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- Jul 21, 2017
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Hey all,
This forum has always been super helpful to me. I found it very beneficial to look at other students DAT break downs and see what they recommend and what they did to prepare for the DAT. So today I hope to return the favor! I will start with score comparison between DAT Bootcamp tests, 2007 and 2009 DAT vs. my official scores. Then I will discuss my study schedule + resources, and finally conclude with my exam day and the test itself! So here is my breakdown, hope you can find it useful!
DAT Scores:
Official DAT Scores:
BIO: 23
GC: 23
OC: 21
RC: 20
QR: 21(!!)
PAT: 21
Bootcamp Scores( 6-10, 1-5):
BIO: 18,20,20,20,20 | 22,21,19,21,20
GC: 14,18,18,19,19 | 20,18,20,21,19
OC: 18,19,17,22,20 | 19,17,18,20,20
RC: 17,19,19,19,18 | 20,17,22,22,20
QR: 16,17,17,17,17 | 19,17,17,17,16(lol)
PAT: 19,20,19,19,20 | 21,21,21,20,20
2007 DAT:
BIO: 24
GC: 21
OC: 30
RC: 19
QR: 17(lol)
PAT: 23
2009 DAT:
BIO: 23
GC: 25
OC: 21
RC: 17
QR: 17
PAT: 23
So as you can see my scores were on average higher on the actual DAT vs. the Bootcamp exams. The 2007 and 2009 DAT exams were kinda all over the place, some scores higher, some lower, and some around the same. In terms of actual difficultly, I feel like Bootcamp exams were slightly harder( especially in QR ) than the actually DAT. The 2009 was about the same level of difficultly if not slightly easier to me than the actual DAT and the 2007 was pretty easy as well. I am honestly still completely in awe of my official score, I am so blessed to received the scores I did!
Studying:
So my studying was kinda all over the place. I was blessed enough to have a light course load this spring semester which allowed me some extra flexibility in my schedule. I started "studying" around January when I purchased Bootcamp and DAT Destroyer. But if I'm being honest I didn't really study much during the semester besides doing PAT, watching Mike's videos once, and doing some DAT Destroyer problems. I was honestly pretty irresponsible when it came to studying at first, which resulted in me rescheduling my exam twice to give myself more time to "study." I finally got the motivation to kick things into over drive when I finished finals in early May and realized that my DAT, this very very important exam, was 3 weeks away. For the last 3 weeks I worked as hard as possible, around 6-10 hours a day. Here is what my schedule looked like.
Week 1:
I took Bootcamp exams 7-10 and reviewed them thoroughly while re watching Mikes Videos ( I had watched Mike's videos and done exam 6 earlier in the semester). Also spent a good amount of time doing the PAT generators and reading articles for RC. I probably studied between 6-10 hours a day.
Week 2:
Started taking full length exams to work on my timing. I took exams 1-4 and reviewed them often and very thoroughly to make sure I understood the concepts. I also started using Cliffs AP Bio to touch upon topics I was not as proficient in.
Week 3:
I took the 2007 DAT, 2009 DAT and Bootcamp exam 5 in that order leading up to the DAT. I took the 2007 DAT on Monday, 2009 on Tuesday and exam 5 on Wednesday. Thursday I reviewed EVERYTHING and took the Cliffs AP Bio exams at the end of the book. Friday I took the DAT!
Resources:
DAT Bootcamp:
This is hands down the best and most important resource you can get for the DAT IMO! This is the resource I used for 90% of my studying and it is what I attribute my score too. DAT Bootcamp is amazing for every single section, especially BIO, the explanations for each question not only explain the question itself, but go in detail on topic as whole. OC and GC are amazing as well, Mike's videos are awesome, especially since you can watch them on 2x speed, and the problems in the exams themselves will literally cover anything they could throw at you on the DAT. For PAT the generators are amazing, PAT Academy is awesome and really helps you understand how to visualize the problems. The QR is pretty difficult in Bootcamp in my opinion, im pretty slow at math in general, so the time limit would always stress me out. But it worked out in the end, and prepared me very well for the DAT. The RC is straight forward, just read the passage and answer the questions. RC has always been tough for me because I have dyslexia, but just practice and read a lot and you should be prepared!
