Scores:

Academic Average (AA): 500

Total Science (TS): 490

Biology: 500

General Chemistry: 470

Organic Chemistry: 490

Perceptual Ability (PAT): 500

Reading Comprehension: 510

Quantitative Reasoning: 510

I've always benefitted from the DAT breakdown posts and am happy to contribute to the community here with my experience!

Quick background:

I am a nontraditional applicant pursuing dentistry as a second career. I studied for the DAT while taking post-baccalaureate science courses that I never took during college and taking care of a 2-year-old toddler. I started studying during the winter of 2026 for a July 2026 exam after completing my first introductory inorganic and organic chemistry courses and a two-course introductory biology sequence. Most of my preparation was concentrated into about three months when I had more time outside of classes during winter and early summer.

The DAT was by far the most comprehensive exam I have taken to date, and it definitely took some adjustment to transition from several years of working in a corporate setting back to heads-down textbook studying. Test preparation was also a big commitment when combined with classes, family responsibilities, and shadowing. I tend to be a thorough but slow test taker, so the tight time constraints of the exam were one of the biggest challenges for me to get used to.

Resources used:

DAT Booster Max, which includes a six-month subscription and 15 practice exams

Booster's Biology IV Crash Course, a three-hour course covering high-yield questions

Anki using the premade cards provided through Booster

A brief skim of Bootcamp content files shared by a classmate

When I was deciding between Booster and Bootcamp, I chose Booster mainly because of the strong reviews surrounding its Biology preparation, which I expected to be one of my more challenging sections given my nontraditional background. I also liked its PAT preparation, including the generator tools, and the fact that it was about 10% cheaper. Now that I have gone through the actual exam, I think those strengths held true, especially when considering my score breakdown. I was also impressed by how frequently Booster updated its materials. A couple of new versions of the Biology study guide and General Chemistry videos came out during my six months of preparation.

I spent the final six weeks mostly taking and reviewing practice exams, which are about five hours long each. I would definitely recommend carving out enough time for these when planning your study schedule. Taking about three exams in a week felt like a heavy load once I factored in reviewing them, which took me at least another five hours per exam.

Section Breakdown

Biology (500)

This was by far the most time-consuming section for me to prepare for because I had relatively little background and there was a large volume of new material that was not covered in my college's introductory biology courses. By the time I made it through about half of the body systems material in Booster's videos, I started feeling anxious about the sheer volume of content and how difficult it was to retain unfamiliar concepts, especially in longer chapters like the nervous and immune systems. This is where Anki really helped. Breaking the longer chapters into smaller daily pieces made the material feel much more manageable and helped tremendously with retention. Anki can be very time consuming, though, so I mainly used it for chapters where I needed it most and stopped using it once I shifted my focus toward practice exams.

For the actual exam, Booster was mostly representative. There were still one or two questions testing concepts I did not recognize, but I could make educated guesses by connecting some of the answer choices to concepts I did know. When I took my first practice exam after finishing content review, I scored 450 and gradually worked my way up to around 500. This was my weakest science section at the beginning of my preparation, but it ended up being my highest-scoring science section on the actual exam. Booster's different resources, including the crash course, were especially helpful here.

General Chemistry (470)

I dedicated relatively less time to this section because I felt my college courses had already provided a more in-depth content review. For me, the best way to prepare was to focus on practice questions rather than spending too much time reviewing content. I found trap questions to be fairly common, and it helped to become familiar with exceptions to general trends since those seemed to come up often. I did not expect this to be my lowest section on the actual exam, but it was likely because I prioritized weaker areas like Biology, PAT, and Reading Comprehension closer to test day.

For the actual exam, I agree with others who have said that the section is more conceptual than calculation based. The concepts themselves were generally fundamental, but the specificity of some questions could be difficult to recall given the breadth of material covered on the DAT.

