Hi everyone, I took my DAT earlier this week and thought I might do a breakdown. Before I took the test I learned a lot of helpful information from others’ write ups, so hopefully this information can help somebody else!
Scores:
PAT – 27
QR – 25
RC – 28
Bio – 26
GC – 27
OC – 21
TS – 24
AA – 25
Background: I’m a senior Biochemistry major with a 3.5 GPA. I took a semester off so there were parts of biology from bio 1/2 that I had to work to relearn. Last semester I took molecular biology and genetics so those sections were very fresh (didn’t spend as much time reviewing)
Materials used:
I began planning for my DAT prep in September of last year. I decided to go with the 12 week schedule because a good amount of material was no longer fresh in my mind (I took organic 1&2 ~1.5 years ago, bio 1&2 ~3 years ago). In addition, the majority of my studying would take place during my senior spring semester. I’m only taking 2 classes, but both have labs, and they’ve ended up being pretty time consuming. I think my workload ended up being equivalent to taking three classes. On average, I spent 3 hours a day on DAT prep. I stopped doing RC and PAT practice (aside from on the mock tests) at around the halfway point. I felt like I was getting decent scores, and needed to spend the time on the science sections. I didn’t do many of the gen chem optional videos. Towards the end I hit the study notes for all sections fairly hard. I think they are very well written and concise. I began studying December 20th. I took my test March 13th which was roughly 12 weeks. At the time, Booster hadn’t updated the 12 week schedule, so I just used the 10 week one until the 12 came out, and then swapped out for the updated 12 week schedule. The change was seamless.
A few tips I would go back in time and tell myself:
-If you miss a day don’t panic. Actually, even if you miss several. There were a few times where I had to chop up a day or two and add it to other days. This worked fine and it seemed like Booster wasn’t designed to be used one single way.
-Slight modifications are not just fine, but good! I have difficulty paying attention to lectures on the computer compared to in person. Most of the videos I watched on 1.5x speed, and I spent more time reading the study notes. If you’re like me and forget a lot after watching a video, you might benefit from spending more time on a different format.
-Try to take the practice tests in a quiet, individual desk space. I used my library’s cubicle desks and the experience was very close to what it was like at the test center.
Practice test scores:
Bio (13,18,19,20,22,19,19,23,21,22)
GC (17,25,21,21,21,20,20,22,26,20)
OC (20,19,21,22,20,22,16,20,19,21)
PAT (19,22,24,21,21,21,22,24,20,22)
RC (21,21,22,23,22,24,26,24,24,26)
QR (19,22,24,23,23,23,23,30,25,25)
Day of Exam:
The day before I felt very nervous about the test. Booster suggests you take the day completely off studying and I’m glad I did. Hanging out with my friends and family helped take my mind off the test.
Bio (26): The bio questions felt easier than the Booster practice tests. I’ve heard other people talk about studying for “breadth over depth” in biology and I agree. Very few questions were the type of highly-specific, pointed questions that I was afraid of encountering. I would recommend memorizing as much of the Booster bio cheat sheets as you can as they covered A LOT of the content on the test. I spent a lot of time studying for this section and I feel very lucky to have gotten a 26 on this section. Bio doesn’t come easy to me and I had to study a lot of material over and over, even during the final week.
GC (27): This section felt slightly easier than the practice tests but very close. I felt like more questions were conceptual than the on the practice tests, in particular the ones about enzyme kinetics, rate of reaction, free energy, and thermodynamics. Overall I think doing all the extra practice problems and reviewing the study notes was very effective in preparing for the questions on the real test.
OC (21): This was the section I had the most difficulty in overall. I didn’t really improve much on my practice test scores or the actual section on the test. Although I was hoping to do slightly better I was happy that I got the score I did. On practice test 7 I got a 16 on this section which definitely made me panic a little during the prep. After getting that score I started reviewing a lot heavier and I started using the ACS study guide in addition to redoing all the extra practice problems on booster. This section I felt was very balanced in terms of the kinds of questions asked and that it covered a wide range of topics without overemphasizing anything in particular. I would try to commit as many solvents/unique reactions to memory as I think I got tripped up on the products of certain reactions.
PAT (24): I felt this section was much easier than the practice problems/practice tests. I think they were about the same difficulty as some of the easier generator problems. For almost every question on the keyholes, TFE, and pattern folding, I was able to narrow it down to one of two options, and the correct option was not hard to deduce. The angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching felt closer to booster practice tests but maybe a little easier. I would make sure to practice floating cubes for the cube counting section, I had a couple on there. Overall since the KH/TFE were easier I had a bit more time than usual on the practice tests to review answers at the end.
