DAT Retake Breakdown (470AA/500TS/440PAT)

[ToothFairyGamer]

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Structure of the post:

1. Intro
2. Materials Used (Both first and second attempt)
3. My scores (Both first and second attempt)
4. Study Timeline (Both first and second attempt)
5. First Attempt Experience (Brief, unless people want a more thorough explanation)
6. Second Attempt Experience
7. Final Pro Tips

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Hi everyone, I wanted to take some time to make a breakdown for those who are planning on taking your DAT soon or those prepping for the next cycle. My goal in this breakdown is to provide you my full DAT experience (first and second attempt) and hope you can use this as a resource to reduce stress and help you on your journey to becoming a dentist.
I also want to give a big shoutout to everyone who has posted a breakdown, and those who were willing to respond to my DMs and help me out along the way. I will gatekeep nothing and this is just my way of giving back to the community who have helped me. Stay tuned for my application cycle results in the spring!
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Materials Used:
DATBooster:

1. First Attempt (19AA/19TS/19PAT): I decided to purchase the 3 month plan of booster after seeing so many people rave about how good booster is on preparing you and how representative it is of the real exam. I scored a 19AA/19TS/19PAT using booster my first time, which this was before the new score changes so when this score popped on my screen after I submitted the exam, I wasn't sure if I should be mad or happy because at the end of the day this is a decent score and similar to my test scores on the platform. I do admit, even though I followed the 10 week study plan, I do not think I used this platform to the best of its ability. For example, the second day I bought booster, I just yolo'ed the PT #1 of orgo section and scored a 22 (470) and decided to just not watch the orgo videos because I did well in my orgo in undergrad. Small things like that add up, and you don't realize it until you're a week leading up to the exam. I did what the schedule asked and grew frustrated when I was not able to complete the assigned tasks in the given day. I was also working as a dental assistant part time and shadowing the same summer so I was so exhausted from those work/shadow days that I needed to relax the remaining of the day because I knew I was not able to get much studying done, and if I did, it would be small amount of content. Booster has great bio cheatsheets. I found that this service did prep me well enough to score that 19AA, but I have no doubt if I took what I know now, I could have scored really high by just this resource. (See attached #3 first attempt scores for motivation 😛)
2. Second Attempt(470AA/500TS/440PAT): I had 6 days paused on my membership and decided to use this strategically. I will mention this again in my pro tips section, but the way I scheduled my DAT was to ensure that I had like about 7-10 days before my DAT prep to just go back and utilize Booster's PT again. After I finished BC's PT #1-10, I came to booster and started off with one day each PT #6-10 Bio, PT #6-10 GC, PT #6-10 Orgo. I decided on PT #6-10 because I figured those would be the most up to date/representative and didn't want to overcompensate on my ability to get more done. I was scoring really well on my retakes on PT #6-10 (See #2 attached). If you are using booster, I would suggest following that schedule planner and doing every bio bites, q-bank you can. Redo them if you need too.

DAT Bootcamp:

1. First Attempt: N/A
2. Second Attempt: Loved it. I bought the 6 month plan because at this time I did not know when I wanted to take it, but I knew I wanted to take it nice and slow to make sure my second attempt was better. I knew I had it in me to score higher than my first attempt, so I took everything I learned from booster, and started scratch from the beginning (learning phase) on bootcamp. They have this really nice schedule planner where you can pick your test date and it tells you what to do each day, and you can reshuffle it / take break days. This is super important because studying for the DAT, you have no idea what can come up that might disrupt your study day, or sometimes you just need a mental day. I did everything in the schedule, and don't be afraid to shift it around, I loved moving tasks and making hard and easy days back to back to help reward myself. I did everything on the schedule, including watching the videos, quiz questions, bites, q-banks, etc. The only exception to this is during the bio section, the first ~10 chapters I decided to read the HY notes in substitution for the bio videos to help me get through the content faster. Dr. Mike is such an amazing person, learning gen chem and orgo with him is so entertaining and he made the whole subscription worth it in just these two sections. Be honest with yourself and make sure you are actually understanding the material, this was my second attempt so I was already picking stuff up I learned from booster. I seen people redo the q-banks, I recommend this (see pro tips) only if you have extra time but I only did the entire bio bites and q-bank once, but I made sure I understood almost every question before moving on. (See attached #1 for PT scores)

Anki Decks:

1. First Attempt: I gave it a try using boosters anki decks about 3 weeks before my test, and wasn't able to keep it up so I left it in the dust. But I do recommend trying this, it will help you keep info stored in your brain. I also bought the 8bitdo remote and found it helpful, I just wasn't able to keep it up and prioritized other things.
2. Second Attempt: I decided to give it a try again, I definitely used it more than my first attempt but it didn't stick so I dropped it. This time I used BC's decks. Both decks have some cards that are super low yield, you never seen in the videos before but if you want to get used to anki, I would recommend suspending the low yield cards, it will save you a small headache and focus your learning on more HY material.