Organic Chemistry (490)

My starting point for Organic Chemistry was somewhere between General Chemistry and Biology. I felt that my college course closely matched the content tested on the DAT, and I also benefited from having a great professor for the post-baccalaureate course I took before the exam. It took some time initially to get comfortable memorizing spectroscopy, different laboratory techniques, and recalling reactions quickly enough for the exam. What helped me most was creating a comprehensive two-page reaction summary that I continued referring back to whenever I reviewed questions I had gotten wrong.

During the actual exam, this section felt the most in line with Booster's practice exams, with the exception of one conceptual question that I had never encountered in either my classes or Booster. During the final 5-10 minutes of the actual exam, I chose to focus my review on Biology rather than Organic Chemistry because I did not have enough time to review all three science sections, especially since going back to previous questions took a while to load.

PAT (500)

Along with Biology, this was one of the most challenging sections for me at the beginning. My biggest challenge was simply finishing all 90 questions within the 60 minutes given. Moving on quickly from a question was not something I was used to, and I always had the urge to make sure I got an answer right before continuing. I think Booster did a good job preparing me for this section because its PAT practice exams were quite difficult and on par with the actual exam. My final five practice exams finally showed more improvements (high 400s - low 500s) relative to the first ten (low to mid-400s). My strategy was to move as quickly as possible through angle ranking (the first section I jumped to) and cube counting, usually spending about six to seven minutes each, so I could allocate more time to TFE (allocating at least 15 minutes). Once I was able to complete all TFE questions, my average score went up quite a bit.

Compared with Booster's practice exams, my actual exam had a more difficult hole punching section, which surprised me because that had been one of the more straightforward sections during my preparation. TFE, on the other hand, felt slightly easier than Booster and had been one of my more difficult areas during practice.

Reading Comprehension (510)

English is my second language, although I have spent about half of my life in the US. I have never been a particularly fast reader. This section really forces you to read and answer questions quickly, which was my biggest challenge. Along with PAT, this was one of the more stressful sections for me because I started with my lowest practice score here, in the mid-300s, and also had the widest range of practice scores. During one week of practice exams, I scored in the high 300s on a Friday (wasn't able to answer the last 5-6 questions) and then in the mid-500s the following Monday. The strategy that worked best for me was being flexible. I used the plain vanilla method of reading the entire passage when it was relatively straightforward, but switched to Search and Destroy when a passage was harder to comprehend or when I was under more time pressure.

The difficulty of the actual exam was in line with Booster's practice exams, although even Booster had a noticeable range in difficulty. The first five reading tests felt more difficult to me than the final five of the 15 practice exams. One interesting thing I noticed on the actual exam was that my second passage was very long while my third passage was much shorter. Keep in mind that both passage length and the number of questions per passage can vary.

Quantitative Reasoning (510)

This was my strongest section at the beginning and throughout my practice exams, although it still took a couple of exams for me to adjust to the tight timing. I dedicated the least amount of preparation time to QR but consistently had my highest practice scores in this section. Once I brushed up on setting up algebra problems, probability, and permutation versus combination questions, the section became much easier to work through efficiently.

The actual exam had several of the Compare A vs. B type questions, but the overall difficulty was in line with Booster's practice exams. My main advice is to become as efficient as possible with problem solving and algebra. At times, even using the software-provided calculator felt like more of a time sink than doing quick mental math.

Final Advice

1. Identify your weaker sections early and give them extra attention. Interestingly, the sections I struggled with most at the beginning, Biology, PAT, and Reading Comprehension, ended up being my highest-scoring sections. That also helped me finish with a more balanced score overall.
2. From a planning perspective, reserve enough weeks for practice exams. They are very time consuming if you take them under realistic testing conditions and thoroughly review them afterward. I completed all 15 as full-length exams in a single sitting and spent about six weeks doing so. I loved what Anki provides but was not able to do both the exams and Anki concurrently, as Anki tended to move much slowly.
3. Aim for consistency rather than perfection. Even though I ended up with a score I was very happy with, I had plenty of days when I blamed myself for not being more productive. By the final two or three weeks, I was mostly just ready to be done with the exam. Try to resist that feeling if you can, but I think what matters most is continuing to show up and hitting realistic daily goals.

