Hi everyone I have found these types of breakdowns to be quite helpful in preparing for the DAT so I thought it would be nice to share what worked well for me with all of you.
Scores:
PAT: 21
QR: 23
RC: 24
Bio: 27
GC: 19
OC: 26
TS: 23
AA: 24
Background:
I'm currently a senior biology and chemistry major with a 3.94 GPA. I was a full time student for 4 months of my studying as well as shadowing and volunteering. I was on summer break for the last month before I took the DAT.
Materials Used:
Study Schedule:
My goal throughout this study period was to try and take a well balanced approach and prioritize things in my life such as physical and mental health because at the end of the day the DAT scores are just numbers on a piece of paper. I tried to workout 3-5 times a week and hang out with friends on the weekends. I think it is important to highlight that you can still have a life while studying for the DAT and please do not study for 8+ hours a day like other people might tell you.
I started studying in the middle of February and during this time I was a full time student and would put in around 7 hours a week towards the DAT. Some weeks would be more like 15 hours and other weeks if I had a lot of exams I might only put in 1-2 hours that week. I took 2 full length practice tests through Kaplan and loosely followed their study schedule for a couple of months and then was not happy with the progress I was making and switched over to DAT Booster in the middle of April. With my DAT originally scheduled for the middle of May I decided to push it back a month so I could focus more of my time towards the DAT when I was finished with my semester.
When I finished my finals for school I took off 3-4 days to spend with my friends and girlfriend because I knew that my studying would be more effective if I was not burnt out. Then for the next 3 weeks I would spend approximately 3-5 hours a day studying with Sundays off. On a typical day during this time I would normally try to do my Anki deck every day that I studied and would watch a couple chapters worth of videos. I would then do some practice problems on material that I had covered a few days before to increase the number of repetitions that I had with any material that I covered previously. For the rest of the day I would try to get in a workout, hang out with friends or shadow depending on the given day.
I would try to do one full length practice test a week and then target any areas where I was struggling or didn’t understand the type of concept they were testing. By the end of my studying I had covered all of the booster videos, probably 90% of the extra questions, read the Feralis notes, and completed 5 of the full length practice exams through Booster. I also memorized the table of hormones and the equation sheets for the general chemistry and quantitative sections. I took the prometric practice test 4 days before the DAT and then looked over my marked questions in the biology section in the remaining days. I took the day before off and went out to eat and got ice cream to celebrate the end of my studying!
Day of Exam
Final Advice
Make sure to prioritize yourself over spending tons of time studying for the DAT. It is totally realistic to not study 8+ hours a day and still do very well on this exam! Don’t let practice scores discourage you because odds are it is harder than the actual DAT. On test day trust yourself and your preparation. Good luck!
Scores:
PAT: 21
QR: 23
RC: 24
Bio: 27
GC: 19
OC: 26
TS: 23
AA: 24
Background:
I'm currently a senior biology and chemistry major with a 3.94 GPA. I was a full time student for 4 months of my studying as well as shadowing and volunteering. I was on summer break for the last month before I took the DAT.
Materials Used:
- DAT Booster- I used this program as my primary study tool in preparation for the DAT. I personally learn material better through watching videos on 2x speed rather than reading dense text so the video options for each section were quite helpful for relearning material. I also liked the amount of practice questions that came with this program as well as the full length practice tests. I ended up doing about five of the full length practice tests which were pretty representative of what you will see on testing day (I had some questions that were word for word on the real thing). Although they are representative, I found the full length tests to be harder than the real DAT. The highest I scored was 19AA so do not get discouraged! The PAT generators are very effective for practicing this portion of the exam. It is also cheaper than a lot of other studying programs which I thought was nice considering how expensive the DAT is! I would also highly recommend reading Feralis notes because it has all of the material that you need to know for the Biology section.
- ANKI- I used this program specifically for learning reagents for the organic chemistry section and found that it was a great way to memorize a lot of material with minimal effort. For this program I only used the premade Orgo deck from DAT Booster which covered most of the reactions that you will be expected to know for the DAT. In hindsight it could have also been helpful to use this program for the general chemistry and biology section as well but keep in mind that adding more decks can dramatically increase study time!
