- Joined
- Jun 9, 2014
- Messages
- 1,443
- Reaction score
- 771
It's finally over!!! Im soooo sooo soooooo happy! 
PAT: 23
QR: 21
RC: 21 (OMG too happy about this!!!)
Bio: 21
GC: 26
OC: 23
TS: 23
AA: 22
Before I start, I want to give some special shoutouts to some very important people who have helped me:
@orgoman22 Dr. Romano and Nancy: You guys are the nicest, most helpful, most sincere, caring people I have ever met. The amount of help you both have given me means the world to me...hundreds of posts later, and I couldnt have gotten there without you two. You both have strengthened me, supported me, and given me the best advice. I am forever in your debt for that, and I will always remember all your help. Destroyer was by far, the best resource. I actually had fun using it! I was VERY prepared because of it, and you two have put so much work into the Destroyers..which immensely helped me on my exam!! Such a valuable resource. I really REALLY cannot thank you enough for all your help...it means EVERYTHING to me! Thank you soo soo soooooo much!
@FeralisExtremum and @BYU4you : You guys are amazing students, amazing people in general, and will become amazing dentists. You two have helped me so much with my questions, general advice, and strategies. I must've had like 90 messages from each of you! There's a reason why you guys will become great dentists, and it's not just because you scored high on the DAT...it's because you guys are willing to help out people to any extent. You guys dont even personally know me, and you've done sop much for me! Im truly blessed for all your help that you have given me both. Every message and piece of info you both gave me helped me so much! Thank you so much, and I wish you both the best of luck in your futures! You both will do amazing things!
@Ari Rezaei: Thank you so much for Bootcamp! It was great practice, and an amazing resource. I owe my 23 in PAT to BC for sure, no doubt! You answered many of my questions, gave me amazing advice, and even went out of your way to extend my membership for two weeks. I cannot be more grateful. BC was great to use (and fun!). I really enjoyed the program, and it was great preparation. Thank you so much for everything Ari! You will do great things in Dentistry! Keep up the good luck at Columbia...if all goes well, I may see you there if I get in
Best wishes!
Shoutout to Chad and his videos...which helped me get a wonderful foundation in the chemistries. I was TERRIBLE at Gen Chem, but improved significantly! Thank you!!!
Of course, I must thank my fellow SDN friends! All of you have given me the best advice, and I am forever grateful for everything! It's so nice to have a community built on people WANTING to help people. Im truly blessed for everyones help, it means so much, and I wouldnt have gotten this far without you all! Shoutout to @DentalGirl5 @matardug @predent3591 and many more! You guys are all amazing people, and will go far in dentistry. This community is amazing, and SDN is so amazing! thank you all!
I also want to thank my mom, whom without, I would never been here. As a single parent from a broken family, my mother has done EVERYTHING to help me with dentistry. When I made the switch from medicine to dentistry, my mother was always there supporting me by my side, giving me the best advice. Even with the little money we have, my mother went out of her way to make sure I had EVERY resource I needed to do well on this test. I cannot thank you enough mom, thank you for that soooooooooo much!
Thank you God for watching over me throughout my study time, and during the test. I cannot be more grateful!!!
***Also, thank you to my mom, grandma, and brother for putting up with me for the last couple months! I always asked if everyone could put their music lower, tv down, etc whenever I needed to study....and for listening to my "Fun facts of the day". Thank you so much!!!****
The Breakdown:
NOTE: I told myself before I started studying that I was only taking this test once, which I was VERYYYYY firm about. This is why I committed so much time and effort. I would do WHATEVER it took to get my scores, and I regret NOTHING!!!!
