Hi SDN, I just took my DAT yesterday morning and decided to share my experiences with you guys. I scored a 22 on AA, and a 24 TS. I can happily say that I'm so glad that this journey is finally over and that all my hard work has paid off. In total I studied solely for the exam for about 4 months, everyday 6-7 hours and made sure that I kept repeating what I had trouble with to get it drilled into my head. The resources that I've used were DAT Destroyer, Math Destroyer, DAT Bootcamp, multiple YouTube videos for Bio, and my class notes.
BIO (22)- This was definitely one of the hardest sections for me, as I took both Bio 1 and 2 in one summer around 2 years ago and didn't have a great foundation in it. For this section I started off with the DAT Destroyer until I realized that without good foundation I wouldn't be able to memorize many of the concepts. I decided to do try out Ferralis Notes/Cliff notes as many people here recommend it until I realized I was wasting my time and that nothing was sticking in my head and it was getting me even more confused. I went back and took out my Campbell textbook to find the chapters that I was weak on and would watch multiple videos ranging from Bozeman Science, AK Lectures, and Khan videos to supplement my knowledge. I did this for about 2 weeks until I thought I was prepared to now start he destroyer.
Destroyer(10/10 recommend) did (2x): I made sure I did every single problem in the 2017 DAT Destroyer for Bio. I tried doing the problem first, and then I looked immediately at the answers and made sure I read the entire explanation for the question and made sure to know the wrong answers too. If I didn't understand a concept I would go back on YouTube and watch a video about it. I did this for every question and it took me about 3-4 weeks. I then made sure I reread the DAT destroyer a second during the week of my exam to make sure I didn't forget anything. I believe this is the most effective method for the biology section as literally every question that popped up on my DAT was from the Destroyer in one way or another. If you just do the DAT Destroyer I truly believe you can get at least a 21 on every section.
Bootcamp(6/10)- I was averaging around a 19, but i stopped taking exams after the 4th one once I realized I was wasting my time and would get frustrated after seeing my scores.
Genchem (30)- This section I probably spend most of my time on, I made sure I learned every concept that the Destroyer hit me with, and I would put stars on every question that I got wrong and made sure I went back to it. Did the Genchem in the destroyer about three times, and used my class notes to build my foundation.
Destroyer: The best way to utilize it for this section is to do every problem without drawing in the book, and then looking at the answers to see what you got wrong and right. Whatever you get wrong put a little star next to the question and then try to do that same problem again in a day or two. I kept repeating this process until I was able to solve every problem from the Destroyer and did just that 2-3 days right before my exam to refresh my knowledge. Yes the Destroyer is much harder than the real DAT however if you can do every problem on it, then you are sure to get a 30 on the real thing. I literally had questions on my DAT that were so similar to the Destroyer.
DAT Bootcamp: I was getting 19s, 21s, and max 22s. I felt Bootcamp destroyed my confidence whenever I did it. I decided to stop doing Genchem on Bootcamp about 10 days before my exam and to stick to one resource which was the Destroyer, and I'm glad I did that. Utilizing multiple resources sometimes isn't the way to go as it may confuse the crap out of you, and waste your time from doing stuff that may not even pop up on the exam.
Orgo (23)- I truly thought I would have got a 30 on this section, as I took Orgo 2 last semester and got an A+ so I had a solid foundation. I did the Orgo from the Destroyer which helped me learn the questions that I missed from my class, and gave me a solid foundation of how the orgo problems would be presented for me on the exam. I felt the most confident about this section, and spent the least amount of time studying for it which might have hindered me from getting that 30.
DAT Destroyer (2x)- Taught me all the little things such as lab tests, and made sure to memorize the entirety of the road maps right before my exam. My exam didn't have so many reactions and more so theoretical type of questions which was unfortunate.
Reading (19)- Utilized DAT Bootcamp only for this. I found the passages from DAT Bootcamp to be extremely hard at first and would score around 18s, and sometimes even less than 15!. I made sure to try every strategy ranging from reading the entire passage then answering questions, search and destroy, and those took way too long. I decided to just read the questions and answer them as I read the passage and everything seemed to go in order for me for the most part! I think I got very lucky on this section. The most I've ever got was a 21 on Bootcamp test 4, everything else mostly were 19s or lower.
Math (18)- Studied for about 4 days for the entirety of the 4 months. I wish I studied more for this as I think I could have surely done better. I did exams 1-4 on Math Destroyer which were extremely hard for me, and decided to try out DAT Bootcamp because it had the new quantitative comparison questions. I got around 17s on those exams, and found them easier than the real DAT I still have no idea how I scored a 18. My test had many geometry questions and trig and about 5 quantitative comparisons. If I would have spent more time on the Math Destroyer and going through the entire thing, and then practicing my timing with Bootcamp I would have done a lot better on the real DAT I'm sure.
