Hi everyone! I took the DAT recently and I just wanted to come on here and post a little breakdown because other people’s breakdowns helped me through the process of taking the DAT immensely 
First of all, I spent about 1 month fully studying, and did most of the studying in the last three weeks because I had some time off from school (I was taking a full course load so I did not have that much time to spend for the DAT). Looking back I would definitely recommend studying for a longer time (~2 months) so that the whole process is not as stressful. I didn’t end up using any of the premade schedules on booster or bootcamp because I did not have enough time, but I would recommend that if you are someone who likes to have a solid study plan. I primarily used DAT Booster and used DAT Bootcamp for a few of the sections.
My scores:
PAT:18
QR:19
RC:22
BIO:24
ORGO:24
GEN CHEM:19
TOTAL SCIENCE:22
TOTAL AA:22
PAT: For this section practice is key. I believe the reason I scored relatively low on the section was because I did not have enough time to do practice questions and build endurance. DAT booster is a great source to use for this section because it has questions that are a little harder than the actual DAT so it prepares you well, and helps you see patterns and learn quick tips. Personally for me, the cube counting, angle ranking, and hole punching sections were the easiest for me so on the DAT I started with these questions so I could maximize the number of questions I got right. The TFE and the keyhole sections were extremely difficult for me so I made educated guesses and made sure not to spend too much time on them. Overall, make sure you try to practice sections that are hard for you almost every day of your studying process.
QR: This section was the hardest academic section for me mostly because of the timing. I would also recommend practicing as much as you can for this section, and memorize the cheat sheet that they have on DAT booster. I did all the extra practice questions and the practice test questions on booster and then I reviewed the ones that I got wrong. Don’t get discouraged if you are scoring low on the practice tests for the booster because I found the questions on the booster much harder and was averaging a 16 at most on the practice exams.
BIO: Before even starting my DAT journey, I heard this section was the hardest one for a lot of people. I think this is because they test you on a wide variety of information, but I found the actual questions really straightforward. I started off by reading the feralis booster notes; however, I am a visual learner so I was not engaged with the information when I was reading through the packets. I then decided to use DAT bootcamp and watch the Biology videos they have (I really enjoyed how they were organized). I watched all of the videos and I took my own notes. After finishing all the videos, I spent about a week rereading my notes until I was able to memorize the information (make sure not to spend too much time on the small details as long as you are understanding the full picture).I also used the biobites on bootcamp just to see which topics I was struggling on. I then used booster and went through all the practice tests and extra questions. I can not stress this enough, booster does an amazing job with their biology practice content ( some of the questions on the DAT were super similar to the ones I encountered on booster). Overall, I would just recommend doing as much practice as you can, and making sure you understand the full picture.
ORGO: I did not spend a lot of time on this section because I had a pretty strong background from the college orgo classes that I took. For this section, I would recommend watching Dr.Mike's videos on bootcamp, and then doing as much practice as you can. The more practice you do, you will start recognizing the type of questions that they ask. I would strongly recommend going through and memorizing all the reactions (understanding the science behind them helps a lot even though you don’t need to know the mechanisms for all of them). Also, I would recommend understanding the foundational topics like acid/bases and stereochemistry really well.
RC: For this section I just did all the practice tests on the booster. The key in this section is finding a method that works for you, and making sure you are good at managing time. The good thing about this section is that there is little to no additional information you need to know before (everything that the questions asked are in the passage).
GEN CHEM: For this section, I started off by watching all the booster videos, and taking my own notes on them. Because it had been a while since I took a general chemistry class, I had to relearn a lot of the topics. After watching the videos, I went and did all the extra questions on the booster. I went through all the questions I got wrong and resolved them to make sure I understood how to do them. Then I did all the practice exams and reviewed the topics I was struggling on.
Overall, I think doing practice questions and relearning the areas I was weak in helped me a lot. I also wanted to add that I was scoring pretty low on the practice exams on booster (I was averaging 3-5 points lower than what I received on all the sections). In my opinion the actual exam questions were much simpler than the ones on the practice exams so please don’t get discouraged if this is happening to you. Good luck everyone!!
