Rate my DAT Study Schedule. Advice Welcome!

[IdleKoala]

Hello all,

I am new to this forum as of last night, and let me tell you, this forum has already been an invaluable resource to me! The community on here seems to be amazing and super motivated! Very inspiring, but also intimidating! I wish the best to all of us and hope that we can encourage each other and help one another long on this amazing journey!

I've been racking my brain over the last few days trying to plan and schedule my DAT studying. I am applying next summer (2018) and have been trying to figure out the most effective way to go about tackling this behemoth of a task. So I was hoping that I could run my intended study schedule by you geniuses on here and see if you all have any constructive criticism or even just any ideas I haven't thought of. Thanks!

So first off, I will begin with when I intend to take the DAT. As of right now I am planning on taking the exam in mid to late February of 2018. The reasoning for this is as follows:
1: it provides me with the ability to utilize all of my Christmas Break to study and relearn a lot of the material I have forgotten.
2: it gives me the needed flexibility to retake the exam before applications open just in case the first one ends up being a catastrophe (This is not an excuse to not study as hard for the first one, it is honestly just me wanting to take all necessary precautions).

Secondly, I will discuss my actual study plan. My study plan as of right now is as follows:
1). Start practicing PAT drills everyday and reading at least one medical journal a day.
I believe that if I start doing this now, around 7 months before I need to take the exam, that I will be prepared to do well on the PAT and RC sections of the exam. Plus if I develop the habit now during the summer when I have more free time, it will help me stick to it this fall when I am taking a full load of classes.

2). During the fall semester I plan on buying and studying Cliff's AP Biology, Kaplan Blue Book (maybe not, is there a better option out there? I've heard mixed reviews), Feralis Biology Notes, and possibly Chads videos. (Any recommendations welcome).
I will be studying this material in my spare time along with my normal course work. My thinking is that the sooner I start studying the more competent I will be in the material and the less stressed I will be in the weeks leading up to the exam.

So my plan for this fall semester is to just lightly study the sciences all while working on my PAT skills, complying my own notes, improving my RC and maybe a little bit of QR thrown in for good measure. All just a basic review, not diving in too deep.

3). Christmas Break. This is when things get real. I plan on using Ari's 10 Week DAT Study Schedule along with all the recommended Materials (DAT BC, Destroyer etc.). If I am planning on taking the exam in Mid to late February, then I need to begin the 10 Week course sometime in the first half of December.
Since the first 5 weeks are simply an in depth review of all of the science, i'm hoping that I will be fairly competent with the material at this point in time, especially if I spend as much studying this fall as I plan too. Then during the next 5 weeks leading up to the exam I will still be following the study guide, taking the exams and quizzes, and reviewing all questions and making sure I understand them completely. Hopefully my spring semester will not be too difficult and allow me amply time to study.

4). Take the exam and see if my hard work payed off.

I hope this hasn't been too long of a read and somebody has made it this far, and if so, thank you!

So now I have some questions for you geniuses:

What do you think of this Schedule?
Any improvements you can think of? Any weak points?
Any courses you recommend? Any you don't?

And finally I would like to say thank you one last time if you've made it this far! Please feel free to reply with advice and/or start a discussion in the comments. Thanks again!

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[ppaa]

There is a online copy of cliff's, if you want a hard copy i think everyone has said it needs to be the 3rd edition.
Idk if you really need to start PAT and reading 7 months in advance, but if you really think its best for you then i think you should do it. I feel that with the DAT you need to be mentally prepared so you gotta do what you gotta do to be in that place.
The only issue i see here is will you be taking classes/doing something full time during the last 10 weeks of your studying? I studied on avg 8 hours a day and theres no way I could've done that while doing 15 credits worth of classes. So maybe you need to rethink the timing, again this is just what I think. I know someone that had studied 4 weeks (winter break) and got a 22.
I found that I was forgetting information I learned in the beginning (I studied for about 2.5 months) so if you are going to drag this out to 9 or something months you need to make sure you keep going over the information so you don't forget!

