DAT BREAKDOWN (25AA, 30 PAT)
I wrote the Canadian DAT on June 19. I studied for 2 months total. The main resources I used were booster and datrcmastery. I also had bootcamp but I just used them for practice test, not actual studying.
Bio (took me 1 month to study, did this first) - This section is all memorization and doing the booster practice tests. You can't only just watch the videos and expect to do well. How I studied was I watched the videos and on another monitor I had their detailed notes open, and I was following on the notes while watching the videos. After doing that, I would use boosters Anki to lock the material in. ANKI IS ESSENTIAL. if you dont do Anki you will not remember half the stuff. cheat sheets I didn't use once, only the notes and Anki. by the time you are done with bio, someone should be able to ask anything on those detailed notes and you should know it. Anki took me 2 hours a day maybe more some days so just lock in for those few months your studying you'll thank yourself later. On the test there were some questions I had never seen before on boosters notes at all like on specific bone names in the leg or something, a different one from the mini test one. on that note, do the mini tests too. was averaging around 25-26 on booster. I did anki from the beginning of my studying right up until my test date
chem (studied this for 10 days, started this after I finished bio) - I watched boosters videos and went through their notes. after each section, id do all the question bank questions, making sure I understood every mistake. I made MY OWN Anki for this and id recommend you do the same. I knew my strengths in this section because I took gen chem in uni, and the stuff on the dat is so much more base level. go through ur mistakes for this section and understand conceptual stuff. dont memorize, understand. there were probably half half conceptual to calculation questions. was averaging around 25 on booster
note for rc and pat - I started doing questions for these sections lightly 5 months before my test, ie one passage and 30 min pat a day.
rc - A bit disappointed because I was scoring better on booster and datrcmastery; was averaging a 24 on both of those. bootcamps is way harder than the real thing. I had a hard passage on optic fibres for my first passage so maybe that brought down my score. the other 2 passages were easy. ive talked about my strategy a ton, so check my profile If you want to know more about it. biggest thing here is just practice, find your strategy and master it.
pat - as I said I started 5 months before, was probably doing about 30 min a day. my schedule was every morning do 20 angle ranking, and around 10 q's of all other sections. I used boosters generators and their qbanks. bootcamps pat qbanks are better though. The section clicked with practice, if you need tips just reply here happy to help. I was averaging like a 28 on booster and bootcamp for this section.