DAT studying help

[iq2330]

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My DAT was scheduled to be in a couple days, but because I was feeling very unprepared, I decided to reschedule it until the summer. I debated it a lot and almost was just going to take it, but decided it was not worth the risk with the scores I was getting on my practice exams. My GPA is definitely on the lower side of applicants (3.5, sGPA 3.3) so I want to be confidently ready before I take the DAT and aim for a 21+ while only taking it once. I exclusively used DAT Bootcamp for every subject and started taking practice exams way to late in my opinion (2 weeks before the exam). These two weeks I studied basically 10 hours a day and it still was not enough, probably because I come from a weak Gen Chem/Bio background.

For Orgo, I did not even watch Mike's videos (I took orgo 2 last year so I though that would be sufficent), just learned the reactions, and some general content overview with the BC Question Bank. I was getting low scores at first 16-18 (first five exams), but then my scores started improving after reviewing exams in depth to around 19 at the end. Took 7 BC tests. I still want to be hitting at least 20's in all subject tests before taking the DAT.

For biology, I just went over Feralis notes once. Then I started taking exams. I would review an exam after taking it, but the amount of material in the bio section is so much and broad that even after reviewing it, it wouldn't help my next test score because they were generally all different questions. I started reviewing Feralis notes in conjunction with reviewing my BC tests, but still that did not help much. My BC exams scores varied from 16-17 with one 21. Took 7 tests.

I mainly struggled with Gen Chem and I say this because I studied GC a lot compared to Bio and I still struggled on the practice BC exams. I took practice exams 1-8. I scored a 14, scores that ranged between 16-18, and a 19. As I was going through my practice tests on BC I struggled a lot on figuring out how to start the calculation based gen chem problems and I think its because I didn't have that much practice. It would waste a lot of time on these individual tests. I haven't taken a gen Chem class in 3 years, so this is definitely my weakest subject. Bootcamp teaches it well, but there isn't much practice you can get out of Bootcamp for straight problems aside from the tests. I am seriously considering get DAT destroyer, but everywhere I hear that DAT Destroyer is either a savior for some people, or way too overkill for gen chem/orgo.


What should I do differently to prepare for this "second time" around? Should I purchase DAT Destroyer and add it as a studying aid? Or something else?

 

[Faefly]

Here is my advice
Purchase Chad videos for course saver. He really simplifies orgo and chem. Also, this guy, the organic chemistry tutor on youtube, has tons of free videos for gen chem, orgo, and math and also has paid videos for the dat, he is a genius

()

Isn't his voice the most beautiful soothing voice in the world lol but that's beside the point!
.
Read Bio dynamite by Dr. Romano ( it's on his facebook page and it's free and colored and beautiful). I can assure you, now I am taking upper-level bio courses, and this free book he shared has put a solid foundation in my mind which makes biology courses so easy for me now.

I took 26 on Bio, for someone who wasn't a bio major, I am proud of that score.

DAT destroyer and math destroyer are a must really. No question about that.
You should do it once and then do it again.
also dat qvault bio is also a must.

and needless to say, write everything down, when you watch chad videos or the organic chemistry tutor video, write notes when
you read bio dynamite by dr. Romano, write notes.
when you solve destroyer, write the answers in notes

I never read my notes. but had like a trash bag of notes that I threw away, they helped solidify the info.

And do not neglet the math and the RC
Read every day, anything you like as long as you keep on reading
and do half a test from math destroyer or 10 questions every day.
just keep your mind in the status of working out.

Do not neglect any part and PAT, of course, you can do pat on bootcamp or other companies. I actually practiced every week once on pat.


You know when I took 2007/2009
I saw the questions and I said wow!
They look exactly like bio destroyer, but easier!

Also, I am glad you postponed the test, better than doing bad and retaking it! Don't be hard on yourself, everyone's speed and learning habits are different.

I postponed my tests a lot of times.

 

[dwightsdentist]

OP, I had the same exact GPA when I applied this past cycle, so I can somewhat understand where you're coming from. With that being said, not everyone that gets into dental school needs to get a 21+ score on the DAT. Personally, I managed to get a 21AA, but keep in mind that there are many factors that will contribute to admissions. For example, I applied to 12 schools, attended 3 interviews, and got accepted at only 1 school December 3rd (fortunately it was my top school). With that being said, here's my advice.

