How much to study for?

[wired202808]

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Hey guys,

How many hours would I need to get a 20 or 21 on the exam? I'm aware that it all depends on me and how much I can put in etc. But I currently have some downtime and can effectively study for the exam nearly 8 hours a day for the next 3 months or so. Would that be sufficient for an awesome score? Because I have a 3.3 - 3.4 GPA and I believe I would need a 20 or 21 to be competitive.

Please let me know your thoughts, I'd love to hear other opinions.

Thanks.

 

[snikkaz]

It depends how well you know the material before studying. If you're fresh off the course material or can quickly get the rust off, 8hrs for 3 months is overkill. I personally think 1.5 months hardcore 8 hrs/day 6 days a week is optimal. I did that schedule, with a pretty strong but rusty background of material, and scored in the 99.9 percentile overall.

 

[macker13]

I just took the DAT and got a 20 AA after studying steady for 2 months. In that time I took off one night and also studied for the classes I'm currently taking. I'm definitely not a genius, I was just really motivated to do well on this exam and get it out of the way. For you I would say it depends on how motivated you are and how much of your free time you're actually going to spend studying per day or week. I studied about 2 to 5 hours every week night (when I didn't have other classes to study for) and spent anywhere from 8 to 14 hours per day on the weekends. It all depends on you and how comfortable you are with the information but I'd say 3 months with a decent amount of SMART studying each day would be sufficient to get the score you want! Good luck 🙂

 

[Kahr]

You may have missed it, but up in the sticky threads, there's one giving a detailed study plan by dentalWorks, please give it a browse:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=719365

 

[amh137]

Personally, IMHO I don't think you are thinking about the DAT in the right way. You shouldn't just study enough to get a 20 or whatever score you want. Prepare as if you are going to get a 30. That way you won't have any regrets about how you prepared.

 

[Kahr]

Personally, IMHO I don't think you are thinking about the DAT in the right way. You shouldn't just study enough to get a 20 or whatever score you want. Prepare as if you are going to get a 30. That way you won't have any regrets about how you prepared.

Good advice. You know though, I am studying this way myself (that mindset), but man, seeing how they scale the scores pisses me off so much, you know? Just getting a few wrong and you can drop 5-10 points, it's really discouraging! But yeah, you're absolutely right on about the above thinking going into the test.

*thinks optimistic thoughts*

 

[wired202808]

Kahr,

Thanks for the advice, if seen and tried to use the dental works guide. the only question is do u feel you need to time urself when doing the DAT destroyer problems (in dental works guide) so it feels like the real deal or do you just take your time doing them?

 

[Kahr]

Kahr,

Thanks for the advice, if seen and tried to use the dental works guide. the only question is do u feel you need to time urself when doing the DAT destroyer problems (in dental works guide) so it feels like the real deal or do you just take your time doing them?

Personally I did not time myself with the Destroyer questions, though it is a perfectly viable method (the reason I didn't is because I found the gen chem to be unrealistically difficult as a model for that same section on the DAT, and the bio... well, just seemed weird at times, but who knows, some say Destroyer bio isn't great practice, some say it is).

What I did and am still doing is using the actual practice test sections for timing, along with math destroyer (I've got 7 practice tests, which I feel is enough to prepare for timing on the DAT: 2 Kaplan, 2 ADA, 3 Topscore, and I may do the OAT practice test as well, minus the physics).

 

[wired202808]

Kaplan as in the test from the kaplan blue book? and which ADA exams are you referring to?

 

[Kahr]

Kaplan as in the test from the kaplan blue book? and which ADA exams are you referring to?

Yes, the test in KBB and the 2nd one they provide online if you purchased the KBB. I'm referring to the free ADA test and the 2009 pay ADA test (which I'm saving as my final practice test, still have it sitting in the mailer it came in).

 

[invictusx]

Hey guys,

How many hours would I need to get a 20 or 21 on the exam? I'm aware that it all depends on me and how much I can put in etc. But I currently have some downtime and can effectively study for the exam nearly 8 hours a day for the next 3 months or so. Would that be sufficient for an awesome score? Because I have a 3.3 - 3.4 GPA and I believe I would need a 20 or 21 to be competitive.

Please let me know your thoughts, I'd love to hear other opinions.

Thanks.

I spent 3.5 weeks studying for the exam and got a 23 AA and 25 TS and 22 PAT; RC brought me down. Could've gotten around 25AA or 24AA if I spent a wee more time. I didn't spend any time studying for QR or prepare for QC considering the time crunch I had. My schedule was intense. I never took a day off. I studied literally 12~14 hours a day (of course with LONG breaks). You really have to give yourself a break amidst your studying or else you drain yourself out and become really down. Don't study for more than two months. As people have probably echoed, you tend to forget more as you study for a longer period of time. You gotta give yourself a schedule. For me, it was like, "oh wow. I have 19 days to study for this exam." I wasn't a very strong Biology student (I have horrible grades in biology in college) but I did pretty well on the biology section on the DAT so hopefully that signals a message.

Anyway, it really depends on how YOU study. I tried to stray away from SDN as much as possible because it really overwhelms you when you see people popping 27 and what not. Don't compare yourself to them--everyone has a different learning method and everyone has a different test--some easy and some hard. I think I got the hard one.......

Best of luck!