I'm also a Current junior at Penn with the same 3.89 GPA as u/Known_Consideration8, but I'm lowkey dumb. I'm a bio major. I took my exam in early September. I thought I cooked reading, but reading cooked me.
Ask me anything
Current junior at UPenn CAS with 3.89 GPA
I used Bootcamp to study for the DAT from June through August and took the exam on August 29th. Thankfully, I achieved an amazing score and the resources on Bootcamp were very useful. Their practice exams were also quite true to the actual exam, albeit a bit harder which I think is a good thing.
The biology, chemistry, and ochem notes from bootcamp were most useful to me as they were indeed high yield. I would go chapter by chapter and use the question banks for each chapter in bootcamp to review and repeat the process until I completely understood and memorized the material in each chapter to the best of my ability. For quantitative reasoning, most of it was simple algebra which I felt comfortable with but the statistics and probabilities questions I watched the videos for and practiced with the questions on bootcamp. For reading comprehension, I utilized a mix of strategies of search and destroy/read then answer depending on how long the passage was and time management was the biggest part. PAT normally gave me the most trouble but through prolonged repetition through the PAT question generators on bootcamp my scores kept improving. I also devised a thought process for each subsection of the PAT that proved effective on the exam.
Ask me any question you have on how to study, how to approach the sections on the exam, and anything else you are curious about in preparation for the DAT!
Intro 📕- Just Got my scores back like many others today and wanted to speak on my experience because I truly feel that hearing what other ppl did and experienced in this DAT journey is important.
Process 🧨- I studied from June 16th-September 25th but had many off days for vacation and days where I just wanted to give up so didn’t study but would say overall 300-400 study hours. I used Booster and followed the schedule to a T up till phase 3 where I judt focused on testing and my personal struggles. I also used Anki and will speak more about it later on. This was probably the worst 3 months of my life because I am a very stressful person and just couldn't be happy with the amount of studying I was doing which in hindsight was a blessing and a curse.
What helped me 💡- something that I highly recommend is not changing your routine when it comes to diet and excersize, studying isn’t an excuse to not focus on these and I did in the beginning and can confidently say it only leads to more self destruction. One thing I would change about your schedule is to try and lighten your workload in other areas like work and school if possible (ik it’s not for many). Final small tip I would give is DO IT ALL IN SUMMER that one month of studying I had during fall semester was actually hell. Clubs become hectic especially if your on eboard and friends come back in town and want to hang out 24/7 so I will confidently tell you all to do all studying and test date in summer.
How was the actual test ⁉️ - The rumors are true the TS section is mainly focused on basics with some out of ordinary questions so get your basics down!!! QR is not easy so make sure you are taking it seriously cause it is a super easy way to boost AA. If you have ADHD please get the extra time for reading I didn’t and it caused me to get the poor score you see . PAT felt very easy compared to practice test but make sure you have your cube counting, patern folding, and hole punch masterd cause they are easy points.
MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE TO GET GOOD BIO SCORE 🧬- I will tell you this once and only once and I hat to beat a dead horse but USE FUCKING ANKI I kid you not that is the only reason I did as good as I did. AIM for 300 cards a day and be honest with yourself on the time needed to learn cards. My strat was to go on walks and do it all while I was walking. Also use the cheat sheets for bio to sharpen yourself.
FIN ❌- I believe in all of you studying fr don’t give up but also don’t go to easy on yourself think about your future and know that this test can save you money in time in the future all you need to do is use your time wisely now.
QUSETION: If anyone alr went through HPSP Process DM me plz.
