Preface:
Getting scores in a high percentile like these is uncommon and should differ from what you expect of yourself. I was surprised at the score I got, and glad I got it, but I would've been happy for less, and so will Dental schools!
Also, I want to mention how I felt about resources and what worked for me, but that is coming from someone with a learning style that is likely different from yours; only take my advice if it works for you! You know you best, so I encourage you to study in a way that works. On the other hand, if anything I did sounds promising, definitely use it! A big part of learning how to succeed on the DAT is understanding how you learn. Gotta know yourself before you can conquer this beast.
I hope this helps!
Scores:
PAT - 23
QR - 19
RC - 25
Bio - 30
GC - 24
OC - 25
TS - 26
AA - 25
Background:
I am currently a senior with a 3.7~ GPA. I am also a first-generation student, and my unconventional educational background basically equated to no real education before college.
Materials Used (in order of helpfulness):
When I started studying, I had three months before my test date. I set a goal to study for at least three hours each day alongside my lab and course load, and I got overwhelmed. At least for me, it wasn't until I changed my goal to an "amount" goal instead of a "time" goal that I started making progress.
I did not get time to study until about a month and a half before my test date; before that, I had only gotten about a week's worth of studying over my semester. I followed Booster's 10-week study schedule rigorously, but because I was behind, I tried to study 2 days of material daily. I ended up having to skip over the material I felt good about during the learning phase to get enough time to study the topics, which I felt more shaky on. That being said, I never skipped a practice test date. I prioritized getting a test in, and if I ever felt overwhelmed, I would do it section by section instead of full-length (although full-length tests are essential).
After I got into the practice/review phase, I noticed the days in the study guide had much less structure than the days in the learning phase, so instead of following the schedule, I spent my days going over topics I felt I wanted to improve based on how I felt during my practice tests. I got to this phase about three and a half weeks before my test date and ended up doing a practice test almost every other day, sometimes separating them when I felt studying would be more productive than testing again (usually when I thought I knew what area I had to improve, and I didn't feel like I made enough progress for a practice test to be practical; I already knew where I needed to focus my study).
The most important thing I did during this time was review the practice tests, seeking to understand not only the correct answers to every question (including what I got right) but also why the wrong answers were wrong and what would have made them true. Since the DAT uses multiple choice - and those choices are almost always real terms or definitions/options - you can learn a lot when reviewing them. This is less relevant for mathematics questions, but conceptual questions always benefit from this.
I also took day-long breaks. For religious reasons, I never studied for one day of the week. Whatever the reason, though, making a standard during this time to not study for some time during the week, almost an unbreakable self-rule, creates a space in your hectic studying to be not allowed to think about or study for the test. With this time, you can truly relax and recuperate. Your brain needs rest, too!
Day of Exam
If I could distill everything I learned from this experience, it would be
1. Don't worry if you're having a bad day. I had a lot of practice test days where I felt awful; somewhere, I was almost throwing up because of my anxiety, but I still was able to perform better than I anticipated. This knowledge helped reduce anxiety on test day - I knew I did okay even at my worst, so I felt it'd be okay.
2. Focus on high-yield topics: Pay attention to what is often repeated, quizzed, or shows up on practice tests. THESE TOPICS MATTER AND WILL SHOW UP! I remember usually thinking, "But what if studying this is a waste of time because it won't show up?" while that is true when you're low on time; if it's a high-yield topic, do not overlook it. Please ensure you understand those topics and can do them well; these are where easy points can be made, and crucial points can be lost.
3. Have a support group: I didn't mention it above, but without my family and friends being there, checking on my progress, helping lighten the burden of my daily tasks, and being there to listen during stressful times, I would've done terribly on this test. Even if it's the lovely pre-dents on social media, connect with people and get support.
4. Keep studying. Even when it feels like you have it all down or maybe that you'll never be able to learn it all (like how I felt), never stop giving your best, whatever that is, to study and practice. Don't expect the same level of effort or performance from yourself every day, and make sure to take breaks before you break, but also just keep putting in an effort. You can do this!
