2021 DAT Breakdown (28AA/26TS/18PAT)

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platypus2187

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Hi all I've been a long time lurker on these DAT forums and thought it would be nice to write a breakdown since it helped me a lot. @Dota 2 Player was one of the most helpful breakdowns ever - highly recommend you read over it!

Scores:
PAT - 18 (lol)
QR - 27
RC - 30
Bio - 27
GC - 30
OC - 24
TS - 26
AA - 28

Background:
Currently a senior with a 3.80~ GPA.

Materials Used (in order of helpfulness):
  1. ANKIIII - bless this program please use it. I made separate decks for each subject of the DAT and put problems I got wrong and my notes into it so I would constantly see it. I changed the interval so I would see the cards every 14 days. It forced me to review my notes pretty effortlessly because all the test info was there. At the end, I had about 7000 cards for biology, ~700 orgo, ~400 chem with about 47K reviews racked up. I will say to keep up with your reviews. Some days I didn't want to do it, so biology ended up with 4500 cards due a day... I'll be taking a very long break from this program just cause fatigue
  2. DAT Booster - I believe this program is the most representative of the exam (also it's cheaper). The program is relatively new so they are still working on adding additional question banks for each of the subjects. The biology I will say is very representative of the exam and helped me apply the sheer amount of biology info. Their rewritten version of Feralis biology notes is honestly all the biology you need to learn for the exam. I went through the original Feralis notes and the new rewritten ones to make sure I wasn't missing anything and the team covered everything. My test scores were all higher than what I got on the subject tests there. I found math being a tad harder, but it helped prepare me for the section especially those tricky probability ones. Their PAT is prolly the best on the market, but I was very lazy and didn't really use it.
  3. DAT Bootcamp - I thoroughly enjoyed Mike's videos and video explanations. I believe they were super helpful for the exam and all the info presented from Mike was fair game for the exam. This program was definitely harder than the actual exam and it really helped me hone down the science concepts with all the question banks they have. Please take advantage of the easy, medium, difficulty tag because you can save a lot of time not going over questions you already know.
  4. DAT Destroyer/Math destroyer - The biology section and QR is amazing for the DAT. I feel like those two sections represent what 'hard questions' you can potentially see on the DAT. I went over biology and QR three times. GC and OC I was very lazy with and I felt like they weren't representative of the sections as there were either too many calculations or very technical terminology you felt you needed to memorize. I felt that my study energy could be better focused on the other test banks from either Booster or BC since those questions are higher yield.
Study Timeline:
I highly recommend you make your own study schedule with the goals you want to achieve each day. The amount of hours you sink in doesn't matter because you could be really distracted the whole time. Even if you studied for '9 hours' if you weren't able to go through all the problems you wanted = not very efficient. My goals for each day were unrealistic and I was constantly adjusting because stuff would overflow to the next day. Give a chunk of days with nothing scheduled as insurance if you fall behind. My timeline is a little wonky.
  1. Summer 2020: Did some research on what materials to use for DAT studying and decided on Bootcamp, PAT Booster, and Destroyer. Read a lot of breakdowns and got stressed lol. Scheduled my exam to take in August. Slowly worked through each subject by going through BC videos/notes/any material related to it. I was the type of person who just wanted to grind through the whole subject I hated jumping from a subject to the next and having leftover things to do, so that's what I did. I focused on a subject each for like 1-2 weeks by taking digital notes of each subject on OneNote. For bio, I imported the DAT BC short notes and just annotated it with the long note's extra information. Come August I didn't feel ready to take the exam and I didn't take it as seriously as I would like myself to, so I pushed it to December. I had about a month left for my Bootcamp subscription so I asked the team to freeze my subscription so I could focus on Destroyer (I told myself I would do the problems, but I did not).
  2. Fall/Winter 2020: I told myself I would study, but I didn't from August-October I took a break. I started studying in November again, but because I had already had my notes and Anki cards made the process was basically going over notes again. After reviewing the material, I decided to pick up DAT Booster (since my PAT Booster expired) and unfreeze my Bootcamp. This probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I went through DAT destroyer bio notes, Feralis notes, Feralis rewritten notes, and Bootcamp long and short notes. It basically took me all of November to do this because I was adding nuance details from each resource into my bio Anki deck (if you wondered how I ended up with 7000 notes cards it's cause I imported BC's Anki and added what was not covered in it). I did all the questions from Booster, Bootcamp, and biology/chem/math for Destroyer. With questions I got wrong, I would take the reasoning on reword it into Anki so I wasn't just memorizing the problems I got wrong.
  3. January 2021: I got stressed and pushed my DAT back by 2 weeks. I didn't want my exam seeping into my classes so I just told myself to take it and get it over with. Leading up to the test I reviewed all the problems I've gotten wrong before and grinded Anki because I kept falling behind. I started suspending the notes I felt were very easy and I already knew to save on time.

