Scores:
PA: 21
QR: 23 👍
RC: 23 👍
BIO: 26 😍
GC: 25 😀
OC: 22 😀
TS: 24 😎
AA: 24 😎
http://i.imgur.com/2rE8l.jpg
I cannot believe it's over, I am SOO glad to be done. It has been a humbling process. First and foremost, I want to thank the SDN community for the invaluable resource that it has been, and its HUGE role in my success. I finished my DAT a few hours ago, and am still in disbelief of my scores. My jaw literally dropped when I saw them on the screen, and it was only when the proctor came over and asked me if I was done that I realized, wow it's over. Here is my breakdown. I will first talk about study materials, and then go into practice tests. During my studies I read countless breakdowns from successful SDNers, and they helped me tremendously, so I am hoping mine helps someone somewhere along the way.
Little bit about me: I am a recent graduate, that made the switch from medicine to dentistry about 4/5 months ago after doing a little bit of experimental shadowing. After graduation, I scheduled my DAT, giving me one month of study time. I knew this was going to be a tight frame, but I wanted to be able to apply relatively early in the cycle. My cumulative gpa is 3.560, and I'm not sure what my science is, but its probably really close. I have shadowed an oral surgeon and a general dentist (~20 hours total, I don't think anyone really would need more than that to know whether it was right for them, to be honest)
Biology: Cliffs, Destroyer, Alan's Notes
This was unbelievable. I have no idea how I scored so high. I knew the first 5 questions right away, and I think that gave me confidence that I desperately needed. Everyone says this section is random: they are correct. The breadth of this section is huge, however the good thing about that is that there isn't too much depth. Get exposed to as much as you can, and understand MAJOR CONCEPTS. I used Cliffs AP Bio, Destroyer, and Alan's notes for this section. I read over Cliffs once, taking pretty thorough notes, and doing the end of chapter questions. Do these questions. Also do the practice AP tests in the back, which I did not get to do because of time constraints. After going through it once, I read about a chapter or two of NOTES that I had made while going through it, hoping that it would sink if I went over it in pieces. I did this inconsistently, and it carried almost all the way to exam day. I also read over Alan's notes once the week before the test. It was only after doing all of this that I attempted destroyer bio. GREAT RESOURCE. People say that it is too specific, but I think its value lies in the explanations in the back. I got through about 350 of the 450 questions within the last two days before my exam. I would go over it in 25 question blocks, and afterward I would READ THE EXPLANATIONS in the back. Often times, it provided a concise description of a relevant concept. There is also a little bit of repetition, which I think is good for hammering home important principles. My advice for this section would be to go through cliffs and make your own detailed notes so that you can review them, because I feel the info will stick better that way. Expose yourself to as many problems and as much material as possible without getting too involved in any of them. General concepts. Destroyer, cliffs, and Alan's notes did it for me. I was thinking about posting my own notes, but there are some mistakes in there so I might revise them and post later. IMO, they are the perfect middle ground in terms of detail at ~45 pages.
GC/OC: Kaplan MCAT review books, Destroyer
So, this was sort of an nontraditional means of studying. A buddy of mine had recently taken the MCAT, and offered to let me borrow his review books from the Kaplan course he took. Since he said he did well on his exam because of Kaplan, and because I am totally broke, I decided why not. I read through both the OC and GC books, taking good notes. This took me about 2 weeks to do, leaving me with about 2 weeks for review/practice problems. DESTROYER COVERS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! Yes, it is harder than the real thing. However, as I said with bio, don't worry about getting it all right. Shyt, don't even worry about getting half of it right. I was getting ~45% correct the first time. The second time I was at ~75/80%. Go through it, and read every explanation in the back, and take notes of what you don't know. I went through destroyer GC and OC twice, taking notes both times. Yes, the notes were nearly identical, but the process of getting the same things wrong, reading the explanations each time, and then writing my own version of that explanation each time helped it stick. The week before the test, I went over these notes (both from the review book, and the two copies from my mistakes in destroyer). This is what I did because I had free review books to use. Everyone on SDN praises Chad for his videos, and since SDN knows best, I suggest you use them if you are reading this during your studies. If I knew about them before I started studying/if I didn't have my friend's books, I would have definitely used Chad.
