jaysongbird
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- Jun 7, 2022
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Hey all, I’m a rising senior and have just taken the DAT. I wanted to share my experience with DATBooster, the DAT itself, and the overall study process. Here are my scores from test day:
Perceptual Ability - 20
Quantitative Reasoning - 27
Reading Comprehension - 27
Biology - 23
General Chemistry - 21
Organic Chemistry - 19
Total Science - 21
Academic Average - 23
Study Materials:
DAT Booster - This is the only resource I used during my studying. I cannot stress enough how complete is this program. It’s the most affordable and representative tool for studying. I have friends who used DAT Bootcamp or Destroyer and either paid much more than I did or had questions that weren’t as representative as the real test. It was almost uncanny how similar the test was to DATBooster, from the content itself to the question style to the way the practice exams mimicked the test interface. I glanced at the Feralis-Booster Biology Notes and notes for other sections but didn’t use them much. I also didn’t utilize the Quizlet decks or watch any recommended YouTube videos. My studying consisted of watching all the videos for each section and doing all the practice tests for the biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry sections while reviewing anything/everything I didn’t understand (both right and wrong answers).
Study Timeline:
February 2022: I purchased a 90-day membership to DATBooster and started following the 12-week study schedule. At this time, I had a science-heavy course load (physics, biochemistry, and organic chemistry II) and figured that I could study DAT material during the semester alongside my courses. To properly do a study day, as in actually process and digest the information, took me about 4 hours of solid work that I always preferred to do in one sitting.
March: I continued with the 12-week study schedule until day 20 (middle of March) when I started having health problems and didn’t feel well enough to continue the daily studying on top of classes. I took some time off just to take care of myself but felt incredibly guilty doing so, knowing how behind I was putting myself. One of the last things I did was take a full-length practice exam and I did pretty poorly with my perceptual ability, quantitative reasoning, and reading comprehension around 20 and my biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry around 15. After mid-March, I stopped using DATBooster to just take some time off to rest. I did reach out to their customer service at this time to ask if I could extend my membership by a week to which they graciously agreed, as my originally planned test date had to be moved.
April: I took this entire month off to recover from health problems and also because I was busy with my courseload/incredibly lazy. Next to no studying was done outside of studying for exams in my prerequisite courses. I didn’t even log into DATBooster during this month just because I was avoiding studying while telling myself I could make it up by doing multiple study days in one day (totally unrealistic). At this point, I was basically resigning myself to a retake because I was so behind that it would be impossible to catch up according to the 12-week study schedule.
May: I continued to do nothing and be lazy for a while until about a week before the exam. I had a sudden burst of inspiration to study after seeing my friends do well on their exams and at the prospect of having to spend my entire summer studying for a retake. In the three days before the exam, I decided to focus entirely on the science sections and figured that perceptual ability, quantitative reasoning, and reading comprehension would take care of themselves. My test was on Saturday. On Wednesday, I watched every remaining biology video and did every biology practice test, reviewing all the problems I didn’t feel like I understood using the “learning” and “reviewed” marks on the tests. On Thursday and Friday, I did the same for general chemistry and organic chemistry. My days were 9 am to around 4 am (next day). I won’t lie, this was brutal but I got it done and finished review around 5 am on Saturday before leaving the house to test.
Test Day: By this point, I had not slept since the day prior. I went in fully expecting to retake and figured I had nothing to lose anyway so I might as well show up since I paid for it already. I don’t like eating breakfast so I skipped that and got to the testing site around 8 am. I got to start early after the whole routine check-in and used the optional tutorial as a 15-minute meditation session to steel myself and mentally prepare for the endurance test of doing all 280 questions.
