DAT HELP!!

[isaac martinez]

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Hey everybody/anybody,

So I took my DAT today for the 2nd time and probably the worst thing happened, I scored worse than I did the 1st time. 15AA overall, pretty much averaged 15's in every subject except PAT which was an 18 but still not good. My first time I scored a 17AA. I honestly felt so much better the second time, I honestly felt I knew every question I was asked but obviously from the scores that wasn't the case. I wanted some advice, pretty sure I am going to have to retake it, even if they took the scores from my first test.

A little bit about me. I work full time while going to school full time, I have been a Certified dental assistant for the last 4 years now, I am a Senior going to graduate with a Bachelors in Bio and Minors in Chem and Psych, my GPA is around 3.4-3.5 with a science GPA of 3.0. My GPA i feel isn't, i believe correct, ONLY because for my first year of college i didn't know exactly what i wanted to do with my life, but i found out about dental assisting school with no intentions of dental school BTW. So i dropped all my classes and got F's in those classes of course. Of course i retook the courses i failed and passed them but those grades are calculated into my overall.

Anyways I was wondering if anyone out there had any advice on how to bring up my DAT score, I honestly felt so prepared and don't know how i did so horrible. I Watched all of Chads videos, Read Cliffs and Barrons, Did DAT BOOTCAMP, Crack Dat PAT, and did some of the DAT Destroyer. I would come home after work and study for about 6-7 hours, no lie, i was dedicated and on a schedule. I honestly feel dumb, I honestly felt so prepared, did well on time for the DAT so that wasn't the issue. IDK... anyways I do plan on retaking it after my 90 days is up.

If anybody has a schedule or some advice on how i can improve, pretty much anything at all, it is all greatly appreciated. If any questions about me or anything ill be sure to answer back, i am going to take a week off to get my life together since this last study schedule took a lot out of me.

P.S. I have also sent my application in this year. Don't really think i have a chance to get in even with all the experience I have, and semi decent GPA. I have 4 letters, 2 from professors and 2 from dentists. I have done mission of mercy dental community service but due to my schedule don't really have to much time to put in for ridiculous amounts of hours as some people are able to get. I do have around 70 hours of community service and volunteer work tho. Sorry for the long post, just felt pretty down and worked super hard to not do so well. Thanks again.

 

[winnadds]

do ALL of destroyer. i did it a couple times.
its not overkill.

 

[Alikhan9]

Anything you felt that you could have fix like maybe do all the destroyer problems and did you review each question for dat bootcamp etc?

 

[isaac martinez]

Yeah I honestly reviewed every question and researched each topic for each question on DAT BOOTCAMP, I also did all of Chads videos more than once, i probably could've done Dat Destroyer more but it seriously was tough and didn't have much time after getting through all the material and doing bootcamp as well as chads. I also got destroyer late so i didn't have as much time to use it. But the questions i felt were pretty straight forward, nothing i was really lost with which doesn't make sense to me. Any advice on how not to get so frustrated going through destroyer? It's pretty tough.

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Yeah I honestly reviewed every question and researched each topic for each question on DAT BOOTCAMP, I also did all of Chads videos more than once, i probably could've done Dat Destroyer more but it seriously was tough and didn't have much time after getting through all the material and doing bootcamp as well as chads. I also got destroyer late so i didn't have as much time to use it. But the questions i felt were pretty straight forward, nothing i was really lost with which doesn't make sense to me. Any advice on how not to get so frustrated going through destroyer? It's pretty tough.

Hi Isaac,

Sorry about you 2nd DAT experience and unfortunately you will have to retake. I know the DAT Destroyer is VERY challenging but so is the DAT. It is ok to hate the DAT Destroyer, stomp on it, curse it, BUT, you must get through ALL the work and feel comfortable with the work if you want to achieve a high DAT score. There are no short cuts to high DAT scores. If you really give the Destroyer a chance you will grow to love it! Don't worry about timing yourself with the Destroyer, it's not meant to be used as a timed test.

Feel free to pm me and I will be happy to offer some encouraging words and come up with a plan to improve your scores.