Getting scores in a high percentile like these is uncommon and should differ from what you expect of yourself. I was surprised at the score I got, and glad I got it, but I would've been happy for less, and so will Dental schools!
Also, I want to mention how I felt about resources and what worked for me, but that is coming from someone with a learning style that is likely different from yours; only take my advice if it works for you! You know you best, so I encourage you to study in a way that works. On the other hand, if anything I did sounds promising, definitely use it! A big part of learning how to succeed on the DAT is understanding how you learn. Gotta know yourself before you can conquer this beast.
I hope this helps!
Scores:
PAT - 23
QR - 19
RC - 25
Bio - 30
GC - 24
OC - 25
TS - 26
AA - 25
Background:
I am currently a senior with a 3.7~ GPA. I am also a first-generation student, and my unconventional educational background basically equated to no real education before college.
Materials Used (in order of helpfulness):
- DAT Booster - A wonderful resource for exam preparation. While I didn't have the opportunity to try other resources, I have heard a lot about them, and it sounded like DAT Booster does a better job at focusing on the most critical/high-yield topics, especially in the sciences. I didn't feel like I was doing too many practice problems while still feeling like I was getting enough practice. In other words, I never felt like I was "grinding my gears" when studying and practicing the three sciences tested. While the DAT booster presented a more challenging version of PAT than I experienced on the DAT, it also does an excellent job of preparing you because of that challenge. Stay encouraged if it always feels hard; you may do better than you think on PAT. Reading comprehension practice tests were a great tool to practice under timed conditions. I recommend taking as many full-length tests as possible, which helped me the most. Finally, the QR materials from DAT Booster gave me more of an issue than anything else because of my background; I often felt left behind, confused, or like I wouldn't understand the material. I had to go to external resources like Khan Academy or chat GPT to get my questions answered. That being said, I hear the DAT Booster team is working on improving it, and the QR practice tests are a fantastic representation of the actual test. I got a lower score than my Booster scores predicted on QR, so the scoring may be a poor measure, but the tests themselves felt very accurate to the exam.
- Quizlet - When it came to reviewing material or, in some cases, learning it - Quizlet was my best friend. I studied as much as I could in a "learning" format for the critical memorized details of the sciences through watching videos, reading bio-notes, and taking notes on what I learned to retain information. Still, I never felt like I'd have enough time to get all the most critical information down before my test date, and that's where Quizlet saved me. I studied new units of DAT Booster's quizlet decks almost every night before bed. I also habitually pulled up Quizlet instead of social media whenever I could. I found that as I would go through the flashcards until I swiped right on each one, confident I knew the answer, I retained that information much better. After getting the same flashcard wrong multiple times in a row, remembering the right answer became much more critical. If you can do all the booster quilts with >80% accuracy (assuming you understand the topics, not just the card's phrasing/answer), I believe you will reach your goal DAT score in at least biology.
When I started studying, I had three months before my test date. I set a goal to study for at least three hours each day alongside my lab and course load, and I got overwhelmed. At least for me, it wasn't until I changed my goal to an "amount" goal instead of a "time" goal that I started making progress.
I did not get time to study until about a month and a half before my test date; before that, I had only gotten about a week's worth of studying over my semester. I followed Booster's 10-week study schedule rigorously, but because I was behind, I tried to study 2 days of material daily. I ended up having to skip over the material I felt good about during the learning phase to get enough time to study the topics, which I felt more shaky on. That being said, I never skipped a practice test date. I prioritized getting a test in, and if I ever felt overwhelmed, I would do it section by section instead of full-length (although full-length tests are essential).
After I got into the practice/review phase, I noticed the days in the study guide had much less structure than the days in the learning phase, so instead of following the schedule, I spent my days going over topics I felt I wanted to improve based on how I felt during my practice tests. I got to this phase about three and a half weeks before my test date and ended up doing a practice test almost every other day, sometimes separating them when I felt studying would be more productive than testing again (usually when I thought I knew what area I had to improve, and I didn't feel like I made enough progress for a practice test to be practical; I already knew where I needed to focus my study).