How I studied: Oh how long it's been! I started back in January, two weeks before classes started! I remember going through Chad's videos, and taking notes for 8 hours/ day for those two weeks. And then as school started, my time DRASTICALLY decreased!! I think by like end of march, I was only able to do PAT. So once school ended, I waited two days to rest, and then started up May 4. Now, this is gonna be an EXTREME example of how to study, but hey, it worked for me: I would wake up at 5-5:30 every morning ,and start around 6-6:30 (Yes you read that right...Im a morning person!). Throughout the time of May 4- now, I usually studied 10-15 hours, but mostly 12-15 to be honest. I would do ~3 blocks. Block 1: 6-12. Then eat lunch and rest for an hour. Then I would do like 1-5, followed by an hour for dinner/ relaxing. Then after dinner, Id do another 3-5 hours depending what needed to be done. Towards the end, I think I might've done more than 15 hours (dont judge!) but it worked for me. So from May 4- July 14...roughly 2 HARDCORE months...plus January to May for general reviewing. (Looking back, this was pointless because I ended up forgetting a lot due to not being able to review it frequently). For the actual subject studying, I usually did like 4-6 hours bio, ~3 hours each of Orgo/GC, and then the remaining time for math/ PAT. During the first two weeks starting May 4th, I did a quick review of all content. Since I went over everything previously, this was fairly simple to do. Definitely worth it. Then after, I did Destroyer. A month before my test, I started using BC for the tests (always used it beforehand for PAT). Ill get into the specifics for each resource!
Sources used:
1) Destroyer (math, and general)....(10/ 10):
-It's not like this is anything new...everyone says it...GET THE DESTROYER!!! PLEASE!!!! I cant emphasize how important it is. I went over the Bio twice, and GC/Orgo 3x. I did the first 10 math destroyer tests twice, and the regular destroyer math twice as well. Not gonna lie, I think my exam was VERY similar to Destroyer for the sciences. Felt really prepared because of it. Note: KNOW WHY YOU GOT SOMETHING RIGHT AND WHY YOU GOT SOMETHING WRONG! This is EXTREMELY important and valuable!!!! Basically, what Im saying is: KNOW every destroyer problem...like be able to explain it to someone!!! Do everything possible! Also....MAKE notecards!! I think I have like 7-800 of them for bio! Soooooooooooooo worth it!
2) Bootcamp (10/10):
-Such a valuable resource: Especially for PAT!! The exams had very similar questions to the style of my exam for a good portion of the science (~1/2), but the other half was from Destroyer Id say! i really loved the practice exams!! Such great exams, and amazing explanations! And the PAT...I owe my score to BC for that! When I first started, I was getting like 4-5 in Keys and TFE for example, and much worse in other subjects. But with much practice, I was successful! I started with the generators, and did subject tests after. I was getting 20-24 on BC so my scores were pretty accurate about that. Overall, definitely invest in this resource!!
3) QVault (6/10):
-Ehhhhh it was alright! I mostly used it for Bio, RC, and PAT. I did like 5 RC exams (very useful!) and 3 PAT exams. I did all the bIO questions, which was very helpful! I did some lab techniques from here as well! Overall though, I dont think it was worth the 240...I mean it was good practice, but the above resources were the best ones! If anything, get the Bio and RC..great practice!
4) Chad's videos (10/10)
-Sooooooo goooooood! I was terribly awful at GC...I had no idea of what was going in GC during my class in college...and i had to teach myself. These videos, as Tony the Tiger says, are GRRRRRRREAT! So clear, so understandable, so simple. I learned so much from them...thanks Chad!
5) KBB (5/10):
-Good for practice, but not worth 50...it's very simple, and much info is left out. Id suggest it for full lengths if anything...never did them but still.
6) Feralis' notes (10/10):
-Dude your notes are amazing! So detailed! i loved them, and the structure was great! Definitely use this for Bio ! It's worth it all! Know it all!!!! Thanks for this, and thanks for making this free to all! I owed my success in Bio heavily to your notes!
7) Cliff's notes (9/10)
-Definitely get! It's a great starting point! I think as @BYU4you stated before: Cliff's is the cake, Feralis' notes in the frosting, and Destroyer is the sprinkles on top! I really enjoyed them...not as detailed as Feralis' but still great!
