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- Dec 30, 2007
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NOTE: I will be answering all questions (from PM's and the thread) in this first post right here. PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME ABOUT SPECIFICS.
How did I study and when did I start?
In summer '07, I had just finished taking general chemistry and bio, so I tried to do what i could, got lazy after a week or two, and quit studying.
Over the past year, I took organic chem 1 and 2, genetics (Fall 07) , and human physiology (Spring 08). These courses alone gave me plenty of confidence the for organic chem and bio sections. General chem was difficult at first, just because it had been so long since I took it.
I began studying a bit more around spring break. I wasn't able to devote all my time to it because I had my actual classes to worry about, but I still managed to read a chapter or 2 each day for about two months from Schaum's Biology or Kaplan's GRE: Biology. (Yeah.. I read them multiple times.)
Once the semester ended in early May, I studied maybe 5 days a week, for an average of 6 hours a day. The first thing I've gotta say is READ, READ, READ! Some people say that reading is not the most efficient thing to do for studying for the DAT, but I think the first thing anyone should do is read lots of bio. Also, I practiced math first thing in the morning using Crack DAT MATH and PAT every evening using Crack DAT PAT.
After you feel like you have familiarized yourself with all the information from the books, hit the practice tests. For my last 3 weeks of studying, I took a DAT Achiever test every Friday, and a TopScore test every Monday. I really suggest not to take 6 practice tests in the week and a half before the real thing. It helps to take it several weeks before so you know where you stand and what you need to brush up on.
For the last week and a half before my test, I got really lazy/bored/TIRED of staring at the same thing over and over and over again. I felt like I had seen it all, so I got so bored and ended up watching all 4 seasons of The Office over the past 5 days. HAHA.. man.... That series is too funny.
I found that relaxing for the last week before test day is CRUCIAL. Take it easy.. The day before the test, I did a little math and PAT, and I played lots of video games.
Materials used to study: (Don't be stingy when it comes to study materials... It's worth it.)
1) DAT Destroyer.
I found this book to be perfect for the bio and overkill for both chem sections. Of course, overkill is a good thing for this test. I worked through the bio section 3 times and the chemistry sections twice.
2) Organic Chemistry Odyssey
OVERKILL.. but to me, overkill is a good thing.
3) Kaplan
I bought the purple/blue book from Barnes and casually looked throw it starting last summer. I also had access to my friend's online stuff. The section tests and practice tests were very much similar to the actual DAT. I found the difficulty of Kap's bio to be about the same of the real thing, and the real gen chem and organic chem are easier than Kap's practice material.
4) Schaum's Biology
I read through this guy twice and referenced it as I reviewed practice tests and section tests. It has a lot of information that you don't need, but I feel that learning the fine details of things really helped me gain a greater understand of the concepts.
4) Kaplan's GRE Exam, Subject Test: BIOLOGY
This book is awesome. I read through this one twice. More information than Kaplan's DAT book, but not too much like Schaum's.
5) Crack DAT MATH (Royal Flush Edition)
People say this thing is FULL of errors. It was when I first started using it, but they pay you for each error that you report. In the beginning, I reported 15 errors, so they rewarded me with $150. After that, they changed their policy to $5 an error, and I made another $135.
Like I said, this program WAS full of errors, but it's not too bad anymore. I found it to be just a hair easier than the real thing. It was really helpful for timing.
6) Crack DAT PAT (Royal Flush Edition)
JUST like the real thing. I was scoring about the same on these practice test as I did on the real thing. I found the angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching on Crack to be harder than the real thing. Everything else was about the same.
7) TopScore
I didn't like this program. To me, it seemed like the questions were written by some idiot with an AP bio book.. but I GUESS I still found it useful.
8) DAT Achiever
This is good stuff right here. As everyone says, the real thing is much easier.
Section by section breakdown:
1) Bio: Very straight forward. Look at lots and LOTS of questions, and you'll have it covered.
2) Gen Chem: Simple. Very few calculations and lots of setting up. Know your periodic trends and about intermolecular forces, and you'll have a majority of the material down. I found that most of the practice tests out there were 10 times harder than the real thing.
