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Hi guys. I promised myself I wouldn't post one of these, but the breakdowns here on SDN were such a big help to me. Now that I'm finally done with my apps, I have the time to return the favor. Hopefully someone finds my experiences helpful. 🙂
Breakdown
Overall: I studied about 2 months for my DAT, approximately 6 hrs a day but up to 10 hrs as the test got closer. I followed datbootcamp’s 70 day study schedule for the most part. The schedule can be found here: http://datbootcamp.com/aris-study-guide-for-dat-domination/ or you can type “study schedule” into the search engine on the datbootcamp website. I took the breaks out of the schedule because I was running out of time and skipped the vision games/reading articles, but the schedule itself is a solid starting point. I added things to it and took things out of it as I went along. I also spent the entire last week before the test taking all the practices tests I could from bootcamp, qvault, and the ADA. Any test sections where I got something wrong I would repeat until I could do them perfectly twice in succession. I also spent the last week reviewing every extra science question in the qvault question bank (questions outside of their practice tests.)
By section
Bio: The sources I think helped me the most for bio were qvault, barron’s ap bio, and cliff’s ap bio. I followed bootcamp’s schedule but also went through all the questions in qvault’s question bank. Any question I missed, I repeated again and again. The day before the test, I also did a final review of the ap bio books taking notes on anything I thought could potentially be a question or that I needed to work on based on my practice exams. I used destroyer here too as per the study schedule but I found the questions there to be overly specific but some may get more from it than I did.
Chem/Ochem: For these, I used mostly chad’s and dat destroyer. Do not be discouraged by dat destroyer. It’s good practice but it’s also much harder than the real test. Bootcamp practice tests will give you a good idea of the weird lab-type questions you might get on your test. I had one lab question on my real DAT that was a question type straight off a bootcamp practice test. Other obscure things you might need to review include carbon saturation, NMR, and IR spectroscopy. Other than that, you shouldn’t encounter anything you wouldn’t have already seen in your college courses. I would highly recommend memorizing/understanding the ochem reaction flow charts in the dat destroyer but only after you’ve done your primary ochem review. I also tried memorizing one new reagent a day from a common reagents guide, but in the end, I felt like this was overkill.
QR/RC: I did not spend much time reviewing for these sections other than the practice described in bootcamp’s study schedule. I tutor for the SAT, so I felt pretty confident. Every practice test I took for these sections, be it from qvault or bootcamp, I found harder than the real thing on test day. If you feel the need to do some extra review for these sections, I felt that they were no different than SAT math or reading comp. sections, and you could easily just buy some SAT review materials for the extra help. However, I would recommend paying particular attention during your practice tests for math/rc for the question types that you haven’t seen before on a SAT. For RC, this would be a “the first statement is t/f, but the second statement is t/f” type question. In math, I ran into some statistics heavy questions in the practice tests that I had to do extra review for mainly involving p-values. You’ll know which question types I’m talking about once you sink your teeth into the bootcamp practice tests. On the actual qr, I did not encounter any of the hard stats or ellipse type questions found in bootcamp but better safe than sorry.
PAT: This was my weakest section and the one I would allocate more time to if I had more time to study before taking the test. I mainly followed the bootcamp schedule for this exam. Since it was my weakest score, my advice may not be the best for this section. Bootcamp does have test question generators that can be used daily. However, the harder sections that need the most practice have no generators. These are TFE, keyhole, and pattern folding (not to be confused with hole-punching). If I were to start practicing for the DAT way in advance, this is the section I would start practicing for the earliest. Make sure you youtube strategies for this section, though with a little practice, the sections that I did not mention are easy points. In particular, I could get all hole-punching and cube-counting questions after a very modest amount of practice. Other than bootcamp, I heard “Crack the PAT” is ok for this section. For better advice, I would look for a poster who got a 30 on his/her PAT and look through how he/she studied for the PAT.
About practice tests
I took about 16 full-length practice tests altogether. I didn’t do an entire test all at once. Rather when you put all the practice sections I did together, it comes out to about 16 practice tests. I used practice tests to identify the areas I had problems with and needed additional review for. Any questions you miss, do over the next day, and review that particular area in bio/chem/ochem etc. Don’t be overly concerned about the scores you receive on the practice tests. In fact, all the practice tests minus the ADA 2007 practice exam were harder than the real thing. So don’t fixate on the scores. Instead focus on improving on the areas where you miss questions. Repeat any sections where you miss questions. My practice test scores were much lower than I did on test day, and I am providing them for reference. Also, the scores recorded for my bootcamp practice tests were for my second time through their practice tests. Qvault scores were for my first run through. Any science/math section you see in the spreadsheet where I didn’t score a 30, I would do again the next day and maybe even again the day after that until I got a 30 on that practice section.
