How to Study?

[ORamahiii]

So I have been scrolling through SDN for awhile now and I have seen a lot of breakdowns but I wanna personally ask a few questions?
1.) for someone who has never done ANY PAT questions where should one begin? How should they begin? and is their any guides you thought were most helpful for learning ? I was thinking to start with Youtube as I am going to begin studying in 2 months and am planning to take the DAT in mid-early august.
2.) What would you say is the most efficient way to study?
3.) Should I be doing 1 section a day and only one a day or hit multiple a day or one subject for a whole week or what? (MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IMO ily thanks)
4.) I have bought destroyer so far and am planning on buying the course-saver videos when I begin to really study but is there any other materials people recommend especially for RC and PAT? I am very worried about the RC portion and would appreciate any help. Money thankfully isn't that big of an issue and neither is time considering i have 6 months before I plan on taking the exam.
5.) Also how did you stay focused and determined everyday to sit inside (especially on a nice summer day) other than the fact of wanting to become a dentist hahah because I was curious if people had tried studying outside during the summer term or anything?


Thanks you so much. Any questions answered are really appreciated !!

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[FeralisExtremum]

1) Start by familiarizing yourself with each sub-section of the PAT, and work from there on forming strategies. Bootcamp has a really nice set of introductory videos that should cover the basics and help you get started on methods to use: DAT Perceptual Ability Strategy. Even more helpful IMO are their answer explanations after practice tests, but you might want to save those until you're more familiar with the test. I'd advise trying to practice this section a little bit every day.

2) This is going to vary depending on the individual. For me it was doing content review and taking notes, then reviewing those notes and editing them based on what I thought needed more emphasis, and finally a lot of practice questions and practice exams under testing conditions until the real test. Depending on your background in the science courses and how fresh the material is in your head, you would want to adjust your content review to practice question ratio accordingly. It's a good idea to read a lot of breakdowns and figure out what works best for your style of studying.

3) I think covering more than one subject per day is a lot more efficient - starting out I divided my time between all the sections equally. I personally found that practicing QR, PAT, and RC every day for a small amount of time was important to keep my skills there sharp. I studied each of the sciences every day too, but some days I would emphasize bio over chem or vice versa. I think that studying just one subject per week would lead to a lot of material getting forgotten until the week for that subject came around again. There's a lot of material to cover for the DAT and keeping it all fresh in your head is challenging.

4) In addition to the resources you already mentioned, I found Bootcamp really helpful (their practice exams were closest to my experience with the real test, and their answer explanations were really helpful, especially in the PAT section).

5) It was really difficult for the first month or so, but once I'd formed the habit of studying every day it got a little bit easier. If you have 6 months until you plan on taking the exam you should have plenty of time to set aside every day to go out and enjoy yourself too.

 

[Faefly]

Good questions!

1. I started with Crack DAT PAT and took one exam to become familiar with each sub-section of the PAT. I then moved on to YouTube videos for strategies, and finished out Crack DAT PAT and DAT Bootcamp exams. The PAT was slowly changing by the time I took it (i.e. I had a couple weird keyhole questions that looked like rocks), so you might want to search around the forum for ideas on what the current PAT is like.

2. I had 6 months to study, so I broke down my study schedule into 3 parts: content, review and practice. I started with establishing what I needed to know using Chad's videos. I would take rough notes on the videos and re-organized my notes afterwards. I studied off those notes, and then began completing un-timed practice questions in DAT Destroyer. I would mark (a lot of) questions I got wrong or didn't know the answers to, and looked up the answers to them at the end of each day. Before going to bed, I had Feralis' bio notes on my iPad and would flip through a few pages of it at a time. Once I began getting more comfortable with Destroyer questions and getting more of them correct, I moved on to practice exams under timed conditions in Math Destroyer and DAT Bootcamp. It turned into a cycle of repetition and exposure to as many questions as you can get your eyes on from that point forward.

3. When I started doing content review, I stuck with 2-3 subjects each day and made sure my notes were thorough. Once I was familiar with the content and began exams under timed conditions, I covered most (if not all) DAT sections each day. You want to slowly get into the habit of mirroring the real exam, and training your brain to efficiently switch between all of the DAT sections in one day as much as you can.

4. I used DAT Achiever for RC, but it was overkill in retrospect. I ended up with a 26 in RC, but Achiever was stressing me out with their weird nit-picky questions. Use Bootcamp and read some scientific articles on your own. I think that's sufficient enough to do well for the DAT Reading Comprehension. For PAT, I used Crack DAT PAT and Bootcamp. Both good resources, but again, not sure how (or if) the PAT section has changed since early 2015.

5. I study best in a quiet environment (and so far I haven't met a student who could honestly tell me he/she can efficiently study/memorize/focus outdoors or in a noisy cafe). Unfortunately, that meant I was at the library a lot. There were tall glass windows in that library, so it was torturous but nice to look out at the same time during my breaks. Find a place that works for you, and stick with it. I had a study schedule, but I honestly wasn't able to get to everything I wanted to, all the time, every day. I had days when I had fun plans, and days where I played catch-up. Towards the end, I made sure I had a clear schedule 5-6 weeks out from the DAT so I could solely focus under a bit more pressure. It depends on your study habits. Be realistic with yourself, and schedule in some buffer time if you need it. Best of luck!

Awesome Advice thank you. But now you got me worried; I thought we need like 2-3 months to be fully prepared for the test.
How much did you get if you don't mind answering?

and by the way 26 in RC is great

 

[Faefly]

I haven't started studying for the DAT yet, but I like to read people's break down here, I think they are very helpful. Especially the people with attainable results.

I mean if you want to get 21 on DAT, look at people who got 23-24 and learn from their stories. Do not look at people who got 21 because, you always want to aim higher, as in most cases you will get lower than your original aim, but at the same time you don't want to aim too high and lose your perspectives on the end goal. The end goal is not getting the highest grade (it's awesome to get the highest score though). But yeah, the end goal is going to dental school.