DAT resources for 1st Year Student

[ubcstudent]

Hey guys,

I'm a first year student looking to prepare for and write the DAT in the next year. There seems to be countless pricey resources available which makes it hard to narrow down what to use. Can anyone who has written the DAT (and did well) give me a brief overview of the best resources to be had for the Canadian DAT. Additionally, do you think it might be too early for me to write the DAT while only being in first year?

Thank you.

[BMT]

Hey .. Its never too early. If anything you're putting yourself at an advantage. I highly recommend DAT BootCamp. But you're gonna need like 3 months to actually cover everything. For the bio section .. Read or memorize (whatever your method is) all the details below every question. Personally I keep bio for the last 10 days. Cram everything when it comes to bio. And their chem .. Great videos and questions they have to offer. And pat is phenomenal. Their explanation is very helpful. But like I said .. You're gonna actually need about 3 months to cover everything and be fully confident. Hope that was helpful. 

[hopefuldentist22]

Just be careful because some schools require your DAT scores to be within 2 years when you apply. So if you apply in your fourth year you won't be able to use your first year scores (could be a good thing if you do bad and want to retake it or a bad thing if you did really well, you probably will have to take it again). I would say if you are applying in your fourth year, February of your second year and onwards are pretty safe times to write it. Be sure to check with the schools you want to apply to, every school is different. 

[longteethgriffy]

Never too early to start studying or at least brushing up on material to get ready. I started in my first year summer studying for the DAT. Although it might seem temping to just start studying now, its probably more beneficial to focus on your school work and grades and maybe leave DAT review for when you actually have free time. Chemistry should be pretty simple and not require much materials. For Biology, since you're a first year and haven't probably learned that much, CliffsNotes AP biology might be very helpful for you. As for the PAT, you don't need to overload on a crazy amount of resources like a lot of people say to (unless you really want to). Just find practice questions from a DAT review book and do them.

[Super Nova]

12 hours ago, YaBoyTaeshawn said:

Although it might seem temping to just start studying now, its probably more beneficial to focus on your school work and grades 

Tempting? LOL damn, i feel like most students try to push it off as much as they can and start studying around September for November DAT. 

as for resources, depends on your strengths and weaknesses and how much $$ you are willing to spend. Some of them are pretty pricey. datootcamp is good but filled with things you wont use (probably why the cost is so high), datcrusher is great but you wont have as many practice questions, Crackthedat is lower quality but they have a lot of practice questions (not sure what their price is right now you would have to check), and then there are IQ publication books which are kind of outdated but they offer the ultimate advantage of having it all on paper like the real exam. There are a bunch of other resources out there that have been hit or miss with student feedback so i wont comment on those here.  

[smileon]

While I agree with those who have said focus on GPA, that being said, some early paced DAT prep certainly is a good idea - particularly if you're not by nature a "last minute crammer". I also started really early, and just got into a routine (obviously skipped looking at DAT during exam periods and midterms etc). I used Cliff notes, Kaplan, online material, and every darn RC passage I could get my hands on. (I think RC benefits the most from an early start - it really is building up speed more than anything else, which can't be done at the last minute)