Forgotten_frog22
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I took the DAT a few weeks ago and want to share how I got a 24 AA with DAT bootcamp. Here’s a breakdown of my scores and strategies for each section.
I followed the 90 day study schedule provided for the most part. The first two months or so I followed it very close. Once I finished all the material I went about how I took the practice exams a little different. I took the first two practice exams in their individual sections rather than the full length exams. After that I exclusively took the full length exams. Looking back, I wish I had taken a few less full length exams and focused on certain section exams a bit more. I’ll explain in more detail on each section. I’d say the full length exams helped me feel most prepared for the real thing. Controlling your nerves on test day is vital and the practice exams were crucial for this. They also helped me figure out my rhythm when taking full lengths. Timing is really important and so the more comfortable you get on the full lengths with timing the better off you will be. Before I get into each of my strategies on each section I want to preface that I had just finished ochem 2 before beginning my DAT study and have taken various biology and physiology classes as well. How I used bootcamps resources is most likely different than someone who is less familiar with these topics.
PAT 20:
I was very intimidated at first by PAT. As I followed the study schedule and practiced each subsection I became more confident. My advice would be to just follow the study schedule to the letter and focus on the sections you struggle the most with. Practice problems are the best way to improve. I didn’t put a ton of time into it besides what it recommended from the study schedule. I scored a 20 on every practice exam I took and felt good about that so I didn’t put forth any more effort to improve my score. I was expecting to do a little better than what I was getting on my practice exams but am still happy with a 20. The real thing felt easier than the practice exams and I feel like the practice exams were very important to figuring out timing. PAT is mostly timing from my experience so if you can learn to manage your time well, then you’ll do good.
QR 19:
I hadn’t taken a math class in years and so I was a little nervous about QR from the start. I followed the study schedule which was good, but I needed to put a lot more work in. The practice exams were very representative of the real thing. The real thing felt easier, so I feel like the practice exams helped me feel less flustered on test day. I scored 18s on all my practice exams. I would go through the questions I got wrong and then did question banks on those topics. I really did not put in as much time as I should have to raise my score. I had a lot of friends that were getting 18s in QR on their practices and got a 22 on the real thing so I wasn’t too worried. Looking back I needed to work more in QR to get a better score.
RC 25:
I followed the study schedule at first for RC but not for the whole time. The most important thing here is finding which strategy works the best for you. I thought search and destroy would be what worked for me but I quickly learned that was not the case. I read an article from bootcamp on how to improve in RC and one thing I found was about key words and phrases. I began to notice patterns in the questions and passages. My strategy became reading the whole passage while highlighting what I thought could be the answer to a question and then answering all the questions. After practicing I was able to stay within 20 mins per passage. The practice exams were crucial to being prepared for the real thing. My average practice exam score for RC was a 25 and I expected to get that or higher on the real thing.
BIO 27:
I had heard a lot of different strategies and was told that it wasn’t worth putting a lot of my effort into since it’s such a broad section in terms of volume of information. A friend of mine got a 30 in bio and I chose to use his method which proved to work for me. I somewhat memorized every Anki deck from the bootcamp bio Anki deck. I followed the study schedule in terms of which section I needed to study. In the beginning, I would go through a deck a day and then followed the review schedule with the cards. After a few weeks I figured it was way too much to review all the previous cards and also do an entire deck each day. So the majority of the time I would do one full deck a day and the next day go through it again. After going through the deck a second time, I would do the associated question bank. I would try and go back to that question bank after a few days and see if I still had it down. Once I finished the material, I made an Anki deck of all the questions I would miss on practice exams and study that. Something I didn’t utilize until my last few weeks before my exam was the topic breakdown under performance. It shows all the sections and the percentage of questions you get right. This was huge because it allowed me to see which sections I was weakest in. I wish I had been using it sooner. I would go back through the question banks of those sections I had 70% or less in. I was averaging a 20 on my practice exams for bio with my highest score being a 22. I feel like the practice exams over prepared me for the real thing in bio.
GC 21:
I was scoring an average of 21 on my practice exams. I expected to score a little higher on the real thing, but am happy that I got what I was averaging. I followed the study schedule with GC but should have done a little extra work if I wanted to score higher. I would say this section is somewhat similar to bio in that it’s just stuff you need to memorize. You can’t spend too much time on one topic because there’s a chance you won’t be tested on it. Similar to bio you need a wide but superficial knowledge. The practice exams were very representative of the real exam and you can expect to score what you’re getting on the practices or higher.
OC 26:
Like I mentioned earlier, I had just finished ochem 2 before starting my dat study, so I did not follow the study schedule for OC. I did all the question banks and reaction bites which were great refreshers. The practice exams will over prepare you for the real thing in my experience. My practice exam average was a 22. On test day this section felt like a breeze. One thing I did a little different in my full length practice exams was I took the OC first since I completed it the quickest and then would go back and do bio and GC. I’m not sure it made a big difference, but I think it helped to start with something that I was confident in. I think your mental state/ attitude is the difference of a few points on your practice exams and especially on test day.
Overall, I think if you follow the study schedule, take all the practice exams and review what you struggle with you will do great! It’s normal to be nervous and feel intimidated especially at the beginning, but just take it one day at a time. If you have any questions feel free to ask! You guys got this!
