- Joined
- Apr 14, 2016
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 28
PA/QR/RC/BIO/GC/OC/TS/AA
22/ 22/ 25/ 21/ 23/27/23/ 24
I wanted to make this post because everyone keeps asking what I did, what my timeline was, how practice tests went, what materials to use, etc. and I'd like to just have it at one spot where I hopefully address all those concerns! Warning: this will be lengthy.
First off, material usually does not come easily to me. I am not one of those people who can pass tests by just attending lecture and barely or not studying. I have to put a lot of work into my classes to do well. Same thing applied to the DAT– I was so scared for this part of the process because ONE test makes up an sizable chunk of my application. In November of 2015 I signed up to take the DAT on April 16th, 2016. My plan was to start studying when my school semester started which was about mid-January. That gave me roughly 3 months to cover all the material for the DAT. So when January rolled around I began my journey!
I signed up for a Kaplan course, the one where you meet up with a class of students (there were only 5 of us) once a week. You also receive a big blue "review book" and smaller blue "lesson book" in the mail and have access to a ton of online stuff through your Kaplan account. If I could do this part over, I would NOT have paid for the in-class part of it. I am a self-motivated studier, driven by the fear of failure, so I was studying constantly anyway. The class part, which was 3 hours long, was very slow-paced and basically just went over all the material I would have gone over by myself much faster. Some people liked the in-class part because it "forced them to think about the material" but I would have done so anyway, just my two cents.
To start my studies off, I took the Kaplan diagnostic DAT and got a 15. That was pretty scary but I figured I had not taken gen chem for like two years, never seen the PAT section before, or had any sort of strategy for the RC section. So, oh well. Throughout my months of studying I took 5 full-length tests in addition to that first diagnostic one. I took the first full-length after a month and a half of studying and got a 16. That kind of threw me into a panic because how could I only raise my score ONE point after a month and a half of studying?? It was at this point that I really changed my study habits. After that point on, I was way more engaged in the material and actually trying to absorb it rather than just passively reading or "putting in my time." Over the next month and a half I took a full-length from Kaplan about every Saturday or so. These were my scores: diagnostic: 15, full-lengths: 16, 20, 19, 18, 21.
BIO (21)
As far as Kaplan goes, I would almost say it was one of my top sources I went to for information. I read through the entire big blue book one time, then re-read the biology section at least four times. So the big blue book was my primary source for biology. I read through it, made notes, made connections, highlighted, looked up questions, etc. every time through. I barely ever used the smaller blue "lesson book" besides when I brought it to class. In addition to Kaplan, I read through Cliff's AP bio book (which is available online in PDF format). If you are going to use that book, you definitely need to sift through the stuff that is irrelevant to the DAT and focus on the good stuff. I think it goes too in depth on plants and other stuff.
GEN CHEM (23)
When I started studying, this was the scariest section to me. I didn't do too well in my gen chem 1 class and it had been a long while since I'd though about electron configuration, orbitals, specific heat or any of that jazz. I read through Kaplan's blue book one time through but don't think I can learn gen chem through a text book all that well. This section is where I preach Chad's videos the loudest–there is a total of 14 hours worth of videos that cover practically every topic for the DAT and I watched them two times through. I had printed out the notes, followed along, and took the quizzes at the end of each section. Later, I would go back to specific videos if I needed to refresh my memory, especially with things like titrations and buffers which always confused me for whatever reason. I love that Chad explores different types of questions they could ask and always clearly explains a topic, then delves into the "well what if...". I think that helps you think about what could show up on the DAT and so you are more prepared.
OCHEM (27)
I am probably the least helpful with this section because I freaking loved my o-chem classes and ended up being a TA for o-chem 1 the semester before I took the DAT. So I was really familiar and comfortable with reagents, SN1, SN2, E1, E2, and all that good stuff. Like I said, I read through Kaplan but I also watched Chad's o-chem videos one time through just to refresh my memory on the o-chem 2 stuff. I was doing very well on DAT Bootcamp's section tests which were very representative of my real DAT score. Chad's videos has a really, really nice print out of all the reactions and reagents that might save your life if you struggle in this area. Definitely recommend memorizing those notes.
PAT (22)
Kaplan is a good starting place, but much too easy on angle ranking and hole punching. I bought Crack DAT PAT that came with 5 PAT practice tests which I thought were great. However, when I later bought a DAT Bootcamp account, I realized I could have gone without the CDP. Bootcamp was great because it came with individual section generators, so I could practice my weak spots (angle ranking and hole punching) just before I went to bed. I would say it is pretty representative of the DAT but maybe slightly harder. I believe angle ranking was quite a bit easier than Bootcamp but harder than Kaplan, just to give a range. All I can say for this section is to practice, practice, practice and you will get there!
