DAT in 3 days... last minute suggestions?

[kayden28]

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I have three days left to prepare, and have gone through the following materials at least once in the last few months, but I'm wondering if there's anything I should focus on heavily for the last couple of days. Any suggestions based on the material below? (I don't want to purchase anything new!)

Crack the DAT - Textbook, In Class Compendium, Workbook
Kaplan Blue Book - (super dull -- really hoping nobody suggests reviewing this lol)
Crack DAT PAT - (scoring between 23-25 lately)
Cliff's AP Bio - (read twice)
Chad's Videos + Quizzes - (haven't yet completed all the quizzes)
Destroyer - (about half way through each section)

Also, any suggestions on staying calm to avoid blanking? I've gone through the material enough when I'm reading to be bored because I've done it so many times.... but when I do practice tests, I start panicking and I doubt simple things 🙁 I'm so worried about this happening on the real day!

 

[UMDMD]

You seem to be well prepared! Solid PAT practice scores.
As to staying calm: go to sleep early the night before (tough to do), wake up early in the morning (easy to do since you'll have barely slept anyway), eat a good, filling breakfast (easy to do), keep it down (tough to do, hahaha). Most importantly though, you have to realize that everyone taking the DAT is nervous during the days, hours, minutes leading up to the test and you're not the only one in that situation. Once you sit down, plant your feet on the ground, FOCUS, read the questions carefully and do what you've been preparing to do for months. You'll do fine and you'll sigh a breath of relief at the end!
Are you taking the Canadian DAT by the way?

 

[Faux]

Isn't it bit too soon considering you're only half way through each section in the destroyer? Haven't even done all the quizzes for chad.

Theres no rush.

 

[Glimmer1991]

3 Days?

Read back through ALL of Cliff's AP bio, spending extra time on the sections you find hardest.
Go back over ALL of Chad's quizzes and the notes you took from his videos.
Go back over ALL of the Destroyer.

Is this going to suck for 3 days? Yep. You're looking at 7-hour days or so. But guess what? I did the same thing, essentially, and it paid off TREMENDOUSLY--especially the bio review.

 

[LabCoatAndPearls]

I would recommend doing a practice test if you haven't already done so! If you don't want to buy any new material, you can use the code that comes with your KBB to do one online. That's what I did four days before my exam, and then two days before I took the 2009 ADA Practice DAT. Don't freak out if you get a really low score on the Kaplan practice test, though, like I did. I still don't regret taking it because it gave me really good time management skills and made the actual DAT seem less scary since I already had an idea of how it felt taking a 4 and a half hour long test, and how to keep my stamina up! Good luck! 🙂

 

[Soleus715]

I think you should just focus on all the basics. Don't review anything extremely specific because it's not likely to show up on the exam. Get your basics down to a perfection.

This means going through all the Chads quizzes and outlines and making sure you don't mix up any formulas and where to use them.
Go through all the notes/flash cards you made. Read chapters you aren't 100% on.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you get nervous a lot or blank out, I've been there and I can recommend a few tricks to try and get back on task.

You are given a lengthy optional tutorial before the exam. You must set your mind straight so that you can be efficient with your time.
I closed my eyes and tried to relax and told myself to stick to my training. Before you click that start button you have to be confident and ready to take it. Don't start if you are doubting yourself. Take a deep breath and tell yourself that you've put in good time and that you are ready to destroy the DAT.

In order to stop blanking out and losing time, I practiced on going through each question step-by-step. Read and understand the question. Then go through the choices and narrow it down. Choose an answer and don't look back till the end.

As for doubting/mixing up simple facts, you can avoid this by making sure that you're solid on everything. If you see a keyword from Biology, you should be able to think of all the things it's related to and figure out how it applies to the question. I saw lots of questions that I never studied in Bio but I was able to connect the dots with what I knew about each choice.

Good luck!

