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Hi everyone, I took my DAT today and I am thrilled with my scores! I could not have done it without DATbooster. DATbooster is hands down the best resource to prepare for the DAT, I was in shock when I was taking the test and getting the same questions from practice exams across the board! Like literally!! I am so relieved to be over with this test. I studied a total of 70 days, like 10-15 hours a day ( I can’t believe I did this, I struggle with work-life balance lol)
I followed Booster’s schedule for the first month, which was content learning, then did my own thing the second month.
It is extremely overwhelming when you begin studying because you don’t know exactly how to study yet and there’s just so much you need to know. I understand you, I feel you, I was there with peak stress and anxiety, but I promise you that Booster has everything you need to prepare you! If you are studying right now, I urge you to just take a deep breath and have some faith in yourself because this test is not about how smart you are, but how hard you can work and prepare under stress. How you study is what is most important, so I am here to give you a breakdown of exactly what I did to prepare. Keep in mind everyone learns differently and prefers different methods but you must be efficient. Okay, here we go!
Official Scores:
22 PAT
21 QR
22 RC
24 Bio
21 Gen Chem
23 Orgo
23 TS
22 AA
PAT: My practice test scores ranged 19-22 and I got a 22 on the real thing! I honestly thought I would have done better because it seemed so much easier than Booster but I am still very happy with my score! I practiced on and off and mostly focused on TFE as that’s where I had the most difficulty. If I was having trouble with a section I would go back and rewatch the video explanations as a refresher. Focus on the practice tests if you want the best representation of the actual test. For TFE and pattern folding it would help draw out the shapes and label matching sides and shade in figures just to better visualize and understand why a structure for TFE was correct from that point of view. Just keep practicing!
QR: I was so worried about QR I was crying the day before my exam because I had so much anxiety… but I am so happy with a 21!! There were no questions I hadn’t seen before, but overall the questions asked were much more straightforward and simpler. A lot of them I could narrow down answers without having to even do any math first. I only had 2 sufficiency problems I think, but those two were pretty simple. I feel like my test was a lot of probability/algebra/distance problems. Sometimes they would ask the same question multiple times with different numbers which I wasn’t expecting.
RC: My passages were 7, 13, and 10 paragraphs long. The first 2 were pretty standard while my last passage was so weird. It even had photos in it, just wasn’t what I was expecting. I think I only took 1 or 2 RC practice tests and was scoring 19-20 but got a 22 on the real thing. My biggest piece of advice is not to answer questions based on your pre-existing knowledge. Use the text only, everything is there how they want you to answer it.
Bio: So for bio, I was extremely overwhelmed by how much information there is to know, that’s why I felt it was important to stay organized. I created an xcel sheet to keep track of all of my missed questions/any questions I wasn’t confident in from practice tests. I would add the question, the correct answer, and the concept/explanation I would need to know to answer it, plus any additional information. This was crucial!! If there were any particularly difficult questions or consistent topics, I would write them out on my iPad in a note labeled “missed bio concepts” I kept track of everything there, so by the time I had finished taking all the practice tests I had over 400 questions in my Xcel and 28 pages of handwritten notes based off the practice tests. The practice tests are a LEARNING tool that should be used to point out your weaknesses. Do not focus so much on the score, but only if you are improving! I started with a 13… but because I focused on Booster practice tests to learn concepts (not memorize) I was able to score a 24 on the real thing! I never started with reading the notes but just dove right into the extra questions and taught myself as I went. I would then go through the notes to clarify and supplement. I personally don’t find it helpful to just read notes without having to apply what you read. I think you learn by practicing. I retook Bio tests 2-3 times until I was scoring over 23+ at least.
Gen Chem: The actual exam was very similar to Booster and I had some of the exact same or similar questions here too just like the practice tests. I don’t think I had to actually do any math, maybe for 1 but for the rest, I set up equations. It was also more conceptual than math-based. Booster marks high-yield questions in their practice tests so make sure you know those well. I retook every test twice. For content learning, chad’s vids and youtube are the best, but I’m sure you already knew that.
Orgo: The actual exam was super simple and focused on very basic mechanisms/reactions. I don’t remember how many of those I had but It was not more than half. 2 days before my exam I noticed that Booster updated their Orgo practice tests and added new questions, so I tried to retake as many tests as I could to see those new questions, and good thing I did because some of them showed up on my exam!! Again, practice tests are the way to go. Of course, I still learned all the reactions and created a “reaction notebook” because they can always ask you anything but I’d say by using Booster you can tell which reactions are most high yield. I understand there’s a lot of reactions but by rewriting them a reviewing them a little each day you’ll just start to remember. Chad’s videos were also awesome for going through all the reactions!
I know this was the longest breakdown ever but I wanted to be thorough and help everyone out just as much as they helped me. Please remember, that you are more than capable of conquering the DAT, and you don’t need to be “smart” to do well… hard work gets results and you are one step closer to your dream. Good luck everyone, and thank you again DATbooster!