I'll note that GC was the only section of the DAT sciences that I was confident about. Again, THE ONLY. I felt comfortable with the concepts and the math because it going over it again brought a lot back from freshmen GC. OC I struggled with, and spent the most time going over. As you can see, it was my lowest science score, but I am very happy with it. However, I felt that the real DAT was really not all that bad. Know the concepts behind why reactions behave the way they do instead every little detailed mechanism. A lot of the stuff on my exam seemed pretty basic. Okay, so Destroyer rocks. Do it. Do it again. Take notes each time. Oh, and the roadmaps really are as dope as everyone says.
RC: Achiever, Topscore
I am a tutor at my University Writing Center. I read a lot of papers, and that has helped me learn to critically read. I didn't really study too much for this section because I was satisfied with my scores from practice exams, and I didn't have the luxury of time to practice any more. I know it's an important section for dental schools, but I focused more on the sciences. If you really struggle, I've read that CDR is pretty good. A quick search will lead you well. Don't really have much more insight to offer other than that.
QR: Achiever, Topscore, MATH Destroyer
Same deal with this section. I am decent at math. I had bought the MATH Destroyer, but I only went through 4 of the 13 tests. The first one I went over untimed. Read the explanations for the ones I got wrong. Learned from it and then randomly took the next 3 at various points in my studying. My scores are listed below, but as I said for RC, I focused mostly on the sciences due to time constraints. However, MATH Destroyer is very good. If you need to improve your QR, I would go through the first couple of tests untimed for learning purposes, and the finish the rest off timed and simulating test conditions. I'm sure that MATH Destroyer will be able to get you 20+ if you go through the 13 practice exams and really learn the explanations.
PAT: Crack DAT PAT, Topscore, Achiever
CDP is very good. I got the 10 test version and was able to get through 8 of them. My scores are below. On the overall, CDP is very accurate. At least for me it was. I'll briefly get into the specifics for each section because I know that helped me when I was studying. Keyhole in the real DAT places a lot more emphasis on proportions than just shape like CDP; the real DAT was slightly harder than CDP because two of the choices were always very similar. People say you can use line counting on CDP TFE. Honestly, I don't even know what that is. But for me, CDP was pretty accurate for this section, with the real DAT being only slightly harder. For me, holepunching on CDP was way too easy. The real DAT has more complex folds, and is probably the biggest discrepancy in terms of difficulty, with the DAT being moderately harder. Cubes, there isn't much to say. Everything is the same, except there are no figures with an insane amount of cubes on the real DAT like there are on CDP. Pattern folding was not as bad for me as it seems to have been for others. It was only slightly harder than CDP. Overall, the DAT was slightly harder than CDP but I think CDP is a good indicator of how you will actually do +/- 1 point.
Practice Exams: Achiever and Topscore
Achiever -- Bio/GC/OC/RC/QR/PAT/TS/AA
#1 -- 15/16/17/17/19/15/16/17
#2 -- 15/16/17/18/n.a./18/16/17 (didn't do QR, gave myself 19 to get AA)
#3 -- 15/18/15/17/20/17/16/17
#4 -- 16/15/16/19/16/17/16/16
#5 -- 14/15/14/18/15/18/15/15
#6 -- 17/19/15/22/15/18/17/18
#7 -- 17/17/17/20/15/18/17/17
Achiever is TOUGH. Some people say too tough. While I agree, it was one hell of a tool. By completely annihilating my confidence EVERY single time, I was driven to maximize my study time. Gives great exposure, and gets you prepared for ANYTHING. Don't worry about your scores. I know every thread says this, but I also know that I didn't believe it while I was studying. IT IS TRUE! Achiever is too hard. Not because the questions that are present themselves, but because all of the "easy" questions are absent. The concentration of solely difficult questions is what makes Achiever hard. Great tool to learn from, but not for those who cannot handle a complete beat down every test. Achiever tests do NOT get any easier any subsequent time you take them. The last one is just as toiling as the first. If you can handle it, I highly recommend it. Again, don't take the scores to heart, but REVIEW everything you get wrong. This usually takes up the whole day because I would take the test at 8am, finish, shower, eat, then spend the rest of the day going through all of my wrong answers. If you don't review after completion, it will be useless.
