Hi everyone!! I’m writing this breakdown to any and all Pre-dental students who need some encouragement, confidence, motivation, and hope. I recently took the DAT for the third time and couldn’t be happier with my scores. The first time I took the DAT was in 2018 and I got a 19 Total Science and an 18 AA, the second time I took the DAT was in 2019 and I got an 18 Total Science and a 19 AA. It has been almost two years since the last time I took it and I have completely grown into a different student. For those who are deciding between which study tools to use when studying for the DAT, CHOOSE DAT BOOSTER! I took Dr. Romano’s summer course in Staten Island in 2018 and used his destroyer books and had a DAT Bootcamp subscription, but this combo unfortunately did not do the trick the first two times. I found out about DAT Booster from someone in my master’s program who highly recommended it, so I listened to him! DAT Booster provides a free 70-day study guide that I followed to a T. The only difference was that I gave myself 90 days to study, rather than 70. I would absolutely recommend those extra 20 days to solidify concepts, take mental breaks, and retake more practice exams. At the beginning of my studying, it may sound silly, but I wrote out a contract basically pledging to study for the next 90 days without any distractions (i even had both my parents sign it lol). Any important events that I knew about in advance that overlapped with my study schedule I wrote down in the contract so I knew I was not studying on those days. This really helped me stick to my schedule and commit to studying everyday except the days I wrote as exceptions, so I would highly recommend writing out a contract! Now for my breakdown:
Biology (2018: 17, 2019: 16, 2021: 26)
- Biology has never come easy to me. I graduated undergrad with a degree in Mathematics, so I was never really used to memorization. I knew from my previous scores that I had to really focus more time on this section to improve my scores in order to be considered a competitive candidate. I followed the DAT Booster study guide, which incorporated all of their videos, extra questions, practice exams, and the Feralis notes. I actually did not read the Feralis notes for a few unrelated reasons, so I used DAT Bootcamp biology notes, both the condensed and expanded versions. I made my own notes on the condensed version and then about a month before my exam I read through the expanded version. The section on the DAT was way easier then I had remembered. Maybe it was because I was actually prepared. My questions were very definition based and nothing seemed too tricky to me. DAT Booster was definitely representative and prepares you well for this section. A lot of people say that it is the last few exams that are most representative, but I would actually say the opposite. I had a couple questions where I had to stop and think for a second, but I was able to knock it down to two choices each time and from there it was just a 50/50 chance. I also used the most recent DAT Destroyer book which was very very helpful.
General Chemistry (2018: 20, 2019: 19, 2021: 30)
- I was most nervous for this section going into the test. I felt very prepared, but I was scoring all over the place on my booster exams which made me a little more skeptical. Tests 8-10 I managed to get a 20 or above which boosted my confidence before taking the exam. I also took the free test 1 on DAT bootcamp a week before my exam since I had taken all of the booster tests and got an 18. But I did not let that freak me out!! I followed the booster schedule for general chemistry and when I had difficulty with a concept, I would watch Chad’s videos on his YouTube page which were absolutely amazing. He was so entertaining to watch and he would just make everything seem a lot easier. On the real DAT, it was almost like taking another booster practice exam. Every question was pretty simple and straight forward, nothing I haven’t seen before. I was a little surprised because I feel like I got a lot of calculation questions and I remember reading some breakdowns before I took it and other people saying that they only had a couple. Also- not all of my calculation questions had the set-up as the answer, some I had to actually solve after performing the stoichiometry. But Booster prepares you well for that! I did not use the destroyer books for this section, even though the booster study guide tells you to. I retook booster exams and did extra questions instead.
Organic Chemistry: (2018: 22, 2019: 22, 2021: 30)
- I know it is weird, but I absolutely love organic chemistry. To me, it is most similar to math where there is just one answer and you could solve it in multiple ways, but the answer will almost always be the same. From my previous DAT attempts, I was already satisfied with my scores, but I of course knew there was room for improvement. I followed the booster study guide, watched chad’s videos to fill in some gaps, and did practice questions out of the destroyer book. Dr. Romano’s road maps are extremely helpful with understanding every single synthesis question you could get on the exam, so I highly recommend doing those! He also has 40 must know reactions in the beginning of the destroyer book that I would agree are very important to know for the DAT. Booster’s practice exams are highly representative and prepared me 100% for the test. I felt very prepared and almost excited for this section going into the real DAT, and I am very very happy with my scores!
