- Joined
- Feb 9, 2017
- Messages
- 86
- Reaction score
- 40
Hi guys,
I originally did not plan to write this since 1) I did not do anything “special” in preparation for the DAT, 2) my score isn’t a 28…nor a 27… lol 3) I am an international applicant, so my background might be different from the most of you. (Although I did start 9th grade here in the U.S.), but I figured that if this could help even one fellow SDNer to prepare and do well on the DAT, it’s worth it.
TS=26
AA=26
Bio=24
Chem=26
Organic Chem=30
QR=30
RC=21
PAT=22
Background: I graduated in 2014, finished my Master’s in 2015, took most of the pre-req classes freshman and sophomore year (2010-2012), majored in Bioengineering.
Study time: started mid January. Took the DAT on March 24th. I work full-time as a research scientist. So every weekday from 7pm to 12am is basically all I have to study. (Actually, it’s from 7pm – 9pm and 9:30pm to 12am, because I do shower from time to time… just kidding, I shower everyday…seriously.)
Materials:
1) Chad’s videos (Great review of materials)
2) DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer (Great “problem bank”. Really enhances your understanding of the materials)
3) Cliff’s Biology (covers the basics really well)
4) Feralis’s Note (very detailed)
5) Bootcamp (generators for PAT are great; full length tests are great for simulating the real testing day)
6) Crack the DAT PAT (meh…built up my confidence for PAT just for it to be destroyed on the real thing)
Let’s talk about the two chemistries first:
My preparation for the General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry sections of the DAT consists of 3 phases:
Phase 1: reviewed of material
= watch Chad’s videos + take detailed notes
Phase 2: reviewed my notes and did Chad’s quizzes
I did not start doing his quizzes until after I’ve watched all the videos. I did not want to get all the correct answers out of short-term memory.
Phase 3: did DAT Destroyer + take detailed notes of which questions I got wrong and why I got them wrong
Don’t worry if you get half of the questions wrong (because I did). Just make sure you understand why. I also made flashcards for the problems that I find extremely tricky.
Other notes: I was really frustrated about organic chemistry at first because all those different reactions were so difficult to memorize all at once. After working through the organic chemistry section of the DAT Destroyer, I got pretty much all the basic reactions down to my memory. The day before my actual DAT, I went through all the roadmaps in the DAT Destroyer and it appeared that I have all the reactions down except for maybe two of them. So don’t worry if all those reactions seem overwhelming. You’ll be fine with practice.
Biology:
It was not until I finished watching Chad’s videos for chemistry and organic chemistry that I started my review for Biology. (I did not watch Chad’s videos for bio) I finished Cliff’s Biology in about 3 weeks (at first I was reading one chapter a day, but the Bio diversity, plants, and human physiology chapters took me longer) and after the first time through, I started working on Destroyer problems while at the same time started reading Feralis’s Notes. I originally planned to read Kaplan’s Biology section as well, thinking that it will be a faster read after the Cliff’s, but Faralis’s notes took me a really long time to finish. I only finished his notes 2 days before my actual DAT… never really got to Kaplan’s…
Biology section on the Destroyer really covers the breadth. I went over it twice. So helpful.
QR:
I am really solid on Math (I was actually a Math tutor at my university’s study center, tutoring 1xx- to 3xx-level math classes), so all I did in preparation for the QR section was to watch all Chad’s videos for QR + did his quizzes, and every once in a while, I would do a Math Destroyer Test. I finished (timed) about 15 tests in Math Destroyer.
PAT:
For PAT, I mainly used Boot Camp’s generators. I also finished Crack the DAT PAT’s first 9 practice tests and scored really high on those (25-29). My weak section is Angle Ranking and on some of the CDP tests, I would get everything correct except for maybe 5 angles. (It was kind of funny because about 1 month into my preparation for PAT, I can actually get 13 or 14 out of 15 angle problems right. But 2 weeks before my DAT, it seemed like I just lost this ability to distinguish angles and no matter how hard I try, I’ll get 5 or 6 wrong out of 15…I don’t know why…)
The PAT on the real DAT is so much harder than the questions on CDP. I would suggest practicing using Boot Camp. CDP is just not an accurate representation for the real DAT, at least not in my case…
RC:
Though English is my second language, I thought I am pretty solid on reading comprehension (obviously better than my writing lol). (On one of Boot Camp full-length tests, I actually got a 28. All the other ones are well above 20.) The first and third passages on my real DAT was insanely easy. However, the second passage was so hard… and I spent half of the time allotted for the section on the second passage and still kinda guessed all the answers…
Random notes…
Make sure you get enough sleep.
Every test taker is different, so know what type of test taker you are: for example, coffee makes me hard to focus, so I avoided drinking it on my test day.
My testing room was so cold. So I would suggest that you wear layers. (I wore a T-shirt with a hoodie.) By the end of my test, I felt like my toes were gonna freeze off (I wore socks and sneakers…)
Being anxious and nervous is normal.
If you are super anxious before your test, you are not the only one. I was so nervous that I did not want to eat anything 2 days before my test (on the bright side, hey I finally lost some weight after trying for years). Anyways, it will all get better once you start your actual test. (I made myself “cozy” during the 15-min tutorial. Adjusted the height of my seat, the screen, etc.)
Lastly, I wanna thank Nancy and Dr. Romano for their help and the amazing DAT Destroyer. I could not have scored a 26 without the Destroyer. Thank you Chad and Ari are the amazing resources. And Feralis for your detailed biology notes and your help. Scores are getting higher and higher over the years because of these amazing resources. And of course, I want to thank those who posted their reflections on the test -- really helped me in preparation for the DAT.