Topscore: Bio/GC/OC/TS
Test #1 -- 17/18/18/18
Test #2 -- 17/21/20/19
Test #3 -- 18/21/23/21
I only did the SNS on these tests. These were all done the week before my exam. GREAT practice. Much easier than Achiever, a better representation of how you will perform, but still slightly harder. I bought these after I finished Achiever the week before I was demoralized and wanted to see if I needed to reschedule. These scores were good in raising my confidence because many of the mistakes I made, I realized were stupid errors as I went over it. The last test was taken two days before my test. Same deal. It is very important to go over the wrong answers and understand the explanations after you take them. Therein lies the value. Take notes. Understand your mistakes.
CDP: 17,19,22,20, 23, 22, 21, 21 (as you can see, pretty similar to the real)
MATH Destroyer: 18, 21, 22, 22 (good practice, very similar to real exam)
Okay, this was extremely long, and if you're still reading this, I give you props. I really hope this helps even just one person. I know there is a lack of Achiever scores beyond test 3, so at least this will provide some measure of comparison and settle those delicate hearts that have been crushed by Achiever scores. Closing advice, don't gauge your performance based on practice scores. Doing poorly means nothing other than you now have a means of learning and understanding material. Look at my practice scores, and then my real scores. Repetition helped me a lot. Reading and writing things over and over for it to really stick. 2 sets of notes. 2 times over destroyer. 2 times over practice exams (once taking it, once going over). Man, it feels so good to be done, I have been dreaming of being able to write a breakdown like those successful DAT takers before me. If I can do it, you can do it. Study smart. Do what works for you. This is what worked for me, not a recipe for success. It is meant to be a reference. Last but not least, be confident during that last week, and the day of the exam. And after you click begin, bend that bad boy right over and get the scores you worked hard for. Confidence.
Special shout out to R4NB for answering my frantic, demoralized, Achiever beaten-down private messages. You rock, bro.
Good luck everyone! Deuces 😉
PA: 21
QR: 23 👍
RC: 23 👍
BIO: 26 😍
GC: 25 😀
OC: 22 😀
TS: 24 😎
AA: 24 😎
http://i.imgur.com/2rE8l.jpg
I cannot believe it's over, I am SOO glad to be done. It has been a humbling process. First and foremost, I want to thank the SDN community for the invaluable resource that it has been, and its HUGE role in my success. I finished my DAT a few hours ago, and am still in disbelief of my scores. My jaw literally dropped when I saw them on the screen, and it was only when the proctor came over and asked me if I was done that I realized, wow it's over. Here is my breakdown. I will first talk about study materials, and then go into practice tests. During my studies I read countless breakdowns from successful SDNers, and they helped me tremendously, so I am hoping mine helps someone somewhere along the way.
Little bit about me: I am a recent graduate, that made the switch from medicine to dentistry about 4/5 months ago after doing a little bit of experimental shadowing. After graduation, I scheduled my DAT, giving me one month of study time. I knew this was going to be a tight frame, but I wanted to be able to apply relatively early in the cycle. My cumulative gpa is 3.560, and I'm not sure what my science is, but its probably really close. I have shadowed an oral surgeon and a general dentist (~20 hours total, I don't think anyone really would need more than that to know whether it was right for them, to be honest)
Biology: Cliffs, Destroyer, Alan's Notes
This was unbelievable. I have no idea how I scored so high. I knew the first 5 questions right away, and I think that gave me confidence that I desperately needed. Everyone says this section is random: they are correct. The breadth of this section is huge, however the good thing about that is that there isn't too much depth. Get exposed to as much as you can, and understand MAJOR CONCEPTS. I used Cliffs AP Bio, Destroyer, and Alan's notes for this section. I read over Cliffs once, taking pretty thorough notes, and doing the end of chapter questions. Do these questions. Also do the practice AP tests in the back, which I did not get to do because of time constraints. After going through it once, I read about a chapter or two of NOTES that I had made while going through it, hoping that it would sink if I went over it in pieces. I did this inconsistently, and it carried almost all the way to exam day. I also read over Alan's notes once the week before the test. It was only after doing all of this that I attempted destroyer bio. GREAT RESOURCE. People say that it is too specific, but I think its value lies in the explanations in the back. I got through about 350 of the 450 questions within the last two days before my exam. I would go over it in 25 question blocks, and afterward I would READ THE EXPLANATIONS in the back. Often times, it provided a concise description of a relevant concept. There is also a little bit of repetition, which I think is good for hammering home important principles. My advice for this section would be to go through cliffs and make your own detailed notes so that you can review them, because I feel the info will stick better that way. Expose yourself to as many problems and as much material as possible without getting too involved in any of them. General concepts. Destroyer, cliffs, and Alan's notes did it for me. I was thinking about posting my own notes, but there are some mistakes in there so I might revise them and post later. IMO, they are the perfect middle ground in terms of detail at ~45 pages.
