Hello!
I've been lurking the forums for the past few months while I've been studying for the DAT, and I figured now would be a great time to post!
AA: 22
BIO: 21
GCHEM: 22
OCHEM: 24
TS: 22
RC:21
QR: 22
PAT: 19
Educational Background: I'm entering my final year of undergrad as a Human Biology major
Study time: ~2 months, first month studied 4-5 hours a day , last month studied 7-8 hours a day
Materials: Chad's videos, Feralis Notes, Cliff's, DAT Destoryer, DAT Bootcamp
Chad's Videos (10/10): Nothing really needs to be said here, the man really made re-learning chemistry a lot easier and his quizzes and notes really helped a lot in terms of understanding
Feralis Notes (10/10): Was very overwhelming at first, but once I came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to memorize every page in the time I had, it became a really helpful resource when I wanted to expand on a subject and learn the keywords associated. I read through them twice (once the day before the test) and it definitely helped me with my bio
Cliffs (8/10): Didn't really read much, only referred to it when I didn't understand something out of Feralis Notes, great to touch up on subjects you've forgetten cause Feralis is way to dense if you don't understand the topics
DAT Destroyer (10/10): Really helped with all sciences, the questions were challenging and definitely drove home a lot of concepts, learning why the wrong answers were wrong was possibly the most important part.
DAT Bootcamp (10/10): The practice tests really resembled the actual test (slightly harder even) and generators were perfect and the explanations for all questions are really helpful.
Bootcamp Scores:
BIO: 20/18/18/18/18
GC: 21/19/21/18/19
OC: 17/20/19/26/20
PAT: 19/19/18/18
QR: 22/22/20/20
RC: 17/19/21
BIO (21): This was definitely the section I was most worried about, the amount of material that can be tested on is borderline ridiculous. I studied by reading through Feralis Notes, I spent a few days going through it and any topic I was unclear about and needed more explanation I would read the corresponding chapter of Cliffs and watch a video on YouTube (Bozeman Science is really helpful for bio). It's really stressful when you're looking at all the material, but once you accept the fact that it all can't be memorized and that "breadth over depth" is more important, it gets easier. I went through the bio section of the Destroyer once and that really helped a lot (got around 50% of the questions right, so it's easy to get discouraged but its all about learning!), make sure you learn why all the wrong answers are wrong, that was easily the best way of finding topics I needed to study more. If I had more time, I definitely would have gone through the questions I got wrong again, but alas there was no time. I thought the actual DAT bio wasn't too bad, I got lucky with no plant questions and only 2 taxonomy questions ( I really didn't study much on those topics, just watched a few videos/breezed through Feralis). Bootcamp was also very helpful, again the explanations were the most important part, I though Bootcamp was a lot harder (I only scored above 18 once, scored 21 on the actual thing)
GC (22)/ OC (24): 100% you should go through chads videos and take notes on everything, this helped me out a ton. I would read through my notes constantly and keep all the concepts fresh/rewatched videos on topics I still needed help on. His quizzes are great for light review while you're winding down. The destroyer was great for GChem but was especially helpful for OChem. For OChem, I didn't memorize the roadmaps but I looked at them a few times to see if I understood, and that really helped. Doing the problems that involved multistep reactions really helped learn all the reagents/reactions, and once I was able to answer those confidently, the once-step reactions on the real DAT were a breeze. Honestly go through the Destroyer and Bootcamp tests, if you really understand the questions and answers you'll be fine. Don't be discouraged by the Destroyer, I got ~60% right, it's all about learning from your mistakes.
RC (21): Wasn't too bad, I took small notes on each paragraph, and then used those to answer the questions and look up answers quickly, since I had the articles "mapped out". The article lengths and topics were very similar to bootcamp, but the questions were much more straightforward, a lot less tone based questions.
QR (22): Math has always been one of my stronger subjects, I didn't really study for this section very much. I read that bootcamp tests were significantly harder (and it ended up being so) and I was scoring over 20 for all the tests I took so I figured I'd be alright. The actual test was a lot easier than bootcamp, I wasn't nearly as strapped for time, on bootcamp tests I'd run out of time constantly
PAT (19): I didn't spend too much time studying for this section either, and unfortunately it ended up being my only sub-20 score. I thought bootcamp was a great representation of the actual test, the generators were really helpful and if I could go back I'd definitely go through all their practice tests and just spend a little time everyday on the generators
Overall the most important thing you should know is that there are going to be days that you'll be overwhelmed by studying, happens to everyone. You'll never feel 100% ready for the test, just study hard, do lots of practice problems and you'll do well! I'd like to thank Ari and Orgoman for Bootcamp and the Destroyer respectively, I definitely would not have scored as well without these resources, thank you so much! And also thanks to everyone that have posted breakdowns and other such things on this forum, I took a lot from them and applied things to my own study schedule, so thanks for that!
