Connor Goodrich
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Background: I’m super excited to share my breakdown and my DAT experience with anyone who wants to read it! Prior to my DAT I read a ton of breakdowns and I really felt like they helped me better understand various successful study strategies and what to expect on test day, and I hope someone gains something by reading mine. I’m currently an incoming Junior with a 3.98 GPA and prior to my DAT I’ve taken General Chemistry, Biology, and Organic Chemistry (unfortunately not the lab yet).
Study materials: DAT Booster and Quizlet (mostly for unfamiliar Anatomy)
Timeline/Study Schedule: I did what most people do and devoted my summer to studying. I roughly followed the 12 week Booster schedule and spent around 5 hours a day and 30 hours a week studying (although two weeks prior to the test, I probably studied close to 50 hours per week). I initially thought I would be working four-ish days a week, shadowing twice a week, and studying on top of that but quickly realized that I was spread too thin and decided not to work. I was pretty consistent with studying over the 12 weeks and probably only took 4 break days. I liked working off of the 12 week Booster schedule checklist because as I completed things I could physically check them off and that kept me honest with myself about how much content I was covering. My biggest advice would be to print a Booster/Bootcamp schedule or create your own physical schedule so you can ensure that you are getting through material in enough time.
PAT (22): Everyday of my studying I spent around 45 minutes on perceptual ability. When I first started I was absolutely HORRIBLE. My advice to anyone and everyone who struggles in this section is to do a little every day. I promise that if you commit to practicing every day you will get better. PAT didn’t become easy for me overnight, it took around a month of doing 15 practice problems of each type every day but it was well worth it. I felt that the actual test was easier than Booster’s practice tests. On the real exam, I finished the entire test with 10 full minutes left (which never happened on any of my practice tests) and was able to go back and check some of my cube counting problems. For me the TFE was particularly challenging and was consistently my lowest score. I decided to do the test out of order, saving TFE for last incase I didn’t have enough time to finish it (since spending more time on those problems didn’t really seem to help me anyways). I would highly suggest saving the section you’re doing consistently bad in for the end of the test.
QR (21): I’ve always considered myself pretty good at math but I was humbled QUICKLY by the first practice test where I scored a 13. I quickly got much better by watching all of the videos on Booster and completing the corresponding sections. I ended up feeling pretty good about QR around a month prior to my exam and really put it on the back burner which is probably why I scored slightly lower on the real exam than some of my practice exams. Not much else to say about QR other than it’s really easy to improve your score in this section so don’t miss out on easy points.
RC (26): Again I have always felt like I am a good reader but I didn’t score great initially on a lot of the practice question banks. I would really suggest trying some of the many strategies that are out there and figure out which one works best for you (I ended up just using the vanilla method). The one thing I started doing which seemed to really help my scoring was highlighting information. After doing a few of the practice tests and questions banks you start to understand what types of questions they are likely to ask you and are able to highlight important information preemptively
BIO (23): I took bio just this last year but oh my goodness I did not learn as much from my university as I thought I did. This was by far and away the most difficult part of studying for me because there was so much content. I also have not taken Anatomy so learning all of the structures and functions of the systems was completely new to me. I would highly recommend using some sort of flash card service for bio in general because there is a LOT of content here. This one section had me considering moving my test date back. I spent the majority of my time studying just biology. I watched all of the Booster videos (some multiple times) and completed a good amount of the question banks. The best resource for me for this section was the cheat sheets, it made the mountain of content actually learnable. I learn well by writing things down so I ended up taking notes over all of the cheat sheets and felt like that helped me. Also the Booster practice tests are super representative of the actual exam (I had like 3 questions that were word for word the same and a lot that were very similar) so I would highly recommend using the Booster practice tests to figure out what you don’t know and learn it. I did so bad on a lot of the Bio practice tests and didn’t feel like I was improving at all. Since there's so much content there's definitely a hump to get over and it takes a while to get over it and to see your scores improve.
GC (26): I felt pretty good about Gen Chem before I started studying for the test. I took AP chemistry in high school and Gen Chem in college too so I was pretty familiar with the content. I would say that at times some of the calculations for Gen Chem can feel very challenging but that can be overcome by doing a lot of practice problems. My suggestion here is just to practice practice practice as there is really only so much chemistry content.
OC (22): I took Organic this last year at my university and I did fairly well in it and felt like I had a decent understanding going into studying. Unfortunately, I was unable to take the lab section before taking this exam but I really don’t think the lab section is very necessary to do well. On my exam I had like one question about a Bromine test and that was it. I think this is another section that just comes down to practicing some every day and taking/reviewing notes on it.
