Hey guys!!
I just took my DAT today, and I thought I would give my feedback on how I studied and how it went. The scores I ended up making were:
Bio/GC/OC/TS/PAT/RC/QR/AA
23/20/23/22/20/23/20/22
I am an upcoming senior Biology major, and have 3.5 GPA. I have never really been a world-class standardized test taker, so coming from me, let this convince you that YOU CAN DO IT! As for studying, I began the day my finals ended in May. This was probably May 5th. I studied for on average about six hours per day until my test. I seriously started from the bottom. Like real, real bottom. My Kaplan Diagnostic was 14/15/22 (Bio/OC/GC), 12 (PAT), 19, 14 (RC/QR). So, from how I did on test day, I think I can be a good source as to how to conquer this test with two months of hard studying. My sources included: Kaplan Online Test Prep/Class, DAT Bootcamp, Crack DAT PAT, and DAT/Math Destroyer. I had SO many resources, basically because I was super nervous after my diagnostic scores, and I am here to tell you what I thought worked, and what didn't! Don't spend all your hard-earned money. Just spend some of it.
Kaplan Course: DO NOT spend money on this course. It is outrageously expensive, and definitely not worth it. If you can get your hands on the 5 practice exams, that would be the most beneficial. The class is really, REALLY lame. Looking back, I feel like I wasted three hours of my day for however long that class was. When it was time to complete the first Full Length Exam, about halfway through the course, I scored an 18 AA and a 12 PAT. I felt great that my Biology had improved, but other that, all of my other scores weren't that great. They tell you during the course that people usually don't improve their scores on the first Full Length, but by the second, you will be amazed. Not the case. I did WORSE on the second. And the third! Ha! PAT was slowly going up. But eh, I wasn't too impressed. I will say, however, that the Kaplan course was nice to get the feel of the PAT section. Beginning my studying, I had no clue what the PAT section even was. Taking baby steps through Kaplan helped me ease my way into the best strategies for mastering this section. Also, I had read so many feeds on SDN on how the Kaplan PAT section was very unrepresentative of the real DAT. I have to disagree on this. Besides the Keyholes and the Angles, I feel that the other sections were pretty accurate of the difficulty of the real thing. As for the sciences, RC, and QR, Kaplan's exams do a great job with their level of difficulty. For my Kaplan exams, I never scored that well. It was super discouraging, but don't let this bum you out! It really is true that every single practice test you take isn't going to tell you how you'll do on that test day.
DAT Bootcamp: DAT Bootcamp really is awesome. It's Sciences are GREAT. I learned so much from this website, and it is by far the best deal out there. I never took a full length through BC, but I did complete their sub-section tests. The most beneficial way I learned to prepare for the sciences, ESPECIALLY the biology section, was to make flashcards for literally every question, and also all other explanations that BC provides when you read the solution. I know this sounds so, so tedious. But it really is what is going to work for the sciences. The biology section is completely unpredictable for the DAT, but if you at least have an idea of every question asked, you have a better chance of getting it right! Also, there are videos for GC and OC that are super helpful. I personally never watched the OC ones because I felt pretty confident with this section, but I did watch the GC, and they were awesome. The community on BC is also really great. Ari gets back to your questions within a couple of hours, which was really nice. BC is an awesome resource for PAT as well. Every section, BESIDES Keyholes, I believe was easier on the real DAT than what BC offered. This is a GOOD thing. It means that you probably will score higher on the real test than how you're doing on the sub section tests. I sure did!
Crack DAT PAT: I did all of the sub section tests from Crack DAT PAT, and again, harder than the real exam, MINUS Keyholes. If you can catch my drift, Keyholes are really freaking hard on the real thing.
Destroyer: Destroyer is really good for Biology and Math. Didn't even touch it for GC and OC. I felt like these sections were a bit overboard. All I did for the Biology questions was answer them and read the explanations. Pretty straight-forward, right? Yeah. And it helped. Seriously. I didn't complete every single Math Destroyer test. I probably did about 11. They were much harder than the real test, but I am still happy I did them because they are great practice.
For extra Full Length practice, I took the 2007 and 2009 ADA Practice Exams a couple of days before my real test. I scored a 22 AA/19 PAT on the 2007 and a 20 AA/21 PAT on the 2009. The 2009 was SUCH a drag. There are so many errors, and it's honestly more frustrating than helpful to take. I also took 2 of the 3 Achiever exams, and scored an 18 AA/18 PAT and a 17 AA/18 PAT. This was about a week before my actual exam. Those were also not that great. There a lot of glitches, and I think that their sciences are bit overboard.
IN CONCLUSION...
Sorry guys, I wasn't expecting this post to be so long! If you're looking for the best resource, I would go with Bootcamp, and if you can, those 5 Kaplan tests. Just put in the time for studying, and I know you can do it. If I can do it, I have no doubt that you can too! Good luck, guys! Let me know if you have any questions!
