I thought I'd write a review because all the other breakdowns have been so helpful! Also a little background, I am going to be a junior at UCLA majoring in Biology so some of the classes I've taken helped me a bit with the studying. That being said here are my scores and resources..
QR 30
RC 22
OChem 22
GChem 27
Bio 21
TS 23
PAT 22
AA 24
Resources:
Kaplan Onsite class (?/10)
I took the class and had homework online but literally never did any of it. I felt like it was such a waste of money. I put a question mark as a rating because I don't know if I could accurately rate it given that I didn't really do any of the work. BUT if i had to do it over again I would not have spent all that money because I did fine without it!
DAT Achiever (6/10)
OMG I got DESTROYED on this... I remember taking it the first time and scoring a 18 after I thought I knew everything and my confidence was destroyed. I took it a second time and got a 17, and the third time i quit in the middle because it was taking a toll on me mentally. My advice to you if you decide to buy acheiver is to take it as a learning experience and not focus on the scores because it will just mess with you mentally. The reason you're taking practice is to learn so just take the practice tests in that posture.
Crack DAT PAT (8/10)
This is a good resource to start with, but I think the real thing is harder and more closely resembles the PAT in DAT bootcamp. There were some irregular shapes on the real thing that caught me off guard so definitely want to use bootcamp's PAT.
DAT Destroyer (10/10)
I went through the destroyer a total of 4 times... First time I got probably 15/30 wrong everyday on each section and I saw how much I didn't know. So I just kept at it, really understanding the mistakes I made until I was down to missing only 5 questions my 4th time around.
Math Destroyer (10/10)
ALOT harder than the real thing but if you can master it than you will do very well on the real thing.
DAT bootcamp (10/10)
Really liked bootcamp and thought it was representative of the actual test. The PAT however was alot harder than the real thing. I would probably spend more time on bootcamps PAT than crack dat pat because some of the more difficult questions on the real thing are closer to some questions presented in bootcamp.
Ferralis notes (9/10)
This is the best bio source in my opinion. What I did was whenever I was reviewing a practice test form achiever, bootcamp, or destroyer I would see the topics that I got wrong and would outline that whole scetion in Ferralis. By the end I had outlined all of Ferallis and would keep compiling more notes as I took more practice tests.
KBB (5/10)
I spent 2 weeks outlining the bio section but in all honesty, it was to shallow and required more depth. It's a good introductory source when you are just starting but Ferralis notes is the way to go.
2007 DAT (3/10)
Way to easy, no wonder they give it for free
2009 DAT(9/10)
I thought this was a pretty fair test
Chad's Videos (10/10)
Chad is the BEST resource out there. I spent 2 weeks outlining and taking notes on all his videos in the general and organic chemistry department. I wrote really good detailed notes because it was going to be my main source of info throughout my studying and everytime I learned something I would just add to the Chad's notes.
TEST
QR: Math has always been my strongest subject but I have never gotten a perfect score on any of my practice tests. Math Destroyer definitely helped me out even though I thought it was a lot harder than the real thing. When I timed myself on the destroyer, I would have 1-3 minutes to spare but on the real thing I had 10 minutes. Maybe I just got an easy test but I felt like I was prepared for this section.
RC: I was so happy when I saw that I got above a 20 on the RC because I absolutely suck at reading... Just to give a reference point, on the Kaplan online tests which were supposed to be easy, I consistently got 17 and 18 on RC alongside the DAT Achiever and 2007 and 2009 DAT so I was definitely intimidated by this section but got passages that were really interesting and easy to understand. I used the summary method where I would write notes while reading then refer back to them when I was answering questions. I also had 5 min to spare which was also surprising given that most of the practice tests I've taken I wasn't able to even finish.
Bio: I feel like bio is a hit or miss because of the amount of material they could test you on. I felt like I did alot for bio and still didn't know that much. The first ten questions of this section I marked 7 questions that I didn't know/wasn't sure of. Just shows you how much material they have to throw at you. But all in all Ferralis was probably the best source out there.
OChem: I just took OChem last quarter with one of the best professors who could ever teach Ochem so I was a little dissappointed in my score but by no means am I complaining. That being said I thought destroyer did a good job in preparing me for this section because it was so much harder than the real thing. There weren't any weird reactions or anything, pretty straight forward, so makes me wonder what I missed on this section. Again Chads videos is the best resource to prepare for this section. Destroyer is overkill but helps you sharpen the details and concepts.
GChem: Again, Chads helped me alot on this part and I also had an awesome high school chem teacher that put a great foundation for my gchem knowledge. No curveballs EXCEPT Beers law.. I remember seeing it in teh destroyer and someone positng about how they got on their real test and damn.. I thought I wasn't going to get it but I did.. But other than that it was a fair section. I felt even bootcamp was harder than the real thing.
PAT: Harder than I imagined, but still manageable. Like I mentioned before there were some irregular shapes that didn't make sense to me on the keyhole part but the rest was pretty fair. I would do bootcamps DAT since they have more difficult problems that will help you with the real thing.
LAST ADVICE
My main point that I want to get across is to not be discouraged by the scores you get/how many you get wrong on tests. I have never scored these scores before and yet I did!! The posture you want to take when you do get alot wrong is that of learning. Just think that now that you have gotten that question wrong you will never get that concept wrong again. The mental part of studying is the most difficult and just being able to bounce back and keep focused. I marked the first 7/10 questions I took in the science part so I thought I was screwed for the whole thing. During the bio part I was like crap I have to retake this all over again.. But I had to ignore that and stay in the moment and stay focused. NEVER give up! If you really want it, go get it!!
btw.. if the grammar or sentence structure or whatever in this breakdown annoyed you I apologize.. I am so burned out that was the last thing on my mind when writing this haha
QR 30
RC 22
OChem 22
GChem 27
Bio 21
TS 23
PAT 22
AA 24
Resources:
Kaplan Onsite class (?/10)
I took the class and had homework online but literally never did any of it. I felt like it was such a waste of money. I put a question mark as a rating because I don't know if I could accurately rate it given that I didn't really do any of the work. BUT if i had to do it over again I would not have spent all that money because I did fine without it!
