Leta Bryan
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2023
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
I took my DAT on 8/14/2023.
26AA/22PAT/25TS
BIO: 25
GC: 24
OC: 26
RC: 30
QR: 23
TS: 25
I used DAT bootcamp and it was way more than what I needed. I found DAT bootcamp to be harder than the actual DAT and it provided me with all of the resources I needed in 1 place. I followed Ari's 2.5 month schedule and even ended up shortening it a bit because I took spring classes. The best advice I can give is do ALL of the practice tests. By the end, I was really sick of the RC tests so for test 8 and 9 I skipped those sections but I did all of the other ones and made sure to make full-length test 10 as close to the DAT as possible.
BIO: 25
I felt that bio on the real DAT was much easier than it was in bootcamp. I followed a bit of an abbreviated study plan, so I started full-time studying at the very end of June. I would read the bio notes and then watch the videos. The next day I read the notes again, and highlighted everything I still didn't know. Then I would do the qbank questions as well as the bio bites. After I finished bio content review, I used bootcamp's quizlet flashcards and did 1-2 sections per day. After doing the flashcards, I reread the high yield notes (third time reading them) and erased the highlighting (I had notes on my iPad) of the stuff I now knew. Anything I still didn't know got highlighted in a different color for later review. A week before the DAT I started spending extra time on the areas that were still highlighted. I usually don't use mneumonics but bootcamp mnemonics for bio really helped and made the content much easier to remember.
Gen Chem: 24
Bootcamp Gen Chem seemed pretty representative of the DAT if not slightly harder. I felt bootcamp prepared me well. I watched the videos and did all of the question banks as well as all of the practice exams. Just don't forget about gen chem when you move onto Orgo.
Orgo: 26
My orgo started off a bit rough. I was scoring 18-20s even though I had just finished my orgo sequence at school. I started to notice significant improvement when I started going through the Reaction Summary and especially when I started doing the reaction bites. The orgo on the DAT was MUCH easier for me than bootcamp. By the end of prep, I was hitting 23s consistently and then I scored 3 points higher on the real DAT.
Reading Comp: 30
Again, Bootcamp's reading comp sections were much more difficult than the real DAT. I was really struggling with the question bank passages (1-13) I was only getting about half of them correct, but then on the practice exam sections I started off scoring 26s. I used the search and destroy method but I made sure to read the passage rather than just skim for the key words which made it easier to broad answer questions and jump straight to the necessary sections later. Essentially, I would get a question and quickly read the passage up until the point I found that answer and then move on to the next one. By the 3rd or 4th question, I knew where to go to find the answers. This method is most similar to search and destory but has aspects of passage mapping which was helpful.
QR: 23
The QR was the only section where my performance stayed consistent with boot camp rather than improving by 1-3 points but I got caught up on one specific question on the DAT which threw my timing off. I didn't watch any of the content review videos for this section but I did complete every question bank and found my weak spots. I thought that DAT Bootcamp's QR was a bit harder than the QR on the actual test. Make sure you focus on the Quantity A vs. Quantity B questions as well as the data sufficiency (two statements determine if one, both, or neither is needed to help you answer) as these seem to be the trickiest to master.
PAT: 22
I watched all of the PAT academy videos and did a bit of practice early on but as time went on I got too busy and forgot about PAT. I was really worried so about 3 weeks before the exam I did a few questions each day for a week. I took all of the PAT practice exams and once I started doing practice exams I didn't do any outside practice. Probably not the best idea, but Bootcamp's PAT is so much harder than the DAT's that I ended up all right.
Overall, I recommend DAT boot camp over anything else. They were responsive, had great resources, and seemed to really understand how to best support different types of students preparing for this exam.
26AA/22PAT/25TS
BIO: 25
GC: 24
OC: 26
RC: 30
QR: 23
TS: 25
I used DAT bootcamp and it was way more than what I needed. I found DAT bootcamp to be harder than the actual DAT and it provided me with all of the resources I needed in 1 place. I followed Ari's 2.5 month schedule and even ended up shortening it a bit because I took spring classes. The best advice I can give is do ALL of the practice tests. By the end, I was really sick of the RC tests so for test 8 and 9 I skipped those sections but I did all of the other ones and made sure to make full-length test 10 as close to the DAT as possible.
BIO: 25
I felt that bio on the real DAT was much easier than it was in bootcamp. I followed a bit of an abbreviated study plan, so I started full-time studying at the very end of June. I would read the bio notes and then watch the videos. The next day I read the notes again, and highlighted everything I still didn't know. Then I would do the qbank questions as well as the bio bites. After I finished bio content review, I used bootcamp's quizlet flashcards and did 1-2 sections per day. After doing the flashcards, I reread the high yield notes (third time reading them) and erased the highlighting (I had notes on my iPad) of the stuff I now knew. Anything I still didn't know got highlighted in a different color for later review. A week before the DAT I started spending extra time on the areas that were still highlighted. I usually don't use mneumonics but bootcamp mnemonics for bio really helped and made the content much easier to remember.
Gen Chem: 24
Bootcamp Gen Chem seemed pretty representative of the DAT if not slightly harder. I felt bootcamp prepared me well. I watched the videos and did all of the question banks as well as all of the practice exams. Just don't forget about gen chem when you move onto Orgo.
Orgo: 26
My orgo started off a bit rough. I was scoring 18-20s even though I had just finished my orgo sequence at school. I started to notice significant improvement when I started going through the Reaction Summary and especially when I started doing the reaction bites. The orgo on the DAT was MUCH easier for me than bootcamp. By the end of prep, I was hitting 23s consistently and then I scored 3 points higher on the real DAT.
Reading Comp: 30
Again, Bootcamp's reading comp sections were much more difficult than the real DAT. I was really struggling with the question bank passages (1-13) I was only getting about half of them correct, but then on the practice exam sections I started off scoring 26s. I used the search and destroy method but I made sure to read the passage rather than just skim for the key words which made it easier to broad answer questions and jump straight to the necessary sections later. Essentially, I would get a question and quickly read the passage up until the point I found that answer and then move on to the next one. By the 3rd or 4th question, I knew where to go to find the answers. This method is most similar to search and destory but has aspects of passage mapping which was helpful.
QR: 23
The QR was the only section where my performance stayed consistent with boot camp rather than improving by 1-3 points but I got caught up on one specific question on the DAT which threw my timing off. I didn't watch any of the content review videos for this section but I did complete every question bank and found my weak spots. I thought that DAT Bootcamp's QR was a bit harder than the QR on the actual test. Make sure you focus on the Quantity A vs. Quantity B questions as well as the data sufficiency (two statements determine if one, both, or neither is needed to help you answer) as these seem to be the trickiest to master.
PAT: 22
I watched all of the PAT academy videos and did a bit of practice early on but as time went on I got too busy and forgot about PAT. I was really worried so about 3 weeks before the exam I did a few questions each day for a week. I took all of the PAT practice exams and once I started doing practice exams I didn't do any outside practice. Probably not the best idea, but Bootcamp's PAT is so much harder than the DAT's that I ended up all right.
Overall, I recommend DAT boot camp over anything else. They were responsive, had great resources, and seemed to really understand how to best support different types of students preparing for this exam.