I'm just glad its all over now, and wish good luck to anyone who is taking it in the future. Let me know what you guys think about my scores overall.
BIO (22)- This was definitely one of the hardest sections for me, as I took both Bio 1 and 2 in one summer around 2 years ago and didn't have a great foundation in it. For this section I started off with the DAT Destroyer until I realized that without good foundation I wouldn't be able to memorize many of the concepts. I decided to do try out Ferralis Notes/Cliff notes as many people here recommend it until I realized I was wasting my time and that nothing was sticking in my head and it was getting me even more confused. I went back and took out my Campbell textbook to find the chapters that I was weak on and would watch multiple videos ranging from Bozeman Science, AK Lectures, and Khan videos to supplement my knowledge. I did this for about 2 weeks until I thought I was prepared to now start he destroyer.
Destroyer(10/10 recommend) did (2x): I made sure I did every single problem in the 2017 DAT Destroyer for Bio. I tried doing the problem first, and then I looked immediately at the answers and made sure I read the entire explanation for the question and made sure to know the wrong answers too. If I didn't understand a concept I would go back on YouTube and watch a video about it. I did this for every question and it took me about 3-4 weeks. I then made sure I reread the DAT destroyer a second during the week of my exam to make sure I didn't forget anything. I believe this is the most effective method for the biology section as literally every question that popped up on my DAT was from the Destroyer in one way or another. If you just do the DAT Destroyer I truly believe you can get at least a 21 on every section.
Bootcamp(6/10)- I was averaging around a 19, but i stopped taking exams after the 4th one once I realized I was wasting my time and would get frustrated after seeing my scores.
Genchem (30)- This section I probably spend most of my time on, I made sure I learned every concept that the Destroyer hit me with, and I would put stars on every question that I got wrong and made sure I went back to it. Did the Genchem in the destroyer about three times, and used my class notes to build my foundation.
Destroyer: The best way to utilize it for this section is to do every problem without drawing in the book, and then looking at the answers to see what you got wrong and right. Whatever you get wrong put a little star next to the question and then try to do that same problem again in a day or two. I kept repeating this process until I was able to solve every problem from the Destroyer and did just that 2-3 days right before my exam to refresh my knowledge. Yes the Destroyer is much harder than the real DAT however if you can do every problem on it, then you are sure to get a 30 on the real thing. I literally had questions on my DAT that were so similar to the Destroyer.
DAT Bootcamp: I was getting 19s, 21s, and max 22s. I felt Bootcamp destroyed my confidence whenever I did it. I decided to stop doing Genchem on Bootcamp about 10 days before my exam and to stick to one resource which was the Destroyer, and I'm glad I did that. Utilizing multiple resources sometimes isn't the way to go as it may confuse the crap out of you, and waste your time from doing stuff that may not even pop up on the exam.
Orgo (23)- I truly thought I would have got a 30 on this section, as I took Orgo 2 last semester and got an A+ so I had a solid foundation. I did the Orgo from the Destroyer which helped me learn the questions that I missed from my class, and gave me a solid foundation of how the orgo problems would be presented for me on the exam. I felt the most confident about this section, and spent the least amount of time studying for it which might have hindered me from getting that 30.
DAT Destroyer (2x)- Taught me all the little things such as lab tests, and made sure to memorize the entirety of the road maps right before my exam. My exam didn't have so many reactions and more so theoretical type of questions which was unfortunate.
Reading (19)- Utilized DAT Bootcamp only for this. I found the passages from DAT Bootcamp to be extremely hard at first and would score around 18s, and sometimes even less than 15!. I made sure to try every strategy ranging from reading the entire passage then answering questions, search and destroy, and those took way too long. I decided to just read the questions and answer them as I read the passage and everything seemed to go in order for me for the most part! I think I got very lucky on this section. The most I've ever got was a 21 on Bootcamp test 4, everything else mostly were 19s or lower.
Math (18)- Studied for about 4 days for the entirety of the 4 months. I wish I studied more for this as I think I could have surely done better. I did exams 1-4 on Math Destroyer which were extremely hard for me, and decided to try out DAT Bootcamp because it had the new quantitative comparison questions. I got around 17s on those exams, and found them easier than the real DAT I still have no idea how I scored a 18. My test had many geometry questions and trig and about 5 quantitative comparisons. If I would have spent more time on the Math Destroyer and going through the entire thing, and then practicing my timing with Bootcamp I would have done a lot better on the real DAT I'm sure.
I'm just glad its all over now, and wish good luck to anyone who is taking it in the future. Let me know what you guys think about my scores overall.
