How do you study with Kaplan's blue book?

[Utes]

I started with Gen Chem (I'm trying to avoid Biology) and I read it through once. I felt like I still didn't have a firm grasp so I'm reading it a second time and taking brief notes over concepts/rules.
For those of you who have taken the DAT and done well, did you do anything besides what I am doing? Did you do lots of problems from textbooks or make flashcards or something?

Thanks

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[jdcinza13]

in some circumstances, the best way to study is to draw diagrams by yourself and label everything. You may want to copy a detailed one from a book or the Blue Book until you know it by heart, and can visualize what and where everything goes. That works good for things like the nitration cycle, digestion, brain, anatomy etc. by practicing it, you will be surprised how fast it will pop into your head when asked a question about it, especially if you can visualize it.

 

[jdcinza13]

and do lots of practice tests/questions. You will start to see common themes and use different sources too i.e. Topscore, Examkrackers, Acethedat etc.

 

[Paps]

Ive been studying for four weeks so far....i havent read through ALL the chemistry sections. What i do is i just take the topical tests that kaplan has...theres like five of them...and after each one ill read through the explanations and refer back to the kaplan book. Personally i feel theres no use of reading through everything. For one thing.....its hard to remember EVEYTHING from those chapters and another thing is it seems like a lot of the Questions ive seen from the ADA sample test and others are really consistent. Besides the gas laws, periodical table stuff, etc theres only a number of equations you hafta memorize and manipulate On the other hand , Ive read the whole bio portion in the kaplan book. Anyone else agree???

 

[pbure]

Ive been studying for four weeks so far....i havent read through ALL the chemistry sections. What i do is i just take the topical tests that kaplan has...theres like five of them...and after each one ill read through the explanations and refer back to the kaplan book. Personally i feel theres no use of reading through everything. For one thing.....its hard to remember EVEYTHING from those chapters and another thing is it seems like a lot of the Questions ive seen from the ADA sample test and others are really consistent. Besides the gas laws, periodical table stuff, etc theres only a number of equations you hafta memorize and manipulate On the other hand , Ive read the whole bio portion in the kaplan book. Anyone else agree???

This might buy you a 17-18 TS score on the DAT. But if you really want to go in and conquer with a 20+ score then I suggest you read through everything. It's not that long. You'd be surprised at how many obscure equations there are, like hc/lambda, normality, nuclear stuff and some stoichiometry problems. No one is saying you have to memorize and store everything you read, but you definitely shouldn't go by what Kaplan has to offer alone. Those are great to reinforce your understanding and gauge your scientific knowledge..but don't use them as a direct study tool. Treat them more as a nice bonus in addition to the raw materials i.e. the big blue book and old college texts.

 

[jdcinza13]

Do searches on this forum to find what the main topics are from the DAT and hit those subjects hard. Know them forward and backward and you will have a solid score. Then just fill in the details.