Booster Crash Course IV

1. First Attempt: N/A
2. Second Attempt: I was lurking on reddit and met someone who did well on the bio section and they attributed it to these crash courses. I do think it's worth the $125, but I would only recommend the IV one as it goes over the latest test representative material and there's a **** ton of practice questions they test you on, so it serves as another bio PT but on crack. I decided to ball out even though I dropped a pretty penny on prep material overall, but it was so worth it. I also saw a few concepts appear on my DAT that was covered in the crash course. In the moment, no one wants the spend the extra $, but looking back at it now, even if you're able to increase your scores by a little bit by investing in yourself, it is so worth it.

ADEA Official Practice Test

1. First Attempt: N/A
2. Second Attempt: I used the full length practice test just as another resource to help me prepare for my exam two days before my official DAT. I would say it is super helpful and it helped get my brain used to the format. I would only recommend doing the sciences as those questions are representative of how they will be asked on the real exam, and I believe it is ~$20 per section.

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Score Breakdown:

Subsection Scores	1st Attempt Date: 08/21/2024 (Scores received instantly)	2nd Attempt Date: 06/17/2025 Score Received: 07/01/2025
AA	19	470 (23)
TS	19	500 (24)
PAT	19	440 (20.5)
Bio	18	500 (25)
Gen Chem	17	450 (21.5)
Orgo	21	540 (26.5)
RC	19	430 (22)
QR	18	440 (20.5)

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Study Timeline:

1. First Attempt:

• Note: I started studying the summer before junior year began and I would recommend this if you can nail it because it pays to have orgo fresh in your head (assuming traditional student) and get the DAT out of the way so you can prep your application and everything and plan to apply as early as possible. Unfortunately, although I had good intentions and mindset, my execution could have been better and I could have saved a bunch of money and time had I just locked in properly my first time.
• End of May 2024 - August 2024: Followed 12 week plan, shuffled schedule around but pretty self explanatory. If anyone wants to know more about my first attempt plan, I'll respond in DMs or comments, but I want to spend more time on my higher attempt.

1. Second Attempt:

• February 2025 - May 2025: I picked up my studying towards end of Feb. by mainly using the new schedule planner (I'm telling you, its sooo good). I had to shuffle around here and there, but balancing two part time jobs (~20 hours/week), a full time course load (15 credits), I was only able to do like a good ~4-5 hours a day but my weeks varied a lot and I prioritized my classes, which I can say proudly earning a 4.0. There's no magic sauce here, I was realistic (even though I felt like I was pushing my limits). I knew how much I could handle, and sometimes I needed a few days off to focus on a big exam day, but I would pick it right back up soon after. Up until ~May 20, 2025 I was wrapping up my learning phase and prepping for testing phase.
• May 2025: This was when I decided to schedule my test, the earliest was 6/17 that would accommodate my current schedule + I felt like I could be ready by then. The most importantthing I did here was give myself a ~7-10 day buffer before my exam date. I set my DAT BC schedule exam date earlier so I could be done with my PTs and have enough time to review my weakest content and then switch to booster for extra practice. I am so glad I did this because it gave me room to breathe and I wasn't as stressed leading up to my exam because I knew I did everything BC had to offer and everything I'm doing now was just extra reinforcement.
  • If there was one thing I would do again (if time permits), before starting your practice test phase, know that everything you have learned up until this point will be covered on the PTs. The PTs are the real deal, treat them serious and they will reward you on test day. I would set 1 week aside to review the entire Bio, GC, Orgo chapters and remind yourself on those concepts one final time before you begin your PTs. Then you will really know if the mistakes you get wrong were "silly mistakes" vs knowledge gaps.
• June 2025:I followed the planner, and something it recommended was taking the first 5 PTs as individuals rather than full lengths. I'm actually really glad I did this because it got me used to the testing format again, reminded me how questions were asked, and helped me with individual section timing. (Although for GC, I allotted myself ~5 minutes more because this was my most time consuming subject). Then I followed it with 5 FL PT's. I reviewed each one. You can see my QR and RC scores were kinda lacking, but I'm telling you, BC's RC and QR are no joke. I would run out of time each PT on the RC section and the QR were wild cards.. some questions had like <20% correct. I also did about 4 more PT individuals #11 and #12 sections for PAT, RC, and QR to help keep that fresh towards the end.
  • The week leading to my exam, after I was finished with BC, I switched to Booster. I did individual sections PT #6-10 for Bio, GC, and Orgo and I sprinkled 2 more QR tests. I scored higher on Boosters QR than BC which boosted my confidence. But for the Booster PT, I was scoring really high on all sections, like I was comfortably hitting 500+ on the sciences and I was so confident that I was prepared and my studying would pay off. I don't remember if I did PT #1-5 individually too, but I definitely remember skimming through the science questions, spamming any last content in my brain for short term memory. Honestly, when it's exam day, the little things you try to remember few days before the real deal goes out the window the second you sit in that chair and put on those headphones that feels like someone is gripping your head.

