DAT Breakdown - 23AA

[washcaps08]

DAT Breakdown - 23AA

Hey guys!
I recently took the DAT and wanted to elaborate on my preparation process.

*This breakdown is meant as a helpful guide for those who are in the process of studying for DAT. Please don't discourage yourself by comparing or contrasting. I know I personally struggled with that so I just wanted to add that *

Scores:
QR - 23
RC - 25
Bio - 21
GC - 22
OC - 22
TS - 21
AA - 23


Background:
I am an international student and currently a senior with a 3.90 GPA

Materials Used:

1. DAT Booster

DAT Booster is a great resource that is highly representative of the real test. I especially liked the practice tests, extra questions sections, and PAT tutorials. I highly recommend it.

1. Chad’s DAT Prep

A great resource for GC and OC content review. The way Chad explains just simply clicks with me and I really enjoyed having questions at the end of each section for extra practice. If you can afford the $60/month subscription I highly recommend it. It’s much more high-yield than his free material.

1. DAT Bootcamp Bio Condensed Notes

I used the printed condensed DAT Bootcamp notes for material review. It was far more digestible than the Destroyer Bio notes personally for me. Some chapters were overwhelming (taxonomy) but the majority were nicely summarized. I didn’t take any notes on it, I just highlighted it.

1. Anki

Anki was effective at retrieval and memory consolidation. It was the only way, anything really stuck to my brain. I made my own decks for GC and OC based on the wrong practice test questions and used DAT Bootcamp premade bio Anki decks.

1. Practice Tests (Booster)

This deserves its one section because I learned the most from these practice tests. I didn't click until the last 3 practice tests so my advice is to be patient and not let your estimated scores discourage you. My practice tests scores (AA) were: 17, 18,19,19,19,20,20,21,21, 21.
Day of Exam:
BIO - 21
I found this section to be pretty challenging. There were a few questions from the newly introduced section (epigenetics, cancer cells) that I didn’t have time to look over. I got 2-3 taxonomy questions which I neglected as well. I was averaging 17-19 on the practice tests, so I was happy to see I got above 20 on this.

GC - 22
Similarly, this section was not as easy as everyone was claiming. I was averaging 23-26 on practice tests, so I expected to do better. It covered pretty much all of gen chem material, including redox, nuclear, thermochemistry… So I would recommend practicing a ton for this section.

OC - 22
I found this section to be rather straightforward and expected higher scores. A ton of ranking acidity, no mechanistic questions, and a few reaction questions. Nothing unexpected though.

PAT - 23
I didn't realize there were no breaks between the science section and PAT and was a bit startled. I was personally surprised with the scores I received because I had to take a bathroom break in the middle of the section and thought I really bombed the test. But I was able to finish the section 3 minutes early. I think the keyhole and TFE on the real test were easier (thankfully), the cube counting was a tad bit harder (with many floating and hidden cubes), and the rest was very similar to Booster.

RC - 25
My passages were fairly challenging but nothing too crazy. I used a combination of search and destroy as well as skimming and highlighting what I thought was important later on. I didn’t prepare for this other than the practice tests and I think that was sufficient enough.

QR - 23
This section was rather straightforward and really just a time challenge. I really took advantage of the marking questions and came back to them later, which allowed me to do fairly well with the time. Overall, DAT Booster was very representative of all of these sections (not harder, not easier) in my opinion.


DAT is a big mental challenge:
I personally struggled with the study process mentally. It’s long and challenging and whenever I fell behind schedule I would feel so bad about myself. These breakdowns really motivated me some days but other days I felt like there is no way I can get as high scores as them/I am not studying as hard as them. So a few pieces of advice to tackle this are the following:

• Practice consistency. This one is really hard because we all have days where it feels impossible. But, truly, just take it one day at a time, and try to do something, like Anki or PAT generators.
• Focus on the tasks as opposed to time. I often see people claim to study 8-10 hours a day, and while that certainly works for some, you don't need to follow such a rigorous plan. I personally averaged 3-5 hours.
• Take breaks! I am certainly guilty of not doing that, which led to burn out. This can be dangerous not only for the study process but for mental health so please invest time to take care of yourself.

GOOD LUCK. YOU GOT THIS!!!

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[Chicago_predental]

Great scores/breakdown!! Agree with DAT Bootcamp, it was so helpful with preparing me for my exam last year especially with QR and Bio. Good luck this cycle if you are applying!