Hadi Bouali
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2022
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 1
- Pre-Dental
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hello everybody!
I hope studying for the DAT is going well for everyone!! I took my DAT last weekend and received a 25 AA with a 21 PAT, and I wanted to break-down my score report to help other students perform their maximum potential on the DAT. I used nothing but Bootcamp, although I sometimes did simple google searches to gain a new perspective on explanations that didn’t make too much sense to me the first time reading them.
Beginning my studying felt like beginning to scale Mount Everest. After scrolling through each of the subject tabs and seeing just how much information there is to study, it felt insurmountable to me in the first week. To get over my fear and anxiety, I fully began to “trust the process” as I’ve seen so many other successful students say; basically, I told myself that if I just stuck to Ari’s 60-day study plan and worked my hardest at this every single day, I would have done enough and would end up being successful.
So in my opinion, the first 30 days of Ari’s study plan are the hardest and most time consuming. I started my studying at the beginning of winter break, and by the first day of the semester I was on day 28 of studying, which luckily was the very end of the “hard part”, allowing me some room to focus on my classes too. The reason I think the first half is harder than the second is because the first half is the sheer hard-studying portion where you learn everything for the first time, and the second part is when you practice everything in real-DAT style (i.e. take tons and tons of practice tests, and this is where you find out what you learned well and what didn’t stick). I was studying 8+ hours a day in the first 30 days, and it takes serious dedication and sacrifices to make sure you keep up with your studying. After that, it was down to 5-6 hours a day. Personally, I stretched the last 30 days into 60 days (for a total of 90 days), so that I had plenty of time to re-do every practice test as well as study the material that I clearly struggled the most in.
I’ll do a score break-down in the order they show up on the score sheet:
For the PAT section, just like most people, I struggled hard in the beginning. The only thing I could really trust I’d do well in was hole-punching and cube-counting. Everything else started out rough, but with practice every single day (especially with the PAT trainer game), I slowly became better and better at each one. For me, angles and keyholes were the hardest sections, which I wish I spent more time on.
For the Quantitative Reasoning section, after completing all the question banks, I was scoring 21’s in the practice tests and seeing questions that I really had no idea how to answer and was just guessing on. These are the questions I returned back to the practice questions banks to study more in-depth. Eventually I started making 23’s, but I never scored any higher, even though I felt like I knew it all so well. I just kept reviewing all my silly (and frustrating) mistakes over and over as well as questions I kept getting wrong for the 2nd and 3rd time until I really understood them inside and out. Also, the QR section on the real DAT was easier than anything on Bootcamp (so study until you feel confident on Bootcamp, and you’ll for sure be good on the real thing).
For the Reading Comprehension section, I seriously struggled on every single practice test due to my reading speed. I used the Search and Destroy method because the vanilla method failed me on the SAT/ACT back in high school. Every single day I did my daily reading practice until I finally noticed my reading skills getting faster and I was able to comprehend more of what I was reading, and I somehow was scoring 23’s even though I felt horrible after each practice test. I knew the daily reading along with the practice single-passage question banks was the key to me still doing well. On the real DAT, the passages were almost half the length of Bootcamp’s which helped me feel way more confident.
Now, on to Bio. This was by far the hardest section for me, and the section that I had to spend the most time on. Each day, bio took a little less than half my total study time for the day (~4 hours). So many chapters seemed brand new to me because my foundational Bio was horrible. I didn’t watch any of the videos and used nothing besides the high-yield huge pdf file as well as the quizlet links to study and follow through Ari’s study guide. The practice tests showed me I remembered virtually nothing. I had to spend 2x as much time reviewing each practice test than the time it took to take it, because I had to thoroughly read through the explanation and understand each correct answer. I also used this time to understand why each wrong answer choice was wrong—this significantly improved my rate of studying, since instead of learning why just 1 answer choice was right per question, I was really learning about all 5 answer choices which is like 5 topics per question. The topics I consistently missed I would review by going back into the high-yield notes and taking more detailed notes than I did the first time. By the time the real DAT came, I had gone through each practice test 3 times and I had reviewed half of the high-yield 120-page pdf. This lead me to a 24, which was higher than I ever got on any practice test (usually was getting 19-21, highest was a 23).
For both Gen Chem and Organic Chemistry, I’ve always been strong in chemistry & had a passion for it. Nonetheless, I was totally screwing up my first round of practice tests making silly mistakes left and right, and it really frustrated me when I saw something I had no clue how to answer. I decided to go through all the question banks for both subjects all over again, and that really showed me what was I was lacking and where the gaps in knowledge were. Practicing strengths can certainly be just as important as working on your weaknesses.
OVERALL: With enough hard work, anyone can do well on the DAT. It takes will and dedication to keep yourself studying everyday. Surely, you will inevitably stray from Ari’s/your study plan by taking a break day when you really didn’t want to study that day but know you should have. Try not to beat yourself up, as it’s only natural to feel a little burnt out on some days. I sure as heck took more break days than I wanted (total of 10 break days I believe), which is why I’m glad I did it in 90 days instead of 60. I don’t think I would’ve scored as well at all if I tried to do it in 60, but it’s completely up to you and how you’re feeling by the time you’ve taken your 2nd/3rd practice full length exam.
I hope this helped, and happy studying everyone!! I believe in every single one of you, put all your trust into the process!!
