what are the bare essential study materials?

[cdndds]

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Hey, so I'm planning on writing the DAT at end of June and am working full time doing research so my time is limited. I was wondering if anybody could look over my list of study materials and point out any essential material I may be lacking?


- Crack DAT PAT
- Cliff's AP Bio
- KBB
- DAT Destroyer
- Math Destroyer


As far as I can see the things I'm lacking are RC and actual full length practise tests...any tips?


Thanks!

 

[crax]

purchase (ahead of time, they need a money order and stuff) the newest ADEA released DAT (2009?), and download the old free ADEA dat (2007?)
Topscore (3 practice exams)

This will add up to 6 practice exams including your KBB exam.
If you havent already, i personally would not buy the AP bio book, if you have it then thats great.
I also wouldnt worry about reading comprehension. KBB has a few passages, and the RC over 6 practice exams is more than enough to bore you to death.

 

[two thirty]

purchase (ahead of time, they need a money order and stuff) the newest ADEA released DAT (2009?), and download the old free ADEA dat (2007?)
Topscore (3 practice exams)

This will add up to 6 practice exams including your KBB exam.
If you havent already, i personally would not buy the AP bio book, if you have it then thats great.
I also wouldnt worry about reading comprehension. KBB has a few passages, and the RC over 6 practice exams is more than enough to bore you to death.

Great advice for the practice tests, but I just got the AP bio book for $10 on Amazon. It's way better than the KBB section and there's too much bio to study an entire textbook.

 

[indplayer]

im taking the DAT tomorrow and i can tell you....the cliffs AP bio book/KBB is inadequate lol. i would reschedule but i already rescheduled once. i may have to review the books to make sure bc i started just doing practice problems instead of re-reading and re-reading, but i dont think either book even covers skeletal system. on my practice exams, ive been getting several questions on things like endochonral ossification and other bone/skeleton related topics and i had no idea lol. (i could possibly have accidently skipped over it, but when i re-read the animal form and function pages of the AP cliffs, no mention of any skeletal systems).

and my biggest mistake was waiting too long to take practice exams. i waited bc i didnt want to "waste" exams by taking them prematurely, but im finding out pretty late that my bio skills is pretty weak lol.

 

[indplayer]

oh and things like parietal/chief/globlet cells, the ap cliffs bio book just refers to them as "other stomach cells" haha.

 

[cdndds]

Hmm... any suggestions on more comprehensive bio study materials?

 

[Toothshucker]

If you use DAT destroyer for Bio, don't just do the bio questions and see if you got it correct. The answers in the back of the book are often detailed and a good source of review material if you take the time to look at each question. If you have a good foundation of general biology, it can be very helpful.

Also, no matter how much you study, there is always a possibility you'll get a question that you have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. Sometimes they go beyond "general" biology material. And sometimes they are "test" questions and they don't count. They're researching how that question does among test takers.

 

[crax]

i did the mcat* KBB and the DAT KBB and the DAT course KBB that i all got for free, and made some pages of extra info i would come across on destroyer/ practice exams. more than enough, the MCAT book was the one that had the most info though. word for word as DAT, but some extra pages i believe. same for the KBB course DAT book, and the straight KBB was the least, but missing very little.

 

[Mr. Thirsty]

i did the kaplan KBB and the DAT KBB and the DAT course KBB that i all got for free, and made some pages of extra info i would come across on destroyer/ practice exams. more than enough, the MCAT book was the one that had the most info though. word for word as DAT, but some extra pages i believe. same for the KBB course DAT book, and the straight KBB was the least, but missing very little.

What's the difference between the "Kaplan KBB" and the "DAT KBB"...aren't they both just the Kaplan Blue Book?

 

[crax]

edited, should have read MCAT kbb.. Which are also word for word for the most part... however the MCAT has more material, most of which covers the missing sections tested on practice exams.

 

[JonLee]

Hey, so I'm planning on writing the DAT at end of June and am working full time doing research so my time is limited. I was wondering if anybody could look over my list of study materials and point out any essential material I may be lacking?


- Crack DAT PAT
- Cliff's AP Bio
- KBB
- DAT Destroyer
- Math Destroyer


As far as I can see the things I'm lacking are RC and actual full length practise tests...any tips?


Thanks!

Chad's Videos for the Chemistries is another popular one that helps a lot of people on SDN.
I personally just used the materials you listed along with CDR and the 2009 ADA test and thought it was sufficient, but everyone is different and requires different levels of preparation.

I am a bio major so the prep above was fine for me cause I've had so much bio already, but could be different for you.

Crack DAT Reading was all I used for RC Prep and I felt that it was a good buy. Similar to the DAT in user interface and Difficulty IMO.

Good luck!

 

[uclaDDS101]

For me, the Kaplan online material and CDP were absolutely essential. Those materials were the reason I got my score, and if limited to only two resources, I would choose those two. There was so much to learn from just doing the kaplan practice problems/tests and then doing google/wiki searches on topics I wasn't totally comfortable with. And CDP is hands down the best prep for PAT.

 

[EpicDentist]

Right now I'm using:
-DAT Destroyer
-Math Destroyer
-Cliffs AP Bio
-Crack DAT PAT

I'm taking my test in two months, but I've read the other resources from the other posters above are good as well

 

[sacapuntas]

Hmm... any suggestions on more comprehensive bio study materials?

You don't need more comprehensive bio study materials. You might have a few questions you aren't familiar with on the real DAT, but just make your best guess and move on quickly. The beauty of the DAT is that you don't need to get everything right. IMO your best bet at this point will be to know Cliffs AP inside and out (including doing all the questions) and know all explanations in DAT Destroyer Bio. Along with your practice tests this will be sufficient, if you take the material seriously and master it.

If you really feel like you want more bio, I would suggest DAT Q Vault as they touch on some anatomy that Cliffs skips (however, the anatomy questions that are missing from Cliffs are not high yield questions as they typically won't be covered in gen bio sequence).