predenttsr
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- Aug 25, 2023
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Hi everyone!
I just took the DAT on August 19, 2023 and my scores are as follows: 29 AA, 24 PAT (27 Bio, 30 GC, 30 OC, 26 RC, 30 QR).
Here is my study breakdown
I studied for approximately 3 months (with a lot of random weekend breaks due to family events) and 8 hours a day easily. I mainly used DAT Bootcamp but bought Booster at the end for extra practice tests. For context, I’m an incoming Junior in college with a Biology major so I had a lot of Biology background, and I had already taken both Organic and General Chemistry. My most useful classes for the Bio section of the DAT were probably Anatomy and Cell Biology.
From May 22 to June 18th I did intense content review and really focused on Bio and General Chemistry, using my breaks to study the PAT and QR. I watched all of the Bootcamp videos and took notes on their High-Yield notes for Bio, and for Gen Chem I downloaded all of the PPTs and annotated them along with the videos. For the PAT, I took notes on a few strategies but eventually just moved on to practice- same with QR. Daily, I would complete one Bio chapter in the morning and one Gen Chem chapter in the afternoon and then do PAT practice. At the end of the day, I would review the Bio section I’d learned that morning. The next day, I would do the same thing, including completing Bio bites for the section I had reviewed the night before.
After July 18th, I finally started studying Organic Chemistry and would try to finish 2 Chapters a day. For one week, I only learnt Organic Chemistry, while doing the Bootcamp problem sets for all of the other sections. Review is most important here! After every single Bio, QR, RC, and GC question I got wrong I would take the time to take notes on what the correct answers were.
After two weeks of this, around July 2nd, I jumped straight into practice tests- which is the MOST important part in my opinion. At first, I would take the tests section by section (until I could finally learn organic chemistry). And then I started taking the practice tests as a whole. I was scoring around a 22 at this point. For reference, the Bootcamp tests are harder than the actual test so don’t get discouraged at all. After I completely finished all the Bootcamp tests (I was taking them every other day), I also got DAT Booster. I would do one full test every other day (scores ranging from 23-26) and use my time off to annotate everything I did wrong and study those specific questions. I also started doing the DAT Booster practice questions on my days off to get a hang of different question styles. I put a lot of emphasis on Bio and Organic Chem at this point since I felt those were the most conquerable science sections whereas Gen Chem was very variable. On the week of the actual exam, I took one test Monday, one Wednesday and one Thursday. I reviewed all of my Bootcamp notes Wednesday- Friday, especially focusing on the notes on all of the mistakes I made in my previous tests.
General Advice:
I just took the DAT on August 19, 2023 and my scores are as follows: 29 AA, 24 PAT (27 Bio, 30 GC, 30 OC, 26 RC, 30 QR).
Here is my study breakdown
I studied for approximately 3 months (with a lot of random weekend breaks due to family events) and 8 hours a day easily. I mainly used DAT Bootcamp but bought Booster at the end for extra practice tests. For context, I’m an incoming Junior in college with a Biology major so I had a lot of Biology background, and I had already taken both Organic and General Chemistry. My most useful classes for the Bio section of the DAT were probably Anatomy and Cell Biology. From May 22 to June 18th I did intense content review and really focused on Bio and General Chemistry, using my breaks to study the PAT and QR. I watched all of the Bootcamp videos and took notes on their High-Yield notes for Bio, and for Gen Chem I downloaded all of the PPTs and annotated them along with the videos. For the PAT, I took notes on a few strategies but eventually just moved on to practice- same with QR. Daily, I would complete one Bio chapter in the morning and one Gen Chem chapter in the afternoon and then do PAT practice. At the end of the day, I would review the Bio section I’d learned that morning. The next day, I would do the same thing, including completing Bio bites for the section I had reviewed the night before.
After July 18th, I finally started studying Organic Chemistry and would try to finish 2 Chapters a day. For one week, I only learnt Organic Chemistry, while doing the Bootcamp problem sets for all of the other sections. Review is most important here! After every single Bio, QR, RC, and GC question I got wrong I would take the time to take notes on what the correct answers were.
After two weeks of this, around July 2nd, I jumped straight into practice tests- which is the MOST important part in my opinion. At first, I would take the tests section by section (until I could finally learn organic chemistry). And then I started taking the practice tests as a whole. I was scoring around a 22 at this point. For reference, the Bootcamp tests are harder than the actual test so don’t get discouraged at all. After I completely finished all the Bootcamp tests (I was taking them every other day), I also got DAT Booster. I would do one full test every other day (scores ranging from 23-26) and use my time off to annotate everything I did wrong and study those specific questions. I also started doing the DAT Booster practice questions on my days off to get a hang of different question styles. I put a lot of emphasis on Bio and Organic Chem at this point since I felt those were the most conquerable science sections whereas Gen Chem was very variable. On the week of the actual exam, I took one test Monday, one Wednesday and one Thursday. I reviewed all of my Bootcamp notes Wednesday- Friday, especially focusing on the notes on all of the mistakes I made in my previous tests.
General Advice:
- Taking all of the practice tests were most useful for me because I felt that the questions were the most representative of the real exam!
- Make sure to use your days off really well! If I felt overwhelmed or burnt out, I would take 1-3 days of break from heavy studying just to reorient myself.
- The real exam is easier than any practice- don’t take the practice tests lightly, but don’t be tough on yourself if you’re not scoring where you want to be yet
- A lot of people followed the DAT Bootcamp/ Booster study schedules, but I didn’t and still scored fine! If the schedule works for you that’s great but it didn’t fit my pace at all (I needed to spend more time on Bio and less time and GC)
- Good luck!!
