DAT DONE ! 24AA 25TS

[nostalgicfreedom]

Hello everyone,


After approximately 2 months of studying (studying on average for about 8/9 hours a day), I can finally say that I am forever done with this exam! I can’t express how happy I feel about not having to study for this dang exam anymore.


Some Stuff About Me (aka not important stuff):

I am a bio major in a 7 year dental program, so we have to give the DAT a year earlier than traditional students do. My gpa is 3.96 overall.


My scores:


PAT: 19

QR: 19

RC: 20

Bio: 23

GC: 30

OC: 26

TS: 25

AA: 24



Materials used:

-DAT Bootcamp (12/10!)

-DAT Destroyer (5/10)

-Math Destroyer (7/10)

-SDN / BC FB group (10/10)



Just want to preface this by saying these are just my opinions, so don’t get angry if they differ from yours. Also, you might be like “You just got a 24," but Idc I worked hard for this and I feel like I have some valuable information to share and want to help others.


DAT Bootcamp:

BC is hands-down the best resource for the DAT! BC tests are overall harder than the real exam but their explanations are sooooooo great!


DAT Destroyer:

Unpopular opinion here but I really didn’t like anything from DAT Destroyer except for maybe the bio portion. I expected a lot more out of destroyer but it just wasn’t representative of the real exam like at all. Imo, I thought it was way too difficult (especially the OC section of this book) for the DAT and there isn’t really a point in doing such difficult problems that you’re probably not likely to see at all. No hate towards Nancy or Dr. Romano; they're super smart, caring souls, but i'm allowed to say how I feel about their product.


Math Destroyer:

Math destroyer is very useful and a good representative of what you’ll see on the real exam. It is very challenging, but so is the real QR section on the DAT (for me it was at least). But still I prefer BC.


SDN / BC FB group: Best place to answer burning questions you have about the exam. The destroyer group is kind of dead tbh.

Now let’s talk about the actual exam:


PAT (19): This section seemed easier than BC so I’m not sure why I got 19. I got about 2 rock keyholes, which I completely guessed on. Angles and pattern folding were very easy. Everything else was just like BC.

What I would have done differently: Practiced with the generators more.
How I studied: BC


QR (19): This was always my weakest section. You have to be very speedy in this section and really know what you have to do when you see a problem. I had 0 trig questions and quite a few QC questions.

What I would have done differently: I should have done more math destroyer exams but they were so hard for me and extremely time consuming.
How I studied: khan academy, BC, math destroyer


RC (20): Tbh I was expecting a loooooot more on this section. But I was reading fairly slow because I didn’t sleep at all last night (I talk about this later on). It was sooooooooo easy. The questions were in order and super simple. Maybe, as a result, it was curved very harshly. I was also doing really bad on this section in BC.


What I would have done differently: nothing.
How I studied: just did practice tests using the BYU4you method. Crack DAT RC was very great!


Bio (23): I underestimated this section and I didn’t really spend a lot of time re-learning stuff that I forgot from BC’s notes. The questions were kinda like nothing I’ve prepped for. Like all of them were application based and required you to consider multiple things to solve. I had 3 picture/diagram things. I legit had a microscope picture of the rough ER.

What I would have done differently: I wish I bought Qvault and did all of their tests for this section.
How I studied: BC, BC notes, Bio Des.


GC (30!!!): I am soooo happy about this score. Seeing this score made my life 10 times better. I never knew it was even possible to get a 30 on anything! I even had to guess on 1 question completely (pick c always!). I spent the most time on this section. I made extremely good and colorful notes and made sure I knew them extremely well. I had lots of calculations.

What I would have done differently: nothing.
How I studied: BC, Des., MIKE’S Vids (the best vids for this section hands down!)


OC (26):


This section was just like BC. I had 4 spectroscopy questions and lots of questions about chirality and isomerism. I didn’t study a lot for this section because I spent lots of time studying for the ACS orgo final last semester.

What I would have done differently: nothing .
How I studied: BC, Mike’s Vids (again they are da best)!!!!!



This is really important!!!:


You CANNOT write anything on the sheets they give you if you come back from your 30 min break early. I numbered paragraphs for RC when I had a like 5 minutes left over for PAT.


I’ve had a really bad cough throughout pretty much my entire studying sess. I was coughing obnoxiously today during the real exam. A week before my exam I just got really depressed from studying and wanted to quit. I didn’t push myself to the fullest. I was getting really bad anxiety. Just know that everything will be okay and you can do this!!!! Never give up!


