Overwhelmed by DAT studying, any study plan advice?

[KateRP]

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Hi all! My husband and I are both non-trad students prepping to take the DAT in 6 weeks. We have been studying for about 2 weeks and I guess that we were both expecting the info to come back more quickly than it has and we are getting so overwhelmed with it all! Here is our situation. My husband is a reapplicant (applied 3 years ago and didn’t get it) since then he has been working at a great job as a clinical scientist in the bone marrow transplant division of the hospital and is about to finish his masters in cellular therapies. I originally went to med school after undergrad, and just finished my second year. I decided that I wasn’t happy with my decision or the path my career was headed down, and I decided that I would be more happy in the long run with a career in dentistry instead.
So anyways, I guess we just both thought that all of our schooling after college would be helpful and prepping for the DAT and it just isn’!! There is not a single thing on the DAT (besides some of the bio) that was even touched on in med school at all! And the gen chem and QR sections are mostly subjects I haven’t even seen since high school/freshman year of college.
So I guess what I am asking is just some advice for maybe where to start and how to organize our study schedule (esp. from non-trads who haven’t seen the info in awhile) Right now I am using the Kaplan book and destroyer, but was wondering what other resources would be helpful. Also I see a lot of people talking about Topscore, Acheiver, and Crack PAT and were just wondering what those are like? They are all computer programs right? Would my husband and I both be able to use them on one cpu, or would we have to buy two copies? Also, what is the best way to use the destroyer? I was expecting it to be more like a review book, so I was surprised when I got it and it was all practice questions. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[nze82]

Hi all! My husband and I are both non-trad students prepping to take the DAT in 6 weeks. We have been studying for about 2 weeks and I guess that we were both expecting the info to come back more quickly than it has and we are getting so overwhelmed with it all! Here is our situation. My husband is a reapplicant (applied 3 years ago and didn’t get it) since then he has been working at a great job as a clinical scientist in the bone marrow transplant division of the hospital and is about to finish his masters in cellular therapies. I originally went to med school after undergrad, and just finished my second year. I decided that I wasn’t happy with my decision or the path my career was headed down, and I decided that I would be more happy in the long run with a career in dentistry instead.
So anyways, I guess we just both thought that all of our schooling after college would be helpful and prepping for the DAT and it just isn’!! There is not a single thing on the DAT (besides some of the bio) that was even touched on in med school at all! And the gen chem and QR sections are mostly subjects I haven’t even seen since high school/freshman year of college.
So I guess what I am asking is just some advice for maybe where to start and how to organize our study schedule (esp. from non-trads who haven’t seen the info in awhile) Right now I am using the Kaplan book and destroyer, but was wondering what other resources would be helpful. Also I see a lot of people talking about Topscore, Acheiver, and Crack PAT and were just wondering what those are like? They are all computer programs right? Would my husband and I both be able to use them on one cpu, or would we have to buy two copies? Also, what is the best way to use the destroyer? I was expecting it to be more like a review book, so I was surprised when I got it and it was all practice questions. Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!

First of all, realize that it's absolutely normal to feel overwhelmed! Before anything else, remember one very important principle, if you want to come out of this test successful; YOU MUST KEEP YOUR COOL AT ALL TIMES!! This is extremely important, while preparing for the test and during the test as well. So, relax and remember there are many people out there, who are going through the same situation.

In terms of the study material you need...
Bio:
I would suggest reviewing KAPLAN to get a general idea of what concepts you need to know. If you feel like you want to learn the material more in depth, I suggest purchasing Cliff's AP Biology (You should be able to find it on amazon.com for around 11$). After reviewing these material, move on to Destroyer and do their bio section. Keep in mind that some of the questions in destroyer involve topics that are not discussed in either KAPLAN's book or cliff's. If you have difficulty with such topics after reading the explanation provided in destroyer, just google the topic.

G-chem:
Since you've probably forgotten many of the topics, I suggest you start reading all 12 chapters in KAPLAN just to refresh your memory about some of the general ideas and concepts. After that, hit destroyer and do ALL of the problems. It is important to realize that simply solving the problems once is not sufficient. Do the problems over and over again. I can assure you there's a logic behind the madness. By doing the problems few times you're constantly reviewing the important topics plus you learn some of the tricks and shortcuts that allow you to do the calculations without wasting too much time. Remember, G-chem is like math. So, the best way to learn it is doing problems.

