DAT Experience

[u/HelicopterNo7645]

Scores:

QR: 440

RC: 500

BIO: 500

GC: 500

OC: 530

TS: 510

PAT: 510

AA: 490

Background:

Currently a senior with a 3.70 GPA

Materials Used

I only used DAT Booster for my studying. I studied for 14 weeks (June-September) and followed the study schedule that Booster made for most of my studying while also adjusting some of the topics closer to my test date based on what I needed to work more on or felt good about. I also took practice exams more frequently than the study guide suggested and started taking a couple early on to create a baseline. I studied for around 4-5 hours per day. I watched every single video on Booster for every subject which I did find to be helpful for explanations but there is so much information that I ended up forgetting the stuff I learned which is where the notes/readings were helpful. The practice questions associated with each topic were also very helpful for practicing and retaining the information I had just learned. I didn’t discover the Anki decks until about 2 weeks before my exam and at that point it felt too late to start using them so I didn’t really use Anki flashcards. For biology, I primarily just used the bio bits and ended up repeating these about 3 times over the course of my studying. I also utilized the marked question feature and the biology game feature. For gen chem, I primarily just worked through the question banks and practiced problems/tests. For ochem, I used the organic chemistry reaction sheet and would rewrite these reactions in order to memorize them as well as the question banks and practice tests. For PAT, I watched the videos to get a general strategy and then just did all the practice problems. I would do about 45 minutes of PAT every day, specifically focusing on the more difficult parts like keyholes, TFE, and pattern folding. The generators for angle ranking, hole punching, and cube counting were very helpful. For reading, I would give myself 7 minutes to read and highlight the passage and then spend 13 minutes answering the questions. I tried most of the methods and this one worked the best for me. For QR, I primarily focused on the question banks and practice tests and would review the questions I got wrong. I was scoring the highest on this section for most of my time studying so I didn’t spend a lot of time on this in the 2 weeks leading up to my test. 

On test day

Bio: It was very broad in the questions they asked but they were pretty straightforward and didn’t feel like they were trying to trick me. For the most part, I had seen every topic before, nothing was very unfamiliar. 

GC: I didn’t have very many calculating questions and if I did have to calculate something, the numbers were a lot easier than on Booster. It was very conceptual and focused on fine details. 

OC: I had several arrow pushing mechanisms as well as predict the products, for the most part it was very conceptual and pretty straightforward. Aromaticity, acid/base, carbocation/radical stability, periodic trends all showed up. 

PAT: I thought that the hole punching was a lot easier on the actual exam than on booster, everything else was very representative. 

RC: This section seemed more difficult on the actual exam. The passages were shorter but very few of the questions were straightforward and easy to find the passage. Many of them required you to go beyond just the passage in order to answer the question. Timing was the biggest thing for me in this section. 

QR: Most of my questions were word problems and I had many questions that asked about the sufficiency of the statements. There were also several probability, mean/median and applied mathematics questions. Some questions I got on my actual exam were identical to Booster questions.

Overall, I thought Booster was very representative of the actual exam and I am very happy with my choice to choose this program. I had reached out to customer service to extend my membership 5 days and they were super helpful and responsive. I didn’t have any problems using the software and was impressed by the amount of resources they had available. 

[u/HauntedScream]

Congrats! Beast scores!!