I haven't taken the DAT yet, as mine is scheduled for May; however, the general consensus seems to be that search and destroy is the best method for passages without a lot of tone questions. As to passages with a lot of tone questions, such as bioethics (the FRAP test), I'm not too sure what the best method would be, as those types of passages require that you actually be a good reader. If Kaplan suggests the key method, I would think it would be good for tone passages, but definitely a waste of time for passages that have a lot of answers that you can find right in the passage via search and destroy.