Link to Xcel sheet:
Link to reaction notebook:
I followed Booster’s schedule for the first month, which was content learning, then did my own thing the second month.
It is extremely overwhelming when you begin studying because you don’t know exactly how to study yet and there’s just so much you need to know. I understand you, I feel you, I was there with peak stress and anxiety, but I promise you that Booster has everything you need to prepare you! If you are studying right now, I urge you to just take a deep breath and have some faith in yourself because this test is not about how smart you are, but how hard you can work and prepare under stress. How you study is what is most important, so I am here to give you a breakdown of exactly what I did to prepare. Keep in mind everyone learns differently and prefers different methods but you must be efficient. Okay, here we go!
Official Scores:
22 PAT
21 QR
22 RC
24 Bio
21 Gen Chem
23 Orgo
23 TS
22 AA
PAT: My practice test scores ranged 19-22 and I got a 22 on the real thing! I honestly thought I would have done better because it seemed so much easier than Booster but I am still very happy with my score! I practiced on and off and mostly focused on TFE as that’s where I had the most difficulty. If I was having trouble with a section I would go back and rewatch the video explanations as a refresher. Focus on the practice tests if you want the best representation of the actual test. For TFE and pattern folding it would help draw out the shapes and label matching sides and shade in figures just to better visualize and understand why a structure for TFE was correct from that point of view. Just keep practicing!
QR: I was so worried about QR I was crying the day before my exam because I had so much anxiety… but I am so happy with a 21!! There were no questions I hadn’t seen before, but overall the questions asked were much more straightforward and simpler. A lot of them I could narrow down answers without having to even do any math first. I only had 2 sufficiency problems I think, but those two were pretty simple. I feel like my test was a lot of probability/algebra/distance problems. Sometimes they would ask the same question multiple times with different numbers which I wasn’t expecting.
RC: My passages were 7, 13, and 10 paragraphs long. The first 2 were pretty standard while my last passage was so weird. It even had photos in it, just wasn’t what I was expecting. I think I only took 1 or 2 RC practice tests and was scoring 19-20 but got a 22 on the real thing. My biggest piece of advice is not to answer questions based on your pre-existing knowledge. Use the text only, everything is there how they want you to answer it.
Bio: So for bio, I was extremely overwhelmed by how much information there is to know, that’s why I felt it was important to stay organized. I created an xcel sheet to keep track of all of my missed questions/any questions I wasn’t confident in from practice tests. I would add the question, the correct answer, and the concept/explanation I would need to know to answer it, plus any additional information. This was crucial!! If there were any particularly difficult questions or consistent topics, I would write them out on my iPad in a note labeled “missed bio concepts” I kept track of everything there, so by the time I had finished taking all the practice tests I had over 400 questions in my Xcel and 28 pages of handwritten notes based off the practice tests. The practice tests are a LEARNING tool that should be used to point out your weaknesses. Do not focus so much on the score, but only if you are improving! I started with a 13… but because I focused on Booster practice tests to learn concepts (not memorize) I was able to score a 24 on the real thing! I never started with reading the notes but just dove right into the extra questions and taught myself as I went. I would then go through the notes to clarify and supplement. I personally don’t find it helpful to just read notes without having to apply what you read. I think you learn by practicing. I retook Bio tests 2-3 times until I was scoring over 23+ at least.
Gen Chem: The actual exam was very similar to Booster and I had some of the exact same or similar questions here too just like the practice tests. I don’t think I had to actually do any math, maybe for 1 but for the rest, I set up equations. It was also more conceptual than math-based. Booster marks high-yield questions in their practice tests so make sure you know those well. I retook every test twice. For content learning, chad’s vids and youtube are the best, but I’m sure you already knew that.
Orgo: The actual exam was super simple and focused on very basic mechanisms/reactions. I don’t remember how many of those I had but It was not more than half. 2 days before my exam I noticed that Booster updated their Orgo practice tests and added new questions, so I tried to retake as many tests as I could to see those new questions, and good thing I did because some of them showed up on my exam!! Again, practice tests are the way to go. Of course, I still learned all the reactions and created a “reaction notebook” because they can always ask you anything but I’d say by using Booster you can tell which reactions are most high yield. I understand there’s a lot of reactions but by rewriting them a reviewing them a little each day you’ll just start to remember. Chad’s videos were also awesome for going through all the reactions!
I know this was the longest breakdown ever but I wanted to be thorough and help everyone out just as much as they helped me. Please remember, that you are more than capable of conquering the DAT, and you don’t need to be “smart” to do well… hard work gets results and you are one step closer to your dream. Good luck everyone, and thank you again DATbooster!
Link to Xcel sheet:
Link to reaction notebook:
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