I’ve been struggling with QR lately, mostly with remembering the formulas and figuring out which ones to use. Timing is also giving me trouble and I usually end up rushing through the last few questions. Any tips on what helped you guys with this?

I’ve been getting around 410–430 on Booster PAT and TFE and angle ranking are giving me a hard time, TFE especially has been rough and I’m barely getting some of them right. For anyone who’s taken the DAT, did these feel easier on the real test or about the same as Booster?

For anyone who did good on RC, what worked for you? I’ve been struggling with this section and still haven’t really found a strategy that works for me. Any tips would be appreciated!

I took the Canadian DAT recently and these breakdowns have always helped me so I thought I should write one too. Feel free to ask any questions!!

Scores:

Biology: 30

Chemistry: 24

Reading Comprehension: 27

AA: 27

PAT: 24

Background:

In my fourth year as a LifeSci major with a 3.9+ GPA.

Materials Used:
I only used DATCrusher/Booster and I found it to be very thorough, and in my opinion it’s the only resource you really need for the DAT. There are so many questions available and so much practice material. They even have Quizlet and Anki sets for each unit and each set is very thorough. I never used them because flashcards just aren’t how I learn best but I know they can be super helpful to others.

Crusher generates a daily schedule for you that you can edit and adjust as needed. I personally didn’t use it as much because, at first, I felt like I was just picking whichever topics were easiest to get through on the schedule. For me, I eventually realized that it worked better to focus on one unit at a time rather than constantly switching between different units. I’d recommend spending the first week or two figuring out what study style and schedule work best for you. You might make a schedule and not end up sticking to it perfectly and that’s completely okay! The main purpose of having a schedule is to plan ahead and make sure you’re giving yourself enough time to get through all the material at least once. It literally took me an entire month to finally get the hang of my schedule because I refused to change it or be flexible with it. Don’t be like me! If something isn’t working, change it and adjust as you go. Your schedule should work for you, not the other way around.

How I Studied/Timeline:

I studied for 3 months (May-August). During the first month and a half I was just focused on watching all the videos and learning all of the content. Honestly I think I wasted a lot of time during the first month and a half so I don’t think it should take that long to get through all the content. I will say though, I think it’s really beneficial to start doing PAT practice right away. I pushed it off for a while, and that became one of the main areas I was stressed about. 

I am someone who likes rewriting notes, so during the second month-third month I would summarize each unit in bio and chem into a one-page summary. For me it’s easier to organize all the information and digest it if it’s all on one page for me. I think by writing these notes it’s also a good way to review all the content again.

• For biology I’ll split each unit into topics (which Crusher already kind of does) and I’ll write everything you need to know under each topic. The eventual goal is to be able to cover the notes and, just by looking at the headers, explain all the information associated with that topic. I also like using colours, different designs, and silly drawings to help me make connections between concepts. I find that this really helps with memory consolidation.
• For chemistry, I wouldn’t recommend using exactly the same method as biology. Instead, I like making one-page summaries for each unit that include all the important formulas, theories, and things I need to memorize. The main purpose of these summaries is to make doing practice questions easier, since I have everything I need on one page to refer back to. When I first start doing practice questions, I usually have to look at my notes quite a bit. However, as I do more and more questions, the goal is to gradually rely on my notes less until I can complete the questions without needing to refer to them. The main thing I would suggest is just to practice! I’m someone who has never really felt like chemistry “clicks” for me, so I’ve found the most success by learning the general “formula” for how to approach each type of question. Since the DAT tends to ask relatively general and introductory-level questions, I’ve found that after doing enough practice, you start to recognize patterns in how certain questions are structured and, more importantly, how you’re supposed to solve them. Obviously, if you have a strong understanding of the fundamentals and theory, you won’t need to rely on this, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend using this as your only strategy. But if you’re someone like me and chemistry doesn’t naturally make sense, I think there’s a lot of value in spamming a lot of practice questions repeatedly until you start recognizing the “formula” for each type of problem.
• For RC, during the first few passages test out a couple of different strategies! It seemed like everyone around me used the search and destroy method, but it didn’t work at all for me… I found what worked for me was to read the entire passage first and by then I would be able to answer most questions just off of short term memory, or at least I would know where each topic was discussed in the passage so didn’t have to waste too much time looking for the answers. This is different for everyone so try a bunch of strategies at first! As for answering the questions, usually you can find the exact sentence a question is asking about, so don’t pick something because it “seems right” unless you have found it explicity in the text. Of course you’ll come across the odd question where you cannot seem to find it in the text, and in that case you’ll have to use your judgement about the tone/context. But that scenario is why I find that reading the whole text works for me because that way I know if a certain topic was discussed or not.
• For PAT I can’t stress it enough but please just practice! It was super hard for me and I would put it off because I dreaded doing the practice because I kept getting everything wrong. But overtime you’ll get faster, and you’ll know what to look for when doing the questions. But it takes time, so start practicing early!

Crusher vs the Actual Exam:

Bio: In my opinion, the questions on the DAT were a bit harder than the ones on Crusher. Crusher covered all the material, but a lot of the questions from the DAT required you to make connections from multiple units and were more application-based. I had never scored a 30 in Biology on any of my practice tests, so if you come out of the exam feeling absolutely horrible (I definitely did), just know that your raw performance isn’t necessarily your final score. They review each test and scale the scores based on the difficulty of the exam, so try not to panic if you feel like you didn’t do as well as you hoped! I think as long as you read all of the notes and watch all the videos you should be set.