PAT: (2018: 16, 2019: 18, 2021: 19)
- I am a little disappointed in the score I got because as I taking this section I kept saying in my head how easy it was. Way easier then practice exams on booster, nothing tricky at all. But it is what it is! It aligned with what I was getting on my practice exams, although the last few exams I took I was getting 20 or above. I did not have any rotated hole punches that some people spoke about, my pattern folding was very very simple to interpret, I had a couple floating cubes which tripped me up a little, but I thought I made sure to take my time and really count the sides. I always had difficulty with TFE, so that was probably where most of my errors took place. DAT Booster definitely did the trick on preparing me for the exam! The last two weeks up until my test I took a practice PAT exam every day instead of the generators (which were incorporated almost every day in the schedule).
RC: (2018: 16, 2019: 19, 2021: 19)
- This section was wack on my exam. I was so flustered and totally abandoned all of my study strategies when faced with the real DAT. I really wanted to improve in this section since my last DAT, but I am honestly thrilled with the 19 after seeing the articles I got lol. On my practice exams I was struggling in the beginning, but by test 8 I started doing a lot better and ranging 19-23. The questions on booster were definitely more difficult than the real DAT. The thing is, the questions were not too difficult, it was the paragraph placements and material that I was asked about. My first reading had images in it which sorta threw me off, but was manageable. The second article was an absolute mess; I almost had a panic attack but didn’t allow myself to freak out because I still had math after this was over. I usually give myself 20 minutes per article, but I only had 13 minutes left for the last one on the real DAT. I loved the way I practiced studying by reading the first question and then reading the article until I found the answer and then would look at the next question to see if I read it already etc. On the real DAT I sort of did search and destroy? I am not even sure, but it was not a great experience. Definitely try to take the real DAT using the strategies you used during practice tests!
QR: (2018: 15, 2019: 17, 2021: 23)
- I am so happy about this score, considering I am a math major and it was embarrassing not doing very well in this section on the first two exams lol. I don’t think I studied correctly the first two times, though. I had a tutor once a week for the sciences this time around, and he informed me that booster math is a LOT harder than the real DAT, so I focused on the math destroyer book, which was 10/10. I highly recommend doing the first 10 exams in the destroyer book, everything after that gets too hard and it just isn’t necessary. Whenever I did a full length exam on booster, I would take the math section of booster, but would not do that well. I timed myself when I took the math exams in the destroyer books which I think is crucial since a lot of people, including myself, struggle with timing on the QR section. On the real DAT, I had a lot of ratio questions, probability, distance/time/velocity, and I had some bar graphs. I was very happy that I did not see too many of the “statement 1, statement 2, etc.” questions. I was also surprised that a lot of the questions seemed repetitive and basically had the same format, but different numbers. Make sure to read over the formula sheets and to check over each exam after you take it, whether you got the question right or wrong!
Overall, I am beyond beyond proud of my scores, the amount I have improved since the last time I took the exam, and just so happy that the sources I chose to study for the DAT this time around were the right ones. Third time is the charm! Thank you so much DATBooster, I really could not have received these scores without your tools!! I would also like to give a shoutout to my tutor, who basically doubled as my life coach! It is super helpful having a support system and interacting with someone who is going through the same experiences as you and who understands what you are going through! There are two big pieces of advice I would give to anyone who has not taken their exam yet:
1. There is a difference between feeling prepared to take the test and ready to take the test, in my opinion. Booster provides all of the necessary tools, skills, and material for you to be prepared to take the exam. Feeling ready to take the test… you won’t. Everyone is not perfect and there is way way too much material to know and memorize going into the exam that unfortunately you will not be able to know EVERYTHING. Especially for biology, they really can ask you anything. There is a huge cloud of unknown and it really just depends on the exam you get. But I found a little bit of comfort that maybe I won’t feel 100% ready to take the test, but at least I knew I was prepared and did everything I could to cover all of the material that could be asked on the exam. Breadth over depth!!!!
2. Have no regrets!!!! I cannot say this enough. No one should ever come out of their exam and say I should have done this, or maybe if I did that etc. Do your best. And that is all you could do. I was so fortunate to have gotten the scores I got, but whether it was a 17 or a 30, I knew I would have no regrets and that I did my very best going into the DAT this time around. I took off from work for three months, I started studying after I finished finals, I told my friends that I would see them in 3 months, and spent every single day studying for 9-13 hours a day. If you do not feel prepared to take the DAT by the time your date rolls around, postpone it! Your DAT score is a huge huge component of your application, and if you do not do as well as you wanted, then it is a waste of an application cycle. But, do not confuse being ready with being prepared!! Like I stated in my first piece of advice, it will be hard to feel 100% ready since you have no way of knowing what you will be asked. It is absolutely so normal to be nervous and anxious going into your exam! I couldn’t sleep the night before at all, but I knew I did not want to change my date.