Score Breakdown:
Perceptual Ability - 20
This was a section where I felt like either you have it or you don’t so I didn’t bother studying for it past day 20 of the schedule. In hindsight, some practice would have been useful because I actually ended up totally forgetting how to do top-front-end problems and scored a little lower than I expected. The strategies they teach you to approach the hole punching and pattern folding portions were incredibly useful. Angle ranking was done on my gut feeling and with some strategies from DATBooster. Cube counting was pretty easy for me. The keyholes were a little harder than what I saw on DATBooster. I had quite a few rock keyholes so I just went with my best guess on those. I also got more floating cubes than I expected. DATBooster has options to generate perceptual ability problems of varying difficulty which would have been useful if I utilized the program to its full potential. DATBooster is a pretty new program and they used to just be PATBooster. Their strategy guides, videos, and generators are seriously top-notch. It’s not worth it to get DATBooster just for perceptual ability practice, but it’s much more than that.
Quantitative Reasoning - 27
I didn’t study at all for this section past day 20 of the 12-week schedule. I did almost run out of time during the real DAT because I spent too much time checking my answers. However, the math on DATBooster is much harder than the real test. The questions on the DAT are laughably easy and I wasted a lot of time double-checking because I just couldn’t believe it was that simple. I had quite a few probability and statistics questions, algebra, and word problems. The math that I did review using DATBooster was much more complicated which ended up being a relief for me. I think that if you did at least pre-calculus, you can easily get a high score in this section with relatively minimal studying. Again, I didn’t study for this section but I watched the included videos and they had some useful ways to approach problems depending on the exact wording. While I didn’t see any of these problems, they definitely would have been useful if I did.
Reading Comprehension - 27
Like for quantitative reasoning, I spent very little time studying for this section. The review videos I watched for this section were pretty useful in terms of reviewing what types of problems you might see on the exam. I saw at least one of every type of question they discussed. The questions on DATBooster were much harder than the actual reading comprehension section. I think that the real test had much simpler language and the questions were in near-chronological order in terms of the passage itself. I would recommend just reading more in general instead of trying to do practice problems for reading comprehension and also reviewing the videos to see what questions might come up. This section was a breeze for me and I finished with about 10 minutes to spare. I will also disclose that the last time I read a full book was in high school so I’m not a voracious reader but that just shows how easy this section can be for nearly anyone.
Biology - 23
I truly believe that DATBooster biology is the closest you can come to cheating on this exam. I averaged around 17 on the biology practice tests. Obviously, I had a huge increase. The biology on DATBooster is selected for high yield problems and topics. It’s designed so well that I’m certain a few of the real questions were ones I had seen before. I didn’t see any virology questions but did get a few based on the new material, like epigenetics, so it's definitely there. There was not a single biology question that I had either not reviewed or couldn’t at least make a strong guess based on questions from the practice exams. I had quite a few taxonomy, developmental biology, and animal behavior questions. DATBooster biology is all-encompassing and covers everything you would need for this section in the videos and practice problems. However, it’s not all in the videos and the practice tests are designed with you having reviewed the study notes in mind. I was crunched for time and decided to forgo the notes and just dived into the problems to see what I could get based on my knowledge and the videos. Everything I didn’t understand, I marked as “learning” and drilled the explanations into my head until I did. This ended up being my strongest science section due entirely to how complete is DATBooster biology. The only way I think I could have scored higher would be through actually reviewing the included study notes.
General Chemistry - 21
The chemistry videos and practice tests were much harder than the real test. I averaged around 19 on the chemistry practice tests. It’s been a year since I’ve taken general chemistry so this material was pretty rusty but overall straightforward. The calculations and stoichiometry were much easier on the real test. I didn’t get any nuclear chemistry or laboratory questions but the DATBooster practice tests would definitely have been helpful if I did since they always had a few. Definitely review gas laws, solution chemistry, acid-base chemistry, thermochemistry, and balancing equations since I had a lot of those. DATBooster content was well-explained since they have Professor Dave Explains delivering content. I’ve heard good things about Chad’s videos on YouTube but didn’t use those. There are plenty of study notes but again, I was pressed for time and didn’t use the program to its full potential. I think I managed to do every calculation in my head and didn’t need the scrap paper for this section. You get a periodic table on this portion of the exam but I would definitely practice table trends and general element locations.
