DAT: Scoring 24 in 300 hours only.

[AT03]

Hi everyone!
I?m a senior at CSU. I?m planning to take the DAT in October of 2003. Because I have a full-time job? and because I?m taking 18 units next semester, I can only invest about 300 hours in studying for the DAT between now and October 15th. My goal is to achieve an academic average 24. I realized achieving this goal will be very challenging for several reasons. First, my school starts on Sept 2nd and I?m taking 18 units. Secondly, I will be working full-time and my job is physically demanding. Finally, I?ve scheduled two trips ( each 3 days ) which are very time consuming. I realized achieving this goal will be challenging but I think I can do it. (What do you guys think??) I?ve always worked 40 to 50 hours a week and maintained a 3.3 GPA.

Join me for the rest of my journey. I?ll do my best to post a summary of my studying as much as I can.

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[freedyx3]

Hi AT03,

Well in my situation I put in about 150 hours over 7 weeks and i got a 22 academic average. So a 24 is very doable. But I think the key is to be able to put in 300 hours in 2 month max. I think if you spend more then 2 month studying it will either burn you out or you will start to forget stuff you learned in the begnning. Again 24 is doable but pretty tuff.


FRED

 

[dr_benj]

I think 300 hours sounds like a lot of time. I think I spent about 75 hours max and still did very well. Its not really that hard of a test. Just study the kaplan book and memorize everything in it. I wouldn't kill yourself by trying to reach a certain amount of hours studying. Just take it when you feel ready. Just my opinion. Good luck.

 

[zazzookode]

Okay, this is really disturbing me. People, this exam is not that difficult. I read someone saying they studied 15 hours a day????WHAT??? Are you kidding me??? Do you really believe putting in that much time is really going to improve your scores that much. It won't. It means you lack the appropriate study skills. It's about studying smarter and not longer. Anyone who studies for more than 2 months lacks some serious common sense. It just means you are inefficient. Anyone in here should be able to average a 20 academic if he or she seriously studies hard for 2 months. And you don't need to study 10 hours a day.

 

[ItsGavinC]

Yep, you're right. The DAT just isn't very difficult. 300 hours is WAY too much. You'll reach a point where you can't improve your score. It isn't because you are stupid, it's just because you aren't studying correctly.

I mean, no study method is perfect, and a score of 24 is pretty close to perfect. The longer you stick with the same study method the closer you come to hitting a brick wall in terms of raising your score.

I'd say you can study 100 hours and get a 22 quite easily. Those extra 200 hours might not do much for getting a 24.

 

[ItsGavinC]

I forgot to mention that the difference between a 22 and a 24 is only like 5-6 questions TOTAL on the entire exam.

There are bound to be 3 or 4 questions (AT LEAST) on the exam that you've never heard of. I don't know if studying 300 hours is worth even trying to nail those questions, because I doubt you'll run across them in your studies.

Why not push the test date up and then party for 200 hours when you're done with it?

 

[AT03]

Thanks everyone for your helpful suggestions and inputs. Since, you guys are suggesting that 300 hours is way too much, I?ll agree with you guys. Let?s change it to 150 hrs. That?s about 4 hours of studying for 38 days. OK, I?ll consider Gavin advice and take the DAT towards the end of Sep. Is this cool with everyone ??


October 11th.

Today (I mean yesterday October 11th) I woke up at 5:15am, took shower and went to work. I got off work at 3:30pm and went to a dental office that I?m interested to do some observation. By the time I got home it was 5:00pm. After taking a break , at 6pm I started studying for the DAT. I began with the General chemistry. And by 10pm I completed reading Ch1- Atomic Structure, Ch2- The periodic Table and Ch3- Bonding and Chemical Structure of the Kaplan?s book. In addition, I also read Lec1 of the Examkrackers Chemistry book which corresponds to the Kaplan?s Ch1,Ch2, and Ch3. I should point out that these chapters were fairly easy, so I just read them and made about 30 flashcards. At 10pm I stopped and went to the GYM.

Tomorrow, I?m planning to master these flashcards, do the problems at the end of each chapters and read ch1 (The Basic of Life) and ch2 (Reproduction) of the Biology.

 

[AT03]

October12th,
(147 hrs to go)

I worked about 15 hours on Oct 12th and by the time I got home I was extremely tired and I decided to not to study any new materials. Instead, I just took 30 minutes to review my notes and my flashcards from October 11th.

October 13th.
(146 hrs and 30 minutes to go)

Today, I got home from work around 4pm and went to the GYM. I was back home by 5:45pm. And I started studying for DAT from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. I completed Kaplan?s Biology the Basics of Life, and Cellular Respiration. These two chapters correspond to Biology Lec1 of Examkrackers. Because there?s a lot of concepts involved in the cellular respiration, studying of this chapter took a little more than 2 hours. I also made about 25 flashcards.

October 14th
(143 hrs and 30 minutes to go)

Today, I started my studying for DAT with Organic Chemistry. I completed Lec 1 and started Lec 2 of the Examkrackers. In addition, I spent about 20 minutes reviewing my flashcards and notes from October 11th, 12th and 13th.

October 15th.
(140 hrs and 30 minutes to go)

Today, I?m physically and mentally tired. And also, I?m planning to go out tonight. So, I?m gonna take about 45 minutes to review my notes and my flashcards and call the rest of the day off.

 

[Barry20]

Are you kidding about the month? Its not October, unless I am completely missing something here.