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Section Details/Exam Experience
First Attempt: (19AA/19TS/19 PAT) (Brief, unless people want more deets)

• Bio (19): This section was so ass. I remember being so 50/50 on the questions, I was scared going into the next section and right then and there started tweaking questioning why did I even study 3 months for.
• GC (17): I think the questions were okay, but I remember I got a really easy lab safety question wrong because I changed my answer with like 2 seconds left on the science section clock. I also spent too much time trying to figure out what 0.0002/2000 was on one of my calculation questions. This section I feel like I could have recevied a 20, but those two easier questions literally sealed my 17 because of how "easy" they were compared to the others. Also if you are reading this and are confused, the DAT punishes you more if you get "easier" questions wrong compared to harder ones. An example of this is, if 95% of the people got the question right but you didn't, you'd be more punished than compared to if only 50% of the people got the question right.
• OC (21): 21 is a pretty solid score, so I was happy but I thought I did better. Maybe a few questions threw me off but I was disappointed because I knew this was my stronger section and it was the only thing really boosting my AA.
• PAT (19): I really enjoyed the PAT, I scored lower on the real deal because of how stumped I was by the UI for the HP. Booster has really nice designs and UI for how they present the PAT, but the actual test one for me was so much more difficult and it just ate my time up.
• RC (19): Gods plan. I hate RC, I like taking my time reading things. I believe I used the BYU method. I recommend his if you don't feel comfortable trusting your life with SnD or are a slower reader to do passive.
• QR (18): I honestly thought I did a lot better here. I would just really practice the types of questions again and again.

Second Attempt: (470AA/500TS/440PAT)
Okay ladies and gents, this is what you want.