Organic Chemistry - 19
Organic chemistry has always been a weak point for me. I was taking organic chemistry II at the same time and struggling (finished with a C+) so I definitely expected this to be my weakest section. I averaged around 18 on the organic chemistry practice tests. This was hard for me just because I neglected practicing IUPAC rules and got a lot of nomenclature on my exam. I would definitely get comfortable with NMR and aromatics because those questions are the ones you should be able to do quickly and not have to review as others might require more thinking, like with multi-step reaction mechanisms. One thing that DATBooster didn’t prepare me for was that there is no periodic table on this portion of the exam. It actually worried me and I wasted a good 5 minutes worrying and tracking down my proctor to ask what happened before finding out that the periodic table is only for general chemistry. Definitely don't make that mistake on your DAT!
Review and Advice:
Pros: relatively cheap, highly representative of the exam to an uncanny degree, lots of practice problems and exams with explanations so you actually understand the reasoning, huge focus on high yield questions, great perceptual ability generators, access to Quizlet decks and study notes/sheets, incredibly helpful customer service, all-inclusive program for DAT studying
Cons: difficult to follow the study schedule during a full-time semester, pricing options are either 90 days or 180 days, poor mobile interface, limited perceptual ability generators on mobile
If you can, study during a time when you are either taking very easy classes or during the summer when you can really focus. I think if I was able to actually stick to the schedule, I would be able to increase each section's score by at least 2-3 points. Be realistic about how much you can do per day. Remember that organic chemistry does not have a periodic table. You should also know that the real DAT has a bit of lag when switching between questions, so don’t count on being able to whiz between each problem. When doing the individual science tests, you might forget that the science section on the DAT is 100 questions that collect biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry so be prepared for a grueling portion. In total, I studied for about three weeks and I was so surprised that I was able to get the score I did with so little studying, especially when I was planning on using the 12-week schedule. The program is great in that it offers you everything you need so if you study better in different ways or just need to review certain sections, you can do exactly that. The material is all there and you can learn it however you learn best. DATBooster saved my DAT and if I can get that score in three weeks, there is no doubt that more organized and less lazy people could easily get high 20s in every section. Seriously. DATBooster is all you need to do well on this exam. Aim for perfection and mastery in each step of your studying and the results will come to you on test day. Review the concept behind every single question you don’t understand, even if you got it right. Good luck!
Perceptual Ability - 20
Quantitative Reasoning - 27
Reading Comprehension - 27
Biology - 23
General Chemistry - 21
Organic Chemistry - 19
Total Science - 21
Academic Average - 23
Study Materials:
DAT Booster - This is the only resource I used during my studying. I cannot stress enough how complete is this program. It’s the most affordable and representative tool for studying. I have friends who used DAT Bootcamp or Destroyer and either paid much more than I did or had questions that weren’t as representative as the real test. It was almost uncanny how similar the test was to DATBooster, from the content itself to the question style to the way the practice exams mimicked the test interface. I glanced at the Feralis-Booster Biology Notes and notes for other sections but didn’t use them much. I also didn’t utilize the Quizlet decks or watch any recommended YouTube videos. My studying consisted of watching all the videos for each section and doing all the practice tests for the biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry sections while reviewing anything/everything I didn’t understand (both right and wrong answers).
Study Timeline:
February 2022: I purchased a 90-day membership to DATBooster and started following the 12-week study schedule. At this time, I had a science-heavy course load (physics, biochemistry, and organic chemistry II) and figured that I could study DAT material during the semester alongside my courses. To properly do a study day, as in actually process and digest the information, took me about 4 hours of solid work that I always preferred to do in one sitting.
March: I continued with the 12-week study schedule until day 20 (middle of March) when I started having health problems and didn’t feel well enough to continue the daily studying on top of classes. I took some time off just to take care of myself but felt incredibly guilty doing so, knowing how behind I was putting myself. One of the last things I did was take a full-length practice exam and I did pretty poorly with my perceptual ability, quantitative reasoning, and reading comprehension around 20 and my biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry around 15. After mid-March, I stopped using DATBooster to just take some time off to rest. I did reach out to their customer service at this time to ask if I could extend my membership by a week to which they graciously agreed, as my originally planned test date had to be moved.