I originally did not plan to write this since 1) I did not do anything “special” in preparation for the DAT, 2) my score isn’t a 28…nor a 27… lol 3) I am an international applicant, so my background might be different from the most of you. (Although I did start 9th grade here in the U.S.), but I figured that if this could help even one fellow SDNer to prepare and do well on the DAT, it’s worth it.
TS=26
AA=26
Bio=24
Chem=26
Organic Chem=30
QR=30
RC=21
PAT=22
Background: I graduated in 2014, finished my Master’s in 2015, took most of the pre-req classes freshman and sophomore year (2010-2012), majored in Bioengineering.
Study time: started mid January. Took the DAT on March 24th. I work full-time as a research scientist. So every weekday from 7pm to 12am is basically all I have to study. (Actually, it’s from 7pm – 9pm and 9:30pm to 12am, because I do shower from time to time… just kidding, I shower everyday…seriously.)
Materials:
1) Chad’s videos (Great review of materials)
2) DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer (Great “problem bank”. Really enhances your understanding of the materials)
3) Cliff’s Biology (covers the basics really well)
4) Feralis’s Note (very detailed)
5) Bootcamp (generators for PAT are great; full length tests are great for simulating the real testing day)
6) Crack the DAT PAT (meh…built up my confidence for PAT just for it to be destroyed on the real thing)
Let’s talk about the two chemistries first:
My preparation for the General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry sections of the DAT consists of 3 phases:
Phase 1: reviewed of material
= watch Chad’s videos + take detailed notes
Phase 2: reviewed my notes and did Chad’s quizzes
I did not start doing his quizzes until after I’ve watched all the videos. I did not want to get all the correct answers out of short-term memory.
Phase 3: did DAT Destroyer + take detailed notes of which questions I got wrong and why I got them wrong
Don’t worry if you get half of the questions wrong (because I did). Just make sure you understand why. I also made flashcards for the problems that I find extremely tricky.
Other notes: I was really frustrated about organic chemistry at first because all those different reactions were so difficult to memorize all at once. After working through the organic chemistry section of the DAT Destroyer, I got pretty much all the basic reactions down to my memory. The day before my actual DAT, I went through all the roadmaps in the DAT Destroyer and it appeared that I have all the reactions down except for maybe two of them. So don’t worry if all those reactions seem overwhelming. You’ll be fine with practice.
Biology:
It was not until I finished watching Chad’s videos for chemistry and organic chemistry that I started my review for Biology. (I did not watch Chad’s videos for bio) I finished Cliff’s Biology in about 3 weeks (at first I was reading one chapter a day, but the Bio diversity, plants, and human physiology chapters took me longer) and after the first time through, I started working on Destroyer problems while at the same time started reading Feralis’s Notes. I originally planned to read Kaplan’s Biology section as well, thinking that it will be a faster read after the Cliff’s, but Faralis’s notes took me a really long time to finish. I only finished his notes 2 days before my actual DAT… never really got to Kaplan’s…
Biology section on the Destroyer really covers the breadth. I went over it twice. So helpful.
QR:
I am really solid on Math (I was actually a Math tutor at my university’s study center, tutoring 1xx- to 3xx-level math classes), so all I did in preparation for the QR section was to watch all Chad’s videos for QR + did his quizzes, and every once in a while, I would do a Math Destroyer Test. I finished (timed) about 15 tests in Math Destroyer.
PAT:
For PAT, I mainly used Boot Camp’s generators. I also finished Crack the DAT PAT’s first 9 practice tests and scored really high on those (25-29). My weak section is Angle Ranking and on some of the CDP tests, I would get everything correct except for maybe 5 angles. (It was kind of funny because about 1 month into my preparation for PAT, I can actually get 13 or 14 out of 15 angle problems right. But 2 weeks before my DAT, it seemed like I just lost this ability to distinguish angles and no matter how hard I try, I’ll get 5 or 6 wrong out of 15…I don’t know why…)
The PAT on the real DAT is so much harder than the questions on CDP. I would suggest practicing using Boot Camp. CDP is just not an accurate representation for the real DAT, at least not in my case…
RC:
Though English is my second language, I thought I am pretty solid on reading comprehension (obviously better than my writing lol). (On one of Boot Camp full-length tests, I actually got a 28. All the other ones are well above 20.) The first and third passages on my real DAT was insanely easy. However, the second passage was so hard… and I spent half of the time allotted for the section on the second passage and still kinda guessed all the answers…
Random notes…
Make sure you get enough sleep.
Every test taker is different, so know what type of test taker you are: for example, coffee makes me hard to focus, so I avoided drinking it on my test day.
My testing room was so cold. So I would suggest that you wear layers. (I wore a T-shirt with a hoodie.) By the end of my test, I felt like my toes were gonna freeze off (I wore socks and sneakers…)
Being anxious and nervous is normal.
If you are super anxious before your test, you are not the only one. I was so nervous that I did not want to eat anything 2 days before my test (on the bright side, hey I finally lost some weight after trying for years). Anyways, it will all get better once you start your actual test. (I made myself “cozy” during the 15-min tutorial. Adjusted the height of my seat, the screen, etc.)
Lastly, I wanna thank Nancy and Dr. Romano for their help and the amazing DAT Destroyer. I could not have scored a 26 without the Destroyer. Thank you Chad and Ari are the amazing resources. And Feralis for your detailed biology notes and your help. Scores are getting higher and higher over the years because of these amazing resources. And of course, I want to thank those who posted their reflections on the test -- really helped me in preparation for the DAT.