I just took my DAT today, and I thought I would give my feedback on how I studied and how it went. The scores I ended up making were:
Bio/GC/OC/TS/PAT/RC/QR/AA
23/20/23/22/20/23/20/22
I am an upcoming senior Biology major, and have 3.5 GPA. I have never really been a world-class standardized test taker, so coming from me, let this convince you that YOU CAN DO IT! As for studying, I began the day my finals ended in May. This was probably May 5th. I studied for on average about six hours per day until my test. I seriously started from the bottom. Like real, real bottom. My Kaplan Diagnostic was 14/15/22 (Bio/OC/GC), 12 (PAT), 19, 14 (RC/QR). So, from how I did on test day, I think I can be a good source as to how to conquer this test with two months of hard studying. My sources included: Kaplan Online Test Prep/Class, DAT Bootcamp, Crack DAT PAT, and DAT/Math Destroyer. I had SO many resources, basically because I was super nervous after my diagnostic scores, and I am here to tell you what I thought worked, and what didn't! Don't spend all your hard-earned money. Just spend some of it.
Kaplan Course: DO NOT spend money on this course. It is outrageously expensive, and definitely not worth it. If you can get your hands on the 5 practice exams, that would be the most beneficial. The class is really, REALLY lame. Looking back, I feel like I wasted three hours of my day for however long that class was. When it was time to complete the first Full Length Exam, about halfway through the course, I scored an 18 AA and a 12 PAT. I felt great that my Biology had improved, but other that, all of my other scores weren't that great. They tell you during the course that people usually don't improve their scores on the first Full Length, but by the second, you will be amazed. Not the case. I did WORSE on the second. And the third! Ha! PAT was slowly going up. But eh, I wasn't too impressed. I will say, however, that the Kaplan course was nice to get the feel of the PAT section. Beginning my studying, I had no clue what the PAT section even was. Taking baby steps through Kaplan helped me ease my way into the best strategies for mastering this section. Also, I had read so many feeds on SDN on how the Kaplan PAT section was very unrepresentative of the real DAT. I have to disagree on this. Besides the Keyholes and the Angles, I feel that the other sections were pretty accurate of the difficulty of the real thing. As for the sciences, RC, and QR, Kaplan's exams do a great job with their level of difficulty. For my Kaplan exams, I never scored that well. It was super discouraging, but don't let this bum you out! It really is true that every single practice test you take isn't going to tell you how you'll do on that test day.
DAT Bootcamp: DAT Bootcamp really is awesome. It's Sciences are GREAT. I learned so much from this website, and it is by far the best deal out there. I never took a full length through BC, but I did complete their sub-section tests. The most beneficial way I learned to prepare for the sciences, ESPECIALLY the biology section, was to make flashcards for literally every question, and also all other explanations that BC provides when you read the solution. I know this sounds so, so tedious. But it really is what is going to work for the sciences. The biology section is completely unpredictable for the DAT, but if you at least have an idea of every question asked, you have a better chance of getting it right! Also, there are videos for GC and OC that are super helpful. I personally never watched the OC ones because I felt pretty confident with this section, but I did watch the GC, and they were awesome. The community on BC is also really great. Ari gets back to your questions within a couple of hours, which was really nice. BC is an awesome resource for PAT as well. Every section, BESIDES Keyholes, I believe was easier on the real DAT than what BC offered. This is a GOOD thing. It means that you probably will score higher on the real test than how you're doing on the sub section tests. I sure did!
Crack DAT PAT: I did all of the sub section tests from Crack DAT PAT, and again, harder than the real exam, MINUS Keyholes. If you can catch my drift, Keyholes are really freaking hard on the real thing.
Destroyer: Destroyer is really good for Biology and Math. Didn't even touch it for GC and OC. I felt like these sections were a bit overboard. All I did for the Biology questions was answer them and read the explanations. Pretty straight-forward, right? Yeah. And it helped. Seriously. I didn't complete every single Math Destroyer test. I probably did about 11. They were much harder than the real test, but I am still happy I did them because they are great practice.
For extra Full Length practice, I took the 2007 and 2009 ADA Practice Exams a couple of days before my real test. I scored a 22 AA/19 PAT on the 2007 and a 20 AA/21 PAT on the 2009. The 2009 was SUCH a drag. There are so many errors, and it's honestly more frustrating than helpful to take. I also took 2 of the 3 Achiever exams, and scored an 18 AA/18 PAT and a 17 AA/18 PAT. This was about a week before my actual exam. Those were also not that great. There a lot of glitches, and I think that their sciences are bit overboard.
IN CONCLUSION...
Sorry guys, I wasn't expecting this post to be so long! If you're looking for the best resource, I would go with Bootcamp, and if you can, those 5 Kaplan tests. Just put in the time for studying, and I know you can do it. If I can do it, I have no doubt that you can too! Good luck, guys! Let me know if you have any questions!
