dentistcar
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2022
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 3
Hello everyone, I took the DAT for my third time last week and am hopeful to apply this upcoming cycle. I hope that this breakdown will aid in motivating someone to retake the test and continue to pursue the field of dentistry. For me, studying for the DAT was a process that was longer than expected, but I am thankful for the people that continued to encourage me and for the improvement of my study habits and time management.
First Attempt - DATBootcamp - (PAT: 18, QR: 15, RC: 20, BIO: 16, GC: 16, OC: 13, TS: 15, AA: 16)
I started “studying” for the DAT in February of 2020 (The spring of my Junior Year in undergrad). My DAT was scheduled for the end of May, leaving me around 4 months to study. As you all know, the world decided to stop in March, leading to the testing centers being closed and the delay to test days. My DAT was canceled and rescheduled 3 times until I finally was able to take the test on August 31st. For my first attempt, I relied solely on DATBootcamp to best prepare me for the exam. I started following the study schedule that was provided and quickly began to feel overwhelmed with the amount of material that was being asked of me to learn. I slowly fell behind in the study schedule due to the loss of family members and mental health issues. When August 31st (Test Day) came around, I was very nervous and filled with anxiety which caused me to only get about four hours of sleep. This definitely did not help at all. As you can see from the scores above, I struggled to take the test and it was time to decide what the next step to achieving my dream was.
Second Attempt - DATBootcamp - (PAT: 19, QR: 15, RC: 19, BIO: 16, GC: 16, OC: 18, TS: 16, AA: 17)
I decided that I was going to attempt to take the DAT utilizing Bootcamp again. I thought that because of everything that was going on in my life, distractions, and being in school was an issue that was contributing to my scores from the previous spring. Following graduation from my undergrad, I was working full time as a Dental assistant and I decided to take off work (only working 1-2 days a week) for 2.5 months and dedicate my extra time to studying for the DAT. This allowed me to have more time to engage in the material and follow the study schedule with fewer distractions. Now that I had the time, I was confident that I would start to see the results I hoped for the previous year. Following the same study schedule provided to me through DATBootcamp and studying with a friend/accountability partner, I still was not satisfied with the results. Looking back at it now, I know that I began to recognize the answers to questions from when I had studied for it previously and was not fully grasping the main objective DATBootcamp was attempting to teach. Although there was an improvement, I decided to hold off on applying to dental school and retake the DAT once more instead.
Third Attempt - DATBooster - (PAT: 22, QR: 18, RC: 22, BIO: 21, GC: 22, OC: 20, TS: 21, AA: 21)
Besides waiting and taking the DAT for the third time, I chose to improve other aspects of my application to maintain the motivation for my primary goal. I applied and got accepted into the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University and began the pursuit of earning an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences. With the upcoming cycle approaching, I decided to start planning out when I was going to start studying for the DAT again. I also looked into other resources to prevent what happened in attempt #2. For my third attempt, I only used DATBooster for learning the material and could not have been happier with my results. I ended up using DATBootcamp in the last week to just review the information that I learned from DATBooster. DATBooster provided me with the appropriate amount of material that I needed to learn while I worked full time and completed master-level courses. I would get off work around 3p and study as much as I could until around 10:30p-11p. I studied for about three months and remained very consistent with my studies.
PAT (22) - Completed what was recommended in the study schedule. Practiced 5 questions a day. TFE and pattern folding was my hardest and mainly focused on these.
QR (18) - Completed what was recommended in the study schedule. Continued to go over formulas and practice tests up until the day before I took the test. Math was never my favorite.
RC (22) - Aside from the extra practice readings and articles that are included in the study schedule, I did not dedicate much time to this section. This allowed me to find a method that was the most efficient and allowed me to answer and comprehend the reading material in a timely manner.
BIO (21) - Went through the assigned readings that were divided up perfectly for my schedule. When I found a topic that I did not quite understand, I would write it in a notepad and come back to it when my brain was fresh. When reviewing my practice biology tests/full-length tests, I would write every single question that I answered incorrectly down including the solution and reasons why the other options were incorrect. Questions from this section were very similar to the structure/topics on the actual test.
GC (21) - I did all of the reading and focused on memorizing the formula sheet that was provided through Booster. If I had any questions, I would look up examples, youtube videos, or message a DATBooster representative (thankfully, they responded in minutes).
OC (20) - I still had previous knowledge ingrained in my brain from studying for this in the past. But, DATBooster provided representable questions for the actual exam. Worked through the readings and watched a lot of solution videos in the question banks.
Overall, I wish I found DATBooster the first time I began to prepare for the test. I think the main reason I started with DATBootcamp was that DATBooster is a fairly new program and most people that I talked to about resources had gotten accepted into dental school at the time utilizing DATBootcamp. This is not a typical breakdown, but if one person reads this and decides to retake the test, it was worth the time sharing with you all.