RC (28): I think I had a fair bit of luck on this section because in all honestly this section felt slightly harder than most of the practice tests. The passages were a bit denser and I felt like the sentences had more details than I was used to. When studying for RC, I tried all the methods but settled on hunting and pecking the answer for each question as I got the same score for this method as the others while having more time to review answers. I would do as much RC practice as you can until you feel very comfortable with your technique.
QR (25): This section felt very close to the booster practice tests. There seemed to be a lot of graphing questions, I had one or two covering the equation of a circle on a graph. Overall there were no surprises on this section, what helped me during studying was just marking every question I missed and reviewing the concepts/strategy and redoing them until I was getting them right. There were also a good amount of multi-part graph interpretation questions where they asked you to do some math on different numbers on the graph.
Ending Advice
I’ve read a lot of great write ups from other people and after taking my DAT I realize there’s no single correct way to prepare for this test. I think being very honest with what you know/don’t know is critical for using your study time effectively. I was nervous at times because I was hoping to study around 5-6 hours a day and ended up doing ~3 hours a day. However if you dial in while studying and minimize distractions, you prepare very effectively even with a tighter schedule. Some good advice I got from a friend who took the test before me was that you likely won’t feel confident until close to the end of your prep. I definitely experienced this. After the end of the learning phase (first 7 weeks) I did not feel like I had retained almost any of the material. As you do the practice tests, you will be able to gauge your strengths and areas more accurately for improvement. Good luck and you can do it!
Scores:
PAT – 27
QR – 25
RC – 28
Bio – 26
GC – 27
OC – 21
TS – 24
AA – 25
Background: I’m a senior Biochemistry major with a 3.5 GPA. I took a semester off so there were parts of biology from bio 1/2 that I had to work to relearn. Last semester I took molecular biology and genetics so those sections were very fresh (didn’t spend as much time reviewing)
Materials used:
- DATBooster – I think booster was very representative of the kinds of questions on the test. I felt like I was getting déjà vu on the biology section especially—there were many questions that felt almost straight out of booster practice problems. Booster was very helpful in getting up to speed for the biology section, which was my main challenge coming into the test. Hit the Feralis notes hard! I really appreciated how they continuously update the sections, as some of the materials they added I encountered again on my test. I thought their PAT generators were very close to the PAT section on the real test. I was recommended Booster by a friend who used the 8-week schedule and scored a 24 on the real test (and is now a D1). I used the 12-week schedule and was very satisfied with how it was laid out. The cheaper price compared to other prep courses was the main draw for me. Although I can’t speak to other courses, I am really happy I ended up using booster.
- ACS organic chemistry study guide – I took the ACS test for organic chemistry 1.5 years ago while I was taking organic 2. The ACS has a study guide for that test which I went through before the ACS exam, and ended up scoring very highly. The “study questions” go over the logic of correct and incorrect answers in depth. In college, organic chemistry felt much easier than my biology classes, so I expected to have an easier time studying for the organic sections. Although I didn’t really improve on my organic scores throughout the 12 weeks of studying, there were some problems I don’t know if I could have figured out if I hadn’t done the study guide again.
I began planning for my DAT prep in September of last year. I decided to go with the 12 week schedule because a good amount of material was no longer fresh in my mind (I took organic 1&2 ~1.5 years ago, bio 1&2 ~3 years ago). In addition, the majority of my studying would take place during my senior spring semester. I’m only taking 2 classes, but both have labs, and they’ve ended up being pretty time consuming. I think my workload ended up being equivalent to taking three classes. On average, I spent 3 hours a day on DAT prep. I stopped doing RC and PAT practice (aside from on the mock tests) at around the halfway point. I felt like I was getting decent scores, and needed to spend the time on the science sections. I didn’t do many of the gen chem optional videos. Towards the end I hit the study notes for all sections fairly hard. I think they are very well written and concise. I began studying December 20th. I took my test March 13th which was roughly 12 weeks. At the time, Booster hadn’t updated the 12 week schedule, so I just used the 10 week one until the 12 came out, and then swapped out for the updated 12 week schedule. The change was seamless.