Give yourself enough time to study for the DAT! Like I said earlier, I gave myself an additional 20 days so I could review and take a day off if needed. Your mind and body need rest and you want to avoid burnout as much as possible. I tried to go for a walk each morning and call a friend, and I’d take quick 5 minute breaks throughout the day to just get up from my desk and stretch. Good luck to everyone applying and who has not taken your DAT yet!! We are all in this together and can achieve anything we set our minds to!
Biology (2018: 17, 2019: 16, 2021: 26)
- Biology has never come easy to me. I graduated undergrad with a degree in Mathematics, so I was never really used to memorization. I knew from my previous scores that I had to really focus more time on this section to improve my scores in order to be considered a competitive candidate. I followed the DAT Booster study guide, which incorporated all of their videos, extra questions, practice exams, and the Feralis notes. I actually did not read the Feralis notes for a few unrelated reasons, so I used DAT Bootcamp biology notes, both the condensed and expanded versions. I made my own notes on the condensed version and then about a month before my exam I read through the expanded version. The section on the DAT was way easier then I had remembered. Maybe it was because I was actually prepared. My questions were very definition based and nothing seemed too tricky to me. DAT Booster was definitely representative and prepares you well for this section. A lot of people say that it is the last few exams that are most representative, but I would actually say the opposite. I had a couple questions where I had to stop and think for a second, but I was able to knock it down to two choices each time and from there it was just a 50/50 chance. I also used the most recent DAT Destroyer book which was very very helpful.
General Chemistry (2018: 20, 2019: 19, 2021: 30)
- I was most nervous for this section going into the test. I felt very prepared, but I was scoring all over the place on my booster exams which made me a little more skeptical. Tests 8-10 I managed to get a 20 or above which boosted my confidence before taking the exam. I also took the free test 1 on DAT bootcamp a week before my exam since I had taken all of the booster tests and got an 18. But I did not let that freak me out!! I followed the booster schedule for general chemistry and when I had difficulty with a concept, I would watch Chad’s videos on his YouTube page which were absolutely amazing. He was so entertaining to watch and he would just make everything seem a lot easier. On the real DAT, it was almost like taking another booster practice exam. Every question was pretty simple and straight forward, nothing I haven’t seen before. I was a little surprised because I feel like I got a lot of calculation questions and I remember reading some breakdowns before I took it and other people saying that they only had a couple. Also- not all of my calculation questions had the set-up as the answer, some I had to actually solve after performing the stoichiometry. But Booster prepares you well for that! I did not use the destroyer books for this section, even though the booster study guide tells you to. I retook booster exams and did extra questions instead.
Organic Chemistry: (2018: 22, 2019: 22, 2021: 30)
- I know it is weird, but I absolutely love organic chemistry. To me, it is most similar to math where there is just one answer and you could solve it in multiple ways, but the answer will almost always be the same. From my previous DAT attempts, I was already satisfied with my scores, but I of course knew there was room for improvement. I followed the booster study guide, watched chad’s videos to fill in some gaps, and did practice questions out of the destroyer book. Dr. Romano’s road maps are extremely helpful with understanding every single synthesis question you could get on the exam, so I highly recommend doing those! He also has 40 must know reactions in the beginning of the destroyer book that I would agree are very important to know for the DAT. Booster’s practice exams are highly representative and prepared me 100% for the test. I felt very prepared and almost excited for this section going into the real DAT, and I am very very happy with my scores!
PAT: (2018: 16, 2019: 18, 2021: 19)
- I am a little disappointed in the score I got because as I taking this section I kept saying in my head how easy it was. Way easier then practice exams on booster, nothing tricky at all. But it is what it is! It aligned with what I was getting on my practice exams, although the last few exams I took I was getting 20 or above. I did not have any rotated hole punches that some people spoke about, my pattern folding was very very simple to interpret, I had a couple floating cubes which tripped me up a little, but I thought I made sure to take my time and really count the sides. I always had difficulty with TFE, so that was probably where most of my errors took place. DAT Booster definitely did the trick on preparing me for the exam! The last two weeks up until my test I took a practice PAT exam every day instead of the generators (which were incorporated almost every day in the schedule).
