I need advise on DAT

[prsndwg]

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Hi,

I am a new member and have got some major questions to ask.

I will be taking my DAT during the month of August so it will give me about 2-3 months to study for it. From the previous posts, I learned that some prep books work better than the other ones. So, I ll be buying the Kaplan BB, Acheiver, Destroyer and Crack the DATand I already have the cliffnotes for bio. I am finishing up my Organic Chemistry in 5 weeks and I have not taken biology for 2 yrs. More or less forgot the whole thing. I am good at gchem and ochem. I forgot a lot of math too, but i was always a math guy and the last class after calculus was Statistic that i took and it was a yr ago. English is my second language so RC will be a problem.
I have taken a Kaplan practice test randomly last summer before taking ochem and I got 14's on about everything including ochem. that was just to see what to expect.
Right now i am finishing my ecology, Ochem II and Genetics
My AA goal is 24-25

So here are my Questions:
1. How should i start studying? How many hrs per day? how many days a week and how should i break down to study for each section?
ie. should i just focus on one at a time or do couple or more at a time?

2.what prep book should i start with 1st and after reviewing it several times, which one should i attack next?

3. how often should I take practice tests?

4. Let me know some techniques on how to attack problems in different sections, specially RC and PAT,etc.?

5. Is 2.5-3 months enough or should I wait couple weeks extra?

6. where should i buy the books that might cost a bit cheaper?

I would really appreciate all your help and hints.

Thanks in advance,

-prsndwg

 

[enamelion]

Hi,

I am a new member and have got some major questions to ask.

I will be taking my DAT during the month of August so it will give me about 2-3 months to study for it. From the previous posts, I learned that some prep books work better than the other ones. So, I ll be buying the Kaplan BB, Acheiver, Destroyer and Crack the DATand I already have the cliffnotes for bio. I am finishing up my Organic Chemistry in 5 weeks and I have not taken biology for 2 yrs. More or less forgot the whole thing. I am good at gchem and ochem. I forgot a lot of math too, but i was always a math guy and the last class after calculus was Statistic that i took and it was a yr ago. English is my second language so RC will be a problem.
I have taken a Kaplan practice test randomly last summer before taking ochem and I got 14's on about everything including ochem. that was just to see what to expect.
Right now i am finishing my ecology, Ochem II and Genetics
My AA goal is 24-25

So here are my Questions:
1. How should i start studying? How many hrs per day? how many days a week and how should i break down to study for each section?
ie. should i just focus on one at a time or do couple or more at a time?

2.what prep book should i start with 1st and after reviewing it several times, which one should i attack next?

3. how often should I take practice tests?

4. Let me know some techniques on how to attack problems in different sections, specially RC and PAT,etc.?

5. Is 2.5-3 months enough or should I wait couple weeks extra?

6. where should i buy the books that might cost a bit cheaper?

I would really appreciate all your help and hints.

Thanks in advance,

-prsndwg

It's been a while since I took the DAT but I used the exact same studying materials (except Achiever) and did pretty well. I studied for 2 months, about 4-5 hours per day during the summer. Since you're aiming for such a high AA, you'll probably have to spend more time studying depending on how efficiently you study.

I recommend the Kaplan BB as a starting point for studying for the DAT. I started studying with this and after reviewing it a second time, moved on to Destroyer. Since you are not fresh with your biology, I would review Cliffnotes BIology as well before Destroyer.

Taking practice tests is all up to you. I took practice tests on Topscore only after finishing reviewing with Kaplan BB and Destroyer. If you feel that you need to measure your progress while studying with the other materials, you can take a practice test every so often. I had a friend who did this, and it helped her focus her studying on her weak sections.

For both the RC and the PAT, you need to practice with Achiever and CDP. I used CDP and raised my PAT from 17 to 19. THe questions are very similar to that on the real test. I also found that working the problems under timed conditions helped me pace myself for each of the 6 types of PAT problems. FOr the RC, I used the "seek and destroy" method, where I read the question and searched for the answer within the passage. I know a lot of people who have successfully used this method. But this all depends on how comfortable and adept you are using this method on practice tests.

2.5-3 months is enough time. I had about that much time to study.

I bought all my books from a friend, so they were cheaper than retail. You might want to buy them from a student or online (ebay) to save some money.

I hope that tedious response helped. Good luck studying. 🙂

 

[Waitlisted2009]

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