Hi!
I've only been on here for maybe 1 or 2 months, and lurking before, but I've found this community so helpful, even though I was sure that I was annoying everyone with my millions of questions lol.
In any case, here's my breakdown!
PAT: 21
QR: 24
RC: 22
Bio: 22
GC: 19
GC: 21
TS: 21
AA: 22
Bio: I studied using Cliff's, Examkrackers
This section was definitely random, but not as random as I expected! A lot of the stuff that I didn't study came out on the test, and I think I ended up "Marking" 13 questions that I wasn't 100% sure about. I would say that the best study material, after seeing the exam and question types on the DAT, would be a mixture of Cliffs and Examkrackers, and then some source for taxonomy (I hear Barron's is good?). Cliffs gets down to the level of detail that they ask, but they aren't as organized I felt about the different body systems. I went through Cliff's cursorily once, and then the body systems in Examkrackers literally two days before the exam. I really felt underprepared for this section, so I'm definitely happy with my scores! I think I studied a lot less than I should've ... and I got to around problem 40 on the DAT Destroyer Bio before realizing that a more effective strategy would be to study the material first haha. I realized that 3 days before the exam. So if you study bio earlier, I am sure you can do better than me 🙂 I think I just got lucky!
Chem: I studied using Destroyer, Chad's videos
Seriously these two are the only two things you need. I thought I did better on the Chem, since I was more confident about that than Bio, but I guess I got more wrong than I thought! In any case, the questions were similar to Destroyer, but actually even more similar to qVault! I went through the Destroyer once, one week before my exam, and had time 3 hours before the exam to re-read around half the problems I had marked in the Destroyer. Chad's videos are what saved me from getting a 15 haha. He's super, super great at teaching! The exam had a less calculation and periodic table type stuff, so I'd say it's most similar to qVault, but maybe a little more theoretical.
Orgo: I studied using Destroyer, Chad's videos
Again, Chad's videos saved me! And the Road maps. I studied the road maps 2 weeks before my exam, and went through the Destroyer once, one week before the exam. I would say that if you can do the Destroyer questions perfectly, you will do well on this section. qVault, again, is pretty similar!
Overall, I had around 5 minutes left and went back to check some Bio and Chem - I had a few "aha!" moments for the Bio, so I think that's what saved me at the end.
RC: I didn't study for it
I don't really know what happened, since I only marked 3 questions on the test, and of those 3 I thought I'd get at least one right! The other ones I found in the passage - it's not so easy to to S&D - I didn't use that technique. Instead, I would read the question first and then read the passage, and if I got to the answer, I'd go to the next question and continue where I left off. I had around 8 minutes left to go over my questions!
QR: I didn't study for it
I did around 40 questions in the DAT Destroyer Math, got 1 wrong, and decided I was probably better off spending that time studying (cramming) for the sciences. I marked only 2, because there was an acceleration question that I didn't quite know, and another random compound interest which I didn't remember, but I made educated guesses for those - i guess I got them wrong though! I had around 10 minutes left over at the end.
PAT: Crack DAT PAT, Achiever
TFE's are easier than Achiever, but harder than CDP. It requires more 3D thinking, but at the same time, you can count like, 1 line or so and narrow it down usually to 2 or 3 choices! The angles were slightly harder than I expected, too, but not terribly hard. I studied PAT early, stopped studying, and took an exam the day before the test. I got a 19 on that test, so I was just hoping for a 20 - I'm more than happy with a 21!
For the exams I took, I took 2 Achiever tests, 9 qVaults, and 4 CDP. If you guys want breakdowns of those, I can post them too 🙂 I really hope this helps! I would say study with Achiever early on, and do the qVaults!! I had some bio questions that were really similar to qVault, and same with Chem. Orgo, not so much but the content and type was very similar. I think they were good representations of my scores. RC and qV too! Although I think the real DAT is a little bit tougher on scoring for RC.
Do you guys think this score is competitive? That GC 🙁 ... I have a 3.42 GPA and a 3.35 sGPA. If you have any questions about the DAT itself, let me know 🙂 My testing center was so nice! I ended up taking the test 1 hour earlier than my original time.
