Anyone Wrote Both The Dat And The Mcat

[gunneriloveottawa]

studying for the MCAT but also want to write the DAT as well.... can anyone comment on how similar they are ... is there anything id be missing content wise? 

[MT_93]

I wrote the MCAT over the last 4 years, this year having actually studied average 10hrs a day for two months. They are not similar, in that the MCAT is much harder. 

I only studied for PAT and MDT, but did practice BIO, CHEM , and RCT in each practice exam. I got 19bio, 20chem, 20reading. The mcat prepared me for the DAT alot, and I found studying very FUN comapred to MCAT. I always had a blast doing PAT and carving soap. I would 100% reccomend writing it. 

[MT_93]

Also, all the evolutionary bio i guessed becuase I didn't care since my goal is UofA for dent

[jumpjump0904]

I've written the MCAT & canadian DAT not too far apart. I wrote the MCAT in late August, and DAT in November this year, and I am happy pitch in.

 

They are quite different exams actually - I would say MCAT, there's definitely more APPLYING of knowledge in Chem/Phys/Bio sections whereas DAT involves more rote memorization. I also found it odd that DAT bio seemed a little skewed in terms of their coverage of topics; be sure to read up on ecology/evolution for DAT, as those are the topics you likely won't have covered for MCAT.

 

For CARS/reading comprehension, MCAT passages are much denser and questions require more inference than DAT. DAT passages are also much easier to read through, especially if you come from a science background, and were MOSTLY pulling from the passages. Personally, I prepped quite a bit for MCAT CARS and unfortunately only ended up with 127, whereas for DAT, I did absolutely zero preparation and ended up with 25 for RCT. So, you can see how these two evaluate different skill sets. I think as long as you improve your reading speed through CARS prep, I honestly don't think you will need to do extra work for DAT RCT.

 

PAT - I think you do need the time and practice for this section. Maybe consider doing some PAT practice alongside your MCAT prep from now

 

Hope this is of some help - Best of luck on your exams!

[Kentucky Fried Blaziken]

I wrote it quite a few years ago but jmp summed it up pretty well. MCAT will give you science passages about astrophysics or molecular engineering or some stupidly daunting topic, but then asks you to apply your basic principles on the questions. DAT's science is much more do you know your facts? also watch a lot of planet earth loll.

 

PAT obv gotta practice cuz its not on the MCAT.

 

I dunno about the new DAT's RC, but the MCAT RC I felt like I could study 5 more years and never do better, because it's about time management and reading between the lines. I hear the new DAT is harder but people said still easier than MCAT's RC (or CARS w.e).

 

is there a social science section on the MCAT now? dat shit cray.

[XrainX]

I wrote the new MCAT this summer (129/127/128/131) and last summer (129/126/131/130). I wrote the DAT this November (22 Bio 22 Chm 25 RC 21 PAT).

 

Bio - should study ecology/taxonmy for the DAT. I did not do this and purely guessed on about 5 questions but ended up lucky with a good score.

 

Chm - no need to study more topics, just do practice questions.

 

RC - super straight forward compared to CARS with heavy focus on detail questions. Do practice questions to get timing down.

 

PAT - focus and practice this as there are no transferrable skills from the MCAT.

 

Good luck!

[sirsam]

wrote both the DAT and MCAT 4 years ago

 

MCAT - 38 (14 Physics/13 Bio/11 Verbal)

DAT - 22 AA 24 PAT

 

The science section of the DAT was more memorization and the plants questions shocked me (13 bio on MCAT but only 20 on DAT).

 

The verbal section was definitely much harder on the MCAT than the RC on the DAT. Don't know about the new CARS though. 

 

PAT is a beast that requires a lot of practice. Good luck!