A few tips I would go back in time and tell myself:
-If you miss a day don’t panic. Actually, even if you miss several. There were a few times where I had to chop up a day or two and add it to other days. This worked fine and it seemed like Booster wasn’t designed to be used one single way.
-Slight modifications are not just fine, but good! I have difficulty paying attention to lectures on the computer compared to in person. Most of the videos I watched on 1.5x speed, and I spent more time reading the study notes. If you’re like me and forget a lot after watching a video, you might benefit from spending more time on a different format.
-Try to take the practice tests in a quiet, individual desk space. I used my library’s cubicle desks and the experience was very close to what it was like at the test center.
Practice test scores:
Bio (13,18,19,20,22,19,19,23,21,22)
GC (17,25,21,21,21,20,20,22,26,20)
OC (20,19,21,22,20,22,16,20,19,21)
PAT (19,22,24,21,21,21,22,24,20,22)
RC (21,21,22,23,22,24,26,24,24,26)
QR (19,22,24,23,23,23,23,30,25,25)
Day of Exam:
The day before I felt very nervous about the test. Booster suggests you take the day completely off studying and I’m glad I did. Hanging out with my friends and family helped take my mind off the test.
Bio (26): The bio questions felt easier than the Booster practice tests. I’ve heard other people talk about studying for “breadth over depth” in biology and I agree. Very few questions were the type of highly-specific, pointed questions that I was afraid of encountering. I would recommend memorizing as much of the Booster bio cheat sheets as you can as they covered A LOT of the content on the test. I spent a lot of time studying for this section and I feel very lucky to have gotten a 26 on this section. Bio doesn’t come easy to me and I had to study a lot of material over and over, even during the final week.
GC (27): This section felt slightly easier than the practice tests but very close. I felt like more questions were conceptual than the on the practice tests, in particular the ones about enzyme kinetics, rate of reaction, free energy, and thermodynamics. Overall I think doing all the extra practice problems and reviewing the study notes was very effective in preparing for the questions on the real test.
OC (21): This was the section I had the most difficulty in overall. I didn’t really improve much on my practice test scores or the actual section on the test. Although I was hoping to do slightly better I was happy that I got the score I did. On practice test 7 I got a 16 on this section which definitely made me panic a little during the prep. After getting that score I started reviewing a lot heavier and I started using the ACS study guide in addition to redoing all the extra practice problems on booster. This section I felt was very balanced in terms of the kinds of questions asked and that it covered a wide range of topics without overemphasizing anything in particular. I would try to commit as many solvents/unique reactions to memory as I think I got tripped up on the products of certain reactions.
PAT (24): I felt this section was much easier than the practice problems/practice tests. I think they were about the same difficulty as some of the easier generator problems. For almost every question on the keyholes, TFE, and pattern folding, I was able to narrow it down to one of two options, and the correct option was not hard to deduce. The angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching felt closer to booster practice tests but maybe a little easier. I would make sure to practice floating cubes for the cube counting section, I had a couple on there. Overall since the KH/TFE were easier I had a bit more time than usual on the practice tests to review answers at the end.
RC (28): I think I had a fair bit of luck on this section because in all honestly this section felt slightly harder than most of the practice tests. The passages were a bit denser and I felt like the sentences had more details than I was used to. When studying for RC, I tried all the methods but settled on hunting and pecking the answer for each question as I got the same score for this method as the others while having more time to review answers. I would do as much RC practice as you can until you feel very comfortable with your technique.
QR (25): This section felt very close to the booster practice tests. There seemed to be a lot of graphing questions, I had one or two covering the equation of a circle on a graph. Overall there were no surprises on this section, what helped me during studying was just marking every question I missed and reviewing the concepts/strategy and redoing them until I was getting them right. There were also a good amount of multi-part graph interpretation questions where they asked you to do some math on different numbers on the graph.
Ending Advice
I’ve read a lot of great write ups from other people and after taking my DAT I realize there’s no single correct way to prepare for this test. I think being very honest with what you know/don’t know is critical for using your study time effectively. I was nervous at times because I was hoping to study around 5-6 hours a day and ended up doing ~3 hours a day. However if you dial in while studying and minimize distractions, you prepare very effectively even with a tighter schedule. Some good advice I got from a friend who took the test before me was that you likely won’t feel confident until close to the end of your prep. I definitely experienced this. After the end of the learning phase (first 7 weeks) I did not feel like I had retained almost any of the material. As you do the practice tests, you will be able to gauge your strengths and areas more accurately for improvement. Good luck and you can do it!
