I took the DAT last month and here is my experience.
BIO 21
GCHEM 23
OCHEM 20
QR 17
RC 22
TS 22
AA 21
PAT 20
A little background on how I studied first.
I took the Kaplan online course (not the classroom one) and their online material was definitely helpful. It had tons of questions, workshops and plenty of full length practice tests (5 in total I believe). I studied this for maybe 2 months and the last month I concentrated solely on the DAT Destroyer. Sadly I did not intensify my studying until two weeks before my test. I did not feel the urge to study and the panic did not set in yet 👎. Since I am a biology major, I had enough background in genetics, molecular bio, biochemistry, human physiology, cell biology, general chem, organic chem and lastly ecology.
BIO: Bio is something thats a crap shoot. It is impossible to study the whole thing for bio. I just did as many practice problems possible and memorized the classification stuff. Such as the commonly tested ones and what they were. I was lucky enough to have some questions I encountered during my undergraduate career. I prayed for the best and got the best I guess. DAT Destroyer had tons more questions but don't worry if you get the first question right. I seriously went WHAT THE HECK IS MEGAKARYOCYTES!? But I did decent in the end. So, don't be scared by some peculiar questions. Even on the real test there were some words I've never heard before.
GCHEM: So I took general chem freshmen year and forgot everything I've learned. Kaplan didn't help me too much here. What I learned in gchem came from DAT Destroyer. I understood thermodynamics which is super important. General ideas such as Ka, Kb, pKa, pH is very very important. You need to know how to use the equations.
OCHEM: Same thing with gchem. But I had a head start because I still remembered the basics and underyling concepts. The only thing I truly forgot where those crazy equations where you learn it towards the end of the 2nd semester. Again DAT Destroyer enforced those equations by having plenty of problems regarding that and there were some roadmaps to put all of them together.
QR: Man this sucked. I scored between 20-23 with the Kaplan tests but I don't think I was able to pace myself. I still had 10 questions to go with 1 minute to go. Naturally I put all B's. However I did hear from a source that the average QR score this year is lower by 2 so there you go. I do not know how reliable this is so take it with a grain of salt. I have hope!
RC: Kaplan told me to basically jot notes down for each paragraph but I did not do this. I did what I felt comfortable, so should you. I basically read the test and answered the questions. The questions are in order and corresponds to the passage.
PAT: Kaplan's PAT minus the angle ranking is very similar to the real thing. Angle ranking seems to want you to differentiate angles that are 3 degrees apart. Pretty crazy I know.
So a bit of advice. BIO, GCHEM, OCHEM consists of 100 questions. You can do skip around all 100 sections and will be able to go back. One last bit of advice I want to give to you guys is that you will never feel like you are ready for the real test. There is just way too much material to cover. BUT! Couple days before the real thing, you will all of a sudden feel relieved. So do not worry if you are panicking the whole way through.
Good luck to everyone.
BIO 21
GCHEM 23
OCHEM 20
QR 17
RC 22
TS 22
AA 21
PAT 20
A little background on how I studied first.
I took the Kaplan online course (not the classroom one) and their online material was definitely helpful. It had tons of questions, workshops and plenty of full length practice tests (5 in total I believe). I studied this for maybe 2 months and the last month I concentrated solely on the DAT Destroyer. Sadly I did not intensify my studying until two weeks before my test. I did not feel the urge to study and the panic did not set in yet 👎. Since I am a biology major, I had enough background in genetics, molecular bio, biochemistry, human physiology, cell biology, general chem, organic chem and lastly ecology.
BIO: Bio is something thats a crap shoot. It is impossible to study the whole thing for bio. I just did as many practice problems possible and memorized the classification stuff. Such as the commonly tested ones and what they were. I was lucky enough to have some questions I encountered during my undergraduate career. I prayed for the best and got the best I guess. DAT Destroyer had tons more questions but don't worry if you get the first question right. I seriously went WHAT THE HECK IS MEGAKARYOCYTES!? But I did decent in the end. So, don't be scared by some peculiar questions. Even on the real test there were some words I've never heard before.
GCHEM: So I took general chem freshmen year and forgot everything I've learned. Kaplan didn't help me too much here. What I learned in gchem came from DAT Destroyer. I understood thermodynamics which is super important. General ideas such as Ka, Kb, pKa, pH is very very important. You need to know how to use the equations.
OCHEM: Same thing with gchem. But I had a head start because I still remembered the basics and underyling concepts. The only thing I truly forgot where those crazy equations where you learn it towards the end of the 2nd semester. Again DAT Destroyer enforced those equations by having plenty of problems regarding that and there were some roadmaps to put all of them together.
QR: Man this sucked. I scored between 20-23 with the Kaplan tests but I don't think I was able to pace myself. I still had 10 questions to go with 1 minute to go. Naturally I put all B's. However I did hear from a source that the average QR score this year is lower by 2 so there you go. I do not know how reliable this is so take it with a grain of salt. I have hope!
RC: Kaplan told me to basically jot notes down for each paragraph but I did not do this. I did what I felt comfortable, so should you. I basically read the test and answered the questions. The questions are in order and corresponds to the passage.
PAT: Kaplan's PAT minus the angle ranking is very similar to the real thing. Angle ranking seems to want you to differentiate angles that are 3 degrees apart. Pretty crazy I know.
So a bit of advice. BIO, GCHEM, OCHEM consists of 100 questions. You can do skip around all 100 sections and will be able to go back. One last bit of advice I want to give to you guys is that you will never feel like you are ready for the real test. There is just way too much material to cover. BUT! Couple days before the real thing, you will all of a sudden feel relieved. So do not worry if you are panicking the whole way through.
Good luck to everyone.
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