[flossplz]

Sunday 17 Nov. 2019:

10:19pm - 4:45am:

DATBootcamp daily warmup (3/5, 66 s/q)

reviewed 184 anki biology cards

finished outlining AP Bio [14] “Ecology”

created 26 anki flashcards for AP Bio [14] “Ecology”

Monday 18 Nov. 2019:

5:34pm - 4:15am:

DATBootcamp daily warmup (3/5, 76 s/q)

reviewed 83 anki biology cards

outlined AP Bio [13] "Animal Behavior"

created 26 anki flashcards for AP Bio [13] "Animal behavior"

_____

I have 12 days left to finish the last two chapters of Cliff's AP Bio, both which are fairly long and thoroughly cover animal physiology. My parents occasionally ask about my DAT progress, and I have proudly informed them of my goal to finish bio by December 1st is nearing completion. Look mom, I'm doing it :-)

As I outline Cliff’s AP Bio, I write down some of the neat factoids about what I learned and share them with Violet on her work breaks. hehehe

[flossplz]

Monday 11 Nov. 2019:

11:11am - 6:08pm:

reviewed 178 anki biology cards (94% correct)

finished outlining AP Bio [10] “Plant physiology”

_____

Tuesday 12 Nov. 2019:

12:17pm - 4:23pm:

DATbootcamp daily warmup (5/5, 41 s/q)

reviewed 93 anki biology cards (96% correct)

created 36 anki flashcards for AP Bio [10] “Plant physiology”

_____

The bad news update: no weekend studying lullllzzz

The good news update: An amazing woman named Violet who I knew five years ago came back into my life this past weekend and now we're dating again. Her energy is remarkable, which further motivates me to finish this chapter of my life and return to being financially independent. We’ve already gone on three dates in the past week, and she always encourages me to finish my studying for the day prior to meeting together. I honestly did not expect my life to turn this way but I’m feeling truly blessed.

Four chapters remaining in Cliff's AP Bio; I've decided to temporarily skip the physiology chapters to complete [14] Ecology first.

[flossplz]

Wednesday 06 Nov. 2019:

11:10pm - 1:51am:

DATBootcamp daily warmup (5/5, 31 s/q)

Reviewed 104 biology anki cards (88% correct)

_____

Thursday 07 Nov. 2019:

2:13am - 4:09am:

Started outlining AP bio [10] “Plant physiology”

Created 28 anki flashcards for AP Bio [10] “Plant physiology”

7:55pm - 9:48pm:

DATbootcamp daily warmup (2/5, 27 s/q)

Reviewed 119 biology anki cards (95% correct)

_____

Gonna try and push weekends now to keep the December 1st deadline for finishing Cliff's AP Bio.

[flossplz]

Tuesday 05 Nov. 2019:

7:11pm - 1:58am:

DBC warmup (2/5, 50 s/q)

reviewed 85 anki biology cards (94% correct)

finished outlining AP Bio [09] “Biodiversity”

created 44 anki flashcards for AP Bio [09] “Biodiversity”

_____

Finally out of the rut of the biodiversity chapter! I’m starting to shift back to studying at night versus the daytime, which I don’t mind because I get distracted less by texts and notifications.

The animal biodiversity section was much smoother to outline than I thought. Fun fact: It’s been almost six years since I took the corresponding macro-biology course at the undergraduate level. It was also the only A I ever got in a bio lecture.

[flossplz]

one textbook to rule them all

[flossplz]

Monday, 04 Nov. 2019:

11:24am - 6:01pm:

reviewed 84 biology anki flashcards (92% correct)

continued outlining AP Bio [09] “Biodiversity”

created 27 anki flashcards for AP Bio [09] “Biodiversity”

_____

I'm suspicious that the biodiversity section is a trap. I say this because the bacteria, protist, and fungi sections are very detailed in Cliff's AP Bio but seem to be absent in DBC's bio outline. If I weren't already balls deep into this section, I would have skipped it until the very end of bio reviewing. Sunk-cost fallacy in full force today.

[flossplz]

Progress on DAT biology review completion. Cliff's AP Bio, 3rd edition.

Nine chapters and 447 flashcards finished in about five weeks.

Five and a half more chapters to go :-)

[flossplz]

Sunday, 03 Nov. 2019:

5:13pm - 7:47pm:

DATbootcamp warmup (3/5, 52 s/q)

reviewed 168 anki biology flashcards (94% correct)

continued outlining AP Bio [09] “Biodiversity”

created 44 anki flashcards for [09] “Biodiversity”

_____

Taking 3 days off anki was brutal. oof. 168 card review.