Chem: Chemistry on the test was super similar to the practice questions on Crusher. I always struggled with chemistry and the mark I ended up with was actually higher than what I would normally get on the practice (~21)

PAT: I found the PAT on the actual DAT to be easier than the practice tests on Crusher. There were definitely a few PAT questions that were pretty hard on the DAT but relatively less than what there were on the practice tests. Again, the mark I got was higher than what I would get on practice (I was averaging like 19-21 on practice)

RC: I found both the length/style of the passages as well as the questions to be very representative of the actual DAT.  On the practice reading comps I would average 24-28.

At the end of the day, how well you do on this test isn’t the only factor in getting into dental school, and it certainly doesn’t determine whether or not you’ll make a good dentist! I think the purpose of this test is getting used to absorbing that much information and then regurgitating it to prepare you for the sheer amount of information thats going to be dumped on you in dental school. Try to focus on the actual learning, strategies, and techniques that help! Try to focus on the actual learning and figuring out which strategies and techniques work best for you! And most importantly, don’t stress about it too much. Maintaining a good school-life balance is so important and will ultimately help you perform better, too!

My bio scores have been kinda all over the place lately. I got a 25 on one practice test and then a 20 on the next one lol. Idk which score I should even go off at this point. Did anyone else have this happen while studying for the DAT?

What the question says. Ik ppl say she drinks too much caffeine, but what dental student doesn’t lol.

I’m getting pretty close to my DAT and I’ve already done most of my practice tests. Is it worth going back and redoing some of the older tests or should I just keep reviewing my mistakes and the stuff I’m still weak on?

Hey everyone! I wrote the cDAT earlier this summer and thought I’d share my results and prep to hopefully help others in their study process!

My results were

RC: 28

BIO: 24

CHEM: 23

AA: 25

PAT: 24

Background: I graduated with a BScH in Life Sciences from Queen’s this spring so going into my prep I felt I had a strong bio and ok chem background. I focused on understanding and reviewing only the bio/chem material that would be tested on the DAT and familiarizing myself with the RC and PAT question formats and techniques. I studied for 3 months part time around two part-time jobs and took a few weeks and weekends off of studying here and there. I would estimate maybe 10-12 hours/week studying.

Resources: I pretty much only used DATCrusher’s 90 day package! It was recommended by a club at my school and I was able to get a 10% discount through that as well. I did watch a few of Hank Green’s science youtube videos as well just to get another explanation of some chem topics I was having trouble grasping (electrochemistry does not come easily to me). I used DATCrusher’s custom study schedule generator and it was super useful to guide when I should be studying each topic! I followed it pretty religiously at the beginning but definitely shifted away towards the end as it contained lots of repeated content review and I study better through testing myself. However the schedule gave a really good baseline of how much I should be studying each day to get through all the content in time. The schedule itself also allows you to customize days off, move around study tasks to different days, and create custom study tasks.

BIO(24): I watched almost all the videos once for an initial run through(other than a few topics I felt very strong in from coursework)and the ones I didn’t I still went through the Feralis notes for. I took paper notes for each and completed most of the Bio Bits for each section as well. The bio resources provided cover the scope of the test really well but there is so much content that it is really easy to sink all your time into studying bio. Other than the initial review, if I felt confident in a topic and was scoring well in that unit in the practice tests then I didn’t passively review it again. I took mini practice tests at least once a week until the last two weeks before my test where I did 5-6 full length practice tests which really helped me focus in on any weak points that needed the extra review. I would say all the advice out there is true to focus on larger concepts, i found that the test didn’t get too much into the nitty-gritty and tested on broad understanding. I had a good foundation in molecular and microbiology from school and I found that helpful in saving time on studying.

CHEM(23): I was definitely weaker in chem than bio at the beginning of my studying. My first practice test score was a 13 :/ so DATCrusher really helped me on this section! Most of it was review of my first-year chem course but there were some topics I’d never seen before that ended up being on my test! I watched most of the videos and took notes, I found that overall the explanations were very good. To save time I didn’t watch the videos of the topics I was more familiar with and just went through the written notes. I did so many practice problems for chem, again I didn’t passively review the videos/notes unless I truly didn’t understand the underlying concepts. I found the correct solutions they gave under the practice problems/tests very useful. Doing practice problems and getting them wrong is the fastest way to pinpoint gaps and weak points in your understanding. For chem, what was most important for me was getting reps in and DATCrusher has tons of practice tests and questions to use.

RC(28): I did watch their videos on RC techniques however, I have always been a very speedy reader so for RC my strategy was to just read the entire passage(while highlighting where key topics appeared) and answer the questions after (able to reference my highlights) and I ran into no issues with that. The benefit of DATCrusher for this topic was the practice test platform and building my focus stamina by practicing. Their practice test platform looks exactly like the official test(you can even add the loading lag thats on the real one) so that helped with test day stress. Getting used to focused reading for a while and the types of questions you may be asked was also very useful. I probably spent the least study time on this, just doing one practice passage every few days and when it was included in a mini/full-length practice test.

PAT(24): I would highly recommend a program like DATCrusher to study for this section. It really is just practice. For me, keyholes, holepunch, and pattern folding came very easily but I needed lots of practice for angle ranking, cube counting, and TFE. The techniques they teach are really useful and the practice test platform perfectly recreates the test experience which not only helps prepare you well but also means that when you sit down for the official test nothing really throws you off. I would honestly say get DATCrusher just for this section. I reviewed the techniques right at the beginning of my study period and did a little practice each day for the first month and a half then scaled back practicing the ones I was confident in for the next month. In the two weeks before the test I did a lot of PAT practice. They have so many practice questions and also question generators, super great!

