- Joined
- Jan 3, 2022
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- 5
- Reaction score
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1st DAT Attempt: 19 AA, 17 TS, 16 BIO, 19 GC, 18 OC, 21 QR, 20 RC, 19 PAT
2nd DAT Attempt: 23 AA, 22 TS, 23 BIO, 22 GC, 22 OC, 24 QR, 24 RC, 21 PAT
Background/ Study process:
I just graduated in May with a Biochemistry degree, so I have somewhat of a foundation of the sciences. However, I did not do well in these classes and took them about 2-3 years ago. So when I studied for the exam the first time, I had to basically learn everything again. The first time I took my exam I studied for about 3.5 weeks and used DAT Bootcamp. I focused 95% of my time on just learning the material and not doing practice questions. I would watch all the videos and take my own notes to try to memorize the information. However, I wasn’t prepared for the tricks questions would throw at you with similar answer choices. I didn’t utilize all the features DAT Bootcamp had to offer and therefore didn’t score as high as I could have. Don’t cram all your studying like I did and give yourself enough time to learn/practice.
For the second attempt, I knew that all I had to do was review the sciences because it was only 6 months since the first attempt. This time, I put more emphasis on practice and reviewing my mistakes. Whereas the first time I only took 1 section test each, two days before my exam and that’s it. DO MORE PRACTICE! Booster is fantastic at preparing you for this exam since the difficulty of the questions is much higher and it prepared me well for the real thing. I studied for a total of 5 weeks and didn’t start practice exams until 2 weeks from my exam date. I also attended 2 Bio and 3 OC Crash courses that Booster offers. I truly believe I wouldn’t have done as well as I did in these 2 sections without the crash courses. It helped with focusing on the high yield content and compartmentalize the information in my brain. The amount of information in those sections is overwhelming and the crash courses definitely helped with managing it. However, it must be paired with practice because you will see patterns in the types of questions you miss. Once you notice the patterns, focus on reviewing commonly missed questions and review those sections multiple times. Also, I did not take any full length exams because I already had experience taking the full exam before, so I only did section tests.
Biology:
Booster exams are the best at preparing you for this section. The questions are so representative of the section that I saw at least 3-4 questions from the practice exams on the real thing. I used DAT Bootcamp’s high-yield notes to re-learn/review the material. I would highlight the most important parts of each concept the first time reading through the notes and anytime I reviewed after that it would be easier to read through since I was focusing on the important parts. I was on a time crunch for my retake and Feralis notes were a bit too detailed in most of the sections. If I didn’t understand a concept, I would simply watch a video on YouTube to get an understanding of the concept. I also watched the Booster videos on metabolism, photosynthesis, and taxonomy. The booster videos tell you exactly what you need to know for the exam, nothing more or less. Also, mnemonics are your best friend for this section.
General Chemistry:
I watched all the videos and read through the corresponding notes. I also did the extra questions from the question bank to test my understanding of the concepts. The real exam was very conceptual based so make sure you understand the concepts rather than just memorizing how to solve a particular type of calculation question.
Organic Chemistry:
Biggest piece of advice here is to understand the reactions because the real exam may have reagents that aren’t exactly like the reagents shown on the reaction sheet. You will have to memorize some reagents but don’t rely only on memorization. Also, the exam is very conceptual heavy like GC. After watching the videos and reading the notes I thought the exam would be mostly reaction questions but there was a good mount of nomenclature, conformation, lab technique, and spectroscopy questions. So don’t forget the other parts of OC and review those.
Reading Comprehension:
I used the Standard approach (or Vanilla method) strategy. If you use this strategy, make sure you get used to reading a scientific article everyday as fast as you can while still understanding it. I didn’t prepare too much for this section because I did decent on this section on my first exam so I was confident about it going into my retake. I didn’t try any other strategy because I liked using the standard approach strategy but I recommend trying different strategies to see what works best for you
Quantitative Reasoning:
I watched all the videos and completed the corresponding questions for each before doing the practice exams. Memorize all the equations and conversions because you will need to know them to answer many questions. Biggest piece of advice here is know how to efficiently solve each question because on the real exam this was the only section other than PAT I had no time left over and I was rushing on each question.
Perceptual Ability:
I put a lot of effort into this section on my first attempt, but I didn’t really practice it as much as I should have during the second time studying for the exam. Start practicing this section as early as you can because that’s the only way you will score higher. Like QR, you will need to know how to efficiently find the answer to each type of question and you can only figure that out through practice. On the real thing and practice exams, I would recommend you start with angle ranking and finish through the last question then come back to question 1 to start Keyhole and TFE.
Overall:
Top takeaways from this breakdown is give yourself enough time to study and practice/review. Booster is all you need to succeed on this exam. You will score 1-4 points higher than your booster practice exams so don’t stress if you are scoring low on the practice exams just make sure you focus on what type of questions you are answering incorrectly and review them. On the other hand, don’t stop reviewing a section just because you score high on the practice exam. Many people say to not study the day before and morning of but I was reviewing material up until I got to the door of the test center. So do what works best for you. On the day of the test, make sure you bring 2 forms of ID and a snack to recharge during the break. Finally, this exam very hard and will make you doubt yourself but try to push through to the best of your ability. Good luck!
Booster Exam scores
BIO: 16, 17, 18, 18, 19
GC: 16, 20, 18, 24
OC: 22, 21, 20
RC: 21, 18
QR: 20, 20
PAT: 20, 21
2nd DAT Attempt: 23 AA, 22 TS, 23 BIO, 22 GC, 22 OC, 24 QR, 24 RC, 21 PAT
Background/ Study process:
I just graduated in May with a Biochemistry degree, so I have somewhat of a foundation of the sciences. However, I did not do well in these classes and took them about 2-3 years ago. So when I studied for the exam the first time, I had to basically learn everything again. The first time I took my exam I studied for about 3.5 weeks and used DAT Bootcamp. I focused 95% of my time on just learning the material and not doing practice questions. I would watch all the videos and take my own notes to try to memorize the information. However, I wasn’t prepared for the tricks questions would throw at you with similar answer choices. I didn’t utilize all the features DAT Bootcamp had to offer and therefore didn’t score as high as I could have. Don’t cram all your studying like I did and give yourself enough time to learn/practice.
For the second attempt, I knew that all I had to do was review the sciences because it was only 6 months since the first attempt. This time, I put more emphasis on practice and reviewing my mistakes. Whereas the first time I only took 1 section test each, two days before my exam and that’s it. DO MORE PRACTICE! Booster is fantastic at preparing you for this exam since the difficulty of the questions is much higher and it prepared me well for the real thing. I studied for a total of 5 weeks and didn’t start practice exams until 2 weeks from my exam date. I also attended 2 Bio and 3 OC Crash courses that Booster offers. I truly believe I wouldn’t have done as well as I did in these 2 sections without the crash courses. It helped with focusing on the high yield content and compartmentalize the information in my brain. The amount of information in those sections is overwhelming and the crash courses definitely helped with managing it. However, it must be paired with practice because you will see patterns in the types of questions you miss. Once you notice the patterns, focus on reviewing commonly missed questions and review those sections multiple times. Also, I did not take any full length exams because I already had experience taking the full exam before, so I only did section tests.
Biology:
Booster exams are the best at preparing you for this section. The questions are so representative of the section that I saw at least 3-4 questions from the practice exams on the real thing. I used DAT Bootcamp’s high-yield notes to re-learn/review the material. I would highlight the most important parts of each concept the first time reading through the notes and anytime I reviewed after that it would be easier to read through since I was focusing on the important parts. I was on a time crunch for my retake and Feralis notes were a bit too detailed in most of the sections. If I didn’t understand a concept, I would simply watch a video on YouTube to get an understanding of the concept. I also watched the Booster videos on metabolism, photosynthesis, and taxonomy. The booster videos tell you exactly what you need to know for the exam, nothing more or less. Also, mnemonics are your best friend for this section.
General Chemistry:
I watched all the videos and read through the corresponding notes. I also did the extra questions from the question bank to test my understanding of the concepts. The real exam was very conceptual based so make sure you understand the concepts rather than just memorizing how to solve a particular type of calculation question.
Organic Chemistry:
Biggest piece of advice here is to understand the reactions because the real exam may have reagents that aren’t exactly like the reagents shown on the reaction sheet. You will have to memorize some reagents but don’t rely only on memorization. Also, the exam is very conceptual heavy like GC. After watching the videos and reading the notes I thought the exam would be mostly reaction questions but there was a good mount of nomenclature, conformation, lab technique, and spectroscopy questions. So don’t forget the other parts of OC and review those.
Reading Comprehension:
I used the Standard approach (or Vanilla method) strategy. If you use this strategy, make sure you get used to reading a scientific article everyday as fast as you can while still understanding it. I didn’t prepare too much for this section because I did decent on this section on my first exam so I was confident about it going into my retake. I didn’t try any other strategy because I liked using the standard approach strategy but I recommend trying different strategies to see what works best for you
Quantitative Reasoning:
I watched all the videos and completed the corresponding questions for each before doing the practice exams. Memorize all the equations and conversions because you will need to know them to answer many questions. Biggest piece of advice here is know how to efficiently solve each question because on the real exam this was the only section other than PAT I had no time left over and I was rushing on each question.
Perceptual Ability:
I put a lot of effort into this section on my first attempt, but I didn’t really practice it as much as I should have during the second time studying for the exam. Start practicing this section as early as you can because that’s the only way you will score higher. Like QR, you will need to know how to efficiently find the answer to each type of question and you can only figure that out through practice. On the real thing and practice exams, I would recommend you start with angle ranking and finish through the last question then come back to question 1 to start Keyhole and TFE.
Overall:
Top takeaways from this breakdown is give yourself enough time to study and practice/review. Booster is all you need to succeed on this exam. You will score 1-4 points higher than your booster practice exams so don’t stress if you are scoring low on the practice exams just make sure you focus on what type of questions you are answering incorrectly and review them. On the other hand, don’t stop reviewing a section just because you score high on the practice exam. Many people say to not study the day before and morning of but I was reviewing material up until I got to the door of the test center. So do what works best for you. On the day of the test, make sure you bring 2 forms of ID and a snack to recharge during the break. Finally, this exam very hard and will make you doubt yourself but try to push through to the best of your ability. Good luck!
Booster Exam scores
BIO: 16, 17, 18, 18, 19
GC: 16, 20, 18, 24
OC: 22, 21, 20
RC: 21, 18
QR: 20, 20
PAT: 20, 21
I am so sad, are you open to tutoring or getting together to help me with tips for studying?
