Study Strategy Critique/Suggestions!!!

[kema]

Hello everyone, thanks for checking in. Here is a brief synopsis, I took the DAT last year and I did minimal studying meaning I only did practice questions and perused each topic before taking the actual exam. This was because I was stressed out from working 40+ hrs a week in a busy ER. With that I was able to pull off an average of about 17 in each section, I applied to Dental Schools got interviewed but waitlisted. So now I plan on retaking DAT this time I have approximately 2 months (free) to study. I plan on studying 16hrs/day focusing on one section at a time. So I will study sections in this EXACT order:

(1) Diagnostic Exam first then Study: QR>GChem>OChem>Biology>RC>PAT 16hrs/week day, review on Saturdays & Sundays all covered material during the week. I should be done studying all topics by a month and half then I will take practice exams from Top Score, and Kaplan individual tests then go through all problems in DAT Destroyer leading directly up to the exam. Question is, do you think this strategy will be sufficient? Should I focus on doing more than one topic at a time? Should I study less hrs per day? Please give me ANY critique and advise from your experience thank you.

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[TeamGuo]

16 hrs/day seems a little too extreme. But awesome motivation.

As long as you follow your plan you'll do fine on the DAT.

Good luck with studying!

 

[kema]

16 hrs/day seems a little too extreme. But awesome motivation.

As long as you follow your plan you'll do fine on the DAT.

Good luck with studying!

Yeah 16hrs sounds like OD (over doing) but my philosophy to studying is the exact same that I apply to muscle building. To gain more muscle and strength faster, I lift the heaviest weight or do the most strenuous excercise at one time. Then the next time you do it again it becomes easier and easier and you keep increasing in muscle and strength. So I applied this to studying, study so much that your brain can not retain anymore then rest and the next time your brain holding capacity would have expanded. Just my philosophy though. Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[reliefe123]

hey kema...are you a minority when you applied to ds last year??cause an interview with 17s across the board is kinda weird to get but hey!

 

[sl2obel2ts]

This is what my co-workers and I are doing. We also have 40 hrs a week full time schedule. We study after-work.

1. Sign up for practice DAT at Kaplan for free
2. Briefly review Kaplan blue book, finished the whole book in about a week.
3. Take Bluebook practice test
4. Read and memorize Schaum's outline intensively
- We bought all Schaum's bio, ochem and genchem
- I started Ochem first cuz I sucked, and bio then genchem
~ took about a month
5. Kaplan CD and other practice tests
6. Destroyer
7. Topscore and Acheiver

For me,
I got 17bi,17gc,14oc,27qr,17rc,18pat from kaplan free dat
At step 3, I got 18bi, 18gc, 17oc, 27qr, 17rc, 19pat
I just finished Schaum's outlines and took a practice test, I got 20bi, 22gc, 23oc, 27qr, 17rc, 22pat.

so it is definitely working for me. Time to look at Destroyer for final tuning



PS: I THINK SCHAUM's OCHEM IS THE BOMB, BIO was not that great as what others say. But OCHEM was CRAZZYYY

 

[doc3232]

Hello everyone, thanks for checking in. Here is a brief synopsis, I took the DAT last year and I did minimal studying meaning I only did practice questions and perused each topic before taking the actual exam. This was because I was stressed out from working 40+ hrs a week in a busy ER. With that I was able to pull off an average of about 17 in each section, I applied to Dental Schools got interviewed but waitlisted. So now I plan on retaking DAT this time I have approximately 2 months (free) to study. I plan on studying 16hrs/day focusing on one section at a time. So I will study sections in this EXACT order:

(1) Diagnostic Exam first then Study: QR>GChem>OChem>Biology>RC>PAT 16hrs/week day, review on Saturdays & Sundays all covered material during the week. I should be done studying all topics by a month and half then I will take practice exams from Top Score, and Kaplan individual tests then go through all problems in DAT Destroyer leading directly up to the exam. Question is, do you think this strategy will be sufficient? Should I focus on doing more than one topic at a time? Should I study less hrs per day? Please give me ANY critique and advise from your experience thank you.

