Background: Currently a rising senior. I am working on my dental school application right now!
First Dat Scores:
QR - 23
RC - 20
Bio - 16
GC - 18
OC - 17
TS - 17
PAT - 17
AA - 19
Final Dat Scores:
QR - 23
RC - 24
Bio - 19
GC - 22
OC - 20
TS - 20
PAT - 19
AA - 22
Before my first DAT, I used bootcamp for its content and practice and booster only for its practice exams and practice questions. I thought that both were great in their own way, but feel like I definitely could have used bootcamp to a better extent. I was studying for classes along with DAT during the time I had bootcamp, so I was not really able to properly allocate time to use and practice everything bootcamp had to offer. However, later I got booster and then I was really using it and mainly took practice exams to practice what I knew. Above, I gave my scores for my first DAT. I think that I was good on the content but I really needed to practice it, which I had not really done before taking it. When I was studying for my second DAT, I only used booster. I took a few practice exams that I hadn’t taken before, and I made sure to thoroughly go through every single practice exam (all 10) and study how every question works and then background behind them.
Materials Used:
Bootcamp bio notes:
I just downloaded the pdf of the notes straight off of bootcamp and I felt that these notes were very helpful. I think that these notes, as in depth that they are, they are also very concise. For me, I knew a lot of the content beforehand because of classes I has take before. However, the notes were a great refresher along with helping me learn new things easily that I did not know before. I used the anki that bootcamp had as well, but I tried to do that before I knew every perfectly, so for me if was not very helpful. So I really recommend learning everything first and then making sure to use anki to keep your knowledge in practice.
DAT booster:
I really liked DAT booster because it was most representative of the real DAT, question wise. Booster definitely overprepared me because it had a higher difficulty level than the real thing, so I was used to the more difficult questions before going into the DAT. I did not really look through feralis notes because I only used bootcamp’s notes, so I’m wondering if I could have had a higher bio score if I had also used feralis notes in conjunction with bootcamp’s bio notes. Before my first DAT, I was really bad at PAT. I saw that for PAT, all you really need is practice, practice, practice. What I changed after my first DAT, is that I chose a section every a day to focus on and do 20-30 practice questions on it daily so that I could get a good grip on all the question types.
Breakdown:
For studying, I did not really choose to follows the study schedule on booster or bootcamp because I found that it was hard for me to keep up with it. Going at my own pace allowed me to retain the most and also be able to understand everything as I went.
Comparison of first DAT to second DAT:
Bio (16–>19):
For biology, I mainly used bootcamp’s bio notes along with its videos and boosters videos to learn all of the content. I do wish I had a slight higher score here, but bio is such a vast subject. It can be hard to make sure to cover and know every single thing. I recommend using feralis notes in parallel to bootcamp’s bio notes for review.
Gen chem (18 ->22):
Gen chem was tough for me because even though I knew how to do that math and all, it was very important to know the ranking of molecules which is what I struggled with. What I changed it that I went through all of the questions in every practice exam and made sure that I was aware of the reason an answer was the correct answer. Along with that, I also used chad’s prep to get a better understanding of molecules and their properties compared to other molecule. If you struggle with gen chem, chads prep is very helpful in giving reminders. I also practiced high yield questions continuously so learn how to solve problems.
Ochem (17 -> 20)
During my ochem classes, I really struggled with ochem because I could never understand the reactions. The first thing I did when studying for the ochem section of the DAT is start relearning all of the reactions and study them daily so that I could remember them because reactions has the most number of questions on the exam. I also made sure to practice ranking questions here as well and understanding the logic behind them. SN1 and SN2 and understanding the mechanisms behind them was very important. I had never understood that before my first DAT and during my ochem classes properly which is why I couldn’t grasp it properly.
PAT ( 17 -> 19)
The two biggest things about PAT is time management and practice. There are just so many questions that you are expected to do in little time. I’m order to combat this, I practiced PAT everyday so that I could see all the types of questions and be used to them and be able to do them quicker. During the days leading up to my exam, I took a practice PAT exam as well so that I could manage my time and perform the same way during my exam. I saw that during the exam, I started to slow down in the sections I was good at because I started to rethink it, leaving me to run out of time towards the end. I was expecting a higher score in this section because the amount of practice I did and the fact that I knew that I knew how to do well in this section.
Reading (20 -> 24)
For reading I did not really study for this other then when I took full length practice tests. In this section you just have ti make sure time doesn’t catch up with you. The technique I always used was search and destroy where I would read the question and look for the answer. When I looked for the answer, wherever it would be, I would make sure to read the paragraph around it, just incase it would help me in a question that would come later. The difference between my score in the first DAT and second DAT is both my confidence and just the hardness level of the passage. I was far more confident in the second DAT because I didn’t have the nervousness like I had in my first one which allowed me to read and answer questions faster. I also thought that my passages in the second one seemed simpler than in my first, so it really just depends.
QR (23 -> 23)
For QR, the most I really did was practice high yield questions. I already knew a lot of the question types because math was a good subject for me. I found QR simple, so practice high yield questions just solidified my QR studying.
Finding your own studying pace is most important with setting goals for yourself. Good luck!