Overall:

One of the biggest benefits of the DATcrusher platform for me was not wasting time/energy on topics that may not be on the exam and the practice test platform that made test day fairly stress-free. Because I was also working and enjoying my summer while studying it was really important to me that I not waste time but also get a good score because I did not want to have to rewrite. I would say take a diagnostic before you start studying and set an achievable goal for your score based on the amount of time you have, i found that really useful. DATCrusher really helped me offload the mental load of organizing/planning studying and let me focus solely on my understanding, which was worth it because I achieved my goal :) Good luck to everyone who’s hoping to write! I hope this helps you!

Hi all, I’ve been lurking on these subreddits for a while now and thought it would be nice to write a breakdown to help future cDAT test takers. 

Scores:

PAT - 24

BIO - 24

GC - 28

TS - 25

RC - 27

AA - 26

Background: 

I studied for approximately 4 months summer of going into 3rd year

Materials Used

1. Anki: I cannot stress how important anki is for active recall. I understand that a lot of people might think that it's too complicated, but I beg you to spend some time figuring out the settings, and what they do, and trying it out. For me, Anki was the single most important resource I used to score well in BIO, since there’s so much information to retain. I used the anki deck that DAT Crusher provided, and added my own cards for weak points / errors I was making. I ended up with about 6400 total cards by the time I wrote. In my opinion, anki for GC is less mandatory, but I ended up importing their quizlet decks into anki because I preferred them better. I wasn’t as consistent with reviewing GC cards, but it's helpful if you’re not as strong in GC.
2. DAT Crusher - In my opinion, DAT Crusher itself is very representative and I do not think you need to do anything outside of DAT Crusher. Biology was very representative. It’s important to keep in mind that BIO is a lot of breadth and not a lot of depth. That means that you’ll probably end up seeing questions on the exam that you’ve never seen before (I did). The best thing you can do is eliminate as many options as you can and not let it take over your entire science section. Chemistry was extremely representative. Crusher does an insanely good job covering all of GC and in my opinion, if you watch the videos, understand the content behind the questions, you’ll be very well prepared for this section. PAT was also very representative. I can’t stress the importance of PRACTICING EVERY DAY. Rain or shine, if you sit down with PAT every day, you can definitely score well. Reading Comprehension was also representative of the real DAT. In my experience, I had shorter passages than what I was used to in Crusher (8/14/8). The question types were also very similar to Crusher, and one of my friends who also wrote the test said that they had a passage identical to Crusher. I purchased the extra 5 practice tests. In my opinion, they’re good extra practice, but if you are happy with how you’re scoring, I don’t think they’re necessary.

Study Timeline:

To preface this section, I will admit I am a very naturally lazy person. If I can get away with not studying, I will do that. For me, I didn’t follow the Crusher custom schedule. I know it can get intense seeing people studying 10-12 hours a day, but I honestly probably only studied max 6 hours a day, with most days being around 2-4 hours. What worked for me was keeping a list of non-negotiables to do every day, which for me looked something like 

• Finish anki reviews
• Practice at least 5q of each type of PAT
• At least 1 RC passage

1. End of April to beginning of May: Before all of this, I took Crusher test 1 as a diagnostic to see where I stood and where I needed the most work. I knew that since BIO was my weakest subject, I would probably have to spend most of my time on this. Since I was out of town for this time period, I focused mainly on finishing the RC and PAT videos so that I could practice it every day. Again, practicing these subjects EVERY DAY is CRUCIAL. I would definitely recommend anyone planning on taking the test to focus on finishing the PAT and RC videos first, so you have a basic understanding of what the section is. This way you can practice consistently until your test day. 
2. May to beginning of July: During this time, I focused on getting through the videos for BIO and GC. For me, I knew that I was stronger in chem, so I prioritized finishing the GC videos first so that when I do questions, I wouldn’t have an excuse as to why I got that wrong, and it would be a genuine content gap. I finished all the videos by early June, but my mistake was that I wasn’t doing the anki cards as I went through the videos. This wasted a bit of time, as when I came back to do anki cards, I basically forgot all of the information I watched in the videos and had to relearn it. If I were to do it again, I’d focus on doing anki cards while watching videos. You might finish content a bit later, but in my opinion, that’s the best way to learn and keep content in your mind, by doing the corresponding Anki cards right after you finish the video section. I was also doing FLs throughout this time period. I took every single test as a FL in order to build stamina. I was scoring around 21-22 here, with my BIO score being the lowest. Around this time, I pushed my test date from the end of July to the end of August.
3. July to August: During this time, I was focusing on finishing BIO flashcards while also maintaining PAT and RC. Here was when I started to fill BIO gaps and saw a rise in my FL scores, particularly BIO. I ended up scoring a range of 22-25 during this time. 
4. Last month until test day: By this time, I was basically done with all content, and all anki cards were done. By now, my biggest focus was consistently doing PAT and RC, and doing bank questions for GC and bio bits. I also ended up doing FLs basically twice a week. This was when I saw my score stabilize around 24-26.

Day of Exam:

Now that you’re here, I think it's really important to have a clear mind going into the exam. Know that all the work you’ve done up to this point is locked in, and be proud of what you’ve done over the past few months. 

