DAT Breakdown 25AA/24TS 8/20/22

[Supratik Pasupuleti]

Hi everyone! I took the DAT on August 20th and really wanted to post a breakdown to help anyone that has just started studying or is really nervous and wanted to read other people’s breakdown to help them in any way that they can- which I definitely know I was the latter when I started studying. I am a rising Junior with a Biology major, so I took all of the classes that were tested on the DAT already- it was just a matter of whether or not I could review them properly. One thing I really wanted to let you guys know before I go deeper into the breakdown is that you don’t have to focus on every single thing that you learned in your Gen Chem or Orgo classes, its specific subjects that are being tested, but don’t worry no matter if you are using DAT Bootcamp or Booster, you will be in good hands.

Materials I used:
DAT Bootcamp
DAT Booster

Scores:
Bio: 22
GC: 30
OC: 26
PAT: 18
RC: 21
QR: 24
TS: 24
AA: 25

Study Plan (90 days):
DAT Bootcamp: Initially, I was very hesitant on choosing either DAT Bootcamp or Booster because I heard good things about both of them, but I ended up choosing Bootcamp to begin with because all of my other friends were also using it. DAT Bootcamp offered a 60 day schedule, which I followed to the best of my ability until my learning phase was done (8-10 hours a day with one day a week breaks). In this learning phase, I took 5 practice tests of each section, except PAT which I really neglected (please don’t be like me), and I took two break days to really prepare myself for the reviewing and testing phase. I thought DAT Bootcamp was really good in teaching most of the concepts, but I have heard that it is outdated.

DAT Booster: After using DAT Bootcamp, I was going through all the facebook groups and reddit posts to find out if DAT Bootcamp would ensure that I would get a good score on this exam, but the one test service that kept coming up was DAT Booster. I saw the amazing scores that everyone was getting through the breakdowns and I decided to give it a shot. I knew it was risky, but if everyone was doing so good, I knew I could too. Then the rest of the time, I reviewed using Feralis notes, did the QR extra questions, and just completed most of the practice tests. Looking back on it, DAT Booster was VERY representative of the real test and many of the questions I saw on the science sections showed up on my real exam. If you can afford to get both, I highly recommend you get both, but if you get only one, I think without a doubt DAT Booster is the way to go.

Key Tip: A couple of days before the exam, I redid all of my practice tests for my science sections and went through all my practice tests for my QR section and I really think that helped me achieve the scores that I did. It helped a lot with reviewing all of the high-yield information, and going through the tests while in my reviewing and learning phase helped me prevent making the same mistakes on future tests.

Day of the Exam:

• Bio (22): Although a lot of the Bio chapters were A&P, there was only 1 A&P question on my entire exam, the majority of it was just pretty straightforward with bacteria, virus, and chapter 1-3 info with only 1 taxonomy question as well. Although the biology section had a lot of straightforward questions, there were still a couple of tricky questions but no matter what, trust your gut instinct because that is correct most often than not.
• GC (30): Honestly I was very surprised I got this score on this section, but very similar questions from the practice tests showed up on my exam. The high yield information would be gas law equations, hybridization/polarity, and just normal conceptual questions. Compared to the practice tests, however, I definitely think DAT Booster was a bit harder.
• Orgo (26): Again, this section was very similar to DAT Booster with it being of similar difficulty. Questions I highly recommend you look at would be acid/base ranking, carbocation stability, alkene reactions, SN1/SN2/E1/E2, and just basic reactants to product questions, some of which asking about mechanisms. Just make sure you go through Booster’s Orgo Reaction table because that really helped. I thought that Bootcamp was really good in teaching it as well, but Booster’s tests were more representative.
• PAT (18): To be honest, I hated PAT and I completely disregarded it, so please don’t do this. Take it seriously and do the generators everyday to get practice and watch all the videos. All the sections were pretty similar to Booster except the Hole-Punching was harder on the real exam so watch out for that.
• Reading (21): The first passage was pretty simple, but the second passage completely caught me off guard. The questions were very different to what I saw on Booster’s exams and the answer choices just didn’t make sense and weren’t normal search and destroy. The third passage was very scientifically dense so make sure you practice these reading tests to work on your endurance. Maybe I was unlucky, but it’s better safe than sorry so practice, practice, practice.
• QR (24): Honestly the DAT Booster and Bootcamp practice tests were wayyyyyyyy harder than anything you will see on the real exam. I thought the way Booster had very quick, concise videos was super helpful and their extra questions were amazing, so I highly recommend you do all of them and you should be more than ready to tackle this section. Even if you do get low scores in the beginning, don’t stress because the real exam is much easier.

End: I know this was long, but I do really want to help anyone that is either really stressed or just lost in their studying routine, so please ask me any questions and I will be sure to respond! DAT Booster is really representative and you will be surprised how easy you will fly by these questions on the real test. Just stay consistent and you can achieve anything. Be confident of all the hard work you put in and just set your sights for the end goal! You got this!

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