Never thought I'd write a breakdown post on SDN, but it's almost 3 AM and I have nothing better to do lol.
Scores:
Perceptual Ability Test: 24
Quantitative Reasoning: 22
Reading Comprehension : 25 (miracle)
Biology: 21
General Chemistry: 24
Organic Chemistry: 23
Total Science: 22
Academic Average: 23
Background: I took the DAT last week on April 26th and took around 3 months of studying. I graduated a semester early and dedicated most of my time "studying" and helping out some campus clubs. Mind you, the first month of studying from Feb to March, I did not take it as seriously as I should have. I definitely could have spent more time studying, but I am definitely someone who needs the time pressure. I was loosely following Ari's DAT study guide. I figured at the time that I had more time then the allotted ~64 or so days set for the schedule, which hurled me down the slippery slope of procrastination. One day of catching up turned into being almost a week behind in my schedule. That's when I started to panic lol. My test was originally schedules for the 15th of April, and two weeks before the test, I knew I wasn't ready since I was still not really taking my studies as seriously as I should have been, so I rescheduled, but I didn't want to push it too far back. At this point, like late march-ish, I decided to take on a part time job at a dental lab (14 hrs a week) to help add some structure to my day and help keep me productive yet busy in my downtime when I wasn't studying. Prior to my rescheduling, I studied maybe 8 hrs at most on a good day, and good days were rare. Taking on the part-time job definitely helped me value my study time after work. I pretty much studied 12 hrs a day for the two weeks leading up to my test date.
TLDR; Didn't take studying seriously first month or so, got a part-time job, cracked down on studying after rescheduling, studied the hardest I ever did in my life lol.
Random Note: Pack light to the testing station. I brought my gigantic backpack with all my DAT materials and a laptop lol. I was making quite the scene trying to stuff my backpack and snacks into the tiny locker. I didn't even end up using anything (I'm also the type of person to have 4 pencils and 3 erasers on my desks for midterms or finals, God-forbid my pencil and erasers were to spontaneously combust and become unuseable)
Section breakdown:
PAT:
My first test, I remember finishing with 15 or so blank answers, and a projected score of 17. This was like my second week into studying which kinda got me worried. I though I was doomed. But for this section, practice definitely makes ALMOST perfect haha. I ran through almost all the crack the PAT scoring around 21 ish. I'm not sure what I did to really find a huge score jump, but I definitely noticed gradual improvements in my score over time. I started scoring consistently over 21 and a max score of 25. At that point, I decided to dedicate most of my time on the other sections, namely SNS and QR.
Test Day: Some of the keyholes were impossible in my opinion. If this does happen, eliminate as many as you can from the choices, mark it, and move on. PAT was on par with bootcamp aside from the impossible keyholes.
QR:
I did not do anything to special in terms of prepping for this section. I went through 12 tests from the dat destroyer and tried to not let the results really let me down too much. They are hard, but also well-representative of the level of difficulty the DAT can throw at you. I got most of my practice from bootcamp as well to mostly help me with timing.
Test Day: I honestly did not expect a 22, I ended up guessing on a couple questions due to timing. Stylistically, bootcamp was on par.
Reading Comp:
This section I was dreading. My first score was a 21 on practice test, so I thought I was chillin. Come two weeks before my test when I decide to take some DAT bootcamp practice test, I was consistently scoring 17-19. At two weeks out, there was not much I could really do besides try and nail down a strategy for this section. I really do think though, that bootcamps tests were harder, I eventually just stopped half way through some RC section because I was pretty burnt out.
Test Day: I mostly followed Ari's advice of reading through the first couple paragraphs, then going through all the questions to see how many I could answer. Most of my test was search and destroy questions, and you bet your bottom dollar I was laser focused in this section. My jaw dropped when I saw my score.
