Any suggestions for preparing for DAT during school year.

[orgolover]

Hi all, 

 So I understand that I can start studying for PAT and RC early in the summer since they are not content heavy and are completely based on practice. However, for CHEM and BIO sections do you

suggest studying for it during the school year from Sept to October?

I am planning to write DAT in November. 

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

[qwerty2222]

I would start in the summer, study the chem and bio content then review it on weekends leading up to the DAT. I would say it is better than cramming it in right before while you are taking classes. You need to remember that you may have less time than you think depending on the workload of your classes. Typically in any given day I would study some bio or chem then do one other section practice exam (ie. study DAT relevant ecology and do RC, then the next day do DAT relevant thermodynamics and do PAT). 

Always do it timed, never do it leisurely because it is very much so a time-crunch exam- if you had all the time in the world it wouldn't be that difficult of an exam. 

Develop your exam strategy (esp for RC) and practice it well so you are prepared to do it exactly as you practiced on the day of. 

 

[orgolover]

22 minutes ago, qwerty2222 said:

I would start in the summer, study the chem and bio content then review it on weekends leading up to the DAT. I would say it is better than cramming it in right before while you are taking classes. You need to remember that you may have less time than you think depending on the workload of your classes. Typically in any given day I would study some bio or chem then do one other section practice exam (ie. study DAT relevant ecology and do RC, then the next day do DAT relevant thermodynamics and do PAT). 

Always do it timed, never do it leisurely because it is very much so a time-crunch exam- if you had all the time in the world it wouldn't be that difficult of an exam. 

Develop your exam strategy (esp for RC) and practice it well so you are prepared to do it exactly as you practiced on the day of. 

 

Thank you for your suggestions. I am using the following materials  for the content review.

Kaplan DAT 2017-2018 ( I am only going through BIO and CHEM sections)

AP Cliff Bio

DAT bootcamp - for PAT

Do you recommend any other resources?

 

[garlerey]

11 minutes ago, Dan- the DDS said:

Thank you for your suggestions. I am using the following materials  for the content review.

Kaplan DAT 2017-2018 ( I am only going through BIO and CHEM sections)

AP Cliff Bio

DAT bootcamp - for PAT

Do you recommend any other resources?

 

I would highly recommend using DAT destroyer for biology and chemistry instead of Kaplan because Kaplan is too easy. If you do use Kaplan, use it very sparingly as a review and a teaching tool. But rely more on DAT destroyer for challenging bio and chem practice. Additionally, if you're writing the Canadian DAT. Print out your PAT exercises (especially angle ranking) as it's a different strategy on-monitor vs on-paper. 

Good luck! You're ahead of the game already by starting now 

 

EDIT: spelling mistakes

[orgolover]

14 minutes ago, sel397 said:

I would highly recommend using DAT destroyer for biology and chemistry instead of Kaplan because Kaplan is too easy. If you do use Kaplan, use it very sparingly as a review and a teaching tool. But rely more on DAT destroyer for challenging bio and chem practice. Additionally, if you're writing the Canadian DAT. Print out your PAT exercises (especially angle ranking) as it's a different strategy on-monitor vs on-paper. 

Good luck! You're ahead of the game already by starting now 

 

EDIT: spelling mistakes

What about RC section? I see Kaplan has a section on RC which I know is very easy compared to the real one. Are there any specific resources for RC section?

[garlerey]

3 hours ago, Dan- the DDS said:

What about RC section? I see Kaplan has a section on RC which I know is very easy compared to the real one. Are there any specific resources for RC section?

Honestly there isn't one resource for RC that I personally would recommend. I would suggest perhaps seeking out MCAT CARS exercises. CARS is a bit harder than DAT's RC but it's always better to challenge yourself. Maybe dabble in Kaplan RC, DAT Prep, and other DAT RC books first. Then using CARS once you feel like you have a feel of the strategy/method you want to use. Always time yourself though so that you build up endurance for the real thing. 

I used Barron's DAT and thought that was a medium-ish level for RC. McGraw Hill's resources were also a bit more challenging than Kaplan's. Another useful strategy would be to read scientific literature like review papers and some introductory philosophy readings. I literally used every textbook that I could get my hands on in my library for some free DAT resources and some MCAT to supplement some areas. I got a 23 RC on my first try of the DAT (I think that it helped that I minored in Philosophy so I had some experience with critical reading). 

I would also recommend practicing RC on paper rather than on a computer monitor. 

Good luck!

[qwerty2222]

I just used IQ publications prep books with a few additional MDT carving patterns for online. I found it to be quite comparable to the DAT. 

In my opinion CARS on the MCAT is 10x harder than RC on the DAT, but that might just be me. The hardest part about the DAT is the time constraints but the helpful thing is they seem to use same vocab in the questions as the passage. Thus I just used search and destroy and didn't actually read the passages, I found very little need to comprehend the passage. 

 

[cleanup]

This is from an era ago but I found IQ Publications useless for the PAT. Its answers were blatantly wrong. Questions made by someone who didn't bother checking anything.

[qwerty2222]

^ yes there are at least 5 errors but otherwise I found it comparable. Some years seem to be harder than others for the DAT. I really found speed to be the limiting factor though, so to me the more important skill is learning how to write the test not the questions themselves. 

