Hello, I scored 30 on my organic chemistry section on the DAT, and I want to share how I achieved the score with you all. First of all, I am more than an average student. I got Cs in my organic chemistry classes, and I was able to pull off 30. Thus, I believe anyone can score high (close to 30) on the organic chemistry section. Here are some reason why 30 is definitely possible.
Week 1~2 Go over the Chad’s videos from coursesaver. I took 2 days per chapter to write notes and go over all the quizzes. Remember, when you are writing notes, take your time, color code them, and do whatever you can do to make it neat as possible. Also, every quiz questions you were unsure of, or got it incorrect, copy down the question, answer, and solution on a separate notebook. Since there are 6 chapters in Chad’s video, this note taking should take 12 days. BUT make it 2 weeks (14days) where you can use the 2 days to review and revisit your weakness.
Week 3 Now you are done taking notes, it’s time to take 1 full week to revisit your notes and quizzes. Make sure you understand all the concepts from every chapters. Also, you should be memorizing all the reactions + roadmaps. This memorization part will take a lot of your time, so I recommend memorizing those reactions everyday until the day before your DAT exam.
Week 4~6 3 weeks passed, and now it’s time for practice. Start with DAT Destroyer and do 60 questions a day (30 in the morning 30 in the evening). Don’t be discouraged if you are getting more than half of the questions wrong. I was on the same boat. But make sure to understand all the questions you got wrong and review review review! Do this for 2 weeks, and if you are out of questions, re-visit questions you got wrong.
Week 7 Now, move on the DAT bootcamp. You will be surprised how easier the questions are compare to Destroyer. Since you were prepared to answer tough questions from Destroyers, Bootcamp should be much easier. Plus, the difficulty for Bootcamp is similar to the actual DAT. Do Test 6~10, and this should take 5 days. But again, make sure to review your answers and understand incorrect answers.
This is how I studied and I scored 30. Technically, it took approximately 7 weeks. But boy I was only studying for that 7 weeks (on top of other subjects!) Remember, hard work will pay off, and this C student was able to pull off a 30.
Hopefully, this will help future DAT takers to ace that o-chem section. And if you don’t score high on your exam, that means you did not put your time in it! Anyone can do well on the DAT. All you need is the discipline and time.
Good luck to all of you DAT takers, and let me know if you have any questions.
- No need to know the MECHANISM. This saves tons of time because as you all may know, some reactions constitute of 100 mechanism steps. But for the DAT, you don’t have to know the mechanism. (Maybe couple one-two step mechanisms?)
- DAT Bootcamp + Chad’s have ALL the reactions you need to know for the DAT. Just download in PDF and memorize it. If you memorize everything there, you are pretty much going into the exam with 20+ score.
- DAT Destroyer has a roadmap where you can follow each reactions. MEMORIZE this as well! It is always nice to use variety of resources to enhance your pool of information.
Week 1~2 Go over the Chad’s videos from coursesaver. I took 2 days per chapter to write notes and go over all the quizzes. Remember, when you are writing notes, take your time, color code them, and do whatever you can do to make it neat as possible. Also, every quiz questions you were unsure of, or got it incorrect, copy down the question, answer, and solution on a separate notebook. Since there are 6 chapters in Chad’s video, this note taking should take 12 days. BUT make it 2 weeks (14days) where you can use the 2 days to review and revisit your weakness.
Week 3 Now you are done taking notes, it’s time to take 1 full week to revisit your notes and quizzes. Make sure you understand all the concepts from every chapters. Also, you should be memorizing all the reactions + roadmaps. This memorization part will take a lot of your time, so I recommend memorizing those reactions everyday until the day before your DAT exam.
Week 4~6 3 weeks passed, and now it’s time for practice. Start with DAT Destroyer and do 60 questions a day (30 in the morning 30 in the evening). Don’t be discouraged if you are getting more than half of the questions wrong. I was on the same boat. But make sure to understand all the questions you got wrong and review review review! Do this for 2 weeks, and if you are out of questions, re-visit questions you got wrong.
Week 7 Now, move on the DAT bootcamp. You will be surprised how easier the questions are compare to Destroyer. Since you were prepared to answer tough questions from Destroyers, Bootcamp should be much easier. Plus, the difficulty for Bootcamp is similar to the actual DAT. Do Test 6~10, and this should take 5 days. But again, make sure to review your answers and understand incorrect answers.
This is how I studied and I scored 30. Technically, it took approximately 7 weeks. But boy I was only studying for that 7 weeks (on top of other subjects!) Remember, hard work will pay off, and this C student was able to pull off a 30.
Hopefully, this will help future DAT takers to ace that o-chem section. And if you don’t score high on your exam, that means you did not put your time in it! Anyone can do well on the DAT. All you need is the discipline and time.
Good luck to all of you DAT takers, and let me know if you have any questions.
