Those that well in DAT Bio can you please! share how you studied?

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JoRony

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Hi

Please!! share
How you studied?
For how long?
The materials you used?

Thank You!

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Personally, I read Cliff's AP Biology (3rd edition) once through (which I thought was good for laying down a basic foundation) and took notes. Then I started to read other resources to try to cover stuff that Cliff's missed (I think this is especially important in the physiology section) and added new material to my notes. To make it all stick I would then memorize the condensed notes. I think spaced repetition is really important for memorization, and memorization can get you very far on the biology section. I recommend sticking to a primary resource, supplementing with other material when you hit stuff you don't understand, and moving on to memorization after you've understood everything during a first pass.
 
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Dynamite biology from dr Romano and then use the free boot camp bio notes.. if you have time I’d try to go through each 2-3 times if repetition is best.. they cover a lot of the same material but will include different snippets of info
 
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I personally just stuck to the free Dynamite Biology review on the Destroyer Facebook for content of the biology section, and then just redid the Destroyer questions over and over and over again. The majority of this was done in 3 weeks for me, but I lightly reviewed the notes for a few months before really cracking down on studying 3 weeks out from my exam. That worked well for me.

I really suggest checking out some of the other breakdowns on SDN to get a sense of what works and what doesn't for people. In general, I've seen that Destroyer + Dynamite Bio review easily gets people 20+, most of the time higher. It certainly worked for me just fine.
 
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I got a 23, so not as qualified as some, but I used Anki. Using Anki to make flashcards is very slow going but it allowed me to study for the other subjects more as I got closer to the exam day. This is because I learned the material so well I remembered it permanently (as opposed to some people that quickly read over the material cramming it in short term). IMO just reading the Bootcamp notes without some active involvement is not the way to go. I am a decent reader, got a 25, but I would retain nearly nothing by just reading biology notes doing nothing else.

Biology is a tricky section because you have to know the small facts and details, but the scope is also massive. I knew the Bootcamp notes super well, studied over about three months for probably 5 hours a day on average (just biology) and that was enough to get my score. Good luck!!
 
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