GlacierAge
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2022
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Hey everyone! I recently took the DAT at the end of January and would like to share a little about what I thought about the exam and my studying process. I hope that my breakdown can give you some insight and lessen your worries about the DAT!
Scores:
PAT – 22
QR – 27
RC – 26
Bio – 27
GC – 30
OC – 26
TS – 28
AA – 27
Background:
I am currently in my last semester as an undergraduate student. Prior to studying for the DAT, I completed two semesters each of biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. I major in Human Biology at my college.
Materials used:
I procrastinated a lot for the DAT as I simply did not have the motivation to study for a long period of time. I also never put the DAT as my priority, especially during my earlier college days, because I wanted to focus on my academics instead. I first started studying over winter 2020, but I gave up after looking through a few chapters of biology notes. I then saw summer 2021 as a good period, but I got frequently distracted. The pandemic also drained me mentally at that point. My third time studying, which was over winter 2021, was when I went all in. I was in my college environment and had the apartment to myself. I resumed my membership on DAT Booster and started spending whole days watching videos and practicing. I had also registered for my exam date at this point, and so the deadline gave me extra motivation to stay on top of my game. The hard part was starting to study. Once I got in my flow, I had no trouble returning to my studying websites every day as it became part of my routine. As mentioned, I went through all the videos first before shifting my full focus to the practice tests. I studied for ~8 hours a day for a little more than a month.
Day of exam:
Bio – I was a little worried about biology because of the number of diverse topics the section contains. However, I found that the exam questions never went into much detail on any topic. Still, it is important to memorize various terms as most of the time you either know or don’t know the answer. It is harder to “logic” through questions in biology compared to other questions.
GC – I did the best in this section. I would really practice mental math as testing centers don’t provide calculators for this section, which can be problematic as there are usually quite a few calculations involved. You can round some numbers for easier calculation and pick the closest answer choice. I recommend practicing as the math may be tricky even if you know the concepts well.
OC – I think that while understanding types of reactions and their products is a necessary part of organic chemistry, many people skip out on the fundamentals. I would brush up on and practice acidity/basicity, resonance, and melting/boiling points.
PAT – My strategy was starting at question 31 (angle rankings) and then finishing the section before returning to keyholes and top-front-end. Of course, depending on your strengths and weaknesses, you can find a better plan that works for you. However, I would definitely practice managing time through this section as I frequently found myself running out of time in practice exams. I learned that I did not need to comprehend whole shapes but only needed to find the differences among answer choices. This strategy saved me tremendous amounts of time on the actual DAT.
RC – I appreciated the highlight option in this section as I could find and mark the answers in the passage and know where they were located if I ever decided to check my answers. I recommend pretending that you know nothing about the covered topic. This would allow you to more readily look for words in the passage that often mirrored answer choices.
QR – I saw a lot of probability and rate problems. I recommend reviewing formulas but not super niche ones like finding the surface area of an ellipse.
Summary:
I believe that even if you know all the material, it is so easy to make careless mistakes. I got annoyed sometimes from practice tests as I knew that I could get a better score from just reading some questions again. Therefore, I strongly encourage taking time to comprehend the questions while also staying conscientious of the clock. The best way to master this balance is just through completing practice exams repeatedly using your preferred DAT studying service.
I also believe that no one is predetermined to bomb the DAT regardless of amount of effort put into studying. With adequate and consistent practice, it is absolutely possible to improve on all sections (even the PAT!). For example, I used to get no keyhole and top-front-end questions correctly, but I drastically improved with practice since I started noticing patterns in the questions and trends in my common mistakes. I don’t recommend just learning the material. I can’t stress enough that practice is the true key to mastery.
I don’t come to this site often, but please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions about the DAT or applying to dental schools in general! I would love to help in any way possible. Best of luck on the exam!
Scores:
PAT – 22
QR – 27
RC – 26
Bio – 27
GC – 30
OC – 26
TS – 28
AA – 27
Background:
I am currently in my last semester as an undergraduate student. Prior to studying for the DAT, I completed two semesters each of biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. I major in Human Biology at my college.
