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Hello! I took my DAT 2 days ago, at first I was hesitant to post a breakdown but decided to make one.
Scores: Bio23/GC25/ORGO27/TS25/RC22/QR18/PAT19/AA23
Background:
I am a rising senior majoring in kinesiology. I stared studying for my exam about two days from my last final. I studied from May 16 to July 16. I don't know how much studying I did per day. I started at 12pm and ended at 12 am with 15 min breaks after every hour of studying and about 3 tv breaks 1 hour each. I used both booster and bootcamp. I used bootcamp for gc and oc content learning and booster for everything else. I mostly followed boosters schedule. Disclaimer I put a heavy focus on the sciences and put reading and pat on the backburner.
Bio: Booster average 22.2 range 19-25, BC average 20.8 Actual 23
I have a good bio background, and I had just finished a&p II and biochem that semester so that helped a lot. I used feralis notes for content learning and when it was review time I used bootcamps condensed notes. I think both work well. For Diversity of life/plants I would say use bootcamps. There is some extra info in feralis that were not relevant and that's time away from studying more important things. I took notes on the readings but never went back to read them lol. The notes I took on the practice tests I looked at quite often and that helped me so much. I used bootcamps anki during the review section. They are separated by subject so it was easier to do. I mainly used it for the systems I struggled with and diversity of life/plants. I did all question banks, all of boosters exams and 7 of bootcamps. I did about 7 of boosters twice. I definitely put the most effort into the bio section. I wish I scored higher considering my last 3 tests were 25 24 25 but I am still content.
GC: Booster average 22 range 19-26 Actual 25
I have taken chemistry every year since I was a junior in high school. Took AP chem and redid the chem sequence during to needing grades for prerequisites. I am also a TA for general chemistry I at my school so I did not worry too much about this section. I watched Mikes videos on bootcamp, did all of his question banks and used booster for practice tests. I did all of boosters and 2 of bootcamps. I took notes on what questions I got wrong. I say know conceptual stuff and trends. Booster was a bit calculational. real test was written in equation form. I was shocked by my actual score
OC: Booster average 21.4 Range 18-25 Bootcamp average 21.85 Actual 27
I also watched Mikes orgo videos on bootcamp. I put more effort into orgo than gc. I did all of bootcamps question banks and some of boosters. I used booster for practice tests. Did all of boosters and about 8 of bootcamps. I would say both booster and bootcamps tests were quite hard. I was lucky with the questions I got because I suck at resonance structures. I was stuck at getting 22 for almost 5 tests in a row and had a massive jump at the end. I did not really use reaction bites, did a few but not all. I did dedicate about 3 days relearning all of orgo while in content review and and the week of my exam I did one day for one science subject.
PAT: average 18.3 range 16-19 Actual 19
PAT is hard, I was only good at hole punch and cube counting, keyhole and tfe was a lost cause, so I focused on perfecting hole punch and cube counting. I learned pattern folding the last 3 weeks on my studying, bootcamp was very helpful for pattern folding, especially with explanations. Booster does not have that after each question, only generator but I did all tests on booster. Most test I got 12-14/15 on pattern folding. I was aiming for above 16 and got 19, happy with my score. Did 3 untimed booster tests 19 each time and 4 timed booster tests 18 18 16 19. Hole punch was much easier on the real thing.
RC: Booster Average 19 range 18-21 Actual 22
I barely did reading. Did about 8 extra practice passages and only 5 practice tests when doing FL. I used passage mapping, real test was much easier. I did get a 22 paragraph passage with 20 questions.
QR: Booster average 18.5 range 15-22 actual 18
This score makes me a bit sad because I was having an upward trend near the end. Booster QR was very representative, I had a timing problem and was panicking due to it being the end of the exam. Booster changed their exams so they apparently are not as hard? But that was after I already took them. Work on timing and look at graphs I did get thrown off by a few questions. I am just happy I did not get below 17, I was struggling in the beginning.
Week of test:
I was getting burnt out the week before the test, but got it together the week of. Monday did all bio, redid test looked over notes, Tuesday all gc, light did 2 tests I skipped and looked at notes, Wednesday all orgo did bootcamps tests. Idk what I did Thursday... I know I studied though. Friday I did some qr and looked over a bunch on old practice exams of different subjects.
