From a content review perspective, do you recommend students approach the DAT in a substantially different way from the MCAT? I've heard that while the MCAT tends to prompt students to recall content through the use of passages, the DAT tends to reward students who are able to recall content without the passage prompting.
Thus, should those of us preparing for the one test or the other change our study methods substantially, or is the process of content review largely the same across the exams, while noting that there are some differences in what content is officially included for each exam?
Sorry for the long answer but there are a few things to consider!
If the old MCAT and DAT were like brother and sister, well now they are like 3rd cousins (you probably don’t know too many 3rd cousins very well!).
There are many important DAT topics that are either not on the MCAT or are so rare as MCAT questions that the topics are not properly covered in MCAT books. Here is a partial list: photosynthesis and plant biology, cladistics, population and community ecology, ecosystems, general chemistry laboratory techniques and glassware, alkane, alkene, alkyne, ether and aromatic chemistry, multi-step organic syntheses, and much more.
On the other hand, the MCAT now has significant non-DAT topics like Biochemistry, Psychology, Sociology and Statistics/research methods (yes, of course Physics, but that’s not new!).
If that’s not enough, let’s look at the part you are alluding to: the actual questions. Please take a look at Bloom’s Taxonomy:
https://tips.uark.edu/wp-content/up...my_pyramid_cake-style-use-with-permission.jpg
This is not a discussion of “what is easier, what is harder” because that depends on the person, study habits, etc. But it is important to underline that DAT NS questions tend to the lower part of the pyramid, and MCAT questions definitely tend towards the upper part (btw, a 2008 study in Science showed that MCAT does this better than many major standardized exams, and certainly, better than undergrad exams; it is also interesting to note that the ADA announced some measures a couple of years ago that would make the DAT more of a reasoning exam but those measures were cancelled a few months ago before being implemented).
If your aim is an average score, how you study (as opposed to what you study) might not make a significant difference. But if you want a top score, then studying for recall and studying for reasoning is really not the same, so you would study as if these exams are only slightly related.
Congratulations!
