Hey guys!
Just finished the DAT and wanted to thank the SDN board for helping me get started with the DAT studying! I've never studied for a test this huge before and I have really short term memory, which made things really hard. But if you keep repeating mistakes, you will eventually remember them forever.
Here's my breakdown.
I felt the test was WAAAAAAAAAY easier than any of the practice tests including Bootcamp. I think I thought it was really easy because I saw 95% of the stuff on the test during my studies. The test is SUPER basic and straightforward and really, all you need to do to attain a higher score is to READ the question and make sure you know what its asking. Also, don't make silly mistakes.
Overall, I studied for about 2 months. The first month, I only studied about 1-2 hours a day RANDOMLY by watching Chad's videos. The second month, I took it up a notch and studied 6-8 hours a day.
The important thing to note is that when you're studying, make sure it's efficient and that you're not distracted. I took breaks whenever I felt like it, whether it be after 30 minutes of studying or 3 hours of studying. During this time, I would take a nap for quite awhile or do other stuff. Make sure you learn from your mistakes when you take practice tests.
Resources used:
Cliffs AP 4th Edition (4/10)
Kaplans Book (2/10) - Didn't really use besides to get acquainted with PAT and 1 reading passage
Ferali's Notes (10/10)
DAT Destroyer 2012 (8/10)
Math Destroyer 2012 (9/10)
Chad's Videos (15/10): Amazing, taught me mostly everything about gen chem and ochem. Chad, if you see this. THANKS SO MUCH! Also, Amy from ***********.com also answers questions promptly!
DAT Bootcamp (10/10): Amazing, taught me a couple of concepts I didn't learn from destroyer and Chad's that certainly showed up on the test. In addition, I can tell Ari has awesome customer service from what I've seem from other breakdowns. I highly recommend DAT Bootcamp to nail in any concepts that you might've forgotten. I love the constant updates that Ari makes to his website by including new strategies and tips. I had a weak angle ranking strategy before and I just looked as his a day before the test and that probably shortened my overall angle ranking time by about 1-2 minutes.
DATqVault Bio (9/10)
Google
Youtube
Wikipedia
Using just the minimum resources will surely get you a 20, but by going through a bunch of practice problems, you get those extra 3-4 questions on the exam correct that will boost your score up really high.
Studying:
Biology Ferali's notes, DatqVault, Google, Wikipedia, and Youtube
Alright, so I didn't study BIO until the last 1.5 weeks before my test. BIO caused me to reschedule my test a second time because I felt so underprepared from Cliff's AP BIO that I read a month ago. The 4th edition left out so much information. So I studied by just reading 5-10 pages of Ferali's Notes a day without taking notes. However, I would supplement whatever I didn't know by looking it up online. Also, before I go to sleep everyday, I watch Youtube, so I just switched over my Youtube videos to science videos from Craig Savage or Crash Course. About 1-3 days before the test, I took DATqVault Bio scores (scores posted below)
General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Chad's Videos, DAT Bootcamp, Destroyer
Chad and DAT Bootcamp taught me EVERYTHING I needed to know about chemistry and 90% of organic chemistry. I have a weak chemistry background since I haven't taken either in 2+ years. I started off by watching Chad's randomly during my first month of studying and taking notes. Then during my second month, I rewatched all the videos and did the quizzes again making sure I knew them. Then I went through destroyer with about 65% accuracy the first time, then went through the gen chem section another time and the ochem section a half time with still like an 85% score because I felt it was overkill. I took DAT Bootcamp the first time about a month before the test and then 2 days before the test (scores posted below).
Quantitative Reasoning Math Destroyer 2012
I always was naturally pretty good at math so I wasn't worried too much about this section even though I haven't taken a math course in over 3 years. When I started Destroyer, I was getting DESTROYED! But after test 2, I got into my math groove again and everything started clicking. I did tests 1-8 untimed and then test 1-4 again untimed.
Reading Comprehension
I am a pretty weak reader, so I am definitely happy with the score I got. I only practiced by reading 5 passages 3 days before the test. I got a 20 on the 3rd test of DAT Bootcamp.
PAT CDP and DATBootcamp
Every recent breakdown I've read said the test was WAAAAAAY harder than CDP but I found that not to be true. I averaged between a 20-22 on CDP and got a 22 on the real test so I found it to be representative. For TFE, I visualized the object rather than depending on any sort of method. I only did about 5 tests 2 - 3 weeks before since I felt like I wasn't learning that much from doing extra.
Test
Sciences: I had 35 minutes left over after I finished the sciences so I just checked my answers. It was really straight forward and the most simple thing you'll ever see compared to the practice problems.
Biology: Questions were not as random as I thought. Everything I saw was covered in Ferali's except maybe 1 question. I marked probably about 10 questions that I answered, but wasn't 100% on.
