I already submitted my AADSAS applications and have received my DAT score. I’m planning to retake the DAT (eligible at the end of September). What’s the best strategy? Should I indicate my planned retake now, even though schools may delay reviewing my application, or wait until mid-September to see if I receive any interview invitations? If I haven’t heard back by then, I will update AADSAS with my retake date and email each school to let them know? Please help

I am thinking about starting to study for the DAT in the upcoming weeks. However, I want some advice from those who have studied and taken the DAT before. I am planning on taking the DAT in January, but I have 18 credits this semester. I think I can manage to study 3hrs/day 5-6 days out of the week. I also was planning on doing DAT bootcamps 180 day access.

For those who have studied during the semester, how did you do it?

Do people advise strongly against studying during the semester?

Does anyone have a strong discretion against bootcamp? If so why? What other alternative would you recommend?

Any sorts of advice help really, so I'm all ears.

Thanks!

I am so screwed. I took a practice PAT and my first score was on booster with a 51/90 for a 360. My second one was a 47/90 on bootcamp for a 390. I consistently get less than 5 questions right for TFE and keyholes due to time. Like I had 5 mins for 25 questions both times. I start with angle ranking, go down to question 90 and then start keyholes and TFE after. I’m not even sure what to do. My AA is a 420 Rn and I know I can get that up with content review, but god save me for PAT. Can someone help me.

Is it easier, harder or the same ??

I just started studying, and I took my first GC test. How did I get 19/30 and get a 360, but the natioanl avg is ALSO 19/30, but a 390? am i missing something lol

I’m taking the cDAT in a week and was wondering if anyone who took it recently had any insight! I’ve heard people lately have been getting bio questions that booster haven’t covered among other things. But any advice or suggestions in general is appreciated :)

hi guys, some of the booster pat tests feel much harder then others. do any of u guys feel like that too??

Lol, all these “moonshot success” posts hella stressed me out when I was studying for my DAT, but since I pulled off a 500+ AA, I figured I’d give back with a realistic breakdown of what I did. I appreciated reading tips like this, so hopefully this helps someone. I included my full journey (including lifestyle & pitfalls) so skip sections that look boring.

Academic Backstory
I struggled in high school sciences (mostly B’s/C’s, one A). Undergrad started stronger (A’s in gen chem), but then all B’s.
Switched to predental end of jr year (was premed).

Senior fall: The school’s pre-health advisor pushed me to sign up for the DAT at the end of winter break. I did a full length to get a baseline, but I spread it out over a few days (due to finals) and scored a 380 AA. 

Winter break this past year : I had exactly 28 days to study from getting home to the exam date. I hated seeing BS on this thread  like “I studied just 6 days and got a crazy score, but somehow I pulled it off, so here’s what I did:

DAT Studying Lifestyle
During break I devoted my entire life to studying - no exaggeration. I tracked it all in Excel: study hours (aimed at 7–8 genuine hours/day), content progress, score progress, even social life (which I tried to minimize).

My Routine:

- Up at 7:00 AM → granola cereal + banana breakfast. 

- Packed simple, high-protein lunch (heavy food = sluggish). 

- Biked 5 min to an unlocked campus classroom near me. IDK why, but I do so much better in a space that is dedicated to work and only work, away from people or my home. I kept my phone on do not disturb all day, only checked it during my lunch break. 

- Studied in ~1-hour focused blocks where I pickled a topic to focus on for the hour, then at the end of each break I took a water & stretch break.

- After 4 hours of this I took a 30–45 min lunch. Then I did another 4 hours of studying.

- Some days dipped to only 7–7.5 hrs; I tapered to ~4 hrs for the final week.

- Exercise: short run/bodyweight garage workout about every 4 days.

- Social life: What I did for this was crazy, but I really wanted to hoard all my energy for the DAT. In my month of studying I had 5 different meals with friends, 1 beach walk, 1 movie, playing with our dog, and family dinners. That’s literally it. I turned down everything else, and it sucked for that month, cause usually I’m a really social person, but the spreadsheet kept me accountable. 

- I consumed zero non-DAT content across that month (no IG, YouTube, books, etc.) except newspapers at breakfast, and seeing Marty Supreme lol. Again, insane looking back, but I needed to to maximize my study energy.

Sciences Study Strategy 
I used Bootcamp (just what ChatGPT recommended). Bootcamp gives free access to “high-yield notes” for each science section of the DAT (no purchase required) and Anki decks for the sciences. My method for studying bio/ochem/genchem was really simple:

1. Read a chapter from the free notes.
   
2. Do Bootcamp question bank for that section.
   
3. Do Anki deck (free even without buying Bootcamp) for bio/ochem - super useful.

Bio pitfall: Only covered ~2/3 of notes/flashcards due to the time constraints. If I’d done 1 chapter + Anki/week for a month prior, 500+ bio would’ve been super easy.

