- Joined
- May 22, 2013
- Messages
- 1,133
- Reaction score
- 1,379
I of course would love to thank everyone who has helped me in this process. Everyone in this SDN community is awesome and there are some great people on here who make a big difference. Special shout outs to Feralis and the amount of influence on this website. The Destroyers of the DAT Nancy and Dr. Romano and of course Ari and all of the people who work with DAT bootcamp.
It's been a long journey and I am glad to be done. My scores were decent and I can't complain, of course I would always like higher, but in hind sight I am pretty stoked on them.
Bio: 24
GC: 24
OC: 22
PAT: 24
RC: 28
QR: 21
TS: 23
AA:24
This is going to be quite a lengthy post because I feel like I have some things to say that have been said in the past but I feel like bringing up again. If you are looking to just see what my practice scores were, turn away now. The first reason is because I somehow deleted all of them the day before the DAT and secondly because they don't matter. I'll get to that in a sec.
First, my impressions of the DAT are that it was WAYY harder than I expected. I felt very prepared and was blind sided by some of the questions on there. Of course there were some easy ones but there were quite a few that I was confused about. I expected my sciences to be higher especially my Ochem score. But again I am VERY happy that I got what I got to begin with and once you are above a 22-23 does it even matter?
I am going to talk about the set up of the test on the computer and everything in detail first and my prometric experience because I didn't take a test run and the interface was actually different than I expected and I wish I would have known things like how RC is set up etc.
Second I will give my study plan and last I will break down my test individually on some key points.
I arrived about 30 minutes early and I did not get to take the test until my scheduled time, but the ladies working were very nice. You had to leave everything in the locker and couldn't take off coats once inside. You had to get finger printed every time you entered and left the room. The room I was in was actually pretty small only about 10 cubicles with one computer each. They do provide noise canceling head phones but I HIGHLY recommend bringing soft ear plugs. People constantly entering and leaving. The ear plugs took away all distractions and the cubicle walls helped too. Secondly, I was given two laminated graph paper sheets similar to the Kaplan ones. They said if you fill them up you can ask for more. Here is the truth though, you wouldn't have time they weren't constantly watching to wait for you to ask for one. However, two with front and back being graphed was plenty for sciences and PAT and then you can switch them at break leaving you two fresh oes for the QR section. The set up surprised me of the test because it looked like it was running windows 95. QVAULT and Bootcamp are way nicer than the actual test.
There was a weird feature that really bugged also. Some of the questions especially OCHEM were so long the answers were off the screen and even if you choose ‘A’ you has to scroll to the bottom of the answers before you can hit next. That got very annoying. Also, if you double clicked an answer it unmarked it so if you choose an answer and choose again it was blank. (And no, you cannot see questions at the bottom like bootcamp) you can only click next mark or previous. At the end (identical to QVAULT) you can choose to review marked answers or all. At 15 minutes left and at 5 minutes left pop ups came and warned you about the time and you had to click twice for those to close. Reading comprehension presents you with the full length article filling the whole screen and then when you hit next it then brings up a question on top with the passage in a scroll portion underneath. (Identical to Qvault opposite bootcamp) and when you go to a new question the passage reset to the top.
At the beginning I had the tutorial where I set up my grids for hole punching, no one said I couldn’t and it didn’t seem like a big deal.
At the start of each new section they give you three pages of (this is how you do QR or PAT etc) and the time runs during these so don’t stop and think you have a break!
And at the end there is a survey, but you will be too excited and exhausted to care so hit END and your scores are there. (When you leave ask for your printout)
Sorry that was long, but I feel like it would’ve helped to know some of these things. (Also I recommend chewing gum during it, it helps focus a little too) (Also take some advil before, don’t drink a ton of water and if you need I recommend taking some immodium as well) (Also bring two forms of ID)
Alright time for my study plan. I wanted to take the DAT before applications opened but my semester went from start of January till the end of April so I started studying in January while taking a full course load of physiology, Ochem 2, the Lab and some other classes. I also was working in a reseach lab the entire time and I am married (as well as shadowing, volunteer etc) so needless to say my life has been hell for a few months.