Gen Chem and Ochem: Again, questions really simple and straight forward.
QR: Easier than Math Destroyer. Finished with ~5 minutes left over and got 3/4 questions I marked.
RC: Easier than any practice tests I've done. My method was just to read the first 3 questions and then read the passage. If I saw any of the answers, then I would read another questions and continue reading. This way, I always had 3 questions stored in the back of my head. In addition, while reading, you get a general map of the entire passage. I did not write anything down. I had about 10 minutes left over when I was done. Now that I think of it, most of my questions were search and destroyable type questions.
PAT: I felt like everything was on PAR with CDP. TFE was my weakest section, so my strategy here was to go through keyholes, skip TFE, and then back to it at the end. I had about 10 minutes left over after I finished. Only strategy I really used was for hole punching which was the line of symmetry method I saw on Youtube. Cube counting was way easier than CDP and Bootcamp with no tricky cubes. The rest were on par with CDP.
Bootcamp Scores: I didn't include first scores cause I did that test a lot.
BIO: 19/19/20/19/19 Only took 1 time a month before after reading Cliffs. I can't remember the scores, but I think I averaged around a 19.
GC: X/24/30/25/X (first time I took a month before the test, I probably got around 19/19/20/19/X)
OC: X/22/27/24/X (first time I took a month before the test, I probably got around (19/19/19/19/18); last test was super hard and didn't finish on time.
RC: X/X/20/X/X
PAT: 19/X/X/X/X
QR: 24/X/X/X/X
DATqVault Bio: Did tests 1-9 and averaged about a 21-22 or 35/40 questions correct.
Overall, I think this test is certainly doable. Just make it a goal to score high and I'm pretty sure you will.
Tips:
-Study efficiently, be confident.
-Do NOT schedule the test in the afternoon. I woke up really early from being anxious and I was tired when I arrived at the test at 3 PM... I regret that. From now on, I will be taking tests in the morning.
-Reschedule if you have to; I rescheduled twice because I felt under-prepared.
-Help others on SDN when they ask questions. This makes sure you really know the material.
-Practice as many problems as you can.
-Know that hard work pays off.
You'll know when you're ready if you can take practice tests and breeze through them with 10 minutes left over.
Let me know if you have any questions (not DAT specific though), and I'll try to answer them.
Good luck!
Just finished the DAT and wanted to thank the SDN board for helping me get started with the DAT studying! I've never studied for a test this huge before and I have really short term memory, which made things really hard. But if you keep repeating mistakes, you will eventually remember them forever.
Here's my breakdown.
I felt the test was WAAAAAAAAAY easier than any of the practice tests including Bootcamp. I think I thought it was really easy because I saw 95% of the stuff on the test during my studies. The test is SUPER basic and straightforward and really, all you need to do to attain a higher score is to READ the question and make sure you know what its asking. Also, don't make silly mistakes.
Overall, I studied for about 2 months. The first month, I only studied about 1-2 hours a day RANDOMLY by watching Chad's videos. The second month, I took it up a notch and studied 6-8 hours a day.
The important thing to note is that when you're studying, make sure it's efficient and that you're not distracted. I took breaks whenever I felt like it, whether it be after 30 minutes of studying or 3 hours of studying. During this time, I would take a nap for quite awhile or do other stuff. Make sure you learn from your mistakes when you take practice tests.
Resources used:
Cliffs AP 4th Edition (4/10)
Kaplans Book (2/10) - Didn't really use besides to get acquainted with PAT and 1 reading passage
Ferali's Notes (10/10)
DAT Destroyer 2012 (8/10)
Math Destroyer 2012 (9/10)
Chad's Videos (15/10): Amazing, taught me mostly everything about gen chem and ochem. Chad, if you see this. THANKS SO MUCH! Also, Amy from ***********.com also answers questions promptly!
DAT Bootcamp (10/10): Amazing, taught me a couple of concepts I didn't learn from destroyer and Chad's that certainly showed up on the test. In addition, I can tell Ari has awesome customer service from what I've seem from other breakdowns. I highly recommend DAT Bootcamp to nail in any concepts that you might've forgotten. I love the constant updates that Ari makes to his website by including new strategies and tips. I had a weak angle ranking strategy before and I just looked as his a day before the test and that probably shortened my overall angle ranking time by about 1-2 minutes.
DATqVault Bio (9/10)
Youtube
Wikipedia
Using just the minimum resources will surely get you a 20, but by going through a bunch of practice problems, you get those extra 3-4 questions on the exam correct that will boost your score up really high.
