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Hi, all.
So I just took my DAT today and my scores are listed below, my scores are not excellent.
PAT 24
QR 22
RC 18 (bad score, I know)
BIO 22
GC 26
OC 25
TS 23
AA 23
Materials used:
DAT destroyers, math destroyers, DAT BC, kaplan blue books (barely used), Chad's videos, feralis note and cliffs note bio 3rd edition.
It has been quite a long time since I started preparing for the DAT (-4 months).
At the beginning of my study, it was extremely difficult to get myself focus, especially for biology. Biology is not my major, however, I did not have terrible experience with it in college. However, I did not take plant biology and anatomy, so I found it very hard to study plant biology for DAT. The key for me to get through this is to make a study plan and with a plan in front of you, you would find it easier to make yourself to study what needs to be studied. Actually, I had Ari's 10 week study plan at the beginning, then I fell behind with the plan and ended up not having any study plans at all. This is really bad in a way that you can waste a lot of time. SO make sure you have a plan and follow it no matter what! Each day, I averagely spent 6 hours studying sometimes less. This is for those who are studying the DAT, please don't let the DAT destroy your lifestyle and make sure to have time for yourself. I worked out each day during my study period and sometimes went out with friends. I am kind of a person who stresses out a lot before important exams and I was actually very stressed the day before my DAT (I could not sleep). I understand that DAT is important, but your health is way more important!
For biology:
The topics covered in DAT can be very broad. I literally spent time everyday studying for biology during my 4-month study period. However, I still encountered around~10 questions on the real DAT that I did not encounter in my study. But don't get discouraged because of this. Even though you cannot cover every possible things in biology, try to know as much as you can. From my personal experience, it can be very helpful to know all the details but the key is to know the general concepts.
I personally think the DAT destroyer does a very good job in preparing me for the biology sections. Even though there are questions on the real DAT that the destroyer does not cover, but the destroyer covers most of the materials you need to know for biology and the rest you can pick up from somewhere else (cliffs note, feralis notes etc.)
For general chemistry:
Actually, i am a chemistry major student and I did well in all my chem courses. However, gen chem is the subject that I was not so confident at even before the real test. However, on the real test, the general chemistry questions are straightforward and not tricky, but do keep in mind that you might enchant one or two questions that seem weird or strange.
For organic chemistry:
In my practice tests, I did mostly well in OC, so this is not the subject that I worried about the most. Know all the reactions (important one). Destroyer has a couple pages of reaction map that summarizes most of the key reactions. Please know them before you test if you have destroyer as your study material. Also, know how to interpret NMR spectra. For those of you who are not confident with OC, I would recommend you getting the organic chemistry odyssey, it has a lot of practice questions for each topics.
For RC:
First of all, if you need to know the equations, formula and unit conversions. The rest is just practicing. Do math destroyer if you have it. Also, BC is also a good practice for RC. On my real DAT, most of the questions are straightforward but there were a few difficult ones. RC is actually doable, but timing yourself is the key here.
For PAT:
Use BC generators, they are very good! Keep practicing every day whenever your have time. Just 15 minutes a day will give you surprising result. BC also have 10 very good PAT practice tests and also a lot of helpful explanation for each question (especially for keyhole)
For RC:
my worst section, I know... I did BC RC and scored around 19-20. My approach with BC was to read 4-5 paragraphs then start doing questions. However, my real DAT are mostly search and destroy type questions. TBH, I had never practice search and destroy method because it did not work well for me when I did BC RC. Also, because of lack of sleep, I was half asleep while I was reading my first passage..... so it took me very long to understand and answer questions........
I know a 18 on RC will give me a lot of disadvantages when it comes to application stuff.. Can anyone tell me what I can do with it please? English is not my first language.
Practice tests:
DAT Bootcamp (a great product! get it if you can)
DAT destroyers (also a great product, get them if you can)
Qvault 1 st free biology practice test
DAT genius 1st free tests
2007 ADA and 2009 ADA (used them for science)
This is not a thorough breakdown, I will try to add in more details when I can think of more.
At the end, I would want to ask your opinions on what schools I should apply ( I personally prefer schools near NY since I live in NY)
Overall GPA : 3.77
Science GPA : 3.78
Major: Chemistry
Try to get ~100 hours of shadowing before e submitting application
I would apply to the schools listed below but need a few more to fill up a list of about 10:
Please give me some advice
NYU (Do i have a chance? )
Buffalo
Stony Brook (any chances?)
Columbia ( I DON'T think I even have a chance)
UCSF (might have to take it down because of my low RC score on DAT...)
Tufts
UPenn (chances?)
Rugters
At the very end, I would like to thank everyone here on SDN for sharing their breakdown and experience with DAT. I also want to thank Nancy (coauthor of DAT destroyer) for asking me to call her to give me some last minute advice ( I was too busy with my study the day before my test, so i did not call..) Thank you so much anyways Nancy. Hope more students can benefit from the destroyers and DAT BC. Thanks!