Also, make sure that you get lots of sleep the day before your exam. I stayed in a hotel with my Dad, and he was snoring like crazy all night. I got a max of about 30 minutes of sleep. I was getting super tired during the RC section and couldn’t read as fast as I normally do. I was legit reading soooooo slow (but I still finished with like 10 minutes left over). I felt like puking when I woke up and thought it was over for me and I was gonna have to retake! Also, don’t drink lots of water in the morning of your exam. I had 20 minutes left over in the SNS section and had to go pee super badly! The whole checking back in process took like 7 minutes!


Overall, the exam is easier than BC and is scored more generously so don’t stress if your practice scores aren’t 23+ (mine never were!).


Practice test scores:


Test 1 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 23/20/19/19/<15/16

Test 2 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 22/18/21/19/17/19

Test 3 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 21/21/19/19/18/18

Test 4 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 22/21/20/20/20/16

Test 5 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 20/20/18/18/19/18

Test 6 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 22/23/21/21/18/17

Test 7 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 21/22/22/19/19/17

Test 8 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 23/20/21/19/<15/18

Test 9 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 19/20/20/-/17/19

Test 10 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 21/19/20/-/-/19

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[nostalgicfreedom]

forgot to put in the proof!

 

[lwergod]

nice scores..

your comment about destroyer is little concerning when you say it wasn't representative of the actual exam..

are you saying the content was not representative, or are you referring to the difficulty itself? or both?

 

[jLaws]

Awesome scores! RC got me too! Seemed easy, was really surprised by my score there as well

 

[nostalgicfreedom]

nice scores..

your comment about destroyer is little concerning when you say it wasn't representative of the actual exam..

are you saying the content was not representative, or are you referring to the difficulty itself? or both?

Thank you ! Honestly, I personally don't think it's necessary in the slightest to use destroyer. The content is representative, but it's not really presented in a way that makes you really learn something imo. I just felt like the short solutions just aren't good enough and sound like random blobs of information. I don't think that's a good way to learn because its not really going to stick in your long term memory. Destroyer is so much harder than BC, which is already harder than the real DAT. I really don't see the point in wasting so much time focusing on such tough questions that most likely aren't even gonna be on your exam.

 

[nostalgicfreedom]

Awesome scores! RC got me too! Seemed easy, was really surprised by my score there as well

Thank you! Congrats on your awesome scores. You killed it!

 

[kimball]

Well done man, hard worked paid off!

 

[nostalgicfreedom]

Well done man, hard worked paid off!

Thank you!

 

[dent56171]

Hello everyone,


After approximately 2 months of studying (studying on average for about 8/9 hours a day), I can finally say that I am forever done with this exam! I can’t express how happy I feel about not having to study for this dang exam anymore.


Some Stuff About Me (aka not important stuff):

I am a bio major in a 7 year dental program, so we have to give the DAT a year earlier than traditional students do. My gpa is 3.96 overall.


My scores:


PAT: 19

QR: 19

RC: 20

Bio: 23

GC: 30

OC: 26

TS: 25

AA: 24



Materials used:

-DAT Bootcamp (12/10!)

-DAT Destroyer (5/10)

-Math Destroyer (7/10)

-SDN / BC FB group (10/10)



Just want to preface this by saying these are just my opinions, so don’t get angry if they differ from yours. Also, you might be like “You just got a 24," but Idc I worked hard for this and I feel like I have some valuable information to share and want to help others.


DAT Bootcamp:

BC is hands-down the best resource for the DAT! BC tests are overall harder than the real exam but their explanations are sooooooo great!


DAT Destroyer:

Unpopular opinion here but I really didn’t like anything from DAT Destroyer except for maybe the bio portion. I expected a lot more out of destroyer but it just wasn’t representative of the real exam like at all. Imo, I thought it was way too difficult (especially the OC section of this book) for the DAT and there isn’t really a point in doing such difficult problems that you’re probably not likely to see at all. No hate towards Nancy or Dr. Romano; they're super smart, caring souls, but i'm allowed to say how I feel about their product.


Math Destroyer:

Math destroyer is very useful and a good representative of what you’ll see on the real exam. It is very challenging, but so is the real QR section on the DAT (for me it was at least). But still I prefer BC.


SDN / BC FB group: Best place to answer burning questions you have about the exam. The destroyer group is kind of dead tbh.

