DAT 5/19 Experience
Hi!! I thought I’d make a post breaking down my retake experience after taking it in January 2026. For reference I got a 390 AA first time and felt absolutely defeated after doing bootcamp (also learned ochem as a subject 2 weeks before the exam) but this time just did practice+booster and went crazy the month before the exam.
I haven’t gotten my score but I feel like booster was extremely representative if u utilized it well. Mini lengths, full lengths, full lengths 1-15, crash courses, cheat sheets. Rinse and repeat. REDO ALL PRACTICE EXAMS + MINI LENGTHS.
Bio- tbh if u know everything on the full lengths and cheat sheets it’s not bad. I had repeats from crash courses + cheat sheets + fl’s + mini lengths (I can’t remember much but saw many topics/questions beforehand). Booster is genuinely the best for bio- prioritize what u NEED to know. That was enough for the exam. No crazy anatomy or taxonomy. Go through every right and wrong answer and go through answer choices as possibilities. Review cheat sheets after getting things wrong and it should be comprehensive enough. Tbh fl 11-15 made this more easy for me + crash courses. Yes people r right, there are some “application” questions but it’s not paragraph. Yes it’s a few questions weirded worldly but it’s literally identifying ONE KEY WORD and thinking logically from there.
Gen chem- YES ITS WEIRD. It is easier than booster but yes it’s weird- it’s ADA wording not booster wording so tbh as long as u know the cheat sheets ina nd out and UNDERSTAND all the full lengths and why a certain answer over another, u should be fine. I didn’t have much math. It’s purely conceptual even the math is pretty conceptual. Like can u convert something to molarity type.
Ochem- WAYYYY EASIER THAN FREAKING BOOSTER!! Not reaction heavy at all…. Like at all. Know ur basic ass S/E, spectroscopy, fundamentals.. basically the cheat sheets. Cheat sheet knowledge was lowk enough and the full lengths on repeat. For this section I wouldn’t worry about doing bad on fl’s vc the actual exam was rlly basic and was cheat sheet knowledge mostly!!
Reading- easy. I did 2 booster sections and called it a day. Was my worst section on first attempt but search and destroy works- once ur in the zone UR IN THE ZONE.
PAT- um I rlly focused on the sciences so don’t even ask. It was lowk harder than booster but I didn’t run out of time at all so it was fine like some sections were easier than others so I could move faster.
QR- booster is much harder than the real thing + more representative and the real thing is def more basic straight forward math so I wouldn’t worry. ONLY WORRY AB UR TIMING. Dont hyperfixate and try to attempt every question. It was rlly basic and im rlly bad at math so dw.
Overall- BOOSTER IS THE WAY TO GO. Booster made it feel high yield cuz they repeated topics in fl’s that I saw on real exam. Repeating full lengths was rlly helpful. Lmk if yall have specific questions!! :) anyone else take it and what are yalls thoughts ?