 

[JLT223]

reading at least one medical journal a day.

Not necessary whatsoever. If English is your first language you should have no problem at all with this section if you do some practice exams. Maybe read some Scientific American articles while in the restroom or something if you feel the urge. The DAT reading comprehension isn't structured like a medical journal but more like a lengthy article from a magazine. Also, don't use the Kaplan blue book. Useless. PM me with any questions.

 

[IdleKoala]

The only issue i see here is will you be taking classes/doing something full time during the last 10 weeks of your studying? I studied on avg 8 hours a day and theres no way I could've done that while doing 15 credits worth of classes.

Thats why I was planning to begin studying as early as possible. So that during that last few weeks I can focus mostly on practice problems. Do you suggest any other possible time lines? The only other one I could think would be to only study for a couple weeks and take the exam at the end of winter break or the first part of June next year.

 

[ppaa]

Thats why I was planning to begin studying as early as possible. So that during that last few weeks I can focus mostly on practice problems. Do you suggest any other possible time lines? The only other one I could think would be to only study for a couple weeks and take the exam at the end of winter break or the first part of June next year.

I def feel like math and PAT is something you can start off early, but 5+ months earlier might be too much. What's your major and what are your grades in your science classes? I feel like if you have a strong science background this timeline might be able to work.

 

[IdleKoala]

I def feel like math and PAT is something you can start off early, but 5+ months earlier might be too much. What's your major and what are your grades in your science classes? I feel like if you have a strong science background this timeline might be able to work.

I'm a Biological Sciences major with a 3.94 GPA. The reason I've been nervous about the the DAT is because I dual enrolled in high school and ended up taking a ton of classes super early. So it has been over two years since I took GC and over a year since I took OC. So I've pretty much been immersed in biology for the last year. I feel as if I barely remember any of my chemistry, which is why I wanna start early.

 

[ppaa]

I'm a Biological Sciences major with a 3.94 GPA. The reason I've been nervous about the the DAT is because I dual enrolled in high school and ended up taking a ton of classes super early. So it has been over two years since I took GC and over a year since I took OC. So I've pretty much been immersed in biology for the last year. I feel as if I barely remember any of my chemistry, which is why I wanna start early.

So I was in the same boat as you. I had to go over everything again and bio wasn't my strong suit.
I would recommend starting math early and PAT. You can start math 2-3 months earlier, doing 1 destroyer test a week/watching videos for sections you don't feel great with. The thing with PAT is, if you use BC there is a 3 month subscription, so if u start studying for PAT 3+ months earlier than ur DAT, u might have to buy CrackPAT (i think that is a lifetime thing, not sure i didn't use it)

I guess you could do the sciences during ur winter break, learn everything ur first week (chem + ochem) start destroyer as soon as u finish learning chem + ochem. I recommend doing destroyer 2x. Bio takes a lot more time to learn, i would recommend doing 1 chapter a day and do the feralis that matches up with it. I feel that all this could easily take up to a month but you def would have the info down. Then work your way through BC and finish everything...then you would be good to go!

Studying for the DAT is tough, you lose motivation, you have to take breaks, I didn't plan on having to take days off but I needed to. But in the end I was super happy w my score and did better than i thought i would so make sure you give urself the time u need and give it ur all.

 

[IdleKoala]

So I was in the same boat as you. I had to go over everything again and bio wasn't my strong suit.
I would recommend starting math early and PAT. You can start math 2-3 months earlier, doing 1 destroyer test a week/watching videos for sections you don't feel great with. The thing with PAT is, if you use BC there is a 3 month subscription, so if u start studying for PAT 3+ months earlier than ur DAT, u might have to buy CrackPAT (i think that is a lifetime thing, not sure i didn't use it).

Sounds like a good way to approach things. Another thing that might work to my benefit is that since I dual enrolled, I was already on track to graduate a semester early. So I could schedule my spring semester of next year to be super light in order to give the most study time possible. I will have to discuss this with my adviser first.