smelly_92874
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Hi everyone, I'm so excited to share my DAT breakdown after reading hundreds while studying for my test. I found that these can be helpful to see what others are doing and also helped calm test anxiety so here's what I did and what I learned after this process!
Background:
I'm a rising senior with a ~3.4 sGPA and ~3.5GPA. I did the 12 week study timeframe but I worked part time 3 full days a week in which I did not do any work besides passive Qbanks. I didn't follow the study planner that Booster and Bootcamp had only because I was stubborn and thought I didn't need it, but I did do a general plan of solely studying content material for 1.5 months and then focusing on practice tests for the rest of the time which worked well. During the 3 months I studied I limited my time going out with friends and family (of course), but I did spend a good amount of time going to dinners and driving back home to see my family once in a while. I think for me it would have been harder to be only studying for 3 months straight and this way was more sustainable for me to endure for as long as I had to.
Materials used:
DATBooster - I was debating heavy between Booster and Bootcamp and overall I saw that most people seemed to say that Booster was more representative with very similar questions popping up on their actual DAT and this is what I saw in my own test as well. I really liked the format of this program and they had extra features that I really enjoyed such as daily warmup streaks to earn extra days to your subscription and mini games where you can win prizes for being in the leaderboard each week. I thought these features were a cute, fun way to motivate you to log in and lock in, especially when you want a little break.
Bootcamp: I ended up getting Bootcamp a little later because I had a friend to share the finances with. I wanted to use Bootcamp for extra practice tests and figured that this was a sure way of getting the best score I could. I learn the best doing practice problems so I think this was a good investment, however I'm sure that one program is sufficient enough. I say this because the practice tests were kind of similar and sometimes had the same questions between programs. But for me, having 20 tests to practice with helped test anxiety and gave me a lot of room to experiment with, although I will say I didn't finish all the tests lol..
Anki: I tried using the premade Anki from Booster in the beginning but I found it to be really discouraging since this was in the beginning of my learning phase of studying when I didn't know much. HOWEVER, my bio scores shot up from 19-21s to consistent 24-25s in the last week before my test once I started making my own Anki cards based solely on broad topics, practice questions I got wrong, and facts I noticed were hard to memorize throughout my time studying. I noticed that redoing Qbanks (which was how I studied for bio) was not helpful because I had the option to guess or get confused with words that look similar, but doing Anki solidifies and made sure I knew the answer which also helped me in terms of timing (after Anki I finished bio sections in 15 mins or less!).
EXAM:
The day of my exam was so dramatic. I had gotten 0 sleep the night before due to many reasons, I was sickly, and my license was expired which I didn't think would have been a problem until I got there and almost couldn't take my exam (dumb mistake I know). They were nice and let me off to take the test but I was in full tears in that test center. So mind you, the tears had barely dried on my face when I started my exam.
Bio (practice ~19-25; actual 26)- I was so shocked at how simple the questions on my test were. I had maybe 5 questions that were the same if not very similar to Booster practice questions and some from the Qbanks I was reviewing the morning of. When people say breadth over depth, it's nothing but the truth. I didn't really get any specifics, but if I did, they were high yield topics that Booster and Bootcamp emphasize in their practice tests, so I say if you know the practice tests well and you know all the topics generally, you can do well on this section. I finished in 15 mins and had time to double check after finishing everything else which was good cus I caught some silly mistakes.
GenChem (practice~20-25, actual 24)- I remember this section had similar/same style and format of questions as the practice tests. I would say the distribution of questions were the same too, like gas law questions, acid base titration, nuclear decay, conversion, rate law, and some definition questions that you normally see in the practice were there. I had a good gen chem background so this was the section I was most confident in and didn't study much for so I don't have unique tips. Just study the topics that you see coming up often!