First, do a little self reflection. Be honest and ask yourself what are your strengths and weaknesses, how do you see yourself improving, etc. For example, I ended up taking the DAT twice. My first attempt was awful, but I recognized that if I wanted to do well the second time around, I needed to change how I studied. On top of that, try to keep a positive attitude when you're studying or else you might drive yourself crazy down the road. The first time around, I had so much anxiety because I was aiming to be perfect, but then that caused me to overthink a lot of the questions, which then made me miss questions and ultimately that gave me even more anxiety. It's a vicious cycle that's hard to overcome.

The resources I used were BC, Chad's Videos, DAT destroyer, and qVault. The first time I studied I used Kaplan, which I don't recommend because honestly, it was such a huge waste of money, and I got subpar results. I followed the first half of Ari's schedule and then created my own schedule for the second half based on the strengths and weaknesses I noticed. For bio, I used BC bio notes and supplemented with Quizlet. I didn't like destroyer for bio because many of the questions I encountered would have the answer choice "all of the above," and usually that would be the answer. It gave me a false sense of understanding the concepts being asked, so I stopped using it. I found qVault to be more representative of what I encountered on my DAT.

For gen chem and Ochem I initially used Mike's videos, but realized that I didn't really retain anything. About a month from my actual test date, I used Chad's videos, which literally saved me. I was absolute garbage at GC and Ochem, but the way Chad explained everything really stuck. After going through the videos, I did practice section tests 6-10 on BC for both GC and Ochem. I found destroyer for GC extremely helpful to assess what concepts I was still having trouble on. When I completed destroyer, I used qVault as extra practice. For Ochem, I wrote out every single reaction that Chad provided in his reactions sheet and eventually it just stuck. I didn't like destroyer for Ochem, I found that some of the questions seemed too out of scope of what would actually be asked on the DAT. To get more practice I used qVault.

To address your primary concern about GC, one of the best ways to improve your score is through test corrections. They're honestly a pain to do, but its the best assessment tool you have at your disposal. Go through every single question, regardless of the fact that you may have answered the question correct, and ask yourself, "did I get this question right because I understood the concept or did I completely guess and get lucky?" Go through the questions you're not completely sure on and the ones you missed. Write down the question and the answer choices but don't look at the explanation yet. Instead, look through your notes to find the concept the question was based on, review the concept, and then attempt to answer the question again. I also struggled with calculation based questions in GC and I found that this method significantly improved my GC score. This method forced me to work on my weaknesses and helped me to learn from my mistakes the best. Additionally, this method will allow you to see if there is a pattern in questions you're missing from a particular concept you thought you understood. I used this method for other sections of the DAT when I was studying, but I found it was the most effective for improving my GC score.

I studied for the PAT by using BC's practice section tests and the generators. PAT Booster came out shortly after I took my DAT so I can't really say if it's a good resource. I didn't use any additional resources to study for the PAT. For RC, I didn't really bother studying for. I think at most I took 3 practice tests on qVault. I initially struggled with QR, but it got easier over time as I practiced it more. I found math destroyer to be a really good resource to supplement the practice section tests on BC. Once I completed those, I used qVault.

Overall, I think BC is a really good resource to use when studying. I used section tests 6-10, which supposedly are harder than 1-5, purely for practice and assessment purposes. I took full length tests 1-5 about 3 weeks away from my actual test date. Don't be discouraged if your BC scores seem low towards the end. From what I've seen, most people tend to score higher on their actual DAT compared to the scores they got on BC. On my actual DAT, I went up by almost 4 points for every section.

Hopefully this helps, I wish you the best of luck studying for your DAT!

 

[Shahed B]

Great advice here from both Faefly and dwightsdentist. The only thing i would further comment on would be Kaplan which is a preparatory company who focuses on many standardized exams. Due to the relatively smaller scale of the DAT, Kaplan tends to focus more of their resources on other exams such as the MCAT or PCAT. For this reason or other reasons entirely, their DAT preparations are out of date and are generally avoided by pre-dental students these days. If you have extra time for practice and do not mind the extra cost, then it can potentially serve as a last resource but the main resources mentioned above are generally more than enough.