In January I did all of Math Destroyer (Timed each test and went through answers twice)
February I did Ochem/Gen chem in Destoyer (I was already in ochem so I didn’t feel like I needed much studying for it)
March I focused on PAT (Bootcamp)
April Biology (Feralis/cliffs/Destroyer)
May (out of school) I studied all of together every day and reviewed a lot.
This seemed pretty weird but it worked for me. I don’t know if I have any recommendations for studying except to understand every question you come across.
Let me talk about my DAT now, and each section and how my materials helped.
BIOLOGY: 24
This section caught me off guard. You always here how random it is but I had no idea. Feralis is a genius but I swear my DAT was a dang hard version because I had stuff coming out of left field for every science section.
80 percent of the questions were pretty easy but 80 percent only gets you so far on the DAT I had q few questions that I had never seen before. One question was a straight up conceptual chemistry question. One required some math (not hardy weinburg or genetics at all) I has one question that looked like one of Bootcamps RC question about one statement being true because the other ir or isn’t/related etc. I had a taxonomy question and all the answer choices could be narrowed down to two animal names I have never heard before and had to guess between the two. And I had almost no physiology questions which was my strong point unfortunately.
A 24 is a good score I just was really expecting this to be my highest score because I felt like there was nothing they could throw at me I wouldn’t get.
Feralis notes are awesome and cover enough of the stuff that you should get most random questions. I forked out money and got Anki cards and off ot bootcamp put them on my phone. I reviewed 50 a day and did 100 new a day from April to my test day. Highly recommended. I went through Destroyer three times (One time completely two days before my test). KNOW ALL THE WRONG ANSWERS. AND KNOW EVERY ANSWER CHOICE. That is the key. What throws you off in biology are answer choices you have never seen because you second guess ones you have and pick the mysterious one.
And finally QVAULT, which in my opinion is a very very underrated source especially for biology.
Start with Cliffs, use Feralis to solidify understanding, Destroyer exposes you to everything and DAT bootcamp/ QVAULT shows you how you are doing at applying the knowledge.
GC: 24 My most feared section. I have no idea how I got a 24 because there were some crazy things. Nancy always says every test is different on the DAT. And you always hear people say it wasn’t conceptual and the calculations are done for you. Wrong.
I had only about 4 calculations. One was about pressure which I had to calculate myself. One was a multi step one where I had to solve for the rate law, then solve for the K and then plug back all of those numbers in to get the initial rate. (No calculator, although fairly reasonable numbers to work with) a lot more work than expected. And then I got hit with some conceptual questions I don’t recall encountering and quite a few lab teqhniques.
My advice for this is simple. The math stuff is pretty easy. DESTROYER is awesome and I can’t stress enough that it is a work book and not an indicator of how you are doing and it is not overkill at all. I do wish that it was broken into sections such as solubility, titrations, lab questions, stoichiometry etc. Although I went through it enough to memorize where they were anyways. You can’t do GC without it. (I only used chad for GC and just did a little.
The thing with GC is that 90 percent of titrations and solubility (which I had none) and pressure equations will be done the same way. So once you go through those I would highly recommend memoreizing every lab question and conceptual question because unlike equations which you can plug and chug you need to memorize these.
Many people knock qvault for being too repetitive and too many lab questions etc. Well My GC score was literally saved because I went through every qvault test a few days ago, my test mirrored those very much.
OC: 22 By far my biggest surpise was my OC score. I consistently got 30’s on bootcamp so I thought I had this down pat. But it was very similar to my GC section. I actually had some obscure reagents on there (more like do this reaction using which reagent which had obscure answers). And I actually had quite a bit of lab/conceptual questions as well. Destroyer is money and would be awesome for 90 percent of the questions and bootamp is good at putting those to work in a practice setting.
Again though, so many people knock the OC section of qvault (Which I agree for some of the reactions you should use destroyer and bootcamp) but qvault had really good conceptual questions and lab questions and I am kicking myself for not going through those like I did with GC. I was so quick to set it aside and now I am wishing I had gone through it more.
Overall, use destroyer and bootcamp for the bulk of the studying (especially the road maps) and the explanations in Destroyer are awesome. But don’t forget to use qvault to put some of the stuff you learn in destroyer into even more practice.
Total sciences I actually went back and changed many of the questions I marked and I think that brought me from a 21 to a 23 in sciences. Don’t fixiate on a problem you mark and skip because your mind will figure it out byt the time you come back.
