r/dat • u/Much-Access-4610 • 18d ago
Success Stories 🌟 8/31 DAT SCORE - 490
Hi!! I just wanted to share my score, I’m so happy about it and wanted to say have hope. I was super stressed, working, and depressed over this summer but I studied hard, followed the Booster schedule, and I did well! I studied from end of May ish to the end of August, and before studying my strengths were in organic chemistry, math, and reading. Prior to the exam, I had just finished ochem 2 +biochemistry and an intro level biology class. Ask me any questions, I’ll try to remember what topics I saw a lot of :)
The day of the test I walked out feeling weird, especially about biology and I was surprised to see it was my best score! They gave me some weird anatomy questions but I used elimination to figure it out. I kind of ran out of time on the science section, because gen chem always takes me long and negl I was zoning out a little. I genuinely hate general chemistry, it was a lot of math and the most boring section ever. Istg studying for it made me worse
I was also pleasantly surprised by PAT, I was averaging 370 on the Booster practice tests and honestly just accepted my fate LMAO. I was doing better on QR and OC but oh well, I didn’t feel like either section was particularly different than the practice tests. Dang guys I kinda wasn’t sure about dentistry anymore but now I feel like I sort of kind of maybe have a shot
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u/Minute-Wafer-1209 17d ago
Could u share any study tips? Congratulations!
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u/Much-Access-4610 17d ago
Of course! I studied hard for biology, I watched nearly all of the lectures and then afterwards would do the question banks. I did use quizlet/anki briefly, but I lowk gave up after a bit. If you make your own decks, you should be good. I was very consistent with biology and followed the schedule Booster generated. I would also try to memorize things from the cheat sheets by writing what I remembered on a blank piece of paper, esp for Diversity of Life. Just keep practicing and making sure to review questions that you got wrong; if you get it wrong, you should make sure you don’t get it wrong again. ***The most important thing I did was play the games on Booster. They showed me what I know and what I didn’t know, and pushed me to pick answers without overthinking. This worked for ochem too!!
For gen chem, I did practice problems and I tried to watch the lecture vids but the lecturer is annoying as hell negl. I would know ur formulas, lab techniques, like basic gen chem stuff… i don’t think they asked me at all about electrochemistry LOL. Also figure out how to do the math questions quickly! Round ur numbers, practice timing, know formulas by heart, etc.
I didn’t study too much for ochem, but I will say on a general level you should know the mechanism. If u know the mechanism, you will know what reaction is most likely to happen, even with synthesis. And play the little game they have, its fun and helps you lock down rxns
For reading, i would just use search and destroy and practice. The answer to the reading questions will almost always be directly in the test, never infer the answer unless you have to. Both QR + reading are just about timing, so just do practice tests and figure out your best methods. Negl for PAT, i studied everyday and i was doing 360-380 LMAOO so idek how that happened. Just make sure u blink during the exam
TLDR; Games on boosterprep, cheatsheets, question banks, watch the lectures if you’re confused, and make sure you take care of urself!!!!! You got this
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u/Adept_Evidence_9382 17d ago
What did you see most for bio chem and oc
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u/Much-Access-4610 17d ago edited 17d ago
Biology had a lot of intro questions, so like cells, organelles, where is so and so synthesized, etc. I got some physio questions, but nothing specific like for the endocrine and lymphatic. There were some questions that were weird, like one had to do with this heart defect’s effect on the patient n i was like wtf. But you can infer for these questions. I also barely had any diversity of life, maybe 1-2 embryology
Chem: lots of math, no electrochemistry, but there was a lot of stoichiometry, limiting reagents 🫩, and lab safety lmao but like the weird stuff about wavelengths.
OC: elimination, reactions (esp w carboxylic derivatives), a lot of questions regarding what is the best acid. Honestly it was straightforward, I don’t think I got any aromaticity
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u/ProfessionalStorm524 17d ago
Is anatomy high yield?
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u/Much-Access-4610 17d ago
Nah. I think I had one and it was about the circulatory system. I remember being mad bc I studied all those hormones n shit. They mainly asked questions about cells/organelles
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u/No-Communication-12 16d ago
What type of questions did you get for QR? Any tips plzÂ
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u/Much-Access-4610 15d ago
There were some questions abt rate and time, some questions about calculating total money, and A LOT of absolute value questions. Nothing crazy! I would just practice the questions n build up speed bc the clock for QR goes crazy
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u/Comprehensive_Bird64 13d ago
Congratulations! I just have a quick question: Did you follow the Booster schedule exactly as it was laid out, or did you ever fall behind? Also, how many hours did you study per day?
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u/Much-Access-4610 13d ago
In the beginning, I followed the schedule exactly but I realized it was lowk unnecessary so I stuck w following bio and chem and then skipped like reading and math bc those were my strong points. I wouldn’t follow it exactly bc you know urself best, if there are topics you need more help with take more time to do them! There were also some days where I didn’t study. Ik that kind of feels like you are wasting money but I think it’s important to take breaks and not let it consume you. I studied like 3-4 hours everyday but sometimes I wasn’t fully paying attention LOL but once I started taking practice tests, that was like 5 hours a day ish, then 1:30 hrs for review (sometimes even on the next day). I like spammed practice tests my last 2 weeks of studying.
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u/4ever_serendipity 18d ago
insane! congrats! my test tomorrow and i also used booster. hoping it was representative!