pantherg15
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- Feb 14, 2021
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Hi all, I recently took the DAT and wanted to share my experiences with anyone curious about DAT prep and what worked for me to achieve a good score. I created this account to post this breakdown, but I found looking at other breakdowns quite helpful when deciding how I was going to approach studying for the DAT. Sorry if this is super long but hopefully it's worth the read!
Background: Junior biochemistry major, 3.95+ GPA
Resources used: DAT Booster, Chad’s videos and free DAT tests, DAT Destroyer (more on all these below), and free exams I found online
Study schedule: I was originally planning to take the DAT at the end of last summer (2020) and spend the summer studying, but I got busy right away and pushed my test date back to early February. I ended up doing a pretty intense 7 week study schedule between my fall and spring semesters where I studied about 8 hours a day. I used the Feralis-Booster study guide as a general study schedule, but I modified and condensed it to make it work for 7 weeks (it’s supposed to be for 10 weeks). The main modification I made was doing twice the amount of content review per day to shrink it from 4 weeks to 2 weeks (although I definitely skimmed over bio more than I should’ve during this time, meaning I had to keep reviewing it). After I finished the content review, I spent the rest of the time taking practice tests and doing practice problems, as well as reviewing bio, gen chem, and o chem in areas of weakness. I would try to do some practice or review in every section every day to keep improving in each section.
Resource Breakdown:
DAT Booster: I thought this was a fantastic resource, and I used it for the majority of my content review and practice tests. Their practice tests were hard, definitely harder than the real DAT, but I didn’t realize this which definitely made me study harder because of my scores on the practice tests. For context, I was getting about 22-23 on my last couple practice tests on Booster. Although generally harder, the topics of the questions were very similar to what I saw on the real DAT, and they did a good job of stylistically writing the questions in a similar manner. A couple of the questions I had on the bio section felt like they came straight from Booster. Out of all the different sites I used (see my notes at the bottom), Booster’s practice tests felt the most accurate in terms of wording and questions styles, though the actual questions themselves were tougher. While I was using Booster they updated their content including creating a bio question bank and updating the Feralis bio notes which was nice to see
It’s also great that the price is significantly cheaper than bootcamp (but it seems like they keep raising it).
A couple minor complaints: Their science tests are all separated, and there is not an option to take the entire science section at once. I wish they had this option so that you could take the entire science section as one 90 minute test and get used to the timing of this.
It seems like you get logged out if you don’t use Booster for a couple hours. I saw some other people complain about this too, but I only got logged out during a practice test once, so although annoying, it wasn’t a huge deal.
Some of the keyhole sections on the practice tests felt impossible. I got 6-8 keyhole questions right on probably 3 or 4 practice tests. Don’t let this discourage you. Instead, think these questions as training your eyes to notice the slightest differences which will make the real test much easier.
Bottom line: Great practice tests with high-yield questions that will force you to be over prepared for the DAT, cheaper than other full DAT prep programs, it seems like they’re still adding content, a couple small complaints that hopefully Booster can work out.
Chad’s videos/free practice tests: This was a great resource because it’s free and still provides quality DAT prep. I watched all the general chemistry videos recommended by Booster in their study schedule and these covered all the gen chem topics I saw on the DAT. Chad also has 5 GC, OC, BIO, and QRs practice tests for free on his website which I would recommend taking advantage of. The questions were slightly different than what I saw on the DAT, but if you can do well on these exams you will certainly be well prepared. The layout of the website that chad uses practice exams for isn’t great, but it’s hard to complain too much when he’s providing this as a free resource for students.
DAT Destroyer: The science questions on Destroyer are absurdly hard. It’s a solid resource for extra practice (which is still important) and to refresh yourself on specific types of problems, but the questions on Destroyer were far harder than the questions on both Booster and Chad’s exams, which, in turn, were harder than the real test. To be honest, I didn’t even use the bio section on Destroyer, and instead I focused on really understanding the Feralis notes. I would do about 20 questions of GC and OC on days where I didn’t take practice tests to keep my knowledge sharp, and this extra practice is key. Again, don’t get discouraged if you are not doing well on these problems. I was barely getting over 50% right on the chem questions and got a 30 TS, so there’s that I guess.
I also got the math destroyer book and I found this to be very useful for extra QR practice. The questions were more realistic, and it was good extra practice.
