Well, to say it was a long journey would be an understatement. I'm proud to say that after my third and final DAT examination attempt, I exceeded my goals and nailed a 21 AA! I want to thank Feralis and the team at DAT Booster for the resource; it is absolutely all you need to master the DAT! Here is my score breakdown:
10/21/2022
Bio:22
Gen Chem: 22
Organic Chem: 19
PAT:19
Reading:22
QR:19
AA:21
TS:21
I started my DAT journey in my junior year of college and took the summer to prepare for my first DAT exam on 7/31/2020. After looking for advice on preparing, everyone was roaring about DAT Bootcamp. So, I began following DAT Bootcamps schedule. During my preparation, I realized that without a biology degree background (I studied BioBehavioral health at Penn State), I had a lot of bio to cover and felt very overwhelmed. I tried with the Bootcamp bio notes, but the info was hard to retain, with just definitions. I generally felt okay with the other sections and followed the schedule. I then moved to practice exams and started scoring relatively well, even in Bio. I started averaging about 19-20 AA on my exams and felt ready for my exam. However, I left my exam on 7/31 feeling devastated. Score breakdown Bio:16 GC:18 OC:21 PAT:19 Reading:23 QR:17 AA:19 TS:18. I did the calculations, and if I scored 2 points higher on biology, I would've attained my goal of a 20 AA. I was so close. I was unprepared for the biology section and felt the DAT Bootcamp exams did not represent the actual examination. After this, I felt stuck because I had already applied to dental school and the 16 in bio was very detrimental to my application. Yet, I didn't give up.
After graduating from Penn State in May of 2021, I felt lost amid a pandemic and not going to school for the first time in almost 16 years. After some time and discussion with my mentors, I began to feel comfortable taking a gap year to improve my application. I decided to study again on my own for the DAT exam and unluckily decided to use Bootcamp again. I won't go into much detail, but let's just say I was at home and very distracted with my studying. I noticed that I was breezing through information “I thought I already knew” and did not study to the best ability. I was frustrated with repeating the same information from Bootcamp and felt that all the information I was studying was extremely broad and did not focus on high-yield information. Score breakdown 9/17/2021 Bio:16 GC:17 OC:18 PAT:18 Reading:23 QR:17 AA:18 TS:17. I blame myself a bit for this one.
After this attempt, I felt lost in my journey to dental school, but I decided to volunteer at a local free dental clinic. I then obtained a full-time dental assisting job that changed my life forever. My boss (Temple Dental Alumni) directed me to look into Temple's Post-Baccalaureate program to improve my application and DAT score. I enrolled in this program in May this year and am thankful I did! We were provided with an in-person Kaplan course every Friday for 3 hours from June-October, and I learned a lot about test-taking strategies and content! I decided I needed to take my preparation very seriously, began doing a lot of research on prep courses, and found great reviews and feedback from students using DAT Booster. So I decided to run with it! I began my studying on July 17, 2022!
FINAL ATTEMPT: 10/21/2022
Bio: (22) I used Feralis notes Ch.1-7, read through them and spread them throughout the week. I did the practice questions after each section. ANKI!!!! I began using ANKI in August and am incredibly grateful I did, it was amazing to focus on active recall, and Feralis decks had EXAMPLES and more detailed explanations. I then moved to take full-length practice exams in early September. I made sure to REVIEW my bio exams in-depth and took detailed notes using the practice exam questions and answers as study material, and went back in depth with any terms or questions I was unfamiliar with. I marked the questions I didn't feel confident on and redid those about 1-2 weeks before my exam. This was key!! I also did a DAT Booster Crash Course Biology 1 with a focus on bodily systems and anatomy content I needed to be more familiar with due to not taking these courses. It was very helpful, and I saw exam questions about the high-yield info Feralis emphasized. I recommend it! Also, the notes along with it were excellent, as well as good photos. Two days before my exam, I memorized all the bio practice questions to refresh my memory of the content before the exam, which was beneficial. I saw similar questions and felt the practice exams were super representative. Thanks to Booster (and my hard work(; ). I improved by six whole points; woohoo!
Gen Chem: (22) I found the booster chemistry videos very straight to the point and easy to follow. I liked the teaching style and watched every video followed along with chapter notes. I did every practice question and focused on when I made a mistake. I also used the ANKI gen chem deck, which helped with critical topics and active recall! I then moved to practice exams at full length and reviewed my mistakes in detail the day AFTER taking them. I again reviewed my marked questions and redid them 1-2 weeks before my exam. I felt the questions on booster were more complex than the actual exam, and I was very prepared and saw similar style questions and more conceptual ones than quantitative ones.
