anonymousstudent1
Full Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2022
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 15
DAT Score Breakdown (06/21/22)
Background:
Hi everyone! I just took my DAT on June 21st and scored a 26 AA, so I wanted to do a breakdown for you guys to help in your studying. All my content learning/material review was done through DATBootcamp, but I also bought DATBooster for 1 month and used it for their practice exams. I started studying at the end of spring break of my junior year (March 19th), so I studied for almost exactly 3 months. I believe this is a good amount of time to study, however, it can also be done in about 2.5 months as I found myself to just get anxious and wanting to get it over with in the last 2 weeks.
I strictly followed Ari’s 2 month plan for about the first month but started falling behind when my college finals began. I also delayed taking some of the individual sections because I did not think I was ready and wanted to review material first. I am the type of person to forget material quickly and have to constantly review it in order to remember. After finals, I went back to Ari’s schedule and followed it diligently, including taking a full practice exam every other day. In total, I took the first 5 practice tests as individual sections and the last 5 as full practice exams.
After I finished DATBootcamp, I still had around a month left so I began looking for more resources. I constantly read about how good DATBooster practice tests are so I decided to buy the 1 month plan. I am so grateful that I made this decision. I believe that getting DATBooster is what really helped me take that extra leap. The difficulty and accuracy of their practice exams to the real DAT is unmatched. During the span of the last month before my exam, I took 1-3 individual practice sections every other day and full practice exams during the days in-between. In total, I took the first 4 practice tests as individual sections and the last 6 as full practice exams.
I don’t have access to DATBootcamp anymore but I averaged around a 20-22 AA and 19-20 PAT. I have attached my DATBooster practice tests 5-10 to this post.
During the last 5 days, I took the 2007 & 2009 DAT sample tests. I only did the biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and quantitative reasonings of each test. I got around 19-22 on all the sections.
Overall, I believe that taking 11 full practice exams from DATBootcamp & DATBooster is what helped me the most. I don’t think you need to take the 2007 & 2009 DAT sample tests because it is outdated and not very representative of the current DAT.
Biology (26):
I watched every DATBootcamp biology video at 1.5x speed and had the slides downloaded although I did not take any notes. I just think it helped me follow along better. After each video, I would immediately do the BioBites and then the Question Bank right after. I would mark the questions I missed as red. The day after, I would retake both of them and if I got it right, I would switch them to yellow. I kept these questions yellow even if I got them right in order to keep refreshing my knowledge. This was great for content review. However, I believe that DATBooster had more accurate practice exams as DATBootcamp’s was a little too specific. I just kept reviewing as much as I could. I would recommend focusing the most on heredity, genetics, and all the anatomy sections.
(Side Note: I tried to use Anki and Quizlet but stopped after a day because it was so draining 🙁. I preferred BioBites because of the multiple choice options so it wasn’t as exhausting)
General Chemistry (26):
I watched every one of Dr. Mike’s videos and loved his energy. He is often repetitive but that is what helped me the most as he emphasized the most important things to remember. It is crucial to remember all the rules (solubility, periodic table, molecular geometry, etc.) and the exceptions to them. I did the question bank two times and made sure to understand as much as I could. Not going to lie, I did not fully understand some of the material like molar solubility/using the correct ICE table, but getting the general concepts is what helps the most. The practice exams for both DATBootcamp & DATBooster are similar and both great! I would recommend focusing the most on acid/base, kinetics, redox, and periodic table trends.
Organic Chemistry (30):
Just like general chemistry, I watched all of Dr. Mike’s videos but thought just doing practice was more effective. In the videos, he only goes over the general concepts and not much practice so it is essential to apply that knowledge. I did most of the reaction bites and all of the question banks. Make sure you know mechanisms and not just the products behind each reaction. Once you start finding patterns, everything will come together. Once again, the practice exams for both DATBootcamp & DATBooster are similar and both very useful. I would recommend focusing the most on aromatics, reaction mechanisms, resonance, and IM forces & lab techniques.