Day of Exam
  • Bio (27): It was very straightforward with one question I wasn't too sure of. Make sure you read VERY carefully how the question is phrased can really change the answer. I had a gut feeling for that question, but I changed my answer rip. The amount of time I've sunk into studying for this section is insane. I highly recommend to just utilize the BC short notes + Feralis notes and annotate one of them + Anki.
  • GC (30): The calculations were a joke compared to Bootcamp and Booster lol. There were a lot of conceptual questions - focus on nailing those down. Make sure to double check the questions I changed one question because I put a number in the numerator instead of the denominator.
  • OC (24): Drill down acid rankings and carbocation/radical stability. There's so much more emphasis on stability than actual reactions.
    • *I had about 30 mins leftover so I checked over all the questions = definitely key because you can misread things
  • PAT (18): haha can't help you here I hated this section.. didn't want to practice it until leading up to the exam - don't be like me
  • RC (30): I utilized BYU method. You read and highlight words/lists that stand out to you until half of the passage. Booster/BC thoroughly prepare you for this part because their paragraphs are longer and have more tough conceptual questions. Most if not all the questions were basically stuff you could find word for word in the passages. I had about 20 mins left over so really work on speed for passages.
  • QR (27): Most of the problems were probability, algebra, rate. I had about 10 minutes leftover so I went back and did questions I skipped. I didn't do any problems the 2 weeks leading up to the exam because I had drilled Destroyer problems from fall/summer.
ETC:
I made an excel sheet and organized it by day/subject. With each column, I listed what goals I wanted to get done with each subject. One day I would do biology/math and the next day I would focus on chem/orgo. For Destroyer specifically, I had a separate sheet where I had the cells colored coded for the difficulty of each question (1 being red, 2 yellow, 3 green). If a did a yellow cell and I got it correct I would turn green and a red cell would turn yellow. That way I focused on the questions I got wrong.

Ending Advice:
I have never viewed myself as a good standardized test taker or one of those individuals that are just naturally smart. Just for some reference I got around a 26 on the ACT and after that I hatedd taking tests like these. Your hard work will be rewarded so shoot for 30. Be proud of all the hard work and what you have sacrificed to study for this exam. At the end of the day it's just a number that you need for dental school. I'm very grateful I had a lot of support from friends and family.

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Congratulations! Thanks for posting these amazing scores. With your high GPA you should receive an interview at the schools of your choice.

Wishing you the best...Nancy, co/owner, DAT Destroyer
 
Congratulations! Thanks for posting these amazing scores. With your high GPA you should receive an interview at the schools of your choice.

Wishing you the best...Nancy, co/owner, DAT Destroyer
Thank you! Wishing everyone the best at the Destroyer team. Your resources were very helpful to my studying.
 
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Glad you found my breakdown helpful!
You killed this test!!!! Congratulations and enjoy not having to do that again haha.
 
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Hi all I've been a long time lurker on these DAT forums and thought it would be nice to write a breakdown since it helped me a lot. @Dota 2 Player was one of the most helpful breakdowns ever - highly recommend you read over it!

Scores:
PAT - 18 (lol)
QR - 27
RC - 30
Bio - 27
GC - 30
OC - 24
TS - 26
AA - 28

Background:
Currently a senior with a 3.80~ GPA.

