Serotonin_1223
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Hello! I recently took my DAT in August 2024, and I wanted to do a score breakdown & explain how I studied for each section for anyone who is currently or going to study for the DAT soon. Hopefully this helps!
Score overview:
PAT - 25
QR - 30
RC - 26
BIO - 30
GC - 26
OC - 30
TS - 30
AA - 28
Background:
I took this exam in the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I studied for around 3 months (starting in early May and taking the exam in mid-August). Before these three months, I signed up for the DAT Q of the Day subscription. I occasionally did those questions whenever I could, but, to be honest, I don’t think it made a huge difference in my knowledge since I wasn’t intensively trying to learn the material in those questions.
During these three months, the only subscription I bought was DAT Bootcamp (I also ended up purchasing the additional 5 full practice exams at the end because I had some extra space in my schedule - I will go more in-depth about what I thought of those exams later). Besides DAT Bootcamp, I found any available free practice exams. Many other popular subscriptions (like Kaplan, Princeton Review, DAT Booster, etc.) offer free first practice exams, so if you have extra time, I highly recommend also taking those exams as “pre-tests” before taking DAT Bootcamp exams to gauge where your knowledge is.
For scheduling, I used Ari’s 2.5-month schedule and also adjusted it to my schedule. I worked 1.5 jobs during the summer, so there were some days of the week when I couldn’t study at all or only a bit, so I had to balance out those differences for each day of the week. I highly recommend taking those rest days though. It can be exhausting to study intensively for 3 months and getting burnt out is the worst. So, take care of your mental health!! Usually, the most I will do during break days is just do the Q of the Day in Bootcamp or scroll through Anki cards. I also took practice exams every week since the first week. I found it helpful to get used to the exam environment as early as possible.
PAT - 25 (Bootcamp predicted - 24)
During the exam, I found PAT to be the hardest for me (especially keyhole questions), but I kind of went into the exam knowing that PAT would be a wildcard section. For studying, I tried to do 15Q for each section (30Q for angles) daily using the Bootcamp practice questions and generators. Practice is truly the only way to get better at this section, so just stay consistent with doing the questions! I also watched the lesson videos in Bootcamp, but the best way to learn is just trial & error by doing the questions and figuring out which strategies/methods work best for you. For time management, I often found myself leaving around 5 minutes to review. I know some people recommend skipping around sections to the easier sections first to avoid running out of time, but, I found it a bit of a time waste having to jump through the questions due to the time lag. I did the subjects in order (~35 min for Keyhole, TFE, & Angles; ~20 min for Hole Punching, Cube Counting, & Pattern Folding; ~5 min for review). This was how I would usually keep track of my time when I was taking the exam.
QR - 30 (Predicted - 24)
The hardest part about this section is the time limit. The last time I took any math class was in high school, but, luckily, the general content of the QR section wasn’t too difficult to relearn. I didn’t watch every lesson video for this section, because it was my lowest priority section in terms of content. I just did the practice questions and watched the videos if there was a specific subject I was struggling with. However, as I mentioned earlier, the hardest challenge was time management. I highly recommend timing yourself (like 10 questions in 6 mins, 20 in 15min, etc.) and building yourself up to 40 questions at a time to get the hang of the pressure. Something that helped with time management was giving myself just 30 seconds to answer the questions, and if it took longer than that I would simply move on. I also tried to solve the questions as fast as I could and rechecked them when I had time later.
Another annoying part about the DAT exam is the time lag between navigating the questions. To avoid wasting my time, I wrote down a list of questions on my whiteboard/scrap paper of “Must return” Q’s for questions I guessed or was struggling with so I could prioritize those when I was reviewing. Any other questions that I just wanted to come back to recheck my work, I used the “Marked” feature.
By using this method, I would usually leave myself 20 minutes in the QR section after going through all the questions to review and return to any difficult questions.
RC - 26 (Predicted - 25)
This was one of the sections I was worried about the most because it was also another wildcard section. When I was doing the practice Q’s, I realized that my performance varied a lot based on the passages that I had to read. Since English is also not my first language, I always struggled with reading comprehension growing up, so that was also a concern. However, I thought the questions on the actual exam were a lot more straightforward than the Bootcamp questions. The difficulty of the passages was relatively around the same though. Something that did throw me off during the exam was that questions were not evenly distributed between the three passages. One passage had up to 19 questions, while another had only 10. I’m not sure if that’s the same for other exams, but just keep in mind that it can be more than 16-17 questions per section.