Take care..Nancy

 

[kaulitza]

Yeah I honestly reviewed every question and researched each topic for each question on DAT BOOTCAMP, I also did all of Chads videos more than once, i probably could've done Dat Destroyer more but it seriously was tough and didn't have much time after getting through all the material and doing bootcamp as well as chads. I also got destroyer late so i didn't have as much time to use it. But the questions i felt were pretty straight forward, nothing i was really lost with which doesn't make sense to me. Any advice on how not to get so frustrated going through destroyer? It's pretty tough.

when i first looked at DAT destroyer, i wasn't planning on doing it because i thought the problems were ridiculously hard. in the end i ended up doing every single problem because even though they were hard, that meant you could always learn something from them. i think the best way to not get frustrated is to do about 25 problems at a time and look at the solutions. that way you can break them up into chunks instead of doing 100s of problems at a time. also, reading the solutions makes you feel less frustrated after you've done 25 problems

 

[tccheng91]

It seemed to me that you felt really confident for your second test. But such confidence might not be a good thing when it comes to taking a standardized test. Maybe you felt the questions were straight forward, but they could still be tricky. I suggest that for your retake, read the questions carefully words by words! And double check again and again. I remember when I took my first organic chemistry test, I felt really confident and I finished in 20 minutes for an hour long test. I ended up getting below class average and it shocked me. Later, I learned the lesson that I did not go back to check my answers and I made a lot of really ridiculous mistakes. So don't give up and keep up the good work!

 

[Dental24/7]

Did you do any practice exams? Or Qvault or Boot Camp exams without actually knowing answers before? Any top score or 2007/2008 exam before taking the exam? To see where you stand before you actually take it? I didn't see you mention any of those. I would probably do that as well to see where you are before you take the exam. A variety of different practice exams. I would not take the DAT a third time until you do those and and see scores you like. @isaac martinez does that make sense? Just doing bootcamp is not enough for practice. How did you do the bootcamp exams? Did you do the sample questions first and then the exams? The problem with that is, the exams become easy since you already saw the questions before hand. Let me know... [emoji4] That is what I am doing.


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[Dental24/7]

*2009 ADA NOT 2008 (typo)


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[Dental24/7]

Also, did you do the destroyer for bio etc? For bio it is a most. It makes you faster and makes you and forces you to learn concepts. I talk myself through it when doing them, and now am doing it for the second round. I see hurt improvement in my knowledge. I made flashcards for EVERY SINGLE thing I did not know, look it up online and even watch videos. I recommend www.study.com they have every biology subject and explanation you need. $50/month. I am very visual and this has helped me ALOT.

For Chem, Qvault is very helpful for me. Also, I am watching Chad again. First time, regular with notes and second time 2.0 speed. And redoing this quizzes.

What else ... I go over my flash cards daily! Or at least one subject a day, then off to the next thing I want to review or study.

PAT, daily. I struggle with pattern and TFE and have recently strayed to do 15min/each a day and come up with a strategy and not just blindly doing it.

I hope this helps! Hit me up if you need more info as what I am doing.

I didn't take the exam yet, but my practice exams are 19-21 so far... Let's see what this weeks brings ...


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[mOlar1!]

Destroyer is a killer but if you break it down, make flashcards and go through it twice or three times, stuff starts clicking in. Nancy put it well together that destroyer should be used as a tool to study and learn. it's brain thing when we get so many wrong, we get frustated and thing this ain't for me but if it's killing you now, it'll be worth it later. I was having a panic attack when I was on the phone with her bc at first destroyer crushed my hopes since I wasn't getting any right. Now I could care less if I am getting 50% right because I am learning the material through solutions. If you are studying 6-7 hours a day, do 30 problems of each section of destroyer and then review your flashcards any free time you get like standing in line while getting groccery. Then when you finish destroyer once, and go through it second time, do more problems a day like maybe 45 bc now You have learned the material. Another thing I notice about destroyer is that covers every single way they can ask you a question. I love chad's videos but I can't rely on it as my primary source. But then again, I havent taken the DAT yet so I can't say much lol. only a suggestion though.

 

[Alikhan9]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/dat-destroyer-guidance.1204014/ ; This is a post where I asked about dat destroyer how to use it properly and how to finish and motivation etc.

 

[Flossistan]

Knowing DAT Destroyer front to back and going over it at least three times will almost guarantee you above average scores on all sciences.

 

[cjh27]

Took DAT 7/20/2016 (Yes, 2 days ago). My Scores: PAT: 21, RC: 21, QR: 18, BIO: 17, GC: 17 and OC: 17

Before anyone judges, lets be honest with ourselves and say this is a realistic goal for you to strive for. I am 29, I graduated with a BS in Exercise Science and minor in Chem in 2014. I work as a certified Medical Technologist (Clinical Lab Scientist).

I will offer advice for the PAT and RC, the other sections, I will try and help you with strategy because I obviously can't tell you how to ace it.

PAT: DAT BOOTCAMP hands down the best practice. Every chance you get, take a test. Make note of the things to look for to help find the answer quickly.