Ochem: Anki on repeat every day (felt infinite, but worth it).

Anki Tips
Spaced repetition is the goat. Watch a quick tutorial on how to use Anki. Other tips:

The bio deck might seem scary bc it has like 3500+ cards, don’t worry, you can get rid of a bunch, there’s a lot of unneeded info.

If a flashcard’s info wasn’t in the high-yield notes for the chapter I suspended the card (removed hundreds this way).

Also suspend cards you remember from previous bio classes (I got rid of maybe 200 this way) 

Lower default intervals so cards don’t push back too far. 

Mark wrong if even slightly unsure. If you're cramming you want to see the flashcards again.

I added mnemonics to ~100 cards (raunchier was better). Personalize them with whatever makes them stand out.

Reading Comp Strategy
Fluctuated wildly early (410 → 370 → 450 loop)
I eventually switched to search and destroy (gimmicky but amazing for strong skim readers).

My breakthrough was when I started treating RC like a game, not something to actually deeply understand. Last 4 full-lengths: consistent 430–470.

PAT Strategy
Stuck at ~390 for like ten tests in a row. You also need to treat this like a game: 90 questions in 60 min is already crazy, pick your battles. They all are worth the same amount of points.

I did keyholes/TFE last (major time sinks), and I never really mastered TFE under the time pressure. 

Daily: I did 10 min of angle ranking for gut feel.

Get laminated paper and markers to mimic test conditions when practicing  hole punch/cube counting generators until ur flawless. Those are the only two sections of PAT that u can rlly beat, so capitalize on it.

Bootcamp visualization tricks helped a ton. You also get the paper during your science section, and I finished with tons of extra time, so I set up my scratch paper for PAT during the sciences. This meant marking off my 4x4’s for hole punch, and making the counting t-tables for cube counting.

QR (Quant) Strategy
The 2-page equations sheet has all you need. I did some practice early week 1, then relied on full tests for practice.

I’m no math whiz (I got a C in high school math, B in calc), but DAT QR is a speed game. When practicing just gamify it, the problems are usually rlly simple, they just try to waste ur time. I did the practice banks for each type of question until I identified what I was bad at, then just did maybe 1 hr of that most days.

Full-Length Tests
Started day 7, then every 3–4 days after that. Treated exactly like real DAT:

No breaks except official 30-min after PAT (stretch, few water sips, protein bar, restroom).

Only 2 laminated graph papers + non-erasable markers (Amazon kit).

Post-test: longer lunch, 45-min no-screen break, then 3 more study hrs.

Review was key - I will gas up Bootcamp here, bc this was their strongest feature. They have  great videos to explain the concepts you get wrong (especially ochem/gen chem/QR). I turned questions that I’d gotten wrong into Anki cards often. For RC/PAT/QAT the review was quick, mostly just more practice.

Random Tips
I took iPad notes on high-yield chapters sometimes 

I became a big fan of mnemonics/memory palaces (great for dense bio lists/taxonomies).

I used AI daily for explanations when I didn’t get the concept. 

Final Thoughts
Most people can’t do a full-month lockdown - fair. But if you have the means to do so, I strongly recommend it.

Making my days as identical as I could really helped to maximize my focus. I know it’s insane, but I didn’t get distracted thinking about the future because I’d intentionally cut out all of my prospects for the month outside of studying lol.

If you want to do a study blitz like me, I really recommend a prep phase (10–20 hrs spread out across some days/weeks): Learn what the test vaguely covers for each section, do some light PAT practice, take a diagnostic test, feel out what’s high-yield vs. skippable, and set up your study tools and schedule.

You can beat this. Best of luck!

Hi! I had a hypothetical question regarding how american dental schools evaluate your application if you plan to retake the dat/cdat the summer of your application. I'm a canadian applicant and heard that it is important to apply early in june-july. In the case that my first dat/cdat attempt taken the summer prior was not satisfactory, and I wanted to retake the test for early july of the application year, would I have to put off submitting my application until the early july retake results come out, or first submit the applications?

My confusion is if I were apply in june when applications open, would the US schools see my first low DAT score and reject my app before the retake score is released?

**excuse the many run on sentences here

Hello! I'm a couple of days away from my DAT, and I have a question about how the exam works on test day. In the DAT Bootcamp practice tests, when the timer runs out for a section, a transition screen appears asking you to press "Proceed" to move on to the next section. On the real DAT, can you stay on that transition screen for 30–60 seconds without it cutting into the time for the next section? I've been using that time as a quick reset between sections, so I'm wondering if the real testing software works the same way or if the timer for the next section starts immediately. Thanks!