 

[gnleff]

I would try to finish the Destroyer. I'm not going to lie to you but when you take the DAT you probably will have one of those "Oh ****" moments, and hey you may not. But if you do, just look back on all the material you covered. You should already have the knowledge and practice to dig yourself out of that "Oh ****" moment. Looking at your practice test scores you should be fine though. 🙂

In your final moments, continue studying but also make sure you have prepared yourself a game plan for when you actually take the test. Such as knowing when to skip a question, and familiarizing yourself with what the testing setting is like. Remember that when you take the test you are taking it on a computer and they give you a dry erase board and a marker... The calculator is a basic calculator on the computer (on my test the calculator was VERY VERY slow, it literally took 2 seconds for it to register a number that I put in).

My final tip besides studying, is to not cram before you take your exam. I know that it may be very tempting to cram all the material you studied an hour before your test, but that's not going to help as much. Your mind will be working on short term memory more than long term memory.. and that's what you've been working so hard to create. It's good to review key concepts that you've been having trouble with but not the stuff you are 100% sure about.

All in all, the best weapon you can have when taking this test is CONFIDENCE. If you put in blood, sweat, and tears into studying for this test you should feel good about yourself. On D day, don't worry about how bad you're going to do, the day I went in to take my test my parents told me "Whether you do well or bad, as long as you know that you tried your best there is nothing more you should ask for." Its the matter if knowing how to learn from your mistakes and and bouncing back.

 

[customx]

Relax. I was freaking out the week before my test and was debating whether or not I should postpone the test for a few weeks. The last 2-3 days I did some light reviewing and tried to calm down. Only you know if you have adequately prepared, and if you feel that you have, then you should have no problem obtaining a great score. Best of luck!

 

[Meat Gyver]

Take the next 2 days to finish whatever left you have of Chads/Destroyer. I avoided practice tests during my last days because in the time it takes to do 1 test, you could have reviewed a lot of material.

Most importantly use the 3rd day to just ease out. I thought I needed to go over EVERYTHING the day before my exam (I made it though undergrad by pulling all nighters, so this was difficult to do). But I did some light review, went over the Destroyer questions I would most frequently get wrong (5-10), and came to peace that I studied as much as I could and whatever happened, the next day I was going to grab a 6 pack, head to the beach, and try to convince my friends to take me back after missing 1/2 of the summer .

 

[Glimmer1991]

Take the next 2 days to finish whatever left you have of Chads/Destroyer. I avoided practice tests during my last days because in the time it takes to do 1 test, you could have reviewed a lot of material.

👍

Plus, if you take a practice test and do badly--even just as a fluke--it can seriously screw with your confidence. I wouldn't want to risk that. Your mentality makes a huge difference.

However, I did go back over everything (except I didn't take all of my Crack PAT tests again). It honestly didn't feel like cramming because I had done such a good job of learning it over the past 3 months. I do not regret this decision AT ALL, and if I hadn't done it, I KNOW I wouldn't have done so well in the biology section. My last-minute, thorough review of all the bio topics in Cliff's AP and Barron's AP helped tremendously.

Going back over everything seriously just took me three 7-8 hour days and one 3-4 hour day (the day before my test). It wasn't awful. And it paid off.

I know your test is tomorrow and this advice probably won't do much for you at this point... but maybe if someone reads it in the future! 😀

 

[kayden28]

Are you taking the Canadian DAT by the way?

Isn't it bit too soon considering you're only half way through each section in the destroyer? Haven't even done all the quizzes for chad. Theres no rush.

Yes, I took the Canadian DAT, which is why I wasn't able to re-schedule or push it farther. I powered through all of Destroyer twice in the last three days, and even had time to go through Chad's quizzes for chem topics that I was fuzzy on. It was a HUGE help!

Thank you all so much for all the support and encouragement! Glimmer1991, despite the time crunch, I took your advice and went over all the bio material from two different textbooks, and I can't thank you enough!! I wouldn't have thought to do this myself because it was such a long task. There were so many things that popped up on the test that I knew without a doubt simply from having reviewed it the day before.

I won't know my score for about a month, but I have a really good feeling about it! So again, THANK YOU!!! & all the best to everyone else, wherever they are in their dental career 🙂