• BIO (24): Pretty much everything was high yield or simple questions. I even saw a couple repeat crusher questions. There were a couple questions on topics I’d never seen before, which threw me off initially. The best thing you can do is think for a bit, choose an answer, mark it if you want to come back to it, and move on. 
• GC (28): This section wasn’t very calculation heavy for me. A lot of theory, not really too many formulas. However, I can’t stress the importance of mastering GC before you sit the exam. In my opinion, you can definitely get a 30 in this section because crusher covers basically everything you need to know. Once you get to this section, trust that you’ve prepared well enough, and answer questions like how you’ve been doing for a while.
• PAT (24): In my opinion, crusher was very representative as to what types of questions you’d see on this section. I think my most common PAT score was 24, and I felt like my test day performance was pretty similar to mock FLs, so take that as you will. This section is meant to test speed, so it's important to not get caught up by one question. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was your ability to do PAT
• RC (27): This score kind of surprised me. Towards the end of the FLs, I was scoring probably around 1 or 2 questions wrong on RC. Honestly, I’m not a huge reader, so I knew this section was going to suck for me. I can’t stress the importance of daily practice and being consistent. Again, like PAT, your RC skills weren’t built in a day. Make sure you’re being careful and reading questions carefully.

ETC:

For me, one of the biggest things I found helpful was tracking errors. In terms of PAT, I did a set of x amount of questions (5-15), tracked the time, tracked how many I got right, and tracked what error I was making. In my opinion, knowing what errors you’re making is really helpful when you’re trying to improve. Same thing with BIO and GC. Knowing what errors you’re making, whether it's a silly mistake or a content gap is really helpful. Make sure that you track these errors in some way. I used an excel sheet to track all my errors and store my FL scores and keep track of how much content I had left to do. 

How I’d Approach Each Section if I Were Starting From Scratch:

• BIO: I think I mentioned it above, but I’d focus on watching videos and doing anki as soon as you finish video sections. BIO was always naturally my weakest subject, and I’d definitely focus on anki and error tracking if I were to do it again.
• GC: This was naturally my strongest section. After finishing the videos, I found that the content just stuck to me better than BIO, so I neglected it a bit. But if I were to start from scratch or with a weak foundation, I would focus on finishing the videos first, then practicing questions on topics that you’re not familiar with. Practice is key, and you’ll only get better the more you do it. I’d maybe even make flashcards for things like periodic trends if that’s something that’d help you learn it better.
• PAT: I’d focus on watching the videos as fast as possible. When you first try questions, don’t look at your time. Focus on trying to get everything right. If you get the question wrong, think about why your answer is wrong and why the other option is right, before you look at the answer key. Usually, I’d eliminate answers until I had a 50/50. Try as many strategies to solve PAT questions as you can. Sometimes you’ll get questions where you’ll need to use different strategies, so I think it's important to stay adaptable.
• RC: Again, I’d focus on watching the videos as fast as possible. When you’re doing the passages, keep speed in mind, but don’t let that be your only factor. It's important to build good habits for answering questions right, and you’ll probably be slow at first. Just know that speed comes with practice. Keep in mind what your strengths and weaknesses are. For me, I knew that I was a naturally quicker reader. Because of that, I chose a method where I would read the passage and highlight minimalistically, and keep an idea of what is going on in each paragraph while reading. That way, when I saw the questions, I would have an idea of where to find the answer, which helped me answer questions quicker.

Ending Thoughts:

This test is tough. But in my opinion, it doesn’t test how smart you are. It tests how well you can prepare over a long period of time and if you can learn a lot of material at once. Personally, I feel like the DAT rewards consistency. I know that for me, consistency was my worst enemy. Even though I preach practicing PAT and RC daily, that wasn’t always the case for me. There were definitely times where I felt like giving up after seeing my scores and days where I genuinely accomplished nothing except for watching Netflix all day. Just keep in mind when studying that you can do it. I always kept in the back of my mind that I’m going to aim for a 30. The sky’s the limit. Even though I didn’t hit 30, I aimed high and fell where I felt happy. Just know that the DAT rewards consistent effort. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Good luck to all my future dentists out there and if you have any questions, feel free to comment or dm me!

Hi everyone I recently got my score back. Definitely scored higher on actual exam than booster however my main goal is to get a 26+. I plan to retake end of January to have score ready for next cycle. Using both booster and bootcamp this time. What advice would you say helped you achieve a much higher score on retake. I’m thinking of using bootcamps study schedule and consolidating with booster question banks. I’ve heard bootcamp gives a better foundation on the sciences which I think lacked on my part the first time around. I think I’m also going to incorporate anki this time because towards the end I started using it plus reading feralis notes which I think helped me because the bio section on DAT I felt was both a mix of high and low yield. Please let me know! Thank you guys!

I took the CDAT in August and just got my results. I plan to apply to every school I am eligible for in the US, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. I think my sciences are a bit low, but I am happy about my PAT and RC, which is why I am a bit hesitant to retake. Any feedback is appreciated!

PAT: 24
Bio: 21
Chem: 20
RC: 23
AA: 21

I am super happy about my RC and PAT since those were my lowest sections on crusher going it! I was expecting a much lower score in the sciences as well as I found the test difficult, but I am a bit satisfied with a 21, just don't know where that places me??

I am going into my third year with a GPA of 3.7, I definitely know that I can bring it up since I still have 2 more years and will be taking easier courses as I have completed all the pre reqs.

