artgirl2000
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2023 DAT Breakdown
(21AA/22TS/24PAT)
Scores:
PA: 24
QR: 17
RC: 20
Bio: 23
GC: 22
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 21
Materials used:
DAT Booster: This is the only program I used. Bootcamp was recommended to me by other dentists but I chose Booster because of the significant price difference. Extended my membership 3 times over the course of 5 continuous months and the total was only a little more than the standard 3 month membership at Bootcamp. Though you might read this a lot, this program truly is highly representative of the exam and worth the money you spend. Every section of Booster is very thorough with all the details you need to know and honestly over prepares you. I had about 2-3 questions from my practice test show up on the DAT for each section of science. Definitely got lucky with that, but the content in the DAT and what Booster gives you to practice with are still very very similar. Also, the Biology question banks are incredibly detailed and the videos are super concise and high yield, which is a very nice balance when studying for this section. Booster's PAT question banks are super helpful and I can't see how it can get any better than what it already is. They get more difficult as you progress and the generator gives you an endless amount if you end up finishing all the question banks.
ANKI: Flashcards are my method of learning, but I couldn't get used to using a digital flashcard system. I tried to use the premade decks made by Booster, but I had already written hundreds as I went along the study material anyway. I mostly used my flashcards in the morning to stimulate my brain before studying and to end my night with review so I preferred to physically be able to hold them. Plus, studying for 10+ hours on Booster, I wanted to decrease my screen time as much as possible. I do think the ANKI decks are super efficient and will save hours of your time, so if you don’t mind it being digital, I highly recommend using Booster's premade decks just to get repetition in.
Study Timeline:
I started studying in October 2022 and scheduled my DAT for March 6, 2023. I followed the 12 week schedule given by Booster and tried to keep up with Part 1 pretty closely. At first, it was really overwhelming because I found myself trying to learn the one subject in much more detail and the schedule has you going through 2-3 subjects a day. I often had to split one day into two because I wasn't able to finish everything, which made me a little frantic because I thought I was never going to finish going over the material. As long as you consistently put in effort to keep up, you'll finish in no time. I personally needed that structure starting out, but I started doing my own thing once I got towards the middle/end of Part 2 and figured out how I needed to study most effectively for me. The biggest thing I wish I did was to save the last 5 practice tests as full length tests. I spent the last month before my exam taking a full length test every 3 days, but I had taken all of them as timed practice tests prior to that month, not knowing the full lengths would just be repeats. Also, one of the best things I did to study was buying a large whiteboard. I am a visual learner and writing out all the bio concepts while talking it out loud helped me to actually retain the information.
Score Breakdown:
Bio (23): This section really is breadth over depth. Studying for this section was the most overwhelming because there's so much detail that goes into every chapter and it feels like you need to know all of it. I've found that if you go down a rabbit hole of fine details for a while and find yourself asking "but what if this is the first year they decide to add it in the DAT", I think it's best to move on or take a break. The questions on the exam were pretty broad and just seemed to test your general knowledge of concepts. I read all of the Feralis notes and hand wrote the key points, but I highly suggest going over the concepts out loud because it's different from just rereading your notes over and over.
GC (22): I expected a lot of calculation questions because every practice test had a good amount, but I only had 1 or 2 and they were very easy. I redid all the questions banks every week because calculations were a weak point for me but they were insanely harder than the actual exam . The exam gave basic level questions and the answer choices were equation set ups, so a calculator was not necessary. I had lots of conceptual questions and there were a couple questions from the last couple practice tests that showed up almost word for word. Lock down on the periodic trends and make sure to know all of the exceptions for them.
OC (22): I was worried about this section the most because I struuuuuugggled with this in college. Even up until a couple weeks before the exam, I felt very underprepared because it seemed like there was much more I didn’t know than what I did know. I have a hard time grasping ochem, but I wholeheartedly thank my score to the reaction question banks that Booster added to their program a month before my exam. Having those question banks condensed into 40-60 questions only for reactions saved me and I memorized all of them. I had a couple exact reactions show up on the exam too. Again, Booster's practice exams set you up for success because they are significantly easier than the actual exam. All the DAT breakdowns I read for this section emphasized understanding the mechanisms and I completely agree, but I kind of gave up with that and just tried to memorize as many reactions as I could. Thankfully, some mechanisms are much more simple to grasp so it did make life a little easier.