Section Breakdown:
AA: 28
TS: 30
Bio (30): Bio was the toughest section to study for, simply because it’s so much information. I primarily used the Feralis notes (and the Feralis-Booster notes once they came out) to learn the information for the bio section. After the content review phase, I was getting low scores on the practice tests so I dedicated myself to reviewing bio notes for 2 hours every day before I did any other studying. I mentioned this above, but this was the section where I focused the most on content review and the least on practice problems. Don’t get me wrong, it’s critical to take practice tests, but I found that it was more efficient for me to review notes and consolidate information this way than through practice problems.
GC (26): All I did for content review was watch Chad’s videos that Booster recommended on their study schedule. After this, I did a lot of practice problems (using Destroyer) and practice exams (Booster and Chad), making sure to review concepts I wasn’t 100% confident in as well as questions I got wrong. The questions on the DAT were quite straightforward, but make sure you know the lab stuff well.
OC (30): I watched all the o chem videos on booster which was necessary to refresh myself on the o chem I needed to know for the DAT. Probably the most useful thing I did was make notecards of every reaction on booster’s Organic Chemistry Reaction Sheet. I would spend about 30 minutes a day reviewing this until I felt like I had them all down. It helped to have a basic understanding of the mechanisms when doing this so that it wasn’t just pure memorization. Like GC, I would do either a practice test or about 20 problems from destroyer every day, and the actual test was pretty straightforward.
PAT (26): Booster’s resources were great for the PAT. I used all the strategies they presented in their videos, and this worked well for me. For angle ranking and cube counting, make sure to try out the different strategies to find what works best. All of Booster’s generators were super useful except the keyhole (which I almost never used because it wasn’t very good), and they do not have a TFE generator. On days where I didn’t take a practice test, I would do 10-15 questions from each generator (excluding keyholes), and then review keyhole and TFE problems from previous tests. This got repetitive, but I believe the more you stare at those questions, the better prepared you will be just through that exposure. The real DAT was pretty similar to booster for the angle ranking, hole punching, and cube counting. TFE, keyhole, and paper folding were easier on the real exam.
RC (26): My studying consisted of reading a science article (or two) using active reading or doing a practice test on Booster everyday. My strategy on the test consisted of reading through the questions, then reading the passages and highlighting key words in the article than I remembered from the questions. I found that the actual RC questions were more recall based than the questions on Booster. On booster, there are a lot of tricky questions with some nuance required in finding the correct answer, but the real DAT the questions were more straightforward and almost all of them were recall. I will say that the passages themselves felt more technical than the Booster passages, so get good at sifting through information quickly to find the correct answer. I liked that booster provided recommended articles and “daily practice” sections that included a short article and 5 questions.
QR (30): For QR, I watched all the Booster videos (most of these were super basic but a couple were helpful), and after this I would do about 20 problems from destroyer or take a practice test on booster or Chad’s site every day. Honestly, all the QR problems on the real DAT were straightforward compared to booster and destroyer. I would rush to finish the practice tests on booster, but I had about 10 minutes remaining on the real exam. If you understand how to do the various types of questions presented on booster and destroyer, you’ll be fine. Be careful reading what exactly the question is asking for! You don’t want to get questions wrong because you misread the problem.
Other notes:
Take care of yourself and be efficient with your studying! Even though I was studying 8 hours a day, I would make sure I would do other things I wanted to keep myself sane. I’m a big football fan, and I watched almost every NFL game during this time, especially during the playoffs. I also worked out almost every day and slept at least 8 hours to keep my body feeling good. The key is to be focused and efficient when you do spend your time studying. I would often lock my phone up to prevent that from being a distraction.
I searched online and would use the one free practice test available on various sites such as bootcamp, Kaplan, the 2009 DAT practice test, and DAT gold standard (though this one was shortened). I found this helpful in exposing myself to a variety of different kinds practice tests, as each test was slightly different in the difficulty, test layout, and style of questions. This helped develop some flexibility in testing taking, allowing myself to adapt to the slightly different question style/format of the real DAT.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before but reviewing missed questions on every section is critical! I took this a step further and would review questions that I flagged but got right, just to consolidate knowledge that I wasn’t completely sure of. For all the sections, review your mistakes and make sure you have a good understanding of why your answer is wrong and why the correct answer is right. In the science and QR sections, make sure to review and understand the concepts behind questions that you get wrong. This is likely where you need extra practice and review so doing this is super important! Cleaning up any weaknesses and feeling like you are prepared for any type of question is essential in scoring well. Take your time when reviewing. It will pay off on test day.
In the last week before the test, I think I took about 4 full practice tests that I started it at the same time of my real exam, took the sections in the correct order, and only had a break between PAT and RC. This was to simulate the real test as much as possible. This also helped me build up my testing stamina, and I felt confident in my ability to focus intensely for 4 hours.
