Need advice :(

[rkendal2]

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Hello SDN,

I have been studying extremely hard for approximately 2 months for my DAT.

My materials have been: Chads, Destroyer, Math Destroyer, DAT bootcamp, qvault bio and Cliffs.

I have yet to schedule my DAT due to nerves but was planning on scheduling to take the DAT around the first week of March. I felt adequately prepared until tonight.

I sat down and took the 2009 DAT. My scores are as follows:
Bio: 19
Chem: 17
OC: 17
QR: 16
PAT: 20

My oGPA, sGPA, and BCP are each 3.7+.

Does anybody have any advice for increasing my scores?

 

[Futuredentguy2015]

Take it first week of march.. your scores are pretty good, i'd say watch all of chad's videos the orgo and gen chem within two days on fast replay and spend a whole day doing all the questions.. and do ten pages of ferralis everyday..

 

[Futuredentguy2015]

oh and do all of chad's math quizzes- its like 350 problems so do 50 every night

 

[gnleff]

Go back and check which questions you got wrong. Practice those types of questions more so you don't make the same mistakes on the real test.

Also.. before you go back to studying you should take a break and relax for a day or two.

What I did is study a whole lot for a week, then take a break on the weekend. When the new week began I retook old practice questions that I already had done to see if I retained the knowledge from before. I started each day like this. Always look back your old practice questions.

The key to studying old practice questions is to not memorize what answer you put, but to find out and dissect the meaning of the question and finding out FULLY as to how the answer came to be.

With this knowledge, when I took the DAT there were MANY questions where I did not know the answer to, however when looking at the answers I could tell what the answers could NOT be.

Just remember, the DAT isn't just testing whether you know the answer or not. It's to see how well you can answer the questions, whether if its by just plain knowing it, or by critically thinking.

 

[customx]

Why not schedule the DAT for the middle of March? If you need to retake it, you can take it again the middle of June and still apply early. Your scores aren't bad, but you need to improve. You should be take every quiz on Chad's and memorize the Destroyer roadmaps. Try to get through all the questions from Destroyer, as painful as it is. There is a ton of helpful knowledge, and the more you review, the more you will learn. I firmly believe that anyone who goes through Destroyer once and takes great notes from Chad's (along with all the quizzes) should be able to score 20+ in both ochem and gchem.

 

[Soleus715]

Some of your scores are around the average DAT scores, which are also the minimum cut off scores for some schools. I wouldn't take the DAT until you believe you can get at least 20s. Your GPA is phenomenal, so I would have confidence and keep studying until you believe you can get really high scores. I mean, my GPA is a measly 3.1 and I got a 23, so you could definitely do it!

I think that practice tests are actually REALLY BAD at gauging where you're at. ADA 2007/2009 are better indicators but still not perfect.
I know some people that took 2009 and had scores lower AND higher than on the actual DAT (I got 26 on the 2009, but got 23 on the real deal).
I think this is just purely due to what kind of questions you end up getting on the real DAT.
People that can get 25+ could get screwed with questions they are weaker on and end up with a 20 and vice versa.

It's really tough to say how much more time you need though, because no one here knows how you study.
I would really evaluate your study methods so that you can maximize the time you spend.
Don't lose confidence from those scores, but just keep the focus on learning the material.
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Oh and more importantly, there's a little "secret" about the DAT which you probably noticed on the 2009 ADA. Almost ALL the questions are extremely straight forward giveaways for anyone that studied.

The score differences come from people that made little mistakes on those along with how well they did on the more difficult ~5-7 questions on each section.

A lot of the difficult questions from Bio were pretty much impossible to solve but GC and OC were definitely doable. Practice and practice until you can apply what you learned quickly and effectively. Good luck!