Key hole, eliminate answers and look at every single hole. One might seem to work but the next one will show you how it doesn't.

Angle Ranking, I glanced at angles for a couple seconds looking for obvious biggest or smallest. Then I would look to the answers and see what my choices were for biggest and smallest angles. I usually started with biggest angle and worked backwards. That is what was easiest for me. Using the rapid back and forth look at space between the lines method helped me when angles were close in degrees.

Cube counting, I kept losing track of which cubes I had counted and would forget to count one or two. I fixed this by counting columns instead of levels. I listed zero through 5, then would start with tallest column and put a tic by the corresponding number of sides painted for each block in that column. Then I would move to the second highest, it was usually more than one so I would just do one column at a time. If there was a third highest, I would do those next, then I would just be left with single blocks. I would then count all of the blocks in the picture and make sure I had that many tic marks. This saved me on one of the questions because I had missed a block.

TFE, I luckily took mechanical drawing many years ago in high school so it didn't take long for me to get the visualization down. I would start by looking at the answer choices. See how they differ. If there is a discrepancy in dash over solid line, look for that line in the views. If it is visible, eliminate the dashed, if not, eliminate the solid. Remember a visible edge can hide a non visible edge, a rounded corner will not show an edge if looked at from a perpendicular view and keep an eye out for "V" grooves or peaks which will produce a line when viewed from a perpendicular angle. Best advice I can give though is to look at answer choices, find the inconsistencies and check with the views.

Hole Punch, I used the 4x4 grid and line of symmetry. Just be sure there is paper under where the hole was punched before you mark it as one. I used empty circles to signify the punch but not a hole so I could still use line of symmetry. Also remember a half punch doesn't make a hole until the paper is unfolded. I am sure I saw this strategy somewhere but I don't remember where. (by the way, I am not claiming I came up with these methods, just that I used them.)

Pattern Folding, I think they put it at the end of the PAT section for a reason. I am always ready to be done when I get to this section. I think Ari said look for the shapes in the unfolded pattern and compare it to the answer choices. If there is a side shape that does not appear in the unfolded pattern, eliminate it. Also, for matching up the patterns orientation, I would count the sides to see where the shaded side would land and see how it oriented to the pictures. With practice, it got easier for me to see answer choices that were just not possible, even if it eliminated only one choice. Dice must be visualized, large intricate patters with lots of pieces usually are given away by shapes in the unfolded pattern. Patterns with shaded pieces are probably the hardest but try and tell if the shaded pieces touch and in what orientation then look at answer choices.

The best advice for PAT is practice, practice, practice.

RC: DAT BOOTCAMP helps for getting used to doing it. Most likely you will not know anything about the subject of the article. There is a highlight function on the real DAT that helped me a lot to go back and find the answer instead of having to go back through text that seemed to blur together and not be able to find the words I was looking for.

QR: Know your Trig. All of it. sin, cos, tan, csc, sec and cot and how they relate. Know how to do probability calculations. Know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide powers. Most important thing for me, if didn't figure it out the first attempt, I selected a best guess and moved on. You may miss it but you will have time to get to all of the questions you know how to do and get those right. BOOTCAMP definitely helped me get used to doing the word problems.

BIO: Mostly concepts, don't focus on individual facts, just understand concepts. Know how to find the probability of a gene being inherited. Understand sex linked genes. You don't have to know about them, they will tell you if it is sex linked, just understand how it works.

GC: Balance equations, know how to convert from mols to grams to L to M to g/mol. All of the units used in chem. DAT loves acids and bases. Understand that acids accept and electron and donate a proton and a base donates electrons and accepts protons. That will help you tremendously to just narrow down answers.

OG: My nemisis, I love it though. Understand what reagents do. Don't worry about mechanism, just know that SOCl adds a Cl somewhere. That will eliminate some answers. If you know more about OC, great. Start simple though then work up to singling out answer. Naming compounds was probably the only thing that stuck with me when I took OC about 2 and a half years ago, but hey, I probably got those 2 questions right. Everything else, I had to relearn. Know period table trends, that is another easy 2 or 3 questions right.


Hey man, if you want it, you will get it. Just keep trying. It is ok to feel down and relieve some stress but keep at it. I started college as a senior in high school and didn't finish until I was 27, 9 years later. Be confident, you know how the test works, you have done it before. Understand the concepts, use the answer choices to help you eliminate. Good luck. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Hope this wasn't to lengthy and it helps.

 

[isaac martinez]

It does all help I really appreciate it.

 

[LuckBloodandSweat]

Thanks for the PAT advice 🙂