How much quality time did you spend studying for the DAT?

[503224]

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I know some people might dismiss this thread due to everyone having differences (in terms of study habits, academic background, etc.), but I really am curious to find out how much time people put into studying specifically for the DAT. I came up with the idea for this thread after reading outliers, in which Gladwell mentions the 10,000 hour rule (the idea that one of the keys to success is to put 10,000 hours into a task).

Please include specific amount of quality time invested (estimated to the best of your ability) and relevant background info (academic background, DAT scores, how you motivated yourself to keep studying, etc) in your posts in reply to this thread.



I'm currently studying for the DAT, so I don't have any scores to report yet, but I'm a non-traditional student who took the prerequisites while I was in college a few years ago. I didn't have the highest GPA, and I'm currently working on raising my GPA a little bit by taking some post-baccalaureate courses. It's very slow to raise your GPA, so I figure my best chances of gaining admission are to knock the DAT out of the park. I'm currently putting in 5 hours a day for the DAT, planning to take the exam after studying for 6 weeks, so I'm on track to put in 210 hours for this exam. Hopefully that gets me where I need to be score-wise. I'm motivting myself to keep going by spending time with my significant other when possible and also by visualizing success on this exam.

 

[Glimmer1991]

I studied 4 hours a day for 3 months, give or take. Answers to the other questions are in my breakdown. 10,000 hours is RIDICULOUS. 😀

 

[503224]

Thanks Glimmer!

10,000 hours is RIDICULOUS. 😀

Yeah, 10,000 hours is impossible, but I thought I should mention where the idea came from before people laughed me out of the DAT forum! 😀

 

[shiftparadigm]

I studied seriously for about 3-4 hours a day for 2 months; then when it was one month before my test date, I started getting panicky and studied for around 6-8 hours a day. My main motivation was the thought that I didn't want to take the test more than once. Signing up for a test date in advance and keeping that date in mind also kept me on track in terms of following a study schedule. I go to one of the top universities in the US but I'm not sure my classes helped me that much in terms of doing well on the DAT. Scored a 25AA, 25TS, 22PAT, 24QR, 25RC, so I can definitely say that 10,000 hours of studying is overkill!

 

[Kingsta2426]

4-6 hours per day for 6 weeks, do not over work yourself because you will be burnt out by the time the DAT comes. I liked to do 3 hours in the morning 8-11 then take 2-3 hours off for lunch and a workout/play basketball then 3 hours in the afternoon 2-5 then relax rest of day to keep the mind fresh

 

[Bobby Fischer]

I am going to have a hard time answering this. I guess I am having a hard time separating the time I spent in the regular classes with the coursework and the time spent exclusively on the DAT format. Seems like too much overlap to be able to separate them.

If I had to summarize, basically, I spent 1 full summer of about 3 months, ranging from 2 hours per day to 12.

 

[Toofly01]

I think something to keep in mind as a caveat is whether people were taking the DAT for the first time or not. For instance, I studied extra long because I was taking it for the first time and wanted to take it only once. Some people who were on their second or third try may not have needed as many hours of study.

The number of hours you devote to studying may also depend on how strong your background is in the sciences- when I started I was many years removed from the basics and had to spend some time catching up.

Regardless, very interesting poll and I'm sure it will come in handy for many. Good luck with your DAT prep! 🙂

(PS with regards to Gladwell I think he was talking about becoming a prodigy/expert/professional with regards to a specific skill... and yes I've amassed over 10,000 hours of musical practice LOL but I don't think I'm a prodigy... maybe a mini-expert.) 😛

 

[acoburn73]

I studied seriously for about 3-4 hours a day for 2 months; then when it was one month before my test date, I started getting panicky and studied for around 6-8 hours a day. My main motivation was the thought that I didn't want to take the test more than once. Signing up for a test date in advance and keeping that date in mind also kept me on track in terms of following a study schedule. I go to one of the top universities in the US but I'm not sure my classes helped me that much in terms of doing well on the DAT. Scored a 25AA, 25TS, 22PAT, 24QR, 25RC, so I can definitely say that 10,000 hours of studying is overkill!

My current plan as a non-traditional applicant working full time as a Bioengineer is 15.5 weeks at ~16 hours per week (some weeks 12 hrs, some 20, but I feel I need to average 16), which is roughly 248-250 hours total. Having been out of school for some time, I'm hoping this will suffice. I will be taking vacation the week of the test (July 11th test date) to run through reviews of notes and practice tests, and plan on doing no studying at all on July 10th - the day before the 1:30 pm test.

 

[toyotasupra]

I picked up DAT Destroyer and just hacked at it 10-20 pages a day. Don't count your hours or it's going to feel like a eternity. I went through DAT Destroyer in maybe 2 weeks? Then it took another week to go through it again one more time.

I didn't feel prepared for the test, but just going through Destroyer helped me "guess" the correct answer 90% of the time. 😉