DAT Breakdown
RC 24
BIO 23
GC 22
TS 22
AA 23
PAT 23
I studied a total of 4 months (2 months in the summer ~6-8 hours per day, 2 months in the Fall and balanced with school ~1-4 hours/day depending on my uni workload).
For RC, I used Search & Destroy, with a little bit of passage mapping.
TL,DR:
Best, must have resource for each section:
Resources Used:
Chad’s Videos 10/10
This is the best resource out there for someone like me who hasn’t taken Gen Chem in awhile. The videos are a great tool to learn to nearly all the concepts on the cDAT! Chad is amazing, I found his explanations very clear. I watched and took thorough notes on all of the videos – this was the first thing I did in my GC studying. After that, I re-listened to all of the videos on 1.5x speed. I would definitely recommend this resource to everyone!
Cliffs AP Biology 8.5/10
Great way to break into your Bio studying! This was my starting point, and it was pretty thorough. I didn’t think the reproduction or human physiology sections were great though. I read through this book 2x before moving on to Feralis notes. The laboratory section at the end of Cliff’s is pretty useless; I didn’t really look at it much.
Feralis Notes 10/10
Fantastic bio resource! Read it over 2x. These notes have nearly everything that was in Cliffs (so if pressed for time, skip Cliffs and just read this), but goes much more in depth into human physiology and reproduction. This was my main Bio studying resource. It is a great aggregate of all the high yield info you might encounter on the cDAT.
DATgenius 10/10
BIO – DAT Genius BIO WAS AMAZING! There are more hard questions in the practice tests than you’ll see on the real thing, but the explanations were amazing. What’s really valuable here is that they explain more than just the answer – they go into related concepts. Don’t look at the BIO section as just a practice test, it’s a study tool like Feralis or Cliffs. I went through all the bio practice tests 2x.
GC – very good as well, similar level of difficulty to the actual DAT and the explanations were really great. One gripe is that each DG GC test seemed to have one very difficult question that I got too occupied with for time.
PAT – Harder than the actual DAT, but the explanations are incredible! This was my main study resource for learning how to do PAT, starting with no background knowledge on PAT – the explanations actually teach you how to think and approach PAT. Also, make sure to use the DG boulder practice questions, there were a TON of them on the cDAT this year.
RC – Good practice tests, pretty similar to what I saw on the actual DAT and same level of difficulty. However, I was more pressed for time on these practice tests than I was on the actual DAT.
DATbootcamp 9.5/10
PAT – I found the DB PAT tests really helpful, very good practice for the actual DAT overall. However, the KH section was just insane for all of the practice tests. I was getting crazy low scores on KH (7/15 sometimes), the differences between the shapes are way too minor. I would always write the DB practice tests starting at TFE end ending with KH, because if I started with KH I would often not finish because I spent way too much time trying to figure out the insignificant differences. The other sections of PAT were great for practice.
BIO – DB was great for practicing bio. The tests seemed very representative. DB is a good resource to practice bio and gauge how prepared you are for the actual DAT. I usually scored between 23-25 on DB bio.
GC – very good, similar level of difficulty to the actual DAT. Again, my main complaint with DB is that the explanations were only OK. If I was confused about a concept I would usually need to look beyond the solutions to clarify it for myself.
RC – This is my biggest issue with DB as a product. The RC practice tests were not helpful AT ALL, at least for my experience studying for the Canadian DAT.
Do NOT be discouraged if you find it hard to finish DB reading comp or get low scores on them! I always struggled to finish (but keep in mind that I printed out the tests and only gave myself 50 mins for them), and never got higher than a 19 (and I got 16 many times). I almost feel that the RC is too discouraging and different from what you will actually see on the cDAT to be useful. I stopped writing them after doing 3 of the practice tests, I just didn’t think it was helpful at all and only brought down my confidence. RC (24) was my strongest section, so obviously DB RC was not at all indicative of the difficulty on the actual cDAT (keep in mind the American DAT may be different)
DAT Destroyer 8.5/10
I mainly used DAT Destroyer to study for GC. I worked through every GC problem, and found it to be good practice material overall, and the solutions are pretty good. The GC questions in destroyer are much less representative of the topics and difficulty seen in the actual DAT, DG and DB tests were better in my opinion for this reason. What’s good about destroyer is the volume of questions to do, which exposes you to a lot.
I worked through half of the BIO questions in Destroyer, and I did not think that they were very representative of the actual DAT. Some of the questions are very random, and most of the topics it covered that were representative I had already seen in other study materials. If you have the luxury of time, its worthwhile as anything could come up. However, they have questions on the specifics of Ebola which does seem low yield.
Overall, if you are limited on funds, I would say skip Destroyer, because DG and DB are better practical resources. That being said, I am pleased with the amount of GC practice I got from Destroyer, so if you do have the money to spend I do think it has value and will help you score better on GC.
Overall: Super happy to be done with this thing and onto the next stage. Feel free to ask any questions you might have!
RC 24
BIO 23
GC 22
TS 22
AA 23
PAT 23
I studied a total of 4 months (2 months in the summer ~6-8 hours per day, 2 months in the Fall and balanced with school ~1-4 hours/day depending on my uni workload).