The most important thing I did during this time was review the practice tests, seeking to understand not only the correct answers to every question (including what I got right) but also why the wrong answers were wrong and what would have made them true. Since the DAT uses multiple choice - and those choices are almost always real terms or definitions/options - you can learn a lot when reviewing them. This is less relevant for mathematics questions, but conceptual questions always benefit from this.
I also took day-long breaks. For religious reasons, I never studied for one day of the week. Whatever the reason, though, making a standard during this time to not study for some time during the week, almost an unbreakable self-rule, creates a space in your hectic studying to be not allowed to think about or study for the test. With this time, you can truly relax and recuperate. Your brain needs rest, too!
Day of Exam
- Bio (30): I was surprised how many questions were similar to practice tests or were mentioned as high-yield topics. I felt confident about most of my answers, but I always used the process of elimination to ensure I was being as accurate as possible.
- GC (24): I was glad I didn't neglect simple topics in favor of complex ones. There were questions on here that getting right only required a second of review, but without it, I would've missed them. Make sure you feel good about the topics that feel easy! If you get easy questions wrong and only hard ones right, you'll do poorly on the test.
- OC (25): Memorized reactions/conditions, aromaticity, NMR, IR, stereochemistry, and specific experimental reactions were tested. Again, I feel I got the most points by knowing the general reagents and conditions for most reactions, not by memorizing each exception to the rule. Get points on the easier things to memorize if you feel you can't get it all.
- PAT (23): Honestly, having fun here was helpful. It is a stressful section, but it can feel more manageable when you start seeing houses, ducks, hole-punching patterns, etc. I found that the keyhole, TFE, and folding questions were easier than a booster, while the angle ranking and hole-punching were about the same. Cube counting almost felt more difficult, but I marked the difficult ones and came back. The biggest thing here is not to lose points on more straightforward questions by getting caught up on hard ones.
- RC (25): Unlike Booster's representation, the questions on my RC test were more vague and or inferred knowledge and less directly pulled from the passage's wording. My strategy was to speed through the passages and mark only words that were names, dates, numbers, things in "quotes", and any new or odd terminology. I would also mark things that seemed to portray the tone or the author's opinion. I think setting a strict guideline for marking helped me move faster. The marking tool worked slightly less smoothly than Booster, so I used the tutorial to practice single-word/paragraph marking with speed.
- QR (19): This whole section is a trick question; getting caught on difficult questions is a trap. Despite booster predicting a higher score (20-22), I didn't do as well here, but I feel the rule of guessing, marking, and skipping is still valid. I would also mention that you'll often be tempted to double-check an answer, but if you got something that matches exactly, I would just review the logic used to reach the conclusion and then move on. Most questions were word problems; getting proficient at converting into algebraic format is crucial.
If I could distill everything I learned from this experience, it would be
1. Don't worry if you're having a bad day. I had a lot of practice test days where I felt awful; somewhere, I was almost throwing up because of my anxiety, but I still was able to perform better than I anticipated. This knowledge helped reduce anxiety on test day - I knew I did okay even at my worst, so I felt it'd be okay.
2. Focus on high-yield topics: Pay attention to what is often repeated, quizzed, or shows up on practice tests. THESE TOPICS MATTER AND WILL SHOW UP! I remember usually thinking, "But what if studying this is a waste of time because it won't show up?" while that is true when you're low on time; if it's a high-yield topic, do not overlook it. Please ensure you understand those topics and can do them well; these are where easy points can be made, and crucial points can be lost.
3. Have a support group: I didn't mention it above, but without my family and friends being there, checking on my progress, helping lighten the burden of my daily tasks, and being there to listen during stressful times, I would've done terribly on this test. Even if it's the lovely pre-dents on social media, connect with people and get support.
4. Keep studying. Even when it feels like you have it all down or maybe that you'll never be able to learn it all (like how I felt), never stop giving your best, whatever that is, to study and practice. Don't expect the same level of effort or performance from yourself every day, and make sure to take breaks before you break, but also just keep putting in an effort. You can do this!