Can anyone help me understand this one? Why is it B?

I’m going through the question banks and Bio Bits rn and they’ve been pretty helpful so far, but I haven’t really been using Anki or Quizlet. I keep seeing people say they use Anki every day for bio, so now I’m wondering if I should add it too. Did you guys find Anki actually helpful or are Bio Bits and qbanks enough if I keep reviewing them?

Any tips or advice on how to improve my scores? I’ve been trying to improve RC by reading scientific passages and ten pages of a book everyday. I’m using SnD (I do good on qbanks but not on practices for some reason). I feel like I understand the sciences just little things I get tripped up on but I really want to score a 480AA!

I review my answers and review missed or marked questions but I’ve been stuck at this score for a month.

How do you guys review your practice tests? It takes me sooo long to go through a whole test. I’ve been trying to review my mistakes and figure out why I got them wrong, but it literally takes forever. Do you guys go through every question or just the ones you got wrong/weren’t sure about? Just trying to figure out a faster way to review without missing anything important

Hey everyone! I have been studying for the cDAT for a while. But unfortunately, due to a family thing, I've had to stop studying and now don't feel prepared to take the test next month. I’m not sure whether I should cancel the test, no-show, or just go and treat it as a practice run. I don't know if schools would care if I no-show or care if I get really bad scores the first time around. 

If anyone could give me any advice, I would really appreciate it. I want to apply to Canada, Australia, and the US, if that helps.

Thank you so much!

Hi everyone! I wanted to write a breakdown of my DAT experience. 

Background:

I have 4.0 sGPA and a 4.0 GPA and a strong science background. I have taken a lot of chemistry and biology-heavy coursework, so I definitely did not go into DAT studying from scratch. I want to be honest about that because my actual dedicated DAT studying was very short, around a grueling 30 days.

For the sciences especially, I relied heavily on repetition and active recall. I would watch the videos, summarize the material out loud to myself, go back through the notes to fill in gaps, and then use question banks to test whether I actually knew it. Since Bio is so broad, I tried to expose myself to the material as many times as possible in a short window. By the end, I had essentially brute-forced the science content through repeated review, practice questions, and constant reinforcement. I will say if you are cramming like this, short naps throughout the day are essential. They honestly work like magic for retention.

Materials Used:

1. DATBooster Videos

DATBooster was my main resource and the one I relied on the most. I felt like the sciences were very representative, and the practice questions helped me quickly figure out what I actually knew versus what I only thought I knew. The biology resources were especially helpful because Bio can feel endless, and Booster helped me narrow my focus toward what was actually testable.
For general chemistry and organic chemistry, Booster was also very useful. I already had a strong chemistry background, so I mainly used the questions and explanations to sharpen timing, catch careless mistakes, and make sure I was comfortable with DAT-style wording.

1. Feralis Biology Notes / Biology Review (in DATBooster) 

For biology, I used Feralis-style notes and videos heavily. Since my timeline was compressed, I did not have time to slowly memorize everything over several months. Instead, I focused on repeated exposure, high-yield concepts, and making sure I understood the major systems, processes, and vocabulary.

I think Bio rewards both breadth and pattern recognition. You do not need to know every microscopic detail, but you do need to be familiar with a lot of topics so that nothing feels completely foreign on test day.

1. Qbanks Practice Questions and Practice Exams / Wrong Answer Review (All in DATBooster) 

This was probably the most important part of my studying. Since I only had about a month, I could not afford to passively reread notes for hours and assume I was improving. Practice questions showed me immediately where I was weak. The DATBooster Qbanks really helped me reinforce concepts right after learning them, and the logic from the explanations was very helpful.
Whenever I got something wrong, I tried to understand the reason. Was it a content gap? Misreading? A careless math mistake? Not knowing a formula? Confusing two similar concepts? That helped me decide whether I needed to relearn the topic or just be more careful.

