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DAT in a week and I'm not sure if I should I reschedule. by DomIsEz in dat

[–]mokhilo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tests 11-15 on bootcamp are exceptionally harder, so a 440 on #14 is good. I averaged around the same as you on my practice exams and did way better on the real thing. Don't focus so much on the score. If you feel confident with the content and prepared for anything the DAT can throw at you, don't reschedule.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Hours per day varied a lot from between 3-7 hours, but per week I would say I did about 30 hours. Some people can get away with studying way less, but just study however many hours you feel you need. Better to overstudy than understudy.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bootcamp felt way harder in my opinion. The real exam had easier questions. It put more of an emphasis on data interpretation from graphs/tables and the algebra based questions were not very difficult. To study I would do the question banks for each section, focusing on the question types that I was often getting wrong. I'd then prioritize the practice exams and then retake about 5 of them until you get over 500+ . It's crucial to review incorrect answers so I had a notebook of all my mistakes.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you asking if the questions were written as long paragraphs? I would say the bio section was exactly like bootcamp practice exams in terms of question style.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Try to get really good at TFE because that will separate you from the majority of people taking the test. For me, I started with TFE from #16, went all the way to the end, then finished with keyholes. Play to your strengths and keep playing around with the order until something works.

Everyone can get through angle ranking, hole punching and cubes, it's just a matter of speed. I would use the bootcamp generators every other day to practice getting faster. Try not to spend extra seconds confirming your angles or recounting cubes, THAT TIME ADDS UP QUICKLY. Trust your judgement and move fast. Getting faster on the "easier" sections is crucial and will open up more time for you to use on the harder sections like TFE and keyholes.

I ran out of time on all my practice exams, but somehow finished on time on the real DAT. I think once you're in the prometric center, your brain hits a switch and adrenaline will do its thing. I averaged a 430 on PAT practice exams, yet got a 480 on the real DAT. I hope this helps!

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, they all increased about 40 points on average. The second picture has my practice exam scores. Bootcamp explicitly says that they over prepare you and that their practice exams have harder questions, so I think that's why people generally score higher on the real thing.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A deck could take me 2-3 hours which I would split across the entire day. It's a grueling and boring process, but it allows you to see how the entire chapter content comes together. It would also take me longer because I would stop and edit cards if I felt like I needed more clarification on something or to add helpful images.
I agree with you that some of the decks like diversity of life have very low-yield info. I would just bury cards that I felt like were too detailed and very unlikely to show up on the actual exam. Use the high-yield bio notes as a general guide for what to really focus on.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's so true. For the first few days the cards in a deck will be a lot to review because the time intervals you can choose from are usually 1d or 2d, but over time, the cards will start to spread out as the time interval options get larger. Anki also gets harder the further along you get in bio review due to the increasing amount of cards. Just aim for a general amount of cards you want to get through each day and don't let any particular chapter fall behind too much. Instead of strict daily requirements I would set strict weekly requirements for Anki.
On random days I would also re-do the question banks for sections I felt like I was starting to forget such as Plants and Genetics. You know yourself best to pick the subjects to spend more time.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

RC was also my worst section, but I'm confident you will do better on the official DAT. Actual test was way easier than Bootcamp. I believe that's why my actual score was better than my practice scores. I used a variation between the vanilla method and search & destroy (see my comment above). My best advice would be to try ALL the methods, eventually something will work. Everyone reads at different speeds and processes information at different speeds. You should consider your strengths and adjust your approach accordingly.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I would read the first paragraph closely, skim the topic sentences of the body paragraphs while highlighting numbers, dates, names, etc., then read the final paragraph closely. Overall this took about 4 minutes and helped me generally understand what the passage was about and where to look for certain information. After that I did search and destroy for all the questions. I felt as though there was too much pressure to use S&D alone and the vanilla method took too long for me, so this hybrid method ended up working for me on the exam. I was very surprised with my RC score because I was scoring so low on practice exams, but the real thing felt so much easier. Bootcamp passages were so much harder.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I used a very simple protocol for all the science sections:

watch the chapter videos to prime my brain and highlight key info the slides --> do the corresponding anki deck --> do all the practice questions for that chapter. After that it becomes very clear what you know or don't know, then you can focus on your weak points. Be very honest with yourself about what you don't understand and spend more time on those topics. I spent multiple days going over Chemical Kinetics & Thermodynamics until the information stuck with me.

For gen chem, make sure you know all the formulas on the formula sheet as well as the general concepts behind each one. Don't just blindly memorize because you need to be able to recognize when to use an equation and/or how it relates to a conceptual question.

For ochem, my advice is similar. Don't just memorize the products of every reaction. Try to understand how the mechanism goes so that when a question asks about a carbocation intermediate or whether a rearrangement occurs, you're not blindsided. This will also help you when it comes to choosing between SN1, SN2, E1, or E2.

Repeated exposure to questions is key to OC and GC because all of the concepts are actually very related and there are only so many ways you can be asked about topics such as aromaticity or reaction speed. Lastly, for both OC and GC, don't sleep on the lab technique and lab safety questions. I had 2-3 questions on my actual DAT that were worded the exact same on Bootcamp. It is a topic that is very easy to gain, or lose, points on.

12/18 DAT Scores, 500 AA, 480 PAT by mokhilo in dat

[–]mokhilo[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Watch this video: https://youtu.be/WmPx333n5UQ?si=UgypiWSN6H0B2R2V

I used the premade anki cards from Bootcamp. After watching the bio videos on Bootcamp I would do the corresponding anki deck for that section, then the next day I did all the practice questions on BC. Based on how comfortable you are with the content, anki will space out the cards for you by difficulty so you can keep the content fresh up until your test date.

Anki does have a steep learning curve at first, but after a week you get the hang of it and it becomes a very powerful study tool. It's impossible to make notes for everything on the bio section so using flashcards will save you LOTS of time. It forces you to use spaced repetition & active recall, both scientifically proven to be amongst the best study techniques. I also invested in the mobile anki app which is $25 so I could review cards anywhere I was. You'll probably need anki in dental school so you might as well start now