Hi everyone, I took my test back in early February and thought I would share a breakdown of my experience.
Scores:
QR – 21
RC – 25
Bio – 25
GC – 25
OC – 19
TS – 22
AA – 23
Background:
Currently in my gap year doing paid research for a public university. GPA 3.73, sGPA 3.6, president of prehealth club, 2 year NCAA athlete
Materials:
As has been mentioned before by other people, try to follow a schedule that works for you. I used Booster’s 10 week study schedule, but realized that I would finish studying a whole month early (I was overzealous and nervous when I first started as I hadn’t looked at college level sciences in a while). I also can say that studying is definitely quality over quantity. I work part-time so I would spend maybe 3-4 hours on certain days studying and on off days, I tried studying for 7 hours. The key for me was taking breaks so that my brain didn’t feel overwhelmed. I can admit that I burned out on several occasions so definitely take into consideration your mental health by taking necessary breaks. Also factor in days where you do nothing in anticipation of getting sick or just not wanting to study.
This is a beast of an exam to take on. For those of you reading this wondering how you’ll get to this point, trust me when I say I was in your position just weeks before my exam. It’s hard to see the end in the midst of studying, but you’ll make it. Put the work in and shoot for a high score. Understand that your initial practice exam scores are not reflective of how you’ll do on the real exam. And try to establish a support system. I was studying around the same time a friend was studying for the MCAT. It was hard for both of us, but we found solidarity in knowing that we’d be taking our exams around the same time. Also remember that the DAT is just one part of your application that dental schools holistically look at. You are more than one test score. With that being said, good luck for those of you studying and I hope this helped!
Scores:
QR – 21
RC – 25
Bio – 25
GC – 25
OC – 19
TS – 22
AA – 23
Background:
Currently in my gap year doing paid research for a public university. GPA 3.73, sGPA 3.6, president of prehealth club, 2 year NCAA athlete
Materials:
- DAT Booster – I chose this program because it was a cheaper option and I had heard that it was most representative of the actual exam. I can attest that it very closely resembles the actual exam. They do a great job of covering all topics and, frankly, I felt overprepared for certain sections like biology. The Feralis notes were great at highlighting high yield content and doing the question banks was helpful for understanding content even if it was more detailed that what you’d actually see on the exam. Their PAT was great although I feel that my actual test was harder because I got a decent number of rock questions.
- Anki – I used the Ankis provided by DAT Booster. I had used Ankis back in college which had worked well for me so I started doing them again a month into DAT studying. I really only used the biology ones to cover the wide berth of information, but I did stop using them as I got near the date of my exam. They are very helpful for introducing topics that you may look over when just reading notes and the constant repetition helped to cement concepts into my brain.
As has been mentioned before by other people, try to follow a schedule that works for you. I used Booster’s 10 week study schedule, but realized that I would finish studying a whole month early (I was overzealous and nervous when I first started as I hadn’t looked at college level sciences in a while). I also can say that studying is definitely quality over quantity. I work part-time so I would spend maybe 3-4 hours on certain days studying and on off days, I tried studying for 7 hours. The key for me was taking breaks so that my brain didn’t feel overwhelmed. I can admit that I burned out on several occasions so definitely take into consideration your mental health by taking necessary breaks. Also factor in days where you do nothing in anticipation of getting sick or just not wanting to study.
- Fall/Winter 2022: After debating between Bootcamp and Booster, I chose Booster despite most of my peers using Bootcamp due to lower cost and based on what I had read from other breakdowns. I did read other breakdowns which stressed me out so after a while I ignored them. I schedule my exam for February to give me plenty of time. Admittedly, I may have started a bit too early so try to aim for 3 months maximum for studying before your DAT. Following Booster’s schedule I did a little bit of every subject every day. I took notes when watching videos and annotated bio notes on my iPad using a note taking app. I grinded and tried to stay on schedule from November to December, but I eventually fell behind on the practice schedule. Try not to be hard on yourself for not finishing a day’s checklist of topics. What I did was focus on my areas of weakness after a while as I thought it would be more valuable to delegate my time to those topics (bio, OC, GC) than PAT and RC which I was doing well in. Around Christmas break, I took some days off to spend time with family and my girlfriend. It is especially important, in my opinion, to find time to spend with friends and family as they can help you take a mental break away from thinking about DAT stuff.
- January/February 2023: After new years day, I grinded out the rest of DAT Booster. Having read all the notes and watched all of the videos, I did the question banks to test my knowledge. I tried to do some questions for all sections in addition to bio, but the sciences were my place of heavy emphasis as I had not done as well on my initial practice exams. As I mentioned earlier, I stopped following the Booster study guide during this time to basically just focus on the sciences which were my lower scores on practice exams. Towards the end of January, I basically focused on sections that I consistently got wrong on practice exams and continued doing this up until the day before my exam. On the day before my exam, I reviewed all of my mistakes from past practice exams and stopped studying by lunchtime.
- Bio (25): Questions were pretty straightforward and I felt well prepared by Booster’s Feralis notes. I think I had 3 questions on my real exam which resembled something I had seen in my practice exams. I was honestly surprised I got this high of a score even with a background in bio as I hadn’t been averaging such a score on my practice exams. Make sure to read the wording carefully for each question and trust your gut.
- GC (25): Another surprise score! To be honest, on my practice exams, there would be some that I’d do really well on GC, but not OC and vice versa for others. I’ve never been a chemistry guy, but I tried to understand concepts more than practice the calculations as the test seemed to put more emphasis on the former. Acid/base and carbocation ranking were big here.
- OC (19): This was my lowest score and like I mentioned in GC, there were tests that I felt better on one chemistry versus the other. OC is a difficult subject for me to understand and I really didn’t have a strong background in it so I tried to memorize and, later, understand each mechanism. Again, concepts were big on this section and I think I may have overlooked certain mechanisms as I got stumped on the exam. I would say practice makes perfect here.
- PAT (23): I felt pretty good about PAT even from the beginning of studying as I am a visual-heavy person. My best tip is to practice the shortcut strategies provided in Booster until you feel comfortable. I would aim to be proficient in hole-punching and cube counting as those are more straightforward than the other sections in my opinion.
- RC (25): I’ve always been good at reading so I didn’t practice a lot for this section. I would try to look for key words in the passage and answer the questions. My strategy for RC was search and destroy as quickly as possible to leave enough time for me to go back and check for any missed pieces of information.
- QR (21): Honestly, not as high as I was hoping for. On my practice exams, I was averaging higher, but on the real exam, I got a pop up on my screen which really threw off my timing. For this section, every second counts so practice the math until you feel strong in it and be judicious with your time. Try not to spend too much time on one question and make sure every question has been completed.
This is a beast of an exam to take on. For those of you reading this wondering how you’ll get to this point, trust me when I say I was in your position just weeks before my exam. It’s hard to see the end in the midst of studying, but you’ll make it. Put the work in and shoot for a high score. Understand that your initial practice exam scores are not reflective of how you’ll do on the real exam. And try to establish a support system. I was studying around the same time a friend was studying for the MCAT. It was hard for both of us, but we found solidarity in knowing that we’d be taking our exams around the same time. Also remember that the DAT is just one part of your application that dental schools holistically look at. You are more than one test score. With that being said, good luck for those of you studying and I hope this helped!
