francescashahin
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DAT Breakdown:
I just took my DAT last month and I wanted to share my experience in hopes of it helping someone.
Sources: DATBooster only
Timeline: I started studying the last week of January up until my exam date on April 6th. The first 2 months I was only studying a 3-4 days a week since I was working the other days. The 3 weeks leading up to my exam I took time off work and was studying every day.
Background: Graduated in December of 2023 with a GPA of 3.60 with a nutrition food science major with a minor in biology. I felt pretty strong with general chemistry but orgo and bio were the subjects I struggled with most in undergrad and the main reason I kept pushing taking the test off.
PAT-19: I did PAT practice questions only on the days that I worked so that my days off I could focus on studying the sciences. From the practice questions I noticed the hole punching, cube counting, and angle ranking were my strongest areas so on test day I skipped straight to these. This helped me not waste time on the other questions that I always struggled with. This was the only section that I scored lower than I did on my practice tests on booster (booster predicted a 22 for me on PAT).
BIO-19: I was very intimidated by the bio section because of the large amount of info it covers and the fact that I never did well in my big bio courses in undergrad. I started by watching the videos and doing all of the practice questions in the order they were listed on the study guide. This helped me get an understanding of everything without throwing too much information my way. My biggest regret is not studying with flashcards as well as studying some topics too deep in detail as the questions I saw on my test were very broad.
GC-21: I watched all of the videos and did all of the practice questions while memorizing the equations and common questions. Doing a lot of practice was the biggest thing that prepared me for this section.
OC-20: This section was my biggest worry since I took both orgo classes in undergrad during covid and didn’t do well in either one. I started off by reading the notes provided by booster but I could tell I wasn’t engaging myself with the material so I switched to watching the videos. The videos and practice questions helped a lot in understanding and memorizing the different reactions and properties.
QR-27: I didn’t watch any of the videos for this sections because I have always been good at math since I was a kid and didn’t feel the need to spend time on it. I did practice questions the same days I worked on PAT after work to still keep everything fresh in my head. On test day I also marked any questions I was unsure about to avoid wasting time on them.
RC-26: Similar to QR, this was another a section I’ve been naturally good at since I love reading in my free time. I read the notes on different methods and I used a mix of all but mostly relied on the search and destroy method. I would first read as much of the article as I could in a 4 minutes and highlight keywords. After that I would start going through the questions and use the search and destroy for the rest of the passage. The practice tests on booster helped prepare me a lot since they were a lot more challenging than the passages on my real test.
The practice tests on booster really helped me get an understanding of what the questions would be like as well as how I was doing with time management too. I ended up scoring 2-3 points higher on each section (except pat) compared to what I was scoring on the practice tests.
If anyone has any other questions or anything just let me know and I’ll message you!
I just took my DAT last month and I wanted to share my experience in hopes of it helping someone.
Sources: DATBooster only
Timeline: I started studying the last week of January up until my exam date on April 6th. The first 2 months I was only studying a 3-4 days a week since I was working the other days. The 3 weeks leading up to my exam I took time off work and was studying every day.
Background: Graduated in December of 2023 with a GPA of 3.60 with a nutrition food science major with a minor in biology. I felt pretty strong with general chemistry but orgo and bio were the subjects I struggled with most in undergrad and the main reason I kept pushing taking the test off.
PAT-19: I did PAT practice questions only on the days that I worked so that my days off I could focus on studying the sciences. From the practice questions I noticed the hole punching, cube counting, and angle ranking were my strongest areas so on test day I skipped straight to these. This helped me not waste time on the other questions that I always struggled with. This was the only section that I scored lower than I did on my practice tests on booster (booster predicted a 22 for me on PAT).
BIO-19: I was very intimidated by the bio section because of the large amount of info it covers and the fact that I never did well in my big bio courses in undergrad. I started by watching the videos and doing all of the practice questions in the order they were listed on the study guide. This helped me get an understanding of everything without throwing too much information my way. My biggest regret is not studying with flashcards as well as studying some topics too deep in detail as the questions I saw on my test were very broad.
GC-21: I watched all of the videos and did all of the practice questions while memorizing the equations and common questions. Doing a lot of practice was the biggest thing that prepared me for this section.
OC-20: This section was my biggest worry since I took both orgo classes in undergrad during covid and didn’t do well in either one. I started off by reading the notes provided by booster but I could tell I wasn’t engaging myself with the material so I switched to watching the videos. The videos and practice questions helped a lot in understanding and memorizing the different reactions and properties.
QR-27: I didn’t watch any of the videos for this sections because I have always been good at math since I was a kid and didn’t feel the need to spend time on it. I did practice questions the same days I worked on PAT after work to still keep everything fresh in my head. On test day I also marked any questions I was unsure about to avoid wasting time on them.
RC-26: Similar to QR, this was another a section I’ve been naturally good at since I love reading in my free time. I read the notes on different methods and I used a mix of all but mostly relied on the search and destroy method. I would first read as much of the article as I could in a 4 minutes and highlight keywords. After that I would start going through the questions and use the search and destroy for the rest of the passage. The practice tests on booster helped prepare me a lot since they were a lot more challenging than the passages on my real test.
The practice tests on booster really helped me get an understanding of what the questions would be like as well as how I was doing with time management too. I ended up scoring 2-3 points higher on each section (except pat) compared to what I was scoring on the practice tests.
If anyone has any other questions or anything just let me know and I’ll message you!
