Sangah Lee | 24 AA
You should start by watching all of the crash course videos included ochem, chem, and math videos and going over everything on bio section one time to have it all fresh in my mind. Get yourself a Crack DAT Full Prep Package, download all Crack DAT free app to your phone for 6 months before the DAT. I did over 10 PAT training games every day from all types of sections during that time.
After taking practice tests, I’d recommend looking at every right answer, as well as all explanations for wrong answers for every question the first time you go through it. If you get something wrong, look up that type of problem to better understand why it was wrong and the whole scope of that section.
Also, you should read some scientific American articles and journals every day, while asking, who, what, where, when, hows on everything. Make sure that you could understand them well. Crack DAT Reading app and videos are super helpful for reading sessions. I usually read the questions first before I read the passage. I’m not sure if this can be applied to everyone, but you can try different ways and see which is best for yourself.
How did you use Crack the DAT to prepare for the DAT?
I did not have good grades in my college organic chem classes, so I had to find a way to get a higher score on this session. I looked up multiple resources from other test preps, but they were very expensive. Then, I heard many of my friends recommended using Crack the DAT. I signed up for a trial account and found their crash course videos were really engaging, easy to understand and remember. After getting a membership, I watched all of the crash course videos and followed the provided study guide.
A month before the test, I started taking the entire practice test and time myself. I marked all the answers I got wrong and took a break for the rest of the day. The next day, I read/watched the correct answers/explanations videos and review what topic/questions I missed. Crack the DAT allowed me to keep track of my practice score, and as I got closer to the real test, I started going a little harder on my weaker sections.
I also find that Crack the PAT to be pretty accurate in predicting my actual score. For cube counting, instead of counting all the cubes for the one picture and tallying up the ones with 1 side, 2, 3, etc. It could be faster and more accurate to just count the ones that they were asking for. For example, the first question asks how many 2 sided cubes, start from one corner and moving up row by row and count up only the 2 sided cubes, and select your answer. Then, the second question shows the same picture, but this time 4 sided. Now you can count up only the 4 sided ones and so on.
What would you do differently to prepare for the DAT?
I wish I remembered more tricks for the PAT section by doing more practice tests. This way I could get an idea of how much time I had for each question because the PAT section moved really fast during the test.
I could have set myself a limit for how many seconds I want to spend on a question for each section. Therefore, I can just pick an answer and mark it and move on if I didn’t get it within the time limit. These skills can totally be mastered during practice. The more practice test you take, the less stressed and more comfortable with the testing format and timing you will be.