This is my first post here, but I wanted to give back to this community because without the information / guidance / inspiration I received from the posters here, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off. That said, I want to echo what some have said about the resources they used, as I took them to heart as best as possible.
PA: 22
QR: 24
RC: 22
BIO: 20
GC: 22
OC: 24
TS: 22
AA: 22
I want to start by saying I'm nowhere near your normal DAT taker. I'm a CPA looking to change his career after a few years spent in industry...as such I'm older and do not have as much background with this stuff as science majors do. However, I am very familiar with standardized exams, as I passed the CPA exam handily on my first try. In terms of detail/difficulty, the CPA exam was much more difficult, but clearly much more focused. The DAT requires a much greater amount of information to be absorbed and taking the exam after the relevant classes will help a lot.
I've only started going back to school for science classes on January. I took my entire year of biology over the Summer, chem over Spring/Summer, year of biochem over Summer, microbiology in Spring.
TLDR version
Resources used: Chad, Destroyer, CDP, CDR, Wikipedia, Google, KBB, Cliff's, some notes pages posted on this board a few topics down. The bold ones are the ones I recommend; Chad is cheap, Destroyer isn't but is worth it if you care about getting a good score, CDP isn't either but you NEED a good method of practice or you will not do well. Wikipedia/Google/Notes were all free so you'd be dumb not to use 'em! I did not use topscore, achiever, or any other resources. KBB and Cliff's I used very little, and wouldn't have used looking back. CDR is the only resource I feel wasn't *critical* to a good score, but I made good use of it, and so I feel I should include it.
Perceptual Ability:
Everyone says use the 10 test 'Crack DAT PAT'. I did this, and it worked very well. The only thing negative I found was that the software did not include a specific type of folding pattern for hole punching that was present on my exam (although I won't discuss what kind of fold it was, as per the rules). This is a small technical gripe, as the software should have prepared you well enough to handle this if you have taken the 10 tests. Overall the software is great in that it provides you the environment that is nearly identical to the exam, timing options, and practice, practice, practice. Make sure you take the 10 tests close to your actual exam date.
Quantitative Reasoning:
Math Destroyer, but don't bother with test number 11. I tried doing this test the night before the exam, and boy what a confidence killer it was. The questions in tests numbers 1-10 are all you will need - they test you on questions very similar to the exam I saw, but with one or two more mechanical steps added to them. I'd time myself and would end up with about 3-4 questions left uncompleted on the Destroyer and would end up getting about 8 wrong (I didn't allow myself to guess on answers I couldn't answer myself) including the ones omitted. If you can do about this well, you should have no problem getting 20+ here.
Reading Comprehension:
Can't really study for this, but I'd recommend using 'Crack DAT Reading', even if you only buy the 5 test version. This is so that A) you can test different strategies like 'search and destroy', and B) so that you're able to get a feel for the exam (same as CDP). The only downside to CDR was the passages were shorter on average than the exam (diminishing its usefulness), but there were fewer fact based questions (increasing its usefulness). If you can search and destroy using CDR, you'll probably fare better on the actual exam, as the actual exam had many more factual questions than inference based ones. If you have other resources like Topscore or Achiever, they should be fine, but be sure to time yourself! (They're not software based are they?!)
Side note: I was hoping to get PIANO'd (played music for over 15 years), but wanted to avoid the FRAP. I didn't get either, or the ethics passage.
Biology:
The biggest gap in knowledge that I had was not having taken an anatomy class before the exam. This would have helped my studying, but luckily I didn't get too many anatomy questions. I felt like I did very well on this section and was taken aback that I got my lowest on this section (I'll take a 20 tho..)
I tried reading Cliff's notes, but I felt like Cliff's was just a rehash of my summer, and so I didn't get anywhere near finishing it. Cliff's was probably the best thing to read if you haven't taken first year college biology classes or you took them awhile ago. I didn't give it as much time as I could have, but I felt like I was beating a dead horse.
Kaplan's Blue Book was cheap, and if you are on a budget or don't want to do anything other than simply review biology on a very cursory level this is ok. Otherwise, I can't recommend it unless you're not working with Cliff's and need that basic sort of review. KBB does have the advantage of being more broad than Cliff's. It has the disadvantage of having errors, and being somewhat haphazard in how it covers material - some was covered in way too much detail, others not covered enough.
The real gem I found here was DAT Destroyer. I didn't see many recommending Destroyer for biology, and the Destroyer's questions were not representative of the questions found on the DAT, but they force you to learn what you don't know - 373 or so questions ask you questions on nearly everything I learned and then a ton more from anatomy. This was a much better way to learn the material than from KBB, even when the topics were discussed in a similar manner.
Follow up Destroyer with Wikipedia for any processes, hormones, structures, words, terms, etc. you don't understand, or Google if Wikipedia is too verbose. I know everyone here has been to Wikipedia, and people say "the information there is not reliable!"...which is valid if you're writing a peer-reviewed article. Basic scientific information is pretty solid there, and that's what the DAT requires. If someone vandalizes pages, it's usually pretty visible.
