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Hey all - I was digging through old posts and couldn't find any good thread on any tried and true DAT prep strategy.
I know that the general skeleton of your strategy is common to all professional school admissions test - review the relevant material, practice simulation problems, learn from your mistakes, review material again, finally take real practice tests with real conditions - with the MCAT, this included using a watch and giving yourself the actual allotment of time, using the same scantron as the real test, etc, this is possible b/c you can get a hold of the AAMC test.
What I found most important in the strategy, is the last stage where you are simulating testing "timing" where, as an example only, you know that to finish section X on time, you can only spend Xmins on each question, and when you've completed 50% of the section, you should have Xmins left to complete the section (say the VR section in the MCAT) this way you know whether you are behind or not - this is crucial for all the standardized admissions tests.
So, I'm assuming the DAT is the same - I apologizing for being a total newb, I still haven't checked out the DAT site yet, from there I guess I can find out the details (including the time alloted for each section, number of questions per section, thus the time allowed on each question)...but what are the best resources to use to simulate the DAT given that there aren't any official DAT practice tests?
And is this even necessary? Do most people just pracitce the sections individually and not the entire test in one sitting? Like, one day, you can crack open the IQ Pubs PAT test, and then on another day, you practice the BIO section? I'm asking b/c IQ publications didnt' publish any "full-length" DATs, they only have one book for practice on the "natural sciences" (not even sure if it follows the same format as the DAT or if it's just practice problems).
I know that the general skeleton of your strategy is common to all professional school admissions test - review the relevant material, practice simulation problems, learn from your mistakes, review material again, finally take real practice tests with real conditions - with the MCAT, this included using a watch and giving yourself the actual allotment of time, using the same scantron as the real test, etc, this is possible b/c you can get a hold of the AAMC test.
What I found most important in the strategy, is the last stage where you are simulating testing "timing" where, as an example only, you know that to finish section X on time, you can only spend Xmins on each question, and when you've completed 50% of the section, you should have Xmins left to complete the section (say the VR section in the MCAT) this way you know whether you are behind or not - this is crucial for all the standardized admissions tests.
So, I'm assuming the DAT is the same - I apologizing for being a total newb, I still haven't checked out the DAT site yet, from there I guess I can find out the details (including the time alloted for each section, number of questions per section, thus the time allowed on each question)...but what are the best resources to use to simulate the DAT given that there aren't any official DAT practice tests?
And is this even necessary? Do most people just pracitce the sections individually and not the entire test in one sitting? Like, one day, you can crack open the IQ Pubs PAT test, and then on another day, you practice the BIO section? I'm asking b/c IQ publications didnt' publish any "full-length" DATs, they only have one book for practice on the "natural sciences" (not even sure if it follows the same format as the DAT or if it's just practice problems).