- Prometric ADA Practice Exam- I used this practice test towards the end of my studying and found it to be a very representative practice exam because it is made by the people who make the questions for the DAT. It only gives you a raw score of how many questions you got right for each section but after using an online DAT score calculator I found these results to be more similar to my scores on the actual DAT.
- DAT PREP PLUS (Kaplan) - I used this book for the first few months of studying for the DAT and found the information to be on point. However, I personally do not learn well by reading dense textbooks and they do not have as many online resources. For those of you who do learn well with textbooks I would recommend it because it was relatively cheap compared to other resources. However, for my learning style I thought that there were better options.
Study Schedule:
My goal throughout this study period was to try and take a well balanced approach and prioritize things in my life such as physical and mental health because at the end of the day the DAT scores are just numbers on a piece of paper. I tried to workout 3-5 times a week and hang out with friends on the weekends. I think it is important to highlight that you can still have a life while studying for the DAT and please do not study for 8+ hours a day like other people might tell you.
I started studying in the middle of February and during this time I was a full time student and would put in around 7 hours a week towards the DAT. Some weeks would be more like 15 hours and other weeks if I had a lot of exams I might only put in 1-2 hours that week. I took 2 full length practice tests through Kaplan and loosely followed their study schedule for a couple of months and then was not happy with the progress I was making and switched over to DAT Booster in the middle of April. With my DAT originally scheduled for the middle of May I decided to push it back a month so I could focus more of my time towards the DAT when I was finished with my semester.
When I finished my finals for school I took off 3-4 days to spend with my friends and girlfriend because I knew that my studying would be more effective if I was not burnt out. Then for the next 3 weeks I would spend approximately 3-5 hours a day studying with Sundays off. On a typical day during this time I would normally try to do my Anki deck every day that I studied and would watch a couple chapters worth of videos. I would then do some practice problems on material that I had covered a few days before to increase the number of repetitions that I had with any material that I covered previously. For the rest of the day I would try to get in a workout, hang out with friends or shadow depending on the given day.
I would try to do one full length practice test a week and then target any areas where I was struggling or didn’t understand the type of concept they were testing. By the end of my studying I had covered all of the booster videos, probably 90% of the extra questions, read the Feralis notes, and completed 5 of the full length practice exams through Booster. I also memorized the table of hormones and the equation sheets for the general chemistry and quantitative sections. I took the prometric practice test 4 days before the DAT and then looked over my marked questions in the biology section in the remaining days. I took the day before off and went out to eat and got ice cream to celebrate the end of my studying!
Day of Exam
- Bio (27): I thought that this section was a lot easier than what I was expecting. Make use of marking questions that you are not sure on and using the strikethrough function to narrow the potential correct answers. I would recommend reading Feralis notes for this section and reviewing practice questions that you had previously got wrong.
- GC (19): I made a lot of progress in this section from where I started and I think that it is important to have the equations memorized and also spend time on general concepts. I spent a lot of time practicing the calculations and if I were to do It again I would try to put some time into the more conceptual questions.
- OC (26): I felt that this section was more conceptual than needing to know ultra specific details of mechanisms. It was very helpful to have memorized the Booster anki deck for this section as it is high yield.
- PAT (21): For this section I skipped to the angle ranking first and then completed the section and went back to keyhole and TFE at the end. I did this because I had the toughest time with keyholes and TFE so I wanted to try and get to all the questions that I would score well on and save the harder ones that I would probably have to guess on at the end so it didn’t waste my time. I thought that the angle ranking and keyhole section were the hardest on the actual exam and the TFE and folding were easier on the actual exam and the cube counting and hole punching were the same difficulty. Manage your time on this section.
- RC (24): For this section I found that it was pretty similar to the booster practice passages and used the search and destroy method. I didn’t bother reading the passages because after you find a few of the answers in the passage you have a decent understanding of its layout and where to find the rest of the information.
- QR (23): I found this section to be easier than the booster questions and was actually able to finish it early and have more time to look over marked questions. Timing is important for this section as well as knowing when to guess and skip questions. It is better to skip a question you don't know and answer more questions that you do know than waste time on a question and potentially not finish this section.
Final Advice
Make sure to prioritize yourself over spending tons of time studying for the DAT. It is totally realistic to not study 8+ hours a day and still do very well on this exam! Don’t let practice scores discourage you because odds are it is harder than the actual DAT. On test day trust yourself and your preparation. Good luck!