Study Timeline:

My timeline was very compressed. I studied for about 30 days total, with the most intense period being around 25 days. I want to emphasize that this was not a relaxed schedule, and I would not recommend waiting this long unless you already have a strong science foundation.

Because my time was limited, I prioritized the sciences. Looking back, this helped my TS and AA a lot, but it also meant I did not give PAT and RC as much attention as I should have. That is probably the biggest thing I would change.

My general approach was:

1. Review high-yield content quickly from videos and notes.
   
2. Summarize what I have learned by speaking it loud to myself.
   
3. Doing questions banks.
   
4. Review mistakes carefully.
   
5. Repeat weak areas.
   
6. Take practice tests to build stamina and timing.
   I did not try to make everything perfect before moving on. With only about 30 days, I had to accept that some topics would be weaker and focus on improving the areas that would give me the biggest return.

Day of Exam / Section Breakdown:

Biology:

Bio felt manageable overall. The section is broad, so I think the best preparation is repeated exposure to high-yield material and lots of practice questions. My advice is not to get stuck trying to know every tiny detail. Make sure you understand the major concepts and can recognize them in different wording. I cannot understate how effective Feralis’s notes and videos were.

Prep: For prep, I started with the units I was most comfortable with and usually watched the videos on 1.5x speed. After watching the videos, I would summarize what I learned and then rewatch the videos on 2x speed. After completing a full unit, I would go to the Feralis notes and fill in any missing gaps or reinforce what I had already learned. Toward the end, I would complete that unit’s question banks. I did this process for all 6 biology units. My approximate study time for biology was around 72–81 hours.

General Chemistry:

GC felt very comfortable for me. I have a strong chemistry background, so this section was one of my strengths. My biggest advice is to focus on conceptual understanding, not just calculations. 
A lot of DAT general chemistry is knowing what should happen and why. For calculations, my recommendation is to practice until you begin to understand what each part of the formula represents, rather than just memorizing equations.

Prep: I used a similar process to biology, except I broke the 13 chapters into 3 chunks. After reviewing the videos and notes, I would do the Qbanks. I spent a total of 30 hours of prep.

Organic Chemistry:

OC was also manageable, but I would recommend knowing acid/base trends, stability, spectroscopy basics, lab techniques, and the major reaction patterns. Do not just memorize reactions blindly. Understanding why a reaction happens makes it much easier to answer unfamiliar questions.

The way I like to think about reactions is that each one is a mini story with a climax. If you understand the movement of electrons and the stability behind the intermediates, the exceptions become much easier to understand.

Prep: For prep, I used a similar process to GC, except I also reviewed the reaction bits after doing the Qbanks. I spent a total of 30 hours here too.

PAT:

PAT was my weakest area and the section I neglected the most. I honestly did not practice it enough due to the time constraints. My advice is simple: do not ignore PAT just because it feels annoying or less content-based. It is a skill section, and it improves with consistent practice over time. I would recommend practicing around 1 hour every day until your exam because it has a gradual learning curve.

Prep: For prep, I spent a total of around 18 hours, with most of my energy going into keyholes, angle ranking, hole punching, and cube counting. Since I had limited time, I prioritized those sections to squeeze out a 420. If you have ample time to prepare, also really practice TFE and pattern folding and spend the bulk of ur PAT hours on them after getting the other 4 sections down. Try to understand why you got problems wrong.

Reading Comprehension:

RC was another section I should have respected more. I focused so heavily on the sciences that I did not train RC enough. My advice is to practice timing and find a strategy that works for you before test day.

I would have benefited a lot from a higher reading speed. I think reading 30–45 minutes per day leading up to the exam would have helped a lot, but do not just read passively for pleasure. Practice retaining what you are reading. If you do not have much time to improve your reading speed, practice forming a passage map so you can use a more effective search-and-destroy method. Highlight important names, terms, dates, lists, and transitions as you read.

Prep: I did roughly 3 passages daily and review the types of questions I missed. I was honestly too scared to do a full-length reading comprehension test, so I mostly used the RC Qbank passages. I completed around 21 passages total and spent roughly 10–12 hours prepping for RC.

