Full Breakdown Time!! This could be pretty long so get comfy! I can't believe I'm gonna finally go into detail on what I did!
Materials used:
DAT Destroyer (2x) (10/10)
DAT Bootcamp (just SNS) (10/10)
DAT Genius (10/10)
DAT QVault (8.5/10)
Topscore (kind of just reviewed a little of it)
Math Destroyer (like 4-5 tests lol) (pretty representative, not hard although i still got stuff wrong due to stupidity/carelessness xD)
Feralis Bio Notes and Spreadsheet (10/10)
Tyjacobs (Bio, GC, OC) (10/10)
Chad's Videos (9/10)
Breakdown of stuff used:
DAT Destroyer: I went through all the science questions twice. The first run through was somewhat similar to my first attempt where i got about 75-80% right or so. The second run was about 85% right. Doing this is essential to learning key concepts and doing well on SNS. The book is not overkill at all if you want 20+
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DAT Bootcamp: I used it in my first run and used all the sections for it. It's a pretty good resource and is fairly similar to the real DAT in style. Most of it would be slightly harder to be honest. I definitely like their question style and it is a good way to simulate timing for the real DAT. I focused on just SNS this time because I probably knew the answers to the passage questions (for some reason I'd recognize reading but the science just went in one ear and out the other after not studying for 4.5 months)
DAT Genius: SUPER UNDERRATED. In my opinion, just as good as bootcamp if not slightly better. Challenging BIO section for sure and the RC might have been the most representative in terms of length. The real DAT had 12-14 paragraph passages and Genius tended to have a similar amount.
QVault: This is a mixed bag for most people but there are so many practice tests here! The question style makes you think a bit and it definitely helped me pinpoint some of my weaknesses in bio!
Topscore: The software is kind of ratchet but the difficulty is fairly similar to the real DAT I'd say.
Math Destroyer: Not too hard and pretty representative of the real DAT. Practice with it if math is your weakness! Otherwise just try doing more mental math and get good at add/sub/mult/div quickly and in your head.
Feralis Notes: These are awesome! Super condensed and has pretty much all the info you need. I regret not using it more but the way I studied bio was spamming practice problems and then using these to supplement my gaps since it's too boring to just sit there and read/rewrite bio (I did do this sometimes to memorize stuff though)
Tyjacobs: The bio notes are longer than Feralis but I think they're definitely easier to understand for someone who doesn't have a strong bio background. I don't see a point in using stuff like Cliff's because Feralis and Tyjacobs have it all covered. It would have done me some good to memorize more of bio but oh well. Gchem and Ochem are pretty good too. I looked at his notes for Gchem concepts and I credit my 27 in gchem to destroyer, genius, bootcamp and tyjacob!!
Chad's Videos: Chad is a great teacher and these are pretty good. The first time through I took notes on almost all the videos (I skipped a few I already knew) and did all his quizzes generally getting around 90-100%. For the second time I studied, I re-watched a few (that I was consistently getting problems wrong in) and that was it. I often referred to the notes I took as they were easy to read and not hard to understand. The only downfall like other people say is that it doesn't contain absolutely everything. Understanding and mastering Chad's is essential and almost guarantees a 19-20 in the two chem sections imo. The extra points are from practice tests and other sources.