Thanks SDN for all your help!! 🙂
I've only been on here for maybe 1 or 2 months, and lurking before, but I've found this community so helpful, even though I was sure that I was annoying everyone with my millions of questions lol.
In any case, here's my breakdown!
PAT: 21
QR: 24
RC: 22
Bio: 22
GC: 19
GC: 21
TS: 21
AA: 22
Bio: I studied using Cliff's, Examkrackers
This section was definitely random, but not as random as I expected! A lot of the stuff that I didn't study came out on the test, and I think I ended up "Marking" 13 questions that I wasn't 100% sure about. I would say that the best study material, after seeing the exam and question types on the DAT, would be a mixture of Cliffs and Examkrackers, and then some source for taxonomy (I hear Barron's is good?). Cliffs gets down to the level of detail that they ask, but they aren't as organized I felt about the different body systems. I went through Cliff's cursorily once, and then the body systems in Examkrackers literally two days before the exam. I really felt underprepared for this section, so I'm definitely happy with my scores! I think I studied a lot less than I should've ... and I got to around problem 40 on the DAT Destroyer Bio before realizing that a more effective strategy would be to study the material first haha. I realized that 3 days before the exam. So if you study bio earlier, I am sure you can do better than me 🙂 I think I just got lucky!
Chem: I studied using Destroyer, Chad's videos
Seriously these two are the only two things you need. I thought I did better on the Chem, since I was more confident about that than Bio, but I guess I got more wrong than I thought! In any case, the questions were similar to Destroyer, but actually even more similar to qVault! I went through the Destroyer once, one week before my exam, and had time 3 hours before the exam to re-read around half the problems I had marked in the Destroyer. Chad's videos are what saved me from getting a 15 haha. He's super, super great at teaching! The exam had a less calculation and periodic table type stuff, so I'd say it's most similar to qVault, but maybe a little more theoretical.
Orgo: I studied using Destroyer, Chad's videos
Again, Chad's videos saved me! And the Road maps. I studied the road maps 2 weeks before my exam, and went through the Destroyer once, one week before the exam. I would say that if you can do the Destroyer questions perfectly, you will do well on this section. qVault, again, is pretty similar!
Overall, I had around 5 minutes left and went back to check some Bio and Chem - I had a few "aha!" moments for the Bio, so I think that's what saved me at the end.
RC: I didn't study for it
I don't really know what happened, since I only marked 3 questions on the test, and of those 3 I thought I'd get at least one right! The other ones I found in the passage - it's not so easy to to S&D - I didn't use that technique. Instead, I would read the question first and then read the passage, and if I got to the answer, I'd go to the next question and continue where I left off. I had around 8 minutes left to go over my questions!
QR: I didn't study for it
I did around 40 questions in the DAT Destroyer Math, got 1 wrong, and decided I was probably better off spending that time studying (cramming) for the sciences. I marked only 2, because there was an acceleration question that I didn't quite know, and another random compound interest which I didn't remember, but I made educated guesses for those - i guess I got them wrong though! I had around 10 minutes left over at the end.
PAT: Crack DAT PAT, Achiever
TFE's are easier than Achiever, but harder than CDP. It requires more 3D thinking, but at the same time, you can count like, 1 line or so and narrow it down usually to 2 or 3 choices! The angles were slightly harder than I expected, too, but not terribly hard. I studied PAT early, stopped studying, and took an exam the day before the test. I got a 19 on that test, so I was just hoping for a 20 - I'm more than happy with a 21!
For the exams I took, I took 2 Achiever tests, 9 qVaults, and 4 CDP. If you guys want breakdowns of those, I can post them too 🙂 I really hope this helps! I would say study with Achiever early on, and do the qVaults!! I had some bio questions that were really similar to qVault, and same with Chem. Orgo, not so much but the content and type was very similar. I think they were good representations of my scores. RC and qV too! Although I think the real DAT is a little bit tougher on scoring for RC.
Do you guys think this score is competitive? That GC 🙁 ... I have a 3.42 GPA and a 3.35 sGPA. If you have any questions about the DAT itself, let me know 🙂 My testing center was so nice! I ended up taking the test 1 hour earlier than my original time.
Thanks SDN for all your help!! 🙂
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