That is a terrible idea. I know from experience that you will not be able to study a full 16 hours day. As others said, it is a good mindset though. I would say no more than 12 hours a day, any more and your just "tearing muscle."
As for your strat I would put QR on EVERY day, and never study it all at once.

GOOD LUCK

 

[kema]

This is what my co-workers and I are doing. We also have 40 hrs a week full time schedule. We study after-work.

1. Sign up for practice DAT at Kaplan for free
2. Briefly review Kaplan blue book, finished the whole book in about a week.
3. Take Bluebook practice test
4. Read and memorize Schaum's outline intensively
- We bought all Schaum's bio, ochem and genchem
- I started Ochem first cuz I sucked, and bio then genchem
~ took about a month
5. Kaplan CD and other practice tests
6. Destroyer
7. Topscore and Acheiver

For me,
I got 17bi,17gc,14oc,27qr,17rc,18pat from kaplan free dat
At step 3, I got 18bi, 18gc, 17oc, 27qr, 17rc, 19pat
I just finished Schaum's outlines and took a practice test, I got 20bi, 22gc, 23oc, 27qr, 17rc, 22pat.

so it is definitely working for me. Time to look at Destroyer for final tuning



PS: I THINK SCHAUM's OCHEM IS THE BOMB, BIO was not that great as what others say. But OCHEM was CRAZZYYY

Thats good man, its good when you have a team to study with, wish I did. Good strategy. But finishing the blue book in one week?? wow! Good Job. I think Im gonna take some pointers from your strat.

 

[kema]

That is a terrible idea. I know from experience that you will not be able to study a full 16 hours day. As others said, it is a good mindset though. I would say no more than 12 hours a day, any more and your just "tearing muscle."
As for your strat I would put QR on EVERY day, and never study it all at once.

GOOD LUCK

Thanks for the advice so you said 12hrs and incorporate QR everyday but not all at once? Question, I plan on studying one topic at a time i.e QR alone until I am satisfied then I will move on to the next ones, is it good to focus on one subject then finish it or should I look at bundling two topics together? I did a calculation, the Kaplan book is about 530 pages so I would need to read about 16-17 pages a day in order to finish the book within one month. So would it not be better to focus on each topic individually in that case? Thanks again

 

[doc3232]

I would suggest doing about 2-3 hours a day to train your brain to do them as fast as possible. As for topics, I would say just do anything in any order.
As long as you go over all the topics before test day, your set.

 

[kema]

I would suggest doing about 2-3 hours a day to train your brain to do them as fast as possible. As for topics, I would say just do anything in any order.
As long as you go over all the topics before test day, your set.

Thanks for all the help man, I appreciate it.

 

[dontwakeme]

Thanks for the advice so you said 12hrs and incorporate QR everyday but not all at once? Question, I plan on studying one topic at a time i.e QR alone until I am satisfied then I will move on to the next ones, is it good to focus on one subject then finish it or should I look at bundling two topics together? I did a calculation, the Kaplan book is about 530 pages so I would need to read about 16-17 pages a day in order to finish the book within one month. So would it not be better to focus on each topic individually in that case? Thanks again

Kaplan blue book is a ridiculously easy and basic read. It isn't difficult to get through one section (bio, ochem, chem) in one sitting, maybe even two if you're studying a lot. You won't need a whole month.

 

[doc3232]

Kaplan blue book is a ridiculously easy and basic read. It isn't difficult to get through one section (bio, ochem, chem) in one sitting, maybe even two if you're studying a lot. You won't need a whole month.

a month? I was thinking it would take 2 days.

