Finished With DAT and need your input

[ttrinh8]

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Hey everyone

Longtime lurker first time poster here, and I need your opinion/expertise. I just finished my taking my DAT and couldn't be happier with the results except for one thing I got a 15 on the QR section. This was my second attempt at taming the beast, I ended up besting all my scores from my first time except for the aforementioned quant section.

From the post I've read on the forum I've gotten the impression that the QR section is the least "important" but I've also picked up that many schools won't even look at your app if you have anything below a 16 on your DAT.

Honestly I think I did very well especially considering the scores from my first try. I thought the way my scores ended up we're pretty unique and was wondering if anyone on the forum has seen someone with scores similar to mine and how things turned out for the .

Here are my scores and the scores from my first attemp in parenthesis.

PAT - 20 (19)
QR - 15 (17)
RC - 27 (19)
Bio - 21 (18)
GC - 18 (18)
OC - 27 (16)
TS - 21 (17)
AA - 22 (18)

Thanks for any insight you can give me. And good luck to those getting ready to take the DAT, there is an end to the tunnel no matter how dark it seems!

 

[tooth knockn]

Nice improvement.

How was the bio section in both exams? Were they similar on tested topics?

 

[tooth knockn]

I would not worry about your QR SCORE.

Still apply, how is your GPA?

Can you post a DAT BREAKDOWN.

 

[TheMission]

dat ochem doe. Nice improvement. If you have time, which you should, you should call up schools and personally ask them (or email). UoP in California doesn't care too much, but they said it's a bad sign if it's a score that is dragging down your AA. In this case, your AA is well above average for a lot of schools. Well done. Me like.

 

[ttrinh8]

Thanks for the positive vibes everyone. I'll post a breakdown tomorrow but tonight is for celebrating!

 

[ttrinh8]

More on my DAT experience and a breakdown of my study process.

***WARNING*** I don't recommend people do what I did for studying, I just did it because it when I studied for my first test I tried following the "Sample DAT study schedule" posted on this forum and couldn't have felt more unprepared. I'm not sure why that was but in the end I guess you have to find what works for you and work your butt off.

Materials
Cliffs AP Biology (8th edition): Cliff's to me was about the perfect amount of detail needed to do well on the the bio section of the DAT. I also was really receptive to the way they presented information in list form.

Kaplan DAT Purple Book (8th Edition): I just used this book for the biology section. I didn't think it helped as much as cliffs, as I don't think it went into enough detail on the important concepts and went into way to much detail on some irrelevant topics. Although I would recommend giving it a quick read through since it does go into some topics that Cliffs completely skips that have a good chance of being on the DAT (i.e. Embryonic layers, excellent job of explaining the endocrine system and hormones)

Chads Videos: Simply put Chad is the man. What I learned from taking my first test was that he knows what is on the DAT. When he says something isn't likely to be tested on it likely is going to be tested on, and what he teaches and what you print out is what you should learn to master nothing more or nothing less. The mans not just teaching you O-chem or gen-chem he is teaching you how to do well on the DAT

DAT Destroyer: This is where I differ from others on this forum. After finishing reviewing Chads videos I started on the destroyer. After I did a 100 question from both the gen-chem and O-chem section I couldn't have felt more lost or discouraged. This is the point where I decided I needed to make a change and thanks to my fellows SDN'ers purchased.....

DAT Bootcamp: Once I purchased Bootcamp I used it exclusively to test my progress. it was a much more accurate representation of the DAT albeit just a tad more difficult IMO.

Method
Ok in all honesty I'm a little embarrassed to type this but like I said earlier you gotta find what works for you and just work your tail off.

So I didn't really have a any set plan or schedule. I work as an assistant at an oral surgeons office in the morning and in the afternoon I work as an assistant at a General dentists office, so I just told myself once you get off work (around 5ish sometimes later) go home eat dinner, shower, than study whatever you feel like until midnight, rinse and repeat.

Initially I set my test a month before I started studying (definitely a pipe dream since I ended up moving it back twice, all in all I ended up taking the test about 2 months after I started studying).

First I went over all of chads videos and took notes. During this time which took about 2 weeks I read a chapter of Cliffs every night and went over the notes about that chapter I took during my first time taking the test (I'm pretty good at memorizing facts so I wasn't too worried about the Bio section) week three is around the time I went over the destroyer problems and made the switch to Bootcamp. Basically over the last month I watched chads videos once again did his quizzes and did as many Bootcamp questions as possible.

It wasn't until the last week before my test I even looked at PAT stuff (I looked at a couple YouTube videos) and did one practice test on Bootcamp just to get my timing down. And the reason I got a 15 on the quant section was I didn't look at chads videos about it until the day before my test and did no practice problems(I kept putting it off telling myself I need to nail the science section)

I guess all in all my method was just pound the rock and go over he material as much as possible instead of doing a huge amount of practice problems. It's a risky strategy but it worked out sort of

Ok that was way longer than I anticipated and I didn't even post about the actual DAT. I'll post that after a little break.

cheers