DAT Achiever (6/10)
OMG I got DESTROYED on this... I remember taking it the first time and scoring a 18 after I thought I knew everything and my confidence was destroyed. I took it a second time and got a 17, and the third time i quit in the middle because it was taking a toll on me mentally. My advice to you if you decide to buy acheiver is to take it as a learning experience and not focus on the scores because it will just mess with you mentally. The reason you're taking practice is to learn so just take the practice tests in that posture.
Crack DAT PAT (8/10)
This is a good resource to start with, but I think the real thing is harder and more closely resembles the PAT in DAT bootcamp. There were some irregular shapes on the real thing that caught me off guard so definitely want to use bootcamp's PAT.
DAT Destroyer (10/10)
I went through the destroyer a total of 4 times... First time I got probably 15/30 wrong everyday on each section and I saw how much I didn't know. So I just kept at it, really understanding the mistakes I made until I was down to missing only 5 questions my 4th time around.
Math Destroyer (10/10)
ALOT harder than the real thing but if you can master it than you will do very well on the real thing.
DAT bootcamp (10/10)
Really liked bootcamp and thought it was representative of the actual test. The PAT however was alot harder than the real thing. I would probably spend more time on bootcamps PAT than crack dat pat because some of the more difficult questions on the real thing are closer to some questions presented in bootcamp.
Ferralis notes (9/10)
This is the best bio source in my opinion. What I did was whenever I was reviewing a practice test form achiever, bootcamp, or destroyer I would see the topics that I got wrong and would outline that whole scetion in Ferralis. By the end I had outlined all of Ferallis and would keep compiling more notes as I took more practice tests.
KBB (5/10)
I spent 2 weeks outlining the bio section but in all honesty, it was to shallow and required more depth. It's a good introductory source when you are just starting but Ferralis notes is the way to go.
2007 DAT (3/10)
Way to easy, no wonder they give it for free
2009 DAT(9/10)
I thought this was a pretty fair test
Chad's Videos (10/10)
Chad is the BEST resource out there. I spent 2 weeks outlining and taking notes on all his videos in the general and organic chemistry department. I wrote really good detailed notes because it was going to be my main source of info throughout my studying and everytime I learned something I would just add to the Chad's notes.
TEST
QR: Math has always been my strongest subject but I have never gotten a perfect score on any of my practice tests. Math Destroyer definitely helped me out even though I thought it was a lot harder than the real thing. When I timed myself on the destroyer, I would have 1-3 minutes to spare but on the real thing I had 10 minutes. Maybe I just got an easy test but I felt like I was prepared for this section.
RC: I was so happy when I saw that I got above a 20 on the RC because I absolutely suck at reading... Just to give a reference point, on the Kaplan online tests which were supposed to be easy, I consistently got 17 and 18 on RC alongside the DAT Achiever and 2007 and 2009 DAT so I was definitely intimidated by this section but got passages that were really interesting and easy to understand. I used the summary method where I would write notes while reading then refer back to them when I was answering questions. I also had 5 min to spare which was also surprising given that most of the practice tests I've taken I wasn't able to even finish.
Bio: I feel like bio is a hit or miss because of the amount of material they could test you on. I felt like I did alot for bio and still didn't know that much. The first ten questions of this section I marked 7 questions that I didn't know/wasn't sure of. Just shows you how much material they have to throw at you. But all in all Ferralis was probably the best source out there.
OChem: I just took OChem last quarter with one of the best professors who could ever teach Ochem so I was a little dissappointed in my score but by no means am I complaining. That being said I thought destroyer did a good job in preparing me for this section because it was so much harder than the real thing. There weren't any weird reactions or anything, pretty straight forward, so makes me wonder what I missed on this section. Again Chads videos is the best resource to prepare for this section. Destroyer is overkill but helps you sharpen the details and concepts.
GChem: Again, Chads helped me alot on this part and I also had an awesome high school chem teacher that put a great foundation for my gchem knowledge. No curveballs EXCEPT Beers law.. I remember seeing it in teh destroyer and someone positng about how they got on their real test and damn.. I thought I wasn't going to get it but I did.. But other than that it was a fair section. I felt even bootcamp was harder than the real thing.
PAT: Harder than I imagined, but still manageable. Like I mentioned before there were some irregular shapes that didn't make sense to me on the keyhole part but the rest was pretty fair. I would do bootcamps DAT since they have more difficult problems that will help you with the real thing.
LAST ADVICE
My main point that I want to get across is to not be discouraged by the scores you get/how many you get wrong on tests. I have never scored these scores before and yet I did!! The posture you want to take when you do get alot wrong is that of learning. Just think that now that you have gotten that question wrong you will never get that concept wrong again. The mental part of studying is the most difficult and just being able to bounce back and keep focused. I marked the first 7/10 questions I took in the science part so I thought I was screwed for the whole thing. During the bio part I was like crap I have to retake this all over again.. But I had to ignore that and stay in the moment and stay focused. NEVER give up! If you really want it, go get it!!
btw.. if the grammar or sentence structure or whatever in this breakdown annoyed you I apologize.. I am so burned out that was the last thing on my mind when writing this haha