RC (25)
I only practiced this through Bootcamp and my full-length tests. I used the Kaplan method which basically means I read through the whole passage (I truly don't understand how you could get away with not doing so) and for each numbered paragraph I jot down 2-5 important details like names, dates, weird words, etc. which I can then use as a "map" to find the answer to a question. I spent ~20 minutes per passage (7-8 mins. reading, 12-13 mins. answering questions). Bootcamp was a little harder than the real thing, in my opinion.
QR (22)
The QR section was, at first, the least of my worries. Since I felt so overwhelmed by the sciences and the PAT section, I didn't focus too much on this at the beginning. Even my last full-length where I received a 21AA, I only got a 14 on the QR. I had two weeks until my real DAT and this really worried me. So, to get better in this section I took all 10 QR section tests that DAT Bootcamp had to offer. These were really helpful in exposing me to more problems and then going through the explanations was even better. I improved my score and felt at least OK about it for the real thing. I also took some Kaplan QR section tests. I had memorized I think all of the formulas from the Kaplan blue book (volume and surface area of all the shapes, distance formula, midpoint formula, triangle stuff, pythagorean stuff, DAT Bootcamp's formulas, and all the trig identities from the math section of Chad's videos printout).
It's also worth mentioning that I would study 1-3 subjects a day. Somedays I would be stuck on gen chem (even spent a whole day figuring out ksp problems haha) and that's all I would get to. Other days, I set goals to read X amount of bio chapters, then study QR and take a section test. I think it's important to set those daily goals for yourself to keep yourself on pace.
So this was the total of my study materials:
Kaplan in-class course: $1200 (I had a $300 coupon I used)
Chad's videos, 3 months of subscription: $150
DAT Bootcamp: $109
Crack DAT PAT: $100
So although I had set out to study for ~3 months, I wouldn't say I TRULY started studying until a month and a half before. DAT Bootcamp came later in my studies when I realized I needed more materials but I think it made a huge difference in my scores combined with everything else I did! I studied every single day (I didn't take a day off) practically all day. I was enrolled in 13 credit hours at my university so I would go to class then study until I went to bed. I would study for a good chunk of hours, then walk my dog, get back to studying, make my lunch for the next day, study, then review things right before watching a Netflix show
. I also want to mention that the week/day before my test I started to feel like I didn't know anything at all. I had kind of glanced at the 2009 released DAT and though OMG I don't know any of these I'm going to fail. So I put that away and just ignored it.
I'm so lucky I had the support of my mom to get me through this and am SO GLAD it is over. Now for the application process to begin...
22/ 22/ 25/ 21/ 23/27/23/ 24
I wanted to make this post because everyone keeps asking what I did, what my timeline was, how practice tests went, what materials to use, etc. and I'd like to just have it at one spot where I hopefully address all those concerns! Warning: this will be lengthy.
First off, material usually does not come easily to me. I am not one of those people who can pass tests by just attending lecture and barely or not studying. I have to put a lot of work into my classes to do well. Same thing applied to the DAT– I was so scared for this part of the process because ONE test makes up an sizable chunk of my application. In November of 2015 I signed up to take the DAT on April 16th, 2016. My plan was to start studying when my school semester started which was about mid-January. That gave me roughly 3 months to cover all the material for the DAT. So when January rolled around I began my journey!
I signed up for a Kaplan course, the one where you meet up with a class of students (there were only 5 of us) once a week. You also receive a big blue "review book" and smaller blue "lesson book" in the mail and have access to a ton of online stuff through your Kaplan account. If I could do this part over, I would NOT have paid for the in-class part of it. I am a self-motivated studier, driven by the fear of failure, so I was studying constantly anyway. The class part, which was 3 hours long, was very slow-paced and basically just went over all the material I would have gone over by myself much faster. Some people liked the in-class part because it "forced them to think about the material" but I would have done so anyway, just my two cents.
To start my studies off, I took the Kaplan diagnostic DAT and got a 15. That was pretty scary but I figured I had not taken gen chem for like two years, never seen the PAT section before, or had any sort of strategy for the RC section. So, oh well. Throughout my months of studying I took 5 full-length tests in addition to that first diagnostic one. I took the first full-length after a month and a half of studying and got a 16. That kind of threw me into a panic because how could I only raise my score ONE point after a month and a half of studying?? It was at this point that I really changed my study habits. After that point on, I was way more engaged in the material and actually trying to absorb it rather than just passively reading or "putting in my time." Over the next month and a half I took a full-length from Kaplan about every Saturday or so. These were my scores: diagnostic: 15, full-lengths: 16, 20, 19, 18, 21.