PAT (21):
I put a good amount of time into this section but just could not get the hang of it. I would always be between two answer choice and end up choosing the wrong one. I think each resource had its pros and cons. I think DATBootcamp had better keyholes and TFE, while DATBooster had better pattern folding. The angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching were pretty similar for both. For angle ranking, I think that DATBootcamp was a little too hard but DATBooster was a little too easy compared to the real DAT. Once you learn the general patterns behind hole punching and cube counting, you should be getting or close to getting 15/15 every time. Just keep practicing the other sections and you should be fine! What killed me the most was time, especially during the actual DAT because the lag was the worst on this section (I guess because the figures can be complex for the computer to process). I had like 5 seconds of lag after each question.
Reading Comprehension (22):
I only practiced this section while taking the practice exams/individual sections. My strategy was simply search & destroy in the beginning, but I transitioned to quickly reading the first few sentences of each paragraph and highlighting important details to get a main idea of the passage. I think this helped a lot because I could generally recall what part of the passage the question referred to. I think both the question types and passage difficulty was the most similar to DATBooster.
Quantitative Reasoning (27):
I enjoy math so I just did every question from the question banks in DATBootcamp and took the practice tests for them. I got more of the “which value is larger?” and “the two statement questions” than I thought I would, but with practice these were pretty easy. Contrary to what most people have said, I actually thought that the 2007 DAT QR was really similar (besides not having the two question types I mentioned above). I would recommend focusing the most on the those two types of questions, ratios, probability, and dilution questions.
Conclusion:
If you can afford it, I believe that using DATBootcamp for the initial learning and then DATBooster for the practice exams at the end is the way to go. Each one has its benefits and combining both of them will allow you to get a great score!
You can do it! You don’t have to study 6-8 hours a day. If you feel exhausted, take a break. Go on a walk, eat a snack, watch a YouTube video, and then continue. Do not force yourself to have to study that long just because you want to meet that threshold. Stop for the day if you are too tired because it you overwork yourself for the day, it will affect your ability and motivation the next day.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this really long breakdown, but I hope that it helps in your studies! Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or to PM me!
Background:
Hi everyone! I just took my DAT on June 21st and scored a 26 AA, so I wanted to do a breakdown for you guys to help in your studying. All my content learning/material review was done through DATBootcamp, but I also bought DATBooster for 1 month and used it for their practice exams. I started studying at the end of spring break of my junior year (March 19th), so I studied for almost exactly 3 months. I believe this is a good amount of time to study, however, it can also be done in about 2.5 months as I found myself to just get anxious and wanting to get it over with in the last 2 weeks.
I strictly followed Ari’s 2 month plan for about the first month but started falling behind when my college finals began. I also delayed taking some of the individual sections because I did not think I was ready and wanted to review material first. I am the type of person to forget material quickly and have to constantly review it in order to remember. After finals, I went back to Ari’s schedule and followed it diligently, including taking a full practice exam every other day. In total, I took the first 5 practice tests as individual sections and the last 5 as full practice exams.
After I finished DATBootcamp, I still had around a month left so I began looking for more resources. I constantly read about how good DATBooster practice tests are so I decided to buy the 1 month plan. I am so grateful that I made this decision. I believe that getting DATBooster is what really helped me take that extra leap. The difficulty and accuracy of their practice exams to the real DAT is unmatched. During the span of the last month before my exam, I took 1-3 individual practice sections every other day and full practice exams during the days in-between. In total, I took the first 4 practice tests as individual sections and the last 6 as full practice exams.
I don’t have access to DATBootcamp anymore but I averaged around a 20-22 AA and 19-20 PAT. I have attached my DATBooster practice tests 5-10 to this post.
During the last 5 days, I took the 2007 & 2009 DAT sample tests. I only did the biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, and quantitative reasonings of each test. I got around 19-22 on all the sections.
Overall, I believe that taking 11 full practice exams from DATBootcamp & DATBooster is what helped me the most. I don’t think you need to take the 2007 & 2009 DAT sample tests because it is outdated and not very representative of the current DAT.