Good luck and feel free to ask any questions 😊
Background: Junior biochemistry major, 3.95+ GPA
Resources used: DAT Booster, Chad’s videos and free DAT tests, DAT Destroyer (more on all these below), and free exams I found online
Study schedule: I was originally planning to take the DAT at the end of last summer (2020) and spend the summer studying, but I got busy right away and pushed my test date back to early February. I ended up doing a pretty intense 7 week study schedule between my fall and spring semesters where I studied about 8 hours a day. I used the Feralis-Booster study guide as a general study schedule, but I modified and condensed it to make it work for 7 weeks (it’s supposed to be for 10 weeks). The main modification I made was doing twice the amount of content review per day to shrink it from 4 weeks to 2 weeks (although I definitely skimmed over bio more than I should’ve during this time, meaning I had to keep reviewing it). After I finished the content review, I spent the rest of the time taking practice tests and doing practice problems, as well as reviewing bio, gen chem, and o chem in areas of weakness. I would try to do some practice or review in every section every day to keep improving in each section.
Resource Breakdown:
DAT Booster: I thought this was a fantastic resource, and I used it for the majority of my content review and practice tests. Their practice tests were hard, definitely harder than the real DAT, but I didn’t realize this which definitely made me study harder because of my scores on the practice tests. For context, I was getting about 22-23 on my last couple practice tests on Booster. Although generally harder, the topics of the questions were very similar to what I saw on the real DAT, and they did a good job of stylistically writing the questions in a similar manner. A couple of the questions I had on the bio section felt like they came straight from Booster. Out of all the different sites I used (see my notes at the bottom), Booster’s practice tests felt the most accurate in terms of wording and questions styles, though the actual questions themselves were tougher. While I was using Booster they updated their content including creating a bio question bank and updating the Feralis bio notes which was nice to see
It’s also great that the price is significantly cheaper than bootcamp (but it seems like they keep raising it).
A couple minor complaints: Their science tests are all separated, and there is not an option to take the entire science section at once. I wish they had this option so that you could take the entire science section as one 90 minute test and get used to the timing of this.
It seems like you get logged out if you don’t use Booster for a couple hours. I saw some other people complain about this too, but I only got logged out during a practice test once, so although annoying, it wasn’t a huge deal.
Some of the keyhole sections on the practice tests felt impossible. I got 6-8 keyhole questions right on probably 3 or 4 practice tests. Don’t let this discourage you. Instead, think these questions as training your eyes to notice the slightest differences which will make the real test much easier.
Bottom line: Great practice tests with high-yield questions that will force you to be over prepared for the DAT, cheaper than other full DAT prep programs, it seems like they’re still adding content, a couple small complaints that hopefully Booster can work out.
Chad’s videos/free practice tests: This was a great resource because it’s free and still provides quality DAT prep. I watched all the general chemistry videos recommended by Booster in their study schedule and these covered all the gen chem topics I saw on the DAT. Chad also has 5 GC, OC, BIO, and QRs practice tests for free on his website which I would recommend taking advantage of. The questions were slightly different than what I saw on the DAT, but if you can do well on these exams you will certainly be well prepared. The layout of the website that chad uses practice exams for isn’t great, but it’s hard to complain too much when he’s providing this as a free resource for students.
DAT Destroyer: The science questions on Destroyer are absurdly hard. It’s a solid resource for extra practice (which is still important) and to refresh yourself on specific types of problems, but the questions on Destroyer were far harder than the questions on both Booster and Chad’s exams, which, in turn, were harder than the real test. To be honest, I didn’t even use the bio section on Destroyer, and instead I focused on really understanding the Feralis notes. I would do about 20 questions of GC and OC on days where I didn’t take practice tests to keep my knowledge sharp, and this extra practice is key. Again, don’t get discouraged if you are not doing well on these problems. I was barely getting over 50% right on the chem questions and got a 30 TS, so there’s that I guess.
I also got the math destroyer book and I found this to be very useful for extra QR practice. The questions were more realistic, and it was good extra practice.
Section Breakdown:
AA: 28
TS: 30
Bio (30): Bio was the toughest section to study for, simply because it’s so much information. I primarily used the Feralis notes (and the Feralis-Booster notes once they came out) to learn the information for the bio section. After the content review phase, I was getting low scores on the practice tests so I dedicated myself to reviewing bio notes for 2 hours every day before I did any other studying. I mentioned this above, but this was the section where I focused the most on content review and the least on practice problems. Don’t get me wrong, it’s critical to take practice tests, but I found that it was more efficient for me to review notes and consolidate information this way than through practice problems.