BIO (21)
As far as Kaplan goes, I would almost say it was one of my top sources I went to for information. I read through the entire big blue book one time, then re-read the biology section at least four times. So the big blue book was my primary source for biology. I read through it, made notes, made connections, highlighted, looked up questions, etc. every time through. I barely ever used the smaller blue "lesson book" besides when I brought it to class. In addition to Kaplan, I read through Cliff's AP bio book (which is available online in PDF format). If you are going to use that book, you definitely need to sift through the stuff that is irrelevant to the DAT and focus on the good stuff. I think it goes too in depth on plants and other stuff.
GEN CHEM (23)
When I started studying, this was the scariest section to me. I didn't do too well in my gen chem 1 class and it had been a long while since I'd though about electron configuration, orbitals, specific heat or any of that jazz. I read through Kaplan's blue book one time through but don't think I can learn gen chem through a text book all that well. This section is where I preach Chad's videos the loudest–there is a total of 14 hours worth of videos that cover practically every topic for the DAT and I watched them two times through. I had printed out the notes, followed along, and took the quizzes at the end of each section. Later, I would go back to specific videos if I needed to refresh my memory, especially with things like titrations and buffers which always confused me for whatever reason. I love that Chad explores different types of questions they could ask and always clearly explains a topic, then delves into the "well what if...". I think that helps you think about what could show up on the DAT and so you are more prepared.
OCHEM (27)
I am probably the least helpful with this section because I freaking loved my o-chem classes and ended up being a TA for o-chem 1 the semester before I took the DAT. So I was really familiar and comfortable with reagents, SN1, SN2, E1, E2, and all that good stuff. Like I said, I read through Kaplan but I also watched Chad's o-chem videos one time through just to refresh my memory on the o-chem 2 stuff. I was doing very well on DAT Bootcamp's section tests which were very representative of my real DAT score. Chad's videos has a really, really nice print out of all the reactions and reagents that might save your life if you struggle in this area. Definitely recommend memorizing those notes.
PAT (22)
Kaplan is a good starting place, but much too easy on angle ranking and hole punching. I bought Crack DAT PAT that came with 5 PAT practice tests which I thought were great. However, when I later bought a DAT Bootcamp account, I realized I could have gone without the CDP. Bootcamp was great because it came with individual section generators, so I could practice my weak spots (angle ranking and hole punching) just before I went to bed. I would say it is pretty representative of the DAT but maybe slightly harder. I believe angle ranking was quite a bit easier than Bootcamp but harder than Kaplan, just to give a range. All I can say for this section is to practice, practice, practice and you will get there!
RC (25)
I only practiced this through Bootcamp and my full-length tests. I used the Kaplan method which basically means I read through the whole passage (I truly don't understand how you could get away with not doing so) and for each numbered paragraph I jot down 2-5 important details like names, dates, weird words, etc. which I can then use as a "map" to find the answer to a question. I spent ~20 minutes per passage (7-8 mins. reading, 12-13 mins. answering questions). Bootcamp was a little harder than the real thing, in my opinion.
QR (22)
The QR section was, at first, the least of my worries. Since I felt so overwhelmed by the sciences and the PAT section, I didn't focus too much on this at the beginning. Even my last full-length where I received a 21AA, I only got a 14 on the QR. I had two weeks until my real DAT and this really worried me. So, to get better in this section I took all 10 QR section tests that DAT Bootcamp had to offer. These were really helpful in exposing me to more problems and then going through the explanations was even better. I improved my score and felt at least OK about it for the real thing. I also took some Kaplan QR section tests. I had memorized I think all of the formulas from the Kaplan blue book (volume and surface area of all the shapes, distance formula, midpoint formula, triangle stuff, pythagorean stuff, DAT Bootcamp's formulas, and all the trig identities from the math section of Chad's videos printout).
It's also worth mentioning that I would study 1-3 subjects a day. Somedays I would be stuck on gen chem (even spent a whole day figuring out ksp problems haha) and that's all I would get to. Other days, I set goals to read X amount of bio chapters, then study QR and take a section test. I think it's important to set those daily goals for yourself to keep yourself on pace.
So this was the total of my study materials:
Kaplan in-class course: $1200 (I had a $300 coupon I used)
Chad's videos, 3 months of subscription: $150
DAT Bootcamp: $109
Crack DAT PAT: $100
So although I had set out to study for ~3 months, I wouldn't say I TRULY started studying until a month and a half before. DAT Bootcamp came later in my studies when I realized I needed more materials but I think it made a huge difference in my scores combined with everything else I did! I studied every single day (I didn't take a day off) practically all day. I was enrolled in 13 credit hours at my university so I would go to class then study until I went to bed. I would study for a good chunk of hours, then walk my dog, get back to studying, make my lunch for the next day, study, then review things right before watching a Netflix show
. I also want to mention that the week/day before my test I started to feel like I didn't know anything at all. I had kind of glanced at the 2009 released DAT and though OMG I don't know any of these I'm going to fail. So I put that away and just ignored it.I'm so lucky I had the support of my mom to get me through this and am SO GLAD it is over. Now for the application process to begin...
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