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Studying For The Dat While In Grad School?


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Hey all,

Has anyone written the DAT while they were in grad school/working full/over-time? I'm finishing up the first year of my Master's and am thinking of studying for the November DAT beginning of May. Sounds pretty early, but my program is so demanding that I think I'll really need it. I'll be taking a first-year English course May-August and then hopefully TAing starting September, so scheduling everything well and ahead of time will be a top priority.

If anyone can give their input with regards to scheduling and materials they used (I already have a bunch from the first time I wrote the DAT, but will really have to prioritize this second time around), then that would be greatly appreciated! :)

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I was working quasi-full-time (self-employed, realtor) and doing my undergrad (thesis year) while studying for the DAT

 

I used Kaplan blue book, Cliffs AP Biology & AP Chemistry (skipping the organic and non-relevant sections) and Crack the Dat Pat

 

Nothing more, nothing less.  I didn't use the Kaplan Blue book very much.. just the test quizzes.  I didn't really study for RC at all.

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Hahah malkynn I wish I could pull that off! It would make life so much easier (and I could actually see the sun over the summer  :P ). 

Thanks to you both for letting me know, though! I guess I need to have a bit more self-confidence in what I've retained from Nov 2013. We'll see I guess!

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That's very true. The first time around I spent maybe about a month and a half studying for it, but that was full-time. Did decently, though I felt like I could've covered bio and chem better. It's really a matter of predicting how much time my project and this English course will take, which is difficult since my schedule tends to be all over the place depending on my experiments >.>

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Yeah times are definitely changing...I'll have to apply to the States too because of how competitive it's getting here (especially for OOP applicants). Better to be safe than sorry, like you mentioned. At least if I start studying earlier everything will be more fresh by the time I start doing hardcore reviewing and practice tests! 
 

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I studied for it while working fulltime (mon-fri, 9-6) and mainly did so on weekends for a week or two. But I had done the American version twice within a year to when I did the Canadian, so I didn't need to study as much. I used Gold Standard and Kaplan. I liked Gold Standard better for most subjects because it didn't go into needless details that I won't remember or have to use on the exam like Kaplan did. Sometimes less is more. 

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I did my DAT while working full time, but took 1 week vacation before the test date to cram. It was my compromise between work and DAT, since I told myself I was only attempting the damn thing once.

 

Used pretty much the same resources as SK404 (except no DAT bootcamp, load of mcat books, princeton/EK/kaplan) and the DAT destroyer.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I took only the basic sciences I needed to apply, so just select chem and bio classes.

I didn't study from anything other than the little booklet they sent along with my soaps. Sorry, i'm not much help, but certainly you don't need more than a few intro science courses for the DAT, it's very basic material.

No worries! And thank you! :)  For now, I can't really take anymore science courses before the test, so I'm really just trying to find out good resources to study for it as a non-science major  :)

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I did the DAT while working 30 hrs + undergrad classes, I also had my 1st year courses like 5 years ago..... However I found the DAT to be not bad at all really, I did Chad's videos for chem, and memorizing the Cliff's and Kaplan blue book for bio (still didn't help much for the actual test, it had some super random questions about coelacanths). I bought the PAT package from crack the DAT, and I thought I was overprepared for that section. I also got the reading package from crack the DAT, but I recommend against it as it prepares you for MCAT style verbal, whereas DAT verbal is purely speed-read and scavenge hunting, minimal preparation needed.

 

Overall time 2 months, did 1 full day per week, did 2 days per week in the last 2 weeks. (so I guess only 10 days total....., but repetition over time is really helpful vs cramming)

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