Materials Used (in order of helpfulness):
  1. ANKIIII - bless this program please use it. I made separate decks for each subject of the DAT and put problems I got wrong and my notes into it so I would constantly see it. I changed the interval so I would see the cards every 14 days. It forced me to review my notes pretty effortlessly because all the test info was there. At the end, I had about 7000 cards for biology, ~700 orgo, ~400 chem with about 47K reviews racked up. I will say to keep up with your reviews. Some days I didn't want to do it, so biology ended up with 4500 cards due a day... I'll be taking a very long break from this program just cause fatigue
  2. DAT Booster - I believe this program is the most representative of the exam (also it's cheaper). The program is relatively new so they are still working on adding additional question banks for each of the subjects. The biology I will say is very representative of the exam and helped me apply the sheer amount of biology info. Their rewritten version of Feralis biology notes is honestly all the biology you need to learn for the exam. I went through the original Feralis notes and the new rewritten ones to make sure I wasn't missing anything and the team covered everything. My test scores were all higher than what I got on the subject tests there. I found math being a tad harder, but it helped prepare me for the section especially those tricky probability ones. Their PAT is prolly the best on the market, but I was very lazy and didn't really use it.
  3. DAT Bootcamp - I thoroughly enjoyed Mike's videos and video explanations. I believe they were super helpful for the exam and all the info presented from Mike was fair game for the exam. This program was definitely harder than the actual exam and it really helped me hone down the science concepts with all the question banks they have. Please take advantage of the easy, medium, difficulty tag because you can save a lot of time not going over questions you already know.
  4. DAT Destroyer/Math destroyer - The biology section and QR is amazing for the DAT. I feel like those two sections represent what 'hard questions' you can potentially see on the DAT. I went over biology and QR three times. GC and OC I was very lazy with and I felt like they weren't representative of the sections as there were either too many calculations or very technical terminology you felt you needed to memorize. I felt that my study energy could be better focused on the other test banks from either Booster or BC since those questions are higher yield.
Study Timeline:
I highly recommend you make your own study schedule with the goals you want to achieve each day. The amount of hours you sink in doesn't matter because you could be really distracted the whole time. Even if you studied for '9 hours' if you weren't able to go through all the problems you wanted = not very efficient. My goals for each day were unrealistic and I was constantly adjusting because stuff would overflow to the next day. Give a chunk of days with nothing scheduled as insurance if you fall behind. My timeline is a little wonky.
  1. Summer 2020: Did some research on what materials to use for DAT studying and decided on Bootcamp, PAT Booster, and Destroyer. Read a lot of breakdowns and got stressed lol. Scheduled my exam to take in August. Slowly worked through each subject by going through BC videos/notes/any material related to it. I was the type of person who just wanted to grind through the whole subject I hated jumping from a subject to the next and having leftover things to do, so that's what I did. I focused on a subject each for like 1-2 weeks by taking digital notes of each subject on OneNote. For bio, I imported the DAT BC short notes and just annotated it with the long note's extra information. Come August I didn't feel ready to take the exam and I didn't take it as seriously as I would like myself to, so I pushed it to December. I had about a month left for my Bootcamp subscription so I asked the team to freeze my subscription so I could focus on Destroyer (I told myself I would do the problems, but I did not).
  2. Fall/Winter 2020: I told myself I would study, but I didn't from August-October I took a break. I started studying in November again, but because I had already had my notes and Anki cards made the process was basically going over notes again. After reviewing the material, I decided to pick up DAT Booster (since my PAT Booster expired) and unfreeze my Bootcamp. This probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I went through DAT destroyer bio notes, Feralis notes, Feralis rewritten notes, and Bootcamp long and short notes. It basically took me all of November to do this because I was adding nuance details from each resource into my bio Anki deck (if you wondered how I ended up with 7000 notes cards it's cause I imported BC's Anki and added what was not covered in it). I did all the questions from Booster, Bootcamp, and biology/chem/math for Destroyer. With questions I got wrong, I would take the reasoning on reword it into Anki so I wasn't just memorizing the problems I got wrong.
  3. January 2021: I got stressed and pushed my DAT back by 2 weeks. I didn't want my exam seeping into my classes so I just told myself to take it and get it over with. Leading up to the test I reviewed all the problems I've gotten wrong before and grinded Anki because I kept falling behind. I started suspending the notes I felt were very easy and I already knew to save on time.

Day of Exam
  • Bio (27): It was very straightforward with one question I wasn't too sure of. Make sure you read VERY carefully how the question is phrased can really change the answer. I had a gut feeling for that question, but I changed my answer rip. The amount of time I've sunk into studying for this section is insane. I highly recommend to just utilize the BC short notes + Feralis notes and annotate one of them + Anki.
  • GC (30): The calculations were a joke compared to Bootcamp and Booster lol. There were a lot of conceptual questions - focus on nailing those down. Make sure to double check the questions I changed one question because I put a number in the numerator instead of the denominator.
  • OC (24): Drill down acid rankings and carbocation/radical stability. There's so much more emphasis on stability than actual reactions.
    • *I had about 30 mins leftover so I checked over all the questions = definitely key because you can misread things
  • PAT (18): haha can't help you here I hated this section.. didn't want to practice it until leading up to the exam - don't be like me
  • RC (30): I utilized BYU method. You read and highlight words/lists that stand out to you until half of the passage. Booster/BC thoroughly prepare you for this part because their paragraphs are longer and have more tough conceptual questions. Most if not all the questions were basically stuff you could find word for word in the passages. I had about 20 mins left over so really work on speed for passages.
  • QR (27): Most of the problems were probability, algebra, rate. I had about 10 minutes leftover so I went back and did questions I skipped. I didn't do any problems the 2 weeks leading up to the exam because I had drilled Destroyer problems from fall/summer.
ETC:
I made an excel sheet and organized it by day/subject. With each column, I listed what goals I wanted to get done with each subject. One day I would do biology/math and the next day I would focus on chem/orgo. For Destroyer specifically, I had a separate sheet where I had the cells colored coded for the difficulty of each question (1 being red, 2 yellow, 3 green). If a did a yellow cell and I got it correct I would turn green and a red cell would turn yellow. That way I focused on the questions I got wrong.

Ending Advice:
I have never viewed myself as a good standardized test taker or one of those individuals that are just naturally smart. Just for some reference I got around a 26 on the ACT and after that I hatedd taking tests like these. Your hard work will be rewarded so shoot for 30. Be proud of all the hard work and what you have sacrificed to study for this exam. At the end of the day it's just a number that you need for dental school. I'm very grateful I had a lot of support from friends and family.

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