PAT (24): This score was kind of a surprise considering I neglected it during my months of studying. When I did practice it, I did enjoy it for the most part and I tried to think of it as doing fun puzzles. I also noticed that my mindset when doing PAT would make or break my scores. When I went into practice problems literally telling myself "PAT is so much fun its just like puzzles" my scores would oddly be a lot better. The biggest thing I can say for this section is to just practice it even if it's only 15 minutes a day. The DAT seemed to be about the same level of difficulty as the practice tests, if not easier. For the last couple practice tests, I think I was scoring between 20-22 for PAT.
RC (20): I was expecting this to be my highest score. On practice exams, I was getting 25-26's and I felt like the search and destroy method worked best for me. When I first started studying this section, I would constantly panic search for answers and got bogged down with brain fog/panic. Realizing that there will always be 1-2 questions designated for each paragraph really helped me think more clearly to search for keywords. That being said, I felt most confident with RC and QR so I was caught off guard to see it was one of my lowest breakdown scores. The 3 passages I got on the DAT seemed to go in order of easy, medium, to hard, and I had given myself too little time for the hardest passage.
QR (17): I was scoring 23-25 on practice tests, but I was feeling a little burnt out by the end and I couldn't think fast enough on test day. I had a lot more on probability than I did on practice tests and I had to just pick an answer choice and move on for some questions. Pacing is one of the most important things to practice when tackling QR and this is what got me on the test. I was being stubborn/gears weren't turning and I was trying to solve questions that I should only be spending about a minute on. Practice pacing and try to find the shortcut methods!
Ending advice:
I'm a bad test taker and I honestly felt a little disadvantaged compared to those majoring in bio/chem. I majored in Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise and the last science class I took pertinent to the DAT felt like eons ago. Just know that even the smartest people can feel overwhelmed and underprepared, so trust your abilities and you will do better than you think. Also, take ear plugs to the test center!
(21AA/22TS/24PAT)
Scores:
PA: 24
QR: 17
RC: 20
Bio: 23
GC: 22
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 21
Materials used:
DAT Booster: This is the only program I used. Bootcamp was recommended to me by other dentists but I chose Booster because of the significant price difference. Extended my membership 3 times over the course of 5 continuous months and the total was only a little more than the standard 3 month membership at Bootcamp. Though you might read this a lot, this program truly is highly representative of the exam and worth the money you spend. Every section of Booster is very thorough with all the details you need to know and honestly over prepares you. I had about 2-3 questions from my practice test show up on the DAT for each section of science. Definitely got lucky with that, but the content in the DAT and what Booster gives you to practice with are still very very similar. Also, the Biology question banks are incredibly detailed and the videos are super concise and high yield, which is a very nice balance when studying for this section. Booster's PAT question banks are super helpful and I can't see how it can get any better than what it already is. They get more difficult as you progress and the generator gives you an endless amount if you end up finishing all the question banks.
ANKI: Flashcards are my method of learning, but I couldn't get used to using a digital flashcard system. I tried to use the premade decks made by Booster, but I had already written hundreds as I went along the study material anyway. I mostly used my flashcards in the morning to stimulate my brain before studying and to end my night with review so I preferred to physically be able to hold them. Plus, studying for 10+ hours on Booster, I wanted to decrease my screen time as much as possible. I do think the ANKI decks are super efficient and will save hours of your time, so if you don’t mind it being digital, I highly recommend using Booster's premade decks just to get repetition in.
Study Timeline:
I started studying in October 2022 and scheduled my DAT for March 6, 2023. I followed the 12 week schedule given by Booster and tried to keep up with Part 1 pretty closely. At first, it was really overwhelming because I found myself trying to learn the one subject in much more detail and the schedule has you going through 2-3 subjects a day. I often had to split one day into two because I wasn't able to finish everything, which made me a little frantic because I thought I was never going to finish going over the material. As long as you consistently put in effort to keep up, you'll finish in no time. I personally needed that structure starting out, but I started doing my own thing once I got towards the middle/end of Part 2 and figured out how I needed to study most effectively for me. The biggest thing I wish I did was to save the last 5 practice tests as full length tests. I spent the last month before my exam taking a full length test every 3 days, but I had taken all of them as timed practice tests prior to that month, not knowing the full lengths would just be repeats. Also, one of the best things I did to study was buying a large whiteboard. I am a visual learner and writing out all the bio concepts while talking it out loud helped me to actually retain the information.
