Hi everyone, I’ve recently taken the DAT and I wanted to share my experience studying for it. I found the breakdowns especially helpful so I wanted to post one in hopes of helping some of you.
A little background: I am a rising junior majoring in nutrition with a 4.0 GPA. I used Booster’s 10 week schedule to guide me, spreading it over 3 months of studying. I studied 5-6 days a week and took 5 days in a row off in July when I went on vacation (I don’t really recommend this because I feel like I forgot some stuff) and studied on average 4 hours a day. Some days I studied up to 6 hours, while other days I studied for only 2. I think incorporating lighter study days into my schedule was important in preventing me from getting completely burnt out by the end of this. Booster was pretty much the only source I used for my studying. In each section besides PAT, the questions on the actual exam were easier than Booster’s practice tests in my opinion.
My biggest takeaway is practice, practice, practice. Do every single problem that Booster has, and in the areas you struggle with, redo those problems until you get them down. Try not to get discouraged if you are missing a lot of questions; that’s how you learn! I felt discouraged many times throughout my studying, and that is normal, but you gotta push through. You know more than you think!
A little background: I am a rising junior majoring in nutrition with a 4.0 GPA. I used Booster’s 10 week schedule to guide me, spreading it over 3 months of studying. I studied 5-6 days a week and took 5 days in a row off in July when I went on vacation (I don’t really recommend this because I feel like I forgot some stuff) and studied on average 4 hours a day. Some days I studied up to 6 hours, while other days I studied for only 2. I think incorporating lighter study days into my schedule was important in preventing me from getting completely burnt out by the end of this. Booster was pretty much the only source I used for my studying. In each section besides PAT, the questions on the actual exam were easier than Booster’s practice tests in my opinion.
- PAT (22) - I definitely could have practiced more for this section. If you can, I recommend doing the generators daily. The Booster strategies are super helpful, so finding what works best for you and continuously practicing it is the key to this section. The Booster practice tests were very representative of what you will see on the actual exam.
- QR (27) - Math is one of my strongest areas so I didn’t do any extra preparation other than the practice problems on Booster. The questions on the actual exam are much easier than Booster and are very straightforward.
- RC (30) - I was so shocked about this one because in all of the practice tests, RC was consistently my lowest score. For a good portion of my studying, I was practicing the “question pre-read” method, but it wasn’t working the best for me. I later switched to “search and destroy” which I found to be the most efficient and most accurate method.
- Biology (27) - I am the happiest about my score in this section because biology is not my best subject. There is so much content and I felt like I had to learn a lot of new information because some of the material was not covered in the biology classes I took at my university. I spent a majority of my time studying for this section. I am the type that learns best by handwriting notes, so I hand wrote my own notes while going through the Feralis-Booster notes. This was very tedious and time consuming, but 100% worth it for me. If you learn best this way too, do not take shortcuts. I used the Anki decks but was not a fan. What I think helped me the most though was doing the practice questions, and later redoing the practice questions. For me, continuously testing my knowledge rather than trying to memorize all of the biology notes was the best way for me to learn.
- Gen Chem (26) - Chemistry is one of my favorite subjects so I had a strong foundation in this already. On the areas I struggled a little more on, Chad’s Prep gave thorough explanations and helped me understand the concepts well. Like biology, it’s key to do the practice problems and redo them until you get them down.
- O Chem (26) - I just took o chem this past year so this was pretty fresh in my brain still. I wanna emphasize knowing the reaction sheet that Booster has as well as acids and bases.
My biggest takeaway is practice, practice, practice. Do every single problem that Booster has, and in the areas you struggle with, redo those problems until you get them down. Try not to get discouraged if you are missing a lot of questions; that’s how you learn! I felt discouraged many times throughout my studying, and that is normal, but you gotta push through. You know more than you think!
