kaylynhiro
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 1, 2023
- Messages
- 2
- Reaction score
- 0
DAT BREAKDOWN: 25 AA; 28 TS
Hi everyone, I always found myself reading other people’s breakdowns while I was studying for my DAT and found them super helpful, so I thought I would share my own experience.
Background/ Study Timeline:
Studying DATBootcamp vs. DATBooster:
Actual DAT (Last Booster Full length Practice scores → DAT score)
TLDR
Hi everyone, I always found myself reading other people’s breakdowns while I was studying for my DAT and found them super helpful, so I thought I would share my own experience.
Background/ Study Timeline:
- I graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences in June 2023 and studied for about 3.5 months. I initially had super high ambitions and tried to start studying for the exam in March of 2023 with hopes to take it in June. However, trying to study for the DAT while finishing up my college classes was not realistic for me at all. I felt like I was spreading myself thin and would rather focus on doing well in my classes than do mediocre in both my classes and the DAT.
- Also, I ended up not following the schedules that both DATBootcamp and DATBooster provided. So, if the schedules they make are stressing you out or you feel like it's not the most productive use of your time don’t be scared to stray away from it.
Studying DATBootcamp vs. DATBooster:
- When I started studying for the DAT again in July, I started with Bootcamp but then purchased DATBooster at the end of August. I would say I got pretty familiar with each program, so I will lay out a few differences I noticed.
- Biology: I would definitely go with Booster for this one. I initially watched all of DAT Bootcamp’s videos and while they are very organized and have note outlines that go along with them, they are so long and less high yield. I found myself reading the Feralis-Booster notes in the end because I honestly did not know what was important to know because there was just so much information in the videos. Additionally, the DATBooster crash courses for biology were hands down the best thing I could have done. The cheat sheets on Booster are also so helpful and very high yield, I ended up reading through all of them a few days before my exam.
- Gen Chem: In this section in particular, I noticed booster being a bit harder than bootcamp in terms of their calculation questions. However both of their conceptual questions were fair game on the exam. If you see a note that says “This is a high-yield question” on Booster I would make sure to know it because they were right.
- Ochem: I think booster was more representative for this one, but bootcamp was also sufficient. I printed out the reaction sheet and would highlight any of them I didn’t know. Knowing mechanisms isn’t as important but it definitely helps.
- Quantitative Reasoning: I would score a decent amount better on Booster’s QR section than Bootcamps and ended up getting a score somewhere in the middle of them. Bootcamp’s questions were harder than what I saw on the exam.
- PAT and Reading: I would say you could not go wrong with either program for these sections. I did not end up focusing on these sections that much while studying.
Actual DAT (Last Booster Full length Practice scores → DAT score)
- Biology (23 → 30): I was not expecting this score at all, but I will say it again the Booster crash courses saved me. Feralis went over the most high yield topics and even gave us some questions that showed up on my exam almost verbatim. Additionally the extra practice tests you get for attending the crash courses are very representative of the real exam. Unlike other people, I did not use anki because I found it to be quite tedious, but I found the “marked question” feature under study tools on booster to be super helpful. I made sure to go over all the questions before my exam, as well as their high yield cheat sheets.
- Gen Chem (22→27): I was super stressed for this portion of the exam because the calculation question would always get me. However, on the real exam I did not have many calculations to do and if I did they were pretty simple. There were a good amount of conceptual questions that were fast to answer, so knowing definitions and key concepts are important.
- Ochem: (22 → 27): Again booster did a very good job at preparing me for this section and luckily the questions were very fair. I did not have that many intense enolate questions, thankfully. I know it's tedious to learn but knowing lab techniques was also useful for this section. Also knowing the high yield questions like acid/base ranking, resonance, and EAS is super crucial.
- PAT: (21→20): The PAT section was always a struggle for me so I would always just try to make it through the section without giving up lol. I also did the strategy of starting at question 31. I tried focusing on getting the keyhole, cube counting and, TFE mostly right because they are less ambiguous. I will say for pattern folding I did not get many shaded patterns, it was mostly blank shapes which made it harder.
- Reading Comp (24 → 22): I think I kinda got unlucky with this section as my second passage was 22 paragraphs long and was a hefty topic. However, I do feel that booster prepared me well and was representative. I did the method where you would quickly read and highlight half of the passage, answer questions you can and then search and destroy the rest.
- Quantitative Reasoning (23 → 21): Practice and repetition for this section really helps. I did not find myself having to use the more intense formulas, such as the area of an equilateral triangle or something like that. It was pretty straightforward, however I got a lot of comparing Quantity A/B and sufficiency questions which I thought were trickier.
TLDR
- Doing the practice tests sections on Booster were very representative, Feralis Booster Bio crash course was 100% worth it, and focus on the high yield concepts. Also another random thing I did was I got a whiteboard wall paper sticker and wrote down random things on it to know. Lastly, try not to fixate on the score you are getting on practice tests but instead learn from those mistakes.
