Hey guys,
I took the DAT last thursday, i've been busy catching up with school work so I couldn't post my breakdown right after I took it.
Before I took the test, I read through many threads, and they helped me with the study so I'd like to share my strategy also.
Here's my real DAT score:
PAT 25; QR 21; RC 26; Bio 24; GC 30; OC 26; TS 27; AA 25
Here are my practice test score in order that I took them:
Kaplan Blue Book
PAT 18; QR 20; RC 18; Bio 21; GC 17; OC 18
Achiever
test1 PAT 17; QR 21; RC 18; Bio 19; GC 19; OC 18
test2 PAT 19; QR 20; RC 15; Bio 18; GC 17; OC 18
test3 PAT 17; QR 18; RC 17; Bio 17; GC 18; OC 18
Top Score
test1 PAT 22; QR 22; RC 19; Bio 22; GC 21; OC 18
test2 PAT 25; QR 22; RC 22; Bio 21; GC 23; OC 20
test3 PAT 22; QR 24; RC 20; Bio 19; GC 18; OC20
Here's how I prepared for the DAT
Biology
My main study source was KBB. I didn't buy cliff's AP Bio, and didn't finish schaums' biology. I'm not saying that KBB covers all the topics. But it offers a solid backbone to start studying.
Here are some topics that I studied using wikipedia and schaum's
-Photosynthesis (Ch.6)
-Embryology (Ch. 11)
-Animal Reproduction ( Ch. 12)
-Plant physio (Ch. 13.2, 13.3-14.2)
I studied taxonomy using wikipedia. Best way to study taxonomy is to draw a vertical line on a piece of paper, and start branching out. And repeat drawing the same diagram over and over again until you can draw it in your head.
I believe KBB was intentionally made weak in some section. After all, kaplan has to make some money off of its classes right?
So actively search out topics you feel your weak in other sources. Once you get used to this, you'll see a pattern and know when to stop digging into details.
General Chemistry
I studied with KBB, but Princeton Review's General Chemistry Review for MCAT helped me out the most. It has practice problems at the end of each chapter. I didn't use any other books beside these for GC.
Organic Chemistry
I studied with KBB and Kaplan's Organic Chemistry Review for MCAT. Both books are 99% identical but MCAT review book has questions at the end of each chapter and the high yield questions at the end of the book is really helpful in understanding induction and resonance. Also, for some reason I felt MCAT review was more "readable" and has better flow.
PAT
I studied with Barrons, but it didn't help alot. I finished around 5 crack PAT and the 7 practice tests (KBB, achiever, topscore). While crack PAT focuses too much on shapes of figures, achiever better reflected the real DAT because many of the answer choices had same figures but different length or angles.
RC
In the real DAT, three passages were all different in length. For me the first one was the longest (18~19 paragraphs) and the third one was the shortest (9 paragraphs I think).
Math
Mainly used the practice tests to find out what topics I needed to study and searched the web for practice questions. I didn't even bother studying for combination and permutation since I knew I won't understand it. The best tip I can give on this section is to find a way to recognize questions you can solve and you can't solve as quickly as possible and just skip. I guessed around 5 questions for this section and it turned out to be fine.
Summary:
I started to really study for the DAT on December 19th and took the test on January 27th. I think that was more than enough time if you have some basic biology concepts down. Over the winter break(about 1month), I woke up around 1PM, ate lunch, and studied from 2PM - 3 or 4 AM. I really don't think classes for DAT are necessary to get a decent score. Afterall, you have to review everything by yourself to learn it; why waste your time and money listening to someone else talking?
Another tip I strongly recommend is to make a "wrong answer notes".
Here's a sample of how I utilized this note.
DAY 1
1) study biology 4-5 hrs
2) Take practice test 1. Note the score, don't look at the answer key
3) study PAT
DAY 2
1) study GC 4-5 hrs
2) retake practice test 1. Note the score, go over each question with the answer key. Understand it. Write questions and detailed answer YOU derived in the "wrong asnwer notes"
3) stduy Math
DAY 3
1) Study OC 4-5 hrs
2) study yesterday's wrong answer notes
3) take practice test 2. Note the score, don't look at te answer key
4) study RC
so on and so on..
this notes are helpful because it will familiarize you with different question types. If you can recognize the question quickly, you can derive answers from your previous experience of solving it.
anyway, I hope this post wasn't very boring. Good luck to everyone!