RC: (2018: 16, 2019: 19, 2021: 19)
- This section was wack on my exam. I was so flustered and totally abandoned all of my study strategies when faced with the real DAT. I really wanted to improve in this section since my last DAT, but I am honestly thrilled with the 19 after seeing the articles I got lol. On my practice exams I was struggling in the beginning, but by test 8 I started doing a lot better and ranging 19-23. The questions on booster were definitely more difficult than the real DAT. The thing is, the questions were not too difficult, it was the paragraph placements and material that I was asked about. My first reading had images in it which sorta threw me off, but was manageable. The second article was an absolute mess; I almost had a panic attack but didn’t allow myself to freak out because I still had math after this was over. I usually give myself 20 minutes per article, but I only had 13 minutes left for the last one on the real DAT. I loved the way I practiced studying by reading the first question and then reading the article until I found the answer and then would look at the next question to see if I read it already etc. On the real DAT I sort of did search and destroy? I am not even sure, but it was not a great experience. Definitely try to take the real DAT using the strategies you used during practice tests!
QR: (2018: 15, 2019: 17, 2021: 23)
- I am so happy about this score, considering I am a math major and it was embarrassing not doing very well in this section on the first two exams lol. I don’t think I studied correctly the first two times, though. I had a tutor once a week for the sciences this time around, and he informed me that booster math is a LOT harder than the real DAT, so I focused on the math destroyer book, which was 10/10. I highly recommend doing the first 10 exams in the destroyer book, everything after that gets too hard and it just isn’t necessary. Whenever I did a full length exam on booster, I would take the math section of booster, but would not do that well. I timed myself when I took the math exams in the destroyer books which I think is crucial since a lot of people, including myself, struggle with timing on the QR section. On the real DAT, I had a lot of ratio questions, probability, distance/time/velocity, and I had some bar graphs. I was very happy that I did not see too many of the “statement 1, statement 2, etc.” questions. I was also surprised that a lot of the questions seemed repetitive and basically had the same format, but different numbers. Make sure to read over the formula sheets and to check over each exam after you take it, whether you got the question right or wrong!
Overall, I am beyond beyond proud of my scores, the amount I have improved since the last time I took the exam, and just so happy that the sources I chose to study for the DAT this time around were the right ones. Third time is the charm! Thank you so much DATBooster, I really could not have received these scores without your tools!! I would also like to give a shoutout to my tutor, who basically doubled as my life coach! It is super helpful having a support system and interacting with someone who is going through the same experiences as you and who understands what you are going through! There are two big pieces of advice I would give to anyone who has not taken their exam yet:
1. There is a difference between feeling prepared to take the test and ready to take the test, in my opinion. Booster provides all of the necessary tools, skills, and material for you to be prepared to take the exam. Feeling ready to take the test… you won’t. Everyone is not perfect and there is way way too much material to know and memorize going into the exam that unfortunately you will not be able to know EVERYTHING. Especially for biology, they really can ask you anything. There is a huge cloud of unknown and it really just depends on the exam you get. But I found a little bit of comfort that maybe I won’t feel 100% ready to take the test, but at least I knew I was prepared and did everything I could to cover all of the material that could be asked on the exam. Breadth over depth!!!!
2. Have no regrets!!!! I cannot say this enough. No one should ever come out of their exam and say I should have done this, or maybe if I did that etc. Do your best. And that is all you could do. I was so fortunate to have gotten the scores I got, but whether it was a 17 or a 30, I knew I would have no regrets and that I did my very best going into the DAT this time around. I took off from work for three months, I started studying after I finished finals, I told my friends that I would see them in 3 months, and spent every single day studying for 9-13 hours a day. If you do not feel prepared to take the DAT by the time your date rolls around, postpone it! Your DAT score is a huge huge component of your application, and if you do not do as well as you wanted, then it is a waste of an application cycle. But, do not confuse being ready with being prepared!! Like I stated in my first piece of advice, it will be hard to feel 100% ready since you have no way of knowing what you will be asked. It is absolutely so normal to be nervous and anxious going into your exam! I couldn’t sleep the night before at all, but I knew I did not want to change my date.
Give yourself enough time to study for the DAT! Like I said earlier, I gave myself an additional 20 days so I could review and take a day off if needed. Your mind and body need rest and you want to avoid burnout as much as possible. I tried to go for a walk each morning and call a friend, and I’d take quick 5 minute breaks throughout the day to just get up from my desk and stretch. Good luck to everyone applying and who has not taken your DAT yet!! We are all in this together and can achieve anything we set our minds to!
