Help! Ppl with 20's on their DAT!

[panda12345]

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Hello!
What did you guys study to get 20's on the DATs?

I took the DATs once, studied Kaplan, DAT destroyer, Crack PAT DAT.
Still didn't do well.
Any advice??
Please help!
🙁

 

[doc3232]

That's impossible. Using Destroyer guarantees at least a 22 AA. 🙄

What did you get the first time?

 

[panda12345]

17. which is horrible.
i really don't know what else to study.
any advice?

 

[doc3232]

17. which is horrible.
i really don't know what else to study.
any advice?

Exact scores. not just AA

 

[panda12345]

ochem 20
rc 15
qc 17
gchem 17
bio 16
pat 18

 

[doc3232]

ochem 20
rc 15
qc 17
gchem 17
bio 16
pat 18

CDP will put your PAT score in the 20s. get the 10 tests and do them.
No tips for RC
Get an SAT book or GRE math book and do some math questions. Time yourself. Do like 500 questions. This should take less than a day but spread them out throughout the time you are studying. Kaplan DAT book is quite comprehensive for the chems. I suggest AP Bio Barrons book for bio. You could use AP Bio Cliffs.

Princeton Hyperlearning explains everything perfectly.

Topscore and Achiever tests for timing.

good luck

 

[eldirty]

your scores are similar to my first time scores ... read my DAT story ...

 

[MatthewLeeDDS]

The DAT has a lot more to do with studying the right things rather than studying a lot of things. Really dig in to seperate sections for days at time and work that way. Once you build a good foundation for understanding a subject, you'll have a much easier time adding new information to it. For example, I had virtually no biology background (1 intro class 2 yrs ago) and still made a 21 on Bio. I studied a month for the DAT and literally half that time was just Bio. Pick something you're not good at and hammer it until you do well. Also, grab some practice tests from TopScore to make sure you are understanding things.

 

[panda12345]

can u tell me exactly what u did or studied to prepare for the DATs?
when i took the bio section..it felt like i absolutely didn't know anything even though i studied schaums, kaplan & destroyer.
would cliff notes & AP biology flashcards help?
same w/GC & i think I got lucky w/ochem.

 

[panda12345]

i looked up the scienceaide for ochem that u used...was it the ochemplate 1 & 2 bundle that u purchased?
thanks for the story...i feel like i have a chance again.

 

[dr bojangles]

i did the kaplan course. a bit pricey? perhaps, but it got the job done, just have to put in the work.

 

[panda12345]

I took Kaplan also.
Didn't help much.
Put in hours every day!! (6-8hrs)

 

[Contach]

Myabe it is less about what you study, and more about how you study and how deep your understanding is...

Either that or you got a hard test... sucks!

 

[gentile1225]

reading comp, pat and qr are all practice, practice, practice. i used crack dat pat and i found it to be great. it would buy the 5 tests and do them over and over, and check your answers each time and understand why you got them wrong you should be ok. don't just take the tests and take your scores for what they are, you should find your weaknesses and drill those the hardest.


sciences i used destroyer, kaplan bb, kaplan subject tests, and cliffs ap bio. if you go through the cliffs at least 3 times front and back you're guaranteed a 20 in bio. organic i used destroyer and that was basically it, i got a 20 in that section, but it was my lowest science scores so i cant complain.

gchem i was horrible! i got a 16 my first time and boosted it up to a 22. i used the cliffs college chem a little to brush up and did destroyer 10 times over. i felt it to be a little overkill, but a 22 and no complaints again! the kaplan subject tests were priceless for this section too, try to get your hands on them.

 

[MatthewLeeDDS]

can u tell me exactly what u did or studied to prepare for the DATs?
when i took the bio section..it felt like i absolutely didn't know anything even though i studied schaums, kaplan & destroyer.
would cliff notes & AP biology flashcards help?
same w/GC & i think I got lucky w/ochem.

For Bio, I used Barrons AP Bio book (NOT the Barrons DAT book.. which is pretty sucky for sciences I think) and the Kaplan Blue Book. Suprisingly, that was about it. I didn't do flashcards (they aren't my thing really) but I just read over and over. One thing I noticed when studying is if I took a practice test, I rarely forgot questions and answers from them later on. So... when you study, write down (and just imagine) made up questions for yourself and you will retain stuff way better.

Also, when you learn something new, really get into the material. Don't just learn the steps of photosynthesis, learn WHY things are named the way they are... learn why the plant needs all the parts... learn where Oxygen starts and ends... etc.

For Gen Chem, if you have old gen chem tests, those might be helpful. I had some from my college class which were a little harder than the DAT so that was good. Kaplan BB is pretty solid for this section but since it's so stripped down, you need to really learn all of it VERY well. Also, Kaplan has a lot of calculations in their Gen Chem section. More of just setting up equations on the DAT, not so much 'final answer' questions.

OChem is pretty easy on the DAT. Kaplan BB. My undergrad OChem was awesome so I basically didn't study much for it at all. Message me if you have questions, I'll be glad to help you out.

 

[panda12345]

Thanks for all the help!
I'll contact u again in a couple weeks or so if I have any questions...

 

[adizzle87]

Myabe it is less about what you study, and more about how you study and how deep your understanding is...

Either that or you got a hard test... sucks!

Could not agree more

 

[yuppers]

Maybe you should focus on studying from a few materials as I did. I think that if you too many review materials you will rush through them just to complete them, but you will not actually be learning much. Use the KBB as the main material and treat everything else as a supplement to solidify weak points. This will work well for bio and the chems. The PAT requires lots of practice unless you are naturally good at visualizing things. QR is again lots of practice.

 

[userah]

Myabe it is less about what you study, and more about how you study and how deep your understanding is...

Either that or you got a hard test... sucks!

couldn't agree with you more. using all those resources, you should have done pretty darn well on the exam. especially the sciences. make sure that when you're going through things like destroyer, don't use it as just a way to test yourself with questions. use it as a study material and go through everything, right answer choices as well as wrong answer choices. that's the only way you'll have a complete understanding of the material. good luck 👍