GC/OC: Kaplan MCAT review books, Destroyer
So, this was sort of an nontraditional means of studying. A buddy of mine had recently taken the MCAT, and offered to let me borrow his review books from the Kaplan course he took. Since he said he did well on his exam because of Kaplan, and because I am totally broke, I decided why not. I read through both the OC and GC books, taking good notes. This took me about 2 weeks to do, leaving me with about 2 weeks for review/practice problems. DESTROYER COVERS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! Yes, it is harder than the real thing. However, as I said with bio, don't worry about getting it all right. Shyt, don't even worry about getting half of it right. I was getting ~45% correct the first time. The second time I was at ~75/80%. Go through it, and read every explanation in the back, and take notes of what you don't know. I went through destroyer GC and OC twice, taking notes both times. Yes, the notes were nearly identical, but the process of getting the same things wrong, reading the explanations each time, and then writing my own version of that explanation each time helped it stick. The week before the test, I went over these notes (both from the review book, and the two copies from my mistakes in destroyer). This is what I did because I had free review books to use. Everyone on SDN praises Chad for his videos, and since SDN knows best, I suggest you use them if you are reading this during your studies. If I knew about them before I started studying/if I didn't have my friend's books, I would have definitely used Chad.
I'll note that GC was the only section of the DAT sciences that I was confident about. Again, THE ONLY. I felt comfortable with the concepts and the math because it going over it again brought a lot back from freshmen GC. OC I struggled with, and spent the most time going over. As you can see, it was my lowest science score, but I am very happy with it. However, I felt that the real DAT was really not all that bad. Know the concepts behind why reactions behave the way they do instead every little detailed mechanism. A lot of the stuff on my exam seemed pretty basic. Okay, so Destroyer rocks. Do it. Do it again. Take notes each time. Oh, and the roadmaps really are as dope as everyone says.
RC: Achiever, Topscore
I am a tutor at my University Writing Center. I read a lot of papers, and that has helped me learn to critically read. I didn't really study too much for this section because I was satisfied with my scores from practice exams, and I didn't have the luxury of time to practice any more. I know it's an important section for dental schools, but I focused more on the sciences. If you really struggle, I've read that CDR is pretty good. A quick search will lead you well. Don't really have much more insight to offer other than that.
QR: Achiever, Topscore, MATH Destroyer
Same deal with this section. I am decent at math. I had bought the MATH Destroyer, but I only went through 4 of the 13 tests. The first one I went over untimed. Read the explanations for the ones I got wrong. Learned from it and then randomly took the next 3 at various points in my studying. My scores are listed below, but as I said for RC, I focused mostly on the sciences due to time constraints. However, MATH Destroyer is very good. If you need to improve your QR, I would go through the first couple of tests untimed for learning purposes, and the finish the rest off timed and simulating test conditions. I'm sure that MATH Destroyer will be able to get you 20+ if you go through the 13 practice exams and really learn the explanations.