GC (26): All I did for content review was watch Chad’s videos that Booster recommended on their study schedule. After this, I did a lot of practice problems (using Destroyer) and practice exams (Booster and Chad), making sure to review concepts I wasn’t 100% confident in as well as questions I got wrong. The questions on the DAT were quite straightforward, but make sure you know the lab stuff well.
OC (30): I watched all the o chem videos on booster which was necessary to refresh myself on the o chem I needed to know for the DAT. Probably the most useful thing I did was make notecards of every reaction on booster’s Organic Chemistry Reaction Sheet. I would spend about 30 minutes a day reviewing this until I felt like I had them all down. It helped to have a basic understanding of the mechanisms when doing this so that it wasn’t just pure memorization. Like GC, I would do either a practice test or about 20 problems from destroyer every day, and the actual test was pretty straightforward.
PAT (26): Booster’s resources were great for the PAT. I used all the strategies they presented in their videos, and this worked well for me. For angle ranking and cube counting, make sure to try out the different strategies to find what works best. All of Booster’s generators were super useful except the keyhole (which I almost never used because it wasn’t very good), and they do not have a TFE generator. On days where I didn’t take a practice test, I would do 10-15 questions from each generator (excluding keyholes), and then review keyhole and TFE problems from previous tests. This got repetitive, but I believe the more you stare at those questions, the better prepared you will be just through that exposure. The real DAT was pretty similar to booster for the angle ranking, hole punching, and cube counting. TFE, keyhole, and paper folding were easier on the real exam.
RC (26): My studying consisted of reading a science article (or two) using active reading or doing a practice test on Booster everyday. My strategy on the test consisted of reading through the questions, then reading the passages and highlighting key words in the article than I remembered from the questions. I found that the actual RC questions were more recall based than the questions on Booster. On booster, there are a lot of tricky questions with some nuance required in finding the correct answer, but the real DAT the questions were more straightforward and almost all of them were recall. I will say that the passages themselves felt more technical than the Booster passages, so get good at sifting through information quickly to find the correct answer. I liked that booster provided recommended articles and “daily practice” sections that included a short article and 5 questions.
QR (30): For QR, I watched all the Booster videos (most of these were super basic but a couple were helpful), and after this I would do about 20 problems from destroyer or take a practice test on booster or Chad’s site every day. Honestly, all the QR problems on the real DAT were straightforward compared to booster and destroyer. I would rush to finish the practice tests on booster, but I had about 10 minutes remaining on the real exam. If you understand how to do the various types of questions presented on booster and destroyer, you’ll be fine. Be careful reading what exactly the question is asking for! You don’t want to get questions wrong because you misread the problem.
Other notes:
Take care of yourself and be efficient with your studying! Even though I was studying 8 hours a day, I would make sure I would do other things I wanted to keep myself sane. I’m a big football fan, and I watched almost every NFL game during this time, especially during the playoffs. I also worked out almost every day and slept at least 8 hours to keep my body feeling good. The key is to be focused and efficient when you do spend your time studying. I would often lock my phone up to prevent that from being a distraction.
I searched online and would use the one free practice test available on various sites such as bootcamp, Kaplan, the 2009 DAT practice test, and DAT gold standard (though this one was shortened). I found this helpful in exposing myself to a variety of different kinds practice tests, as each test was slightly different in the difficulty, test layout, and style of questions. This helped develop some flexibility in testing taking, allowing myself to adapt to the slightly different question style/format of the real DAT.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before but reviewing missed questions on every section is critical! I took this a step further and would review questions that I flagged but got right, just to consolidate knowledge that I wasn’t completely sure of. For all the sections, review your mistakes and make sure you have a good understanding of why your answer is wrong and why the correct answer is right. In the science and QR sections, make sure to review and understand the concepts behind questions that you get wrong. This is likely where you need extra practice and review so doing this is super important! Cleaning up any weaknesses and feeling like you are prepared for any type of question is essential in scoring well. Take your time when reviewing. It will pay off on test day.
In the last week before the test, I think I took about 4 full practice tests that I started it at the same time of my real exam, took the sections in the correct order, and only had a break between PAT and RC. This was to simulate the real test as much as possible. This also helped me build up my testing stamina, and I felt confident in my ability to focus intensely for 4 hours.
Good luck and feel free to ask any questions 😊