Score Breakdown:
Bio (23): This section really is breadth over depth. Studying for this section was the most overwhelming because there's so much detail that goes into every chapter and it feels like you need to know all of it. I've found that if you go down a rabbit hole of fine details for a while and find yourself asking "but what if this is the first year they decide to add it in the DAT", I think it's best to move on or take a break. The questions on the exam were pretty broad and just seemed to test your general knowledge of concepts. I read all of the Feralis notes and hand wrote the key points, but I highly suggest going over the concepts out loud because it's different from just rereading your notes over and over.
GC (22): I expected a lot of calculation questions because every practice test had a good amount, but I only had 1 or 2 and they were very easy. I redid all the questions banks every week because calculations were a weak point for me but they were insanely harder than the actual exam . The exam gave basic level questions and the answer choices were equation set ups, so a calculator was not necessary. I had lots of conceptual questions and there were a couple questions from the last couple practice tests that showed up almost word for word. Lock down on the periodic trends and make sure to know all of the exceptions for them.
OC (22): I was worried about this section the most because I struuuuuugggled with this in college. Even up until a couple weeks before the exam, I felt very underprepared because it seemed like there was much more I didn’t know than what I did know. I have a hard time grasping ochem, but I wholeheartedly thank my score to the reaction question banks that Booster added to their program a month before my exam. Having those question banks condensed into 40-60 questions only for reactions saved me and I memorized all of them. I had a couple exact reactions show up on the exam too. Again, Booster's practice exams set you up for success because they are significantly easier than the actual exam. All the DAT breakdowns I read for this section emphasized understanding the mechanisms and I completely agree, but I kind of gave up with that and just tried to memorize as many reactions as I could. Thankfully, some mechanisms are much more simple to grasp so it did make life a little easier.
PAT (24): This score was kind of a surprise considering I neglected it during my months of studying. When I did practice it, I did enjoy it for the most part and I tried to think of it as doing fun puzzles. I also noticed that my mindset when doing PAT would make or break my scores. When I went into practice problems literally telling myself "PAT is so much fun its just like puzzles" my scores would oddly be a lot better. The biggest thing I can say for this section is to just practice it even if it's only 15 minutes a day. The DAT seemed to be about the same level of difficulty as the practice tests, if not easier. For the last couple practice tests, I think I was scoring between 20-22 for PAT.
RC (20): I was expecting this to be my highest score. On practice exams, I was getting 25-26's and I felt like the search and destroy method worked best for me. When I first started studying this section, I would constantly panic search for answers and got bogged down with brain fog/panic. Realizing that there will always be 1-2 questions designated for each paragraph really helped me think more clearly to search for keywords. That being said, I felt most confident with RC and QR so I was caught off guard to see it was one of my lowest breakdown scores. The 3 passages I got on the DAT seemed to go in order of easy, medium, to hard, and I had given myself too little time for the hardest passage.
QR (17): I was scoring 23-25 on practice tests, but I was feeling a little burnt out by the end and I couldn't think fast enough on test day. I had a lot more on probability than I did on practice tests and I had to just pick an answer choice and move on for some questions. Pacing is one of the most important things to practice when tackling QR and this is what got me on the test. I was being stubborn/gears weren't turning and I was trying to solve questions that I should only be spending about a minute on. Practice pacing and try to find the shortcut methods!
Ending advice:
I'm a bad test taker and I honestly felt a little disadvantaged compared to those majoring in bio/chem. I majored in Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise and the last science class I took pertinent to the DAT felt like eons ago. Just know that even the smartest people can feel overwhelmed and underprepared, so trust your abilities and you will do better than you think. Also, take ear plugs to the test center!