Overall I’m really happy with my scores and I’m happy to be done because it was definitely a grind. The biggest advice I can give is to not compare yourselves too harshly to other peoples results and especially their practice tests. I had some HORRIBLE first practice test scores and while that can be discouraging it should be looked at as an opportunity to learn what you don’t know. Feel free to ask me any questions, good luck studying and testing everyone!
Study materials: DAT Booster and Quizlet (mostly for unfamiliar Anatomy)
Timeline/Study Schedule: I did what most people do and devoted my summer to studying. I roughly followed the 12 week Booster schedule and spent around 5 hours a day and 30 hours a week studying (although two weeks prior to the test, I probably studied close to 50 hours per week). I initially thought I would be working four-ish days a week, shadowing twice a week, and studying on top of that but quickly realized that I was spread too thin and decided not to work. I was pretty consistent with studying over the 12 weeks and probably only took 4 break days. I liked working off of the 12 week Booster schedule checklist because as I completed things I could physically check them off and that kept me honest with myself about how much content I was covering. My biggest advice would be to print a Booster/Bootcamp schedule or create your own physical schedule so you can ensure that you are getting through material in enough time.
PAT (22): Everyday of my studying I spent around 45 minutes on perceptual ability. When I first started I was absolutely HORRIBLE. My advice to anyone and everyone who struggles in this section is to do a little every day. I promise that if you commit to practicing every day you will get better. PAT didn’t become easy for me overnight, it took around a month of doing 15 practice problems of each type every day but it was well worth it. I felt that the actual test was easier than Booster’s practice tests. On the real exam, I finished the entire test with 10 full minutes left (which never happened on any of my practice tests) and was able to go back and check some of my cube counting problems. For me the TFE was particularly challenging and was consistently my lowest score. I decided to do the test out of order, saving TFE for last incase I didn’t have enough time to finish it (since spending more time on those problems didn’t really seem to help me anyways). I would highly suggest saving the section you’re doing consistently bad in for the end of the test.
QR (21): I’ve always considered myself pretty good at math but I was humbled QUICKLY by the first practice test where I scored a 13. I quickly got much better by watching all of the videos on Booster and completing the corresponding sections. I ended up feeling pretty good about QR around a month prior to my exam and really put it on the back burner which is probably why I scored slightly lower on the real exam than some of my practice exams. Not much else to say about QR other than it’s really easy to improve your score in this section so don’t miss out on easy points.
RC (26): Again I have always felt like I am a good reader but I didn’t score great initially on a lot of the practice question banks. I would really suggest trying some of the many strategies that are out there and figure out which one works best for you (I ended up just using the vanilla method). The one thing I started doing which seemed to really help my scoring was highlighting information. After doing a few of the practice tests and questions banks you start to understand what types of questions they are likely to ask you and are able to highlight important information preemptively
BIO (23): I took bio just this last year but oh my goodness I did not learn as much from my university as I thought I did. This was by far and away the most difficult part of studying for me because there was so much content. I also have not taken Anatomy so learning all of the structures and functions of the systems was completely new to me. I would highly recommend using some sort of flash card service for bio in general because there is a LOT of content here. This one section had me considering moving my test date back. I spent the majority of my time studying just biology. I watched all of the Booster videos (some multiple times) and completed a good amount of the question banks. The best resource for me for this section was the cheat sheets, it made the mountain of content actually learnable. I learn well by writing things down so I ended up taking notes over all of the cheat sheets and felt like that helped me. Also the Booster practice tests are super representative of the actual exam (I had like 3 questions that were word for word the same and a lot that were very similar) so I would highly recommend using the Booster practice tests to figure out what you don’t know and learn it. I did so bad on a lot of the Bio practice tests and didn’t feel like I was improving at all. Since there's so much content there's definitely a hump to get over and it takes a while to get over it and to see your scores improve.
GC (26): I felt pretty good about Gen Chem before I started studying for the test. I took AP chemistry in high school and Gen Chem in college too so I was pretty familiar with the content. I would say that at times some of the calculations for Gen Chem can feel very challenging but that can be overcome by doing a lot of practice problems. My suggestion here is just to practice practice practice as there is really only so much chemistry content.
OC (22): I took Organic this last year at my university and I did fairly well in it and felt like I had a decent understanding going into studying. Unfortunately, I was unable to take the lab section before taking this exam but I really don’t think the lab section is very necessary to do well. On my exam I had like one question about a Bromine test and that was it. I think this is another section that just comes down to practicing some every day and taking/reviewing notes on it.
Overall I’m really happy with my scores and I’m happy to be done because it was definitely a grind. The biggest advice I can give is to not compare yourselves too harshly to other peoples results and especially their practice tests. I had some HORRIBLE first practice test scores and while that can be discouraging it should be looked at as an opportunity to learn what you don’t know. Feel free to ask me any questions, good luck studying and testing everyone!