April: I took this entire month off to recover from health problems and also because I was busy with my courseload/incredibly lazy. Next to no studying was done outside of studying for exams in my prerequisite courses. I didn’t even log into DATBooster during this month just because I was avoiding studying while telling myself I could make it up by doing multiple study days in one day (totally unrealistic). At this point, I was basically resigning myself to a retake because I was so behind that it would be impossible to catch up according to the 12-week study schedule.
May: I continued to do nothing and be lazy for a while until about a week before the exam. I had a sudden burst of inspiration to study after seeing my friends do well on their exams and at the prospect of having to spend my entire summer studying for a retake. In the three days before the exam, I decided to focus entirely on the science sections and figured that perceptual ability, quantitative reasoning, and reading comprehension would take care of themselves. My test was on Saturday. On Wednesday, I watched every remaining biology video and did every biology practice test, reviewing all the problems I didn’t feel like I understood using the “learning” and “reviewed” marks on the tests. On Thursday and Friday, I did the same for general chemistry and organic chemistry. My days were 9 am to around 4 am (next day). I won’t lie, this was brutal but I got it done and finished review around 5 am on Saturday before leaving the house to test.
Test Day: By this point, I had not slept since the day prior. I went in fully expecting to retake and figured I had nothing to lose anyway so I might as well show up since I paid for it already. I don’t like eating breakfast so I skipped that and got to the testing site around 8 am. I got to start early after the whole routine check-in and used the optional tutorial as a 15-minute meditation session to steel myself and mentally prepare for the endurance test of doing all 280 questions.
Score Breakdown:
Perceptual Ability - 20
This was a section where I felt like either you have it or you don’t so I didn’t bother studying for it past day 20 of the schedule. In hindsight, some practice would have been useful because I actually ended up totally forgetting how to do top-front-end problems and scored a little lower than I expected. The strategies they teach you to approach the hole punching and pattern folding portions were incredibly useful. Angle ranking was done on my gut feeling and with some strategies from DATBooster. Cube counting was pretty easy for me. The keyholes were a little harder than what I saw on DATBooster. I had quite a few rock keyholes so I just went with my best guess on those. I also got more floating cubes than I expected. DATBooster has options to generate perceptual ability problems of varying difficulty which would have been useful if I utilized the program to its full potential. DATBooster is a pretty new program and they used to just be PATBooster. Their strategy guides, videos, and generators are seriously top-notch. It’s not worth it to get DATBooster just for perceptual ability practice, but it’s much more than that.
Quantitative Reasoning - 27
I didn’t study at all for this section past day 20 of the 12-week schedule. I did almost run out of time during the real DAT because I spent too much time checking my answers. However, the math on DATBooster is much harder than the real test. The questions on the DAT are laughably easy and I wasted a lot of time double-checking because I just couldn’t believe it was that simple. I had quite a few probability and statistics questions, algebra, and word problems. The math that I did review using DATBooster was much more complicated which ended up being a relief for me. I think that if you did at least pre-calculus, you can easily get a high score in this section with relatively minimal studying. Again, I didn’t study for this section but I watched the included videos and they had some useful ways to approach problems depending on the exact wording. While I didn’t see any of these problems, they definitely would have been useful if I did.
Reading Comprehension - 27
Like for quantitative reasoning, I spent very little time studying for this section. The review videos I watched for this section were pretty useful in terms of reviewing what types of problems you might see on the exam. I saw at least one of every type of question they discussed. The questions on DATBooster were much harder than the actual reading comprehension section. I think that the real test had much simpler language and the questions were in near-chronological order in terms of the passage itself. I would recommend just reading more in general instead of trying to do practice problems for reading comprehension and also reviewing the videos to see what questions might come up. This section was a breeze for me and I finished with about 10 minutes to spare. I will also disclose that the last time I read a full book was in high school so I’m not a voracious reader but that just shows how easy this section can be for nearly anyone.
