good tool for assessing what you know and what you may want to focus more on. I was excited when I paid but extremely disappointed when I opened the delivered package to discover a $200 thin plastic covered spiral bound collection of questions. Like others have said the book is riddled with mistakes which with a proof read could have been eliminated. If I had to do it all over again I wouldnt have taken the Kaplan course and I wouldnt have purchased Destroyer ... Dont buy into all of the HYPE and take yourself and a friend to Jamaica instead.

yours truely
friendly neighborhood Kaplan and Destroyer HATERZ club president!

 

[whateveryoulike]

Destroyer is alright for practicing but its not going to teach you much of anything ... its a good tool for assessing what you know and what you may want to focus more on. I was excited when I paid but extremely disappointed when I opened the delivered package to discover a $200 thin plastic covered spiral bound collection of questions.

my thoughts exactly. my reaction was identical after opening the package and seeing the material.

 

[doc3232]

woops

 

[Albuterol]

I thought the Destroyer was a valuable asset to my studying. There were enough questions to help me prepare and personally thought the explanations were very thorough and I learned a lot from them too. Would I make it my only study tool? Probably not, but I would definitely combine it with Cliffs AP Bio + Kaplan Subject Tests + bio/gchem/orgo review books.

 

[eldirty]

I thought the Destroyer was a valuable asset to my studying. There were enough questions to help me prepare and personally thought the explanations were very thorough and I learned a lot from them too. Would I make it my only study tool? Probably not, but I would definitely combine it with Cliffs AP Bio + Kaplan Subject Tests + bio/gchem/orgo review books.

Or just simply use the Cliffs AP Bio + Kaplan Subject Tests + bio/gchem/orgo review books and save yourself a few hundreds. You could also use that money to buy achiever and crack DAT PAT and be as good as gold.

 

[Albuterol]

I agree but for someone who still does not feel comfortable after using those materials and has money to spend it doesn't hurt to get the DAT Destroyer. Achiever, TopScore, and CDP are a must in my opinion. I think a lot of the times people feel that buying Destroyer alone will get them a certain score and forget that it is the hard work that you put into studying and a little luck which will help get them that high DAT score.

 

[userah]

the first time i took the DATs all i used was kaplan and my scores showed that. score was pitiful haha. second time around, i used alll the resources i could find. especially destroyer. Im not trying to advertise the book because I definitely had issues with Romano during shipping. Regardless the book is an awesome resource. But like everything, don't expect it to be the jesus book for you doing well on the DATs. It's all dependent on the amount of time and energy you put into it. If you use it properly, it is a great resource to help you do well on the DAT.

 

[y0ssarian]

DAT Destroyer is a great resource mainly because it's a concentrated source of relevant practice problems for the test. It's certainly not irreplaceable, but it's extremely convenient to have. Complaining about how much it costs is pointless; the author sets the price, and it's up to you if you decide that the convenience is worth the money. I thought it was worth buying, as have plenty of other people. In the long run, $150 is less than the total price of applying to one school, and if you used Destroyer correctly, you wouldn't have to apply to as many schools anyway =p

 

[Enso]

I've heard nothing but good things about those Orgo "roadmaps"

I may be making the investment because of it

 

[Jia7]

^ what are the orgo road maps?

 

[pbure9]

^ what are the orgo road maps?

Basically an overview of the reactions you may need to know for the DAT in a "map" fashion. It starts with a central molecule and goes in different directions with all sorts of ways you can synthesize other compounds.

It's great practice I think to look over and make flashcards with (or w/e else works for ppl)

 

[Ryltar]

Is it true that Dr. Romano Sends his former students out to the testing centers and memorize questions?? Maybe thats why his guides are so expensive cause it takes a lot of hard work to put them together. But i'm def looking into this source from my friends.

That is probably a rumor... The reason why his guide is so much more expensive (3x Kaplan) is because the quality of information is much better. Furthermore, DAT is structured to force you to actively learn; however, in order to get the most out of it you need a strong foundation in the basics. Also, you can be rest assured that every concept is correct in DAT destroyer, unlike Kaplan. We all know that melting point doesn't decrease with branching Kaplan... it increases rather because more branches allow the molecules to be packed into tighter crystals. It's these annoying concept errors in Kaplan that are frustrating at times.

 

[klutzy1987]

Personally I loved the destroyer. The "random questions that are completely irrelevant to the test and far to specific to be useful." are actually very relevant to the test and are very useful. I would strongly suggest you know those questions and memorize them. The biggest value of the destroyer is that it is pretty much exactly on topic so that you know that if something doesn't show up in the destroyer you don't have to study it. Destroyer by itself is enough for the chemisries provided you hava a strong background in chemistry. The book is not for beginners. The math section is decent and the bio section when paired with cliffs is excellent. When you say his reactions are wrong Ill bet that you are wrong on those reactions. You probably forgot a rule or something, but my money is on Romano, so unless there are specific questions you probably are just mistaken. I cant comment on the oddessey as I have never used it and all that drawing crap I dunno. However I do know that the regular questions are all 100% correct in the chemistries. Each person has there own opinions but to to bash destroyer and then hype kaplans is just foolish. The only valid complaint that I can think of with destroyer is price. Kaplans books are packed with mistakes, they come a dime a dozen. Their material is usually shallow and easy and their books are not on topic. They havent done research on what topics are frequently asked on the DAT so they have material that will never appear on the DAT and they make you waste their time studying it. I think it is worth spending the extra couple of bucks to get a couple of points higher on the DAT. It will save you money in the long run, whether its getting into your state school or whether its getting that scholarship.

 

[SnowDog]

So far all of my friends in dental school rave about the Destroyer and how on target it is for the DAT. It shows real results, and helps people get into to Dental school, so it is for sure worth the investment, make sure you study your text books as well though.
Good Luck

 

[brightsmiles9]

I personally have used Destroyer and I love it. It's a great source to use once you have a solid foundation in the sciences. Also, I've used kaplan and I think that Kaplan does provide a lot of material, some errors I've seen also with the Melting Point and branching but it's not on point like the Destroyer. Along with Destroyer, AP Barrons book is good, and school textbooks are good as well. Once you have a strong base in the sciences, practicing destroyer and kaplan questions will be key. Good luck!

 

[Broncos85]

I would have to agree with Snow Dog and Klutzy that all the people I speak to in dental school or that have taken the DAT rave about the destroyer and said that they couldn't have done it without destroyer. Personally, I love using the destroyer and I feel that the explanations are directly on point. Plus the orgo road maps are money and if there's a rxn not listed there then you probably don't need to know it. Plus if you pay attention to the expalnations, Romano actually gives you a lot more information than you need to solve the problem. If you understand what he is telling you in the explanation that is where he is actually teaching you the material you need for the DAT. I agree that the bio section you probably need another source to fill in information that you may have forgotten or didn't know and for that I would recommend the cliffs A.P bio. Otherwise i have nothing but positive things to say about the destroyer