8) 5 steps to a 5 AP Bio (7/10)
-I had this from AP, and decided to use it for some chapters (photosynthesis, plants, reproduction, etc)
-It's simple, and easy to read, but not too detailed now that I think about it. I used this along with Cliff's starting off. look into it!
9) DATGenius (8/10)
-Great resource, I used it for RC and PAT, which was great to have for extra exams. Really helpful explanations too! but this is a carbon copy of BC lmao. Im surprised it hasnt been shut down. Definitely recommend it though nonetheless!
10) 2007/ 2009 ADA (3/10 for 2007 and 10/10 for 2009)
-The 2007 I felt was not even worth taking. I got 1 wrong in each of the sciences. too simple!
-The 2009 is definitely worth taking (and I wish the ADA released more exams for students!)
My scores were: 25 Bio, 22 GC/OC, 21 PAT, 18 QR, and 17 RC. The QR and RC are MUCH harder. Dont look into your scores here as much as everyone says..as you can see, my scores fluctuated, and I think my only similar ones were Orgo and PAT.
My reflection of the test (NOTE: not going to discuss any test specifics due to confidentiality!)
-Bio: My gosh did this section seem "weird" to say the least. I marked like 10 questions, and thought OHH NOOOO this is NOTTT a good start! Really random to be honest, but they, that's the bio! Destroyer was a VERY good representation of the Bio, along with a good majority of BC. Very confusing questions, and I thought i was gonna get 18-19 here, which wouldve been VERY disappointing since I got 20-25 on practice exams.
-GC: Not bad, couple tricky ones. Didnt expect a 26 though! VERY representative of Destroyer and a good amount of BC. Easier than I expected though.
-OC: It was a joke...Im surprised I didnt get the 26 in OC. I thought I missed only 1-2 questions tbh. Oh well. Still happy! Waaaayyyy easier than Destroyer, BC, and kinda similar to the 2009.
-PAT: honestly, this was pretty straightforward. I dont know if it's because Ive been decently good with PAT, or if it was just easier, but the only tricky stuff was the Keyholes (damn those irregular shapes!!!) and some TFE. Surprisingly, the angles were the easiest ever. So were cubes and holepunch. I think I got 100% on those three sections. Pattern folding was pretty simple too, I think I only missed like 2-3. Pretty happy of this!
-RC: Oh gawwwdddd if there was one section I was most worried for (as many of you know) it was RC! After the break, I was like, well, here comes the real hard part. I was SHOCKED by how simple this was...like easier than ANY practice exam. It had like 90% S&Dable material. Waaayyyyyyy easier than BC (thank God!). I think this score makes me the happiest tbh, because of how much I struggled.
-QR: Pretty straightforward...much easier than Destroyer (math and regular), which is all I used for QR. Im happy about this too, because I had to mark like 10, but I figured out like 4-5 of them after i believe. Overall, not too bad!
Overall:
Thank you again everyone so much! You guys are the heart of dentistry, and I couldnt have done as well without your support!! I learned so much from each of you, and I will be forever grateful! Dont worry, Ill still be around (hopefully I can help other people now!) If I can give any advice it's this:
-Dont take the test until you are ready. for real. I rescheduled TWICE. Like I said, only taking this once. And I meant it
-Have a goal/ schedule, and do everything possible to get there!
-Believe in yourself!
-Stay relaxed and calm during the test. Surprisingly I was calm LOL
-Dont study as many hours in a day as I did. It's not even healthy. I think i was breaking down toward the end. I hardly slept, ate, and couldnt work out. Very embarrassing lifestyle, but I plan to go back to living health tomorrow!
-please please please send me any messsages with questions or any help! I love helping peopel out, and it's the least I can do!!!
LOL I think this is long enough, but I hope this helps people out. Thank you again everyone so much!!!!!