Biology - 23
I truly believe that DATBooster biology is the closest you can come to cheating on this exam. I averaged around 17 on the biology practice tests. Obviously, I had a huge increase. The biology on DATBooster is selected for high yield problems and topics. It’s designed so well that I’m certain a few of the real questions were ones I had seen before. I didn’t see any virology questions but did get a few based on the new material, like epigenetics, so it's definitely there. There was not a single biology question that I had either not reviewed or couldn’t at least make a strong guess based on questions from the practice exams. I had quite a few taxonomy, developmental biology, and animal behavior questions. DATBooster biology is all-encompassing and covers everything you would need for this section in the videos and practice problems. However, it’s not all in the videos and the practice tests are designed with you having reviewed the study notes in mind. I was crunched for time and decided to forgo the notes and just dived into the problems to see what I could get based on my knowledge and the videos. Everything I didn’t understand, I marked as “learning” and drilled the explanations into my head until I did. This ended up being my strongest science section due entirely to how complete is DATBooster biology. The only way I think I could have scored higher would be through actually reviewing the included study notes.
General Chemistry - 21
The chemistry videos and practice tests were much harder than the real test. I averaged around 19 on the chemistry practice tests. It’s been a year since I’ve taken general chemistry so this material was pretty rusty but overall straightforward. The calculations and stoichiometry were much easier on the real test. I didn’t get any nuclear chemistry or laboratory questions but the DATBooster practice tests would definitely have been helpful if I did since they always had a few. Definitely review gas laws, solution chemistry, acid-base chemistry, thermochemistry, and balancing equations since I had a lot of those. DATBooster content was well-explained since they have Professor Dave Explains delivering content. I’ve heard good things about Chad’s videos on YouTube but didn’t use those. There are plenty of study notes but again, I was pressed for time and didn’t use the program to its full potential. I think I managed to do every calculation in my head and didn’t need the scrap paper for this section. You get a periodic table on this portion of the exam but I would definitely practice table trends and general element locations.
Organic Chemistry - 19
Organic chemistry has always been a weak point for me. I was taking organic chemistry II at the same time and struggling (finished with a C+) so I definitely expected this to be my weakest section. I averaged around 18 on the organic chemistry practice tests. This was hard for me just because I neglected practicing IUPAC rules and got a lot of nomenclature on my exam. I would definitely get comfortable with NMR and aromatics because those questions are the ones you should be able to do quickly and not have to review as others might require more thinking, like with multi-step reaction mechanisms. One thing that DATBooster didn’t prepare me for was that there is no periodic table on this portion of the exam. It actually worried me and I wasted a good 5 minutes worrying and tracking down my proctor to ask what happened before finding out that the periodic table is only for general chemistry. Definitely don't make that mistake on your DAT!
Review and Advice:
Pros: relatively cheap, highly representative of the exam to an uncanny degree, lots of practice problems and exams with explanations so you actually understand the reasoning, huge focus on high yield questions, great perceptual ability generators, access to Quizlet decks and study notes/sheets, incredibly helpful customer service, all-inclusive program for DAT studying
Cons: difficult to follow the study schedule during a full-time semester, pricing options are either 90 days or 180 days, poor mobile interface, limited perceptual ability generators on mobile
If you can, study during a time when you are either taking very easy classes or during the summer when you can really focus. I think if I was able to actually stick to the schedule, I would be able to increase each section's score by at least 2-3 points. Be realistic about how much you can do per day. Remember that organic chemistry does not have a periodic table. You should also know that the real DAT has a bit of lag when switching between questions, so don’t count on being able to whiz between each problem. When doing the individual science tests, you might forget that the science section on the DAT is 100 questions that collect biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry so be prepared for a grueling portion. In total, I studied for about three weeks and I was so surprised that I was able to get the score I did with so little studying, especially when I was planning on using the 12-week schedule. The program is great in that it offers you everything you need so if you study better in different ways or just need to review certain sections, you can do exactly that. The material is all there and you can learn it however you learn best. DATBooster saved my DAT and if I can get that score in three weeks, there is no doubt that more organized and less lazy people could easily get high 20s in every section. Seriously. DATBooster is all you need to do well on this exam. Aim for perfection and mastery in each step of your studying and the results will come to you on test day. Review the concept behind every single question you don’t understand, even if you got it right. Good luck!