O-chem:
Personally, when I took my exam, the O-chem section was mostly comprised of reactions. KAPLAN tends to focus more on concepts; whereas, destroyer is more reaction-oriented. To do well, you need to know both the concepts and the reactions. Memorize the general scheme of as many reactions as possible (Don't worry too much about those detailed mechanisms).

PAT:
I think CDP is a great software. It provides you with many sample questions, and it gives you your score for every test you take. You can also keep a summary of your scores and see your improvement over time. You don't need two copies of the software. As long as you and your hubby are using the same computer, you can purchase one copy of the software and share it.

QR:
I personally hate this section, because it's not about how well you know math; it's about how fast you can do problems. Time management is crucial in this section. So, I suggest you do lots and lots of problems. I think KAPLAN does a decent job preparing you for this section.

RC:
Well, I guess you just need to be a fast reader to score well in this section. Look at some of the posts about two possible strategies you can use for RC:
a) KAPLAN's strategy
b) Seek and destroy (I personally like this one better)

TopScore and Achiever are also computer programs, which you can purchase and install on your computer. They each provide you with three additional full length exams, in case you feel you need more practice, after completing KAPLAN's full length exams. I really liked TopScore. Achiever is MUCH harder than the real test. So, unless you absolutely want to use it, I don't think it's worth 50$. You end up feeling like you don't know anything after taking their tests.

Hope this helped.

Best of luck to both of you guys!👍

 

[achytooth]

I agree w/nze82's comments.

It took me a little over a month to study with 1 really dedicated week where I took off from work.

I only used kaplan, but if you signed up for their classes they have an online question bank which I thought was infinitely helpful.

Bio, Kaplan felt like it was weak, I was shocked by questions on the test and thankfully I actually sat down and read all of the chapters instead of jumping in the practice exams to do questions. I never took bio in college (10 years ago) and I had to learn this.

GChem is just like nze82 said. I'd say get the pace on the test right for this =( ... I was sitting too long on too many questions that I made careless mistakes.

OChem- Kaplan is decent on the material. I had to learn all of Ochem having never taken it undergrad. But nze82 is completely right that the test is a mix of concepts and reactions. The review material on kaplan will definitely get you half of the way with a good concept section, and while the book does have reactions, there were two named reactions on the actual exam that I didn't even see between the online questions and the review book!

PAT- I thought Kaplan was fine and the question bank at Kaplan does a fantastic job. Except angle ranking.

QR- Kaplan does a fine job here, but you need to work on the strategy because if you get caught on a problem you have to know to move on. I was doing 25+ on the 7 kaplan tests I took, but only got an 18 on the real one since I got stuck on two of the problems. Ran out of time with 8 questions left. (Though, since I got an 18, I probably got the previous ones all right)

RC- I used both seek and destroy and kaplan's method. First read the question, then as you make your way through the passage, start recording "key words" in the particular paragraphs- because you're pressed for time you have to come up with alot of symbols. (ie acetylcholine, I would just write acC). Then when you get to the passage with your question, I would answer it and goto the next question to which I'll continue reading from where I left off. Because I was reading along the way if the next question was familiar I was able to pinpoint the paragraph in the question, plus for those tone questions I rocked all of them. I had 10 minutes left when I finished all of the paragraphs and scored a 25 on this section on the DATs.

Get a good pace, get a good nights rest, and definitely take that 15 minute break in between on the actual exam! My brain was completely drained when I got to the QR section.

 

[bennijai]

Everyone is right, it is normal to feel overwhelmed. I am also planning on taking my DATs in 6 weeks and feel that it might not be enough. But realistically we did it before and the material shouldn't be brand spanking new to a point where you spend hours on a few section. Take it one section at a time and eventually you will gain confidence.

Most of what everyone said here is great, I do want to add that for Orgo, destroyer helped greatly for me. As for Bio and Chem, Kaplan as foundation and use other supplementals. I used Shaum's for Bio and Chem but I feel that the read is actually more than what the DAT will test for but better to be over prepared than under.

The real DAT will fall between Topscore and Achiever, so it is up to you to decide on which is right for you. I personally used Topscore, I do not need my confidence to be shot if you know what I mean.

 

[nze82]

Here's one of my posts about how the "seek and destroy" method actually works. Check it out:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=8219486#post8219486