BIO:
This section was rough overall. But, in the words of pretty much every DAT breakdown, DAT destroyer is a must. Use this resource as a study tool, NOT as a gauge of test score. I know lots of people used index cards, Anki's, writing notes. etc., but I am generally a lazy person. I'm that type of dude that starts off great writing notes and flashcards, but gets too lazy to finish them. I legit only wrote notes on the first three sections of Cliff's AP Bio notes. So, what worked best for me, which probably won't work for everyone, is reading through the Cliff's once, then supplementing with Feralis. I also used some Khanacademy, but I found practice and overall exposure to question my best way of studying. DAT bootcamp, DATgenius, and DATqvault, were great resources for bio since they offer pretty good explanations for each question. Do all the bio questions, then do them again.
Test Day: This section was a blur and had maybe one or two questions I know I've definitely encountered in my test prep. ALSO, one thing that helped me was the ability to skip around. I knew I needed the most time for GC, so after I finished my bio, I went to the review screen and started at number 71, the first OC portion. After finishing the OC, I was able to have ample time to not feel the time crunch I normally did in the 30 minute practice tests for gchem. The 90 minutes for the SNS can pretty much be tailored to your needs so take advantage of that. The review screen was my best friend in this section, just make sure not to hit end test prematurely
GC/OC:
Again, in the words of pretty much every DAT breakdown, Chad is the man. This man single handedly taught me gen chem all over again from the ground up. I know I said I wasn't that great at taking self-study notes, but his lecture format really helped me focus and write out notes for GC. I definitely referred back to my notes after taking practice sections to make sure I atleast reviewed it before hand. OC and GC, imo, are definitely the sections that can carry your AA/TS score. There are only so many questions they can ask you within these sections, and DATBootcamp and Destroyer will prepare you if you go through every question comprehensively. I also got the datqvauly OC and GC, because I wanted the extra practice.
Test Day: From my practice and leading up the the test day, I knew my biggest problem in scoring well was reading the question correctly and thoroughly. It sounds dumb, but I'm glad I recognized this, because in a lot of my practice exams, my mistakes were mostly out of this kind of err of my part, not out of a lack of understanding or sheer cluelessness. I would say, if you come to this point sometime through your study-prep, you are in a good place.
Overall Testing Experience: (I'm just adding this, cause this was one thing I was always really curious about, but never really got enough of from the dat breakdowns I stalked on SDN)
Got to the testing station about 20 minutes before my scheduled time. I read on another post that it's better to drink milk or something, since it won't make you pee, so you know I drank two cartons of the serving size silk milk. My testing station was surprisingly warm, and I was wearing a sweater so I ended up sweating quite a bit during my test lol. But I didn't want to waste time by taking it off. To my pleasant surprise, we got a 30 minute break after the first half of the test where we can access any electronics or notes. Ended up just eating an apple and going through some formulas for QR. I only used 15 minutes of my break before I had to face my most dreaded section, RC. After the test was over, I thought I would have to retake, mind you this was my first full run through of the test, so when I saw my score, I honestly thought someone was pulling a prank, or some other students score report was popping up on my screen instead.
Overall advice/things I wish I could have done, but didnt do cause I was lazy/burnt out:
The bulk of my studying happened towards the tail end of my study schedule. Most of my friends told me the 1 to 2 weeks before, they were just taking straight up taking full length practice exams start to finish in mock testing conditions. I did not do this. My own studying was very modularized, and I utilized my testing resources mostly as study tools than as indicators for how well I would really do. I do wish I saved around 2 tests to run through blind, but at one point I pretty muched ran through all the questions and knew them based on prior exposure. So, yeah the DAT test day was actually my first overall run through, which elevated my stress levels.
Take the studying seriously, 3 months out of your life to really buckle down will be worth it. I would also suggest against, just doing nothing but DAT. Getting a flexible part-time job helped me keep my day structured, prior to that my sleeping schedule was trash (like sleeping at 5 AM and waking up at 3PM Trash)
Finally, I really do believe anyone can do well on the DAT if they really apply themselves. I was fortunate to have a mentor as a current D1 show me personally what worked for him and what didn't. So know yourself and how you study, dont give yourself so much time that you forget everything, but not too little where you're panicking because you didnt know the pancreas functions as an endocrine and exocrine gland.