P.S. For OC, make sure to go over the Organic Chemistry Reaction Sheet DAILY! I would review it every morning and before every exam along with the General Chemistry formula sheet. You want to have these reactions and formulas burned into your mind for exam day. Also, BOOKMARK QUESTIONS. Book mark all the questions you don't understand or missed for some reason, also book mark questions about import topics that are high yield on the DAT and REVIEW them as much as possible, I probably went through my book marked questions 10ish times before the exam, and my list kept growing as took more exams. Make sure to review constantly!
DAT Destroyer:
For Bio and QR I found DAT Destroyer amazing! Biology is all about breadth not depth, so exposing your self to as many problems and topics as possible is best, I think I got to around 450/600 over the course of the semester. For QR, the problems in Destroyer are very representative of what I experience on the actual exam, so I felt I was well prepared. For GC and OC, holy cow guys, some of those problems are scary hard. I think I did around 250 problems from both, but I would primarily focus on DAT Bootcamp for GC and OC, the problems are much more realistic and helped me understand the concepts better.
DAT Mastery (app):
This little app is awesome! It allows you to study anywhere you are, on the go! Its definitely not a primary resource, but it has like over 1000 questions in total, spread out over all the sections, and really helps you to review. I would use it whenever I had a down minute volunteering or even in a boring class lol, in my opinion its best for BIO, some of the GC and OC questions can be a little wacky, but definitely worth checking out. Great review tool.
Cliffs AP Biology:
Just get it. This book covers everything in the perfect amount of detail, not to much, not to little. If possible, start reading this ASAP. Its possible to cram GC and OC, but BIO is just to vast, so getting started early is the best thing you can do!
Exam Day:
My exam day was a Friday. My exam was scheduled at 9am and the Prometric center nearest to my house was about an hour and a half away. So I woke up around 5:30am, I already had everything I needed packed up the night before, so I just had to brush my teeth, brew some coffee and hit the road. I prayed and jammed out to music most of the way there, to get my spirits up and fight off the nerves over the long drive. I felt pretty tired that day, I think I had studied a little to hard the night before and not rested enough, plus I had woken up like 3 times that night cause of nerves, but I was in good spirits. I got to the testing center around 7:30am and started reviewing notes, I looked over the SNS section from the 2009 DAT, reviewed the organic chemistry reaction sheet and general chemistry formula sheet, and looked over a few practice exams.
They opened the doors at 8:30, at this point in time there were probably 20 people waiting outside who were also there to take exams. I got all checked in, put my stuff in a locker, and had a seat in the lobby. I probably waited like 20 minutes and then my name was called, they checked me, asked me to turn my pockets inside out, roll down your socks etc. Then they scanned my finger print, took my photo, had me sign in, and gave me my laminated paper and markers.
A proctor then escorted me into the testing room and to my cubical, I sat down and started the tutorial. The cubical was very spacious, and if you scooted your chair in enough, you couldn't see the people next to you in your peripherals. I finished the tutorial, said a quick prayer, and started the test.
I'm pretty sure my BIO section had a question from every single chapter of Cliffs, it hit every topic at least once, and most the questions were pretty basic in nature. The last question of my Bio exam had a graph with some data on it, and the questions below, only option A was available to click and the rest were off screen. I tried to scroll down but my computer froze and wouldn't respond. I raised my hand and the proctor came over. I told her the issue and she swiftly turned off my computer. She then restarted the computer and told me that the the timer will pick up exactly where it left off. When the exam came back up on the screen, everything worked fine and I got started again. I finished Bio with 1:05 left on the timer.
GC and OC were very straight forward sections, I was honestly surprised at the simplicity of some of the problems. That does not mean that they were necessarily easy, but they were very clear and tested a very basic understanding of the concept. Because I was quite tired during the exam, some of the problems took me a little longer to do than normal because I wanted to double check and make sure I did them right. I finished GC with 37:00 minutes left, and finished OC with 5 minutes left over which I used to briefly review. During reviewing I actually caught two really simple mistakes I had made in the GC section which was such a blessing!
PAT was kinda difficult IMO. I think it was because I was tired, but a lot of the problems that normally come easy to me, like hole punching, took me a lot more mental effort than normal. I didn't really feel like there were many "free" questions, most of them were about the same difficulty as DAT Bootcamp. So if you studying hard enough you should be fine.
A little back story real quick, the forecast for that day said that there was a good chance it was going to storm, and during the SNS section I had been hearing thunder and some light rain outside. So I am on question 88/90 on PAT with about 3 minutes left, excited to finish up the first section and take my break. Suddenly, with out warning, there is a huge clap of thunder and....... THE POWER GOES OUT. Lights, computers, everything. It all goes completely dark for about 2 seconds then comes back on. The proctor sticks her head in and tells us not to worry, the computers are all backed up. She then has to go personally restart every bodies computer and type in like 3 different passwords to bring the exam backup. It takes about 10 minutes for her to get to me and reboot my computer. I take a deep breath, finish my PAT section and go take the break.
On break I have a snack, do some stretches and go to the bathroom. At this point i'm ready to get the exam over with, so I check back in and get started on the next section. I probably only used about 15 minutes of my break.
RC was about as straight forward as you can get, search and destroy would have worked fine, or if your old school like me, and have to read the whole passage first, that works as well. My passages were slightly shorter than Bootcamp. I had a couple tricky question on one of my passages about whether or not a given statement agreed with a hypothesis that was discussed in the passage, but other than that it was fine.
Ohhh boy was I stressin' QR. As you can see by my practice exam scores, I am by no means a mathlete, so I am so incredibly blessed to have received the score I did. The first 10 or so problems were pretty tough imo, after I got those out of the way the exam got a lot easier and was pretty much basic algebra, rates, probability and comparison problems. Nothing too crazy.
Conclusion:
I hope some of you found this helpful! The biggest advice I can give is to actually study like you mean it. Leave your phone outside the room, throw on a chill-hop playlist, and actually study hard. Try to learn the material and not just look at it. Make sure to review practice problems OFTEN. You want everything to be burned into your mind.
Also, when you take practice exams, take them in weird environments. Being in the testing center the day of will be nerve-wracking for sure, so if your like me, you'll want to prepare yourself. I would take exams in weird parts of the library that aren't that comfortable or quiet, or where a lot of people walk by or I just don't feel at ease. I normally like to study all tucked away in a corner, but I made sure to practice in some cubicles that were out in the open, just to get myself used to it.
Good luck in your studying and I hope you all do amazing! God Bless.
This forum has always been super helpful to me. I found it very beneficial to look at other students DAT break downs and see what they recommend and what they did to prepare for the DAT. So today I hope to return the favor! I will start with score comparison between DAT Bootcamp tests, 2007 and 2009 DAT vs. my official scores. Then I will discuss my study schedule + resources, and finally conclude with my exam day and the test itself! So here is my breakdown, hope you can find it useful!
DAT Scores:
Official DAT Scores:
BIO: 23
GC: 23
OC: 21
RC: 20
QR: 21(!!)
PAT: 21
Bootcamp Scores( 6-10, 1-5):
BIO: 18,20,20,20,20 | 22,21,19,21,20
GC: 14,18,18,19,19 | 20,18,20,21,19
OC: 18,19,17,22,20 | 19,17,18,20,20
RC: 17,19,19,19,18 | 20,17,22,22,20
QR: 16,17,17,17,17 | 19,17,17,17,16(lol)
PAT: 19,20,19,19,20 | 21,21,21,20,20
2007 DAT:
BIO: 24
GC: 21
OC: 30
RC: 19
QR: 17(lol)
PAT: 23
2009 DAT:
BIO: 23
GC: 25
OC: 21
RC: 17
QR: 17
PAT: 23
So as you can see my scores were on average higher on the actual DAT vs. the Bootcamp exams. The 2007 and 2009 DAT exams were kinda all over the place, some scores higher, some lower, and some around the same. In terms of actual difficultly, I feel like Bootcamp exams were slightly harder( especially in QR ) than the actually DAT. The 2009 was about the same level of difficultly if not slightly easier to me than the actual DAT and the 2007 was pretty easy as well. I am honestly still completely in awe of my official score, I am so blessed to received the scores I did!
Studying:
So my studying was kinda all over the place. I was blessed enough to have a light course load this spring semester which allowed me some extra flexibility in my schedule. I started "studying" around January when I purchased Bootcamp and DAT Destroyer. But if I'm being honest I didn't really study much during the semester besides doing PAT, watching Mike's videos once, and doing some DAT Destroyer problems. I was honestly pretty irresponsible when it came to studying at first, which resulted in me rescheduling my exam twice to give myself more time to "study." I finally got the motivation to kick things into over drive when I finished finals in early May and realized that my DAT, this very very important exam, was 3 weeks away. For the last 3 weeks I worked as hard as possible, around 6-10 hours a day. Here is what my schedule looked like.
Week 1:
I took Bootcamp exams 7-10 and reviewed them thoroughly while re watching Mikes Videos ( I had watched Mike's videos and done exam 6 earlier in the semester). Also spent a good amount of time doing the PAT generators and reading articles for RC. I probably studied between 6-10 hours a day.
Week 2:
Started taking full length exams to work on my timing. I took exams 1-4 and reviewed them often and very thoroughly to make sure I understood the concepts. I also started using Cliffs AP Bio to touch upon topics I was not as proficient in.
Week 3:
I took the 2007 DAT, 2009 DAT and Bootcamp exam 5 in that order leading up to the DAT. I took the 2007 DAT on Monday, 2009 on Tuesday and exam 5 on Wednesday. Thursday I reviewed EVERYTHING and took the Cliffs AP Bio exams at the end of the book. Friday I took the DAT!
Resources:
DAT Bootcamp:
This is hands down the best and most important resource you can get for the DAT IMO! This is the resource I used for 90% of my studying and it is what I attribute my score too. DAT Bootcamp is amazing for every single section, especially BIO, the explanations for each question not only explain the question itself, but go in detail on topic as whole. OC and GC are amazing as well, Mike's videos are awesome, especially since you can watch them on 2x speed, and the problems in the exams themselves will literally cover anything they could throw at you on the DAT. For PAT the generators are amazing, PAT Academy is awesome and really helps you understand how to visualize the problems. The QR is pretty difficult in Bootcamp in my opinion, im pretty slow at math in general, so the time limit would always stress me out. But it worked out in the end, and prepared me very well for the DAT. The RC is straight forward, just read the passage and answer the questions. RC has always been tough for me because I have dyslexia, but just practice and read a lot and you should be prepared!
P.S. For OC, make sure to go over the Organic Chemistry Reaction Sheet DAILY! I would review it every morning and before every exam along with the General Chemistry formula sheet. You want to have these reactions and formulas burned into your mind for exam day. Also, BOOKMARK QUESTIONS. Book mark all the questions you don't understand or missed for some reason, also book mark questions about import topics that are high yield on the DAT and REVIEW them as much as possible, I probably went through my book marked questions 10ish times before the exam, and my list kept growing as took more exams. Make sure to review constantly!
DAT Destroyer:
For Bio and QR I found DAT Destroyer amazing! Biology is all about breadth not depth, so exposing your self to as many problems and topics as possible is best, I think I got to around 450/600 over the course of the semester. For QR, the problems in Destroyer are very representative of what I experience on the actual exam, so I felt I was well prepared. For GC and OC, holy cow guys, some of those problems are scary hard. I think I did around 250 problems from both, but I would primarily focus on DAT Bootcamp for GC and OC, the problems are much more realistic and helped me understand the concepts better.
DAT Mastery (app):
This little app is awesome! It allows you to study anywhere you are, on the go! Its definitely not a primary resource, but it has like over 1000 questions in total, spread out over all the sections, and really helps you to review. I would use it whenever I had a down minute volunteering or even in a boring class lol, in my opinion its best for BIO, some of the GC and OC questions can be a little wacky, but definitely worth checking out. Great review tool.
Cliffs AP Biology:
Just get it. This book covers everything in the perfect amount of detail, not to much, not to little. If possible, start reading this ASAP. Its possible to cram GC and OC, but BIO is just to vast, so getting started early is the best thing you can do!
Exam Day:
My exam day was a Friday. My exam was scheduled at 9am and the Prometric center nearest to my house was about an hour and a half away. So I woke up around 5:30am, I already had everything I needed packed up the night before, so I just had to brush my teeth, brew some coffee and hit the road. I prayed and jammed out to music most of the way there, to get my spirits up and fight off the nerves over the long drive. I felt pretty tired that day, I think I had studied a little to hard the night before and not rested enough, plus I had woken up like 3 times that night cause of nerves, but I was in good spirits. I got to the testing center around 7:30am and started reviewing notes, I looked over the SNS section from the 2009 DAT, reviewed the organic chemistry reaction sheet and general chemistry formula sheet, and looked over a few practice exams.
