DAT Breakdown (24AA/24TS/23PAT)

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Hi everyone! I am finally done with the DAT and have been waiting to write a breakdown!

My final scores are:

PAT-23

QR-23

RC-23

Bio-24

GC-25

OC-25

TS-24

AA-24

Intro: I got both Bootcamp and Booster just because I wanted a lot of resources and questions. I used Bootcamp notes + videos for the subjects that I thought I had less knowledge on (bio and GC) and used Booster notes for OC because I just took orgo at my school. Towards the end of studying, I started using Booster more because I thought the questions were more representative than Bootcamp. I had 2 months to study for the exam. I didn’t follow any of the study schedules that was provided because I wanted to use the first month to re-learn things and watch the videos, the second month to review everything, and the last 2 weeks to get used to waking up early for the exam and taking 4.5 hours to take the exam. I ended up taking 6 of the Bootcamp’s full tests and 7 Booster’s full tests. (Average AA on Booster: 22, Average AA on Bootcamp: 20)

Bio (practice: 18-22, real: 24)

I started by watching 2 units of Bootcamp’s biology videos per day. I then completed the bio bites for the units that I watched, and the next day I reviewed Bootcamp’s high-yield notes and then completed the questions banks. I honestly don’t recommend watching every single video on Bootcamp especially if you have a strong background knowledge on a lot of things on bio. By the time I was all done watching the videos and going through the problems. I felt like I was still not confident in biology and decided to attend Booster’s biology crash courses. I attended all three sessions and I HIGHLY recommend attending those since they give you sets of notes that can be used throughout your reviewing phase and the questions were really representative. There were a few topics that were not deeply covered in the Bootcamp bio notes (like ferns, archaea, viruses, and epigenetics) that were covered in the crash courses which appeared on the real exam! I also took time to write my set of notes for biology. I really was not confident at all but knew that I learn a lot when I put things together in my way, in handwritten notes. I honestly don’t recommend this unless you are certain that you learn a lot when you write things down and when you take your own set of notes. I ended up completing 5 bio practice exams on Bootcamp and 10 on Booster. The real exam was really straightforward than any of the practice exams that I took. I had a few that I had to go back to and review again but was feeling pretty confident!

GC (practice: 19-22, real: 24):

I watched all of Bootcamp’s genchem videos because I really liked how Dr. Mike explained everything. I did the same thing I did for bio in terms of completing the questions. When I got to the point where I started taking the practice tests, I mainly used Booster’s GC formula sheet for my GC notes and wrote down a few concepts that I was confused about on the back of the formula sheet. Because GC was my weak area, I completed all 10 practice exams provided on Bootcamp and Booster. I had a lot more conceptual questions than calculation questions. All of the calculation questions were easy, or I didn’t even have to calculate anything but had to choose the correct formula plugged in with the correct numbers.

OC (practice: 19-25, real: 25):

I used Booster’s notes to review everything and do the problems right away. I just got out of 1 year of orgo course at my school, so I had a really strong background with orgo and was confident in it. I also did a similar thing I did with GC notes but with Booster’s reaction sheets. I drew the flow chart of the substitution and elimination reaction, acidity rules, and a few mechanisms of the reactions just so I could understand things better on the back of the reaction sheets. I completed 3 practice exams on Bootcamp and 5 practice exams on Booster. I didn’t have any questions that really caught me off guard on the real exam, and everything was pretty representative on both Booster and Bootcamp.

PAT (practice: 21-24, real: 23):

I started by watching all of the videos that Bootcamp provided and started doing generators right away. After about a month of using generators on Bootcamp and Booster, I moved on to taking the full PAT practice tests on Booster. I recommend completing the timed practice tests! I was most confident in the hole punching section but I decided not to start with the section but to complete the whole section starting from question #1. Also, I used the last 5 minutes in the science section to draw the hole punching grids and cube counting charts!

RC (practice: 20-26, real: 23):

I wasn’t really confident with RC and thought the only way was to just do the problems. I started by completing one passage a day in the beginning and started taking the timed RC tests on both Bootcamp and Booster. I found Bootcamp’s passages a bit harder than Booster, and passages at a similar level to Booster were on the real exam. I was pretty confident in this section after a few practice exams, but the only problem that I had with the real exam was the old computers. I found highlighting things in the passage hard because my mouse control wasn’t precise on the Prometric Center computers. I am not sure if this would be the same on every single computer in the testing center, but it’s good to keep this in mind just in case.

QR (practice: 21-30, real: 23):

While I was pretty confident in QR, there were a few formulas I forgot in QR. I watched statistics and probability videos on Booster, took notes, and started completing practice tests right away. I didn’t do QR every single day but made sure to complete at least 3 per week at the beginning of studying. I honestly thought I would get a higher score in this section, but I think the exhaustion of completing the previous sections really got to me towards the end of the exam

Other study strategies:

• I created 3 notebooks on my ipad for each science subject and took pictures of the wrong problems on each practice tests so I could re-do them on my ipad. If I got the question wrong because I forgot or didn’t know how to do it, I watched the videos that were provided for each question and wrote notes on my ipad below the pictures I took. I used these three notebooks on my ipad in the last few weeks when reviewing to really attack the weak areas.
• USE THE PROMETRIC DELAY FEATURE ON YOUR PRACTICE EXAMS!! I think I would have done much worse on the exam if I didn't use this feature, especially on the reading and math sections.
• As previously mentioned, I learn things a lot when I organize everything in my own way and especially when I write them down. While I don’t recommend this for everyone, I don’t regret taking the time to make my own sets of notes!
• I didn’t use Anki because I didn’t really like the way that it was structured and wasn’t used to the whole Anki system but rather was more familiar with Quizlet. I created only 4 sets for the neurotransmitters, hormones, terrestrial biomes, and immune system on Quizlet because those four were the topics that I was weak in and could be learned the best with flashcards. I used them occasionally to memorize everything.
• For orgo reactions, the EAS reactions were all still remaining fresh in my brain. For the rest of the reactions, I just created an empty notebook on my ipad and wrote all of the reactions over and over again until they were engraved in my brain. I think I did this occasionally throughout my studying period. I also boxed a few reactions that I couldn’t memorize on the reaction sheets so I could revisit them later.
• I marked questions that I wanted to revisit on top of taking pictures of them on my ipad. I utilized reviewing marked questions towards the end of the study period a lot to review what my weak areas are and to check if I was able to do those problems now with updated knowledge.
• If your real exam is set to start early in the morning and you are not a morning person, I recommend taking at least the last 2 weeks to get used to waking up early and using your brain in the morning. I am not a morning person at all but I really just forced myself to wake up at least at 6:50, then drank a cup of coffee, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and sat myself down in front of my desk by 7:28 so I can start the test at 7:30.

Ending advice:

Make sure you get a good night's sleep before the test!! I took the day before the test to just briefly review the Quizlet sets and review the orgo reactions (maybe took 3 hours) but didn’t do anything more. I truly believe all of the efforts and time you put into studying will all be paid off! Good luck everyone

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