For RC, I used Search & Destroy, with a little bit of passage mapping.
TL,DR:
Best, must have resource for each section:
PAT – DATGenius (DG) for learning technique and practice) DAT Bootcamp (DB) for practice
BIO – Feralis notes, DG
GC – Chad’s videos (for learning), DB & DG for practice
RC – DG, DB, Kaplan DAT prep text book practice tests
BIO – Feralis notes, DG
GC – Chad’s videos (for learning), DB & DG for practice
RC – DG, DB, Kaplan DAT prep text book practice tests
Resources Used:
Chad’s Videos 10/10
This is the best resource out there for someone like me who hasn’t taken Gen Chem in awhile. The videos are a great tool to learn to nearly all the concepts on the cDAT! Chad is amazing, I found his explanations very clear. I watched and took thorough notes on all of the videos – this was the first thing I did in my GC studying. After that, I re-listened to all of the videos on 1.5x speed. I would definitely recommend this resource to everyone!
Cliffs AP Biology 8.5/10
Great way to break into your Bio studying! This was my starting point, and it was pretty thorough. I didn’t think the reproduction or human physiology sections were great though. I read through this book 2x before moving on to Feralis notes. The laboratory section at the end of Cliff’s is pretty useless; I didn’t really look at it much.
Feralis Notes 10/10
Fantastic bio resource! Read it over 2x. These notes have nearly everything that was in Cliffs (so if pressed for time, skip Cliffs and just read this), but goes much more in depth into human physiology and reproduction. This was my main Bio studying resource. It is a great aggregate of all the high yield info you might encounter on the cDAT.
DATgenius 10/10
BIO – DAT Genius BIO WAS AMAZING! There are more hard questions in the practice tests than you’ll see on the real thing, but the explanations were amazing. What’s really valuable here is that they explain more than just the answer – they go into related concepts. Don’t look at the BIO section as just a practice test, it’s a study tool like Feralis or Cliffs. I went through all the bio practice tests 2x.
GC – very good as well, similar level of difficulty to the actual DAT and the explanations were really great. One gripe is that each DG GC test seemed to have one very difficult question that I got too occupied with for time.
PAT – Harder than the actual DAT, but the explanations are incredible! This was my main study resource for learning how to do PAT, starting with no background knowledge on PAT – the explanations actually teach you how to think and approach PAT. Also, make sure to use the DG boulder practice questions, there were a TON of them on the cDAT this year.
RC – Good practice tests, pretty similar to what I saw on the actual DAT and same level of difficulty. However, I was more pressed for time on these practice tests than I was on the actual DAT.
DATbootcamp 9.5/10
PAT – I found the DB PAT tests really helpful, very good practice for the actual DAT overall. However, the KH section was just insane for all of the practice tests. I was getting crazy low scores on KH (7/15 sometimes), the differences between the shapes are way too minor. I would always write the DB practice tests starting at TFE end ending with KH, because if I started with KH I would often not finish because I spent way too much time trying to figure out the insignificant differences. The other sections of PAT were great for practice.
BIO – DB was great for practicing bio. The tests seemed very representative. DB is a good resource to practice bio and gauge how prepared you are for the actual DAT. I usually scored between 23-25 on DB bio.
GC – very good, similar level of difficulty to the actual DAT. Again, my main complaint with DB is that the explanations were only OK. If I was confused about a concept I would usually need to look beyond the solutions to clarify it for myself.
RC – This is my biggest issue with DB as a product. The RC practice tests were not helpful AT ALL, at least for my experience studying for the Canadian DAT.
Do NOT be discouraged if you find it hard to finish DB reading comp or get low scores on them! I always struggled to finish (but keep in mind that I printed out the tests and only gave myself 50 mins for them), and never got higher than a 19 (and I got 16 many times). I almost feel that the RC is too discouraging and different from what you will actually see on the cDAT to be useful. I stopped writing them after doing 3 of the practice tests, I just didn’t think it was helpful at all and only brought down my confidence. RC (24) was my strongest section, so obviously DB RC was not at all indicative of the difficulty on the actual cDAT (keep in mind the American DAT may be different)
DAT Destroyer 8.5/10
I mainly used DAT Destroyer to study for GC. I worked through every GC problem, and found it to be good practice material overall, and the solutions are pretty good. The GC questions in destroyer are much less representative of the topics and difficulty seen in the actual DAT, DG and DB tests were better in my opinion for this reason. What’s good about destroyer is the volume of questions to do, which exposes you to a lot.
I worked through half of the BIO questions in Destroyer, and I did not think that they were very representative of the actual DAT. Some of the questions are very random, and most of the topics it covered that were representative I had already seen in other study materials. If you have the luxury of time, its worthwhile as anything could come up. However, they have questions on the specifics of Ebola which does seem low yield.
Overall, if you are limited on funds, I would say skip Destroyer, because DG and DB are better practical resources. That being said, I am pleased with the amount of GC practice I got from Destroyer, so if you do have the money to spend I do think it has value and will help you score better on GC.
Overall: Super happy to be done with this thing and onto the next stage. Feel free to ask any questions you might have!