They opened the doors at 8:30, at this point in time there were probably 20 people waiting outside who were also there to take exams. I got all checked in, put my stuff in a locker, and had a seat in the lobby. I probably waited like 20 minutes and then my name was called, they checked me, asked me to turn my pockets inside out, roll down your socks etc. Then they scanned my finger print, took my photo, had me sign in, and gave me my laminated paper and markers.
A proctor then escorted me into the testing room and to my cubical, I sat down and started the tutorial. The cubical was very spacious, and if you scooted your chair in enough, you couldn't see the people next to you in your peripherals. I finished the tutorial, said a quick prayer, and started the test.
I'm pretty sure my BIO section had a question from every single chapter of Cliffs, it hit every topic at least once, and most the questions were pretty basic in nature. The last question of my Bio exam had a graph with some data on it, and the questions below, only option A was available to click and the rest were off screen. I tried to scroll down but my computer froze and wouldn't respond. I raised my hand and the proctor came over. I told her the issue and she swiftly turned off my computer. She then restarted the computer and told me that the the timer will pick up exactly where it left off. When the exam came back up on the screen, everything worked fine and I got started again. I finished Bio with 1:05 left on the timer.
GC and OC were very straight forward sections, I was honestly surprised at the simplicity of some of the problems. That does not mean that they were necessarily easy, but they were very clear and tested a very basic understanding of the concept. Because I was quite tired during the exam, some of the problems took me a little longer to do than normal because I wanted to double check and make sure I did them right. I finished GC with 37:00 minutes left, and finished OC with 5 minutes left over which I used to briefly review. During reviewing I actually caught two really simple mistakes I had made in the GC section which was such a blessing!
PAT was kinda difficult IMO. I think it was because I was tired, but a lot of the problems that normally come easy to me, like hole punching, took me a lot more mental effort than normal. I didn't really feel like there were many "free" questions, most of them were about the same difficulty as DAT Bootcamp. So if you studying hard enough you should be fine.
A little back story real quick, the forecast for that day said that there was a good chance it was going to storm, and during the SNS section I had been hearing thunder and some light rain outside. So I am on question 88/90 on PAT with about 3 minutes left, excited to finish up the first section and take my break. Suddenly, with out warning, there is a huge clap of thunder and....... THE POWER GOES OUT. Lights, computers, everything. It all goes completely dark for about 2 seconds then comes back on. The proctor sticks her head in and tells us not to worry, the computers are all backed up. She then has to go personally restart every bodies computer and type in like 3 different passwords to bring the exam backup. It takes about 10 minutes for her to get to me and reboot my computer. I take a deep breath, finish my PAT section and go take the break.
On break I have a snack, do some stretches and go to the bathroom. At this point i'm ready to get the exam over with, so I check back in and get started on the next section. I probably only used about 15 minutes of my break.
RC was about as straight forward as you can get, search and destroy would have worked fine, or if your old school like me, and have to read the whole passage first, that works as well. My passages were slightly shorter than Bootcamp. I had a couple tricky question on one of my passages about whether or not a given statement agreed with a hypothesis that was discussed in the passage, but other than that it was fine.
Ohhh boy was I stressin' QR. As you can see by my practice exam scores, I am by no means a mathlete, so I am so incredibly blessed to have received the score I did. The first 10 or so problems were pretty tough imo, after I got those out of the way the exam got a lot easier and was pretty much basic algebra, rates, probability and comparison problems. Nothing too crazy.
Conclusion:
I hope some of you found this helpful! The biggest advice I can give is to actually study like you mean it. Leave your phone outside the room, throw on a chill-hop playlist, and actually study hard. Try to learn the material and not just look at it. Make sure to review practice problems OFTEN. You want everything to be burned into your mind.
Also, when you take practice exams, take them in weird environments. Being in the testing center the day of will be nerve-wracking for sure, so if your like me, you'll want to prepare yourself. I would take exams in weird parts of the library that aren't that comfortable or quiet, or where a lot of people walk by or I just don't feel at ease. I normally like to study all tucked away in a corner, but I made sure to practice in some cubicles that were out in the open, just to get myself used to it.
Good luck in your studying and I hope you all do amazing! God Bless.
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