DAT Study Materials

[Leo Messi]

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Hey guys,

I'm planning on writing my DAT next summer, but I am wondering what your opinion is on some of the study materials. I have read around here quite a bit and reading everyone's experiences with different books, but it really is quite overwhelming.

I currently have the Kaplan Blue Book and Cliff's AP Bio.

The two study materials I see everyone rave about are DAT Destroyer and Chad's Videos. I have tried to look into these two but I'm not really sure what each one comes with. So with DAT Destroyer, is it kind of like Kaplan's where you have chapters to read and review the material, and then have practice exams? Or is it only practice exams? Then with Chad's Video's, I kind of looked through the website; are they just videos concerning all the different topics on the DAT? I see he has many different topics but a lot of people only talk about Chem with his videos, do you recommend just buying the Chem set?

The other ones I do see and hear about are:
Math Destroyer - Is this worth buying in a package with the DAT Destroyer?
DAT Bootcamp - These are just practice DAT exams, do you think this is better or DAT Achiever (Also practice DAT exams)? The one difference with these two from my knowledge is that Bootcamp breaks the exams into sections, while Achiever has full tests to simulate the real exam. Wouldn't bootcamp be better in this sense because I think there are a lot more practice exams and you can just simulate a real DAT by doing the sections in order?

I'm not sure if I missed any other ones, I'd really like to hear your feedback on these different study guides!

 

[Dental2000]

The destroyer (both DAT and MATH) is a pure question bank book. There are over a 150 questions for each section (Bio,gchem,ochem and math) with the Bio being around 400. Important thing is that you don't treat the destroyer like a question bank. It is super hard. Look at the answers to each question at the back of the book and understand those answers. It's kind of like a Textbook/question bank.

I would suggest to start looking at the Destroyer questions and make notes on each answer.

For Chads, just subscribe to his videos for the DAT section. I believe 3 months is 115$ and 6 months is 180. See which is in your budget. I would say start looking at Chads around 2 to 2.5 months before your test date to give you time to go through his videos and re-look at them if you missed anything. Most imp point: Treat watching his videos as if you were there int he classroom with him. that means taking notes as he is explaining, trying to answer the questions he poses to his live students etc etc

Math destroyer is a must , def get that.
Bootcamp is an indispensable resource especially for the PAT. You wont be disappointed when you get it. Also get this around 2 months before your test date.

Get cliffs AP bio, Barrons AP bio are much better than the Kaplan book. The kaplan book is a garbage in my opinion. Use Youtube videos like Khan academy/craig savage videos to solidfy your understanding of certain bio concepts. Also keep looking up SDN when someone asks a bio question(or any DAT related question for that matter). You never know what small detail you might catch from here and there on this forum.

Make your own flashcards for bio, use the anki or cuecard software to make digital cards if you prefer using your computer rather than lugging a chunk of cards around. PM me if you want more info regarding practice material

 

[liu5395]

Hey, I have new DAT destroyer and math destroyer. If you need them, drop me a message please! Price is negotiable.

 

[mecallyoud]

good,You wont be disappointed when you get it. Also get this around 2 months before your test date.

 

[swindoll]

Make sure you also get Chad's quizzes. (There's a separate subscription for those.) They are super representative of the questions you'll see on the real thing! Good luck! 🙂

 

[JoJo_ASU]

Hey, I have new DAT destroyer and math destroyer. If you need them, drop me a message please! Price is negotiable.

Hey,

Do you still have 'em for sale?

JSK

 

[Leo Messi]

Awesome thanks for the replies guys! Do you guys think I should get the Destroyer now or wait for the new edition to come out (When do the new editions usually become available?)

 

[Dotoday]

What you have is great. Definitely read Cliffs before you start Destroyer. If you are having trouble with Orgo, look into Odyssey and Organic chemistry as a second language.

 

[discensdentibus]

The thing you have to keep in mind is that people have found success with a variety of testing materials and associate what they found most helpful for different reasons. One material may have helped them learn a lot, but nothing/little showed up on the exam from the source. One material may have had a few errors which might have hindered your trust that what you were learning was true, but it ended up have a question verbatim on the exam so is it a good source? People will argue it both ways. You want to be comfortable with the materials at your disposal. As weird as it sounds, if you are superstitious or think lowly about a material, you may want to avoid it. In general most people settle with Chads videos (at least for the chems), Cliffs apbio 3rd edition, and destroyer at a minimum. People tend to vary up testing software: Crack DAT, Achiever, Bootcamp, Topscore, Kaplan, Qvault. Crack DAT is most similar to exam graphics (not PAT, but the flow of the computer screens) IMO. Achiever is for those who want to be pushed and need to be told they don't know everything yet IMO and there is another option besides the 3 exam option for it. I can't speak too much about BC and Kaplan, but you are right in that you could in a sense make BC a full length, but I am not sure you can get an accurate TS score from it as TS is normalized. Topscore is old and rickety but it is still simulating full length and not evil like achiever. Qvault has its quirks too even though you can really only make it pseudo full length. You will probably be fine with 2014 destroyer. Just know that you can't really go wrong with the testing software in my opinion (I bet some die hard BC people will disagree)because you can always find people who scored successfully with each one and not the other one. Planning is important and it is up to you to figure out how to get the most of whatever you have.