PAT: 24 First….FORGET ABOUT SCIENCES. YOU ARE DONE!!! That was a huge help I decided what was done was done.
I was getting 20’s on bootcamp for what its worth I think PAT is the only section that your practice scores are worth using as a guage of where you are at.
If you buy the full qvault package you can use their PAT as a start (except for TFE those are garbage) but Bootcamp is best. Don’t bother buying qvault PAT only.
Keyhole: Oh my gosh….I had 7 super easy ones (if you have done Bootcamps religiously) I had a couple hard ones (One I swear had no right answer) and I had about 5 ROCKS. You always hear about the rocks and oh boy they exist. They are literally blocky rocks and the answer choices make NO SENSE. Bootcamp is so crisp and has right angles are are symmetrical. THESE ARE ROCKS. I really hope Ari and his guys can figure these ones out. I used what I learned in bootcamp and applied them to the rocks and I think it worked, but wow… overall I actually went through these quick and was on my A game but the rocks caught me off guard. Bootcamp is by far the best option out there now if we can get some boulder generators….
TFE: There was a weird triangle one which always throws me for a loop because of the slants, but overall it is a slightly easier version of bootcamp. Bootcamp is awesome just practice those. Learn how to visualize like Ari says because you can eliminate every other answer pretty easily.
Angles: My worst section…lets put it this way…on the 2007…yes 2007 not 2009 I got 10 wrong… I somehow guessed right today. There were a few freebis where angle 3 was clearly smallest and only one option had 3 as the option. But about half of them were just like bootcamp practice test (The generator helps for sure however what you really should do is use subject specific test, go to question 150 and hit finish and then with answers showing scroll down. Look at the problem, decide what you think it is then scroll and see the answer. Do this for all 150) those 150 are from the practice test not generator and are harder and more realistic of what you see on the test. I did develop a strategy of where you pretend you have a bendy straw between your two hands and you move your hands past each ther (like starting a fire with a stick) and you imagine where the bendy part of the straw is twirling.
Cube: easy
Hole punch: LINE OF SYMMETRY Part 1 https://youtu.be/6ehnTz4lYiM
PART 2 (actually this video is not well known but is the BEST by the same guy)
https://youtu.be/I_0wnh9ArtY
100 percent on bootcamp every time and the real deal is easier (just don’t get confused because where they punch the holes is off center a lot haha)
Pattern: Actually much harder than expected. One crazy one that made a round ball?!? And this cube one with random blocks colored black or white with no rhyme or reason.
While the generator is good, the answers and techniques on the practice test were the best exolanations I encountered in studying for the DAT they are genius. (Find one aspect to focus on and look to the right/left of it etc)
15 minute break….Pee
RC: 28 So….this was my worst section. I got 20’s on bootcamp and 22’s on qvault. Bootcamp helped prepare me for reading fast and answering tough questions but qvault was actually more representative. (Run away from the 2009 RC I got a 19 on that disaster last week)
It was enjoyable reading and super easy. You could definitely search and destroy.
I did get one 24 on RC last week when I used my own strategy.
What I do is similar to Ari where I read the first two paragraphs twice and then I read half of the article after. At about paragraph 7 half way through you know the gist of the whole article. You’ve read probably far enough for the first two questions but not too far that you forget. You look at the first question and answer it, then the second. The third might be further so read down and answer if you hit it. Pretty much just keep answering as you encounter the questions. Then you will eventually finish and have about 8 more questions for that section left which you can easily search and destroy since you know the article so well.
I only got one question on the whole thing that was statement one is true but related to statement 2 which is true (or whatever it is)
A couple of tone questions but the problem wasn’t deciding the tone but rather deciding what the difference between the author being cynical, imprudent, or hypocritical towards something…
Overall it was a very easy read and section.
QR: 21 Bootcamp is overkill almost to the point of not being worth the time. I know being over prepared is good but for QR at least I would have preferred something more on point.
Qvault you only need the free practice test because the other 9 are pretty much the same question worded differently.
Math destroyer was most similar. Most of the questions were easy but there were a few tricky ones. I actually would not say that Math destroyer is overkill. I got one crazy word problem about percents. Other than that I think I just neglected this section. The time constraint hurts.
If I could go back I would put more time into QR closer to my test date using math destroyer. But most people know QR is the least important section.
