SCORES: 22AA, 23TS; 27 Bio, 22 OC, 21 GC; 23 RC, 19 QR; 22 PAT

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Hey everyone, I told myself from the day I started studying that I was going to do a breakdown no matter what. This means that I would either be suggesting to people what to do or what not to do depending on my scores lmao. I have spent a lot of time on this breakdown and may have gone into too much depth, but I really appreciated all the in-depth breakdowns that people provided as it gave structure to my routine.

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THIS BREAKDOWN IS NOT COMPENSATED, AFFILIATED, OR SPONSORED BY ANYBODY. I HATE that some breakdowns are obviously sponsored and will say things like “I made straight Cs in chem in college but with the help of Dr. $$$ I made a 29!!”.

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I know my scores are not the greatest, but I hope some of the info is helpful.

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Background: I am a senior biology major in Georgia about to graduate this semester. I always knew I was putting this test off, but I didn’t care because it scared me so much. I am a chronic over-thinker, so before I started studying, I would read over 15 breakdowns a day. I would analyze and read over the success stories for hours on end to figure out the common denominators that led to those high scores. I have probably read every single breakdown that has been posted here or SDN since 2020. Scary. Chances are, if you posted a breakdown here within the past 2 months, you have probably gotten a direct message from me.

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Schedule: I gave myself a week after finals to decompress before getting back on the horse again. I started studying around May 25th and took my exam on August 8th. I studied over 9 hours a day every day. I initially took breaks on Sundays, but I would feel guilty that I wasn’t studying so I would end up studying on Sundays as well. I probably studied over 450 hours. Scary. I used the BC schedule until I started doing practice exams and then I did my own thing.

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Resources:

• DAT BOOTCAMP(BC): I will go in-depth into the pros/cons of “the big two” resources later

• DAT BOOSTER(BR): ^

• Kaplan DAT Prep Plus 2021-2022: Don’t buy this. The PAT section is abysmal, the sciences section is difficult to read, QR is not helpful in the slightest, and everything else is just not representative. Save some money.

• Chad’s Prep: I was not impressed, but I know he has helped a lot of people. I found him kinda boring. Never took any of the practice tests or quizzes so I can’t say if they were representative.

• DAT Destroyer: Borrowed this book from a friend, opened it up, didn’t recognize a lot of the words in the biology section, never picked it up again. I have heard how this book is overkill, but it prepares you well. Take that as you will.

• Anki: I liked anki a lot. I will continue to use it in college as well. I do think that the feeling of missing a day and seeing over 300 cards in one section is miserable though, so I can understand if people don’t use it because it feels overwhelming. I used the DAT BC OC anki deck with every question missed from my practice exams in there as well. I can link it if people want it. For GC, I used the DAT BR deck and combined it with 2 other GC decks I found online. This was very overkill (800 cards) but it worked. For BIO, I just made a deck of all the questions I missed on practice exams. I can send these decks to anyone who wants them.

• Quizlet: initially made quizlets for GC and OC, then I heard anki was a thing and ported them into anki. I can link my quizlets if anyone wants them.

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BOOSTER VS BOOTCAMP: The age-old r/predental question: “Should I get Booster or Bootcamp??” This is my experience with both products:

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BOOTCAMP: I did all my content review with BC, because it was what a friend suggested. Coming in at a whopping $500, I had high hopes that it would be all I needed. Here are some Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Very smooth interface, support team responds quickly, right/wrong answer reasoning explanations were awesome, the condensed notes are nice, reaction/bio bites were nice, Dr. Mike for GC/OC was so cringe it was funny at times, very similar to testing environment in practice tests, veryyyyy representative RC, BIO academy videos were nice, tagging feature is nice,
• Cons: way too in depth when learning material (some of the questions in the practice problems were insane to me), I found 2-3 things within the condensed notes or practice problems that were just wrong(I messaged them and they fixed it), QR was not representative, I fell in love with the PAT explanation girl, BIO was not representative, inflated scores for some sections

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BOOSTER: I was given some access to a booster account when I got done with content review, so I only used it for practice tests. It is “only” $300 which is noticeably cheaper than BC.

• PROS: extremely representative of the sciences and QR, scores of practice tests felt more accurate, ability to take non-timed practice tests, GREAT GC notes, the anki decks are nice, past test results page is easier to navigate than BC
• CONS: veryyy clunky interface(maybe its just on mac, but I had multiple practice exams that I would submit and it wouldn’t give me my results leading me to retake them), crash courses are $125(wtf?), the reasoning and video explanation for why an answer is right or wrong is borderline useless(“this answer is not right because it is not the right answer”), RC was wayyy too hard, does not replicate testing environment (can take breaks between every section as the timer doesn’t keep going), question marking is not as good as BC, PAT felt harder

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• OVERALL: I think both programs have their respective good/bad parts. I wish I did a little bit of content review with BR so I could give an accurate representation of how it was. If you can get both, do it. More practice is better, but if you had to pick one, I would get BR just due to representativeness of the sciences and lesser price. BC was great for learning the sciences, and if you are the type of person that likes to know why you were wrong or right, you will hate BR and love BC. It comes down to personal preference, but BC bogs you down with unnecessary details.

