I recently retook my DAT and am happy, but not thrilled with the results. (At least I didn't score lower like I was afraid of! And I'm really hoping I will be competitive enough for some CA schools). I'm not going to give reviews about study material because plenty before me have already done that. But I figured I should pass on some wisdom from my experiences.
7/28/14 (1/23/14) change
AA . . . . . 21 . . . . . . .19 . . . . . . +2 👍
PAT . . . . 23 . . . . . . 22 . . . . . . +1
TS . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . +2 👍
OCh . . . . 22 . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . +5
Bio . . . . . 23 . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . +0
GCh . . . . 19 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . +0
QR . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . +4 😱
RC . . . . . .22 . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . +1 👍
(Background: Graduated with double Bio and Psychology last May. All of these DAT shenanigans happened while I was out of school, living on my own, and working).
First of all, my BIGGEST MISTAKE for the first test taking was scheduling. This is something I recommend to everyone: DONT REGISTER FOR YOUR TEST UNTIL YOU ARE READY. It's a huge waste of money if you sign up when you aren't ready. [I couldnt bring myself to study, so to motivate myself, I signed up for the Kaplan on site course, I registered for my Dentpin, I built myself a study schedule, and I scheduled my exam for November. Well, life happens... so I ended up making a big move and taking on a new job. With all that, my plans to study just didn't happen, and I was faced with the choice to take my DAT before my registration expired, and before I felt I had studied enough.]
My first time test materials: Kaplan On-Site, DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Chad's Videos, Crack DAT PAT, AP Bio CliffsNotes. My general plan was to... Take Kaplan, spend a month reviewing material, spend a month doing practice problems (basically follow dentalWorks 8 week plan). That didn't work...
I realistically only half committed to Kaplan. I was working full time and never completed the assignments on time. [If you do decide to go with Kaplan, you need to to commit to it from day one and keep with the schedule. Otherwise it's a waste of your money and I honestly don't know how much value there is in their content, especially compared to Chad's videos.] After the class, I made a big move, and started a new job. At this point, I had rescheduled my test and switched to Chad's videos. I spent a month watching all the videos on Chad's, taking notes directly on printouts of his outlines. I didn't have time to do any of his quizzes. The next month I tried doing Destroyer problems. I got through the first 100 problems or so in each section, but never touched Math Destroyer. I also did a couple of CRACK DAT PAT tests.
The actual test experience... Technical difficulties put me back 2 hours from my initial appointment. I marked half the problems in everything. I didnt even finish the math section. I felt miserable.
Second time: Focused on Chad's, DAT and Math Destroyer, and got myself TopScore. My plan, which I stuck to, was review Chad's, take his quizzes, do the Destroyer problems once over, take the TopScore Practice tests, and review destroyer problems I got wrong a second time.
THIS REALLY WORKED FOR ME because I was working full time..
This time, instead of doing a day by day schedule like dentalWorks did... I used that schedule as a skeleton to build a goal based schedule. For example, in the first month or two of studying, I set myself goals to watch x amount of Chad's videos. In addition, I took detailed notes on Chad's videos this second time around. At this point in my schedule, I switched to part time at work and focused on Destroyer and reviewing where I was weak. I assigned myself daily goals (ie. do x amount of destroyer problems) and weekly goals (take a practice test before the end of the week). I will say that two weeks leading up to my exam, I took off work completely. I wanted to I focus on studying and instead of spending my freetime working, I would spend that extra time hanging out with my friends and going to the gym (to maintain my sanity). In that two weeks, I caught up on Destroyer problems and did Top Score exams here and there. In the end I managed to do all Destroyer problems once over, twice over for the ones I got wrong, and the first half of Math Destroyer. I focused heavily on Chad's Chem/Ochem the entire time, I practiced applying Chad's shortcuts to Math destroyer, and I hardly even touch Bio or PAT. For me, this strategy kept things flexible and I wouldn't have to feel terrible about myself if I didn't specifically "read ch. 1-2 and do problems #1-100 on July 1st". And should I get behind, I just pushed the date out.
I definitely felt better going in the second time around. First of all, I WAITED TO SCHEDULE. There is some debate on this, but it takes only 2 days to get your Dentpin/application approved and centers are open 7 days a week. It's really easy to get a date you want. In these summer months though, it may be harder, but I easily scheduled 3 weeks out.
Like the first test, I felt like I was marking half the problems I came across in both sections. But this time I finished math! Honestly I am extremely disappointed in the fact my GChem score didn't change, as I did put more time into it the second time around. I felt like I really studied this time and was expecting bigger results... But the thing is... the DAT IS SO RANDOM. It really is luck of the draw with this thing. I memorized what felt like hundreds of Ochem reactions and Gchem equations... none of them came up. I actually got 3 questions testing one kind of problem that I didn't feel strong on, and I think that's why my gchem is so low. But whatever. Lesson learned: DONT FOREGO YOUR BASICS!
Also, don't deny yourself practice tests. That test is so long and it can be discouraging. Taking my practice tests the couple of weeks before my DAT really built up my stamina.
If you are interested in seeing some practice test trends...
Kaplan scores prior to my first test:
AA/PAT/Bio/GC/OC/TS/RC/QR
Diagnostic 11/17/17/14/13/15/1/10 (I got tired and fed up by the end and start answering randomly)
Full Length 16/21/18/13/14/15/19/18
One week from my July retake:
Full Length 17/24/15/16/15/15/17/20
Top Score
Bio/GC/OC/TS/PAT/RC/QR/AA
16/18/16/17/21/20/18/17 (two weeks prior to test)
17/18/17/18/21/20/18/18 (one week prior)
17/16/18/18/22/20/20/18
Wow thats a lot of stuff.. but for me, I was really worried about how indicative practice scores were to the real test, if I would score better, and how the crap I was supposed to study. So I hope this all helps someone somehow!!
