Study Time? Cant take semester off...

[masterlocke18]

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For those who have taken the DAT or are studying for it now, how are you studying? I know a few people that have taken a whole semester off to study for it but I cant do that. I am working full time, taking 15 credits, and training for a marathon. Probably not the best combo for right before the DAT. How much study time has everyone put in? Right now I am just using Saturdays and Sundays to study cause its the only time I can. I take the DAT in May....

 

[rmm30]

take some flash cards with you while you are running. stock up on MRE's and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner during lecture. Also invest in some catheters and colostomy bags to avoid pesky bathroom trips. Tattoo destroyer roadmaps to the inside of your eyelids so you can go over reactions while you sleep. Kidding of course...But if you manage solid DAT scores while doing all that stuff you will look like a superhero to the adcoms. good luck

 

[Impulse155]

For those who have taken the DAT or are studying for it now, how are you studying? I know a few people that have taken a whole semester off to study for it but I cant do that. I am working full time, taking 15 credits, and training for a marathon. Probably not the best combo for right before the DAT. How much study time has everyone put in? Right now I am just using Saturdays and Sundays to study cause its the only time I can. I take the DAT in May....

If you dont want to take a semester off.
Heres what I would do:
Dont train for the marathon.
Stop working.
All this free time..............................<----- Insert DAT here.

Trust me, for the 3-4 months itll be worth it.
Ive seen people putting in 4 hours a day. Sometimes even more. During crunch time, people will put up to 8 hours.

 

[Lane138]

I studied for 4 weeks, 6 days a week, roughly 6-8 hours a day. That's around 200 hours in total. If you study for a good 3 hours a day (no wasting time or distractions!), 6 days a week, that amounts to two months of studying, which you still have time for. The important thing is to plan out how many days you want to spend on each topic and how many practice tests you plan on taking, and hit those goals.

I don't think you should stop working and training for the marathon. Maybe it's just me, but once you feel that you have more time to prepare, you will automatically start slacking off. Might as well feel the time crunch.

 

[Kahr]

I decided to study once I was out of school, though this is clearly not an option for many unless you wait for a summer break (not a bad idea IMO). So no point explaining how I study since you can't do this option.

If you're going to apply this coming cycle, you'll probably have to give up at least something to fit in the good study time. What you give up depends on what matters most to you. If you have to work, for whatever reason (pay the rent, not starve, etc) then you can't give that up, if you just work to have extra cash for frivolity, then you might consider dropping that down to at least part time. Is running paramount to your mental and physical health? If so, giving that up might make studying harder, as well as all sorts of things in your life.

Anyway, this is something you have to weigh and figure out on your own, same with the amount of total time you need to study to feel prepared.

Cheers

 

[sbdento]

I think it depends on how well you want/need to do on the DAT. If you have "competitive" grades then you probably just have to "decent" to have a good chance. If your grades are really low, then you need to kill the DAT.

If you only need the fore mentioned "decent" DAT then you can probably do it. Although, it'll probably be pushing it with the marathon and job and school.

If you need to kill the DAT, then you probably won't be able to put in that type of studying right now. Try studying as much as possible now until school is out and then take the DAT in late June or early July.

 

[jonishere5]

For those who have taken the DAT or are studying for it now, how are you studying? I know a few people that have taken a whole semester off to study for it but I cant do that. I am working full time, taking 15 credits, and training for a marathon. Probably not the best combo for right before the DAT. How much study time has everyone put in? Right now I am just using Saturdays and Sundays to study cause its the only time I can. I take the DAT in May....

I would definitely set up a schedule were you study for the DAT 5-6 times a week, at a set time everyday. Lets say you get to school around 8am everyday, start studying from 8am to 11am. I found its much easier to study the DAT in the morning to get it out of the way. I was training for a power lifting competition while studying for the DAT while taking classes, and my score suffered somewhat because of it, if I could do it all over again I would definitely put my power lifting competition on hold and competed over the summer.

Good Luck!

Jon