Why did you fail DAT?

[jgdg]

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Most of us have researched what books/resources/study methods to use to do well on the DAT.
However, equally important is to consider what we shouldn't do. If you took the DAT and did poorly, would you mind sharing what went wrong? For example, did not do enough practice problems, too little study time, etc. Thank you!

 

[TheDentist16]

I only took the DAT once. However, a friend of mine recently took his DAT and didn't do as well as he wanted to. He told me that he didn't study enough, specifically for Bio, QR, and the PAT sections. He felt that he should have practiced more questions/tests for these 3 sections. He also said that he focused too much time on GC and OC and over-prepared for those sections.

 

[Junebug1665]

I failed the DAT the first 2 times because I did not do enough practice problems and only relied on KBB....bad choice

 

[jgdg]

Thank you so much for letting us know!

 

[EpicDentist]

Great thread! Overemphasizing a few sections is also bad, as stated above

 

[ushaseos]

The only real way to study for any standardized tests is practice. There are always going to be conceptual or knowledge questions that you don't know, but if you can get past familiarity with the format and develop little tricks to circumvent such obstacles, you'll be in good shape. The second part to this is analyzing your mistakes and keeping an organized tally of things you did poorly on (and why).

As for the knowledge questions, prepare with the hardest materials you have/ can afford so that you are exposed to more material. For me that was Achiever, but some people find it too difficult and depressing (and they are right). Find the highest level of challenging material that doesn't effect your confidence too much and prepare with that.