Lastly, there were a bunch of biology notes posted in a thread a few topics down (look for "biology notes"). I didn't get to use them, but I would have if I had time, as I found them only a day before my exam. They are very concise and have a ton of information in a compact form, only 30 pages of recycled printer paper, and otherwise FREE. Great resource.
I want to mention that the DAT I took had a number of biology topics I've NEVER seen on any bio resource before. I'd imagine they're for upper-level biology classes...but as they're the first time I saw them, I can't remember what they were about. Sorry! Post DAT brain drain..
General Chemistry:
I didn't study much for this. I did exceedingly well in my first year Gen Chem and it was only over during last summer, so I came to this section relatively fresh out of class. However, Chad is most definitely the man for Gen Chem. But I'll rave about him more in Ochem - what I say about him there definitely applies to Gen Chem as well.
I tried Destroyer, but I did not think that the questions there were worth the effort after doing so well from Chad's quizzes. I disliked the fact that you'd be required to use a calculator to do some of the questions there, and the actual exam does not require it. The best test of how good a resource is for test prep is how representative it is of the exam, and I was unable to use any of the information in Destroyer for the Gen Chem ON THE EXAM. That means it wasted my time for studying. If you don't use Chad (he's cheaper!), maybe then the Destroyer is worth it - it worked for the other 3 sections I used it for. It was a waste of my time otherwise, and my time is valuable!
Organic Chemistry:
This is what I really wanted to talk about. I'm only starting my first semester of Ochem right now - meaning I've never formally taken any Ochem. NONE. (There's no sex in the champagne room. NONE. I've always wanted to say that..)
Chad + Destroyer. Watch every movie on Chad's website, and then do the destroyer questions. Then watch the videos. Then do the questions. That's all you need. There's no way you'd tell me 5 months ago that my best score would be on Ochem and I'd believe you. There were a few (2?) questions outside of what these two sources gave me, but it may also be to my relative ignorance of the topic, and C+D may have covered it and I was just not familiar with the term or reagent. Regardless, if a person with a degree in accounting can get a 24 without taking the actual class, that speaks volumes of how good these resources are. I wish I could get paid to advertise for them on this board. I don't. They're that good.
If you've read this far, thanks! You're my obligatory post-exam catharsis. The real reason for my post is to thank those of you who shared your DAT experience prior to my exam. Your insights helped me in ways I don't remember and cannot express. I felt if I didn't do the same, it's not a fair game.
Good luck to those of you taking it soon!
Edit: Omitted ending statement...
PA: 22
QR: 24
RC: 22
BIO: 20
GC: 22
OC: 24
TS: 22
AA: 22
I want to start by saying I'm nowhere near your normal DAT taker. I'm a CPA looking to change his career after a few years spent in industry...as such I'm older and do not have as much background with this stuff as science majors do. However, I am very familiar with standardized exams, as I passed the CPA exam handily on my first try. In terms of detail/difficulty, the CPA exam was much more difficult, but clearly much more focused. The DAT requires a much greater amount of information to be absorbed and taking the exam after the relevant classes will help a lot.
I've only started going back to school for science classes on January. I took my entire year of biology over the Summer, chem over Spring/Summer, year of biochem over Summer, microbiology in Spring.
TLDR version
Resources used: Chad, Destroyer, CDP, CDR, Wikipedia, Google, KBB, Cliff's, some notes pages posted on this board a few topics down. The bold ones are the ones I recommend; Chad is cheap, Destroyer isn't but is worth it if you care about getting a good score, CDP isn't either but you NEED a good method of practice or you will not do well. Wikipedia/Google/Notes were all free so you'd be dumb not to use 'em! I did not use topscore, achiever, or any other resources. KBB and Cliff's I used very little, and wouldn't have used looking back. CDR is the only resource I feel wasn't *critical* to a good score, but I made good use of it, and so I feel I should include it.
Perceptual Ability:
Everyone says use the 10 test 'Crack DAT PAT'. I did this, and it worked very well. The only thing negative I found was that the software did not include a specific type of folding pattern for hole punching that was present on my exam (although I won't discuss what kind of fold it was, as per the rules). This is a small technical gripe, as the software should have prepared you well enough to handle this if you have taken the 10 tests. Overall the software is great in that it provides you the environment that is nearly identical to the exam, timing options, and practice, practice, practice. Make sure you take the 10 tests close to your actual exam date.
Quantitative Reasoning:
Math Destroyer, but don't bother with test number 11. I tried doing this test the night before the exam, and boy what a confidence killer it was. The questions in tests numbers 1-10 are all you will need - they test you on questions very similar to the exam I saw, but with one or two more mechanical steps added to them. I'd time myself and would end up with about 3-4 questions left uncompleted on the Destroyer and would end up getting about 8 wrong (I didn't allow myself to guess on answers I couldn't answer myself) including the ones omitted. If you can do about this well, you should have no problem getting 20+ here.