Now let’s talk about the actual exam:


PAT (19): This section was seemed easier than BC so I’m not sure why I got 19. I got about 2 rock keyholes, which I completely guessed on. Angles and pattern folding were very easy. Everything else was just like BC.

What I would have done differently: Practiced with the generators more.
How I studied: BC


QR (19): This was my always my weakest section. You have to be very speedy in this section and really know what you have to do when you see a problem. I had 0 trig questions and quite a few QC questions.

What I would have done differently: I should have done more math destroyer exams but they were so hard for me and extremely time consuming.
How I studied: khan academy, BC, math destroyer


RC (20): Tbh I was expecting a loooooot more on this section. But I was reading fairly slow because I didn’t sleep at all last night (I talk about this later on). It was sooooooooo easy. The questions were in order and super simple. Maybe, as a result, it was curved very harshly. I was also doing really bad on this section in BC.


What I would have done differently: nothing.
How I studied: just did practice tests using the BYU4you method. Crack DAT RC was very great!


Bio (23): I underestimated this section and I didn’t really spend a lot of time re-learning stuff that I forgot from BC’s notes. The questions were kinda like nothing I’ve prepped for. Like all of them were application based and required you to consider multiple things to solve. I had 3 picture/diagram things. I legit had a microscope picture of the rough ER.

What I would have done differently: I wish I bought Qvault and did all of their tests for this section.
How I studied: BC, BC notes, Bio Des.


GC (30!!!): I am soooo happy about this score. Seeing this score made my life 10 times better. I never knew it was even possible to get a 30 on anything! I even had to guess on 1 question completely (pick c always!). I spent the most time on this section. I made extremely good and colorful notes and made sure I knew them extremely well. I had lots of calculations.

What I would have done differently: nothing.
How I studied: BC, Des., MIKE’S Vids (the best vids for this section hands down!)


OC (26):


This section was just like BC. I had 4 spectroscopy questions and lots of questions about chirality and isomerism. I didn’t study a lot for this section because I spent lots of time studying for the ACS orgo final last semester.

What I would have done differently: nothing .
How I studied: BC, Mike’s Vids (again they are da best)!!!!!



This is really important!!!:


You CANNOT write anything on the sheets they give you if you come back from your 30 min break early. I numbered paragraphs for RC when I had a like 5 minutes left over for PAT.


I’ve had a really bad cough throughout pretty much my entire studying sess. I was coughing obnoxiously today during the real exam. A week before my exam I just got really depressed from studying and wanted to quit. I didn’t push myself to the fullest. I was getting really bad anxiety. Just know that everything will be okay and you can do this!!!! Never give up!


Also, make sure that you get lots of sleep the day before your exam. I stayed in a hotel with my Dad, and he was snoring like crazy all night. I got a max of about 30 minutes of sleep. I was getting super tired during the RC section and couldn’t read as fast as I normally do. I was legit reading soooooo slow (but I still finished with like 10 minutes left over). I felt like puking when I woke up and thought it was over for me and I was gonna have to retake! Also, don’t drink lots of water in the morning of your exam. I had 20 minutes left over in the SNS section and had to go pee super badly! The whole checking back in process took like 7 minutes!


Overall, the exam is easier than BC and is scored more generously so don’t stress if your practice scores aren’t 23+ (mine never were!).


Practice test scores:


Test 1 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 23/20/19/19/<15/16

Test 2 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 22/18/21/19/17/19

Test 3 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 21/21/19/19/18/18

Test 4 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 22/21/20/20/20/16

Test 5 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 20/20/18/18/19/18

Test 6 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 22/23/21/21/18/17

Test 7 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 21/22/22/19/19/17

Test 8 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 23/20/21/19/<15/18

Test 9 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 19/20/20/-/17/19

Test 10 (Bio/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR): 21/19/20/-/-/19

Would you say most DAT questions were similar to bootcamp for the sciences and QR? Also, how is angle ranking as I sometimes do well on bootcamp however sometimes do bad.

 

[nostalgicfreedom]

Would you say most DAT questions were similar to bootcamp for the sciences and QR? Also, how is angle ranking as I sometimes do well on bootcamp however sometimes do bad.

They were very similar to BC in GC and OC. However, bio questions felt a little more challenging and different. QR was just a tad bit harder than BC. I got a lot of QC questions and other questions that just required a lot of time to solve. So practice your speed in this section. Angle ranking was easier than BC so don't worry just keep on doing the generators! Good luck!

 

[serendipity30]

well done!