veronicapredent
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Hi! I took my DAT yesterday and wanted to share a breakdown of my scores!
Background:
I am an incoming junior with a 4.0 GPA and part of an accelerated program. I spent six weeks to study, however with unexpected changes in my personal life I really studied for a total of 4.5 weeks. I would study 10-12 hours a day. I am a Gen Chem Tutor and have a strong background in math so was able to allocate more time to Biology and OChem.
Study Materials:
Study Timeline:
Like I mentioned I tried to study for 6 weeks but in reality managed 4.5 weeks. It really wasn’t easy as I would have to study 10-12 hours a day to get through what I wanted/needed to. If I had to do everything again, I would take into account family events such as birthdays and Father’s Day as well as the Fourth of July and instead plan for 8 weeks. However, life happened, and I couldn’t go back so let me dive into my study timeline! I used Booster’s 8-week study guide but doubled up on each day. My idea was to spend 4 weeks learning and the last two weeks taking practice exams and filing in gaps. In the end I was basically able to do that but on a shifted timeline. One thing I would do different in terms of the study plan was not watch the study videos for bio and ochem unless I had to from the start. I wasted a lot of time in the beginning watching videos on 2x speed just because it was on the study plan. However, I wasn’t getting much out of it, and I normally don’t learn from videos anyway. So, once I decided to stop and focus on reading notes instead, I felt I utilized my time much better. After the Fourth of July I sort of made my own timeline since I lost a few days of studying, and I basically alternated days with doing a practice test and the next day question banks and reviewing notes. I would take a practice test and review it in detail taking handwritten notes. Although I never looked at those notes again, it helped me really lock in on the info and learn it when reviewing my practice test. The day before my exam, I did an hour of PAT practice, then I did marked questions from Ochem, and I reread all the cheat sheets for bio. I also made sure to read notes from Gen Chem to make sure I remembered major conceptual definitions and formulas.
Exam Day:
End Advice
My biggest takeaway from this whole process was to trust yourself and be honest with yourself. I am in a unique situation as I am in a program that required me to get 17s across the board. I am someone who when I study for exams I make sure to cover every detail and do absolutely everything possible. For the DAT I had to skip over stuff (like Bio Anki and Taxonomy) which stressed me out. In the end, I ran out of time and couldn’t get to everything like marked questions. However, even though I was stressed and anxious, I was confident in what I did know, and this carried me through. I am very grateful I had a great support system of family and friends! If you have any specific questions please reach out, I will be happy to help!
Background:
I am an incoming junior with a 4.0 GPA and part of an accelerated program. I spent six weeks to study, however with unexpected changes in my personal life I really studied for a total of 4.5 weeks. I would study 10-12 hours a day. I am a Gen Chem Tutor and have a strong background in math so was able to allocate more time to Biology and OChem.
Study Materials:
- DAT Booster: This is by far the best choice I made while studying for the DAT. Booster prepared me very well for all sections. Everything that I saw on my exam I had seen in some way through Booster. I followed the 8 week study schedule but doubled up on each day to keep up with the track I had to take (I will break this down in a little). I made sure to complete all question bank questions for each section except PAT. I ran out of time to do all question banks for PAT, I probably had 4 left in total, but I did use the generators very frequently. The biology I would say is especially representative of the actual DAT. There were some questions I swore I saw on the practice tests as well. The bio cheat sheets were lifesavers. With limited time, I had to choose to what to focus on, and so I basically made sure to learn everything from the cheat sheets! I would say this is sufficient to do well on the biology section. My estimated DAT from booster (using my first attempts) were 21 in Bio, 22 in Gen Chem, 19 in OChem, 19 PAT, 22 RC, and 25 QR. So, I went up by a significant amount in each section except QR. For QR, I wouldn’t say it was much harder than Booster’s practice test. I just got dealt a lot of word problems and probability which took longer so I ran out of time on a few questions. For RC, it felt a little harder on the actual exam because the answers weren’t found directly in the text as much as in Booster. I felt in Booster, I could use search and destroy and do very well, but on the actual exam I had to do more digging than I was used to. However, I feel I did luck out a bit as I got three passages that I found interesting, which I definitely credit for getting a 30.
- Anki: I used Booster’s Anki deck for OChem to reinforce the OChem reactions. I found this really useful because it was hard for me to understand mechanisms early on, so memorizing the reactions using Anki saved me in that sense! I also tried to use Anki for bio but quickly became overwhelmed with learning the small details. So, I probably only used anki for bio for three days and then stopped to focus on cheat sheets. If you have a more condensed study schedule like I had, I will highly recommend this because there just isn’t enough time to get everything done!
- DAT Bootcamp: I only used Bootcamp for daily warm up questions in addition to Booster’s everyday just to get myself functioning to start the day. A couple days before my DAT, I took the free practice test Bootcamp offers to get more reps in. I found this helpful, and it was similar to Booster’s.