First Attempt - DATBootcamp - (PAT: 18, QR: 15, RC: 20, BIO: 16, GC: 16, OC: 13, TS: 15, AA: 16)
I started “studying” for the DAT in February of 2020 (The spring of my Junior Year in undergrad). My DAT was scheduled for the end of May, leaving me around 4 months to study. As you all know, the world decided to stop in March, leading to the testing centers being closed and the delay to test days. My DAT was canceled and rescheduled 3 times until I finally was able to take the test on August 31st. For my first attempt, I relied solely on DATBootcamp to best prepare me for the exam. I started following the study schedule that was provided and quickly began to feel overwhelmed with the amount of material that was being asked of me to learn. I slowly fell behind in the study schedule due to the loss of family members and mental health issues. When August 31st (Test Day) came around, I was very nervous and filled with anxiety which caused me to only get about four hours of sleep. This definitely did not help at all. As you can see from the scores above, I struggled to take the test and it was time to decide what the next step to achieving my dream was.
Second Attempt - DATBootcamp - (PAT: 19, QR: 15, RC: 19, BIO: 16, GC: 16, OC: 18, TS: 16, AA: 17)
I decided that I was going to attempt to take the DAT utilizing Bootcamp again. I thought that because of everything that was going on in my life, distractions, and being in school was an issue that was contributing to my scores from the previous spring. Following graduation from my undergrad, I was working full time as a Dental assistant and I decided to take off work (only working 1-2 days a week) for 2.5 months and dedicate my extra time to studying for the DAT. This allowed me to have more time to engage in the material and follow the study schedule with fewer distractions. Now that I had the time, I was confident that I would start to see the results I hoped for the previous year. Following the same study schedule provided to me through DATBootcamp and studying with a friend/accountability partner, I still was not satisfied with the results. Looking back at it now, I know that I began to recognize the answers to questions from when I had studied for it previously and was not fully grasping the main objective DATBootcamp was attempting to teach. Although there was an improvement, I decided to hold off on applying to dental school and retake the DAT once more instead.
Third Attempt - DATBooster - (PAT: 22, QR: 18, RC: 22, BIO: 21, GC: 22, OC: 20, TS: 21, AA: 21)
Besides waiting and taking the DAT for the third time, I chose to improve other aspects of my application to maintain the motivation for my primary goal. I applied and got accepted into the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University and began the pursuit of earning an MPH in Environmental Health Sciences. With the upcoming cycle approaching, I decided to start planning out when I was going to start studying for the DAT again. I also looked into other resources to prevent what happened in attempt #2. For my third attempt, I only used DATBooster for learning the material and could not have been happier with my results. I ended up using DATBootcamp in the last week to just review the information that I learned from DATBooster. DATBooster provided me with the appropriate amount of material that I needed to learn while I worked full time and completed master-level courses. I would get off work around 3p and study as much as I could until around 10:30p-11p. I studied for about three months and remained very consistent with my studies.
PAT (22) - Completed what was recommended in the study schedule. Practiced 5 questions a day. TFE and pattern folding was my hardest and mainly focused on these.
QR (18) - Completed what was recommended in the study schedule. Continued to go over formulas and practice tests up until the day before I took the test. Math was never my favorite.
RC (22) - Aside from the extra practice readings and articles that are included in the study schedule, I did not dedicate much time to this section. This allowed me to find a method that was the most efficient and allowed me to answer and comprehend the reading material in a timely manner.
BIO (21) - Went through the assigned readings that were divided up perfectly for my schedule. When I found a topic that I did not quite understand, I would write it in a notepad and come back to it when my brain was fresh. When reviewing my practice biology tests/full-length tests, I would write every single question that I answered incorrectly down including the solution and reasons why the other options were incorrect. Questions from this section were very similar to the structure/topics on the actual test.
GC (21) - I did all of the reading and focused on memorizing the formula sheet that was provided through Booster. If I had any questions, I would look up examples, youtube videos, or message a DATBooster representative (thankfully, they responded in minutes).
OC (20) - I still had previous knowledge ingrained in my brain from studying for this in the past. But, DATBooster provided representable questions for the actual exam. Worked through the readings and watched a lot of solution videos in the question banks.
Overall, I wish I found DATBooster the first time I began to prepare for the test. I think the main reason I started with DATBootcamp was that DATBooster is a fairly new program and most people that I talked to about resources had gotten accepted into dental school at the time utilizing DATBootcamp. This is not a typical breakdown, but if one person reads this and decides to retake the test, it was worth the time sharing with you all.