Shout out to Ari for his responsiveness in answering some of my dumb questions on his practice exams.
Scores:
Perceptual Ability Test: 24
Quantitative Reasoning: 22
Reading Comprehension : 25 (miracle)
Biology: 21
General Chemistry: 24
Organic Chemistry: 23
Total Science: 22
Academic Average: 23
Background: I took the DAT last week on April 26th and took around 3 months of studying. I graduated a semester early and dedicated most of my time "studying" and helping out some campus clubs. Mind you, the first month of studying from Feb to March, I did not take it as seriously as I should have. I definitely could have spent more time studying, but I am definitely someone who needs the time pressure. I was loosely following Ari's DAT study guide. I figured at the time that I had more time then the allotted ~64 or so days set for the schedule, which hurled me down the slippery slope of procrastination. One day of catching up turned into being almost a week behind in my schedule. That's when I started to panic lol. My test was originally schedules for the 15th of April, and two weeks before the test, I knew I wasn't ready since I was still not really taking my studies as seriously as I should have been, so I rescheduled, but I didn't want to push it too far back. At this point, like late march-ish, I decided to take on a part time job at a dental lab (14 hrs a week) to help add some structure to my day and help keep me productive yet busy in my downtime when I wasn't studying. Prior to my rescheduling, I studied maybe 8 hrs at most on a good day, and good days were rare. Taking on the part-time job definitely helped me value my study time after work. I pretty much studied 12 hrs a day for the two weeks leading up to my test date.
TLDR; Didn't take studying seriously first month or so, got a part-time job, cracked down on studying after rescheduling, studied the hardest I ever did in my life lol.
Random Note: Pack light to the testing station. I brought my gigantic backpack with all my DAT materials and a laptop lol. I was making quite the scene trying to stuff my backpack and snacks into the tiny locker. I didn't even end up using anything (I'm also the type of person to have 4 pencils and 3 erasers on my desks for midterms or finals, God-forbid my pencil and erasers were to spontaneously combust and become unuseable)
Section breakdown:
PAT:
My first test, I remember finishing with 15 or so blank answers, and a projected score of 17. This was like my second week into studying which kinda got me worried. I though I was doomed. But for this section, practice definitely makes ALMOST perfect haha. I ran through almost all the crack the PAT scoring around 21 ish. I'm not sure what I did to really find a huge score jump, but I definitely noticed gradual improvements in my score over time. I started scoring consistently over 21 and a max score of 25. At that point, I decided to dedicate most of my time on the other sections, namely SNS and QR.
Test Day: Some of the keyholes were impossible in my opinion. If this does happen, eliminate as many as you can from the choices, mark it, and move on. PAT was on par with bootcamp aside from the impossible keyholes.
QR:
I did not do anything to special in terms of prepping for this section. I went through 12 tests from the dat destroyer and tried to not let the results really let me down too much. They are hard, but also well-representative of the level of difficulty the DAT can throw at you. I got most of my practice from bootcamp as well to mostly help me with timing.
Test Day: I honestly did not expect a 22, I ended up guessing on a couple questions due to timing. Stylistically, bootcamp was on par.
Reading Comp:
This section I was dreading. My first score was a 21 on practice test, so I thought I was chillin. Come two weeks before my test when I decide to take some DAT bootcamp practice test, I was consistently scoring 17-19. At two weeks out, there was not much I could really do besides try and nail down a strategy for this section. I really do think though, that bootcamps tests were harder, I eventually just stopped half way through some RC section because I was pretty burnt out.
Test Day: I mostly followed Ari's advice of reading through the first couple paragraphs, then going through all the questions to see how many I could answer. Most of my test was search and destroy questions, and you bet your bottom dollar I was laser focused in this section. My jaw dropped when I saw my score.
