DAT Retake study tips?

[dentspade]

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Hello,

I am retaking the DAT in about 35 days. The first time I took the DAT, I scored: AA: 17 TS: 18 Bio/GenChem/Orgo: 18 QR: 15 PAT: 18 RC: 18

I have started studying today, but I feel like I need something "new." For those who have retook the DAT, how did you change your study plan from the first time? Going through the material again, I feel like I "already know it", when I know that's not exactly the case. I don't want to feel like I'm just going through motions. I don't feel as thorough as I did last year when I began studying.

Any tips, or suggestions for study plans would be greatly appreciated.

 

[FeralisExtremum]

How did you study the first time? What materials, how frequently, what was your approach to content review, etc.?

 

[dentspade]

How did you study the first time? What materials, how frequently, what was your approach to content review, etc.?

The first time I studied I used DAT Destroyer, Bootcamp, Chad's videos, Cliff's AP Bio, Feralis, and Crack DAT PAT. I studied every day 10-6 for 6 weeks.

My mistake with QR was waiting until the last two weeks to study it. So now I know to incorporate QR into my every day study plan.

However as for gen chem, bio, and orgo, I really want to approach the material differently. Should I take a practice exam to get a general feel for where I am at with those subjects now? And then work on my weak areas from there.. or??

 

[Gholam2020]

The best way to do it is not to only focus on destroyer and chad and look at other sources! I'm using organic chemistry tutor. He is amazing and he has multiple choice problems as well and he is going over different problem! Also u can use YouTube for biology! Destroyer is good keep it for after u done with content review


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[FeralisExtremum]

I'd start from square one with the content review. Re-watch Chad's videos, re-read Cliff's, modify or re-write whatever notes you have. Make use of quizzes on a more frequent basis to check how well you're really absorbing the material. Maybe the issue was lack of practice to reinforce the content review phase?

 

[ColdToast]

I wouldn't recommend spending too much time on bio since you don't have too much time before the test. what I would to is read ferali's notes one good time through hi lighting everything you don't know well then use that as a review every couple of days. don't dwell too much on it. If you still have a subscription to DAT Bootcamp the last 5 tests have lots of great explanations. What i did was copy the explanations of topics that were tough for me and paste it into a ppt then reviewed that ppt every day before I started studying. It shouldn't take more than 2 hours to review both of those.

For math I made a 17 on the 2009 practice DAT 5 days before my test but made a 28 on the actual. there are only a few basic types of problems that you will see on there which are all covered in DAT bootcamp. If you don't know how do do them spend a few days just learning how to solve them. once i knew the basics, i took 3-4 practice math tests a day leading up to the exam, always working to improve timing. Get comfortable skipping problems because there are lots of easy points you should go for first. by the time i got to the end of my test I had more than 10 marked questions but I also had 10 minutes left. now you only need to solve 4 or 5 of the hard ones to get into the 20 range. I used the DAT Destroyer (2017) and DAT bootcamp. (also used math destroyer and topscore when i first started but both of those were a waste of time)

Ochem Dat destroyer has lots of roadmaps in the back. Highlight the reactions you don't know and study them every day. Takes 30 minutes but those are easy points on the DAT!

I thought the Chemistry section was tough so maybe someone else could offer advice on that.

For PAT I spent about an hour over a couple days getting angle ranking under 30 seconds per problem. Getting into this habit will give you extra time on the time consuming problems. Again practice going as fast as possible and mark the hard ones for later. practice DAT bootcamp PAT until you can make it to the end in the allotted time. Once you do that you should be ready. On the actual pat i had 5 minutes to review all of my marked problems which is plenty of time to get a few (not all) of the hard ones. I also worked a few of the first tests backwards because I was having problems getting to the end and wasn't getting any practice on pattern folding.

Hope this helps. I tested 2 weeks ago. 23BIO 28QA 19RC 24BIO 23GC 23OC 23PAT

 

[Orka]

Your foundational knowledge is lacking. I think you should probably spend your time learning the concepts for Biology. For QR, Chem, Orgo, learn the concepts and reinforce those concepts by doing DATDestroyer questions. For PAT, just practice every day. Don't waste your time with videos. quizzes and other random stuff if it doesn't help you. We all learn differently so find out how you learn best and go with that.