study timeline

[RUpremed]

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hi guys,

so I'm a bit unsure as to how I should proceed with my DAT studying. I'm debating on whether to study on my own this summer for the DAT, and take the DAT in late december. If need be, I was thinking of taking the kaplan course (which my parents are insistent on) and then taking the DAT a second time during the school year..

OR

take the kaplan course this summer, take the DAT in december, and if need be, study on my own for another sitting.

Would it be too early at this point for me to take the kaplan course now and then take the DAT in december?

Any input is GREATLY appreciated.

 

[iwannabadentist]

whenever you take the DAT, your mindset shouldnt be such that "oh i'll just take it once and i'll take it again if i don't do well." you want to try to ace it the very first time and do whatever you feel necessary to ace it the first time around. i took the kaplan course last summer and studied all the way till january and took my test in january - but i didn't do too well sadly. so i studied again till may and took it in the end of may and did a lot better. personally, i feel that taking the kaplan course is a waste of money. if you can get your hands on the Kaplan 09-10 DAT test prep book along with their online classroom matierials (which is only like $300 i think), you should be fine there. Also, purchase Destroyer, CDP and some full length test softwares like TopScore and Achiever. If you think you need more help in the science, get CrackDAT Science and CrackDAT Math if you need help in math. Also, I used Cliff's Bio and found it very useful. I think your money would be a lot more well spend if you diversify your resources and buy a whole bunch of different study tools rather and flushing it all down the drain with Kaplan, when you might not even benefit from it that much.

 

[timwatley]

whenever you take the DAT, your mindset shouldnt be such that "oh i'll just take it once and i'll take it again if i don't do well." you want to try to ace it the very first time and do whatever you feel necessary to ace it the first time around. i took the kaplan course last summer and studied all the way till january and took my test in january - but i didn't do too well sadly. so i studied again till may and took it in the end of may and did a lot better. personally, i feel that taking the kaplan course is a waste of money. if you can get your hands on the Kaplan 09-10 DAT test prep book along with their online classroom matierials (which is only like $300 i think), you should be fine there. Also, purchase Destroyer, CDP and some full length test softwares like TopScore and Achiever. If you think you need more help in the science, get CrackDAT Science and CrackDAT Math if you need help in math. Also, I used Cliff's Bio and found it very useful. I think your money would be a lot more well spend if you diversify your resources and buy a whole bunch of different study tools rather and flushing it all down the drain with Kaplan, when you might not even benefit from it that much.

This is what a lot of people recommend. It seems like it would be useful to take the course from the organization that actually gives the test though. You're saying you can basically learn the strategies and basics from the book and online classroom materials?

 

[nze82]

hi guys,

so I'm a bit unsure as to how I should proceed with my DAT studying. I'm debating on whether to study on my own this summer for the DAT, and take the DAT in late december. If need be, I was thinking of taking the kaplan course (which my parents are insistent on) and then taking the DAT a second time during the school year..

OR

take the kaplan course this summer, take the DAT in december, and if need be, study on my own for another sitting.

Would it be too early at this point for me to take the kaplan course now and then take the DAT in december?

Any input is GREATLY appreciated.

Are you applying this year? Wouldn't december be a little bit late for taking the DAT if you're planning on applying this year? Just curious!

Nevertheless, I took the KAPLAN course myself. Personally, I think the classroom discussions were a waste of time, and that's not to say KAPLAN teachers are incapable of teaching. The main problem with my classroom discussion was that we had people in class, who had difficulty with the most basic concenpts, and they wasted everyone's time trying to ask question about those basic topics.
However, I strongly recommend you take the course and despite the fact that the classroom discussions are crap still try to attend every single one of them. I say this for two reasons:

1)If you attend every session, you qualify for their higher score guarantee program, which means if you take the DAT and you're not satisfied with your score, you can repeat the course for free. In other words, you'll have the option of reusing all their online resources (which by the way are great) for the second time.

2)By going to the class you'll get an idea of the group of students you're competing with, and that alone could be a great motivation to make you study harder.

The course itself is pretty short; I think mine was ~ 6-7 weeks. So, take the course in order to refresh your memory about some of the concepts you've probably forgotten by now. Also, the course will familiarize you with the overall format of the test. Then after your course is over, study for 1-2 months on your own and try to take advantage of the other resources out there in addition to what KAPLAN provides you with.

Good Luck👍

 

[RUpremed]

i'm going to be a junior this coming year..so i'm just trying to get stuff in order

i was also thinking about just ordering the classroom materials online from ebay or something. many people have said that this is efficient. would you recommend doing this?

 

[Talib]

I would not advice u to take the course. I am talkin from my personal experience here, i took the course n i felt that it was waste of time and money. I took DAT twice studyin on Kaplan and i didnt do well. I got help from wonderful people on this forum and i ended up getting extra material to study on. I am takin DAT for the 3rd and last time on 7/22. The only thing that i would say to get from Kaplan is their book and the extra questions and tests they have. You can find the book and cds online and the extra questions you can prob ask some1 who took the course to give them to u.

The course cost is around 1400, instead of payin that u can buy the followig:

1. Crack DAT (the royal version that has crack PAT, Math, and Science) for 300
2. TopScore for 50
3. DAT destroyer for 150
4. Kaplan material ( I dont know the price)
5. Acheiver ( I dont know the price)

I personally think these material will prepare u better for the exam and this is wut im doin right now my friend.

Best of luck

 

[TXdent]

speaking of study material...
anyone heard of "DAT Secret"? http://www.mo-media.com/dat/

it looks a lil sketchy :/