July 17 2014 TS/AA/PAT 22/22/22

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semimi

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Hi fellow pre-dentals! I just took the DAT this morning and I'm quite happy with what I got on it :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Here are my scores:
PAT 22
QR 19
RC 22
Bio 21
GC 21
OC 25

TS 22
AA 22

I am going to be a fourth year student at a university majoring in Biological Sciences. I finished Ochem in Spring 2013 and Gchem in Spring 2012 at a community college. I also finished General bio in community college in Spring 2013, but I took Genetics, Biochem, Molecular Bio and Neurobio at a university just recently. I took Anatomy and Physiology at a community college in 2012 so it's been a while; I forgot most of chemistry and A&P so I had to learn everything again.

I started studying on June 16, 2014, which only gave me about 5 weeks to study minus the days I worked or several days I spent with my boyfriend. I work every Saturday and every other Sunday. I never study after I get off work because I just have no motivation and energy. The first week of studying, I reviewed all my old notes from college: 2 years worth of GC& OC and I reviewed all my notes from anatomy, physio, and second semester of general bio. I lost my first semester of bio notes so I had to make my own notes off Reece's Campbell Biology Textbook by following the topic outline listed on the DAT Guide. Initially, I did not want to spend the extra money to buy test prep material, but after reading all the reviews here, I decided to get the DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer. I also subscribed to Chad's videos about 3 weeks ago after contemplating on doing it for a while. I also bought the 5 test version of Bootcamp. I didn't start with the test prep material until the second week of studying. I didn't really follow a study schedule, which is bad, and I spent on average about 10 hours of SUPER distracted studying everyday lol... Out of the 10 hours, I probably spend about 4-5 hours of solid studying.

PAT: I heard a lot of excellent reviews on Bootcamp PAT compared to CDP, so I got the Bootcamp 5 test versions. I got lucky because not long after, Ari added 5 extra PAT practice tests so I had 10 versions to practice. I was struggling with the keyholes and angle ranking a lot. On the real DAT, the keyholes are not as hard as Bootcamp. Surprisingly, the TFE is actually harder than Bootcamp on the real DAT (I've been doing pretty well on TFE). I practiced almost everyday with angle ranking and I finally took exam 10 on Bootcamp yesterday. My BC PAT scores: 20/21/20/20/18/20/20/20/20/20.

GC&OC: It's been a while since I finished chem, and I'm the type of person that forget everything I learned within days of the final exam lol. On the first week of studying, I just read all my notes once, but I made sure I really understood what I was reading. Then I moved on to Destroyer. Oh boy, that book really brought my confidence down... For GC, I was getting maybe 30-40% of my answers right for every set of questions. For OC, man, I probably only got 5-10% correct. I just felt there were too many reagents and reactions I had to memorize! Then I heard of the amazing Mr. Chad and his videos.. I didn't want to spend the extra money at first, but then I didn't want to fail my test that already cost me a lot. So I started to watch his videos in Fastplay. I skipped some parts where I feel I understood. I only watched several of GC videos. After watching all his videos, I moved back to Destroyer and still saw no improvement... I also did Bootcamp and scored pretty badly on both OC and GC. About 2 weeks ago I started to do Chad's quizzes and they helped me a lot in memorizing everything. I didn't touch GC Destroyer anymore because I was busy studying other things, but I went back for OC last week on Destroyer. I finished OC Destroyer just last night and yesterday was when I saw myself having improved a lot on OC because I was getting most of the answers right. What truly helped me what Chad's quizzes, though.
The real DAT: OC was similar to Destroyer and Chad's quizzes. If not for Chad, I wouldn't have known the demurcuration mechanism! I never learned this even in college. GC was alright; I was just stuck on some ion acidity question (e.g. which of the below molecules will increase the acidity of solution when dissolved?) I was glad there was no carbohydrate cyclization question... I never understood its mechanism. I'm very satisfied with my DAT OC score (25); I think Chad's and Destroyer really paid off.
Bootcamp scores:
OC 18/17/18/20/21... Retake scores 22/20/20
GC 17/19/22/19/19 Retake scores 22/24/23/25

BIO: I went straight to Destroyer after reviewing all my notes and did okay on them. I did all Bootcamp tests and also the practice tests by topic on Bootcamp. I think I memorized all of the answers now. I didn't touch Destroyer my last two weeks of studying. I started reading Ferali's notes about two weeks ago and just focused on studying OC and GC. The real DAT was a little harder than Bootcamp. Maybe if I did more of Destroyer bio questions, I could have done better? I don't know.

Bootcamp scores: 21/18/21/18/20 retake scores: 28/25

QR: I just started doing Math Destroyer about 2 weeks ago. I think I did 5 tests. Probability and permutation is my weakness, and of course those questions showed up.. I got too comfortable and spent too much time trying to solve each problem I didn't realize I was running out of time. I guessed about 5-6 of the last questions and didn't answer two questions, and I'm pretty sure I got all the probability questions wrong. I didn't practice using Bootcamp for QR. Perhaps if I did, I would have managed my time better on this section.

RC: I didn't study at all for this. I think I got most of them right except for the part where they asked, "What kind of tone is conveyed in this paragraph?" and we had to choose "cautiously optimistic" or "cynical" etc. There were some words I didn't really know the meaning of (English is my second language). Basically, I skipped the reading part and went straight to the questions, and skimmed through the passage to look for the answers.

I took the 15 minutes break but it felt so short because even after I ate my snack real quick, by the time I got back I only had 2 minutes left. I was glad I ate pretty quickly because I didn't know the time.

So the message here: definitely subscribe to Chad's videos and do all his quizzes! Use Bootcamp for PAT, and do not underestimate the QR section. Time yourself for QR so you can learn to manage your time. Get enough sleep the night before the test and eat breakfast! Remind yourself that you have paid hundreds of dollars to apply to dental schools and just to take the test! Gotta make it worth the money, so study study study.
Would I have scored better on the DAT if I followed a study schedule and was focused on studying? Definitely. Would I if I scheduled it later to have more than 5 weeks of studying? Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure if the lot of you studied the same amount of time I did (5 weeks) but more focused than I had been, you would score much better than I did. But I'm pretty satisfied with my scores :D Hope to get into my dream dental school next year!

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congrats on your scores!!! I really hope I can manage to do as well as you!!

I'm also studying for 5 weeks and destroyer is killing me in Ochem/Chem- my subscription for Chad is over- Do you think it'll be beneficial for me to purchase his quizzes only? What else would you recommend?!
 
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Thank you everyone :D Destroyer was killing me in OC and GC as well. Chad's quizzes were what really helped me memorize everything. I made notes as I watched his videos and I kinda rewrote all the reactions from Destroyer Roadmap that I found tricky or new to me.
 
thank you for the break down!!!
congratulations :)
Awesome scores!!!

One question though...
were OC questions presented in the same style as Destroyer?
 
Thank you! Yes, the questions were a little similar, but Destroyer is harder. I think Chad's quizzes and Bootcamp were closer to the real DAT; however, Destroyer is a great tool to help you improve. The one that truly helped me was Chad's, though. I only did Destroyer after I did a lot of practice problems on Chad's website and then I felt better about OC.
 
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Congrats on the scores....well done. currently scheduled for aug 18th! Using crack dat pat, destroyer, math destroyer, and kbb for reading!
 
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