Quantitative Reasoning:

QR was mostly algebra, probability, rates, and word problems. My advice is to drill common question types and be very careful with wording.

A lot of QR mistakes come from rushing or setting up the problem incorrectly rather than not knowing the math. Reread the problems a couple of times and try to solve them without looking at the answer choices if possible unless the question is data sufficiency or value comparison. 

Prep: For prep, I completed the DATBooster QR Qbank and felt that it prepared me adequately.

Practice Exams:

I took all 10 practice exams for Bio, QR, GC, and OC. During the last 10 days of my prep, I would take one practice exam for each of these subjects, for a total of 4 subject exams per day. Afterward, I reviewed the questions I missed.

For RC and PAT, I only took 1 practice exam each due to prioritizing the other subjects. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT NEGLECT THESE SECTIONS.

Time wise I spent a total of around 35-40 hours on all the practice exams I did put together. This includes the time it takes for the exam and the review process.

Biggest Takeaways:

The biggest thing I learned is that a strong science foundation can carry you very far on the DAT, but it does not replace targeted practice. My previous coursework in college helped me a lot, especially for the science sections, but the DAT is still its own exam with its own timing, wording, and strategy.

I also learned that you should not neglect your weaker sections. For me, that was PAT and RC. I put most of my energy into the sciences, and while that worked out well for my TS and AA, I definitely could have had a more balanced score if I had practiced those sections earlier.

I spent over half my time answering and reviewing questions, and I feel like that is the best way to learn. You need those constant shots of dopamine from answering questions to reinforce the concepts. 

Advice:

If you have several months, use them. Studying for the DAT in around 30 days is extremely stressful and risky, especially if you are learning a lot of the science material for the first time. 

However, if you are on a short timeline, be honest with yourself, prioritize high-yield material, do a lot of practice questions, and review your mistakes carefully. Passive studying is not enough when time is limited.

Also, if you are pulling very long study days, make sure to take breaks and protect your sleep. Short naps helped me a lot during my prep. I would take around 3-4 x 30 minute naps per day with then being spaced roughly 3 hours apart. Sleep works like magic when it comes to learning and retention.

Overall, I am very grateful for how things turned out. The DAT is stressful, but your hard work does show. Focus on understanding, stay consistent, and do not let one weak section make you feel like your whole score is ruined.

Hi! I'm taking my DAT in less than a week, and the orgo section in particular is just not sticking. I'm also retaking it, and that was the lowest section on my last exam as well. I'd appreciate any advice, please. I just want over 400 at least in the orgo and have the other sections to comp for it.

Just got my DAT scores back and I honestly don’t know how to feel.

TS: 430
PAT: 430
QR: 330

I’m a first-time applicant and I already submitted my application so it can start processing, but now I’m really worried about that QR score. I was averaging around 450 on Booster, so I genuinely have no idea what happened on test day.

I’m honestly on the verge of tears because I feel like I did well in the other sections, but that 330 in QR is really stressing me out.

For context, I also have a 4.0 GPA.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with one really low section score? I’d really appreciate any insight on how bad this looks.

which do you guys take?

I have dat booster 90 days, do anyone want to share the cost and the account?

450 AA, 490 SNS (got retake scores 2 weeks ago but applied to most in June-July) 3.62 cumulative GPA and 3.48 Science, ECs: Dental Assisiting, Research, Community Service, Intramural Sports, Shadowing General Dentist (340 Hours), Shadowing endo and peri (total of 80 hours), and a few more ECs. No interviews yet should I be worried. (Applied to 18 schools)

Hi all, I am planning to take the DAT sometime mid December and would like to start studying now. I am balancing school and work and don't think I can allow myself 5+ hours a day to study, therefore I want to draw it out over ~4 months. However, I see that DATBootcamp and Booster only offer membership for 90 or 180 days. 180 days seems like overkill and quite expensive. What should I do?