Studying:
Biology Ferali's notes, DatqVault, Google, Wikipedia, and Youtube
Alright, so I didn't study BIO until the last 1.5 weeks before my test. BIO caused me to reschedule my test a second time because I felt so underprepared from Cliff's AP BIO that I read a month ago. The 4th edition left out so much information. So I studied by just reading 5-10 pages of Ferali's Notes a day without taking notes. However, I would supplement whatever I didn't know by looking it up online. Also, before I go to sleep everyday, I watch Youtube, so I just switched over my Youtube videos to science videos from Craig Savage or Crash Course. About 1-3 days before the test, I took DATqVault Bio scores (scores posted below)
General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Chad's Videos, DAT Bootcamp, Destroyer
Chad and DAT Bootcamp taught me EVERYTHING I needed to know about chemistry and 90% of organic chemistry. I have a weak chemistry background since I haven't taken either in 2+ years. I started off by watching Chad's randomly during my first month of studying and taking notes. Then during my second month, I rewatched all the videos and did the quizzes again making sure I knew them. Then I went through destroyer with about 65% accuracy the first time, then went through the gen chem section another time and the ochem section a half time with still like an 85% score because I felt it was overkill. I took DAT Bootcamp the first time about a month before the test and then 2 days before the test (scores posted below).
Quantitative Reasoning Math Destroyer 2012
I always was naturally pretty good at math so I wasn't worried too much about this section even though I haven't taken a math course in over 3 years. When I started Destroyer, I was getting DESTROYED! But after test 2, I got into my math groove again and everything started clicking. I did tests 1-8 untimed and then test 1-4 again untimed.
Reading Comprehension
I am a pretty weak reader, so I am definitely happy with the score I got. I only practiced by reading 5 passages 3 days before the test. I got a 20 on the 3rd test of DAT Bootcamp.
PAT CDP and DATBootcamp
Every recent breakdown I've read said the test was WAAAAAAY harder than CDP but I found that not to be true. I averaged between a 20-22 on CDP and got a 22 on the real test so I found it to be representative. For TFE, I visualized the object rather than depending on any sort of method. I only did about 5 tests 2 - 3 weeks before since I felt like I wasn't learning that much from doing extra.
Test
Sciences: I had 35 minutes left over after I finished the sciences so I just checked my answers. It was really straight forward and the most simple thing you'll ever see compared to the practice problems.
Biology: Questions were not as random as I thought. Everything I saw was covered in Ferali's except maybe 1 question. I marked probably about 10 questions that I answered, but wasn't 100% on.
Gen Chem and Ochem: Again, questions really simple and straight forward.
QR: Easier than Math Destroyer. Finished with ~5 minutes left over and got 3/4 questions I marked.
RC: Easier than any practice tests I've done. My method was just to read the first 3 questions and then read the passage. If I saw any of the answers, then I would read another questions and continue reading. This way, I always had 3 questions stored in the back of my head. In addition, while reading, you get a general map of the entire passage. I did not write anything down. I had about 10 minutes left over when I was done. Now that I think of it, most of my questions were search and destroyable type questions.
PAT: I felt like everything was on PAR with CDP. TFE was my weakest section, so my strategy here was to go through keyholes, skip TFE, and then back to it at the end. I had about 10 minutes left over after I finished. Only strategy I really used was for hole punching which was the line of symmetry method I saw on Youtube. Cube counting was way easier than CDP and Bootcamp with no tricky cubes. The rest were on par with CDP.
Bootcamp Scores: I didn't include first scores cause I did that test a lot.
BIO: 19/19/20/19/19 Only took 1 time a month before after reading Cliffs. I can't remember the scores, but I think I averaged around a 19.
GC: X/24/30/25/X (first time I took a month before the test, I probably got around 19/19/20/19/X)
OC: X/22/27/24/X (first time I took a month before the test, I probably got around (19/19/19/19/18); last test was super hard and didn't finish on time.
RC: X/X/20/X/X
PAT: 19/X/X/X/X
QR: 24/X/X/X/X
DATqVault Bio: Did tests 1-9 and averaged about a 21-22 or 35/40 questions correct.
Overall, I think this test is certainly doable. Just make it a goal to score high and I'm pretty sure you will.
Tips:
-Study efficiently, be confident.
-Do NOT schedule the test in the afternoon. I woke up really early from being anxious and I was tired when I arrived at the test at 3 PM... I regret that. From now on, I will be taking tests in the morning.
-Reschedule if you have to; I rescheduled twice because I felt under-prepared.
-Help others on SDN when they ask questions. This makes sure you really know the material.
-Practice as many problems as you can.
-Know that hard work pays off.
You'll know when you're ready if you can take practice tests and breeze through them with 10 minutes left over.
Let me know if you have any questions (not DAT specific though), and I'll try to answer them.
Good luck!
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