I don't know much about Kaplan or Princeton Review for the DAT, though they're not the most common resources used by students.
I took my DAT earlier this year and fortunately scored very well. For Gen Chem and Organic Chemistry, I would recommend using Chad’s videos. The videos are all free, and he teaches you about 90-95% of what you need for the DAT. Here’s the YouTube link:
Chad's Prep
You can also go to
chadsprep.com and make a free account. If you go to the ‘basic’ organic chemistry/general chemistry course you can also see all of the videos for free, it’s a bit more organized than a YouTube playlist. The only thing you have to pay for is the questions if you want them, last time I checked they were $10 per month for both gen Chem and Orgo combined.
The most effective way I studied was by writing down detailed notes from the videos and I assumed that I knew nothing about Chem and tried to relearn everything.
There’s also DAT Bootcamp for Chem and Orgo, I found those practice tests to be the most representative of the real exam. Bootcamp is really expensive, but I found it worth purchasing in the last 3 months before the test (though this was before the latest price increase). Bootcamp also has their own Chem/Orgo video series, I just watched them while adding on to my notes from Chad’s videos to get that last 5-10% of info. Bootcamp + Chads videos is enough for a 30 for Gen Chem and orgo tbh.
I would not recommend the DAT Destroyer for Chem/Orgo. I did well in college on those subjects and TA'd courses for GC and OC, but even the day before my test I could not answer half of the questions in that book, it’s way too overkill. For chemistry, the destroyer tends to ask questions that are way beyond the comprehension needed for the DAT.
Just a warning if you don't know what the DAT Destroyer is; It's a book that contains hundreds of questions for GC/OC/Bio/Math. There are no lesson plans or lectures, but rather just questions with moderately detailed explanations to answers. I did not know that when I bought the Destroyer, and had to find other resources to learn the material before trying the Destroyer. The Bio and Math questions were very helpful for me.
For Bio, I used the free Bootcamp 500 page notes (found here:
Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases.) and typed up a summary of the notes in a google doc to study from. The Bootcamp practice questions are also really good for bio. If you can get a copy of the DAT Destroyer, their bio questions are also very good. I would start going over the biology questions only after you've completed going over the notes and making some sort of tangible notes from the original notes (flashcards, highlighting, notes).
For math, I used the Math Destroyer, which has 10 or so practice tests with answers, and a free 70 video playlist from Orgoman on YouTube which goes over almost every problem type you’ll see on the test (
)
For Reading comp, I used the Bootcamp tests. Bootcamp also has a video series on how to tackle the passages, I used a modified method based on the vids. The practice tests are harder than the real test but made the actual RC section on the DAT very straightforward.
For PAT, I used DAT Bootcamp again. There are over 1000 practice problems and video series on how to solve every type of problem. There are also free generators for certain problem types.
For all of the sections besides reading and PAT, I would also write down/type explanations to answers of questions that I got wrong while taking the practice tests, and go over those notes for review. This really helped me fine tune what I learned.
Here are some links to free resources I used:
PAT
TFE generator:
Top Front End Visualizer
Angle generator:
Angle Ranking Generator
Hole punching generator:
Hole Punching Generator
Pattern Folding Generator:
Pattern Folding Generator
PAT Training Game:
PAT Trainer Game
Math
Formula sheet:
Destroyer Math playlist:
DAT Bootcamp Facebook group page:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/datbootcamp/
I hope this helps and that you rock your DAT in September!