PAT: Crack DAT PAT, Topscore, Achiever
CDP is very good. I got the 10 test version and was able to get through 8 of them. My scores are below. On the overall, CDP is very accurate. At least for me it was. I'll briefly get into the specifics for each section because I know that helped me when I was studying. Keyhole in the real DAT places a lot more emphasis on proportions than just shape like CDP; the real DAT was slightly harder than CDP because two of the choices were always very similar. People say you can use line counting on CDP TFE. Honestly, I don't even know what that is. But for me, CDP was pretty accurate for this section, with the real DAT being only slightly harder. For me, holepunching on CDP was way too easy. The real DAT has more complex folds, and is probably the biggest discrepancy in terms of difficulty, with the DAT being moderately harder. Cubes, there isn't much to say. Everything is the same, except there are no figures with an insane amount of cubes on the real DAT like there are on CDP. Pattern folding was not as bad for me as it seems to have been for others. It was only slightly harder than CDP. Overall, the DAT was slightly harder than CDP but I think CDP is a good indicator of how you will actually do +/- 1 point.
Practice Exams: Achiever and Topscore
Achiever -- Bio/GC/OC/RC/QR/PAT/TS/AA
#1 -- 15/16/17/17/19/15/16/17
#2 -- 15/16/17/18/n.a./18/16/17 (didn't do QR, gave myself 19 to get AA)
#3 -- 15/18/15/17/20/17/16/17
#4 -- 16/15/16/19/16/17/16/16
#5 -- 14/15/14/18/15/18/15/15
#6 -- 17/19/15/22/15/18/17/18
#7 -- 17/17/17/20/15/18/17/17
Achiever is TOUGH. Some people say too tough. While I agree, it was one hell of a tool. By completely annihilating my confidence EVERY single time, I was driven to maximize my study time. Gives great exposure, and gets you prepared for ANYTHING. Don't worry about your scores. I know every thread says this, but I also know that I didn't believe it while I was studying. IT IS TRUE! Achiever is too hard. Not because the questions that are present themselves, but because all of the "easy" questions are absent. The concentration of solely difficult questions is what makes Achiever hard. Great tool to learn from, but not for those who cannot handle a complete beat down every test. Achiever tests do NOT get any easier any subsequent time you take them. The last one is just as toiling as the first. If you can handle it, I highly recommend it. Again, don't take the scores to heart, but REVIEW everything you get wrong. This usually takes up the whole day because I would take the test at 8am, finish, shower, eat, then spend the rest of the day going through all of my wrong answers. If you don't review after completion, it will be useless.
Topscore: Bio/GC/OC/TS
Test #1 -- 17/18/18/18
Test #2 -- 17/21/20/19
Test #3 -- 18/21/23/21
I only did the SNS on these tests. These were all done the week before my exam. GREAT practice. Much easier than Achiever, a better representation of how you will perform, but still slightly harder. I bought these after I finished Achiever the week before I was demoralized and wanted to see if I needed to reschedule. These scores were good in raising my confidence because many of the mistakes I made, I realized were stupid errors as I went over it. The last test was taken two days before my test. Same deal. It is very important to go over the wrong answers and understand the explanations after you take them. Therein lies the value. Take notes. Understand your mistakes.
CDP: 17,19,22,20, 23, 22, 21, 21 (as you can see, pretty similar to the real)
MATH Destroyer: 18, 21, 22, 22 (good practice, very similar to real exam)
Okay, this was extremely long, and if you're still reading this, I give you props. I really hope this helps even just one person. I know there is a lack of Achiever scores beyond test 3, so at least this will provide some measure of comparison and settle those delicate hearts that have been crushed by Achiever scores. Closing advice, don't gauge your performance based on practice scores. Doing poorly means nothing other than you now have a means of learning and understanding material. Look at my practice scores, and then my real scores. Repetition helped me a lot. Reading and writing things over and over for it to really stick. 2 sets of notes. 2 times over destroyer. 2 times over practice exams (once taking it, once going over). Man, it feels so good to be done, I have been dreaming of being able to write a breakdown like those successful DAT takers before me. If I can do it, you can do it. Study smart. Do what works for you. This is what worked for me, not a recipe for success. It is meant to be a reference. Last but not least, be confident during that last week, and the day of the exam. And after you click begin, bend that bad boy right over and get the scores you worked hard for. Confidence.
Special shout out to R4NB for answering my frantic, demoralized, Achiever beaten-down private messages. You rock, bro.
Good luck everyone! Deuces 😉
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