Guess I'll just save money for university classes, unless I can get into some programs that has what crew is talking about.
What were your study schedules?
Congrats btw
Thanks!
My schedule was kind of...messy, so this might be messy to write out. I put into about 5 weeks of studying.
My materials were: kbb, destroyer, mcat examcrackers (this i don't recommend unless a friend lets you borrow, which was what happened in my case)
I don't remember my day-to-day schedule. This is roughly how my schedule went week-by-week:
1st week: I read kbb bio section. Jotted down section I felt weak in, but did not write any other notes. Didn't study those sections yet. Instead, I did the PAT section to see where I was at. I did not time myself. I just wanted to know how it worked. I studied the weak bio sections from textbook. Took the bio portion of the kbb practice test in back of the book. Any question I did not know at all or how to make a guess, I left blank. After I finished, I read sections in my textbook to help me answer the blank questions. I felt that if I checked my answers, I would cheat myself by thinking "oh yeah, that makes sense now" or "i remember now" when in actuality, I'll forget it easily because I was given the answer. Read mcat examcrackers bio as a review.
I averaged around 6 hours a day.
2nd week: I read kbb chem section. Jotted down what I should review. Read kbb ochem section. Make sure you understand sn1, sn2, e1, e2 reactions... I feel that this is very important. Used my ochem textbook.
I averaged around 6 hours day, with 2 days off. Ochem had burnt me out. I studied this subject the most that I wanted to get the highest score for this section. I made it my goal to aim for 25 on ochem. Talk about being cocky! It ended up being my lowest score lol.
3rd week: More ochem. Destroyer arrived! Went through about 100 ochem problems. Focused on my weakness. Copied the road maps in pen, leaving the products blank for me to fill in with pencil. Filled in one before or after a break, to give myself a sense of accomplishment or get myself back into study mode. Erased and left blank for another day. Made sure I filled in a minimum of 2 each day during this week. Returned to chem. Used textbook. I used some of the chapter review questions to get the basics down. Did kkb practice test for chem. Same technique as bio. Reviewed chem in mcat examcracker.
Some one told me that Kaplan PAT is just way too easy compared to the real DAT.
I tried to modified the kbb PAT to get my brain thinking. So when I took the kbb practice PAT, I gave myself only 45mins rather than 60. Went back to the kbb PAT review section. I tried to imagine what the keyholes look like from different angles, making answers that were not listed. For TFE, I went through the wrong answers and point out parts that were wrong and how the object would have to look like. For angles, I just thought "argh, I'll take the hit on this one." Later, I practiced with the ADA sample test. I printed 2 pages on one paper, so the angles were pretty tricky due to the size. (I wasn't confident on any angle questions on the real test). For hole punching, I thought that that wouldn't be so bad. I just practiced this section with a shorter time limit. Cube sides were pretty easy, if you use kbb's strategy of tallying the cubes. For paper folding, I actually traced a couple of the harder shapes and cut them out, which turned out to be very tiny! I folded them, rotated, unfolded, and partial folded to create this motion object in my head. It's kind of hard to explain.
Averaged about 8 hours a day. 1 day off.
4th week: Did 100 bio question in Destroyer. This time I did check my answers instead of going to hunt for them because I felt pressured with time. I wrote any answers that I was pretty much clueless on down on paper as many of the answers that destroyer gives are pretty detailed. Read them before I went to sleep. Scanned through kbb QR to get the gist of things. Didn't read it like the science sections. Did kbb practice qr test. Mostly worked out of the destroyer. Attempted a destroyer math practice test every other day. Never finished on time. I gave up on timing and made sure I knew how to start on the problem right after I finish reading. I practiced until I didn't not have many pauses for each problem. Did about 50 chem problems. Check answers. Re-did ochem problems from destroyer that I did last week to make sure I didn't forget what I had learned. Did kbb computerized practice test. Reviewed answers with textbooks.
Averaged 8-10 hours a day. Both unfortunately and fortunately, my hours at work got cut and I was able to focus on studying more and prep my sleeping cycle for testing. I started to wake up around 5am and sleep around 10pm. A week from testing day, I went to the testing center to to gauge traffic and make sure I wouldn't get lost on testing day.
5th week: Did about 100 chem problems. Reviewed answers. Reviewed major ochem points. Did about 100 bio problems. Reviewed answers. Practiced QR. Reviewed answers. Did ADA sample test. I did not review answers yet. I read anything that I still felt weak on. Wrote down the answers to the ADA sample test again. Then checked both answer sets to see any improvement. Then reviewed answers. Lot of reviewing for the last few days. I could have continued with the rest of the destroyer as I have not went through the whole thing, but I thought it was better to just review. I think I ended up going over most of the destroyer chem section, and at least over half of ochem and bio sections and qr.
Averaged 10-12 hours a day. I requested this week off. Last day I did nothing, but review major points and went over qr. I had a nice dinner, watched tv, and had a heart-to-heart talk with my mom that had nothing to do with school or testing. My test was at 8am. I let myself sleep until 6, ate a simple breakfast (grits, sausage, and juice). I was used to waking up at 5 that I felt really refreshed getting an extra hour of sleep.
Oh, I didn't know I could bring food and water for break!
🙁 My tummy did a lot of grumbling and rumbling during rc section. Speaking of rc, I didn't practice it much except for the ADA sample test, so I kind of used a different technique for each passage.
1. Read all questions and write down keywords, then read the passage and keep note of where the answers are.
👎 (Would work better if you could have access to all questions at once)
2. Read entire passage. Then answer.
👎 (I did this on a weird passage -not sure if I can say what the topic was on-, so it was time consuming).
3. Read questions and search for answers. (Wasn't a bad method)
What I wish I have tried was to read half the passage. Then looking at questions, you would know which half to look in. And if the answer was in the read half, then you should be able to find it easier and leave some extra time for questions that involve the unread half. Let me know if someone decides to try that.