I know that was lengthy so if you have any questions feel free to ask. I know the scores aren’t awesome but I would like to emphasize a few things I learned from my scores.
First, I thought I was getting a 19 when I finished the sciences but I let it go, in the end I did well. DON”T LET SCIENCES RUIN THE REST OF YOUR TEST. Because you might end up doing well anyways.
Go back and look at your marked questions and clear your mind to think differently the second time.
The DAT has different versions. If you neglect conceptual questions and lab questions you can get screwed.
Use Destroyer like a Bible. Treat bootcamp like bootcamp. And don’t neglect Qvault for the sciences. (I highly recommend after finishing Bio look at unseen questions for another hundred more)
DO NOT USE PRACTICE SCORES TO DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL GET. I took the qvault and got 20’s across the bored for the sciences and around 22’s on Bootcamp instead of thinking that’s what I was going to get I decided to use them as learning tools, not predictors and I ended up doing much better in every section.
On the other hand I got around 28-30 on sciences for the 2007 and 2009 DAT tests. And I got less. The point is, if you are getting 15’s on practice tests that’s not a great sign and if you are getting 30’s you will do well. But the difference between a 19 and a 25 are such few questions that no practice will tell you what you will get. Just use each one to prepare for your tests.
I don’t necessarily think I got a “hard” test, I just didn’t focus in certain areas as much as I thought they would show up. The tools where there though. Don’t over focus on anything. And put equal time into everything and you will kill it.
And one last time for me to stand on the soap box.
SDN scores are not a real representation of the scores people are getting. There have been some awesome scores on here recently. But the reality is that most schools have averages between 19-21. Which obviously means that half of the dental students roughly are falling below that. The point is, don’t beat yourself up because Feralis set a new record. Because you only need one school to like you as a whole (not on one score) for you to be a dentist.
Plus lets face it, SDN members get high scores because they read someones break down that said Destroyer and Bootcamp are awesome and they use it themselves and get a high score. Believe it or not, most people probably don’t use these. Ive met countless people who are taking Kaplan courses and have never heard of bootcamp or Destroyer. The people here make their own schedules and self study, and that’s what will set them apart.
Overall though, I’m glad to be done and I’m glad I came on this website because these breakdowns honestly made the difference for me
It's been a long journey and I am glad to be done. My scores were decent and I can't complain, of course I would always like higher, but in hind sight I am pretty stoked on them.
Bio: 24
GC: 24
OC: 22
PAT: 24
RC: 28
QR: 21
TS: 23
AA:24
This is going to be quite a lengthy post because I feel like I have some things to say that have been said in the past but I feel like bringing up again. If you are looking to just see what my practice scores were, turn away now. The first reason is because I somehow deleted all of them the day before the DAT and secondly because they don't matter. I'll get to that in a sec.
First, my impressions of the DAT are that it was WAYY harder than I expected. I felt very prepared and was blind sided by some of the questions on there. Of course there were some easy ones but there were quite a few that I was confused about. I expected my sciences to be higher especially my Ochem score. But again I am VERY happy that I got what I got to begin with and once you are above a 22-23 does it even matter?
I am going to talk about the set up of the test on the computer and everything in detail first and my prometric experience because I didn't take a test run and the interface was actually different than I expected and I wish I would have known things like how RC is set up etc.
Second I will give my study plan and last I will break down my test individually on some key points.
I arrived about 30 minutes early and I did not get to take the test until my scheduled time, but the ladies working were very nice. You had to leave everything in the locker and couldn't take off coats once inside. You had to get finger printed every time you entered and left the room. The room I was in was actually pretty small only about 10 cubicles with one computer each. They do provide noise canceling head phones but I HIGHLY recommend bringing soft ear plugs. People constantly entering and leaving. The ear plugs took away all distractions and the cubicle walls helped too. Secondly, I was given two laminated graph paper sheets similar to the Kaplan ones. They said if you fill them up you can ask for more. Here is the truth though, you wouldn't have time they weren't constantly watching to wait for you to ask for one. However, two with front and back being graphed was plenty for sciences and PAT and then you can switch them at break leaving you two fresh oes for the QR section. The set up surprised me of the test because it looked like it was running windows 95. QVAULT and Bootcamp are way nicer than the actual test.