When I was first studying this section, I used the Search & Destroy method, but I soon realized that it was not the best method for me. While the S&D method is quick, it doesn’t do the best to help you understand the bigger picture of the passage. What ended up working for me was I would read the first 2-3 paragraphs in-depth, read the first two sentences of all the middle paragraphs, and read the concluding paragraph in-depth. I would also highlight the topic sentences of each paragraph so that it was easier to find.
For time management, I stuck to 20 minutes/passage when preparing, but, as mentioned earlier, I was a bit thrown off since the question distribution was uneven. However, I would still try to stick with the 20min/passage time limit. Similar to QR, the time limit was challenging, and used the same strategy.
BIO - 30 (Predicted: 23)
Biology was the easiest section on the actual exam for me. Bootcamp did an amazing job preparing you for this section (I saw multiple questions on the exam that were identical or nearly identical to the Bootcamp exam questions). Bootcamp questions were more specific, but it’s good preparation. Since I hadn’t taken general biology since high school, there was a lot of content that I had to relearn or never learned, so I watched every lesson video and read the pdf for Biology. I also did all the practice Q’s and Bio Bites (and reviewed them during the last few weeks before the exam). I also went through all the Anki decks. I have mixed feelings about Anki since it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of cards you have to review daily. Whenever I missed one day, the cards would pile up so quickly, so I would often find myself just cramming at the last minute. Also, some of the Anki decks are vague/have no context, so I realized sometimes I would only memorize based on how the cards looked instead of the actual content. However, Anki decks were very convenient to access, so I would do Anki whenever I had spare time during the day. If you are in a time crunch studying for the Bio sections I would prioritize the material this way: Practice exam > Bio Bites/Practice Q’s > Anki.
GC - 26 (Predicted: 24)
GC was also fairly easy on the actual exam. Bootcamp also did a great job with the practice questions (they were all very similar questions). The only GC background I have is from AP Chem in high school, so it’s been several years since I’ve solved GC questions. Similar to the biology section, I watched all the lesson videos & did the practice questions. It can feel overwhelming when looking at the equations sheet, but it’s more important to understand the concept rather than memorize the actual equation. I also did the Anki cards, but I ended up just making my own that was more tailored to my weak points.
OC - 30 (Predicted: 22)
When studying for OC, I struggled on it the most because of the amount of content/”exceptions” you have to know. I took OC during my freshmen year (and I did pretty well), so I was expecting to not worry too much about this section, but I found myself missing the little details. I did not watch all the videos, but I did look over the video notes for sections that I was struggling with to save myself some time. Also, the mechanism pdf was super helpful. I tried to memorize the entire document and added any additional notes/details to it that I learned from the practice questions. I also found some Quizlets with just the mechanisms and practiced those. The Reaction Bites were also very helpful - I reviewed it multiple times to keep refreshing the content.
AA - 28 (Predicted: 24-25)
Overall, Bootcamp does more than enough to prepare you for the DAT. When taking these practice exams, don’t feel discouraged since Bootcamp exams are generally a bit harder.
General advice:
During the last three weeks of studying, I took 2 practice exams per week instead of 1, so I ended up needing more practice exams. I purchased Bootcamp five additional practice tests. Overall, these exams were so much harder, especially the QR section. So, if you are hoping to save some money, I don’t think these extra exams are going to significantly improve your score, but if you are looking for extra practice exams, I would take the additional exams after your fifth practice exam and save Practice Exams 6-10 for last. This will probably help you get a more accurate representation of your progress (I took these extra exams at the end, and I was stressed because my performance was not improving). Also, my predicted scores above are without taking the extra practice exams into account. If I were to consider these, my predicted score was around 23-24 AA.
Good luck to everyone studying! Please take care of yourself - you got this!! Feel free to ask any questions
Score overview:
PAT - 25
QR - 30
RC - 26
BIO - 30
GC - 26
OC - 30
TS - 30
AA - 28
Background:
I took this exam in the summer between my sophomore and junior year. I studied for around 3 months (starting in early May and taking the exam in mid-August). Before these three months, I signed up for the DAT Q of the Day subscription. I occasionally did those questions whenever I could, but, to be honest, I don’t think it made a huge difference in my knowledge since I wasn’t intensively trying to learn the material in those questions.