I've made it my goal to be 100% finished with all DAT biology by December 1st, which is five and a half more chapters of Cliff's AP Bio and probably 750 more anki cards. Looking forward to having this subject on the backburner as I crawl closer to starting ochem and scheduling the real DAT test date.

[flossplz]

Wednesday, 30 Oct. 2019:

10:44am - 3:08pm:

DATbootcamp warmup (5/5; 61 s/q)

reviewed 80 anki biology flashcards (95% correct)

created 69 anki cards for AP Bio [08] “Evolution”

7:22pm - 9:16pm:

started outlining AP Bio [09] “Biodiversity”

practiced TFE on PATbooster

_____

Yeeeeeet. It took exactly two weeks to catch up with writing anki flashcards for the notes I had already taken for biology. Also I’m officially more than half way finished with Cliff’s AP Bio. Feels good man.

[flossplz]

Tuesday, 29 Oct. 2019:

5:15pm - 10:27pm:

DATbootcamp warmup (4/5, 88 s/q)

reviewed 95 anki biology flashcards (84% correct)

created 70 more anki flashcards for AP Bio [07] “Molecular genetics”

_____

Anki is really just something else. Spaced repetition feels illegal; it's like I’m harnessing forbidden memory magic or something. If I had known about Anki five years ago, I would have likely already become a dentist and probably would have gotten perfect marks in undergrad biology. oooooooooooooof

[flossplz]

Monday 28 Oct. 2019:

12:01pm - 2:07 pm:

DATbootcamp warmup (5/5, 42 s/q)

re-watched TFE videos on PATbooster

4:52pm - 6:42pm:

created 29 anki flashcards for AP Bio [07] “Molecular genetics”

_____

I hate TFE. Hate it hate it hate it hate it. Those are my thoughts of the day.

[flossplz]

Friday, 25 Oct. 2019:

1:50pm - 2:25pm:

DATbootcamp warmup (4/5, 59 s/q)

Went through bio anki deck

_____

Fridays and Saturdays are essentially off-days for studying because traffic is bad and the campus library isn’t open 24 hours. Probs not gonna make future blog posts for days that are only spent reviewing anki and doing the daily warmup.

[flossplz]

Thursday, 24 Oct. 2019:

5:03am - 5:23am:

DATbootcamp warmup (2/5, oof)

10:03am - 1:38pm:

created 56 anki cards for AP Bio [06] Heredity

_____

I finally caught on that the DBC daily warmup always has the same composition for its five daily questions: one bio, two GC, one PAT, then one QR.

At the current stage of my DAT progress, I usually always get the bio and PAT questions correct, and then the remaining three questions are a crapshoot of my degree intuition and really fast googling. For every problem I miss, I’ve been keeping a binder of those questions with detailed solutions. Ideally, this should save me some time once I reach the respective sections in GC and QR.

[flossplz]

looks like it’s time to step up my hashtag game

[flossplz]

Wednesday, 23 Oct. 2019:

1:34am - 7:21am:

DATbootcamp warmup (4/5; 36 s/q)

watched PATbooster vids on pattern folding

watched PATbooster vids on cube counting

took PATbooster untimed test #01 (see below)

_____

Gotta say I’m pretty darn happy with the PAT test result. Doing all six sections was much more exhausting than I had anticipated, so I ended up skipping TFE at the end because I had already been studying for the entire night. I averaged 63 seconds per question (excluding TFE), and need to lower it to 40 over the next few weeks.

Still playing around with my text formatting to find what I think looks best on web browser as well as mobile, hmMMMmMMMmm

[flossplz]

PAT difficulty tier list:

22 Oct. 2019:

My initial thoughts after reviewing the basics and casually practicing on DBC/PATbooster for a few weeks... I think it’ll be interesting to compare this list after I’m finished with the real DAT.


Ordered from hardest to easiest in my opinion:

pattern folding

TFE

keyhole

cube counting

hole punching

angle ranking (could probably do this section blindfolded lolol)

thoughts?

[flossplz]

Tuesday, 22 Oct. 2019:

1:55am - 6:05am:

Reviewed 112 anki flashcards (90.18% correct)

DATbootcamp warmup (4/5; 67 s/q)

finished notes on AP Bio [04] Photosynthesis

created 22 anki flashcards for AP Bio [04] Photosynthesis

10:15am - 11:30am:

created 28 anki flashcards for AP Bio [05] Cell Cycle

PATbooster angle ranking generator