I'm off to celebrate at Fogo de Chao with my family! I'm so glad it's over!!!
PAT: 23
QR: 21
RC: 21 (OMG too happy about this!!!)
Bio: 21
GC: 26
OC: 23
TS: 23
AA: 22
Before I start, I want to give some special shoutouts to some very important people who have helped me:
@orgoman22 Dr. Romano and Nancy: You guys are the nicest, most helpful, most sincere, caring people I have ever met. The amount of help you both have given me means the world to me...hundreds of posts later, and I couldnt have gotten there without you two. You both have strengthened me, supported me, and given me the best advice. I am forever in your debt for that, and I will always remember all your help. Destroyer was by far, the best resource. I actually had fun using it! I was VERY prepared because of it, and you two have put so much work into the Destroyers..which immensely helped me on my exam!! Such a valuable resource. I really REALLY cannot thank you enough for all your help...it means EVERYTHING to me! Thank you soo soo soooooo much!
@FeralisExtremum and @BYU4you : You guys are amazing students, amazing people in general, and will become amazing dentists. You two have helped me so much with my questions, general advice, and strategies. I must've had like 90 messages from each of you! There's a reason why you guys will become great dentists, and it's not just because you scored high on the DAT...it's because you guys are willing to help out people to any extent. You guys dont even personally know me, and you've done sop much for me! Im truly blessed for all your help that you have given me both. Every message and piece of info you both gave me helped me so much! Thank you so much, and I wish you both the best of luck in your futures! You both will do amazing things!
@Ari Rezaei: Thank you so much for Bootcamp! It was great practice, and an amazing resource. I owe my 23 in PAT to BC for sure, no doubt! You answered many of my questions, gave me amazing advice, and even went out of your way to extend my membership for two weeks. I cannot be more grateful. BC was great to use (and fun!). I really enjoyed the program, and it was great preparation. Thank you so much for everything Ari! You will do great things in Dentistry! Keep up the good luck at Columbia...if all goes well, I may see you there if I get in
Best wishes!
Shoutout to Chad and his videos...which helped me get a wonderful foundation in the chemistries. I was TERRIBLE at Gen Chem, but improved significantly! Thank you!!!
Of course, I must thank my fellow SDN friends! All of you have given me the best advice, and I am forever grateful for everything! It's so nice to have a community built on people WANTING to help people. Im truly blessed for everyones help, it means so much, and I wouldnt have gotten this far without you all! Shoutout to @DentalGirl5 @matardug @predent3591 and many more! You guys are all amazing people, and will go far in dentistry. This community is amazing, and SDN is so amazing! thank you all!
I also want to thank my mom, whom without, I would never been here. As a single parent from a broken family, my mother has done EVERYTHING to help me with dentistry. When I made the switch from medicine to dentistry, my mother was always there supporting me by my side, giving me the best advice. Even with the little money we have, my mother went out of her way to make sure I had EVERY resource I needed to do well on this test. I cannot thank you enough mom, thank you for that soooooooooo much!
Thank you God for watching over me throughout my study time, and during the test. I cannot be more grateful!!!
***Also, thank you to my mom, grandma, and brother for putting up with me for the last couple months! I always asked if everyone could put their music lower, tv down, etc whenever I needed to study....and for listening to my "Fun facts of the day". Thank you so much!!!****
The Breakdown:
NOTE: I told myself before I started studying that I was only taking this test once, which I was VERYYYYY firm about. This is why I committed so much time and effort. I would do WHATEVER it took to get my scores, and I regret NOTHING!!!!