There was a weird feature that really bugged also. Some of the questions especially OCHEM were so long the answers were off the screen and even if you choose ‘A’ you has to scroll to the bottom of the answers before you can hit next. That got very annoying. Also, if you double clicked an answer it unmarked it so if you choose an answer and choose again it was blank. (And no, you cannot see questions at the bottom like bootcamp) you can only click next mark or previous. At the end (identical to QVAULT) you can choose to review marked answers or all. At 15 minutes left and at 5 minutes left pop ups came and warned you about the time and you had to click twice for those to close. Reading comprehension presents you with the full length article filling the whole screen and then when you hit next it then brings up a question on top with the passage in a scroll portion underneath. (Identical to Qvault opposite bootcamp) and when you go to a new question the passage reset to the top.
At the beginning I had the tutorial where I set up my grids for hole punching, no one said I couldn’t and it didn’t seem like a big deal.
At the start of each new section they give you three pages of (this is how you do QR or PAT etc) and the time runs during these so don’t stop and think you have a break!
And at the end there is a survey, but you will be too excited and exhausted to care so hit END and your scores are there. (When you leave ask for your printout)
Sorry that was long, but I feel like it would’ve helped to know some of these things. (Also I recommend chewing gum during it, it helps focus a little too) (Also take some advil before, don’t drink a ton of water and if you need I recommend taking some immodium as well) (Also bring two forms of ID)
Alright time for my study plan. I wanted to take the DAT before applications opened but my semester went from start of January till the end of April so I started studying in January while taking a full course load of physiology, Ochem 2, the Lab and some other classes. I also was working in a reseach lab the entire time and I am married (as well as shadowing, volunteer etc) so needless to say my life has been hell for a few months.
In January I did all of Math Destroyer (Timed each test and went through answers twice)
February I did Ochem/Gen chem in Destoyer (I was already in ochem so I didn’t feel like I needed much studying for it)
March I focused on PAT (Bootcamp)
April Biology (Feralis/cliffs/Destroyer)
May (out of school) I studied all of together every day and reviewed a lot.
This seemed pretty weird but it worked for me. I don’t know if I have any recommendations for studying except to understand every question you come across.
Let me talk about my DAT now, and each section and how my materials helped.
BIOLOGY: 24
This section caught me off guard. You always here how random it is but I had no idea. Feralis is a genius but I swear my DAT was a dang hard version because I had stuff coming out of left field for every science section.
80 percent of the questions were pretty easy but 80 percent only gets you so far on the DAT I had q few questions that I had never seen before. One question was a straight up conceptual chemistry question. One required some math (not hardy weinburg or genetics at all) I has one question that looked like one of Bootcamps RC question about one statement being true because the other ir or isn’t/related etc. I had a taxonomy question and all the answer choices could be narrowed down to two animal names I have never heard before and had to guess between the two. And I had almost no physiology questions which was my strong point unfortunately.
A 24 is a good score I just was really expecting this to be my highest score because I felt like there was nothing they could throw at me I wouldn’t get.
Feralis notes are awesome and cover enough of the stuff that you should get most random questions. I forked out money and got Anki cards and off ot bootcamp put them on my phone. I reviewed 50 a day and did 100 new a day from April to my test day. Highly recommended. I went through Destroyer three times (One time completely two days before my test). KNOW ALL THE WRONG ANSWERS. AND KNOW EVERY ANSWER CHOICE. That is the key. What throws you off in biology are answer choices you have never seen because you second guess ones you have and pick the mysterious one.
And finally QVAULT, which in my opinion is a very very underrated source especially for biology.
Start with Cliffs, use Feralis to solidify understanding, Destroyer exposes you to everything and DAT bootcamp/ QVAULT shows you how you are doing at applying the knowledge.
GC: 24 My most feared section. I have no idea how I got a 24 because there were some crazy things. Nancy always says every test is different on the DAT. And you always hear people say it wasn’t conceptual and the calculations are done for you. Wrong.
I had only about 4 calculations. One was about pressure which I had to calculate myself. One was a multi step one where I had to solve for the rate law, then solve for the K and then plug back all of those numbers in to get the initial rate. (No calculator, although fairly reasonable numbers to work with) a lot more work than expected. And then I got hit with some conceptual questions I don’t recall encountering and quite a few lab teqhniques.