[DentalDayum]

DAT bootcamp really worked for me! I studied everything I could from it. The practice tests really challenged me.

I started studying in early August for the DAT in November. I did a little bit everyday, but taking a break here or there (like on Thanksgiving or something). I don't know how busy you are, but believe me, there is always more time in the day to study for the DAT. Fit it in wherever you can, whether that's before class, commuting, or for some light reading before bed (haha).

You can do it!

[orgolover]

1 hour ago, DentalDayum said:

DAT bootcamp really worked for me! I studied everything I could from it. The practice tests really challenged me.

I started studying in early August for the DAT in November. I did a little bit everyday, but taking a break here or there (like on Thanksgiving or something). I don't know how busy you are, but believe me, there is always more time in the day to study for the DAT. Fit it in wherever you can, whether that's before class, commuting, or for some light reading before bed (haha).

You can do it!

I have heard bootcamp is really good. I may have to invest some money in it to get membership. Also, do you suggest creating notes for the BIO and CHEM sections so I can review them at the very end. I started studying recently and I am afraid that I might forget few things here and there. I understand that doing practice problems on the bootcamp is a key and can help to get things stick in my brain. Any advice on that is really appreciated.

[Super Nova]

Creating your own BIO and CHEM notes will never be a bad thing! Using them to review concept that you wrote yourself is an excellent idea to help make you remember things over a period of time. All the advice that has been given here so far is very good and i think you have a good idea of what resource you should use to study. I can vouch for some of the things that were said and add on to it.

BIO and CHEM: Your current resource of Kaplan + AP cliffs Bio will give you a good understanding of topics and you will do well. However, i agree there are far more representative materials out there. As sel397 said, Kaplan is a little bit outdated and therefore does not match the difficulty as well. But if you use another resource in conjunction with kaplan and AP cliffs, i think you would be good. 

PAT: Again i agree that the best practice comes from doing the PAT on paper as sel mentioned but cleanup and qwerty are right in saying that IQ publications is not the way to go. Severely outdated, has mistakes, and its simply not representative of the actual exam. I would strongly recommend datcrusher for this section. Nothing came close to it in my experience and i tried everything from IQ all the way to achiever (which was way overkill). Their unlimited printable generators made the actual test a joke since i got so fast and accustomed to doing it on paper. 

RC: Some say this section is impossible to study for and some say there is a methodology to it and i would say i am somewhere in between. On one hand, a predictor of how you do depends on how familiar you are with the chosen subject topic. Say on test day an article about engines shows up and you have an above average knowledge on the topic due to your upbringing or interests, then you will have a easier time reading the passage then a student who does not have that knowledge. last cycle actually, crusher had a passage on their site that showed up on the actual test. More luck then anything i assume but reading the forums it seemed like it helped a lot of kids out. On the other hand, having a sound approach and methodology to the RC is beneficial also. Irregardless of that though, we can all agree that reading in general to speed up your skill and comprehension will obviously have no downfall. And i think you will get that with many of the resources. Whether they are representative of the difficulty you will face on the DAT however, that is a different topic all together. I'd say, whatever resource you currently have that has an RC component, use it, even if its just reading scientific articles online. The more the better! Because again with the exception of maybe IQ publications, resources like crusher, bootcamp, crackdat, probably even kaplan, will give you that exposure!

[DentalDayum]

21 hours ago, orgolover said:

I have heard bootcamp is really good. I may have to invest some money in it to get membership. Also, do you suggest creating notes for the BIO and CHEM sections so I can review them at the very end. I started studying recently and I am afraid that I might forget few things here and there. I understand that doing practice problems on the bootcamp is a key and can help to get things stick in my brain. Any advice on that is really appreciated.

I read through Cliff's AP and I believe at the end of each section they have a summary. I'd study the summary to jog my memory a bit.then I took the DAT bootcamp quizzes and then studied all the answers I got wrong. By then end of it (like 3-4 days before my DAT) I just read and reviewed all the stuff (including for chem, etc) for 8hrs a day. It was crazy, but paid off with a 27BIO.

[Starburst]

My scores on the 2018 February DAT:
Bio: 25  (Used Kaplan, Cliff's Notes and made my own notes)
Chem: 30 (Used Chad's videos, Crusher, Bootcamp)
PAT: 24 (Used Crusher, Bootcamp)
RC: 23 (Used random internet resources, Crusher, Bootcamp)
AA: 26 

I strongly recommend you go over all the topics listed on CDA's website (https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/information/) and know every topic for Biology and Chemistry VERY WELL. To give you some perspective how I studied, I went over Chad's videos once, the Kaplan book twice, and all of my notes several times. This was followed by a lot of practice tests to know where my weaknesses were. For the PAT, I used a combination of both Bootcamp and Crusher's tests, and when I had spare time I would use printable generators from Crusher to print out PAT worksheets (this is key! There's a huge difference between practicing the PAT on paper like the real DAT versus practicing on a computer). And at the end, I was consistently scoring close to perfect on all of those PAT sections. For the RC, I read a passage/article every night before going to bed and wrote down as much detail as I could remember. Over time, I was able to build my reading comprehension skills and some stamina. At the end of all of this, the most important thing I learned was that if you want to do exceptionally well, you have to work your butt off and then you'll get the score that you deserved. Inbox me if you have any questions