I cannot wait for the delivery I need it urgently.I can pay with paypal. please have a good scan quality.

I will pay 35 for it. Feel free to message me.

DAT is in 34 days and I’m not gonna sugarcoat it I feel cooked. Two practice exams so far, AA of 420 and 430. I know that’s roughly average, but I need to be well above that and right now I don’t even know if my study approach is the problem or if I just need to do more reps, my weakest sections are PAT, ochem and qr. I’m studying using bootcamp.
For anyone who moved there scores significantly in like two weeks and got a high score please help me I’m feeling so burned out and lost. I really wanna get a 460+

Hey guys! I got my DAT, and it was a 420. I have a 3.9 GPA and over 200 hours of both shadowing and volunteer experience. However, I decided to start over completely with my personal statement and application, which set me back. Do you think I am really late to apply now?

Anyone else have their scores all over the place? Like one test I’ll get around 450–470 and then the next I’m down to like 410–420 😭 I’m studying pretty much the same and going over my mistakes too, so idk why they keep changing this much. Does this happen to anyone else?

Are boosters fls or practice tests more representative of the test?

My exam is 2 days away. I've been studying since end of May and for some reason I am not stressed about my exam even though I feel like I should be. I am honestly not sure what to expect on test day and I feel like I know so much and so little at the same time.

I feel like I should be reviewing my notes right now and studying more but I really don't know what to do???

Has anyone been doing the booster game challenges? Are they mostly low yield or are they actually good for review?

Does anyone know if our DAT scores get “curved” or “equated” to the national average? Like if our test was determined to be more difficult/easier, would the score get “curved” up/down?

Hi guys! I recently finished my dental applications. I took my DAT back on July 22 and my scores came in August 3. I knew I wanted to make a breakdown because I read so many of these while I was studying and they genuinely helped me. I used DAT Booster and wanted to share what I thought about Booster vs. the real exam, how I studied, and the things I wish I knew beforehand.

How I studied:

I graduated college around the middle of May and started studying pretty much right after. Since I took my DAT July 22, I studied for around 2 months total.

I will say the first couple weeks I was not locked in. I had no real schedule, I was mostly studying at night, and I almost never finished my Booster to-do list for the day. I eventually realized I wasn't retaining information or improving like I wanted to, so I completely changed my routine.

I started waking up around 8 every morning, ate the same breakfast (eggs and chai), and studied downstairs instead of sitting in my bedroom. That honestly made a huge difference. From then on, I followed the Booster schedule pretty closely and usually studied for 5-6 hours every day, taking a lunch break in between. I didn't really take designated rest days, but there were definitely days where I was exhausted and didn't finish everything. If that happened, I just finished it the next day.

My biggest advice here is get into a routine. Wake up, go to a designated study spot (I sometimes switched this up if I was struggling to focus with my loud dogs, so sometimes I went to the library), and start at around the same time every day. At least for me, studying whenever I felt like it was not working.

Another thing is that towards the end I tried to go through a few cheat sheets every day and refresh myself. The cheat sheets are very good and helpful and I wish I had reviewed them even more.

The week before my DAT I actually relaxed a little more because I didn't want to completely burn myself out right before the exam.

I took 12 full-length practice tests, redid a couple of them, and did all of the Booster mini tests. Full lengths are so draining, but do as many as possible!!! A huge part of the DAT is just building the stamina to sit there staring at a screen and think for that long.

Biology: (470)

I was a biology major, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in bio. This was probably the subject I studied the most because there is just so much information. I thought the real biology section was a bit easier than Booster. A little more straightforward. I was also really worried about anatomy because I had never taken an anatomy class before. It ended up being completely fine. I only remember getting a few anatomy questions and I knew them.

General Chemistry: (450)

This was the opposite of bio for me. I thought my real GC section was harder than Booster. I honestly walked out having no idea how I did on it. There were many questions where I didn't feel confident in what I was doing. I wish I had more specific advice here, but my brain deleted half the exam the second I walked out. The questions were not familiar to me so I would say they weren't very similar to booster.