During these three months, the only subscription I bought was DAT Bootcamp (I also ended up purchasing the additional 5 full practice exams at the end because I had some extra space in my schedule - I will go more in-depth about what I thought of those exams later). Besides DAT Bootcamp, I found any available free practice exams. Many other popular subscriptions (like Kaplan, Princeton Review, DAT Booster, etc.) offer free first practice exams, so if you have extra time, I highly recommend also taking those exams as “pre-tests” before taking DAT Bootcamp exams to gauge where your knowledge is.
For scheduling, I used Ari’s 2.5-month schedule and also adjusted it to my schedule. I worked 1.5 jobs during the summer, so there were some days of the week when I couldn’t study at all or only a bit, so I had to balance out those differences for each day of the week. I highly recommend taking those rest days though. It can be exhausting to study intensively for 3 months and getting burnt out is the worst. So, take care of your mental health!! Usually, the most I will do during break days is just do the Q of the Day in Bootcamp or scroll through Anki cards. I also took practice exams every week since the first week. I found it helpful to get used to the exam environment as early as possible.
PAT - 25 (Bootcamp predicted - 24)
During the exam, I found PAT to be the hardest for me (especially keyhole questions), but I kind of went into the exam knowing that PAT would be a wildcard section. For studying, I tried to do 15Q for each section (30Q for angles) daily using the Bootcamp practice questions and generators. Practice is truly the only way to get better at this section, so just stay consistent with doing the questions! I also watched the lesson videos in Bootcamp, but the best way to learn is just trial & error by doing the questions and figuring out which strategies/methods work best for you. For time management, I often found myself leaving around 5 minutes to review. I know some people recommend skipping around sections to the easier sections first to avoid running out of time, but, I found it a bit of a time waste having to jump through the questions due to the time lag. I did the subjects in order (~35 min for Keyhole, TFE, & Angles; ~20 min for Hole Punching, Cube Counting, & Pattern Folding; ~5 min for review). This was how I would usually keep track of my time when I was taking the exam.
QR - 30 (Predicted - 24)
The hardest part about this section is the time limit. The last time I took any math class was in high school, but, luckily, the general content of the QR section wasn’t too difficult to relearn. I didn’t watch every lesson video for this section, because it was my lowest priority section in terms of content. I just did the practice questions and watched the videos if there was a specific subject I was struggling with. However, as I mentioned earlier, the hardest challenge was time management. I highly recommend timing yourself (like 10 questions in 6 mins, 20 in 15min, etc.) and building yourself up to 40 questions at a time to get the hang of the pressure. Something that helped with time management was giving myself just 30 seconds to answer the questions, and if it took longer than that I would simply move on. I also tried to solve the questions as fast as I could and rechecked them when I had time later.
Another annoying part about the DAT exam is the time lag between navigating the questions. To avoid wasting my time, I wrote down a list of questions on my whiteboard/scrap paper of “Must return” Q’s for questions I guessed or was struggling with so I could prioritize those when I was reviewing. Any other questions that I just wanted to come back to recheck my work, I used the “Marked” feature.
By using this method, I would usually leave myself 20 minutes in the QR section after going through all the questions to review and return to any difficult questions.
RC - 26 (Predicted - 25)
This was one of the sections I was worried about the most because it was also another wildcard section. When I was doing the practice Q’s, I realized that my performance varied a lot based on the passages that I had to read. Since English is also not my first language, I always struggled with reading comprehension growing up, so that was also a concern. However, I thought the questions on the actual exam were a lot more straightforward than the Bootcamp questions. The difficulty of the passages was relatively around the same though. Something that did throw me off during the exam was that questions were not evenly distributed between the three passages. One passage had up to 19 questions, while another had only 10. I’m not sure if that’s the same for other exams, but just keep in mind that it can be more than 16-17 questions per section.
When I was first studying this section, I used the Search & Destroy method, but I soon realized that it was not the best method for me. While the S&D method is quick, it doesn’t do the best to help you understand the bigger picture of the passage. What ended up working for me was I would read the first 2-3 paragraphs in-depth, read the first two sentences of all the middle paragraphs, and read the concluding paragraph in-depth. I would also highlight the topic sentences of each paragraph so that it was easier to find.
For time management, I stuck to 20 minutes/passage when preparing, but, as mentioned earlier, I was a bit thrown off since the question distribution was uneven. However, I would still try to stick with the 20min/passage time limit. Similar to QR, the time limit was challenging, and used the same strategy.