Edit: I forgot to put the scores lol
Scores:
PA: 24
QR: 30
RC: 30
Bio: 30
OC: 29
GC: 30
TS: 30
AA: 30
Afterthoughts
By no means, did I think I was going to score as high as I did. I never felt like I was 100% ready for the test so don't go crazy if you feel unsure on test day. In fact, I was freaking out so bad before the test that I studied for the full 18 hrs before the test without sleep 😢. The best advice I can give is that you'll get what you put in. Set the time aside, study your butt off, and you'll come out the other side ok. 🙂
Breakdown
Overall: I studied about 2 months for my DAT, approximately 6 hrs a day but up to 10 hrs as the test got closer. I followed datbootcamp’s 70 day study schedule for the most part. The schedule can be found here: http://datbootcamp.com/aris-study-guide-for-dat-domination/ or you can type “study schedule” into the search engine on the datbootcamp website. I took the breaks out of the schedule because I was running out of time and skipped the vision games/reading articles, but the schedule itself is a solid starting point. I added things to it and took things out of it as I went along. I also spent the entire last week before the test taking all the practices tests I could from bootcamp, qvault, and the ADA. Any test sections where I got something wrong I would repeat until I could do them perfectly twice in succession. I also spent the last week reviewing every extra science question in the qvault question bank (questions outside of their practice tests.)
By section
Bio: The sources I think helped me the most for bio were qvault, barron’s ap bio, and cliff’s ap bio. I followed bootcamp’s schedule but also went through all the questions in qvault’s question bank. Any question I missed, I repeated again and again. The day before the test, I also did a final review of the ap bio books taking notes on anything I thought could potentially be a question or that I needed to work on based on my practice exams. I used destroyer here too as per the study schedule but I found the questions there to be overly specific but some may get more from it than I did.
Chem/Ochem: For these, I used mostly chad’s and dat destroyer. Do not be discouraged by dat destroyer. It’s good practice but it’s also much harder than the real test. Bootcamp practice tests will give you a good idea of the weird lab-type questions you might get on your test. I had one lab question on my real DAT that was a question type straight off a bootcamp practice test. Other obscure things you might need to review include carbon saturation, NMR, and IR spectroscopy. Other than that, you shouldn’t encounter anything you wouldn’t have already seen in your college courses. I would highly recommend memorizing/understanding the ochem reaction flow charts in the dat destroyer but only after you’ve done your primary ochem review. I also tried memorizing one new reagent a day from a common reagents guide, but in the end, I felt like this was overkill.
QR/RC: I did not spend much time reviewing for these sections other than the practice described in bootcamp’s study schedule. I tutor for the SAT, so I felt pretty confident. Every practice test I took for these sections, be it from qvault or bootcamp, I found harder than the real thing on test day. If you feel the need to do some extra review for these sections, I felt that they were no different than SAT math or reading comp. sections, and you could easily just buy some SAT review materials for the extra help. However, I would recommend paying particular attention during your practice tests for math/rc for the question types that you haven’t seen before on a SAT. For RC, this would be a “the first statement is t/f, but the second statement is t/f” type question. In math, I ran into some statistics heavy questions in the practice tests that I had to do extra review for mainly involving p-values. You’ll know which question types I’m talking about once you sink your teeth into the bootcamp practice tests. On the actual qr, I did not encounter any of the hard stats or ellipse type questions found in bootcamp but better safe than sorry.
PAT: This was my weakest section and the one I would allocate more time to if I had more time to study before taking the test. I mainly followed the bootcamp schedule for this exam. Since it was my weakest score, my advice may not be the best for this section. Bootcamp does have test question generators that can be used daily. However, the harder sections that need the most practice have no generators. These are TFE, keyhole, and pattern folding (not to be confused with hole-punching). If I were to start practicing for the DAT way in advance, this is the section I would start practicing for the earliest. Make sure you youtube strategies for this section, though with a little practice, the sections that I did not mention are easy points. In particular, I could get all hole-punching and cube-counting questions after a very modest amount of practice. Other than bootcamp, I heard “Crack the PAT” is ok for this section. For better advice, I would look for a poster who got a 30 on his/her PAT and look through how he/she studied for the PAT.
About practice tests
I took about 16 full-length practice tests altogether. I didn’t do an entire test all at once. Rather when you put all the practice sections I did together, it comes out to about 16 practice tests. I used practice tests to identify the areas I had problems with and needed additional review for. Any questions you miss, do over the next day, and review that particular area in bio/chem/ochem etc. Don’t be overly concerned about the scores you receive on the practice tests. In fact, all the practice tests minus the ADA 2007 practice exam were harder than the real thing. So don’t fixate on the scores. Instead focus on improving on the areas where you miss questions. Repeat any sections where you miss questions. My practice test scores were much lower than I did on test day, and I am providing them for reference. Also, the scores recorded for my bootcamp practice tests were for my second time through their practice tests. Qvault scores were for my first run through. Any science/math section you see in the spreadsheet where I didn’t score a 30, I would do again the next day and maybe even again the day after that until I got a 30 on that practice section.
Edit: I forgot to put the scores lol
Scores:
PA: 24
QR: 30
RC: 30
Bio: 30
OC: 29
GC: 30
TS: 30
AA: 30
Afterthoughts
By no means, did I think I was going to score as high as I did. I never felt like I was 100% ready for the test so don't go crazy if you feel unsure on test day. In fact, I was freaking out so bad before the test that I studied for the full 18 hrs before the test without sleep 😢. The best advice I can give is that you'll get what you put in. Set the time aside, study your butt off, and you'll come out the other side ok. 🙂
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