Reading Comprehension:
Can't really study for this, but I'd recommend using 'Crack DAT Reading', even if you only buy the 5 test version. This is so that A) you can test different strategies like 'search and destroy', and B) so that you're able to get a feel for the exam (same as CDP). The only downside to CDR was the passages were shorter on average than the exam (diminishing its usefulness), but there were fewer fact based questions (increasing its usefulness). If you can search and destroy using CDR, you'll probably fare better on the actual exam, as the actual exam had many more factual questions than inference based ones. If you have other resources like Topscore or Achiever, they should be fine, but be sure to time yourself! (They're not software based are they?!)
Side note: I was hoping to get PIANO'd (played music for over 15 years), but wanted to avoid the FRAP. I didn't get either, or the ethics passage.
Biology:
The biggest gap in knowledge that I had was not having taken an anatomy class before the exam. This would have helped my studying, but luckily I didn't get too many anatomy questions. I felt like I did very well on this section and was taken aback that I got my lowest on this section (I'll take a 20 tho..)
I tried reading Cliff's notes, but I felt like Cliff's was just a rehash of my summer, and so I didn't get anywhere near finishing it. Cliff's was probably the best thing to read if you haven't taken first year college biology classes or you took them awhile ago. I didn't give it as much time as I could have, but I felt like I was beating a dead horse.
Kaplan's Blue Book was cheap, and if you are on a budget or don't want to do anything other than simply review biology on a very cursory level this is ok. Otherwise, I can't recommend it unless you're not working with Cliff's and need that basic sort of review. KBB does have the advantage of being more broad than Cliff's. It has the disadvantage of having errors, and being somewhat haphazard in how it covers material - some was covered in way too much detail, others not covered enough.
The real gem I found here was DAT Destroyer. I didn't see many recommending Destroyer for biology, and the Destroyer's questions were not representative of the questions found on the DAT, but they force you to learn what you don't know - 373 or so questions ask you questions on nearly everything I learned and then a ton more from anatomy. This was a much better way to learn the material than from KBB, even when the topics were discussed in a similar manner.
Follow up Destroyer with Wikipedia for any processes, hormones, structures, words, terms, etc. you don't understand, or Google if Wikipedia is too verbose. I know everyone here has been to Wikipedia, and people say "the information there is not reliable!"...which is valid if you're writing a peer-reviewed article. Basic scientific information is pretty solid there, and that's what the DAT requires. If someone vandalizes pages, it's usually pretty visible.
Lastly, there were a bunch of biology notes posted in a thread a few topics down (look for "biology notes"). I didn't get to use them, but I would have if I had time, as I found them only a day before my exam. They are very concise and have a ton of information in a compact form, only 30 pages of recycled printer paper, and otherwise FREE. Great resource.
I want to mention that the DAT I took had a number of biology topics I've NEVER seen on any bio resource before. I'd imagine they're for upper-level biology classes...but as they're the first time I saw them, I can't remember what they were about. Sorry! Post DAT brain drain..
General Chemistry:
I didn't study much for this. I did exceedingly well in my first year Gen Chem and it was only over during last summer, so I came to this section relatively fresh out of class. However, Chad is most definitely the man for Gen Chem. But I'll rave about him more in Ochem - what I say about him there definitely applies to Gen Chem as well.
I tried Destroyer, but I did not think that the questions there were worth the effort after doing so well from Chad's quizzes. I disliked the fact that you'd be required to use a calculator to do some of the questions there, and the actual exam does not require it. The best test of how good a resource is for test prep is how representative it is of the exam, and I was unable to use any of the information in Destroyer for the Gen Chem ON THE EXAM. That means it wasted my time for studying. If you don't use Chad (he's cheaper!), maybe then the Destroyer is worth it - it worked for the other 3 sections I used it for. It was a waste of my time otherwise, and my time is valuable!
Organic Chemistry:
This is what I really wanted to talk about. I'm only starting my first semester of Ochem right now - meaning I've never formally taken any Ochem. NONE. (There's no sex in the champagne room. NONE. I've always wanted to say that..)
Chad + Destroyer. Watch every movie on Chad's website, and then do the destroyer questions. Then watch the videos. Then do the questions. That's all you need. There's no way you'd tell me 5 months ago that my best score would be on Ochem and I'd believe you. There were a few (2?) questions outside of what these two sources gave me, but it may also be to my relative ignorance of the topic, and C+D may have covered it and I was just not familiar with the term or reagent. Regardless, if a person with a degree in accounting can get a 24 without taking the actual class, that speaks volumes of how good these resources are. I wish I could get paid to advertise for them on this board. I don't. They're that good.
If you've read this far, thanks! You're my obligatory post-exam catharsis. The real reason for my post is to thank those of you who shared your DAT experience prior to my exam. Your insights helped me in ways I don't remember and cannot express. I felt if I didn't do the same, it's not a fair game.
Good luck to those of you taking it soon!
Edit: Omitted ending statement...