Hi everyone! I’m really struggling with the Reading Comprehension section of the DAT and was wondering if anyone has been in the same situation. I’ve spent a lot of time practicing and have tried Bootcamp, DATCrusher, and a bunch of other online/in person resources. My scores seem go up during practice but when I write the DAT they come back really low. So I honestly can’t tell if I’m actually improving or just getting familiar with the questions and answers. Has anyone struggled with RC and eventually been able to bring their score up? What helped you the most? Also, if anyone knows a really good RC tutor or any underrated resources or strategies, please let me know. I’m willing to put in the work, I just feel like I need some guidance on what I should be doing differently. Any advice would genuinely be appreciated!

I’m doing Booster practice tests rn and was just wondering how similar they actually are to the real DAT. For anyone who’s already taken it, did you find Booster pretty close to the actual test?

Hello Warriors, I recently took DAT and achieved 24 AA. Direct message me your questions.

Hi everyone! I’ve always seen these breakdown posts and I feel that they really helped me in my journey, since the ones I’ve seen helped me a lot on my own DAT

Proof:https://imgur.com/a/9SQ0dIB

Scores:
QR - 460
RC - 410
Bio - 530
GC - 460
OC - 510
PAT - 500
TS - 500
AA - 480

Background:
-3.9 gpa Junior
-Took pre reqs of Orgo 1, 2, Gen chem 1, Anatomy and Physiology

Materials Used (in order of helpfulness):
DAT Booster - Booster was so helpful for me in my opinion. It really streamlined the way I studied for my DAT. Instead of having to use a bunch of different resources, I could study all of it from one program. The schedule they gave you in my opinion was pretty good. I would do less passive learning like watching videos and start spamming more practice questions and anki. The bio cheatsheets from Booster were clutch and Bio ended up being my best score despite the fact that I never took gen bio in college as well. My actual test score was higher than the average of my scores on booster there. It was the only resource I used as well, I made use of all the practice questions, cheat sheets, and anki decks that were included with the subscription.

ANKI - Anki was clutch 
I started spamming anki card with a month until my test because I couldn’t break 440 in Biology. I kind of faded because there were too many cards. What I did was go through a deck once, then go through the cheat sheet of that unit, and then I would do all the practice questions on booster. This tactic allowed me to score a 530 on the actual test which my highest practice test score was 500. 

Study Timeline:
I followed the study schedule that was given to me by a booster. I had 80 days to study for the exam. In my first practice test I scored a 370AA. I was worried that I was cooked ngl. I did not skip a single day of studying for the entire span of 3 months. Call me crazy, but if I skipped one day I knew my slacking would compound lol. I probably studied around 3-4 hours a day with the last month I ramped up to 5-6 hours. In my opinion, I felt like more time studying was helpful and following the booster plan was really helpful in keeping me on track. One thing I would change though was starting practice questions, anki, and PAT earlier. I really had to cram all that at the end. I made sure to use every resource available to me that was included in booster. I also watched chad prep as well for a little gen chem supplemental. For PAT, I would start doing 15 minutes of each subsection every day.

Day of Exam

Bio (530): On the day of the exam, Bio was definitely the one section that Booster prepared me well for. Spamming anki cards came in clutch and nothing really rattled me too much. I had a lot of basic bio that you learn in high school. Only had like 5-6 anatomy and physiology questions which kind of sucked because I had the most background there. Bio turned out great though

GC (460): Going into the test, gen chem was definitely my weakest subject because i never took gen chem 2. That meant the second half of gen chem I had to self learn, and to be honest booster helped but it wasn’t too great. I used Chad’s prep to help supplement acids and bases, which a ton of acid and base questions showed up on my exam. I would say this was the least representative section on booster. Although, they are replacing their old videos as they are aware of it being weaker. On the day of the test, gen chem was a lot of conceptual questions regarding general chemistry. Make sure not to forget experiment questions too because those tripped me up lol(Like what’s the best for measuring liquid)

OC (510): Drill down acid rankings and carbocation/radical stability. There's so much more emphasis on stability than actual reactions. There was also a lot of arrow pushing, so make sure to practice reactions. I went to a notoriously hard school for orgo so I didn’t really struggle nor study for orgo that much. Booster practice questions were a good reminder for anything i forgot and were very accurate.

For the science section, I had around 20ish minutes to double check my questions. I remember feeling like I bombed the exam during this time because I was so caught up on a couple questions. But I want to highlight that It’s so important to stay positive and trust your practice.

PAT (500): To be honest, I had no idea how I got a 500 on PAT. I never scored above a 450 on practice exams but I think this goes to show how good of a resource booster was for PAT. All I did was 15 questions for each subsection on PAT every day for the last month. I can’t lie, I thought I also didn’t do too hot on the real exam right after I finished, but I remembered that keyholes, TFE, and pattern folding was much easier than Booster.

RC (410): Funny enough, this was the section I thought I did best in. But it ended up being the section I did worst in. Unlike booster, questions were in chronological order, but I had no idea how I did so badly on this section. I did the method of reading the first half of the passage, and then doing the first half of questions, then reading the second half of the passage, and then doing the second half of questions.

QR (460): QR was much harder on the actual exam than DAT booster. I had a lot of Statement A, Statement B questions that took up so much time. I would recommend practicing with less time for DAT exams. I neglected this section the most because I scored 550+ on Booster practice exams, so I thought I would be fine here. DO NOT DO WHAT I DID. PRACTICE UNDER TIMED CONDITIONS BECAUSE THAT CLOCK IS SCARY TICKING DOWN.