BIO - 30 (Predicted: 23)
Biology was the easiest section on the actual exam for me. Bootcamp did an amazing job preparing you for this section (I saw multiple questions on the exam that were identical or nearly identical to the Bootcamp exam questions). Bootcamp questions were more specific, but it’s good preparation. Since I hadn’t taken general biology since high school, there was a lot of content that I had to relearn or never learned, so I watched every lesson video and read the pdf for Biology. I also did all the practice Q’s and Bio Bites (and reviewed them during the last few weeks before the exam). I also went through all the Anki decks. I have mixed feelings about Anki since it’s really easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of cards you have to review daily. Whenever I missed one day, the cards would pile up so quickly, so I would often find myself just cramming at the last minute. Also, some of the Anki decks are vague/have no context, so I realized sometimes I would only memorize based on how the cards looked instead of the actual content. However, Anki decks were very convenient to access, so I would do Anki whenever I had spare time during the day. If you are in a time crunch studying for the Bio sections I would prioritize the material this way: Practice exam > Bio Bites/Practice Q’s > Anki.
GC - 26 (Predicted: 24)
GC was also fairly easy on the actual exam. Bootcamp also did a great job with the practice questions (they were all very similar questions). The only GC background I have is from AP Chem in high school, so it’s been several years since I’ve solved GC questions. Similar to the biology section, I watched all the lesson videos & did the practice questions. It can feel overwhelming when looking at the equations sheet, but it’s more important to understand the concept rather than memorize the actual equation. I also did the Anki cards, but I ended up just making my own that was more tailored to my weak points.
OC - 30 (Predicted: 22)
When studying for OC, I struggled on it the most because of the amount of content/”exceptions” you have to know. I took OC during my freshmen year (and I did pretty well), so I was expecting to not worry too much about this section, but I found myself missing the little details. I did not watch all the videos, but I did look over the video notes for sections that I was struggling with to save myself some time. Also, the mechanism pdf was super helpful. I tried to memorize the entire document and added any additional notes/details to it that I learned from the practice questions. I also found some Quizlets with just the mechanisms and practiced those. The Reaction Bites were also very helpful - I reviewed it multiple times to keep refreshing the content.
AA - 28 (Predicted: 24-25)
Overall, Bootcamp does more than enough to prepare you for the DAT. When taking these practice exams, don’t feel discouraged since Bootcamp exams are generally a bit harder.
General advice:
- Stick to a strong schedule, but it’s also okay to be flexible!
- For every week, I tried to schedule my studying time for each day so I could visualize what I needed to get done each week. I used GCal and sheets to organize my schedule. I tried my best to stick to the schedule I created, but some days took longer and some days took shorter, so I often adjusted my schedule as I studied. Also, make time blocks for breaks throughout the day (and be reasonable about them)!
- Study timer
- I used the Pomodoro method, but figure out what works best for you. I found it helpful to download a study time on my computer, so I can keep myself accountable during my focus time. During this time, I would try to leave my phone in a different room or somewhere inaccessible (such as filming a time-lapse). During breaks, I would try to zone out or give my brain a break rather than go on my phone since breaks end up lasting longer when I go on my phone. Realistically, I didn’t study like this every time, but I tried to enforce this method as much as I could.
- Mistakes document
- I created a separate spreadsheet of all the questions I got wrong/guessed & explanations of what the correct answer is. Then, I made a “Q’s to review” Anki - I ended up using these decks to review the last few weeks of studying instead of the Bootcamp Anki since it’s more personalized.
- Plan a trip/event to keep your life interesting
- It’s important to prioritize your DAT when preparing, but it does not mean you have to give up everything else. I planned a weekend trip around the 1.5 months of my studying to help me stay motivated, and it was a much-needed mental refresher. I also started new hobbies so that I can find ways to take a mental break without going on my phone.
During the last three weeks of studying, I took 2 practice exams per week instead of 1, so I ended up needing more practice exams. I purchased Bootcamp five additional practice tests. Overall, these exams were so much harder, especially the QR section. So, if you are hoping to save some money, I don’t think these extra exams are going to significantly improve your score, but if you are looking for extra practice exams, I would take the additional exams after your fifth practice exam and save Practice Exams 6-10 for last. This will probably help you get a more accurate representation of your progress (I took these extra exams at the end, and I was stressed because my performance was not improving). Also, my predicted scores above are without taking the extra practice exams into account. If I were to consider these, my predicted score was around 23-24 AA.
Good luck to everyone studying! Please take care of yourself - you got this!! Feel free to ask any questions