 

[KDBuff]

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with some of the previous posts regarding study time. I for one spent a very long time studying for the DAT. My situation was similar to yours AT03, as I was working full time while trying to study. The amount of study time can vary quite a bit from person to person depending on your retention of the info from your undergrad classes. I for hardly remembered a thing for Gen Chem, so I pretty much had to re-learn it all. In addition, I hadn't taken O-Chem II yet, so had to learn that as well. My GPA is a little low, so I didn't want to take the exam before I was ready. It may be true that I studies too much, but I got the results I wanted, so I have no complaints. I think it's really a matter of personal opinion when you feel comfortable with the practice tests and are confident with the material. Just my 2 cents.

 

[rsweeney]

Don't worry Nic, I'm right there with you!

 

[crackerj]

I didn't prepare anything for DAT and I've got 24 on 14th of August.

Basically if you are a science major and have studied consistently, there is no reason that you shouldn't get 24 or more than that...

But what you DO have to prepare is a PAT section, if you are not good at it naturally...

BTW, I've got 24 and it was a 99.8 percentile..... I was surprised about my result....

I live in Australia and I flied to Guam to take the exam.... I only slept an hour...but somehow my Vit C tablet helped me...

Good luck guys... you guys indeed can do better than 24...

 

[AT03]

Aug 21

I?ve just finished reading the last chapter of the O-chem. I?ve made about 250 flashcards, summarizing each section of the 15 chapters. These cards contain information about nomenclature, common names, functional groups, important rxns, SN1 and SN2, E1 and E2, physical and chemical properties, and so on. I?m planning to review my flashcards twice a week. In addition, I?m planning to practice 10-15 problems each week.

Tomorrow, I?ll start working on the quantitative reasoning.

 

[AT03]

8/22/03
I?m done with reading and making flashcards for the entire Quantitative Reasoning section. This section consists of six chapters: Arithmetic, Algebra, Plane Geometry, Solid Geometry, Coordinate Geometry, and Trigonometry. The Arithmetic chapter was very simple. It was easy to read and easy to understand. I only made about 10 flashcards for the major formulas. The chapter on Algebra was OK. I just made about 7 flashcards (square of binomials, difference of squares, inequalities and so on). I decided not to study the quadratic equation. Solving a quadratic equation is very time consuming so if I see one on the test I?ll take a guess and skip it and work on something easy. Plane Geometry is nothing but memorization. For now, I?m not going to worry about CIRCLES COMBINED WITH OTHER FIGURES... I?ll study those if someone tells me that they have seen it on the DAT. Solid Geometry and Coordinate Geometry were short chapters. I had hard time learning about the graphs of inequalities. I think Kaplan did a very poor job in explaining that section. Most of the TRIGONOMETRY section went fine except the INVERSE FUNCTIONS. I think I need to find a trig text and study this section because I?m not feeling good about this part and I have this feeling that they?ll show up on DAT.

As I pointed out in the beginning I?m only done with reading and making flashcards. The next step is to memorize these cards and than apply what I?ve learned so far by doing some problems. I think memorizing these cards shouldn?t be a big deal b/c I?ve already memorized them as I made these cards. However, applying the knowledge especially working with word problems will be challenging.

 

[AT03]

08/24/03 11:40am
Today is my day off and I have that entire day to study. Here?s my study plan for today.

.

1)Complete chapter 1 of the ? How to Solve Word Problems in Mathematics?(2hrs)

2)Do question 1 to 100 in the ? 1001 questions in MCAT Chemistry? (2hrs)

3)Complete chapter 3 of Biology ?Genetics?. Make notes, flashcards, and do some problems ( if I have time ) (2hr )

4)Review card 1 to 100 of the 250 flashcards that I made for O-chem section of DAT (30mins)

5)Read two passages. ( 30 mins )

6)And start reading pg 1-10 of the PAT section of BN. ( 30mins )

7)Run 4 miles. (45min)

Expected time to complete the above list = 10hrs ( including the breaks )
Starting time = 11:50am PT

? Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.?
THOMAS HUXLE ( 1825 to 1895 ) ENGLISH BIOLOGIST.


PS: I don?t care how long is going to take me and how tired I?m going to get ? All I know is that I?m committed to get the above list done TODAY.

 

[AT03]

8/25/03
With the exception of one item, almost every thing from the above list was done yesterday. The only exception is the last 5 pages from Genetics which I WILL get it done today. The G-chem section went fine with the exception of few questions which I honestly don?t think they gonna be on DAT. O-chem flashcards review took me about 40 minutes. Out of the 3 passages that I read I got about 60% of the questions right. WHICH IS NOT GOOD AT ALL. I need to work on this..and I need to work hard. If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to let me know. PAT, I just read the first 10 pages. It?s different from reading any other subjects.

Here?s my study plan for today:

1)Complete reading the Genetics and review my notes and flashcards that I made yester day. ( 1hr )
2)Do the first 50 problems from 1001 Questions in O-chem. (40min)
3)Read half of chapter2 of ? How to Solve Word Problems in Mathematics? (30min)
4)Read 3 more passages. (40min)
5)Read and UNDERSTAND page 1 to 15 of BN PAT section. (40min)
6)Go to GYM ( Upper Body Workout ) (1hr)


? Always have a plan and believe in it. Nothing good happens by accident?
CHUCK KNOX, NFL football coach.

 

[w3chen99]

My method:

I spent ~8 hours a day for 12 days memorizing the Kaplan DAT book (bought from the local book store). Read over every section and took notes. Quizzed myself. Spent approximately 100 hours going over the book about 5 or 6 times and having it memorized. I did not take the Topscore tests, took 2 of the tests in the Kaplan book and the one that came in the application packet.

When I took the test, I cruised through all the sections with lots of time left over. I felt that the Kaplan book did a good job of covering everything (except for PAT angles). I scored a 25A, 23P. I have been very adamant with other DAT test takers that they do not need to enroll in any course (I taught Kaplan DAT for a brief while and felt like it was a waste for the students), just memorize the $50 Kaplan book!

Good luck.