3) Organic: The easiest science. Very basic 1 step reactions, and a couple of two step ones. Like gen chem, all the real thing is much easier than all of the practice material out there.
4) PAT: The angle ranking wasn't as bad is I thought it was going to be. Everything else was as expected. All I can say about this one is practice, practice, practice.
5) Reading: SEARCH AND DESTROY. I didn't read much at all, and to tell you the truth, I can't remember what the passages are about. My strategy for this one was to read the question, take 20 or 30 seconds to search for the answer, and then skip it if I couldn't find it. Don't waste your time on a single question. Skip it, and you'll probably find the answer while you're working on another question.
6) QR: For the hard ones, guess, skip, and come back if you have time.
And now for the scores...
PAT / QR / RC / BIO / GEN CHEM / O CHEM / TS / AA
Kap Prac. Test 1: 26 / 30 / 21 / 22 / 24 / 30 / 25 / 25
Kap Prac. Test 2: 23 / 26 / 22 / 26 / 24 / 21 / 24 / 24
TopScore Test 1: N/A.. I cheated on this one.
TopScore Test 2: 23 / 23 / 21 / 21 / 21 / 25 / 22 / 22
TopScore Test 3: ----------- / 21 / 23 / 30 / 23 (ONLY DID SCIENCE)
Achiever Test 1: 18 / 22 / 22 / 21 / 20 / 21 / 21 / 22
Achiever Test 2: 21 / 25 / 22 / 21 / 18 / 30 / 21 / 22
Achiever Test 3: 20 / 22 / 25 / 20 / 28 / 30 / 24 / 24
REAL DAT 7/2/08: 23 / 22 / 28 / 29 / 27 / 26 / 28 / 26
and for all you non believers out there..
And a little advice for those who plan to take the DAT next year... TAKE HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY!!!
What's next??
I need to finish my personal statement.
I just completed my second year of college, and I am hoping I can get into dental school without a bachelors. I was thinking of applying to all 3 TX schools and several out of state just to be safe, but now, I think I'm just going to apply to the 3 TX.
Houston is my number one choice.
BANKAI!
How did I study and when did I start?
In summer '07, I had just finished taking general chemistry and bio, so I tried to do what i could, got lazy after a week or two, and quit studying.
Over the past year, I took organic chem 1 and 2, genetics (Fall 07) , and human physiology (Spring 08). These courses alone gave me plenty of confidence the for organic chem and bio sections. General chem was difficult at first, just because it had been so long since I took it.
I began studying a bit more around spring break. I wasn't able to devote all my time to it because I had my actual classes to worry about, but I still managed to read a chapter or 2 each day for about two months from Schaum's Biology or Kaplan's GRE: Biology. (Yeah.. I read them multiple times.)
Once the semester ended in early May, I studied maybe 5 days a week, for an average of 6 hours a day. The first thing I've gotta say is READ, READ, READ! Some people say that reading is not the most efficient thing to do for studying for the DAT, but I think the first thing anyone should do is read lots of bio. Also, I practiced math first thing in the morning using Crack DAT MATH and PAT every evening using Crack DAT PAT.
After you feel like you have familiarized yourself with all the information from the books, hit the practice tests. For my last 3 weeks of studying, I took a DAT Achiever test every Friday, and a TopScore test every Monday. I really suggest not to take 6 practice tests in the week and a half before the real thing. It helps to take it several weeks before so you know where you stand and what you need to brush up on.
For the last week and a half before my test, I got really lazy/bored/TIRED of staring at the same thing over and over and over again. I felt like I had seen it all, so I got so bored and ended up watching all 4 seasons of The Office over the past 5 days. HAHA.. man.... That series is too funny.
I found that relaxing for the last week before test day is CRUCIAL. Take it easy.. The day before the test, I did a little math and PAT, and I played lots of video games.
Materials used to study: (Don't be stingy when it comes to study materials... It's worth it.)
1) DAT Destroyer.
I found this book to be perfect for the bio and overkill for both chem sections. Of course, overkill is a good thing for this test. I worked through the bio section 3 times and the chemistry sections twice.
