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It's hard to believe it's finally over. I have read an ungodly amount of breakdowns on these forums and never thought that I would be writing one myself. A little background: Being a Cell/Molecular biology major and feeling relatively fresh on the science material, I put in about 2 weeks of studying last Christmas break and got absolutely schooled by the DAT. After the initial depression wore off, I decided to spend a semester with light studying and hit the books hard this summer and retake. In total I studied roughly 8 hours a day average starting June 1st until now. Here are my old scores, and my new scores that I got today
Old (Jan 16) // New (Aug 12) (w/ percentiles)
PAT: 17—>23—(96.4) 😎
QR: 15—>18—(84.7)
RC: 22—>21—(76.7)
BIO: 16—>21—(92.3)
GC: 17—>18—(62.2) 👎
OC: 15—>22—(90.4) 😀
TS: 16—>20—(85.2)
AA: 17—>20—(87.6)
Needless to say, I am freaking excited that I am done, and that I was able to retake and do better this time. Here's the Breakdown:
PAT: The only section I felt was slightly harder than CDP was Keyholes—other than that the real thing is on par with CDP. I learned the basics from Baron's DAT prep book, and Kaplan BB. The biggest help for the PAT section for me was this thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=528643&highlight=My+wicked+PAT+Tutorial
Go through the entire thing, look at every example, learn the strategies, and you will start scoring higher on the PAT immediately. Follow that up with Crack Dat Pat. I originally bought the 5 test version but upgraded to the 10 test version so that I could have more practice. My scores for CDP: 19, 18, 17, 17, 21, 21, 21, 21. (I never took those last 2 tests). They key with PAT is exactly what everyone has said from the beginning of time: Practice, practice, practice. Initially I could not do TFE, or hole punching to save my life—on the last 4 CDP tests I took I got 15's on those sections. Honestly something just "clicks" and you wonder what was so hard about it before.
QR: I consistently scored 18's on practice exams, so I am happy with this score! The calculator on the test was a little sluggish and I made sure I stayed away from the "CE" button. I used Kaplan BB, then Math Destroyer to practice this section. I would highly recommend Khan Academy for any sections that you are weak on. I reviewed all 11 Destroyer tests without timing, and only got through like 4 timed before my test. I was all stoked to do an age problem and there were none on my test.
RC: My passages were Tooth development, Fungus, and Ethics. I was doing fabulous until the ethics passage then my method didn't work to well for that passage. The strategy I used was a modified version of VicViper's RC strategy found here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=615852 Basically the only difference is that I wrote down key words from each question instead of just putting them "In the back of my head". I feel I would remember the terms better this way. It worked for the first 2 passages, but the ethics one like the piano is just lame.
Biology: I am happier about this score than anything. Being a Bio major I was hoping for at least a 19 on this insanely random section. My test had zero taxonomy, no cell respiration, and had a surprising amount of ecology questions. There is no rhyme or reason to this section—there is so much material to draw from and they can take it anywhere. I read through Kaplan BB, AP Cliff's Bio, and Thinkwell Videos on the stuff I was least familiar with (Taxonomy, plants, respiration, photosynthesis, Ecology—I'm happy I went over ecology).
Gen Chem: This section was tough for me obviously. It is by far my weakest section seeing as my last gen chem class was 5 years ago and I got a C+ second semester. There were no questions on the sections I studied the most for (acid-base chemistry, solution chemistry, thermodynamics) and a couple on stuff I had never heard of before. I used Chad's Videos, and went through DAT destroyer 1 time only.
Ochem: This section was very straightforward. I got one question on C-NMR, no IR, no HNMR. 5 or so questions were SN2, E2, SN1, E1. No strange reactions that I can remember. I used Chad's Ochem Videos and followed that up with Destroyer. A word of advice if you want to excel on the ochem section of the DAT: Once you have the basics with chad, memorize the Destroyer roadmaps. Make flashcards, learn the flashcards, print out the roadmaps with the reaction products whited-out, and practice until you can produce all 6 roadmaps and baby roadmaps from memory. Do this and the actual DAT ochem will look easy.
