Hi guys! I recently finished my dental applications. I took my DAT back on July 22 and my scores came in August 3. I knew I wanted to make a breakdown because I read so many of these while I was studying and they genuinely helped me. I used DAT Booster and wanted to share what I thought about Booster vs. the real exam, how I studied, and the things I wish I knew beforehand.

How I studied:

I graduated college around the middle of May and started studying pretty much right after. Since I took my DAT July 22, I studied for around 2 months total.

I will say the first couple weeks I was not locked in. I had no real schedule, I was mostly studying at night, and I almost never finished my Booster to-do list for the day. I eventually realized I wasn't retaining information or improving like I wanted to, so I completely changed my routine.

I started waking up around 8 every morning, ate the same breakfast (eggs and chai), and studied downstairs instead of sitting in my bedroom. That honestly made a huge difference. From then on, I followed the Booster schedule pretty closely and usually studied for 5-6 hours every day, taking a lunch break in between. I didn't really take designated rest days, but there were definitely days where I was exhausted and didn't finish everything. If that happened, I just finished it the next day.

My biggest advice here is get into a routine. Wake up, go to a designated study spot (I sometimes switched this up if I was struggling to focus with my loud dogs, so sometimes I went to the library), and start at around the same time every day. At least for me, studying whenever I felt like it was not working.

Another thing is that towards the end I tried to go through a few cheat sheets every day and refresh myself. The cheat sheets are very good and helpful and I wish I had reviewed them even more.

The week before my DAT I actually relaxed a little more because I didn't want to completely burn myself out right before the exam.

I took 12 full-length practice tests, redid a couple of them, and did all of the Booster mini tests. Full lengths are so draining, but do as many as possible!!! A huge part of the DAT is just building the stamina to sit there staring at a screen and think for that long.

Biology: (470)

I was a biology major, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in bio. This was probably the subject I studied the most because there is just so much information. I thought the real biology section was a bit easier than Booster. A little more straightforward. I was also really worried about anatomy because I had never taken an anatomy class before. It ended up being completely fine. I only remember getting a few anatomy questions and I knew them.

General Chemistry: (450)

This was the opposite of bio for me. I thought my real GC section was harder than Booster. I honestly walked out having no idea how I did on it. There were many questions where I didn't feel confident in what I was doing. I wish I had more specific advice here, but my brain deleted half the exam the second I walked out. The questions were not familiar to me so I would say they weren't very similar to booster.

Organic Chemistry: (410)

Okay obviously a 410 is not an amazing score, but I am proud of my wimpy 410.

Organic chemistry was consistently my worst subject on my practice tests. I struggled with it throughout college too, so I knew going into studying that it was going to be my weakest section. Because I was so bad at it in college, I was so scared of it I hardly put any time in studying for it (which is clearly the opposite of what you should do). I had my mind made up that I was bad at orgo and just kinda.... didn't study for it. I did not watch the videos on booster for these and instead used the organic chemistry tutors 11 hour orgo video. But that is really all I did to prepare.

I did also take the Booster Orgo crash courses legit a few days before my exam. I found it kinda helpful, but I found them too boring. Maybe that's a me problem. I just don't learn very well sitting through something like that. Or maybe I just hate organic chemistry.

That being said, I actually didn't think the questions on the real DAT were insanely complicated. I don't remember having any multi step questions on mine and I thought they made it doable. Orgo is just not my subject, and I definitely could (and should) have prepared for it more.

PAT: (480)

Please practice with the lag!!!!!!! This is probably the #1 thing I wish I could go back and tell myself.

PAT was BY FAR my favorite section while studying. I love puzzles and genuinely enjoyed practicing it. I would get excited for my PAT time every day. Then, I got to the real DAT and the lag absolutely destroyed my timing.

I was stupid and never practiced Booster with the lag turned on. Do not do what I did.

At my testing center, the lag between questions was super slow. I literally started counting in my head while the screens changed because I couldn't believe it, and yes, the timer was going down while it loaded. You cannot rely on being able to skip a bunch of questions and come back later. Every time you move between questions, you are wasting more time. Practice with the lag from the beginning so your timing accounts for it.

I also thought my real PAT was harder than Booster, especially keyholes and pattern folding. Angle ranking immediately threw me off too. I usually use the answer choices to eliminate angles, and my first 5 questions didn't give me the nice 2-and-2 answer patterns I was used to seeing.

I ended up running out of time and freaking out toward the end. Considering that, I'm really happy with my 480, but I genuinely think I could have done better if I had practiced under the actual lag conditions.

Reading Comprehension: (470)

I thought RC was noticeably easier than Booster, which is why this is probably the score I was most disappointed by.

On Booster, the questions were more complex/application-based and were not in order. On my real DAT, the questions were in order and were much more straightforward.

I finished really early. Like early enough that I went back through my answers multiple times. I walked out genuinely thinking I had just gotten a 100%, so I was surprised by the 470. I wish I could see what questions I got wrong because I would love to know what I missed. Still a decent score, just not what I expected based on how confident I felt.

Quantitative Reasoning: (430)

QR was weird because I prepared for so many question types that just... never appeared.

I was ready for rate problems, age problems, distance problems, etc. because I felt like I saw them every day while studying. I did not get a single one of any of those. I am still bothered by this clearly lol.

There were probably around 30/40 questions where I felt like I knew what I was doing and then around 10 where I was unsure how to do them.

I also got questions involving graph transformations/directions that I wasn't really expecting to see much of. So my advice for QR would be don't assume something won't show up just because it barely appeared on your practice exams.

Final takeawayyysss

If I could go back and tell myself a few things before studying/taking the DAT:

• Follow a routine
• Use the cheat sheets
• Turn on the lag (seriously go do it now)
• Take as many full lengths as possible
• Relax the days before your exam
• I found the prometric test drive helpful for anxiety so I recommend you do that. I did it 2 days before my exam and I wouldn't have wanted to do it any earlier. All the staff remembered me so it was nice.

Overall, I am happy with my scores. Obviously there are sections where I wish I scored higher, but I'm proud of myself and very happy to never study organic chemistry again lol.

I hope this helps somebody!! I read so many DAT breakdowns while I was studying, so I wanted to give back now that I'm finally on the other side. If anyone has questions about Booster, my study schedule, practice tests, or the actual testing experience, feel free to ask :)