First of all, I spent about 1 month fully studying, and did most of the studying in the last three weeks because I had some time off from school (I was taking a full course load so I did not have that much time to spend for the DAT). Looking back I would definitely recommend studying for a longer time (~2 months) so that the whole process is not as stressful. I didn’t end up using any of the premade schedules on booster or bootcamp because I did not have enough time, but I would recommend that if you are someone who likes to have a solid study plan. I primarily used DAT Booster and used DAT Bootcamp for a few of the sections.
My scores:
PAT:18
QR:19
RC:22
BIO:24
ORGO:24
GEN CHEM:19
TOTAL SCIENCE:22
TOTAL AA:22
PAT: For this section practice is key. I believe the reason I scored relatively low on the section was because I did not have enough time to do practice questions and build endurance. DAT booster is a great source to use for this section because it has questions that are a little harder than the actual DAT so it prepares you well, and helps you see patterns and learn quick tips. Personally for me, the cube counting, angle ranking, and hole punching sections were the easiest for me so on the DAT I started with these questions so I could maximize the number of questions I got right. The TFE and the keyhole sections were extremely difficult for me so I made educated guesses and made sure not to spend too much time on them. Overall, make sure you try to practice sections that are hard for you almost every day of your studying process.
QR: This section was the hardest academic section for me mostly because of the timing. I would also recommend practicing as much as you can for this section, and memorize the cheat sheet that they have on DAT booster. I did all the extra practice questions and the practice test questions on booster and then I reviewed the ones that I got wrong. Don’t get discouraged if you are scoring low on the practice tests for the booster because I found the questions on the booster much harder and was averaging a 16 at most on the practice exams.
BIO: Before even starting my DAT journey, I heard this section was the hardest one for a lot of people. I think this is because they test you on a wide variety of information, but I found the actual questions really straightforward. I started off by reading the feralis booster notes; however, I am a visual learner so I was not engaged with the information when I was reading through the packets. I then decided to use DAT bootcamp and watch the Biology videos they have (I really enjoyed how they were organized). I watched all of the videos and I took my own notes. After finishing all the videos, I spent about a week rereading my notes until I was able to memorize the information (make sure not to spend too much time on the small details as long as you are understanding the full picture).I also used the biobites on bootcamp just to see which topics I was struggling on. I then used booster and went through all the practice tests and extra questions. I can not stress this enough, booster does an amazing job with their biology practice content ( some of the questions on the DAT were super similar to the ones I encountered on booster). Overall, I would just recommend doing as much practice as you can, and making sure you understand the full picture.
ORGO: I did not spend a lot of time on this section because I had a pretty strong background from the college orgo classes that I took. For this section, I would recommend watching Dr.Mike's videos on bootcamp, and then doing as much practice as you can. The more practice you do, you will start recognizing the type of questions that they ask. I would strongly recommend going through and memorizing all the reactions (understanding the science behind them helps a lot even though you don’t need to know the mechanisms for all of them). Also, I would recommend understanding the foundational topics like acid/bases and stereochemistry really well.
RC: For this section I just did all the practice tests on the booster. The key in this section is finding a method that works for you, and making sure you are good at managing time. The good thing about this section is that there is little to no additional information you need to know before (everything that the questions asked are in the passage).
GEN CHEM: For this section, I started off by watching all the booster videos, and taking my own notes on them. Because it had been a while since I took a general chemistry class, I had to relearn a lot of the topics. After watching the videos, I went and did all the extra questions on the booster. I went through all the questions I got wrong and resolved them to make sure I understood how to do them. Then I did all the practice exams and reviewed the topics I was struggling on.
Overall, I think doing practice questions and relearning the areas I was weak in helped me a lot. I also wanted to add that I was scoring pretty low on the practice exams on booster (I was averaging 3-5 points lower than what I received on all the sections). In my opinion the actual exam questions were much simpler than the ones on the practice exams so please don’t get discouraged if this is happening to you. Good luck everyone!!