Organic Chemistry: (19) I again followed the booster schedule, watched all videos, followed along with the chapter notes for Orgo, and did several practice questions for each section (not all). I did the same thing with practice exams, thoroughly reviewed everything I got wrong, and reinforced the topics I struggled with. For both gen chem and organic chem, throughout the last four weeks, I did a couple of chapters a week and made a personal written study sheet with crucial information while reviewing the chapters, and I found that very helpful!! I also used ANKI decks to reinforce the reactions and did it daily and found that I was retaining the information!
PAT (19): I started with 10 PAT questions a day, combining techniques from Bootcamp and booster. Practice, practice, practice! DAT boosters PAT practice exams are a good representation of the real exam but a little more difficult. I focused on what I got wrong and improved with time!
Reading (22): Luckily, I have always been a good reading comprehension student. So I stuck with the simple read the passage and HIGHLIGHT information that seemed like it would be a question (a date, a term, commas in a sentence for EXCEPT questions, etc.) that was easier with practice. Then I would answer the questions and mark and skip the ones I didn't know. I ended up doing well but was stunned at the end of my section with a challenging detailed passage with graphs and specific questions I had never seen before, so I went from 23 to 22, probably missing 2-3 more questions with that curve ball. In hindsight, they are increasing the difficulty of this section.
QR (19): I started out by watching all the videos on booster for QR prep and did about ten questions per day on different topics at the beginning of my studies. Timing has always been my enemy with QR. My Kaplan course instructor motivated me to use the MARK and GO strategy, which I always neglected taking this exam in the past. If I saw it was a long, challenging question or didn't know the answer, I would simply mark it, skip it, and save it for the end if I had time! This improved my scores in practice exams significantly and raised my confidence! The practice exams on booster definitely well prepared me for the real thing!
The moral of the story is NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to share my full story! Anything is possible with the right resources, hard work, determination, and grit. Thank you, DAT Booster, for helping me focus on the most high-yield content and having fantastic practice exams. And thank you to me for putting my head down for 3-4 months and working harder than I've ever worked on anything in my life. YOU CAN DO IT! I hope this helps! Good luck, everyone.
P.s. I could not find a copy of my official score report for 9/17/2021, but the information provided is accurate. I will add it if I can find it. I also wanted to add my DAT booster practice scores to see that I started low and improved over time! So do not be discouraged!!!
10/21/2022
Bio:22
Gen Chem: 22
Organic Chem: 19
PAT:19
Reading:22
QR:19
AA:21
TS:21
I started my DAT journey in my junior year of college and took the summer to prepare for my first DAT exam on 7/31/2020. After looking for advice on preparing, everyone was roaring about DAT Bootcamp. So, I began following DAT Bootcamps schedule. During my preparation, I realized that without a biology degree background (I studied BioBehavioral health at Penn State), I had a lot of bio to cover and felt very overwhelmed. I tried with the Bootcamp bio notes, but the info was hard to retain, with just definitions. I generally felt okay with the other sections and followed the schedule. I then moved to practice exams and started scoring relatively well, even in Bio. I started averaging about 19-20 AA on my exams and felt ready for my exam. However, I left my exam on 7/31 feeling devastated. Score breakdown Bio:16 GC:18 OC:21 PAT:19 Reading:23 QR:17 AA:19 TS:18. I did the calculations, and if I scored 2 points higher on biology, I would've attained my goal of a 20 AA. I was so close. I was unprepared for the biology section and felt the DAT Bootcamp exams did not represent the actual examination. After this, I felt stuck because I had already applied to dental school and the 16 in bio was very detrimental to my application. Yet, I didn't give up.
After graduating from Penn State in May of 2021, I felt lost amid a pandemic and not going to school for the first time in almost 16 years. After some time and discussion with my mentors, I began to feel comfortable taking a gap year to improve my application. I decided to study again on my own for the DAT exam and unluckily decided to use Bootcamp again. I won't go into much detail, but let's just say I was at home and very distracted with my studying. I noticed that I was breezing through information “I thought I already knew” and did not study to the best ability. I was frustrated with repeating the same information from Bootcamp and felt that all the information I was studying was extremely broad and did not focus on high-yield information. Score breakdown 9/17/2021 Bio:16 GC:17 OC:18 PAT:18 Reading:23 QR:17 AA:18 TS:17. I blame myself a bit for this one.
