firenation79
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2024
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Scores: 23 PAT / 23 QR / 23 RC / 21 Bio / 23 GC / 25 OC / 23 TS / 23 AA
Resources:
DATBooster and Anki
Study Timeline:
I spent about 3 months studying for this exam. During the first 2ish months, I was studying about 5 days a week for 7-8 hours a day. In the last month following up to my exam, I studied just about everyday. I roughly followed DATBooster’s 10 week plan. I spent the first 1.5 months doing the learning phase. I deviated from the 10 week plan after the learning phase and started taking practice exams once or twice a week during the review phase rather than pushing the last 5 practice exams to the last 2 weeks of my studying as suggested by the 10 week plan. I learned a lot from reviewing the practice exams, so getting them done earlier rather than later allowed me time to retake some of the individual practice exams in which I scored poorly on and make sure that I was learning from my mistakes.
How I studied for each section:
PAT (23): Besides doing PAT questions on the practice exams, I mainly only did PAT practice problems using the Booster generators and question banks during my first month of studying. In my opinion, PAT is all about strategy. Once I finished watching all the videos on Booster and felt as if I had the strategy down, I stopped doing practice questions and only studied for PAT by reviewing the questions I got wrong on the practice exams I took. This allowed me to spend more time focusing on other sections that I felt weaker in (the sciences).
Biology (21): I started studying for bio by trying to read through the Feralis notes provided by Booster, but the notes were so detailed and I would lose patience going through them since it took me a very long time to get through the suggested readings on the Booster study checklist. Instead of the notes, I focused on learning/memorizing the information on the cheat sheets and paired it with Anki to make sure that I was retaining the information on the cheat sheets. I didn’t start using Anki until my last month of studying. If I could go back in time, I would definitely start using Anki earlier in my studies! I was a little disappointed in my bio score on the real DAT because I scored a 23, 22, and 24 on my last 3 Booster practice exams.
General Chemistry (23): I highly recommend reading through all the chapter notes for general chemistry! They are just detailed enough and contain most of the information you need for this section. After reading each chapter note, I would use the Quizlet flashcards from Booster to make sure I retained the information I read in the notes and then do the practice questions for that chapter. After each practice exam, I would go through the Quizlet deck again to review topics that I missed on that practice exam.
Organic Chemistry (25): I was honestly surprised that I scored a 25 on this section. This section was usually my lowest scoring section on the Booster practice exams, my highest practice exam score being a 23. I was most worried about this section because I took ochem online during my undergrad and didn’t retain much since all the exams were open notes. Similarly to general chemistry, I read through all the chapter notes provided by Booster. I would then review the reaction sheet and look over the reactions that I had just learned from that chapter. I also used the Anki deck provided from Booster for memorizing the reactions.
Reading Comprehension (23): Similarly to PAT, I didn’t spend much time studying for this section after my first month of studying and only did practice when I took the practice exams. The strategy I used was reading the first half of the passage to understand what the passage was about, and then find the answer to questions as I went along. The practice exam questions were pretty representative of the actual exam, but the passages on the real exam were longer so be prepared to use search and destroy. My average on Booster practice exams was around 25 - 26. I believe I scored lower on this portion on the actual exam because the lag on the computers at Prometrics was really bad and chewed into my time, so be prepared to experience the lag of Prometric computers! I remember my screen went completely white for a good 10 seconds as I was going from one question to the next, which was super frustrating.
Quantitative Reasoning (23): I was hoping for this section to be my highest scoring one :’) as it was usually my highest scoring section on practice exams. The lag on the computer for this section was also really bad for me and chewed into my time. I ran out of time at the end and had to guess on the last few questions unfortunately. I also feel as if I got unlucky since I received a lot of which quantity is greater and data sufficiency questions on the actual exam. To study for this section, I watched all the QR videos on Booster and did all the question banks. I also made sure I had all the formulas on the formula sheets memorized. My strategy for this section was to get through all of the questions as fast as I could. If I couldn’t immediately figure out how to solve a question, I would bookmark it and come back to it at the end. Since the DAT is a multiple choice exam, I was able to work backwards for most of the questions and figure out the correct answer by plugging them into the equation. But unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work too well with which quantity is greater and data sufficiency questions.
Ending note:
I feel as if DATBooster had all the resources, content, and material that I needed to study for this exam! I didn’t need to use other resources besides DATbooster and Anki. I remember feeling super discouraged when I first started studying for this exam because I only scored a 13 TS and 15 AA on my very first Booster practice exam. It felt almost impossible for me to score in the 20+ range. Slowly but surely, I was able to see improvements in my practice exams, and ultimately in the actual exam. Trusting the process and learning from my mistakes was crucial in preparing for this exam.
Resources:
DATBooster and Anki
Study Timeline:
I spent about 3 months studying for this exam. During the first 2ish months, I was studying about 5 days a week for 7-8 hours a day. In the last month following up to my exam, I studied just about everyday. I roughly followed DATBooster’s 10 week plan. I spent the first 1.5 months doing the learning phase. I deviated from the 10 week plan after the learning phase and started taking practice exams once or twice a week during the review phase rather than pushing the last 5 practice exams to the last 2 weeks of my studying as suggested by the 10 week plan. I learned a lot from reviewing the practice exams, so getting them done earlier rather than later allowed me time to retake some of the individual practice exams in which I scored poorly on and make sure that I was learning from my mistakes.
How I studied for each section:
PAT (23): Besides doing PAT questions on the practice exams, I mainly only did PAT practice problems using the Booster generators and question banks during my first month of studying. In my opinion, PAT is all about strategy. Once I finished watching all the videos on Booster and felt as if I had the strategy down, I stopped doing practice questions and only studied for PAT by reviewing the questions I got wrong on the practice exams I took. This allowed me to spend more time focusing on other sections that I felt weaker in (the sciences).
Biology (21): I started studying for bio by trying to read through the Feralis notes provided by Booster, but the notes were so detailed and I would lose patience going through them since it took me a very long time to get through the suggested readings on the Booster study checklist. Instead of the notes, I focused on learning/memorizing the information on the cheat sheets and paired it with Anki to make sure that I was retaining the information on the cheat sheets. I didn’t start using Anki until my last month of studying. If I could go back in time, I would definitely start using Anki earlier in my studies! I was a little disappointed in my bio score on the real DAT because I scored a 23, 22, and 24 on my last 3 Booster practice exams.
General Chemistry (23): I highly recommend reading through all the chapter notes for general chemistry! They are just detailed enough and contain most of the information you need for this section. After reading each chapter note, I would use the Quizlet flashcards from Booster to make sure I retained the information I read in the notes and then do the practice questions for that chapter. After each practice exam, I would go through the Quizlet deck again to review topics that I missed on that practice exam.
Organic Chemistry (25): I was honestly surprised that I scored a 25 on this section. This section was usually my lowest scoring section on the Booster practice exams, my highest practice exam score being a 23. I was most worried about this section because I took ochem online during my undergrad and didn’t retain much since all the exams were open notes. Similarly to general chemistry, I read through all the chapter notes provided by Booster. I would then review the reaction sheet and look over the reactions that I had just learned from that chapter. I also used the Anki deck provided from Booster for memorizing the reactions.
Reading Comprehension (23): Similarly to PAT, I didn’t spend much time studying for this section after my first month of studying and only did practice when I took the practice exams. The strategy I used was reading the first half of the passage to understand what the passage was about, and then find the answer to questions as I went along. The practice exam questions were pretty representative of the actual exam, but the passages on the real exam were longer so be prepared to use search and destroy. My average on Booster practice exams was around 25 - 26. I believe I scored lower on this portion on the actual exam because the lag on the computers at Prometrics was really bad and chewed into my time, so be prepared to experience the lag of Prometric computers! I remember my screen went completely white for a good 10 seconds as I was going from one question to the next, which was super frustrating.
Quantitative Reasoning (23): I was hoping for this section to be my highest scoring one :’) as it was usually my highest scoring section on practice exams. The lag on the computer for this section was also really bad for me and chewed into my time. I ran out of time at the end and had to guess on the last few questions unfortunately. I also feel as if I got unlucky since I received a lot of which quantity is greater and data sufficiency questions on the actual exam. To study for this section, I watched all the QR videos on Booster and did all the question banks. I also made sure I had all the formulas on the formula sheets memorized. My strategy for this section was to get through all of the questions as fast as I could. If I couldn’t immediately figure out how to solve a question, I would bookmark it and come back to it at the end. Since the DAT is a multiple choice exam, I was able to work backwards for most of the questions and figure out the correct answer by plugging them into the equation. But unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work too well with which quantity is greater and data sufficiency questions.
Ending note:
I feel as if DATBooster had all the resources, content, and material that I needed to study for this exam! I didn’t need to use other resources besides DATbooster and Anki. I remember feeling super discouraged when I first started studying for this exam because I only scored a 13 TS and 15 AA on my very first Booster practice exam. It felt almost impossible for me to score in the 20+ range. Slowly but surely, I was able to see improvements in my practice exams, and ultimately in the actual exam. Trusting the process and learning from my mistakes was crucial in preparing for this exam.