Study Timeline:
Like I mentioned I tried to study for 6 weeks but in reality managed 4.5 weeks. It really wasn’t easy as I would have to study 10-12 hours a day to get through what I wanted/needed to. If I had to do everything again, I would take into account family events such as birthdays and Father’s Day as well as the Fourth of July and instead plan for 8 weeks. However, life happened, and I couldn’t go back so let me dive into my study timeline! I used Booster’s 8-week study guide but doubled up on each day. My idea was to spend 4 weeks learning and the last two weeks taking practice exams and filing in gaps. In the end I was basically able to do that but on a shifted timeline. One thing I would do different in terms of the study plan was not watch the study videos for bio and ochem unless I had to from the start. I wasted a lot of time in the beginning watching videos on 2x speed just because it was on the study plan. However, I wasn’t getting much out of it, and I normally don’t learn from videos anyway. So, once I decided to stop and focus on reading notes instead, I felt I utilized my time much better. After the Fourth of July I sort of made my own timeline since I lost a few days of studying, and I basically alternated days with doing a practice test and the next day question banks and reviewing notes. I would take a practice test and review it in detail taking handwritten notes. Although I never looked at those notes again, it helped me really lock in on the info and learn it when reviewing my practice test. The day before my exam, I did an hour of PAT practice, then I did marked questions from Ochem, and I reread all the cheat sheets for bio. I also made sure to read notes from Gen Chem to make sure I remembered major conceptual definitions and formulas.
Exam Day:
- Bio (25): Right before I went into the building I did skim through all the bio cheat sheets to make sure I had it all straight in my head. I had trouble sleeping at night so doing this gave me a confidence boost before I went it. The question were really straightforward, but it is important to read the question and all answer choices carefully. My biggest piece of advice for bio is to get a strong foundation in the concept before diving in deep. For example, for cellular respiration, know where all the parts take place before going into how it works. I found myself not knowing basic facts about concepts but understanding how it works and when I was asked questions as simple as where does glycolysis take place, I felt really silly. I credit my success in this section to the Booster cheat sheets!
- GC (24): This section I didn’t spend as much time in as I had a strong foundation from being a tutor. I had a good grasp at the formulas and major concepts but did lack in some things such as specific properties of different compounds. I would say make sure to be super solid in the conceptual questions as those I believe are more “difficult” than the calculations. The calculations on the DAT are very basic. The Booster practice tests were super representative.
- OC (25): While knowing the reactions are really important, don’t overlook acid ranking and stability. While I took Ochem at school and passed, I didn’t retain anything at all. At first I was most nervous for this section and never thought I could learn all the reactions. However, I took it slow and got where I wanted to be eventually. For this section, I didn’t watch the videos associated with the chapters. As I mentioned before, I don’t learn from watching videos, only as a last resort, so I decide to use my time differently. I would read and annotate the Booster notes very closely and then complete the question banks. This was really helpful with getting the foundation down, and I used Anki to memorize the reactions totally. My biggest piece of advice is to study/practice CARDIO questions and any conceptual OChem questions even when you think you don’t need to, as I would say the majority of my test questions were of that kind. I didn’t have many reaction questions so I’m really happy I took more time leading up to the exam practicing conceptual Ochem questions. I finished with around 30 minutes, so I double checked all 100 science questions in that time.
- PAT (21): The best thing for this section is practice. I did what Booster recommended in the study plan, but I would say that’s the minimum. Start practicing this section from the start as it’s the most unique and takes time and patience to get consistent. I’d recommend watching all the PAT videos on Booster, their advice is so so good!
- RC (30): This section felt harder on the real thing. I think it was the lag that also made it worse as for some reason my computer got slower when I got to this section. The questions while they were direct weren’t as easy to answer as the one’s in the Booster practice tests. The types of questions were identical, so Booster is representative of that. I utilize the search and destroy method, but this was difficult on the actual exam as I couldn’t find as many questions using search and destroy. I had to read/skim the passages more to find answers. I was surprised to see I got this score as I didn’t have time to double check my answers on the real exam (for practice tests I’d have about 20 minutes leftover) but I decided not to panic during and made sure to find the answers in the text instead of guess. All the answers are in some way in the text, even if not word for word. Reading the questions and answer choices carefully Is key to not getting tricked!
- QR (23): Most of my question were word problems, probability, algebra, and rate. I had one geometry problem involving circles inscribed in squares and a square inscribed in a circle. While Booster didn’t have any question banks on geometry, they do have a formula sheet dedicated to geometry. I spent my break before RC reading over the math formula sheets, so I recalled the geometry formulas key to answer that problem. Coming from a strong math background, I expected a higher score and would get higher scores on my practice tests. I would usually have 20 minutes leftover on my practice tests, but I barely finished on my DAT. I think I just had more questions that took longer to solve. I caught myself taking too long on questions I wasn’t completely sure of, and I regret it! I definitely advise marking questions you don’t know immediately and then go back to them.
End Advice
My biggest takeaway from this whole process was to trust yourself and be honest with yourself. I am in a unique situation as I am in a program that required me to get 17s across the board. I am someone who when I study for exams I make sure to cover every detail and do absolutely everything possible. For the DAT I had to skip over stuff (like Bio Anki and Taxonomy) which stressed me out. In the end, I ran out of time and couldn’t get to everything like marked questions. However, even though I was stressed and anxious, I was confident in what I did know, and this carried me through. I am very grateful I had a great support system of family and friends! If you have any specific questions please reach out, I will be happy to help!