After this attempt, I felt lost in my journey to dental school, but I decided to volunteer at a local free dental clinic. I then obtained a full-time dental assisting job that changed my life forever. My boss (Temple Dental Alumni) directed me to look into Temple's Post-Baccalaureate program to improve my application and DAT score. I enrolled in this program in May this year and am thankful I did! We were provided with an in-person Kaplan course every Friday for 3 hours from June-October, and I learned a lot about test-taking strategies and content! I decided I needed to take my preparation very seriously, began doing a lot of research on prep courses, and found great reviews and feedback from students using DAT Booster. So I decided to run with it! I began my studying on July 17, 2022!
FINAL ATTEMPT: 10/21/2022
Bio: (22) I used Feralis notes Ch.1-7, read through them and spread them throughout the week. I did the practice questions after each section. ANKI!!!! I began using ANKI in August and am incredibly grateful I did, it was amazing to focus on active recall, and Feralis decks had EXAMPLES and more detailed explanations. I then moved to take full-length practice exams in early September. I made sure to REVIEW my bio exams in-depth and took detailed notes using the practice exam questions and answers as study material, and went back in depth with any terms or questions I was unfamiliar with. I marked the questions I didn't feel confident on and redid those about 1-2 weeks before my exam. This was key!! I also did a DAT Booster Crash Course Biology 1 with a focus on bodily systems and anatomy content I needed to be more familiar with due to not taking these courses. It was very helpful, and I saw exam questions about the high-yield info Feralis emphasized. I recommend it! Also, the notes along with it were excellent, as well as good photos. Two days before my exam, I memorized all the bio practice questions to refresh my memory of the content before the exam, which was beneficial. I saw similar questions and felt the practice exams were super representative. Thanks to Booster (and my hard work(; ). I improved by six whole points; woohoo!
Gen Chem: (22) I found the booster chemistry videos very straight to the point and easy to follow. I liked the teaching style and watched every video followed along with chapter notes. I did every practice question and focused on when I made a mistake. I also used the ANKI gen chem deck, which helped with critical topics and active recall! I then moved to practice exams at full length and reviewed my mistakes in detail the day AFTER taking them. I again reviewed my marked questions and redid them 1-2 weeks before my exam. I felt the questions on booster were more complex than the actual exam, and I was very prepared and saw similar style questions and more conceptual ones than quantitative ones.
Organic Chemistry: (19) I again followed the booster schedule, watched all videos, followed along with the chapter notes for Orgo, and did several practice questions for each section (not all). I did the same thing with practice exams, thoroughly reviewed everything I got wrong, and reinforced the topics I struggled with. For both gen chem and organic chem, throughout the last four weeks, I did a couple of chapters a week and made a personal written study sheet with crucial information while reviewing the chapters, and I found that very helpful!! I also used ANKI decks to reinforce the reactions and did it daily and found that I was retaining the information!
PAT (19): I started with 10 PAT questions a day, combining techniques from Bootcamp and booster. Practice, practice, practice! DAT boosters PAT practice exams are a good representation of the real exam but a little more difficult. I focused on what I got wrong and improved with time!
Reading (22): Luckily, I have always been a good reading comprehension student. So I stuck with the simple read the passage and HIGHLIGHT information that seemed like it would be a question (a date, a term, commas in a sentence for EXCEPT questions, etc.) that was easier with practice. Then I would answer the questions and mark and skip the ones I didn't know. I ended up doing well but was stunned at the end of my section with a challenging detailed passage with graphs and specific questions I had never seen before, so I went from 23 to 22, probably missing 2-3 more questions with that curve ball. In hindsight, they are increasing the difficulty of this section.
QR (19): I started out by watching all the videos on booster for QR prep and did about ten questions per day on different topics at the beginning of my studies. Timing has always been my enemy with QR. My Kaplan course instructor motivated me to use the MARK and GO strategy, which I always neglected taking this exam in the past. If I saw it was a long, challenging question or didn't know the answer, I would simply mark it, skip it, and save it for the end if I had time! This improved my scores in practice exams significantly and raised my confidence! The practice exams on booster definitely well prepared me for the real thing!
The moral of the story is NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to share my full story! Anything is possible with the right resources, hard work, determination, and grit. Thank you, DAT Booster, for helping me focus on the most high-yield content and having fantastic practice exams. And thank you to me for putting my head down for 3-4 months and working harder than I've ever worked on anything in my life. YOU CAN DO IT! I hope this helps! Good luck, everyone.
P.s. I could not find a copy of my official score report for 9/17/2021, but the information provided is accurate. I will add it if I can find it. I also wanted to add my DAT booster practice scores to see that I started low and improved over time! So do not be discouraged!!!
Attachments
Last edited:
