First of all, I want to thank all of you on here for taking the time to help. I found all of the breakdowns to be extremely helpful and I gained tips that I otherwise would not have even thought about.
I started studying here and there in January. I ended up taking the online Kaplan course in February. With school and all of my extracurriculars, I found it very hard to take full advantage of this course. I definitely think it is a great foundation for preparing you for the test because it allows you to see the areas in which you are weak and also forces you to work on time management in studying as well as on the actual test.
I really began to take studying seriously in the middle of May. For the first two weeks, I would study for about 5 hours a day, but ended up skipping a couple of days. At this time, I read all of my resources and made some flash cards. During the two weeks leading up to the test, I completed practice test after practice test and also did Destroyer several times.
Biology
Cliff's AP Bio
Kaplan BB
Destroyer
I definitely recommend Cliff's AP Bio. It's an easy read and covers all of the bases for the requirements of the Bio section. I probably had one question that I hadn't seen in the book. Destroyer gets into great detail, but I found the questions to be helpful. Many times, the answer is all of the above, which allowed me to memorize a lot of facts that I didn't learn from reading the other two books.
I also looked at the Thinkwell videos posted earlier in the month. These helped with the subjects that I didn't understand well. I would recommend these when you don't understand a topic in Cliff's. You definitely need a deep understanding on top of memorizing straight facts.
General Chemistry
CHAD'S VIDEOS
My lifesaver. I took general chemistry two years ago, and long story short, my teacher did not prepare me adequately for any kind of test like this. Chad made everything very simple and straight to the point. Recommend 100%
The calculations on the test were very easy. All of them were covered in Chad's videos. I would say that you need a supplement to these videos to gain a wider scope of knowledge of things that will possibly be on the exam.
Kaplan BB
Destroyer
Destroyer was a little overkill, but prepares you for the worst.
Organic Chemistry
Kaplan BB
Destroyer
Chad's Videos
Avoided studying for this portion until about a week before the exam. I hated everything about Organic. But, with Chad's videos and Destroyer's road maps, I actually began to like the subject. The road maps in Destroyer put everything together in a condensed form that I could take practically any where. While the majority of the reactions were not on the exam, it is definitely worth learning the road maps if you have time.
Quantitative Reasoning
Crack DAT Math
This was extremely helpful in actually explaining how to arrive at an answer. The video answers were excellent. I hadn't done this kind of math since high school, so I was a little rusty. This program significantly improved my timing. When I did my first two, I was struggling to complete the section in the 45 minute requirement. I found it beneficial to do all of the problems I could finish in 30 seconds or so, while skipping the more complicated ones and returning to those at the end. I saw a huge leap in my practice scores when I began to do that. Simple yet effective.
Perceptual Ability
CDP!
This receives so much praise for a reason. Definitely take advantage of the explanation feature.
Reading Comprehension
Practice tests in TopScore and Achiever
I took TopScore practice tests as well as Achiever tests. TopScore was more similar to the actual DAT. Achiever was definitely harder, but like everyone says, it motivates you to study your butt off.
Thank you again to all of you SDNers!
Feel free to ask me questions.
I started studying here and there in January. I ended up taking the online Kaplan course in February. With school and all of my extracurriculars, I found it very hard to take full advantage of this course. I definitely think it is a great foundation for preparing you for the test because it allows you to see the areas in which you are weak and also forces you to work on time management in studying as well as on the actual test.
I really began to take studying seriously in the middle of May. For the first two weeks, I would study for about 5 hours a day, but ended up skipping a couple of days. At this time, I read all of my resources and made some flash cards. During the two weeks leading up to the test, I completed practice test after practice test and also did Destroyer several times.
Biology
Cliff's AP Bio
Kaplan BB
Destroyer
I definitely recommend Cliff's AP Bio. It's an easy read and covers all of the bases for the requirements of the Bio section. I probably had one question that I hadn't seen in the book. Destroyer gets into great detail, but I found the questions to be helpful. Many times, the answer is all of the above, which allowed me to memorize a lot of facts that I didn't learn from reading the other two books.
I also looked at the Thinkwell videos posted earlier in the month. These helped with the subjects that I didn't understand well. I would recommend these when you don't understand a topic in Cliff's. You definitely need a deep understanding on top of memorizing straight facts.
General Chemistry
CHAD'S VIDEOS
My lifesaver. I took general chemistry two years ago, and long story short, my teacher did not prepare me adequately for any kind of test like this. Chad made everything very simple and straight to the point. Recommend 100%
The calculations on the test were very easy. All of them were covered in Chad's videos. I would say that you need a supplement to these videos to gain a wider scope of knowledge of things that will possibly be on the exam.
Kaplan BB
Destroyer
Destroyer was a little overkill, but prepares you for the worst.
Organic Chemistry
Kaplan BB
Destroyer
Chad's Videos
Avoided studying for this portion until about a week before the exam. I hated everything about Organic. But, with Chad's videos and Destroyer's road maps, I actually began to like the subject. The road maps in Destroyer put everything together in a condensed form that I could take practically any where. While the majority of the reactions were not on the exam, it is definitely worth learning the road maps if you have time.
Quantitative Reasoning
Crack DAT Math
This was extremely helpful in actually explaining how to arrive at an answer. The video answers were excellent. I hadn't done this kind of math since high school, so I was a little rusty. This program significantly improved my timing. When I did my first two, I was struggling to complete the section in the 45 minute requirement. I found it beneficial to do all of the problems I could finish in 30 seconds or so, while skipping the more complicated ones and returning to those at the end. I saw a huge leap in my practice scores when I began to do that. Simple yet effective.
Perceptual Ability
CDP!
This receives so much praise for a reason. Definitely take advantage of the explanation feature.
Reading Comprehension
Practice tests in TopScore and Achiever
I took TopScore practice tests as well as Achiever tests. TopScore was more similar to the actual DAT. Achiever was definitely harder, but like everyone says, it motivates you to study your butt off.
Thank you again to all of you SDNers!
Feel free to ask me questions.
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