The score you produced by just utilizing Kaplan's online course. HELP!

[dentix]

I plan on taking the online Kaplan course as there is not a Kaplan center in my city to take the classroom course. My situation is that I have not been exposed to my science pre-reqs for approximately two years. I have recently earned my undergraduate degree this December, which will enable me to study for the DAT beginning Jan 2 of 2009. I plan on taking the DAT during May of 2009, allowing me 4 months of prep time.

For those of you who have taken the DAT for the first time and just utilized the online Kaplan course, what scores did you produce? How many hours a day and for how many months did you study? Do you think studying 5hrs/day, 6 days/week, for 4 months, while only utilizing the Kaplan online course be sufficient to score well (21-23)? Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

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[webdog54]

I was in the exact same position last year, no Kaplan center nearby so I took the online course. I started it in February and finished in May, and then took the DAT at the end of May. I didn't blow it away by any means, I got a 19 AA. I applied early and have received 4 interviews and 1 acceptance so far. I was in school while taking the course, so it was difficult to find time sometimes. I studied a couple hours a day at most, for 3 months, then reviewed hard the weeks leading up to it.

It sounds like you should have plenty of time to study for it, and not being in school will help tremendously. If you study for that amount of time you should be fine. I hadn't stumbled upon SDN until mid-summer, and I wish I had much earlier. If I were to do it again knowing what I know now I would get some additional resources to study. The sciences (especially Bio) can be very random and the more resources you utilize the better; Kaplan just can't cover everything. So if I were you, since you are already spending about $1200 and have plenty of time, I would consider the DAT Destroyer, Crack DAT PAT, or something else as well. I have not used either of those, so I'm not endorsing them at all just suggesting to use as much as possible.

So basically, work really hard while taking the course and do all the quizzes and practice tests they offer. Supplement their science material with some other resource, as well as maybe an additional PAT study tool because the more you practice the better you'll do on that. Do all this in the 4 months leading up to it.... and you should be very happy with the results

Hope this helps and if you have any questions feel free to PM me. I realize this is a long post. Before being accepted I had doubts, and my DAT was probably the weak point of my app. So I have thought about what I would have done differently for it, and I just laid out exactly what I would have done. Good luck!

 

[dentix]

Webdog,

I really appreciate the time you took to thoroughly reply to my post. The information you offered is indeed very helpful. Over the past two years, I have slowly purchased the following DAT supplemental materials to utilize in conjunction to the online Kaplan course:

-Shaums for Bio, DAT Destroyer, Crack DAT PAT, The Organic chemistry Odyssey(I heard it may be overkill for the Dat, but seems like a great source for extra O-Chem problems), Top Score Pro, and of course all my pre-req textbooks.

May I ask which schools you got interviews with and the school that accepted you?

 

[beastmode]

I took the Kaplan classroom course, however I did not study during the course at all. After the course I used only kaplan's online material and the book to study and I did pretty well (mostly 20+, see predents). I am assuming that this was basically like taking the online course. I studied for only 3 weeks, but at an average of about 12 hours/day. Kaplan definitely helped me significantly. I hadn't taken orgo or gchem in 3 years so I basically had to learn everything over again in 3 weeks...i think this speaks for itself

It is good that you have crack for the PAT, kaplan was not effective for this section. Their angle ranking and hole punching practice is inaccurate and almost counterproductive (falsely builds your confidence).

Hope that helps.

 

[webdog54]

Wow it sounds like you're pretty set then. If you study hard for four months and utilize as much of that as you can you should be pretty confident going in.

I would agree with beast, the Kaplan PAT sections were not the best and their practice tests were much easier than the real thing (esp angle ranking.)

I interviewed at Midwestern, Nebraska, and Creighton, and have an interview scheduled in February at Indiana which I may cancel. I was accepted on December 1st to Midwestern, and I'm still being reviewed at the other two and probably won't know until January 15th.

Hope this helps.

 

[dentix]

webdog,

Congratulations on your acceptance and interviews, I bet it is such an amazing feeling.

 

[webdog54]

Thanks! It's definately been a good month so far, a little surreal. If you need any motivation while studying just think about how it will feel when you get yours next year. Good luck with the studying and applying, i hope you get in somewhere my friend

 

[BiomajorPreDent]

I got a 18 in Bio, 18 in chem, and 19 in ochem using just kaplan

you need other resources for bio.

I think kaplan is good for chem and ochem, because my ochem score improved alot, although i need to study genchem alot more.