2) Organic Chemistry Odyssey
OVERKILL.. but to me, overkill is a good thing.
3) Kaplan
I bought the purple/blue book from Barnes and casually looked throw it starting last summer. I also had access to my friend's online stuff. The section tests and practice tests were very much similar to the actual DAT. I found the difficulty of Kap's bio to be about the same of the real thing, and the real gen chem and organic chem are easier than Kap's practice material.
4) Schaum's Biology
I read through this guy twice and referenced it as I reviewed practice tests and section tests. It has a lot of information that you don't need, but I feel that learning the fine details of things really helped me gain a greater understand of the concepts.
4) Kaplan's GRE Exam, Subject Test: BIOLOGY
This book is awesome. I read through this one twice. More information than Kaplan's DAT book, but not too much like Schaum's.
5) Crack DAT MATH (Royal Flush Edition)
People say this thing is FULL of errors. It was when I first started using it, but they pay you for each error that you report. In the beginning, I reported 15 errors, so they rewarded me with $150. After that, they changed their policy to $5 an error, and I made another $135.
Like I said, this program WAS full of errors, but it's not too bad anymore. I found it to be just a hair easier than the real thing. It was really helpful for timing.
6) Crack DAT PAT (Royal Flush Edition)
JUST like the real thing. I was scoring about the same on these practice test as I did on the real thing. I found the angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching on Crack to be harder than the real thing. Everything else was about the same.
7) TopScore
I didn't like this program. To me, it seemed like the questions were written by some idiot with an AP bio book.. but I GUESS I still found it useful.
8) DAT Achiever
This is good stuff right here. As everyone says, the real thing is much easier.
Section by section breakdown:
1) Bio: Very straight forward. Look at lots and LOTS of questions, and you'll have it covered.
2) Gen Chem: Simple. Very few calculations and lots of setting up. Know your periodic trends and about intermolecular forces, and you'll have a majority of the material down. I found that most of the practice tests out there were 10 times harder than the real thing.
3) Organic: The easiest science. Very basic 1 step reactions, and a couple of two step ones. Like gen chem, all the real thing is much easier than all of the practice material out there.
4) PAT: The angle ranking wasn't as bad is I thought it was going to be. Everything else was as expected. All I can say about this one is practice, practice, practice.
5) Reading: SEARCH AND DESTROY. I didn't read much at all, and to tell you the truth, I can't remember what the passages are about. My strategy for this one was to read the question, take 20 or 30 seconds to search for the answer, and then skip it if I couldn't find it. Don't waste your time on a single question. Skip it, and you'll probably find the answer while you're working on another question.
6) QR: For the hard ones, guess, skip, and come back if you have time.
And now for the scores...
PAT / QR / RC / BIO / GEN CHEM / O CHEM / TS / AA
Kap Prac. Test 1: 26 / 30 / 21 / 22 / 24 / 30 / 25 / 25
Kap Prac. Test 2: 23 / 26 / 22 / 26 / 24 / 21 / 24 / 24
TopScore Test 1: N/A.. I cheated on this one.
TopScore Test 2: 23 / 23 / 21 / 21 / 21 / 25 / 22 / 22
TopScore Test 3: ----------- / 21 / 23 / 30 / 23 (ONLY DID SCIENCE)
Achiever Test 1: 18 / 22 / 22 / 21 / 20 / 21 / 21 / 22
Achiever Test 2: 21 / 25 / 22 / 21 / 18 / 30 / 21 / 22
Achiever Test 3: 20 / 22 / 25 / 20 / 28 / 30 / 24 / 24
REAL DAT 7/2/08: 23 / 22 / 28 / 29 / 27 / 26 / 28 / 26
and for all you non believers out there..
And a little advice for those who plan to take the DAT next year... TAKE HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY!!!
What's next??
I need to finish my personal statement.
I just completed my second year of college, and I am hoping I can get into dental school without a bachelors. I was thinking of applying to all 3 TX schools and several out of state just to be safe, but now, I think I'm just going to apply to the 3 TX.
Houston is my number one choice.
BANKAI!
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