Biology (26):
I watched every DATBootcamp biology video at 1.5x speed and had the slides downloaded although I did not take any notes. I just think it helped me follow along better. After each video, I would immediately do the BioBites and then the Question Bank right after. I would mark the questions I missed as red. The day after, I would retake both of them and if I got it right, I would switch them to yellow. I kept these questions yellow even if I got them right in order to keep refreshing my knowledge. This was great for content review. However, I believe that DATBooster had more accurate practice exams as DATBootcamp’s was a little too specific. I just kept reviewing as much as I could. I would recommend focusing the most on heredity, genetics, and all the anatomy sections.
(Side Note: I tried to use Anki and Quizlet but stopped after a day because it was so draining 🙁. I preferred BioBites because of the multiple choice options so it wasn’t as exhausting)
General Chemistry (26):
I watched every one of Dr. Mike’s videos and loved his energy. He is often repetitive but that is what helped me the most as he emphasized the most important things to remember. It is crucial to remember all the rules (solubility, periodic table, molecular geometry, etc.) and the exceptions to them. I did the question bank two times and made sure to understand as much as I could. Not going to lie, I did not fully understand some of the material like molar solubility/using the correct ICE table, but getting the general concepts is what helps the most. The practice exams for both DATBootcamp & DATBooster are similar and both great! I would recommend focusing the most on acid/base, kinetics, redox, and periodic table trends.
Organic Chemistry (30):
Just like general chemistry, I watched all of Dr. Mike’s videos but thought just doing practice was more effective. In the videos, he only goes over the general concepts and not much practice so it is essential to apply that knowledge. I did most of the reaction bites and all of the question banks. Make sure you know mechanisms and not just the products behind each reaction. Once you start finding patterns, everything will come together. Once again, the practice exams for both DATBootcamp & DATBooster are similar and both very useful. I would recommend focusing the most on aromatics, reaction mechanisms, resonance, and IM forces & lab techniques.
PAT (21):
I put a good amount of time into this section but just could not get the hang of it. I would always be between two answer choice and end up choosing the wrong one. I think each resource had its pros and cons. I think DATBootcamp had better keyholes and TFE, while DATBooster had better pattern folding. The angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching were pretty similar for both. For angle ranking, I think that DATBootcamp was a little too hard but DATBooster was a little too easy compared to the real DAT. Once you learn the general patterns behind hole punching and cube counting, you should be getting or close to getting 15/15 every time. Just keep practicing the other sections and you should be fine! What killed me the most was time, especially during the actual DAT because the lag was the worst on this section (I guess because the figures can be complex for the computer to process). I had like 5 seconds of lag after each question.
Reading Comprehension (22):
I only practiced this section while taking the practice exams/individual sections. My strategy was simply search & destroy in the beginning, but I transitioned to quickly reading the first few sentences of each paragraph and highlighting important details to get a main idea of the passage. I think this helped a lot because I could generally recall what part of the passage the question referred to. I think both the question types and passage difficulty was the most similar to DATBooster.
Quantitative Reasoning (27):
I enjoy math so I just did every question from the question banks in DATBootcamp and took the practice tests for them. I got more of the “which value is larger?” and “the two statement questions” than I thought I would, but with practice these were pretty easy. Contrary to what most people have said, I actually thought that the 2007 DAT QR was really similar (besides not having the two question types I mentioned above). I would recommend focusing the most on the those two types of questions, ratios, probability, and dilution questions.
Conclusion:
If you can afford it, I believe that using DATBootcamp for the initial learning and then DATBooster for the practice exams at the end is the way to go. Each one has its benefits and combining both of them will allow you to get a great score!
You can do it! You don’t have to study 6-8 hours a day. If you feel exhausted, take a break. Go on a walk, eat a snack, watch a YouTube video, and then continue. Do not force yourself to have to study that long just because you want to meet that threshold. Stop for the day if you are too tired because it you overwork yourself for the day, it will affect your ability and motivation the next day.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this really long breakdown, but I hope that it helps in your studies! Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or to PM me!
