predentalstudent15
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Background: Throughout my undergraduate studies, I knew I wanted to be in the medical field but wasn’t quite sure which area of the field I wanted to pursue. I volunteered for around 100 hours with several surgeons and doctors at my local hospital. After what I would say was not the greatest experience, I shifted my focus from medical school to dental school. I shadowed a few general dentists in my area and found out that dentistry was the career I wanted to pursue. I graduated from FSU in the Fall of 2024. I spent January- March 2025 strictly using DAT Booster. I watched every single video they offered, and I rewrote every single note they offered. After my studies were concluded, I had about 3 thick notebooks of notes. I would look back and review my notes often throughout my studies in order to stay fresh on the plethora of information you need to retain in order to feel confident for the test. I didn’t start taking practice tests until about two months before my test date. I would aim to take one practice test per week during those months. My last two weeks before the exam were all dedicated to reviewing my notes, and I had a LOT of flashcards and notebooks.
How I studied and felt for each of the section on the DAT:
Biology (460), Chemistry (460), Orgo (450): I started by watching video modules of each subject in DAT booster. I believe with biology you can watch the modules in any order because most of the sub-subjects' information don’t rely on each other. I would consider watching chemistry and especially organic chemistry in order, just to really review all of the fundamentals and language of chemistry. I would then attempt to do all of the question bank questions that aligned with each video series. Afterwards, I would rewrite some of the main notes that I deemed important for the test. When it came to the test, I believe I had reviewed 95% of what was presented to me on the actual DAT. I would love to see which questions I got wrong. Being fresh off of biology, chemistry, orgo, or biochem really would help for taking the DAT.
PAT (440): I started off by just learning what was on the PAT by watching all of the video modules on DAT Booster. At first, this section of the exam is very intimidating. After becoming more familiar with these types of questions, I was determined to do very well on it. I would do perceptual ability question banks nearly daily in order to stay sharp and keep my strategy consistent (I skipped to the angle ranking section first, then came back to questions 1-30 after completing the later part of the PAT). I believe the reason for my score is because I was only able to confidently answer 80 out of the 90 questions in the section on the actual exam. The 2 second delay in between each question at my testing center shaved off a lot of time that I need to complete the section. DAT booster offers a 2 second delay on their practice exams, and I used the delay….but I still ran out of time on the real exam. I must’ve just gotten caught up on some of the trickier figures or cutouts. I would say DAT booster offers a very wide range of difficulty when it comes to PAT questions, and I believe the actual DAT offers a large range of difficulty which may be unique to each test taker?
Reading Comprehension (460): I believe this section of the exam heavily relies on a test takers ability to speed read while being able to pick up key points of an article or story. I speed read through each passage and highlighted key facts, ideas, lists, numbers, or anything else I thought might be asked a question on. Speed reading through the passage also allowed me to be able to understand where a question that was asked might be located in the passage. For practice, I would just do one complete Reading Comprehension in DAT Booster here and there. I believe the way to study for it is just being able to identify what you should highlight in the passage, and have in mind what types of questions are going to be asked on the actual exam. If you have a hard time reading under the pressure of a time clock, this section may be difficult. I felt DAT Booster’s practice passages were representative of the actual RC test.
Quantitative Reasoning (450): I love that this section was the last because I am the most comfortable with doing quick math problems. I have enjoyed math throughout my life as a student. I hadn’t done a lot of these types of QR questions since highschool, but I felt after reviewing each of the DAT Booster video modules, I was able to thoroughly review and remember a lot of the math. The things I struggled with were permutations and combinations along with logarithms. For some reason, those two methods of math don’t like to stick in my brain. I believe I ran out of time on the DAT for the last couple questions, which I just had to completely guess on before the time ran out.
Overall, I believe I logged about 300 hours over four months studying for the DAT. I initially signed up for the 3 months DAT booster program, but I extended it an additional month in order to be prepared. I then scheduled my exam to coordinate when the last day of my subscription was. I took my DAT on March 6, 2025 which was the first round of the new scoring method. I also was told I had to wait four weeks to see my score, but it ended up only being two weeks. Those two weeks were very stressful because I did not want to go through another round of studying and preparing for another DAT.
In order to study for the DAT, I learned you have to be determined and stay consistent. I was able to balance studying with my part-time serving job. Throughout undergrad, I had a busy social schedule through lots of friends and greek life. I needed to understand the only way I could succeed on this test was to put a halt on the entertainment and fun aspect of my life. After taking the exam and being satisfied with my test scores, I am now applying to dental school. I have received 2 letters of recommendation from professors in the biology department at FSU. I have also received a letter of recommendation from the general dentist office that I recently shadowed at (around 50 hours). I am also doing a one day shadowing experience at a local oral surgeons office. I have a few other dentists and an endodontist that I will be shadowing this summer, which I have on my application as anticipated experience. An acceptance to a dental school is my number 1 priority in life at the moment!