BIO:
This section was rough overall. But, in the words of pretty much every DAT breakdown, DAT destroyer is a must. Use this resource as a study tool, NOT as a gauge of test score. I know lots of people used index cards, Anki's, writing notes. etc., but I am generally a lazy person. I'm that type of dude that starts off great writing notes and flashcards, but gets too lazy to finish them. I legit only wrote notes on the first three sections of Cliff's AP Bio notes. So, what worked best for me, which probably won't work for everyone, is reading through the Cliff's once, then supplementing with Feralis. I also used some Khanacademy, but I found practice and overall exposure to question my best way of studying. DAT bootcamp, DATgenius, and DATqvault, were great resources for bio since they offer pretty good explanations for each question. Do all the bio questions, then do them again.
Test Day: This section was a blur and had maybe one or two questions I know I've definitely encountered in my test prep. ALSO, one thing that helped me was the ability to skip around. I knew I needed the most time for GC, so after I finished my bio, I went to the review screen and started at number 71, the first OC portion. After finishing the OC, I was able to have ample time to not feel the time crunch I normally did in the 30 minute practice tests for gchem. The 90 minutes for the SNS can pretty much be tailored to your needs so take advantage of that. The review screen was my best friend in this section, just make sure not to hit end test prematurely
GC/OC:
Again, in the words of pretty much every DAT breakdown, Chad is the man. This man single handedly taught me gen chem all over again from the ground up. I know I said I wasn't that great at taking self-study notes, but his lecture format really helped me focus and write out notes for GC. I definitely referred back to my notes after taking practice sections to make sure I atleast reviewed it before hand. OC and GC, imo, are definitely the sections that can carry your AA/TS score. There are only so many questions they can ask you within these sections, and DATBootcamp and Destroyer will prepare you if you go through every question comprehensively. I also got the datqvauly OC and GC, because I wanted the extra practice.
Test Day: From my practice and leading up the the test day, I knew my biggest problem in scoring well was reading the question correctly and thoroughly. It sounds dumb, but I'm glad I recognized this, because in a lot of my practice exams, my mistakes were mostly out of this kind of err of my part, not out of a lack of understanding or sheer cluelessness. I would say, if you come to this point sometime through your study-prep, you are in a good place.
Overall Testing Experience: (I'm just adding this, cause this was one thing I was always really curious about, but never really got enough of from the dat breakdowns I stalked on SDN)
Got to the testing station about 20 minutes before my scheduled time. I read on another post that it's better to drink milk or something, since it won't make you pee, so you know I drank two cartons of the serving size silk milk. My testing station was surprisingly warm, and I was wearing a sweater so I ended up sweating quite a bit during my test lol. But I didn't want to waste time by taking it off. To my pleasant surprise, we got a 30 minute break after the first half of the test where we can access any electronics or notes. Ended up just eating an apple and going through some formulas for QR. I only used 15 minutes of my break before I had to face my most dreaded section, RC. After the test was over, I thought I would have to retake, mind you this was my first full run through of the test, so when I saw my score, I honestly thought someone was pulling a prank, or some other students score report was popping up on my screen instead.
Overall advice/things I wish I could have done, but didnt do cause I was lazy/burnt out:
The bulk of my studying happened towards the tail end of my study schedule. Most of my friends told me the 1 to 2 weeks before, they were just taking straight up taking full length practice exams start to finish in mock testing conditions. I did not do this. My own studying was very modularized, and I utilized my testing resources mostly as study tools than as indicators for how well I would really do. I do wish I saved around 2 tests to run through blind, but at one point I pretty muched ran through all the questions and knew them based on prior exposure. So, yeah the DAT test day was actually my first overall run through, which elevated my stress levels.
Take the studying seriously, 3 months out of your life to really buckle down will be worth it. I would also suggest against, just doing nothing but DAT. Getting a flexible part-time job helped me keep my day structured, prior to that my sleeping schedule was trash (like sleeping at 5 AM and waking up at 3PM Trash)
Finally, I really do believe anyone can do well on the DAT if they really apply themselves. I was fortunate to have a mentor as a current D1 show me personally what worked for him and what didn't. So know yourself and how you study, dont give yourself so much time that you forget everything, but not too little where you're panicking because you didnt know the pancreas functions as an endocrine and exocrine gland.
Shout out to Ari for his responsiveness in answering some of my dumb questions on his practice exams.