First Dat Scores:
QR - 23
RC - 20
Bio - 16
GC - 18
OC - 17
TS - 17
PAT - 17
AA - 19
Final Dat Scores:
QR - 23
RC - 24
Bio - 19
GC - 22
OC - 20
TS - 20
PAT - 19
AA - 22
Before my first DAT, I used bootcamp for its content and practice and booster only for its practice exams and practice questions. I thought that both were great in their own way, but feel like I definitely could have used bootcamp to a better extent. I was studying for classes along with DAT during the time I had bootcamp, so I was not really able to properly allocate time to use and practice everything bootcamp had to offer. However, later I got booster and then I was really using it and mainly took practice exams to practice what I knew. Above, I gave my scores for my first DAT. I think that I was good on the content but I really needed to practice it, which I had not really done before taking it. When I was studying for my second DAT, I only used booster. I took a few practice exams that I hadn’t taken before, and I made sure to thoroughly go through every single practice exam (all 10) and study how every question works and then background behind them.
Materials Used:
Bootcamp bio notes:
I just downloaded the pdf of the notes straight off of bootcamp and I felt that these notes were very helpful. I think that these notes, as in depth that they are, they are also very concise. For me, I knew a lot of the content beforehand because of classes I has take before. However, the notes were a great refresher along with helping me learn new things easily that I did not know before. I used the anki that bootcamp had as well, but I tried to do that before I knew every perfectly, so for me if was not very helpful. So I really recommend learning everything first and then making sure to use anki to keep your knowledge in practice.
DAT booster:
I really liked DAT booster because it was most representative of the real DAT, question wise. Booster definitely overprepared me because it had a higher difficulty level than the real thing, so I was used to the more difficult questions before going into the DAT. I did not really look through feralis notes because I only used bootcamp’s notes, so I’m wondering if I could have had a higher bio score if I had also used feralis notes in conjunction with bootcamp’s bio notes. Before my first DAT, I was really bad at PAT. I saw that for PAT, all you really need is practice, practice, practice. What I changed after my first DAT, is that I chose a section every a day to focus on and do 20-30 practice questions on it daily so that I could get a good grip on all the question types.
Breakdown:
For studying, I did not really choose to follows the study schedule on booster or bootcamp because I found that it was hard for me to keep up with it. Going at my own pace allowed me to retain the most and also be able to understand everything as I went.
Comparison of first DAT to second DAT:
Bio (16–>19):
For biology, I mainly used bootcamp’s bio notes along with its videos and boosters videos to learn all of the content. I do wish I had a slight higher score here, but bio is such a vast subject. It can be hard to make sure to cover and know every single thing. I recommend using feralis notes in parallel to bootcamp’s bio notes for review.
Gen chem (18 ->22):
Gen chem was tough for me because even though I knew how to do that math and all, it was very important to know the ranking of molecules which is what I struggled with. What I changed it that I went through all of the questions in every practice exam and made sure that I was aware of the reason an answer was the correct answer. Along with that, I also used chad’s prep to get a better understanding of molecules and their properties compared to other molecule. If you struggle with gen chem, chads prep is very helpful in giving reminders. I also practiced high yield questions continuously so learn how to solve problems.
Ochem (17 -> 20)
During my ochem classes, I really struggled with ochem because I could never understand the reactions. The first thing I did when studying for the ochem section of the DAT is start relearning all of the reactions and study them daily so that I could remember them because reactions has the most number of questions on the exam. I also made sure to practice ranking questions here as well and understanding the logic behind them. SN1 and SN2 and understanding the mechanisms behind them was very important. I had never understood that before my first DAT and during my ochem classes properly which is why I couldn’t grasp it properly.
PAT ( 17 -> 19)
The two biggest things about PAT is time management and practice. There are just so many questions that you are expected to do in little time. I’m order to combat this, I practiced PAT everyday so that I could see all the types of questions and be used to them and be able to do them quicker. During the days leading up to my exam, I took a practice PAT exam as well so that I could manage my time and perform the same way during my exam. I saw that during the exam, I started to slow down in the sections I was good at because I started to rethink it, leaving me to run out of time towards the end. I was expecting a higher score in this section because the amount of practice I did and the fact that I knew that I knew how to do well in this section.
Reading (20 -> 24)
For reading I did not really study for this other then when I took full length practice tests. In this section you just have ti make sure time doesn’t catch up with you. The technique I always used was search and destroy where I would read the question and look for the answer. When I looked for the answer, wherever it would be, I would make sure to read the paragraph around it, just incase it would help me in a question that would come later. The difference between my score in the first DAT and second DAT is both my confidence and just the hardness level of the passage. I was far more confident in the second DAT because I didn’t have the nervousness like I had in my first one which allowed me to read and answer questions faster. I also thought that my passages in the second one seemed simpler than in my first, so it really just depends.
QR (23 -> 23)
For QR, the most I really did was practice high yield questions. I already knew a lot of the question types because math was a good subject for me. I found QR simple, so practice high yield questions just solidified my QR studying.
Finding your own studying pace is most important with setting goals for yourself. Good luck!
