DAT in 4 Weeks - Advice on Prep Sources/Strategy

[sas35]

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Hey everyone,

I was hoping to get some advice about what source I should purchase for full-length practice exams. I have four weeks left until my DAT and want to make sure that I have taken a few full length tests prior to the DAT. I would really like to get a hold of the material that is the most representative of the exam.

As of now, here are the materials that I have and plan to use during the upcoming weeks. Please feel free to give any comments/advice about these sources as well as any that I do not mention!

I already have Crack the PAT and have taken all of the exams (21, 21, 21, 20, 21, 24, 21, 21, 22, 24). What gets me every time is angle ranking. The plan is to go through these exams all once more prior to the test. From what I have read/heard, CDP is representative of the test.

I have Math Destroyer - just started on those tests and plan to get through them all once before the exam. Is this the best source for QR out there? If so, I will just stick to this for QR preparation.

I have DAT Destroyer - just started working through this book (have already done the QR section of this). I am going to be finished going through this one time by Friday. Then, will probably go through one more time. I am finding these questions to be extremely difficult. Is it true that the actual exam is NOT this hard (just a few here and there)??

I have Barron's DAT which contains two full-length practice exams. I will take these during the last two weeks. Not sure how good these are, but I might as well use them for practice!

I have Chad's Videos and Quizzes. Are Chad's Quizzes representative of the exam? Or are they too simple?

As for Bio and RC practice, I am not sure where to turn. (I have already read Cliffs AP Bio and Kaplan BB Bio section)
Does anyone have suggestions for good sources? My RC is not incredible yet, but I have not really practiced. I could be wrong, but I was thinking that this is something that I could improve during the last 3 weeks with practice tests. As for Bio, I just need a good source of questions to use.

Finally, I am going to buy the test that the ADA sells to take the week before the test.

If you have any suggestions about what additional sources I should use for practice exams, please let me know! Also, any advice about the sources I am already using and my current plan would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for any tips you can give me!

(Sorry for how long this post was)

 

[john333]

aha I am in the same situation as you!! about 4 weeks left till my test and I just started on destroyers.. I gotta figure out what practice tests to get.. I have heard alot of good things about DAT bootcamp being really similar to the actual DAT so im planning to get that.. and probably topscore or achiever to get used to the lengthyness of a whole exam

 

[koutarou]

I also have 4 weeks left!

I've already gone through DAT Destroyer twice, and I'm currently working on the third round. I'm pretty proficient with the Bio sections, but the Ochem and Gen Chem, not so much. I'm halfway through my first round of Math Destroyer, which I plan on doing three times by the end of next week. I bought Crack the PAT, but I haven't started it. I started the QVault Bio, Gen Chem, and Ochem tests today, which people have been saying is helpful for timing.

When I have two weeks left, I plan on going hardcore practice test mode! I'm going to do Topscore, Achiever, the Kaplan tests, and the ADA one. I need to figure out how I'm going to space it out though.

For Bio questions, I've found that DAT Destroyer is awesome. Yeah, it's incredibly difficult the first time you go through it, but it exposes you to so much information that becomes useful later on. Just chug through it, and don't let the difficulty get to you.

 

[athomas]

Hey everyone,

I was hoping to get some advice about what source I should purchase for full-length practice exams. I have four weeks left until my DAT and want to make sure that I have taken a few full length tests prior to the DAT. I would really like to get a hold of the material that is the most representative of the exam.

As of now, here are the materials that I have and plan to use during the upcoming weeks. Please feel free to give any comments/advice about these sources as well as any that I do not mention!

I already have Crack the PAT and have taken all of the exams (21, 21, 21, 20, 21, 24, 21, 21, 22, 24). What gets me every time is angle ranking. The plan is to go through these exams all once more prior to the test. From what I have read/heard, CDP is representative of the test.

I have Math Destroyer - just started on those tests and plan to get through them all once before the exam. Is this the best source for QR out there? If so, I will just stick to this for QR preparation.

I have DAT Destroyer - just started working through this book (have already done the QR section of this). I am going to be finished going through this one time by Friday. Then, will probably go through one more time. I am finding these questions to be extremely difficult. Is it true that the actual exam is NOT this hard (just a few here and there)??

I have Barron's DAT which contains two full-length practice exams. I will take these during the last two weeks. Not sure how good these are, but I might as well use them for practice!

I have Chad's Videos and Quizzes. Are Chad's Quizzes representative of the exam? Or are they too simple?

As for Bio and RC practice, I am not sure where to turn. (I have already read Cliffs AP Bio and Kaplan BB Bio section)
Does anyone have suggestions for good sources? My RC is not incredible yet, but I have not really practiced. I could be wrong, but I was thinking that this is something that I could improve during the last 3 weeks with practice tests. As for Bio, I just need a good source of questions to use.