Materials used:
- DAT Booster – This was the main resource that I used to study. I found DAT Booster especially appealing because of how affordable it is as well as the extensive practice questions it contains. I went through all its videos first and then its notes and practice tests. I thought that many of the practice questions here were tougher than the ones on the actual DAT. Therefore, I believe that if you see yourself improving and getting good scores on DAT Booster, then you really don’t need to worry about being overwhelmed by the actual exam. I also thought that there was more than enough PAT practice through its 10 practice tests, extra questions, and infinite generators.
- DAT Bootcamp – I did not use DAT Bootcamp as much as I never paid for a subscription. Still, I was able to complete one of its full-length tests, which was nice as the webpage format was exactly like the one on the actual exam. I also visited frequently to tackle its daily questions as I wanted a long streak. I read through DAT Bootcamp’s notes on biology and organic chemistry in addition to the notes on DAT Booster to see if Bootcamp puts emphasis on other areas than Booster. This was not the case as I thought the notes were mostly similar in content.
I procrastinated a lot for the DAT as I simply did not have the motivation to study for a long period of time. I also never put the DAT as my priority, especially during my earlier college days, because I wanted to focus on my academics instead. I first started studying over winter 2020, but I gave up after looking through a few chapters of biology notes. I then saw summer 2021 as a good period, but I got frequently distracted. The pandemic also drained me mentally at that point. My third time studying, which was over winter 2021, was when I went all in. I was in my college environment and had the apartment to myself. I resumed my membership on DAT Booster and started spending whole days watching videos and practicing. I had also registered for my exam date at this point, and so the deadline gave me extra motivation to stay on top of my game. The hard part was starting to study. Once I got in my flow, I had no trouble returning to my studying websites every day as it became part of my routine. As mentioned, I went through all the videos first before shifting my full focus to the practice tests. I studied for ~8 hours a day for a little more than a month.
Day of exam:
Bio – I was a little worried about biology because of the number of diverse topics the section contains. However, I found that the exam questions never went into much detail on any topic. Still, it is important to memorize various terms as most of the time you either know or don’t know the answer. It is harder to “logic” through questions in biology compared to other questions.
GC – I did the best in this section. I would really practice mental math as testing centers don’t provide calculators for this section, which can be problematic as there are usually quite a few calculations involved. You can round some numbers for easier calculation and pick the closest answer choice. I recommend practicing as the math may be tricky even if you know the concepts well.
OC – I think that while understanding types of reactions and their products is a necessary part of organic chemistry, many people skip out on the fundamentals. I would brush up on and practice acidity/basicity, resonance, and melting/boiling points.
PAT – My strategy was starting at question 31 (angle rankings) and then finishing the section before returning to keyholes and top-front-end. Of course, depending on your strengths and weaknesses, you can find a better plan that works for you. However, I would definitely practice managing time through this section as I frequently found myself running out of time in practice exams. I learned that I did not need to comprehend whole shapes but only needed to find the differences among answer choices. This strategy saved me tremendous amounts of time on the actual DAT.
RC – I appreciated the highlight option in this section as I could find and mark the answers in the passage and know where they were located if I ever decided to check my answers. I recommend pretending that you know nothing about the covered topic. This would allow you to more readily look for words in the passage that often mirrored answer choices.
QR – I saw a lot of probability and rate problems. I recommend reviewing formulas but not super niche ones like finding the surface area of an ellipse.
Summary:
I believe that even if you know all the material, it is so easy to make careless mistakes. I got annoyed sometimes from practice tests as I knew that I could get a better score from just reading some questions again. Therefore, I strongly encourage taking time to comprehend the questions while also staying conscientious of the clock. The best way to master this balance is just through completing practice exams repeatedly using your preferred DAT studying service.
I also believe that no one is predetermined to bomb the DAT regardless of amount of effort put into studying. With adequate and consistent practice, it is absolutely possible to improve on all sections (even the PAT!). For example, I used to get no keyhole and top-front-end questions correctly, but I drastically improved with practice since I started noticing patterns in the questions and trends in my common mistakes. I don’t recommend just learning the material. I can’t stress enough that practice is the true key to mastery.
I don’t come to this site often, but please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions about the DAT or applying to dental schools in general! I would love to help in any way possible. Best of luck on the exam!