Additional Randomness:
Topscore—I was a little worried because I didn't do so well on my first TS test, oh well.
My scores:
Test 1: AA:17, Bio:17, GC: 16, OC: 13, PAT:20, QR:18, RC:21, TS: 16
Test 2: AA:19, Bio:18, GC: 19, OC: 20, PAT:21, QR:19, RC:19, TS: 20
Test 3: TS:19, Bio:19, GC: 19, OC: 19 (Only took sciences)
Anki—This is a powerful tool that helped me out tremendously. If you like electronic flashcards, then you will love this free program. The basic concept is that it feeds you cards that you are forgetting using an algorithm based upon how well you know that certain card. The hardest part was toward the end when my anki deck reached over 2,000 cards trying to keep up with the daily requirement. My advice is to use it, but do not stress out about staying perfectly caught up with it. The "Cram" function was especially cool towards the end—for example, I was able to just look at all the Cliff's AP bio cards I had made and go through them all in one sitting. There is so much I can say about the power of this software. Get it, use it, and love it!
SDN—I have to say that this is the most useful site when it comes to DAT studying. The key is to come for questions and to gather your initial study materials—but once you have that, go study! I wasted a crap load of time reading posts that I wouldn't ever need. This site can become your Facebook and waste a lot of time that could be spent memorizing or studying. That is the only negative I can say about SDN.
Special thanks to: Doc Toothache for all the help with my personal statement. Vicviper for his RC thread. dentalWorks for his 8-week study course. Rlow04 for his insanely cool breakdown and for giving me someone to look up to. And finally Chad for being such a huge help to all of us trying to learn or relearn Chemistry. The final question on my ochem section was "Is your left hand the same as your left butt-cheek?" I knew the answer thanks to Chad.
Final words to those retaking the DAT: You know how hard this test is. You sat in the prometric center and felt the sting of under-preparation. I want you to know that if you put the time in and sacrifice just a few months of your life, you can dramatically improve your score. The choice is yours—are you willing to give up what you want temporarily for what you really want for the rest of your life? I say, you already know the answer. Just do it already! And to those taking the DAT in a few days or weeks, check out this post for some last minute study inspiration: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9985217#post9985217
Old (Jan 16) // New (Aug 12) (w/ percentiles)
PAT: 17—>23—(96.4) 😎
QR: 15—>18—(84.7)
RC: 22—>21—(76.7)
BIO: 16—>21—(92.3)
GC: 17—>18—(62.2) 👎
OC: 15—>22—(90.4) 😀
TS: 16—>20—(85.2)
AA: 17—>20—(87.6)
Needless to say, I am freaking excited that I am done, and that I was able to retake and do better this time. Here's the Breakdown:
PAT: The only section I felt was slightly harder than CDP was Keyholes—other than that the real thing is on par with CDP. I learned the basics from Baron's DAT prep book, and Kaplan BB. The biggest help for the PAT section for me was this thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=528643&highlight=My+wicked+PAT+Tutorial
Go through the entire thing, look at every example, learn the strategies, and you will start scoring higher on the PAT immediately. Follow that up with Crack Dat Pat. I originally bought the 5 test version but upgraded to the 10 test version so that I could have more practice. My scores for CDP: 19, 18, 17, 17, 21, 21, 21, 21. (I never took those last 2 tests). They key with PAT is exactly what everyone has said from the beginning of time: Practice, practice, practice. Initially I could not do TFE, or hole punching to save my life—on the last 4 CDP tests I took I got 15's on those sections. Honestly something just "clicks" and you wonder what was so hard about it before.
QR: I consistently scored 18's on practice exams, so I am happy with this score! The calculator on the test was a little sluggish and I made sure I stayed away from the "CE" button. I used Kaplan BB, then Math Destroyer to practice this section. I would highly recommend Khan Academy for any sections that you are weak on. I reviewed all 11 Destroyer tests without timing, and only got through like 4 timed before my test. I was all stoked to do an age problem and there were none on my test.