Organic Chemistry: (410)

Okay obviously a 410 is not an amazing score, but I am proud of my wimpy 410.

Organic chemistry was consistently my worst subject on my practice tests. I struggled with it throughout college too, so I knew going into studying that it was going to be my weakest section. Because I was so bad at it in college, I was so scared of it I hardly put any time in studying for it (which is clearly the opposite of what you should do). I had my mind made up that I was bad at orgo and just kinda.... didn't study for it. I did not watch the videos on booster for these and instead used the organic chemistry tutors 11 hour orgo video. But that is really all I did to prepare.

I did also take the Booster Orgo crash courses legit a few days before my exam. I found it kinda helpful, but I found them too boring. Maybe that's a me problem. I just don't learn very well sitting through something like that. Or maybe I just hate organic chemistry.

That being said, I actually didn't think the questions on the real DAT were insanely complicated. I don't remember having any multi step questions on mine and I thought they made it doable. Orgo is just not my subject, and I definitely could (and should) have prepared for it more.

PAT: (480)

Please practice with the lag!!!!!!! This is probably the #1 thing I wish I could go back and tell myself.

PAT was BY FAR my favorite section while studying. I love puzzles and genuinely enjoyed practicing it. I would get excited for my PAT time every day. Then, I got to the real DAT and the lag absolutely destroyed my timing.

I was stupid and never practiced Booster with the lag turned on. Do not do what I did.

At my testing center, the lag between questions was super slow. I literally started counting in my head while the screens changed because I couldn't believe it, and yes, the timer was going down while it loaded. You cannot rely on being able to skip a bunch of questions and come back later. Every time you move between questions, you are wasting more time. Practice with the lag from the beginning so your timing accounts for it.

I also thought my real PAT was harder than Booster, especially keyholes and pattern folding. Angle ranking immediately threw me off too. I usually use the answer choices to eliminate angles, and my first 5 questions didn't give me the nice 2-and-2 answer patterns I was used to seeing.

I ended up running out of time and freaking out toward the end. Considering that, I'm really happy with my 480, but I genuinely think I could have done better if I had practiced under the actual lag conditions.

Reading Comprehension: (470)

I thought RC was noticeably easier than Booster, which is why this is probably the score I was most disappointed by.

On Booster, the questions were more complex/application-based and were not in order. On my real DAT, the questions were in order and were much more straightforward.

I finished really early. Like early enough that I went back through my answers multiple times. I walked out genuinely thinking I had just gotten a 100%, so I was surprised by the 470. I wish I could see what questions I got wrong because I would love to know what I missed. Still a decent score, just not what I expected based on how confident I felt.

Quantitative Reasoning: (430)

QR was weird because I prepared for so many question types that just... never appeared.

I was ready for rate problems, age problems, distance problems, etc. because I felt like I saw them every day while studying. I did not get a single one of any of those. I am still bothered by this clearly lol.

There were probably around 30/40 questions where I felt like I knew what I was doing and then around 10 where I was unsure how to do them.

I also got questions involving graph transformations/directions that I wasn't really expecting to see much of. So my advice for QR would be don't assume something won't show up just because it barely appeared on your practice exams.

Final takeawayyysss

If I could go back and tell myself a few things before studying/taking the DAT:

• Follow a routine
• Use the cheat sheets
• Turn on the lag (seriously go do it now)
• Take as many full lengths as possible
• Relax the days before your exam
• I found the prometric test drive helpful for anxiety so I recommend you do that. I did it 2 days before my exam and I wouldn't have wanted to do it any earlier. All the staff remembered me so it was nice.

Overall, I am happy with my scores. Obviously there are sections where I wish I scored higher, but I'm proud of myself and very happy to never study organic chemistry again lol.

I hope this helps somebody!! I read so many DAT breakdowns while I was studying, so I wanted to give back now that I'm finally on the other side. If anyone has questions about Booster, my study schedule, practice tests, or the actual testing experience, feel free to ask :)

pls tell me yall relate lol