My advice for this is simple. The math stuff is pretty easy. DESTROYER is awesome and I can’t stress enough that it is a work book and not an indicator of how you are doing and it is not overkill at all. I do wish that it was broken into sections such as solubility, titrations, lab questions, stoichiometry etc. Although I went through it enough to memorize where they were anyways. You can’t do GC without it. (I only used chad for GC and just did a little.
The thing with GC is that 90 percent of titrations and solubility (which I had none) and pressure equations will be done the same way. So once you go through those I would highly recommend memoreizing every lab question and conceptual question because unlike equations which you can plug and chug you need to memorize these.
Many people knock qvault for being too repetitive and too many lab questions etc. Well My GC score was literally saved because I went through every qvault test a few days ago, my test mirrored those very much.
OC: 22 By far my biggest surpise was my OC score. I consistently got 30’s on bootcamp so I thought I had this down pat. But it was very similar to my GC section. I actually had some obscure reagents on there (more like do this reaction using which reagent which had obscure answers). And I actually had quite a bit of lab/conceptual questions as well. Destroyer is money and would be awesome for 90 percent of the questions and bootamp is good at putting those to work in a practice setting.
Again though, so many people knock the OC section of qvault (Which I agree for some of the reactions you should use destroyer and bootcamp) but qvault had really good conceptual questions and lab questions and I am kicking myself for not going through those like I did with GC. I was so quick to set it aside and now I am wishing I had gone through it more.
Overall, use destroyer and bootcamp for the bulk of the studying (especially the road maps) and the explanations in Destroyer are awesome. But don’t forget to use qvault to put some of the stuff you learn in destroyer into even more practice.
Total sciences I actually went back and changed many of the questions I marked and I think that brought me from a 21 to a 23 in sciences. Don’t fixiate on a problem you mark and skip because your mind will figure it out byt the time you come back.
PAT: 24 First….FORGET ABOUT SCIENCES. YOU ARE DONE!!! That was a huge help I decided what was done was done.
I was getting 20’s on bootcamp for what its worth I think PAT is the only section that your practice scores are worth using as a guage of where you are at.
If you buy the full qvault package you can use their PAT as a start (except for TFE those are garbage) but Bootcamp is best. Don’t bother buying qvault PAT only.
Keyhole: Oh my gosh….I had 7 super easy ones (if you have done Bootcamps religiously) I had a couple hard ones (One I swear had no right answer) and I had about 5 ROCKS. You always hear about the rocks and oh boy they exist. They are literally blocky rocks and the answer choices make NO SENSE. Bootcamp is so crisp and has right angles are are symmetrical. THESE ARE ROCKS. I really hope Ari and his guys can figure these ones out. I used what I learned in bootcamp and applied them to the rocks and I think it worked, but wow… overall I actually went through these quick and was on my A game but the rocks caught me off guard. Bootcamp is by far the best option out there now if we can get some boulder generators….
TFE: There was a weird triangle one which always throws me for a loop because of the slants, but overall it is a slightly easier version of bootcamp. Bootcamp is awesome just practice those. Learn how to visualize like Ari says because you can eliminate every other answer pretty easily.
Angles: My worst section…lets put it this way…on the 2007…yes 2007 not 2009 I got 10 wrong… I somehow guessed right today. There were a few freebis where angle 3 was clearly smallest and only one option had 3 as the option. But about half of them were just like bootcamp practice test (The generator helps for sure however what you really should do is use subject specific test, go to question 150 and hit finish and then with answers showing scroll down. Look at the problem, decide what you think it is then scroll and see the answer. Do this for all 150) those 150 are from the practice test not generator and are harder and more realistic of what you see on the test. I did develop a strategy of where you pretend you have a bendy straw between your two hands and you move your hands past each ther (like starting a fire with a stick) and you imagine where the bendy part of the straw is twirling.
Cube: easy
Hole punch: LINE OF SYMMETRY Part 1 https://youtu.be/6ehnTz4lYiM
PART 2 (actually this video is not well known but is the BEST by the same guy)
https://youtu.be/I_0wnh9ArtY
100 percent on bootcamp every time and the real deal is easier (just don’t get confused because where they punch the holes is off center a lot haha)
Pattern: Actually much harder than expected. One crazy one that made a round ball?!? And this cube one with random blocks colored black or white with no rhyme or reason.