I followed the 90 day study schedule provided for the most part. The first two months or so I followed it very close. Once I finished all the material I went about how I took the practice exams a little different. I took the first two practice exams in their individual sections rather than the full length exams. After that I exclusively took the full length exams. Looking back, I wish I had taken a few less full length exams and focused on certain section exams a bit more. I’ll explain in more detail on each section. I’d say the full length exams helped me feel most prepared for the real thing. Controlling your nerves on test day is vital and the practice exams were crucial for this. They also helped me figure out my rhythm when taking full lengths. Timing is really important and so the more comfortable you get on the full lengths with timing the better off you will be. Before I get into each of my strategies on each section I want to preface that I had just finished ochem 2 before beginning my DAT study and have taken various biology and physiology classes as well. How I used bootcamps resources is most likely different than someone who is less familiar with these topics.
PAT 20:
I was very intimidated at first by PAT. As I followed the study schedule and practiced each subsection I became more confident. My advice would be to just follow the study schedule to the letter and focus on the sections you struggle the most with. Practice problems are the best way to improve. I didn’t put a ton of time into it besides what it recommended from the study schedule. I scored a 20 on every practice exam I took and felt good about that so I didn’t put forth any more effort to improve my score. I was expecting to do a little better than what I was getting on my practice exams but am still happy with a 20. The real thing felt easier than the practice exams and I feel like the practice exams were very important to figuring out timing. PAT is mostly timing from my experience so if you can learn to manage your time well, then you’ll do good.
QR 19:
I hadn’t taken a math class in years and so I was a little nervous about QR from the start. I followed the study schedule which was good, but I needed to put a lot more work in. The practice exams were very representative of the real thing. The real thing felt easier, so I feel like the practice exams helped me feel less flustered on test day. I scored 18s on all my practice exams. I would go through the questions I got wrong and then did question banks on those topics. I really did not put in as much time as I should have to raise my score. I had a lot of friends that were getting 18s in QR on their practices and got a 22 on the real thing so I wasn’t too worried. Looking back I needed to work more in QR to get a better score.
RC 25:
I followed the study schedule at first for RC but not for the whole time. The most important thing here is finding which strategy works the best for you. I thought search and destroy would be what worked for me but I quickly learned that was not the case. I read an article from bootcamp on how to improve in RC and one thing I found was about key words and phrases. I began to notice patterns in the questions and passages. My strategy became reading the whole passage while highlighting what I thought could be the answer to a question and then answering all the questions. After practicing I was able to stay within 20 mins per passage. The practice exams were crucial to being prepared for the real thing. My average practice exam score for RC was a 25 and I expected to get that or higher on the real thing.
BIO 27:
I had heard a lot of different strategies and was told that it wasn’t worth putting a lot of my effort into since it’s such a broad section in terms of volume of information. A friend of mine got a 30 in bio and I chose to use his method which proved to work for me. I somewhat memorized every Anki deck from the bootcamp bio Anki deck. I followed the study schedule in terms of which section I needed to study. In the beginning, I would go through a deck a day and then followed the review schedule with the cards. After a few weeks I figured it was way too much to review all the previous cards and also do an entire deck each day. So the majority of the time I would do one full deck a day and the next day go through it again. After going through the deck a second time, I would do the associated question bank. I would try and go back to that question bank after a few days and see if I still had it down. Once I finished the material, I made an Anki deck of all the questions I would miss on practice exams and study that. Something I didn’t utilize until my last few weeks before my exam was the topic breakdown under performance. It shows all the sections and the percentage of questions you get right. This was huge because it allowed me to see which sections I was weakest in. I wish I had been using it sooner. I would go back through the question banks of those sections I had 70% or less in. I was averaging a 20 on my practice exams for bio with my highest score being a 22. I feel like the practice exams over prepared me for the real thing in bio.
GC 21:
I was scoring an average of 21 on my practice exams. I expected to score a little higher on the real thing, but am happy that I got what I was averaging. I followed the study schedule with GC but should have done a little extra work if I wanted to score higher. I would say this section is somewhat similar to bio in that it’s just stuff you need to memorize. You can’t spend too much time on one topic because there’s a chance you won’t be tested on it. Similar to bio you need a wide but superficial knowledge. The practice exams were very representative of the real exam and you can expect to score what you’re getting on the practices or higher.
OC 26:
Like I mentioned earlier, I had just finished ochem 2 before starting my dat study, so I did not follow the study schedule for OC. I did all the question banks and reaction bites which were great refreshers. The practice exams will over prepare you for the real thing in my experience. My practice exam average was a 22. On test day this section felt like a breeze. One thing I did a little different in my full length practice exams was I took the OC first since I completed it the quickest and then would go back and do bio and GC. I’m not sure it made a big difference, but I think it helped to start with something that I was confident in. I think your mental state/ attitude is the difference of a few points on your practice exams and especially on test day.
Overall, I think if you follow the study schedule, take all the practice exams and review what you struggle with you will do great! It’s normal to be nervous and feel intimidated especially at the beginning, but just take it one day at a time. If you have any questions feel free to ask! You guys got this!
