Questions about Destroyer and DAT

[MrKrebsCycle]

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im new here on the board, but I'd figure to finally post to get some advice

1.) After looking on a good number on posts/threads. I have heard the following is good material for each subject

General Chemistry - Destroyer, Chad (I heard he does wonders)
Organic Chemistry - Destroyer, Chad
Biology - Kaplan Book, AP Barron's, AP Cliff's, Destroyer, (is Campbell really necessary?)
PAT - CrackdatPAT
RC - reading health care magazines (at least for me)
Math - not sure what to get here, since i did well in high school math but had a difficult time with SAT math (tricky problems are my achilles heel), and I heard DAT math is similar to SAT math

2.) I have the 2012 Destroyer DAT and I found many questions beyond the scope of my understanding. However, these two questions on the Organic Chemistry section #250 and #251 concerned me. If anybody has this version and can let me know how they felt about these type of questions. Does anybody know if these type of questions are asked on the actual DAT

3.) Is taking the DAT on June 30th too late. I have started studying about beginning of April but really took my studies seriously about last week. I dont want to take the too early that I dont get a good score but at the same time I dont want to take the test too late that literally a 26 doesnt mean anything (those people with a 25 or higher should get a full ride scholarship btw)

4.) On the Destroyer Biology Section Question #3, have people seen biotech type questions asked on the actual DAT.

5.) For biology on the actual DAT, is it just more breadth than depth? Biology is a huge subject and I am not sure if I can cover all of it within the next 8 weeks and be confident going in

6.) last question, some people have recommended using Campbell's for studying but with more than 1000+ pages to cover, is it just better to focus on OC/GC to boost up my TS score

I apologize for the long post, I am historically not a good standardized test taker, but I definitely would be open to suggestions to do well. Hopefully 8 weeks is sufficient for me (I have no job and I am only taking one physics class over the summer, professor says it requires 10 hours per week to do well in the class)

 

[Slumber]

im new here on the board, but I'd figure to finally post to get some advice

1.) After looking on a good number on posts/threads. I have heard the following is good material for each subject

General Chemistry - Destroyer, Chad (I heard he does wonders)
Organic Chemistry - Destroyer, Chad
Biology - Kaplan Book, AP Barron's, AP Cliff's, Destroyer, (is Campbell really necessary?)
PAT - CrackdatPAT
RC - reading health care magazines (at least for me)
Math - not sure what to get here, since i did well in high school math but had a difficult time with SAT math (tricky problems are my achilles heel), and I heard DAT math is similar to SAT math

2.) I have the 2012 Destroyer DAT and I found many questions beyond the scope of my understanding. However, these two questions on the Organic Chemistry section #250 and #251 concerned me. If anybody has this version and can let me know how they felt about these type of questions. Does anybody know if these type of questions are asked on the actual DAT

3.) Is taking the DAT on June 30th too late. I have started studying about beginning of April but really took my studies seriously about last week. I dont want to take the too early that I dont get a good score but at the same time I dont want to take the test too late that literally a 26 doesnt mean anything (those people with a 25 or higher should get a full ride scholarship btw)

4.) On the Destroyer Biology Section Question #3, have people seen biotech type questions asked on the actual DAT.

5.) For biology on the actual DAT, is it just more breadth than depth? Biology is a huge subject and I am not sure if I can cover all of it within the next 8 weeks and be confident going in

6.) last question, some people have recommended using Campbell's for studying but with more than 1000+ pages to cover, is it just better to focus on OC/GC to boost up my TS score

I apologize for the long post, I am historically not a good standardized test taker, but I definitely would be open to suggestions to do well. Hopefully 8 weeks is sufficient for me (I have no job and I am only taking one physics class over the summer, professor says it requires 10 hours per week to do well in the class)

for 2) Destroyer OC Q#250 want you to identify the ketal group, aka acetal aka diether linkage.

Q#251, recall aldol requires a strong base to deprotonate the most acidic/most accessible alpha hydrogen, creating an enolate intermediate. The enolate can tautomerize and switch between choice B & C.

I think these two questions are quite easy. I saw similar questions showing up in topscore and other practice exams. They're quite fair and doesn't require much thinking. Just practice a lot of problems and they'll eventually click!

 

[MrKrebsCycle]

thanks for the advice Slumber. for the PAT would you recommend getting DAT Achiever or CDP (I am on a tight budget so it seems very unlikely that I can get both)?

 

[IsaacYankem]

thanks for the advice Slumber. for the PAT would you recommend getting DAT Achiever or CDP (I am on a tight budget so it seems very unlikely that I can get both)?

With a tight budget, I'd go Crack PAT 10 test. Gives you more exposure IMO.

 

[Dotoday]

Yes. You must know the difference between hemiacetal and acetal. You need to know Aldol, Michael and conjugated carbonyl reactions.

