DAT need to figure out daily study schedule

[Bigboy91]

I've been taking Dr. Romano's bootcamp class this Summer and I feel that my studying habits are not the most effective. After class I feel tired and don't know how to regain energy to study. Can anyone give me advice and their DAT daily schedule?

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[rebecca_chatul_tov]

My first piece of advice is to stop looking at DAT breakdowns where the OP has a AA of 26 and makes it seem like a trip to Six Flags. Learning occurs on a curve. It's not linear, so we don't necessarily get score X automatically from putting in Y hours every day. It's better to think about the DAT as a fist fight that will go on as long as it needs to. How long you struggle with this depends on you as an individual and how you choose to tackle the daily task of diving into the material.

I studied from June 17 to July 7th and was at my desk from like 8 am until 11 or 12 pm every night. My DAT breakdown was PA 19 RW 18 RC 21 Bio 21 GC19 OC 17 TS 19 AA 19. For the first two weeks straight every single practice test was sub 16 scores until the last week when everything started to improve exponentially. The only score that went down for me was OC. I went from getting 19s and 20s down to a 17. My decision to just cram and get it done was due to my unique situation as a working mom. I had tried to study around my work schedule and there is just too much information to cover on the DAT to make it feasible for me so I took time off and just got it done. It really helped me to go for a run half way through my day to clear my mind and I gave myself an hour of television at night in order to de-stress and get in a good place to fall asleep. Rinse repeat all 19 days.

You are going to hit a tipping point where everything is going to click (if you are staying focused during your study and not just going through the motions). You have motivate yourself to get to that area of the learning curve with the knowledge that once you hit the sweet spot things are going to just take off for you. I know that if I had one more week to study full time after my scores finally started to improve I think I would have probably gotten a 20 or 21 AA. Going into this whole thing I didn't realize this. I was too busy looking at DAT breakdowns of other people wondering how on earth it was humanly possible to score in the upper 5%. You can't let that demoralize you because your motivation and drive is ultimately what is going to set the pace and tone of your study schedule.

This is my advice: After class go straight to the gym and get a decent workout and then eat something you like to eat. Taking those 90 minutes to reset will pay dividends Once you get back to where ever you study log out of FB and SDN and turn off your phone. Get rid of everything that is a distraction. Go through each section until the material stops sticking really well, so maybe 3-4 hours for OC and GC each. Front load the sections that are hard for you and work on those first. Then practice PA or RC which use a different part of your brain. Once you eventually break the plateau it's going to be like turning on a faucet and things will start to fall into place.

Learning curve - Wikipedia

 

[shaqfu2019]

I absolutely agree with the above post regarding learning curves and exercise. If you feel mentally exhausted, take some time off like 90 minutes to drink some coffee/relax or work out. Definitely, the time spent exercise will do the trick and is something that most people forget when studying for the DAT because they get too focused on milking out each second of the day towards DAT studying. In reality, their studying is really ineffective and will not learn as much or feel any good about themselves after a long day. My suggestion is to exercise and have a good dinner prior to studying each weeknight and treat the weekends as one of your weekdays. Remember, your determination will guide you towards success and the biggest factor in terms of your motivation is setting up a good habit.

 

[Bigboy91]

Thank you for your advice. I really appreciate the idea to take it easy after class and hit the gym. What dental school are you in now?

 

[rebecca_chatul_tov]

I'm not. I just took the DAT last week. I'm hoping to get into UIC because I'm stationed in Texas and my husbands in the engineering program up in Chicago. You are going to do fine, don't worry. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. I am a pre-dent like you though so it may be the blind leading the blind.