• Bio (500): I genuinely was taking this test with a huge smile on my face, I was trying to be humble but I was so happy I put so much work into my retake because each Bio question I was getting, I either saw it before (in some type of way) or I was able to reason out. I did get two very low yield questions but I do believe I selected the right options. They were questions that were never present in any of the resources I used to study. I genuinely think I only got 2 questions wrong on this section. One of the questions was on the "easier" side and it dropped me a lot but I knew the other question was a tricky one. I went through the entire test after my exam and those were the only two flaws I could remember but I was happy regardless. For this section, definitely do all the bio bites, q-banks, and PTs. I think Booster is more representative here, so if you have a buddy, use them. But don't get me wrong, BC really helped me reinforce and lay down the foundation for my TS score. After you do all the PTs, make sure you truly understand each question even if it may seem low yield. There are so many topics and questions to choose, there's a reason the prep companies have those questions on the PTs... 😉
• GC (450): The questions here were good. I had super simple setup questions (hardly any hard level math you'd experience on the PTs on both booster or BC) but I had some odd ball GC questions. I'm lowkey mad bc I know this section I busted my ass off, and I made 2-3 really silly mistakes but it goes to show that if you're really prepared heading into it, you can afford those mistakes and not get a bad score. Make sure you study acid and base section, trends, etc. Everything you experience on the PTs, you should master if the problem was written in a different way or a variable was taken out.
• OC (540): This is what I'm talking about when I said I knew this was my stronger section and my first score didn't represent my potential. I ate this section's ass and left no crumbs. I was expecting a perfect score here, but tbf I got two university level questions where I had was presented the IR, C-NMR, H-NMR, mass spec, etc and I had to decipher the compound. This one question I was like there's two choices and I never seen this style of question in my PTs before. It's possible I chose the wrong answer for that question, but idc, I did great. I would really hone in on your acid base, and study each PT question because I think it's super representative. Also for future 2026 test takers, there is going to be an orgo section update (you can google it, I read about it).
• PAT (440): I'm telling you, I was having the time of my life during the sciences and that translated directly over to my PAT. I had SOOOO much free time I got bored half way through my PAT. I never double checked my cube counting but since I had so much time, I was literally double counting as I was getting the questions. In hindsight, this was little dumb of me because I could've focused on my weaker subjects (PF, TFE), and I was expecting higher for this section given the way I felt but a 440 is a solid PAT score. I was scoring around here during my practices too. I do have a big tip for cube counting (cc), you may be doing the tally method but what I learned from a fellow redditor was to make a horizontal line and count each cube and write the sides down in a horizontal line without needing to look down that much. It will save you soo much time, I promise you. For HP, I used lines of symmetry, for example when a paper would folder, I would draw a line on that crease mark and just reflect the dots. Everything else you need to just spam. I got really good at KH, and TFE. PF was my weakest.
• RC (430): Again, gods plan fr. You can see from my Bootcamp PTs, I struggled with reading, sometimes barely finishing or running out of time. On BC I was scoring poorly around 370s and sometimes 410s. But when I jumped to booster, I got like 460s. This section is all about luck. I did run out of time and luckily the last few questions I made educated guesses which I do think I got right but it was cutting it close. I forgot how many paragraphs my first two passages were but my last one was a CHUNKY 19 paragraph one, which is why I ran out of time but I was still able to answer all the questions. My advice for this would be to try out SnD, BYU, but what I did differently here and was I believe you should all do is practice reading more vanilla method. If it provides any comfort, I had about 1 minutes to answer the last 3-4 questions on RC and strategically guessed by skimming through the choices. I do think I got the majority if not all of those guesses right. You just have to really know, was it mentioned in the article and does the choice make sense.
• QR (440): I honestly thought I would need to retake my DAT after this section. Imagine reading about how well I think I did before the RC section, that momentum did not follow through with the entire exam. I was a little shaken up by how close I cut my RC section but knew I had to leave it in the past and move on. This section I had several questions with CHUNKY explanations. Bro the time it took me to read the question, I was already past the average time I needed to pace myself. Looking back on it, I should've stuck to my original plan which is to skip the question I wasn't confident on and come back but like I said, the small things you don't remember. I had to guess on the last 4-5 questions because I ran out of time but as I was guessing, I realized those were the "easier" ones compared to the ones I experienced in the PT before. I talked to a few students who took their DAT same day, we all shared the same time crunch experience with this section. My advice here would be to run through all the types of questions from your PTs, then approach this section with good time management and make sure you do the simpler ones first and leave the more complex ones for later.

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Pro Tips

• Traditional/Prospective pre-dental students, assuming you finished with your gen bio, gen chem and are wrapping up with orgo your sophomore spring, I would recommend locking in for the DAT that summer before junior year starts and getting it out of the way. Worst case scenario, if you don't get the score you wanted, you are in a position to schedule another test without it having a major impact to your application. Use that time to your advantage.
• When scheduling your DAT, this would be my advice
  • Schedule your DAT about 1 month before you plan to take it, ensuring that you will finish with your test prep by then. I would definitely recommend using either Booster or BC. Both are good and you can do great with either option.
  • After your learning phase, take one week off the schedule and revisit all your science sections for a quick refresher and your weaker QR topics before you start practice tests. The PTs should be treated seriously and your first attempt at those tests is what matters the most. You will feel much and feel more prepared taking the PTs.
  • Give yourself a few days before your DAT to finish with your DAT prep, and revisit some weaker topics one last time. I personally deleted reddit for a ~3 days before my exam because people were freaking out about the DAT. Just trust in your prep.
• Finally, be honest with yourself. I truly believe if I can make this big of a comeback, anyone can do it. Hard work really does pay off. You might not realize it now but after you take your DAT and get your dream score, you might remember this post as you write your own breakdown to pass the knowledge down.

This was a long breakdown, and I hope it reaches the people who need it the most. I will be uploading my PT scores from both BC and Booster (First and Latest attempts) and will be glad to respond to comments and DMs.

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