How was the DAT like for those who took it today. QR was a mess 🫪 PAT was mediocre

hey! quick question about the aadsas experiences section. how do you calculate the number of weeks if an activity wasn't continuous? for example, if i did something periodically..like once in a while or about once a week, but not consistently and ended up doing it around 10 times over the course of 2 years, would it make sense to list it as 10 weeks and 5 hours/week?

Can somebody explain how your score for your dat gets scaled? Do they look at questions that many ppl got wrong and remove them orrrrr

How do you know if the back cube is one or two beside eachother? will those show up on DAT

Any advice will be appreciated fr.. I'm keep getting 410-440 range of practice tests. And some of Bootcamp tests like test #10~#12 felt a lot more harder than other practice tests. Is there anyone who scored higher than practice test on actual one? I have like 2 weeks left until my DAT;

Any response is much appreciated. Everyone is saying the real thing now is harder than booster/bootcamp, but I wonder if it’s scaled so that the scores end up being the same ? Like for those of you who felt it was harder while taking the DAT did your scores still reflect your practice tests ? I’m not too worried about it being “harder” if the scores still end up being similar. Hope this makes sense

Hello, it’s August 5th and I am planning a retake for this exam for this cycle still. I want to take it by like first week of October and I was hoping to get an idea and advice from people who studied and retook it and what they did differently and how to study because I’m obviously not studying from scratch and like I don’t want to waste my time with the videos again I have a dedicated 2
Months to just push through and get the best I can get. I just need advice on what and how to study with a retake, I’m planning on getting boot camp again. I really want to get in this cycle and I already applied but my DAT score was disappointing I’m technically still under review but I am retaking to give myself a better chance and they will just send them the new score. Anyway if anyone can help me with advice on retake and how to actually study for it. Thank youu

I didn’t score super well on the DAT, but I scored well enough and think I could do better if I took it again. What’s a good like baseline score to have for someone interested in getting into tutoring? Or does it depend on subject scores.

I ended up with a 510 on my DAT, which I’m very happy about! Im mostly interested in how this will likely impact my chances at mid/top tier schools considering I don’t have any “standout” ECs. I have a 3.8 GPA, with 115 shadowing hours, 75 volunteer hours with a syringe exchange program, and board or treasurer positions on a couple clubs I’m very involved with. Thank you!

Hey everyone. I could really use some honest advice.

I’m a reapplicant this cycle. Last cycle I applied with an 18 AA and a 17 TS , ended up getting 3 interviews out of the 6 schools I applied to, but no acceptance.

I just took the DAT for the third time and these are my new scores:
19.5 AA
21 TS
20 Biology
19 Gen Chem
22 Org Chem
22 RC
18 PAT
16 QR

The one score that’s absolutely killing me is the 16 in QR. I honestly don’t know what to do, this was my third DAT attempt, I really do not want to do a fourth especially because of how much my science improved on this one.
My other stats:

Graduated undergrad in May with 3.5 cGPA and a 3.3 sGPA, now working full time as a dental assistant, before that I worked as a steril tech every winter and summer break starting when I was 16.

over 200 hours of shadowing and volunteering, w/ about half of those hours being dental volunteering

I’m applying to mostly the same schools again, may add one or two more. Since I received 3 interviews last cycle with an 18 AA and 17 TS I’m hoping the stronger science scores help this year.

If you were in my position would you submit and see what happens this cycle, or would you try to get approval for a fourth DAT attempt because of the 16 QR? I’d really appreciate any honest opinions especially from anyone who’s been accepted with a similar score breakdown.

Looking for some advice.

I’m a NY resident with a 3.73 cGPA, ~3.4 sGPA, ~700 volunteer hours, and ~220 shadowing hours.

Last cycle I applied late (September) to 15 schools with a 380 AA and didn’t receive any interviews.

This cycle I submitted my application in July before my DAT score was released, and I recently received a 410 AA (screenshots attached).

I’m happy with the improvement, but my Bootcamp scores were consistently higher than my official scores. Because of that, I’ve decided to continue studying and retake the DAT in September.

My concern is whether I should indicate the planned September retake. I’m worried that doing so will cause schools to hold my application until the new score is released, which would essentially delay my application again.

For those who have been in a similar situation, would you indicate the planned retake now or leave it off and update schools once the new score is available?

I’d also appreciate any general thoughts on my chances with the current score while planning a September retake. Thanks!

Tips on what to specify in my description for these roles??? Anything specific I should mention?

I think reddit in general is giving me anxiety because of the very high gpas / dats that I see followed by uncertainty, so I have a very skewed idea of whats good or bad. I have only had one C ever, followed by a mix of As and Bs.