 

[doc3232]

Thanks for the advice so you said 12hrs and incorporate QR everyday but not all at once? Question, I plan on studying one topic at a time i.e QR alone until I am satisfied then I will move on to the next ones, is it good to focus on one subject then finish it or should I look at bundling two topics together? I did a calculation, the Kaplan book is about 530 pages so I would need to read about 16-17 pages a day in order to finish the book within one month. So would it not be better to focus on each topic individually in that case? Thanks again

16 pages takes about 30 mins... you can do a lot more/

 

[classof2013]

16 pages takes about 30 mins... you can do a lot more/

16 pages takes 30 mins lol maybe for you but what if the poor guy is a slow reader? lol

 

[sl2obel2ts]

kaplan blue book too me like a week, 2 hrs everyday.

spent like 3 days on bio (err endocrinology... took me about a day), genchem took me literally 1 hour, I skipped through everything so easy. ochem took me like 3 days, i didnt know anything.


my friend gave me a MCAT biological science section book. This book is little bit more in depth than kaplan and less intense than shaum's but still 400 pages. I think this might be a good substitute for schaum's. Take a look at it.

 

[classof2013]

kaplan blue book too me like a week, 2 hrs everyday.

spent like 3 days on bio (err endocrinology... took me about a day), genchem took me literally 1 hour, I skipped through everything so easy. ochem took me like 3 days, i didnt know anything.


my friend gave me a MCAT biological science section book. This book is little bit more in depth than kaplan and less intense than shaum's but still 400 pages. I think this might be a good substitute for schaum's. Take a look at it.

Is this Kaplan blue book similar to the older edition kaplan book which was the one with the white cover? I dont know if you can read through that one in a week. Does anybody know the one I am talking about?

 

[sl2obel2ts]

yes i have that version and the blue book.

they are the same thing...

 

[doc3232]

kaplan blue book too me like a week, 2 hrs everyday.

spent like 3 days on bio (err endocrinology... took me about a day), genchem took me literally 1 hour, I skipped through everything so easy. ochem took me like 3 days, i didnt know anything.


my friend gave me a MCAT biological science section book. This book is little bit more in depth than kaplan and less intense than shaum's but still 400 pages. I think this might be a good substitute for schaum's. Take a look at it.

Exactly, the gen chem will take 1 hour, and about 90% of the o-chem is very basic that we don't even need to review.
The bio, maybe it is just me, will take a long time.

 

[OMFS08]

Exactly, the gen chem will take 1 hour, and about 90% of the o-chem is very basic that we don't even need to review.
The bio, maybe it is just me, will take a long time.

Quick question. Can you really finish the BLUE book in 1 month? If so how beneficial would that be? Thanks

 

[userah]

as everyone states, the blue book for kaplan for solely the sciences doesn't take over a month for many people. This is because the book is super basic. Read up on it to put yourself in the right mindset and move on th better and more detailed material; especially for the bio section.

 

[sl2obel2ts]

however, i still thought endocrinology of the bluebook was overwhelming. I can't memorize 20+ hormones.

 

[jigabodo]

however, i still thought endocrinology of the bluebook was overwhelming. I can't memorize 20+ hormones.

I know it varies from test to test, but mine didn't have one single hormone on there...

 

[sl2obel2ts]

I know it varies from test to test, but mine didn't have one single hormone on there...

good to hear that

 

[userah]

haha well i took endocrinology so i didn't have too much of a problem knowing all the hormones. I guess it is a little overwhelming though. There are quite a few hormones.

 

[siba]

you guys are making me nervous now.... it takes me 2 hrs to finish reading/digesting one chapter in biology.

How do you guys finish the entire book in a few days? I try to memory terms and concepts while reading. Do you think that's a bad strategy?

 

[OMFS08]

you guys are making me nervous now.... it takes me 2 hrs to finish reading/digesting one chapter in biology.

How do you guys finish the entire book in a few days? I try to memory terms and concepts while reading. Do you think that's a bad strategy?

My point exactly Siba, for people who are careful readers and want to spend diligent time digesting information(no matter how basic), 1 week is WAY too short a time. I think you have to do what works for you, maybe some of these people are super students lol

 

[OMFS08]

I know it varies from test to test, but mine didn't have one single hormone on there...

BTW...jigabodo, Cardinals do not have teeth let alone even know how to floss lol @ your avatar....

 

[jigabodo]

BTW...jigabodo, Cardinals do not have teeth let alone even know how to floss lol @ your avatar....