OChem (practice ~17-20; actual 27)- I have absolutely no idea how this score came to be. During the exam I had like 6 questions marked where I had guessed so I was so worried about this section. I did notice they had a couple of freebee, simple questions, but I also had a lot of reaction questions which was what I was most worried about. Studying for OChem I would say start memorizing reactions early because I started around 2 weeks before my test and that's what gave me so much anxiety for this test, because if you think about it, those are freebee questions. I think I remember the test being similar to the practice and nothing caught me off guard. I had a couple of questions that I recognized but couldn't remember the answers for... I will say that Bootcamp videos and Qbanks excel for this section and is the only topic that I used Bootcamp more heavily for than Booster. I would say this section is also just about know the basics and the high yield stuff which I could say is acid/base strength, pka/ka/conjugate base-acid conversions, carbocation stability, SN/E rxns, stereochem, moving e- mechs, IR and H-NMR and C-NMR spectrum numbers! and unfortunately knowing reaction reagents and what they do.
PAT (practice ~19-22; actual 23)- PAT was way easier than any practice I've taken. I dragged the computer closer to the edge of the desk so I could see better. I had the hardest time with TFE and angles but I thought the TFE questions were simpler on the actual test and the larger screen made angles easier too. For cubes my best advice is to first write down all the # of each cube down by each row then when the question asks you how many 4 sided ones there are you count how many you wrote down. This helped me save time the most. I don't have tricks for other sections, and in hindsight I should have practiced earlier.
QR (practice ~19-21; actual 21)- this section was a lot harder for me than my practice but I think it was because it was heavily algebra based and I got a lot of sufficiency questions which was my worst topic. However, even I could recognize that the questions were simple enough and if I had focused a little more on QR it wouldn't have been a big deal.
RC (practice ~21-26; actual 23)- I happened to get interesting and easy to understand passages so that was lucky but I think when I got to this section I panicked a bit because the lag was getting worse by the end of the exam. I primarily used the search and destroy methods without reading the whole passage and highlighting keywords. I think it's easiest to understand the structure of the passage first when skimming because it'll help you locate things easier. For example, I saw a lot of passages where it would go in chronological order, or each passage would be a new example. So highlighting the main topic of each section helps when you see the question.
Ending words:
I am not a good test taker at all, I was shaking the whole time taking the test. In the beginning I didn't have a high expectation for myself and was aiming for a 21. To be honest, it wasn't until a friend made a deal with me that if I got above a 23 that he would take me on a trip that encouraged me to aim higher. What I'm trying to say is that you set your goals and you shouldn't limit yourself 🙂 You know your weaknesses and strengths so focus on those and work hard so that you don't have to take this test again.
Background:
I'm a rising senior with a ~3.4 sGPA and ~3.5GPA. I did the 12 week study timeframe but I worked part time 3 full days a week in which I did not do any work besides passive Qbanks. I didn't follow the study planner that Booster and Bootcamp had only because I was stubborn and thought I didn't need it, but I did do a general plan of solely studying content material for 1.5 months and then focusing on practice tests for the rest of the time which worked well. During the 3 months I studied I limited my time going out with friends and family (of course), but I did spend a good amount of time going to dinners and driving back home to see my family once in a while. I think for me it would have been harder to be only studying for 3 months straight and this way was more sustainable for me to endure for as long as I had to.
Materials used:
DATBooster - I was debating heavy between Booster and Bootcamp and overall I saw that most people seemed to say that Booster was more representative with very similar questions popping up on their actual DAT and this is what I saw in my own test as well. I really liked the format of this program and they had extra features that I really enjoyed such as daily warmup streaks to earn extra days to your subscription and mini games where you can win prizes for being in the leaderboard each week. I thought these features were a cute, fun way to motivate you to log in and lock in, especially when you want a little break.
Bootcamp: I ended up getting Bootcamp a little later because I had a friend to share the finances with. I wanted to use Bootcamp for extra practice tests and figured that this was a sure way of getting the best score I could. I learn the best doing practice problems so I think this was a good investment, however I'm sure that one program is sufficient enough. I say this because the practice tests were kind of similar and sometimes had the same questions between programs. But for me, having 20 tests to practice with helped test anxiety and gave me a lot of room to experiment with, although I will say I didn't finish all the tests lol..
Anki: I tried using the premade Anki from Booster in the beginning but I found it to be really discouraging since this was in the beginning of my learning phase of studying when I didn't know much. HOWEVER, my bio scores shot up from 19-21s to consistent 24-25s in the last week before my test once I started making my own Anki cards based solely on broad topics, practice questions I got wrong, and facts I noticed were hard to memorize throughout my time studying. I noticed that redoing Qbanks (which was how I studied for bio) was not helpful because I had the option to guess or get confused with words that look similar, but doing Anki solidifies and made sure I knew the answer which also helped me in terms of timing (after Anki I finished bio sections in 15 mins or less!).
