DAT Breakdown (TS:21 AA:20 PAT:20)

Hello! I figured I’d post my DAT breakdown since I enjoy reading them and find them to be helpful.

I originally scheduled my test for July 27th but was severely underprepared so I rescheduled. So glad I did!

Prep materials: DAT Booster / BoosterPrep * Took 2 full length tests in July to assess. * The two days before the exam I focused on general and organic chemistry practice tests only (as chem is my weak spot). * I watched all the videos except for math. No anki and no crash courses.

Studying Timeline: May 10th to August 10th * It was truly on-and-off. I took courses during both summer sessions (14 credit hours total). * I was so focused on getting A’s that I pushed off DAT studying almost everyday 🫠. I would say I spent a total of 14 (8hr) days. * I took A&P1 and 2 with labs during the summer which helped a lot with the biology section. * All my prerequisites were complete before the exam. * On days where I wasn’t able to study, I did the daily warmup to make me feel better for my slack.

Day of exam: * Went to bed at 2:30am and woke up at 5:30am (yes, 3 hours of sleep). Unfortunately, I was THAT anxious. I ate a slice of bread and drank half of a Celsius. The drive to the testing center was 1hr 15mins and my parents insisted they take me so I looked over more booster materials on the way. * I looked over the organic reactions cheat sheet, the gen chem formula sheet, and some biology cheat sheets.

(BIO): Practice scores (15-20) and actual (21). * I felt so awful during this section. I was torn between 2 choices for half of the questions. I’m surprised and happy with my score. I didn’t get many cellular respiration questions. * Tips — know your hormones, different immune cells, taxonomy, mitosis/meiosis, natural selection/genetics, organelles, reproductive systems. Truly was “breath over depth” and the cheat sheets were the most helpful.

(GC): Practice scores (15-18) actual (20). * This section is a blur. I had a variety of different calculation questions, acid/base, like dissolves like. * Tips — know the formulas, gas laws, acid/base conjugates, and polarity.

(OC): Practice scores (16-21) actual (22). * I was so surprised with this score especially since I got Bs in both orgo 1 and 2. I had a bunch of mechanics and reaction questions. * Tips — know all the reactions, differentiate between sn1/sn2/e2/e1 and between addition/eas/elimation/etc., naming convention. Anything from the Booster reactions cheat sheet is fair game.

(PAT): Practice scores (18-19) actual (20). * I stopped practicing for this section in July. Mainly because I had a couple concepts down (angle ranking, cube counting, and hole punching). I did struggle the most with TFE and keyholes but I didn’t have the motivation to study them. The pattern folding seemed much easier on the real DAT. * I also spent 5 mins on the first 7 questions. The last 4 mins was me guessing questions 8-30😬. * Tips — if you suck at Keyholes and Pattern Folding, skip to #31! Also I tend to squint my eyes to see the different shapes/angles size (probably not the best advice). Also, time management!

(30min scheduled break): * I used 15mins to eat half a slice of bread and use the bathroom. * My testing center did allow access to my phone and notes which were in the locker. I didn’t study but I texted everyone about how I had to guess on 18 PAT questions. * I cleared my head and thought surely RC and QR would go better.

(RC): Practice scores (16-17) actual (19). * I read the first passage (14 paragraphs) then answered the questions and felt SO confident with my answers. plot twist. My second passage was 17 paragraphs 🫨 on the autonomic/symath/parasym… SO boring SO long. By the time I could finish reading it, I had 17mins left and so I quickly answered the questions without double checking. The third passage was 15 paragraphs and although I had enough time to read, there was not enough time to properly check my answers either. * Tips — read faster, highlight well, probably better to use search and destroy for longer articles. Also budget your time with the 3 passages. If I could do this part over, I would read/answer the two shorter first.

(QR): Practice scores (19 and 25) actual (20). * The reason I put this section to the side was because I enjoy math. I was excited to do this part, looked forward to it the whole time. I felt like I had the majority of the concepts down. I also did not see a lot of the Booster concepts on the real DAT, it felt very different. The only similarities were comparing statement A vs B and if A and B were enough to answer the question really. * Tips — simply first if you can, go over probability, normal distribution curve, and exponential rates.

(Overall): I’m happy with my scores. I did notice for most sections I got 1-2 points higher than my practice. QR was where I saw lower than what I was expecting (I think other Booster users have seen this trend as well). I’m glad this is over with. Hope this helps someone!

Lmk if you have any questions! :)

p.s. ignore the high 20s on the practice results because that was just me retaking them.