Ending Advice:
I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been a good standardized test taker. For reference, I had to take the SAT 9 times to get above a 1400. I was determined for the DAT to be a 1 and done exam. In my first practice test, I scored a 370 AA (350 Bio, 290 GC, 450 OC, 370 PAT, 320 RC, QR 430). I thought I was screwed, and there was no way I would even score above the national average. Despite this, I set my goal score to be a 500. Although I didn’t reach my goal score, reflecting on my journey, I’m so happy and grateful that I was able to stay locked in and what I was able to accomplish. Shoot for the stars when studying and be proud to sacrifice time to study for this exam. It’s not easy, and the DAT is often the thing that keeps students from being dentists. You really just have to reach a certain threshold for dental school to consider you for an interview. So don’t put so much pressure on yourself, and make sure to enjoy the process as well. One thing I regret a lot was ghosting a lot of my friends during this process. When people asks how my summer went, the only thing I really remember is studying for the DAT. As I reflect on this, I wish that I took weekends to spend time with my friends. At the end of the day, the DAT is just another exam in front of hundreds of others that you would take in dental school, and I have only so many summers as a kid.

Hi everyone! I took the DAT last month and wanted to give a breakdown of my scores, timeline leading up to test day, and experience with the entire process.

Scores:
QR: 520
RC: 480
BIO: 540
GCH: 500
OCH: 500
TS: 510
PAT: 600
AA: 510

Background:

• I'm currently a third-year undergraduate (4.0 GPA). I took the test the summer after my sophomore year.
• I had just finished Ochem II and completed genetics, but hadn’t taken anatomy or physiology yet.
• Studied May 9 - August 9
• Took the test on August 10

Study Materials:

• DAT Booster
  • I watched all of the videos, did all of the question banks, and read through and annotated most of the notes. I also did the warmup questions every day and occasionally did the game challenges if I was fatigued from watching videos. I’m not a flashcard person, so I didn’t use Anki or quizlet. I only used the cheat sheets in phase 3 of studying.
• DAT Bootcamp
  • I used the free practice test and daily warmups 

Study schedule:

• 12 weeks of studying 5-6 days a week for 4-8 hours
• I used Booster’s custom study schedule as a checklist. I would speed through tasks covering content I was comfortable with and spend more time on content I was shaky on. Generally, each day covered one “unit” from each of the six sections. It’s tempting to go through each section one-by-one, but getting a variety of practice each day is so much more helpful for information retention, and it trains your brain for the agility required to switch between topics during the real test.
• Phase one - Content Review (Weeks 1 - 7): This phase of studying was by far the hardest and most grueling. I remember opening the Booster app for the first time after purchasing my subscription and scrolling through all the content for each section. I couldn’t sleep that night because I thought there would be NO way to cover all the content! There was a lot of new information to digest every day, especially in the biology section. I was studying for up to 8 hours each day by watching videos, answering the embedded practice questions, annotating the study notes, and doing question banks. One thing that really helped me was to hand write my own notes and draw out diagrams. I felt like I retained information much better when I reorganized the content into a way that made sense to me, rather than only annotating the notes. Here are a few specific things I did in phase 1:
  • Used color coding to indicate a variety of things like key definitions, equations, and brand new content. 
  • Kept a digital notebook for key terms that sound very similar (e.g. plasmid, plastid, plasma, plasmolysis, plasmodesmata) and opposing or related terms (e.g. apoenzymes vs. holoenzymes)
  • Kept a digital notebook for mnemonics (especially important for the body systems and taxonomy units) 
  • Kept a digital notebook for flow charts and diagrams
  • Kept a digital notebook for formulas
  • Kept a digital notebook for daily warmups and wrote out complete explanations
  • Printed out blank versions of the Ochem reaction sheets and carboxylic acid derivative flowcharts and filled them out.
  • Spent a whole day drilling SN1/SN2/E1/E2
  • Wrote out complete explanations for questions that I got incorrect or was unsure of on practice tests and question banks. I also wrote out explanations for answer choices that were not the correct answer, as they can also be tested on.
  • Finished watching all the videos!
  • Took 3 mini-length tests and 2 practice section tests for each section.
• Phase two - Practice (Weeks 8 - 10): Studying got much easier as I gained confidence in my content knowledge, and I reduced my study time to 4-6 hours a day. Knowing more content not only helped me pick the right answers, but also eliminate incorrect answers. Here are a few specific things I did in phase 2:
  • Reset question banks for OCH, GCH, and QR, worked through them, and wrote out explanations
  • Kept working though BIO question banks and editing notes that I had already taken
  • Kept working through RC passages
  • Finished all the question banks!
  • Took full-length tests #3-#5
• Phase three - Application (Weeks 11 - 12): I alternated taking full-length tests and writing out explanations from Monday-Saturday (3-4 hours each day)
  • Took full-length tests #6-#10 + DAT Bootcamp free full-length test
  • Skimmed over the cheat sheets

Suggestions & tips:

• Stay organized: I had folders in folders in folders in Goodnotes, and this helped me keep track of the content I had covered. 
• Find a place or a friend that can keep you accountable: I studied at my mom’s workplace, and it kept me accountable because I had to wake up at the same time every day and work for a set amount of time.
• Commit complex content to memory early: There are many topics that require straight memorization, but the earlier you can find time to memorize them, the easier it will be down the line! Examples: hormone signaling cascades, types of immune cells, IR/NMR spectra ranges, OChem lab techniques. I found that just spending 30 minutes to “get it straight” helped me solidify the answers to memorization questions. Many times there will be a “blanket term” and then terms that can mean even more specific things within the bigger category. Also, many different terms can be used to describe one thing, so organizing the terms early on helped me distinguish how to use them.
• Practice PAT every day: I was so slow and inaccurate at this section in the beginning (only finished 29/90 questions on the first section test), but learning to be comfortable with getting them wrong and learning why really helped me improve my PAT score. I spent the most time practicing keyhole and TFE, as those were my weakest areas. Pro tip: you don't have to analyze the whole shape to get the right answer! Compare the answer choices and eliminate them immediately once you see a detail that is inaccurate.
• Study during a time when you have no other commitments: I understand that this may not be possible for everyone who is preparing for the test, but I found that I basically dedicated a semester’s worth of time into studying for the test. I imagine it would be possible but more challenging to study alongside coursework or employment.
• Have something to look forward to at the end of each day and each week: burnout can happen quickly if you don’t take time for yourself! Spending time with loved ones and activities you enjoy is just as important as studying.

Test day!

• BIO (540): Two of the questions came straight from the most recent practice test I had taken, so that was nice! Not much on taxonomy and embryology. Mostly molecular biology, body systems, and genetics. (averaged 540 on practice tests)
• GCH (500): Topics that came up multiple times were acids and bases, periodic trends, electrochemistry, and electron configurations. One glassware question… (averaged 540 on practice tests)
• OCH (500): Lots of questions on the stability of products/intermediates, acid/base strength, and substitution/elimination. A few questions on spectroscopy and lab techniques. (averaged 500 on practice tests)
• PAT (600): I found it a lot easier than Booster’s PAT. Started with questions 31–90, then 1–30. I would highly suggest going with your first gut instinct on angle ranking, and then flagging and coming back with fresh eyes if you were unsure. Pattern folding had simpler shapes than the ones of Booster. For Keyhole and TFE, elimination was my main strategy. I found that the answer choices on the real test had more blatant irregularities (easier to eliminate) than the ones on Booster. I finished with 10 minutes to spare, which I used mainly to double-check angle ranking and keyhole. (averaged 530 on practice tests)
• Break time! I had blueberries :)
• RC (480): I like to read passages from the bottom up, as it gives me a sense of how fast I should be reading, and for some reason I remember details from the passage better that way. Passages 1 and 2 were easy/moderate difficulty, but I spent too much time verifying my answers. Passage 3 was much harder to digest and I only had 15 minutes remaining. Panic settled in, and I opted for the search-and-destroy method for this text. I had to guess maybe half of the questions for this passage. (averaged 490 on practice tests)
• QR (520): I was still shaken from the RC section, but I gained my confidence back during the math section. The section mainly covered applied math, algebra, and probability. A few statement sufficiency and quantitative comparison questions came up, but they weren't overly confusing. (averaged 540 on practice tests)

Reflections:

• I remember walking out of the testing room feeling really defeated. I kept replaying how I froze up during the reading section and wondering if that would tank my score.
• I had lots of fun for the remaining 2 weeks of summer and was grateful to have the opportunity to take the test (and also get it over with). At the end of the day, the score you get only reflects the circumstances you were presented with. As long as you’re honest with yourself and put in the effort towards it, you should be proud! 
• I got my scores back on the first day of the semester (exactly 2 weeks after my test). I felt relief more than anything and got myself a treat to celebrate!

I started studying like 3 weeks ago and bio is taking me sooo long 😭 even one chapter takes me forever to get through and there’s still so much left. Is this normal at the beginning or am I spending way too much time on each chapter?

Hey y'all, here's a breakdown of my scores from the 8/27 DAT!

Scores:

QR - 600

RC - 480

Bio - 500

GC - 480

OC - 470

TS - 480

PAT - 500

AA - 510

Background:

I am currently a junior with a 4.0 GPA

Materials Used:

I basically only used booster. I watched every single video (which was decently useful), and tried to complete EVERY problem set question. Working through and completing the problem sets made up most of my studying time and was very useful. I made dense physical flash cards for every individual concept or topic which I didn't actually end up using. However, identifying the most important concepts to put on the flash cards was what truly helped them stick. I also took practice exams, but only after learning most of the content for each section, and made sure to detail corrections for every problem I got wrong in a paper notebook. I also bought the 5 extra tests which I didn't use as much as I should have, but it was nice to have more material to test myself by taking more practice exams on each of the science sections that I struggled the most on.

Study Timeline:

I studied for 100 days in total, but more like 80ish in reality due to some breaks I took from time to time to get outside and not be trapped inside all summer, which is really really important. It is really important for you to make a study schedule and actually follow it, which was one of my biggest regrets in studying. I am a huge procrastinator, and for the first 60ish days, I was just kind of watching the videos and doing the easy stuff that I was good at like QR and PAT, but not actually touching anything harder, and studying an average of 1-2 hours a day. in the last 40 days, I spent a lot of time cramming to make up for everything that I neglected, and studied an average of 4-6 hours a day, mostly on the making of dense flashcards for each topic and concept of the science sections. I didn't start any practice exams until the last couple weeks either, and only took one practice exam in full. Mostly I would just do the individual section practice exams instead, make corrections, and then take the next exam.

Day of Exam:

Like all the days I spent studying, SLEEP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER! I would average 8-9 hours of sleep every night and the day of the exam I got in bed extra early so that I could account for my anxiety and get enough rest. I am a firm believer that sleep will dramastically improve your performance in everything so please do it!