EXAM:
The day of my exam was so dramatic. I had gotten 0 sleep the night before due to many reasons, I was sickly, and my license was expired which I didn't think would have been a problem until I got there and almost couldn't take my exam (dumb mistake I know). They were nice and let me off to take the test but I was in full tears in that test center. So mind you, the tears had barely dried on my face when I started my exam.
Bio (practice ~19-25; actual 26)- I was so shocked at how simple the questions on my test were. I had maybe 5 questions that were the same if not very similar to Booster practice questions and some from the Qbanks I was reviewing the morning of. When people say breadth over depth, it's nothing but the truth. I didn't really get any specifics, but if I did, they were high yield topics that Booster and Bootcamp emphasize in their practice tests, so I say if you know the practice tests well and you know all the topics generally, you can do well on this section. I finished in 15 mins and had time to double check after finishing everything else which was good cus I caught some silly mistakes.
GenChem (practice~20-25, actual 24)- I remember this section had similar/same style and format of questions as the practice tests. I would say the distribution of questions were the same too, like gas law questions, acid base titration, nuclear decay, conversion, rate law, and some definition questions that you normally see in the practice were there. I had a good gen chem background so this was the section I was most confident in and didn't study much for so I don't have unique tips. Just study the topics that you see coming up often!
OChem (practice ~17-20; actual 27)- I have absolutely no idea how this score came to be. During the exam I had like 6 questions marked where I had guessed so I was so worried about this section. I did notice they had a couple of freebee, simple questions, but I also had a lot of reaction questions which was what I was most worried about. Studying for OChem I would say start memorizing reactions early because I started around 2 weeks before my test and that's what gave me so much anxiety for this test, because if you think about it, those are freebee questions. I think I remember the test being similar to the practice and nothing caught me off guard. I had a couple of questions that I recognized but couldn't remember the answers for... I will say that Bootcamp videos and Qbanks excel for this section and is the only topic that I used Bootcamp more heavily for than Booster. I would say this section is also just about know the basics and the high yield stuff which I could say is acid/base strength, pka/ka/conjugate base-acid conversions, carbocation stability, SN/E rxns, stereochem, moving e- mechs, IR and H-NMR and C-NMR spectrum numbers! and unfortunately knowing reaction reagents and what they do.
PAT (practice ~19-22; actual 23)- PAT was way easier than any practice I've taken. I dragged the computer closer to the edge of the desk so I could see better. I had the hardest time with TFE and angles but I thought the TFE questions were simpler on the actual test and the larger screen made angles easier too. For cubes my best advice is to first write down all the # of each cube down by each row then when the question asks you how many 4 sided ones there are you count how many you wrote down. This helped me save time the most. I don't have tricks for other sections, and in hindsight I should have practiced earlier.
QR (practice ~19-21; actual 21)- this section was a lot harder for me than my practice but I think it was because it was heavily algebra based and I got a lot of sufficiency questions which was my worst topic. However, even I could recognize that the questions were simple enough and if I had focused a little more on QR it wouldn't have been a big deal.
RC (practice ~21-26; actual 23)- I happened to get interesting and easy to understand passages so that was lucky but I think when I got to this section I panicked a bit because the lag was getting worse by the end of the exam. I primarily used the search and destroy methods without reading the whole passage and highlighting keywords. I think it's easiest to understand the structure of the passage first when skimming because it'll help you locate things easier. For example, I saw a lot of passages where it would go in chronological order, or each passage would be a new example. So highlighting the main topic of each section helps when you see the question.
Ending words:
I am not a good test taker at all, I was shaking the whole time taking the test. In the beginning I didn't have a high expectation for myself and was aiming for a 21. To be honest, it wasn't until a friend made a deal with me that if I got above a 23 that he would take me on a trip that encouraged me to aim higher. What I'm trying to say is that you set your goals and you shouldn't limit yourself 🙂 You know your weaknesses and strengths so focus on those and work hard so that you don't have to take this test again.