The test itself/how I felt/studied:
So the first time I took the DAT, I studied intensely for about a month. I got a 20 AA and I was furious. I cried and was so upset with myself because I was studying 8-12 hrs a day and I didn't do as well as I wanted. My dad was calling me a ***** and said I had no chance at dental school. Well, I took that frustration and had another decent semester (3.78 spring 2016 after 3.81 fall 2015). I'm not a genius but I guess I wouldn't call myself stupid either. I averaged around a 3.2 the first 2 yrs of college and I was disgusted with myself. I definitely didn't work as hard as I could but at some point my disappointment in myself and the wrath of my parents caught up to me and I decided it was time to get my act together. During both instances of DAT studying, I isolated myself from friends and studied for about 8-12 hours a day and rarely took days off. Occasionally I was just so burnt out that I had light days where I only studied 1-3 hrs and maybe just did one or two science sections and went over them. The second time around I started studying around the 2nd week of June after I finished my PS and all the other application stuff. I studied slightly less each day compared to the first DAT attempt because I had some experience already and more time to study. I did shadow and play basketball every once in a while but otherwise I was studying all the time as it was my full time job to improve my DAT scores. Sometimes I doubted myself when I made super stupid mistakes or only got 20-21s on practice exams. I reminded myself that everything I got wrong was for a reason and I learned to become more cautious when I studied and to really hammer in the concepts of the questions I got wrong. I try to study actively by doing a lot of problems and taking notes (rewriting/watching videos and taking notes). Sometimes I can sit there and read stuff but usually I don't have the patience to. Could I have done better on this DAT attempt? I suppose so; my goal was a 24+ but I'm quite satisfied with a 23 and felt like I should give back anyway
. Thank you everyone on SDN for the previous breakdowns and huge shoutouts to Orgoman, Feralis, Ari, Joel and Tyjacob!
DAT sections:
BIO (20): I got an 18 the first time so I'm glad I improved I guess. There was a lot more cell + molec stuff than I wanted but it wasn't too bad. All in all pretty fair and quite similar to the bio set I got the first time. There was a little bit of everything and nothing that was too outlandish. I guess my knowledge was slightly lacking again as I feared I would get an 18 and I did mark 12 or 13 questions lol...
GC (27
): Wow, I didn't expect this. I'm quite happy with this score and I have no idea what 1/2 questions I got wrong lol. There was a pretty even mix of concepts and quantitative questions. It's very fair and I didn't see anything wrong with this section. There are a few eq problems, stuff about Gibbs Free Energy, lab safety, stoich, etc. Genius, Bootcamp, Destroyer and Tyjacobs were the best here.
OC (20.. again lol): Pretty fair but a bit more conceptual than the first time I took it. The obvious stuff such as SN1/SN2/E1/E2, ox/redox, alpha/beta additions, EAS, H-NMR, C-NMR etc. It felt a little harder than the first time and I almost thought I did worse (oh that would've been such a shame).
PAT (16... Ouchies lol): I despise this section and also despised it the first time. I don't know how I did slightly worse but it happened. I only know how to cube count/hole punch so umm don't ask me anything about this. It looks pretty fair and quite similar to bootcamp/genius. I only got 16-18s on those anyway so I'm not surprised here.
RC (25
): 4 points higher than the first time WOOO! The 30 min break after the PAT does wonders for me also! The highlighting feature is also great. It's about 80-85% S+D and some tone/inference questions. The difficulty felt pretty similar to the first time and the articles weren't too bad. The articles are about 12-14 paragraphs each. My strategy is kind of a mixed S+D. I number all the paragraphs and then write down some key words/names so it makes answering questions easier. Since I was able to highlight also, I didn't have to write down too many words this time!!
QR (23 UGHH!!): Oh.. This section disappointed me so much. I only got one point higher than the first time and I finished with 10 minutes left. You've got to be kidding me... Surprisingly I didn't know how to do 1 or 2 questions and probably made a careless mistake too. I got about 23-28 on my QR practices and 36-40 out of 40 in math destroyer. Ik PAT should be the most disappointing but for someone who loves math and wanted a 30 I was annoyed at this haha xD!! I guess this is what I get for thinking I could get a 30 on this section
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All in all I'm glad I'm done with this stress! I will relax a bit and hope I get some interviews/acceptances this cycle of dental school! I thank everyone for listening to my rants and believing in me! Feel free to ask me for math help anytime (I don't know if I'm worthy if I can't get a 26+ on the real DAT xD) or to just talk to me! I'll be glad to listen/give my advice.