I hope studying for the DAT is going well for everyone!! I took my DAT last weekend and received a 25 AA with a 21 PAT, and I wanted to break-down my score report to help other students perform their maximum potential on the DAT. I used nothing but Bootcamp, although I sometimes did simple google searches to gain a new perspective on explanations that didn’t make too much sense to me the first time reading them.
Beginning my studying felt like beginning to scale Mount Everest. After scrolling through each of the subject tabs and seeing just how much information there is to study, it felt insurmountable to me in the first week. To get over my fear and anxiety, I fully began to “trust the process” as I’ve seen so many other successful students say; basically, I told myself that if I just stuck to Ari’s 60-day study plan and worked my hardest at this every single day, I would have done enough and would end up being successful.
So in my opinion, the first 30 days of Ari’s study plan are the hardest and most time consuming. I started my studying at the beginning of winter break, and by the first day of the semester I was on day 28 of studying, which luckily was the very end of the “hard part”, allowing me some room to focus on my classes too. The reason I think the first half is harder than the second is because the first half is the sheer hard-studying portion where you learn everything for the first time, and the second part is when you practice everything in real-DAT style (i.e. take tons and tons of practice tests, and this is where you find out what you learned well and what didn’t stick). I was studying 8+ hours a day in the first 30 days, and it takes serious dedication and sacrifices to make sure you keep up with your studying. After that, it was down to 5-6 hours a day. Personally, I stretched the last 30 days into 60 days (for a total of 90 days), so that I had plenty of time to re-do every practice test as well as study the material that I clearly struggled the most in.
I’ll do a score break-down in the order they show up on the score sheet:
For the PAT section, just like most people, I struggled hard in the beginning. The only thing I could really trust I’d do well in was hole-punching and cube-counting. Everything else started out rough, but with practice every single day (especially with the PAT trainer game), I slowly became better and better at each one. For me, angles and keyholes were the hardest sections, which I wish I spent more time on.
For the Quantitative Reasoning section, after completing all the question banks, I was scoring 21’s in the practice tests and seeing questions that I really had no idea how to answer and was just guessing on. These are the questions I returned back to the practice questions banks to study more in-depth. Eventually I started making 23’s, but I never scored any higher, even though I felt like I knew it all so well. I just kept reviewing all my silly (and frustrating) mistakes over and over as well as questions I kept getting wrong for the 2nd and 3rd time until I really understood them inside and out. Also, the QR section on the real DAT was easier than anything on Bootcamp (so study until you feel confident on Bootcamp, and you’ll for sure be good on the real thing).
For the Reading Comprehension section, I seriously struggled on every single practice test due to my reading speed. I used the Search and Destroy method because the vanilla method failed me on the SAT/ACT back in high school. Every single day I did my daily reading practice until I finally noticed my reading skills getting faster and I was able to comprehend more of what I was reading, and I somehow was scoring 23’s even though I felt horrible after each practice test. I knew the daily reading along with the practice single-passage question banks was the key to me still doing well. On the real DAT, the passages were almost half the length of Bootcamp’s which helped me feel way more confident.
Now, on to Bio. This was by far the hardest section for me, and the section that I had to spend the most time on. Each day, bio took a little less than half my total study time for the day (~4 hours). So many chapters seemed brand new to me because my foundational Bio was horrible. I didn’t watch any of the videos and used nothing besides the high-yield huge pdf file as well as the quizlet links to study and follow through Ari’s study guide. The practice tests showed me I remembered virtually nothing. I had to spend 2x as much time reviewing each practice test than the time it took to take it, because I had to thoroughly read through the explanation and understand each correct answer. I also used this time to understand why each wrong answer choice was wrong—this significantly improved my rate of studying, since instead of learning why just 1 answer choice was right per question, I was really learning about all 5 answer choices which is like 5 topics per question. The topics I consistently missed I would review by going back into the high-yield notes and taking more detailed notes than I did the first time. By the time the real DAT came, I had gone through each practice test 3 times and I had reviewed half of the high-yield 120-page pdf. This lead me to a 24, which was higher than I ever got on any practice test (usually was getting 19-21, highest was a 23).
For both Gen Chem and Organic Chemistry, I’ve always been strong in chemistry & had a passion for it. Nonetheless, I was totally screwing up my first round of practice tests making silly mistakes left and right, and it really frustrated me when I saw something I had no clue how to answer. I decided to go through all the question banks for both subjects all over again, and that really showed me what was I was lacking and where the gaps in knowledge were. Practicing strengths can certainly be just as important as working on your weaknesses.
OVERALL: With enough hard work, anyone can do well on the DAT. It takes will and dedication to keep yourself studying everyday. Surely, you will inevitably stray from Ari’s/your study plan by taking a break day when you really didn’t want to study that day but know you should have. Try not to beat yourself up, as it’s only natural to feel a little burnt out on some days. I sure as heck took more break days than I wanted (total of 10 break days I believe), which is why I’m glad I did it in 90 days instead of 60. I don’t think I would’ve scored as well at all if I tried to do it in 60, but it’s completely up to you and how you’re feeling by the time you’ve taken your 2nd/3rd practice full length exam.
I hope this helped, and happy studying everyone!! I believe in every single one of you, put all your trust into the process!!