How I studied: Oh how long it's been! I started back in January, two weeks before classes started! I remember going through Chad's videos, and taking notes for 8 hours/ day for those two weeks. And then as school started, my time DRASTICALLY decreased!! I think by like end of march, I was only able to do PAT. So once school ended, I waited two days to rest, and then started up May 4. Now, this is gonna be an EXTREME example of how to study, but hey, it worked for me: I would wake up at 5-5:30 every morning ,and start around 6-6:30 (Yes you read that right...Im a morning person!). Throughout the time of May 4- now, I usually studied 10-15 hours, but mostly 12-15 to be honest. I would do ~3 blocks. Block 1: 6-12. Then eat lunch and rest for an hour. Then I would do like 1-5, followed by an hour for dinner/ relaxing. Then after dinner, Id do another 3-5 hours depending what needed to be done. Towards the end, I think I might've done more than 15 hours (dont judge!) but it worked for me. So from May 4- July 14...roughly 2 HARDCORE months...plus January to May for general reviewing. (Looking back, this was pointless because I ended up forgetting a lot due to not being able to review it frequently). For the actual subject studying, I usually did like 4-6 hours bio, ~3 hours each of Orgo/GC, and then the remaining time for math/ PAT. During the first two weeks starting May 4th, I did a quick review of all content. Since I went over everything previously, this was fairly simple to do. Definitely worth it. Then after, I did Destroyer. A month before my test, I started using BC for the tests (always used it beforehand for PAT). Ill get into the specifics for each resource!
Sources used:
1) Destroyer (math, and general)....(10/ 10):
-It's not like this is anything new...everyone says it...GET THE DESTROYER!!! PLEASE!!!! I cant emphasize how important it is. I went over the Bio twice, and GC/Orgo 3x. I did the first 10 math destroyer tests twice, and the regular destroyer math twice as well. Not gonna lie, I think my exam was VERY similar to Destroyer for the sciences. Felt really prepared because of it. Note: KNOW WHY YOU GOT SOMETHING RIGHT AND WHY YOU GOT SOMETHING WRONG! This is EXTREMELY important and valuable!!!! Basically, what Im saying is: KNOW every destroyer problem...like be able to explain it to someone!!! Do everything possible! Also....MAKE notecards!! I think I have like 7-800 of them for bio! Soooooooooooooo worth it!
2) Bootcamp (10/10):
-Such a valuable resource: Especially for PAT!! The exams had very similar questions to the style of my exam for a good portion of the science (~1/2), but the other half was from Destroyer Id say! i really loved the practice exams!! Such great exams, and amazing explanations! And the PAT...I owe my score to BC for that! When I first started, I was getting like 4-5 in Keys and TFE for example, and much worse in other subjects. But with much practice, I was successful! I started with the generators, and did subject tests after. I was getting 20-24 on BC so my scores were pretty accurate about that. Overall, definitely invest in this resource!!
3) QVault (6/10):
-Ehhhhh it was alright! I mostly used it for Bio, RC, and PAT. I did like 5 RC exams (very useful!) and 3 PAT exams. I did all the bIO questions, which was very helpful! I did some lab techniques from here as well! Overall though, I dont think it was worth the 240...I mean it was good practice, but the above resources were the best ones! If anything, get the Bio and RC..great practice!
4) Chad's videos (10/10)
-Sooooooo goooooood! I was terribly awful at GC...I had no idea of what was going in GC during my class in college...and i had to teach myself. These videos, as Tony the Tiger says, are GRRRRRRREAT! So clear, so understandable, so simple. I learned so much from them...thanks Chad!
5) KBB (5/10):
-Good for practice, but not worth 50...it's very simple, and much info is left out. Id suggest it for full lengths if anything...never did them but still.
6) Feralis' notes (10/10):
-Dude your notes are amazing! So detailed! i loved them, and the structure was great! Definitely use this for Bio ! It's worth it all! Know it all!!!! Thanks for this, and thanks for making this free to all! I owed my success in Bio heavily to your notes!
7) Cliff's notes (9/10)
-Definitely get! It's a great starting point! I think as @BYU4you stated before: Cliff's is the cake, Feralis' notes in the frosting, and Destroyer is the sprinkles on top! I really enjoyed them...not as detailed as Feralis' but still great!