For the bio. There are definitly questions about Gel electrophoresis, cloning and other biotech techniques. Not too detailed. Just, general overview. Destroyer, Cliffs and Schaums outlines cover it.

Good luck.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[Josh4UCLA]

Hopefully if I answer your question, I'll get good karma and someone will answer mine lol. Even though I strongly believe Crack PAT is the best for the PAT I am still struggling with the Top/Front/End! Please help!!!! Now to answer your question:

Long Story Short:
PAT: Crack DAT PAT-(Must Have)
PAT Kaplan-(Only if you need more practice)
Reading: Crack DAT Reading- (Must Have)
Reading:Top Score(Only if you need more Practice)
BIo: Cliff's AP>Destroyer> Kaplan- (Highly Recommended)
Math: Math Destroyer>Chad's-(Not 100% sure, IMO Highly Recommend it)
Gen Chem and Ochem: Chad's and Destroyer ( Must Have, only criticism is that it doesn't have a periodic table, WTF? which can be really annoying unless you staple it on to your book, which I ended up finally doing.)

All my friends are doing dentistry so I'm pretty lucky to have a wide variety of opinions that I can trust. This is my first post on SDN, thought I can give you my opinion on things. I'm pretty much in the same shoes as you, I'll be taking my DAT somewhere around early June. I think the hardest part of studying for the DAT so far was choosing the right materials to study from. I chose what was good by asking my friends that were pretty stupid how they did so well on the DAT. I started off using Crack DAT for sciences because I was too scared to attempt the PAT. If I can guarantee one thing it would be that Crack DAT is horrible for sciences. I bought the whole package a long time ago and I really regret it. In my opinion, Crack DAT PAT is a must have. I don't know one person who took their DAT without purchasing it. And almost all my friends recommended it. Secondly Crack DAT Reading section is also a must have in my opinion. I think Top Score was also a good way to practice the reading section of the DAT, and a decent practice for the PAT. I'm not that great at PAT yet so I didn't even try to attempt achiever, I think my confidence is already pretty low on that section as it is lol. Kaplan had some good PAT questions also. Moving on, for Math I just used Chad's Videos and bought the Math Destroyer. I must say that **** is hard. I've always been good at math. I placed in college Calculus when I was 15, and even for me that was hard. I wasn't even going to study for the math section, but my friend who is even better than me at math got crushed on that section. I think the math destroyer might be a little more difficult than the actual test, from what I've heard Learn how to do the problems and use it for what it is good for. Honestly I only used that book so I can't comment on anything else. I also haven't studied a lot for that section so I'm not 100% sure. My friend said the second time he took his DAT he used Chad to refresh his math and then used the destroyer to see if he understood. it. Moving on to biology, all my friends said they saw a lot of random questions about bio that they never even heard about in their general biology classes. This is the section I am most scared about. I would recommend Cliffs AP and Kaplan for this section. I tried listening to Audio Osmosis, that was the biggest waste of my time. I hated it, I didn't learn one thing from it. Lastly the Destroyer had a bunch of bio questions. I've read that some people say to only study from the destroyer for Bio, but that's BS in my opinion. The Destroyer doesn't have the structure you need to study for Bio, I do agree it has a good range of questions that you should do after you learn bio using Cliffs and Kaplan. Crack DAT, was garbage for the sciences, to be brutally honest. I found mistakes left and right on the sciences. Lastly for both Gen Chem and O-chem, Crack DAT is a waste of time and is completely useless. I remember watching one video explanation on naming and the girl in the video was completely teaching the question wrong. The right answer wasn't even in the answer choices. WTF? I want a refund! For both Gen Chem and Ochem I used Chad's videos and the destroyer. I love both for these sections. Again the destroyer was harder than most questions I was exposed to, but I was horrible at ochem until I did it. Top Score wasn't too great for the sciences I probably wouldn't even buy it.

2) That was just my opinion on books to use. Now to try to answer your other questions. I wish I could tell you from first hand experience but I haven't taken my DAT yet. My friends have told me the biology can range from absolutely anything. They said it was the weirdest biology questions they have ever seen in their lives. I don't have that version of the Destroyer sorry.

3) Personally I don't think June 30th is late at all. Most of my friends took it last year in late July and most of them got accepted to Dental School.

4) I'm not surprised if Biotech is on the DAT :/ but the thought of these types of questions actually showing up on my own DAT scared the hell out of me. I was never amazing at Bio.

5) I only have a month to study for bio, I have barely studied for that section. I'm Just going to skim cliffs and do the destroyer and pray for the best lol

6) I have Cambells, we used it in college as our textbook. Do Not attempt to study from Cambells unless you have a year to study solely for bio lol.

PLEASE if anyone can give me advice on Top Front End I would greatly appreciate it. The only way I can get questions right on that is by using line counting and I heard it doesn't work for most questions on the actual DAT.

Hope this helped. I'll be posting my DAT scores when I finally take it.