RC: My passages were Tooth development, Fungus, and Ethics. I was doing fabulous until the ethics passage then my method didn't work to well for that passage. The strategy I used was a modified version of VicViper's RC strategy found here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=615852 Basically the only difference is that I wrote down key words from each question instead of just putting them "In the back of my head". I feel I would remember the terms better this way. It worked for the first 2 passages, but the ethics one like the piano is just lame.
Biology: I am happier about this score than anything. Being a Bio major I was hoping for at least a 19 on this insanely random section. My test had zero taxonomy, no cell respiration, and had a surprising amount of ecology questions. There is no rhyme or reason to this section—there is so much material to draw from and they can take it anywhere. I read through Kaplan BB, AP Cliff's Bio, and Thinkwell Videos on the stuff I was least familiar with (Taxonomy, plants, respiration, photosynthesis, Ecology—I'm happy I went over ecology).
Gen Chem: This section was tough for me obviously. It is by far my weakest section seeing as my last gen chem class was 5 years ago and I got a C+ second semester. There were no questions on the sections I studied the most for (acid-base chemistry, solution chemistry, thermodynamics) and a couple on stuff I had never heard of before. I used Chad's Videos, and went through DAT destroyer 1 time only.
Ochem: This section was very straightforward. I got one question on C-NMR, no IR, no HNMR. 5 or so questions were SN2, E2, SN1, E1. No strange reactions that I can remember. I used Chad's Ochem Videos and followed that up with Destroyer. A word of advice if you want to excel on the ochem section of the DAT: Once you have the basics with chad, memorize the Destroyer roadmaps. Make flashcards, learn the flashcards, print out the roadmaps with the reaction products whited-out, and practice until you can produce all 6 roadmaps and baby roadmaps from memory. Do this and the actual DAT ochem will look easy.
Additional Randomness:
Topscore—I was a little worried because I didn't do so well on my first TS test, oh well.
My scores:
Test 1: AA:17, Bio:17, GC: 16, OC: 13, PAT:20, QR:18, RC:21, TS: 16
Test 2: AA:19, Bio:18, GC: 19, OC: 20, PAT:21, QR:19, RC:19, TS: 20
Test 3: TS:19, Bio:19, GC: 19, OC: 19 (Only took sciences)
Anki—This is a powerful tool that helped me out tremendously. If you like electronic flashcards, then you will love this free program. The basic concept is that it feeds you cards that you are forgetting using an algorithm based upon how well you know that certain card. The hardest part was toward the end when my anki deck reached over 2,000 cards trying to keep up with the daily requirement. My advice is to use it, but do not stress out about staying perfectly caught up with it. The "Cram" function was especially cool towards the end—for example, I was able to just look at all the Cliff's AP bio cards I had made and go through them all in one sitting. There is so much I can say about the power of this software. Get it, use it, and love it!
SDN—I have to say that this is the most useful site when it comes to DAT studying. The key is to come for questions and to gather your initial study materials—but once you have that, go study! I wasted a crap load of time reading posts that I wouldn't ever need. This site can become your Facebook and waste a lot of time that could be spent memorizing or studying. That is the only negative I can say about SDN.
Special thanks to: Doc Toothache for all the help with my personal statement. Vicviper for his RC thread. dentalWorks for his 8-week study course. Rlow04 for his insanely cool breakdown and for giving me someone to look up to. And finally Chad for being such a huge help to all of us trying to learn or relearn Chemistry. The final question on my ochem section was "Is your left hand the same as your left butt-cheek?" I knew the answer thanks to Chad.
Final words to those retaking the DAT: You know how hard this test is. You sat in the prometric center and felt the sting of under-preparation. I want you to know that if you put the time in and sacrifice just a few months of your life, you can dramatically improve your score. The choice is yours—are you willing to give up what you want temporarily for what you really want for the rest of your life? I say, you already know the answer. Just do it already! And to those taking the DAT in a few days or weeks, check out this post for some last minute study inspiration: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=9985217#post9985217
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