7/28/14 (1/23/14) change
AA . . . . . 21 . . . . . . .19 . . . . . . +2 👍
PAT . . . . 23 . . . . . . 22 . . . . . . +1
TS . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . +2 👍
OCh . . . . 22 . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . +5
Bio . . . . . 23 . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . +0
GCh . . . . 19 . . . . . . 19 . . . . . . +0
QR . . . . . 21 . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . +4 😱
RC . . . . . .22 . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . +1 👍
(Background: Graduated with double Bio and Psychology last May. All of these DAT shenanigans happened while I was out of school, living on my own, and working).
First of all, my BIGGEST MISTAKE for the first test taking was scheduling. This is something I recommend to everyone: DONT REGISTER FOR YOUR TEST UNTIL YOU ARE READY. It's a huge waste of money if you sign up when you aren't ready. [I couldnt bring myself to study, so to motivate myself, I signed up for the Kaplan on site course, I registered for my Dentpin, I built myself a study schedule, and I scheduled my exam for November. Well, life happens... so I ended up making a big move and taking on a new job. With all that, my plans to study just didn't happen, and I was faced with the choice to take my DAT before my registration expired, and before I felt I had studied enough.]
My first time test materials: Kaplan On-Site, DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, Chad's Videos, Crack DAT PAT, AP Bio CliffsNotes. My general plan was to... Take Kaplan, spend a month reviewing material, spend a month doing practice problems (basically follow dentalWorks 8 week plan). That didn't work...
I realistically only half committed to Kaplan. I was working full time and never completed the assignments on time. [If you do decide to go with Kaplan, you need to to commit to it from day one and keep with the schedule. Otherwise it's a waste of your money and I honestly don't know how much value there is in their content, especially compared to Chad's videos.] After the class, I made a big move, and started a new job. At this point, I had rescheduled my test and switched to Chad's videos. I spent a month watching all the videos on Chad's, taking notes directly on printouts of his outlines. I didn't have time to do any of his quizzes. The next month I tried doing Destroyer problems. I got through the first 100 problems or so in each section, but never touched Math Destroyer. I also did a couple of CRACK DAT PAT tests.
The actual test experience... Technical difficulties put me back 2 hours from my initial appointment. I marked half the problems in everything. I didnt even finish the math section. I felt miserable.
Second time: Focused on Chad's, DAT and Math Destroyer, and got myself TopScore. My plan, which I stuck to, was review Chad's, take his quizzes, do the Destroyer problems once over, take the TopScore Practice tests, and review destroyer problems I got wrong a second time.
THIS REALLY WORKED FOR ME because I was working full time..
This time, instead of doing a day by day schedule like dentalWorks did... I used that schedule as a skeleton to build a goal based schedule. For example, in the first month or two of studying, I set myself goals to watch x amount of Chad's videos. In addition, I took detailed notes on Chad's videos this second time around. At this point in my schedule, I switched to part time at work and focused on Destroyer and reviewing where I was weak. I assigned myself daily goals (ie. do x amount of destroyer problems) and weekly goals (take a practice test before the end of the week). I will say that two weeks leading up to my exam, I took off work completely. I wanted to I focus on studying and instead of spending my freetime working, I would spend that extra time hanging out with my friends and going to the gym (to maintain my sanity). In that two weeks, I caught up on Destroyer problems and did Top Score exams here and there. In the end I managed to do all Destroyer problems once over, twice over for the ones I got wrong, and the first half of Math Destroyer. I focused heavily on Chad's Chem/Ochem the entire time, I practiced applying Chad's shortcuts to Math destroyer, and I hardly even touch Bio or PAT. For me, this strategy kept things flexible and I wouldn't have to feel terrible about myself if I didn't specifically "read ch. 1-2 and do problems #1-100 on July 1st". And should I get behind, I just pushed the date out.
I definitely felt better going in the second time around. First of all, I WAITED TO SCHEDULE. There is some debate on this, but it takes only 2 days to get your Dentpin/application approved and centers are open 7 days a week. It's really easy to get a date you want. In these summer months though, it may be harder, but I easily scheduled 3 weeks out.
Like the first test, I felt like I was marking half the problems I came across in both sections. But this time I finished math! Honestly I am extremely disappointed in the fact my GChem score didn't change, as I did put more time into it the second time around. I felt like I really studied this time and was expecting bigger results... But the thing is... the DAT IS SO RANDOM. It really is luck of the draw with this thing. I memorized what felt like hundreds of Ochem reactions and Gchem equations... none of them came up. I actually got 3 questions testing one kind of problem that I didn't feel strong on, and I think that's why my gchem is so low. But whatever. Lesson learned: DONT FOREGO YOUR BASICS!
Also, don't deny yourself practice tests. That test is so long and it can be discouraging. Taking my practice tests the couple of weeks before my DAT really built up my stamina.
If you are interested in seeing some practice test trends...
Kaplan scores prior to my first test:
AA/PAT/Bio/GC/OC/TS/RC/QR
Diagnostic 11/17/17/14/13/15/1/10 (I got tired and fed up by the end and start answering randomly)
Full Length 16/21/18/13/14/15/19/18
One week from my July retake:
Full Length 17/24/15/16/15/15/17/20
Top Score
Bio/GC/OC/TS/PAT/RC/QR/AA
16/18/16/17/21/20/18/17 (two weeks prior to test)
17/18/17/18/21/20/18/18 (one week prior)
17/16/18/18/22/20/20/18
Wow thats a lot of stuff.. but for me, I was really worried about how indicative practice scores were to the real test, if I would score better, and how the crap I was supposed to study. So I hope this all helps someone somehow!!