Finally, I am going to buy the test that the ADA sells to take the week before the test.

If you have any suggestions about what additional sources I should use for practice exams, please let me know! Also, any advice about the sources I am already using and my current plan would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much for any tips you can give me!

(Sorry for how long this post was)

I think that Achiever is much more representative for the PAT, and Crack DAT PAT really doesn't prepare you for the difficulty of the keyholes, TFE, and pattern folding. I didn't use much else in Achiever, but maybe the RC is good?

Math Destroyer is really good, but I only went through 6 tests because of time constraints and I really wish I did a few more. You definitely need some of the more obscure equations in the front of the Math Destroyer book if you want to get all the QR questions right. I ran out of time on a few tricky problems and it was my lowest score at 21, which drug down my AA.

Destroyer is harder than the real deal in all sections (well, I never did QR, but I heard that was too easy compared to the real test). It's great preparation, but you definitely need to practice easier questions too so that the switch in format doesn't trip you up. The way I did that was to go through ALL of Chad's quiz questions in the sciences the day before my test. They are a bit easy, but they were really representative of the test. I also did DAT Bootcamp's free quizzes the day before my test and they were good practice (though my real scores were higher).

For bio, if you can afford DAT qVault I would say get it. There are some tricky questions thrown in and for me, it helped me identify which types of problems I often made stupid mistakes on (like accidentally picking the opposite of what I meant). That way on my real DAT, I immediately marked any of those question types so I reviewed them at the end for stupid errors--don't lose points for questions you actually know!

I think RC is pretty easy, it's like SAT reading questions but the passages are about science. I think the best practice is reading short journal articles and asking yourself what the main findings where, the methods, and any implications.

 

[magicdock]

I'm also 4 weeks out of my first DAT exam and I am just now realizing how behind I am (ha) 🙁

currently trying to learn anatomy and phys from scratch since I never took it...
doing the destroyer problems slowly for the first round and im getting over 90% of them wrong as well

havn't really done much PAT or QR practice either

havn't practiced RC at all. I'll be lucky to get all 20's on my DAT I feel like at this point but im slowly stepping my game up each day.

Will report back with scores 2nd week of August

 

[athomas]

magicdock are you applying this cycle? If so, you won't have time to retake it if your scores aren't good. Have you considered pushing it out another 2 weeks? Destroyer is difficult, I think I got 70-80% correct the first time through, but 90% wrong is not a great sign. Do you feel like you are understanding your mistakes and how to avoid making them again?

 

[magicdock]

magicdock are you applying this cycle? If so, you won't have time to retake it if your scores aren't good. Have you considered pushing it out another 2 weeks? Destroyer is difficult, I think I got 70-80% correct the first time through, but 90% wrong is not a great sign. Do you feel like you are understanding your mistakes and how to avoid making them again?

No i'm applying next summer I believe. I'm thinking about rescheduling it but just looked online and the fee is $60 so I think i'll just start studying twice as much as normal.

I started studying early May following dentalwork's guide but I was only averaging 1 hour (on easy days) to like 4 hours max on the harder days. Yeah i'm slowly understanding my mistakes and doing a lot better in gchem and ochem now but the bio questions are just so random and half of it is on anatomy/phys.

Btw I just read through your breakdown and it was really helpful

 

[sas35]

Hey everyone,

Thank you so much for your advice. I will reply to all who posted here in this message:

john333:
I heard great things about Bootcamp too! My friend took the exam on July 1 and thought it was very helpful. I bought a subscription for this a couple of days ago and will start using it this week! Goodluck on your DAT!

athomas:
That is great to know about CDP! From what you have said and what others have said, it seems like the PAT tests people get vary in difficulty. I have some friends who took the DAT and said CDP was their best source. I’ll keep in mind that it will be more difficult and maybe consider getting achiever (low on funds though 🙁). For Math Destroyer, I will keep going through the tests! I have memorized all of the equations in the book, so hopefully that will help me out on some problems. As of now, the main issue is time for QR. I am glad to hear Destroyer is harder. I finished going through one time yesterday and was a bit overwhelmed (it was a week long project!!). I will think about qVault – the only issue is money. Unfortunately, I have already bought so many prep materials and its getting expensive! I think I will try to get through it again once more, but balance it out with Chad’s - he rocks! For RC, I think I will take your advice to read journal articles until the test.

magicdock:
Keep up the hard work. Destroyer was overwhelming for me the first time, but by taking notes and going over every answer explanation, I think that a lot of the concepts are sticking! Goodluck!!

Thank you all again so much!