I took the DAT last thursday, i've been busy catching up with school work so I couldn't post my breakdown right after I took it.
Before I took the test, I read through many threads, and they helped me with the study so I'd like to share my strategy also.
Here's my real DAT score:
PAT 25; QR 21; RC 26; Bio 24; GC 30; OC 26; TS 27; AA 25
Here are my practice test score in order that I took them:
Kaplan Blue Book
PAT 18; QR 20; RC 18; Bio 21; GC 17; OC 18
Achiever
test1 PAT 17; QR 21; RC 18; Bio 19; GC 19; OC 18
test2 PAT 19; QR 20; RC 15; Bio 18; GC 17; OC 18
test3 PAT 17; QR 18; RC 17; Bio 17; GC 18; OC 18
Top Score
test1 PAT 22; QR 22; RC 19; Bio 22; GC 21; OC 18
test2 PAT 25; QR 22; RC 22; Bio 21; GC 23; OC 20
test3 PAT 22; QR 24; RC 20; Bio 19; GC 18; OC20
Here's how I prepared for the DAT
Biology
My main study source was KBB. I didn't buy cliff's AP Bio, and didn't finish schaums' biology. I'm not saying that KBB covers all the topics. But it offers a solid backbone to start studying.
Here are some topics that I studied using wikipedia and schaum's
-Photosynthesis (Ch.6)
-Embryology (Ch. 11)
-Animal Reproduction ( Ch. 12)
-Plant physio (Ch. 13.2, 13.3-14.2)
I studied taxonomy using wikipedia. Best way to study taxonomy is to draw a vertical line on a piece of paper, and start branching out. And repeat drawing the same diagram over and over again until you can draw it in your head.
I believe KBB was intentionally made weak in some section. After all, kaplan has to make some money off of its classes right?
So actively search out topics you feel your weak in other sources. Once you get used to this, you'll see a pattern and know when to stop digging into details.
General Chemistry
I studied with KBB, but Princeton Review's General Chemistry Review for MCAT helped me out the most. It has practice problems at the end of each chapter. I didn't use any other books beside these for GC.
Organic Chemistry
I studied with KBB and Kaplan's Organic Chemistry Review for MCAT. Both books are 99% identical but MCAT review book has questions at the end of each chapter and the high yield questions at the end of the book is really helpful in understanding induction and resonance. Also, for some reason I felt MCAT review was more "readable" and has better flow.
PAT
I studied with Barrons, but it didn't help alot. I finished around 5 crack PAT and the 7 practice tests (KBB, achiever, topscore). While crack PAT focuses too much on shapes of figures, achiever better reflected the real DAT because many of the answer choices had same figures but different length or angles.
RC
In the real DAT, three passages were all different in length. For me the first one was the longest (18~19 paragraphs) and the third one was the shortest (9 paragraphs I think).
Math
Mainly used the practice tests to find out what topics I needed to study and searched the web for practice questions. I didn't even bother studying for combination and permutation since I knew I won't understand it. The best tip I can give on this section is to find a way to recognize questions you can solve and you can't solve as quickly as possible and just skip. I guessed around 5 questions for this section and it turned out to be fine.
Summary:
I started to really study for the DAT on December 19th and took the test on January 27th. I think that was more than enough time if you have some basic biology concepts down. Over the winter break(about 1month), I woke up around 1PM, ate lunch, and studied from 2PM - 3 or 4 AM. I really don't think classes for DAT are necessary to get a decent score. Afterall, you have to review everything by yourself to learn it; why waste your time and money listening to someone else talking?
Another tip I strongly recommend is to make a "wrong answer notes".
Here's a sample of how I utilized this note.
DAY 1
1) study biology 4-5 hrs
2) Take practice test 1. Note the score, don't look at the answer key
3) study PAT
DAY 2
1) study GC 4-5 hrs
2) retake practice test 1. Note the score, go over each question with the answer key. Understand it. Write questions and detailed answer YOU derived in the "wrong asnwer notes"
3) stduy Math
DAY 3
1) Study OC 4-5 hrs
2) study yesterday's wrong answer notes
3) take practice test 2. Note the score, don't look at te answer key
4) study RC
so on and so on..
this notes are helpful because it will familiarize you with different question types. If you can recognize the question quickly, you can derive answers from your previous experience of solving it.
anyway, I hope this post wasn't very boring. Good luck to everyone!