While the generator is good, the answers and techniques on the practice test were the best exolanations I encountered in studying for the DAT they are genius. (Find one aspect to focus on and look to the right/left of it etc)
15 minute break….Pee
RC: 28 So….this was my worst section. I got 20’s on bootcamp and 22’s on qvault. Bootcamp helped prepare me for reading fast and answering tough questions but qvault was actually more representative. (Run away from the 2009 RC I got a 19 on that disaster last week)
It was enjoyable reading and super easy. You could definitely search and destroy.
I did get one 24 on RC last week when I used my own strategy.
What I do is similar to Ari where I read the first two paragraphs twice and then I read half of the article after. At about paragraph 7 half way through you know the gist of the whole article. You’ve read probably far enough for the first two questions but not too far that you forget. You look at the first question and answer it, then the second. The third might be further so read down and answer if you hit it. Pretty much just keep answering as you encounter the questions. Then you will eventually finish and have about 8 more questions for that section left which you can easily search and destroy since you know the article so well.
I only got one question on the whole thing that was statement one is true but related to statement 2 which is true (or whatever it is)
A couple of tone questions but the problem wasn’t deciding the tone but rather deciding what the difference between the author being cynical, imprudent, or hypocritical towards something…
Overall it was a very easy read and section.
QR: 21 Bootcamp is overkill almost to the point of not being worth the time. I know being over prepared is good but for QR at least I would have preferred something more on point.
Qvault you only need the free practice test because the other 9 are pretty much the same question worded differently.
Math destroyer was most similar. Most of the questions were easy but there were a few tricky ones. I actually would not say that Math destroyer is overkill. I got one crazy word problem about percents. Other than that I think I just neglected this section. The time constraint hurts.
If I could go back I would put more time into QR closer to my test date using math destroyer. But most people know QR is the least important section.
I know that was lengthy so if you have any questions feel free to ask. I know the scores aren’t awesome but I would like to emphasize a few things I learned from my scores.
First, I thought I was getting a 19 when I finished the sciences but I let it go, in the end I did well. DON”T LET SCIENCES RUIN THE REST OF YOUR TEST. Because you might end up doing well anyways.
Go back and look at your marked questions and clear your mind to think differently the second time.
The DAT has different versions. If you neglect conceptual questions and lab questions you can get screwed.
Use Destroyer like a Bible. Treat bootcamp like bootcamp. And don’t neglect Qvault for the sciences. (I highly recommend after finishing Bio look at unseen questions for another hundred more)
DO NOT USE PRACTICE SCORES TO DECIDE WHAT YOU WILL GET. I took the qvault and got 20’s across the bored for the sciences and around 22’s on Bootcamp instead of thinking that’s what I was going to get I decided to use them as learning tools, not predictors and I ended up doing much better in every section.
On the other hand I got around 28-30 on sciences for the 2007 and 2009 DAT tests. And I got less. The point is, if you are getting 15’s on practice tests that’s not a great sign and if you are getting 30’s you will do well. But the difference between a 19 and a 25 are such few questions that no practice will tell you what you will get. Just use each one to prepare for your tests.
I don’t necessarily think I got a “hard” test, I just didn’t focus in certain areas as much as I thought they would show up. The tools where there though. Don’t over focus on anything. And put equal time into everything and you will kill it.
And one last time for me to stand on the soap box.
SDN scores are not a real representation of the scores people are getting. There have been some awesome scores on here recently. But the reality is that most schools have averages between 19-21. Which obviously means that half of the dental students roughly are falling below that. The point is, don’t beat yourself up because Feralis set a new record. Because you only need one school to like you as a whole (not on one score) for you to be a dentist.
Plus lets face it, SDN members get high scores because they read someones break down that said Destroyer and Bootcamp are awesome and they use it themselves and get a high score. Believe it or not, most people probably don’t use these. Ive met countless people who are taking Kaplan courses and have never heard of bootcamp or Destroyer. The people here make their own schedules and self study, and that’s what will set them apart.
Overall though, I’m glad to be done and I’m glad I came on this website because these breakdowns honestly made the difference for me
Ahh I hope this isn't is dumb question...what do you mean rocks for the PAT section?? Did you just mean they're extremely difficult or is that a term for something? 
