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Well in case this forum hasn?t seen enough advice in preparing for the DAT, I thought I?d give my own input. Since we all have such unique studying habits, I figure the more, the better. Without further ado:
1) Schedule a time to take the DAT and stick to it. The 48-hour scheduling requirement for Prometric was a little too lenient for me and I procrastinated each week. Do not say to yourself ?Well, I?ll just wait until I feel good and ready and schedule the exam then.? It just doesn?t work. Schedule a time and treat it as though it were an immovable final exam. Scheduling early also ensures you get a good exam time.
2) Get a good night?s sleep. If it makes you more comfortable, review some science information the night before. Personally, I went through the Respiration and Photosynthesis cycles. Don?t stay up late studying, of course; but just relax, have a glass of wine (or two), and look over some notes if you want. Again, just light review, no practice tests.
3) It is very highly recommended to purchase TopScore Pro. The practice tests are really fantastic. However, don?t wait until a week before the exam to start the practice tests. Integrate TopScore into your studying routine and take a few subject tests here and there. Its best use is as a diagnostic tool to let you know if you need more work in a particular subject.
4) It is highly recommended to buy the Kaplan Blue Book. It is a comprehensive review of the test material.
5) Realize that the general chemistry and organic chemistry portions of the real DAT are much simpler than the TopScore exams. All that you need to get a great score on these two exams is in the Blue Book. For the organic, write down all the reactions on notecards, and just go through them and understand them. It is not necessary to incorporate other, more in-depth, organic resources for your study. The same holds true for the general chemistry: The Blue Book contains everything you?ll need to know. Many people recommend the ExamKrackers 1001 questions for both sections. I bought both of those, and got to about question #100 in each. I found them to be very tedious, and was annoyed with the same question being presented 15 different ways to fill the ?1001? quota. If you can learn this way, I would recommend this book, but it just didn?t work for me.
6) The Biology section is a bit more in-depth than the Kaplan book. But don?t let this scare you! About 80-85% of the questions on got on my biology section for the real exam were contained in the Kaplan book. The other 15% caught me off guard, but I was able to make some educated choices. The Kaplan book is a great home base. I think the best way to study for the biology section, though, is to implement a comprehensive biology textbook. Go through the blue book chapter by chapter and make notes/notecards ? whatever is best for you. If at the end of a chapter you feel that you have some unanswered questions, or maybe a concept was unclear, then go to the other textbook and do a little more reading to clear things up. I feel this is a good way to filter out what information is important. Just as an example, when I finished the vertebrate embryology chapter, I felt it really didn?t contain enough information. So I read the same topic in the biology textbook and felt a lot better about it.
7) The reading comprehension section has some very easy passages, and some more difficult passages. You can usually tell which is which. If you recognize a passage as easy, try and spend a little less than the allotted 20 minutes; maybe only do 14 or 15 minutes for that passage. Save that last 5 minutes in the event you need a little more time on a more difficult passage.
8) The Barron?s book is great preparation for the PAT, but that?s about all. So if you?re sitting in Barnes and Noble, get yourself a grande frappucino and pick up the Barron?s book. Read through the PAT section and take some notes. Second, I thought TopScore is comparable to the actual PAT. I have heard the real PAT referred to as ?infinitely harder? than TopScore, but I didn?t find this to be the case. Just keep cool, and you should expect scores similar to TopScore.
9) Realize that this is an important exam. But also realize that if you have taken the time to prepare, you will do great. If you?re nervous at first, it will wear off quickly. Good luck!
1) Schedule a time to take the DAT and stick to it. The 48-hour scheduling requirement for Prometric was a little too lenient for me and I procrastinated each week. Do not say to yourself ?Well, I?ll just wait until I feel good and ready and schedule the exam then.? It just doesn?t work. Schedule a time and treat it as though it were an immovable final exam. Scheduling early also ensures you get a good exam time.
2) Get a good night?s sleep. If it makes you more comfortable, review some science information the night before. Personally, I went through the Respiration and Photosynthesis cycles. Don?t stay up late studying, of course; but just relax, have a glass of wine (or two), and look over some notes if you want. Again, just light review, no practice tests.
3) It is very highly recommended to purchase TopScore Pro. The practice tests are really fantastic. However, don?t wait until a week before the exam to start the practice tests. Integrate TopScore into your studying routine and take a few subject tests here and there. Its best use is as a diagnostic tool to let you know if you need more work in a particular subject.
4) It is highly recommended to buy the Kaplan Blue Book. It is a comprehensive review of the test material.
5) Realize that the general chemistry and organic chemistry portions of the real DAT are much simpler than the TopScore exams. All that you need to get a great score on these two exams is in the Blue Book. For the organic, write down all the reactions on notecards, and just go through them and understand them. It is not necessary to incorporate other, more in-depth, organic resources for your study. The same holds true for the general chemistry: The Blue Book contains everything you?ll need to know. Many people recommend the ExamKrackers 1001 questions for both sections. I bought both of those, and got to about question #100 in each. I found them to be very tedious, and was annoyed with the same question being presented 15 different ways to fill the ?1001? quota. If you can learn this way, I would recommend this book, but it just didn?t work for me.
6) The Biology section is a bit more in-depth than the Kaplan book. But don?t let this scare you! About 80-85% of the questions on got on my biology section for the real exam were contained in the Kaplan book. The other 15% caught me off guard, but I was able to make some educated choices. The Kaplan book is a great home base. I think the best way to study for the biology section, though, is to implement a comprehensive biology textbook. Go through the blue book chapter by chapter and make notes/notecards ? whatever is best for you. If at the end of a chapter you feel that you have some unanswered questions, or maybe a concept was unclear, then go to the other textbook and do a little more reading to clear things up. I feel this is a good way to filter out what information is important. Just as an example, when I finished the vertebrate embryology chapter, I felt it really didn?t contain enough information. So I read the same topic in the biology textbook and felt a lot better about it.
7) The reading comprehension section has some very easy passages, and some more difficult passages. You can usually tell which is which. If you recognize a passage as easy, try and spend a little less than the allotted 20 minutes; maybe only do 14 or 15 minutes for that passage. Save that last 5 minutes in the event you need a little more time on a more difficult passage.
8) The Barron?s book is great preparation for the PAT, but that?s about all. So if you?re sitting in Barnes and Noble, get yourself a grande frappucino and pick up the Barron?s book. Read through the PAT section and take some notes. Second, I thought TopScore is comparable to the actual PAT. I have heard the real PAT referred to as ?infinitely harder? than TopScore, but I didn?t find this to be the case. Just keep cool, and you should expect scores similar to TopScore.
9) Realize that this is an important exam. But also realize that if you have taken the time to prepare, you will do great. If you?re nervous at first, it will wear off quickly. Good luck!
I realize that most of the scores aren't *spectacular*, so I don't want to give the impression that I'm so smart that everybody should study like I did 