Please Feel free to PM me 🙂
Scores: Bio23/GC25/ORGO27/TS25/RC22/QR18/PAT19/AA23
Background:
I am a rising senior majoring in kinesiology. I stared studying for my exam about two days from my last final. I studied from May 16 to July 16. I don't know how much studying I did per day. I started at 12pm and ended at 12 am with 15 min breaks after every hour of studying and about 3 tv breaks 1 hour each. I used both booster and bootcamp. I used bootcamp for gc and oc content learning and booster for everything else. I mostly followed boosters schedule. Disclaimer I put a heavy focus on the sciences and put reading and pat on the backburner.
Bio: Booster average 22.2 range 19-25, BC average 20.8 Actual 23
I have a good bio background, and I had just finished a&p II and biochem that semester so that helped a lot. I used feralis notes for content learning and when it was review time I used bootcamps condensed notes. I think both work well. For Diversity of life/plants I would say use bootcamps. There is some extra info in feralis that were not relevant and that's time away from studying more important things. I took notes on the readings but never went back to read them lol. The notes I took on the practice tests I looked at quite often and that helped me so much. I used bootcamps anki during the review section. They are separated by subject so it was easier to do. I mainly used it for the systems I struggled with and diversity of life/plants. I did all question banks, all of boosters exams and 7 of bootcamps. I did about 7 of boosters twice. I definitely put the most effort into the bio section. I wish I scored higher considering my last 3 tests were 25 24 25 but I am still content.
GC: Booster average 22 range 19-26 Actual 25
I have taken chemistry every year since I was a junior in high school. Took AP chem and redid the chem sequence during to needing grades for prerequisites. I am also a TA for general chemistry I at my school so I did not worry too much about this section. I watched Mikes videos on bootcamp, did all of his question banks and used booster for practice tests. I did all of boosters and 2 of bootcamps. I took notes on what questions I got wrong. I say know conceptual stuff and trends. Booster was a bit calculational. real test was written in equation form. I was shocked by my actual score
OC: Booster average 21.4 Range 18-25 Bootcamp average 21.85 Actual 27
I also watched Mikes orgo videos on bootcamp. I put more effort into orgo than gc. I did all of bootcamps question banks and some of boosters. I used booster for practice tests. Did all of boosters and about 8 of bootcamps. I would say both booster and bootcamps tests were quite hard. I was lucky with the questions I got because I suck at resonance structures. I was stuck at getting 22 for almost 5 tests in a row and had a massive jump at the end. I did not really use reaction bites, did a few but not all. I did dedicate about 3 days relearning all of orgo while in content review and and the week of my exam I did one day for one science subject.
PAT: average 18.3 range 16-19 Actual 19
PAT is hard, I was only good at hole punch and cube counting, keyhole and tfe was a lost cause, so I focused on perfecting hole punch and cube counting. I learned pattern folding the last 3 weeks on my studying, bootcamp was very helpful for pattern folding, especially with explanations. Booster does not have that after each question, only generator but I did all tests on booster. Most test I got 12-14/15 on pattern folding. I was aiming for above 16 and got 19, happy with my score. Did 3 untimed booster tests 19 each time and 4 timed booster tests 18 18 16 19. Hole punch was much easier on the real thing.
RC: Booster Average 19 range 18-21 Actual 22
I barely did reading. Did about 8 extra practice passages and only 5 practice tests when doing FL. I used passage mapping, real test was much easier. I did get a 22 paragraph passage with 20 questions.
QR: Booster average 18.5 range 15-22 actual 18
This score makes me a bit sad because I was having an upward trend near the end. Booster QR was very representative, I had a timing problem and was panicking due to it being the end of the exam. Booster changed their exams so they apparently are not as hard? But that was after I already took them. Work on timing and look at graphs I did get thrown off by a few questions. I am just happy I did not get below 17, I was struggling in the beginning.
Week of test:
I was getting burnt out the week before the test, but got it together the week of. Monday did all bio, redid test looked over notes, Tuesday all gc, light did 2 tests I skipped and looked at notes, Wednesday all orgo did bootcamps tests. Idk what I did Thursday... I know I studied though. Friday I did some qr and looked over a bunch on old practice exams of different subjects.
Please Feel free to PM me 🙂