I've been lurking the forums for the past few months while I've been studying for the DAT, and I figured now would be a great time to post!
AA: 22
BIO: 21
GCHEM: 22
OCHEM: 24
TS: 22
RC:21
QR: 22
PAT: 19
Educational Background: I'm entering my final year of undergrad as a Human Biology major
Study time: ~2 months, first month studied 4-5 hours a day , last month studied 7-8 hours a day
Materials: Chad's videos, Feralis Notes, Cliff's, DAT Destoryer, DAT Bootcamp
Chad's Videos (10/10): Nothing really needs to be said here, the man really made re-learning chemistry a lot easier and his quizzes and notes really helped a lot in terms of understanding
Feralis Notes (10/10): Was very overwhelming at first, but once I came to the conclusion that there was no way I was going to memorize every page in the time I had, it became a really helpful resource when I wanted to expand on a subject and learn the keywords associated. I read through them twice (once the day before the test) and it definitely helped me with my bio
Cliffs (8/10): Didn't really read much, only referred to it when I didn't understand something out of Feralis Notes, great to touch up on subjects you've forgetten cause Feralis is way to dense if you don't understand the topics
DAT Destroyer (10/10): Really helped with all sciences, the questions were challenging and definitely drove home a lot of concepts, learning why the wrong answers were wrong was possibly the most important part.
DAT Bootcamp (10/10): The practice tests really resembled the actual test (slightly harder even) and generators were perfect and the explanations for all questions are really helpful.
Bootcamp Scores:
BIO: 20/18/18/18/18
GC: 21/19/21/18/19
OC: 17/20/19/26/20
PAT: 19/19/18/18
QR: 22/22/20/20
RC: 17/19/21
BIO (21): This was definitely the section I was most worried about, the amount of material that can be tested on is borderline ridiculous. I studied by reading through Feralis Notes, I spent a few days going through it and any topic I was unclear about and needed more explanation I would read the corresponding chapter of Cliffs and watch a video on YouTube (Bozeman Science is really helpful for bio). It's really stressful when you're looking at all the material, but once you accept the fact that it all can't be memorized and that "breadth over depth" is more important, it gets easier. I went through the bio section of the Destroyer once and that really helped a lot (got around 50% of the questions right, so it's easy to get discouraged but its all about learning!), make sure you learn why all the wrong answers are wrong, that was easily the best way of finding topics I needed to study more. If I had more time, I definitely would have gone through the questions I got wrong again, but alas there was no time. I thought the actual DAT bio wasn't too bad, I got lucky with no plant questions and only 2 taxonomy questions ( I really didn't study much on those topics, just watched a few videos/breezed through Feralis). Bootcamp was also very helpful, again the explanations were the most important part, I though Bootcamp was a lot harder (I only scored above 18 once, scored 21 on the actual thing)
GC (22)/ OC (24): 100% you should go through chads videos and take notes on everything, this helped me out a ton. I would read through my notes constantly and keep all the concepts fresh/rewatched videos on topics I still needed help on. His quizzes are great for light review while you're winding down. The destroyer was great for GChem but was especially helpful for OChem. For OChem, I didn't memorize the roadmaps but I looked at them a few times to see if I understood, and that really helped. Doing the problems that involved multistep reactions really helped learn all the reagents/reactions, and once I was able to answer those confidently, the once-step reactions on the real DAT were a breeze. Honestly go through the Destroyer and Bootcamp tests, if you really understand the questions and answers you'll be fine. Don't be discouraged by the Destroyer, I got ~60% right, it's all about learning from your mistakes.
RC (21): Wasn't too bad, I took small notes on each paragraph, and then used those to answer the questions and look up answers quickly, since I had the articles "mapped out". The article lengths and topics were very similar to bootcamp, but the questions were much more straightforward, a lot less tone based questions.
QR (22): Math has always been one of my stronger subjects, I didn't really study for this section very much. I read that bootcamp tests were significantly harder (and it ended up being so) and I was scoring over 20 for all the tests I took so I figured I'd be alright. The actual test was a lot easier than bootcamp, I wasn't nearly as strapped for time, on bootcamp tests I'd run out of time constantly
PAT (19): I didn't spend too much time studying for this section either, and unfortunately it ended up being my only sub-20 score. I thought bootcamp was a great representation of the actual test, the generators were really helpful and if I could go back I'd definitely go through all their practice tests and just spend a little time everyday on the generators
Overall the most important thing you should know is that there are going to be days that you'll be overwhelmed by studying, happens to everyone. You'll never feel 100% ready for the test, just study hard, do lots of practice problems and you'll do well! I'd like to thank Ari and Orgoman for Bootcamp and the Destroyer respectively, I definitely would not have scored as well without these resources, thank you so much! And also thanks to everyone that have posted breakdowns and other such things on this forum, I took a lot from them and applied things to my own study schedule, so thanks for that!
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