Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
AA (520)
BIO (570)
GCHEM (480)
OCHEM (510)
PAT (520)
RC (460)
QR (560)
Hey everyone, I recently got my DAT scores back and thought I’d post a breakdown since they helped me a lot!
<𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝>
I studied for about 𝟐 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬, starting in mid June and took the exam in mid August.
I spent about 4-6 hours studying per day for 5 days per week: these numbers are from my time logging app! I studied for a total of 𝟏𝟗𝟖 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 for this DAT. (I honestly think anywhere from 150~250hr should be enough)
<𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝>
𝐃𝐀𝐓 Booster: I chose Booster over Bootcamp after hearing they have better science questions / harder practice exams.
I also bought the 𝟓 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦 on Booster, it is optional but it did help me around the end since I kind of ran out of questions.
Booster 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 (esp bio) I first used them as a “level-tester” by skimming through and looking for topics I didn’t know.
I didn’t really use anki. I tried to focus on going through as many problems as I can, flagging the ones I don’t know, and repeating them. 🙃
<𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬>
𝐁𝐢𝐨 (570)
Booster bio questions were pretty good, even found a few questions with exactly the same wording/format.
I would say going through problems multiple times will help you the most!
𝐆𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦 (480)
Honestly I was surprised to get something below a 500 but I think the issue was time management. Try to keep the question flagged even when you went over it once. You will probably have some time left at the end, and you will waste time if you unflag questions too early 🥲.
There were more conceptual questions than calculation questions.
𝐏𝐀𝐓 (520)
Since this section consists of 6 different subsections, something that really helped me was 1. See how you perform on each section. 2. Answer ones you do well first and ones you don’t last.
(eg) I always did (hole - cube - pattern - keyhole - TFE - angle) since I usually didn’t do well on angle rankings.
With practice, I think this section can be a score booster. Booster also has videos on tips&tricks for each section, the pattern folding one helped a lot.
𝐑𝐂 (460)
This is actually a pretty high score for me considering it’s reading ^__^ (I once got a 20 on ACT reading) so I’ll talk a bit about it.
The strategy that worked for me was: skim through the paragraphs to see what infos are located where, start answering the questions, skip the ones that take too much time to answer. At the end, while answering ones I can solve fast, I end up understanding enough about the passage, which helps me answer questions I skipped.
<𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞>
𝐃𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
They have a pause button (I think booster gave me one when I did an easy achievement like “daily warm up 5 days streak”) that allows you to pause your membership for as long as you’d like. So if you were hesitating getting a membership because of your timeline/etc, I would encourage you to just start early and just pause in the middle (esp since doing problems is the best way to prepare for DAT and you don’t get access to the questions without a membership).
𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 / 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐲
During the “prometric delay”, the screen will just go white, you won’t be able to double check your answer or change them while waiting for a new question to load (I did not know this…^__^)
𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬
I remember being so nervous about whether I’m drinking too much/less water in the morning of the exam because I thought no water was allowed into the testing room, but water in clear bottles was allowed. Idk if it was just my testing center, but bring one just in case because you can keep it in your locker if yours don’t.
You are also allowed to take bathroom breaks during the exam (just sharing bc I didn’t know about this) ofc your clock will still be running.
BIO (570)
GCHEM (480)
OCHEM (510)
PAT (520)
RC (460)
QR (560)
Hey everyone, I recently got my DAT scores back and thought I’d post a breakdown since they helped me a lot!
<𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝>
I studied for about 𝟐 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬, starting in mid June and took the exam in mid August.
I spent about 4-6 hours studying per day for 5 days per week: these numbers are from my time logging app! I studied for a total of 𝟏𝟗𝟖 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 for this DAT. (I honestly think anywhere from 150~250hr should be enough)
<𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝>
𝐃𝐀𝐓 Booster: I chose Booster over Bootcamp after hearing they have better science questions / harder practice exams.
I also bought the 𝟓 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦 on Booster, it is optional but it did help me around the end since I kind of ran out of questions.
Booster 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 (esp bio) I first used them as a “level-tester” by skimming through and looking for topics I didn’t know.
I didn’t really use anki. I tried to focus on going through as many problems as I can, flagging the ones I don’t know, and repeating them. 🙃
<𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬>
𝐁𝐢𝐨 (570)
Booster bio questions were pretty good, even found a few questions with exactly the same wording/format.
I would say going through problems multiple times will help you the most!
𝐆𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦 (480)
Honestly I was surprised to get something below a 500 but I think the issue was time management. Try to keep the question flagged even when you went over it once. You will probably have some time left at the end, and you will waste time if you unflag questions too early 🥲.
There were more conceptual questions than calculation questions.
𝐏𝐀𝐓 (520)
Since this section consists of 6 different subsections, something that really helped me was 1. See how you perform on each section. 2. Answer ones you do well first and ones you don’t last.
(eg) I always did (hole - cube - pattern - keyhole - TFE - angle) since I usually didn’t do well on angle rankings.
With practice, I think this section can be a score booster. Booster also has videos on tips&tricks for each section, the pattern folding one helped a lot.
𝐑𝐂 (460)
This is actually a pretty high score for me considering it’s reading ^__^ (I once got a 20 on ACT reading) so I’ll talk a bit about it.
The strategy that worked for me was: skim through the paragraphs to see what infos are located where, start answering the questions, skip the ones that take too much time to answer. At the end, while answering ones I can solve fast, I end up understanding enough about the passage, which helps me answer questions I skipped.
<𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞>
𝐃𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
They have a pause button (I think booster gave me one when I did an easy achievement like “daily warm up 5 days streak”) that allows you to pause your membership for as long as you’d like. So if you were hesitating getting a membership because of your timeline/etc, I would encourage you to just start early and just pause in the middle (esp since doing problems is the best way to prepare for DAT and you don’t get access to the questions without a membership).
𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 / 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐲
During the “prometric delay”, the screen will just go white, you won’t be able to double check your answer or change them while waiting for a new question to load (I did not know this…^__^)
𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬
I remember being so nervous about whether I’m drinking too much/less water in the morning of the exam because I thought no water was allowed into the testing room, but water in clear bottles was allowed. Idk if it was just my testing center, but bring one just in case because you can keep it in your locker if yours don’t.
You are also allowed to take bathroom breaks during the exam (just sharing bc I didn’t know about this) ofc your clock will still be running.
