r/dat

I’ve been studying for like three weeks, got through all the content, and just scored a flipping 360 😭 where do I go from here? My application is probably going to be super delayed since I’m pushing my exam back to July but still…any suggestions?

Hey guys! I took the DAT today and wanted to share my experience. To preface, this was a retake I took my dat the first time last February with a 21 AA ( 20 bio, 22 GC, 21 OC, 18 PAT, 19, QR, 22 RC)

I definitely felt better about it today than I did the last time I took. I used bootcamp in combination with booster and here are my thoughts on each section.

Bio- definitely was a little bit challenging, just kind of a lot of application I guess? And more obscure things I hadn’t really studied. There were a couple questions I had seen from booster/bootcamp on there but idk how else I could’ve prepared better for this section. 0 questions on taxonomy, 2 easy physio questions just really up in the air. I feel like I either did really good or really bad.

GC- was a LOT easier than booster but there were some calculations I wasn’t sure of and I didn’t have time to double check bc bio ate up a lot of time

OC- I thought I was really easy. 1 mechanism question, super easy which is the strongest acid questions and other intuitive stuff.

PAT- definitely not my strongest section. I thought hole punching cubes and angles were pretty easier than bootcamp but keyholes on the other hand were frightening today. Lots of confusing structures with a lot of fine lines to look at. I thought TFE was okay and pattern folding was annoying bc there wasn’t really any like dice/triangle ones it was all folding into shapes.

RC- very straightforward today. ~20 questions for the first passage and 12-15 for the last two. Passages were not super sciencey which was nice. My last dat the passage was about all the hepatitis variants and it got so confusing.

QR- simple but possibly deceiving? I don’t think they gave the worst section they could’ve but time was hard for me here. The lag was insane and it eats up so much time it made it hard to go back.

All in all, I studied my butt off for this and it sucks not knowing the scores yet :( the screen lag is so annoying and makes it impossible to be efficient.

Anyone else who took it today thoughts???

I think I’ve seen someone mention that they set up their PAT grids and such, writing on the laminated sheets prometric gives you during the time allotted for the tutorial. Silly question, can I do that or is that considered starting my exam before it actually starts?

I was wondering how did your scores compare with booster reading practice tests

Hi, I have my booster account until June 15th and I'm not using it anymore. I will sell it for $20. Please DM! Good luck!

Edit: Ok guys do not be dumb like me and post that ur willing to sell account online bc they block ur account. Buncha opps on here. They are so jobless they were so fast w it too.... If anyone wants the ferallis notes lmk I can send (for free obv) them they helped me a lot. Good luck studying to everyone!

Any one wanna be study buddies!???

I keep forgetting QR formulas during booster practice tests even after reviewing them a bunch of times. How did you guys actually make the formulas stick better? Or did they just start sticking naturally after doing more practice questions?

I have a 3.8 gpa 3.7 Sgpa, 430 AA and 440 TS. what are my chances at the Texas schools (in state) and usc??? I have 300+ shadowing hours, 200+ volunteering, a good amount of working, and a few extracurriculars. I can retake my dat but I’m honestly dreading studying for it AGAIN and I prob wouldn’t take it until July. Shld I retake to increase my chances,

With so many chapters should I just rewrite the formula sheets over and over or my cheat sheets? What’s a method that’s worked for people in this section to drastically see a difference in score.

omg why is Bio so hard and so much. How do I study? I just read a chapter and did questions, but there are still so many gaps, and I don't remember long term, and there is so much info with so little time. Please give advice on how to study.

I'm using Bootcamp to study and also got the Chad's DAT prep course because I heard that was helpful for chemistry specifically, which is my weakest subject by far.

I'm taking the test August 10th and I still have tons of time but I'm already really struggling with chemistry and it's all coming back to me very slowly. Does anyone have recommendations for how to best study for this, and like specifically with the different equations we do in gen chem, because right now I feel like I re-learn one type of problem and then immediately feel overwhelmed with re-learning a different type of problem and then by the time I get those sorted it's eaten up like half my study day. And the Chad's videos are helpful but I think I need more in-depth review than he typically does in his DAT segments, so should I also just get the normal membership to access more videos?

Just looking for advice because the last week I don't think I've learned a whole lot, mostly just repeating the same segments and it's making me worried because there's still so much more content I need to cover. Should I just focus on practicing problems over and over instead of watching the videos in dept and move on?

do i follow their study plan? i hear people study 6-8 hours a day, but booster has been giving me about 5 hours max of content every day. also, do i watch all the videos for the bio section? i saw a comment that said they never watched videos and just took notes and studied those. if booster already provides notes, should i just use those or watch the videos too? i feel like it’s pointless to take notes on ur own when they ready give detailed notes. ik it’s up to my preference, but what did u guys do?

I just want to vent, the lag is unbearable! It was 5 seconds lag to load the next question but it was stealing 3 seconds more than needed! For example you click at 30:00 next question it would take 5 seconds to load the next screen and will then show 29:57. How is that possible?! The testing center the issue is only with ADA exams. I didn’t even finish PAT on time. And barely finished RC and QR on time. Why we pay $550 for an exam and can’t even get smooth test experience. I’m gonna write ADA an email.

Hello everyone!

I just started my DAT prep, it's on August 10. I really need some help finding my groove - it takes me practically the whole day to learn one bio chapter/Booster videos. Does anyone have the pdf Feralis-Booster notes for all the Bio sections? I don't see it on Booster.

Also, any advice for how to manage studying all topics at once? Really struggling here.

I am worried that I haven't covered it enough; taking soon.

I feel ready while going through study notes and memorizing stuff, but once I take a practice test it feels like I forgot half the content and I’m not scoring well on practice tests. What do you guys think I should improve?

Omg, why are the practice tests 11-15 on Bootcamp so hard? Are they even worth it and helpful? I am scoring so low on those compared to the 1-10 practice tests. They are a lot more difficult. Is this an issue of me just not knowing all the content, or just that they are super hard. It is stressing me out.

Thinking of buying the book for low yield content, what are peoples thoughts ab it? Have you noticed it being helpful on the sciences or is it cope

Taking my DAT soon and honestly not sure what I should mainly focus on for bio? Should I redo practice tests, go over booster cheat sheets, or mostly review my mistakes now? What do you guys recommend?