Advice on when I should take the DAT

[sierra.s12]

Hello! I need advice on when I should take the DAT. Currently, I am going into my sophomore year of college as a pre-dental student majoring in Economics. My goal has been to take the DAT my sophomore summer; however, I found out too late that I needed to take chemistry my freshman year of college to do so. I plan to take general chemistry my sophomore year and organic chemistry my junior year. I know it is highly recommended to take organic chemistry before the DAT; however, I wanted to take a bootcamp prep course beforehand. Will this prepare me for the organic chemistry section on the DAT? Counselors, dentists, and dental students have all given me different pieces of advice. I am truly not sure how to proceed/what to do.

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[sunshinedental]

I would suggest taking your DAT at the end of Spring semester your junior year, just so that organic chemistry is fresh in your brain! I know you have probably heard a lot of different opinions, but I think that you would not need as much organic chemistry review other than practice tests and review of reactions/mechanisms if you decide to do it at this point. Other than that, if you decided to take it earlier, you would need to put a lot more focus on the OC section, since I feel as though there is a lot of emphasis on the second semester of organic chem. I think it just depends on how much time you want to dedicate to studying and how discipline you'll be with yourself when it comes to studying for the DAT. If you are a quick learner and can learn through mini videos, then maybe taking it after sophomore year will work for you! I know a few people on this site suggested studying for PAT a year in advance to pick up on those strategies, so if you would like to start studying after sophomore year that is always a possibility.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck this coming school year!