So I just took my DAT today and my scores are listed below, my scores are not excellent.
PAT 24
QR 22
RC 18 (bad score, I know)
BIO 22
GC 26
OC 25
TS 23
AA 23
Materials used:
DAT destroyers, math destroyers, DAT BC, kaplan blue books (barely used), Chad's videos, feralis note and cliffs note bio 3rd edition.
It has been quite a long time since I started preparing for the DAT (-4 months).
At the beginning of my study, it was extremely difficult to get myself focus, especially for biology. Biology is not my major, however, I did not have terrible experience with it in college. However, I did not take plant biology and anatomy, so I found it very hard to study plant biology for DAT. The key for me to get through this is to make a study plan and with a plan in front of you, you would find it easier to make yourself to study what needs to be studied. Actually, I had Ari's 10 week study plan at the beginning, then I fell behind with the plan and ended up not having any study plans at all. This is really bad in a way that you can waste a lot of time. SO make sure you have a plan and follow it no matter what! Each day, I averagely spent 6 hours studying sometimes less. This is for those who are studying the DAT, please don't let the DAT destroy your lifestyle and make sure to have time for yourself. I worked out each day during my study period and sometimes went out with friends. I am kind of a person who stresses out a lot before important exams and I was actually very stressed the day before my DAT (I could not sleep). I understand that DAT is important, but your health is way more important!
For biology:
The topics covered in DAT can be very broad. I literally spent time everyday studying for biology during my 4-month study period. However, I still encountered around~10 questions on the real DAT that I did not encounter in my study. But don't get discouraged because of this. Even though you cannot cover every possible things in biology, try to know as much as you can. From my personal experience, it can be very helpful to know all the details but the key is to know the general concepts.
I personally think the DAT destroyer does a very good job in preparing me for the biology sections. Even though there are questions on the real DAT that the destroyer does not cover, but the destroyer covers most of the materials you need to know for biology and the rest you can pick up from somewhere else (cliffs note, feralis notes etc.)
For general chemistry:
Actually, i am a chemistry major student and I did well in all my chem courses. However, gen chem is the subject that I was not so confident at even before the real test. However, on the real test, the general chemistry questions are straightforward and not tricky, but do keep in mind that you might enchant one or two questions that seem weird or strange.
For organic chemistry:
In my practice tests, I did mostly well in OC, so this is not the subject that I worried about the most. Know all the reactions (important one). Destroyer has a couple pages of reaction map that summarizes most of the key reactions. Please know them before you test if you have destroyer as your study material. Also, know how to interpret NMR spectra. For those of you who are not confident with OC, I would recommend you getting the organic chemistry odyssey, it has a lot of practice questions for each topics.
For RC:
First of all, if you need to know the equations, formula and unit conversions. The rest is just practicing. Do math destroyer if you have it. Also, BC is also a good practice for RC. On my real DAT, most of the questions are straightforward but there were a few difficult ones. RC is actually doable, but timing yourself is the key here.
For PAT:
Use BC generators, they are very good! Keep practicing every day whenever your have time. Just 15 minutes a day will give you surprising result. BC also have 10 very good PAT practice tests and also a lot of helpful explanation for each question (especially for keyhole)
For RC:
my worst section, I know... I did BC RC and scored around 19-20. My approach with BC was to read 4-5 paragraphs then start doing questions. However, my real DAT are mostly search and destroy type questions. TBH, I had never practice search and destroy method because it did not work well for me when I did BC RC. Also, because of lack of sleep, I was half asleep while I was reading my first passage..... so it took me very long to understand and answer questions........
I know a 18 on RC will give me a lot of disadvantages when it comes to application stuff.. Can anyone tell me what I can do with it please? English is not my first language.
Practice tests:
DAT Bootcamp (a great product! get it if you can)
DAT destroyers (also a great product, get them if you can)
Qvault 1 st free biology practice test
DAT genius 1st free tests
2007 ADA and 2009 ADA (used them for science)
This is not a thorough breakdown, I will try to add in more details when I can think of more.
At the end, I would want to ask your opinions on what schools I should apply ( I personally prefer schools near NY since I live in NY)
Overall GPA : 3.77
Science GPA : 3.78
Major: Chemistry
Try to get ~100 hours of shadowing before e submitting application
I would apply to the schools listed below but need a few more to fill up a list of about 10:
Please give me some advice
NYU (Do i have a chance? )
Buffalo
Stony Brook (any chances?)
Columbia ( I DON'T think I even have a chance)
UCSF (might have to take it down because of my low RC score on DAT...)
Tufts
UPenn (chances?)
Rugters
At the very end, I would like to thank everyone here on SDN for sharing their breakdown and experience with DAT. I also want to thank Nancy (coauthor of DAT destroyer) for asking me to call her to give me some last minute advice ( I was too busy with my study the day before my test, so i did not call..) Thank you so much anyways Nancy. Hope more students can benefit from the destroyers and DAT BC. Thanks!
Congratulations!