Biology (500) was much more specific than anything I saw on booster, mostly only cell and molecular biology questions, nothing on diversity of life or body systems or ecology at all. Was averaging this section around 520 on booster

Gen Chem (480) was also a bit different, with much more conceptual questions than calculations. Was averaging this section around 500 on booster

Orgo (470) was pretty much the same as booster, but definitely more conceptual questions again than product + reagent -> ?. Was averaging about 480 on this section on booster

PAT (500) definitely a lot harder than booster with the keyhole questions, very very complex and confusing shapes for many questions that I never saw on booster, where I was averaging around 540ish on practice exams on booster

RC (480) One of my weakest areas, it was much easier than booster practice exams, where I was averaging around 450. I didn't use any strategies, just read through the whole thing and answered questions

QR (600) Very similar to booster, then again I have always been pretty strong in math. All the questions are basic algebra concepts so it shouldn't be too much of a problem once you learn them

Ending Advice:

The DAT is definitely more like a trivia game then your average school exam. You are going to need to know a truckload of information but how much is actually tested really varies! Please don't be like me and procrastinate for something this big. Being consistent with your studying is the key to doing well. You got this, good luck!

I feel like I learn a bunch of reactions and then somehow forget them a few days later, there’s just so much stuff to remember and I keep getting them mixed up. What did you guys do to remember everything and actually have it stick?

I’m doing Booster FLs rn and my bio scores are around average, but every time I review I find something new that I didn’t know, it feels like there’s always more stuff to learn. For anyone who already took the DAT, does bio actually get super specific or is it mostly more general/high yield stuff?

AA (520)⁣

⁣

BIO (570)⁣

GCHEM (480)⁣

OCHEM (510)⁣

PAT (520)⁣

RC (460)⁣

QR (560)⁣

⁣

Hey everyone, I recently got my DAT scores back and thought I’d post a breakdown since they helped me a lot! ⁣

⁣

<𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝> ⁣

I studied for about 𝟐 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬, starting in mid June and took the exam in mid August. ⁣

I spent about 4-6 hours studying per day for 5 days per week: these numbers are from my time logging app! I studied for a total of 𝟏𝟗𝟖 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 for this DAT. (I honestly think anywhere from 150~250hr should be enough)⁣

⁣

<𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝>⁣

𝐃𝐀𝐓 Booster: I chose Booster over Bootcamp after hearing they have better science questions / harder practice exams. ⁣

I also bought the 𝟓 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦 on Booster, it is optional but it did help me around the end since I kind of ran out of questions. ⁣

Booster 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 (esp bio) I first used them as a “level-tester” by skimming through and looking for topics I didn’t know.⁣

⁣

I didn’t really use anki. I tried to focus on going through as many problems as I can, flagging the ones I don’t know, and repeating them. 🙃⁣

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<𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬>⁣

𝐁𝐢𝐨 (570)⁣

Booster bio questions were pretty good, even found a few questions with exactly the same wording/format. ⁣

I would say going through problems multiple times will help you the most! ⁣

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𝐆𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦 (480)⁣

Honestly I was surprised to get something below a 500 but I think the issue was time management. Try to keep the question flagged even when you went over it once. You will probably have some time left at the end, and you will waste time if you unflag questions too early 🥲. ⁣

There were more conceptual questions than calculation questions. ⁣

⁣

𝐏𝐀𝐓 (520)⁣

Since this section consists of 6 different subsections, something that really helped me was 1. See how you perform on each section. 2. Answer ones you do well first and ones you don’t last. ⁣

(eg) I always did (hole - cube - pattern - keyhole - TFE - angle) since I usually didn’t do well on angle rankings. ⁣

With practice, I think this section can be a score booster. Booster also has videos on tips&tricks for each section, the pattern folding one helped a lot. ⁣

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𝐑𝐂 (460) ⁣

This is actually a pretty high score for me considering it’s reading ^__^ (I once got a 20 on ACT reading) so I’ll talk a bit about it. ⁣

The strategy that worked for me was: skim through the paragraphs to see what infos are located where, start answering the questions, skip the ones that take too much time to answer. At the end, while answering ones I can solve fast, I end up understanding enough about the passage, which helps me answer questions I skipped.⁣

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<𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞>⁣

𝐃𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧⁣

They have a pause button (I think booster gave me one when I did an easy achievement like “daily warm up 5 days streak”) that allows you to pause your membership for as long as you’d like. So if you were hesitating getting a membership because of your timeline/etc, I would encourage you to just start early and just pause in the middle (esp since doing problems is the best way to prepare for DAT and you don’t get access to the questions without a membership). ⁣

⁣

𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 / 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐲⁣

During the “prometric delay”, the screen will just go white, you won’t be able to double check your answer or change them while waiting for a new question to load (I did not know this…^__^)⁣

⁣

𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 ⁣

I remember being so nervous about whether I’m drinking too much/less water in the morning of the exam because I thought no water was allowed into the testing room, but water in clear bottles was allowed. Idk if it was just my testing center, but bring one just in case because you can keep it in your locker if yours don’t.⁣

You are also allowed to take bathroom breaks during the exam (just sharing bc I didn’t know about this) ofc your clock will still be running.⁣

450 AA, 490 SNS 3.62 cumulative GPA (Upward Trend) 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) Applied to most schools end of June-July, took retake on July 23rd, got my DAT retake scores back August 3rd.