8) 5 steps to a 5 AP Bio (7/10)
-I had this from AP, and decided to use it for some chapters (photosynthesis, plants, reproduction, etc)
-It's simple, and easy to read, but not too detailed now that I think about it. I used this along with Cliff's starting off. look into it!
9) DATGenius (8/10)
-Great resource, I used it for RC and PAT, which was great to have for extra exams. Really helpful explanations too! but this is a carbon copy of BC lmao. Im surprised it hasnt been shut down. Definitely recommend it though nonetheless!
10) 2007/ 2009 ADA (3/10 for 2007 and 10/10 for 2009)
-The 2007 I felt was not even worth taking. I got 1 wrong in each of the sciences. too simple!
-The 2009 is definitely worth taking (and I wish the ADA released more exams for students!)
My scores were: 25 Bio, 22 GC/OC, 21 PAT, 18 QR, and 17 RC. The QR and RC are MUCH harder. Dont look into your scores here as much as everyone says..as you can see, my scores fluctuated, and I think my only similar ones were Orgo and PAT.
My reflection of the test (NOTE: not going to discuss any test specifics due to confidentiality!)
-Bio: My gosh did this section seem "weird" to say the least. I marked like 10 questions, and thought OHH NOOOO this is NOTTT a good start! Really random to be honest, but they, that's the bio! Destroyer was a VERY good representation of the Bio, along with a good majority of BC. Very confusing questions, and I thought i was gonna get 18-19 here, which wouldve been VERY disappointing since I got 20-25 on practice exams.
-GC: Not bad, couple tricky ones. Didnt expect a 26 though! VERY representative of Destroyer and a good amount of BC. Easier than I expected though.
-OC: It was a joke...Im surprised I didnt get the 26 in OC. I thought I missed only 1-2 questions tbh. Oh well. Still happy! Waaaayyyy easier than Destroyer, BC, and kinda similar to the 2009.
-PAT: honestly, this was pretty straightforward. I dont know if it's because Ive been decently good with PAT, or if it was just easier, but the only tricky stuff was the Keyholes (damn those irregular shapes!!!) and some TFE. Surprisingly, the angles were the easiest ever. So were cubes and holepunch. I think I got 100% on those three sections. Pattern folding was pretty simple too, I think I only missed like 2-3. Pretty happy of this!
-RC: Oh gawwwdddd if there was one section I was most worried for (as many of you know) it was RC! After the break, I was like, well, here comes the real hard part. I was SHOCKED by how simple this was...like easier than ANY practice exam. It had like 90% S&Dable material. Waaayyyyyyy easier than BC (thank God!). I think this score makes me the happiest tbh, because of how much I struggled.
-QR: Pretty straightforward...much easier than Destroyer (math and regular), which is all I used for QR. Im happy about this too, because I had to mark like 10, but I figured out like 4-5 of them after i believe. Overall, not too bad!
Overall:
Thank you again everyone so much! You guys are the heart of dentistry, and I couldnt have done as well without your support!! I learned so much from each of you, and I will be forever grateful! Dont worry, Ill still be around (hopefully I can help other people now!) If I can give any advice it's this:
-Dont take the test until you are ready. for real. I rescheduled TWICE. Like I said, only taking this once. And I meant it
-Have a goal/ schedule, and do everything possible to get there!
-Believe in yourself!
-Stay relaxed and calm during the test. Surprisingly I was calm LOL
-Dont study as many hours in a day as I did. It's not even healthy. I think i was breaking down toward the end. I hardly slept, ate, and couldnt work out. Very embarrassing lifestyle, but I plan to go back to living health tomorrow!
-please please please send me any messsages with questions or any help! I love helping peopel out, and it's the least I can do!!!
LOL I think this is long enough, but I hope this helps people out. Thank you again everyone so much!!!!!
I'm off to celebrate at Fogo de Chao with my family! I'm so glad it's over!!!