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PRACTICE SCORES:

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Weeks before test: I was taking full lengths at 8am every morning, taking an hour break to eat after, and then reviewing them until midnight. I did this almost every day until the day before my exam. I do not recommend it. It made the idea of a 5-hour exam go by much quicker, but it also made me hate waking up in the morning.

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Day before test: I am an idiot and didn’t book my testing date as soon as I signed up for it, so the Prometric center 3 minutes away from my house was full until September. I had to book a hotel in Savannah and drive down there to stay the night and take it in the morning. I ate chipotle, hopped in the grimiest pool you have ever seen in a hotel, and watched COD champs. I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm, which didn’t go off. I guess I got lucky.

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Morning of Exam: I woke up to a Jerusalem Cricket in my bed that scared the shit out of me and got the blood flowing. Google them. I did not eat any breakfast because I was too torqued. I listened to Codeine Crazy by Future on repeat from the moment I woke up till the moment I got out of my car. I attribute my success to this.

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EXAM

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BIO(27): I would be lying if I said I expected this before my exam. But, the BIO section was EXTREMELY easy. Aside from a couple questions, I felt like all the answer choices besides the correct one were nonsense. Like everyone says, the knowledge needed to answer these questions were very surface level and did not require much thinking (besides the genetics type questions which I always draw out just in case the law of fractions changed overnight or something). I did not get ANY questions about the new epigenetics/virus stuff, skeletal system, or developmental bio. I got LOTS of questions about hormones, some plant stuff, other systems, diversity of life, and ecology. I think the way that helped me prepare for this was watching the bio academy videos on BC and rewriting everything they say into a notebook. This took a long time, but I felt like I never forgot any of it. Taking the BR practice tests helped a lot, and I did see 4 questions that were identical to BR questions.

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GC(21): I was very pleased about this score because I took Chem 1/2 online during COVID and did not learn ANYTHING. I watched all of Dr. Mikes videos on BC which helped a lot. The biggest thing that helped me was remembering all the little rules and formulas that go along with GC by using ANKI. I went through that entire 800 card deck and felt pretty good about my chances. GC on the DAT is much simpler than on either BC or BR. The math is always in “formula form”, so if you can’t remember which formula to use, you can deduce which one is needed by looking at the answer choices. I got very many questions on rates, solubility, ideal gas law, balancing reactions, and redox. No questions on electrochemistry or nuclear reactions which was upsetting.

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OC(22): This section was surprisingly dissimilar to both BC and BR. I had many questions I felt like I had never seen before, and only got 2-3 synthesis questions. I have been a Supplemental Instruction leader for OC1 and OC2 for 2 years, so I was hoping there would be more mechanistic/synthesis/retrosynthesis questions. Instead, I got questions about intermediates, substitution rate laws, and carbocation stability. Make sure to know the “gimme points”: NMR, functional group identification, and acid/base stability. I did not study OC besides watching Dr. Mikes videos and doing the BC anki deck and inputting missed practice test questions into that deck. I said it above, but if anyone wants these decks/quizlets let me know and I’d be happy to send them to you.

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PAT(22): I did not really study for PAT because I figured since it didn’t factor into my AA, it was not as important as the other subjects. I started by doing 5-6 questions in the BC generators for the first 2 weeks, but then I stopped. I think I learned the most about timing and pace in the practice exams. TFE and Keyhole were the easiest ones to me, so I would do them last to spend more time on other things. They were both like BR. They try to trick you with small differences or size differential. I had 2 rock keyholes and I completed both TFE and Keyhole in 8 minutes total. Angle ranking was like BC, but easier than BC. I had many questions where if you found the biggest/smallest angle, that was the answer because all the answer choices started/ended with something different. Hole punch was like booster but easier. 2 double hole punches and one 4-fold. Cube counting was the same as both BC/BR, I had 4-5 total structures. Pattern folding was hard to me, but it was my worst section. I felt like there were many questions without a discernible feature to discriminate between two choices.

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RC(23): I believe they have changed the format of how RC goes now. I have read a lot of breakdowns recently that have had a similar experience as the one I had when I took it. I had a long (14-16 paragraph) first passage that was ALL fact questions. I finished it in around 13 minutes using S&D. Had an intermediate length (10-13 paragraph) second passage that was a mix of fact and inference questions. I still used S&D and finished it in around 17 minutes. The third passage had 6 paragraphs and all the questions were about tone, inference, asking about the future of the research, etc. Every. Single. Question. I used the entirety of my remaining time for this passage.

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QR(19): I am most disappointed in this score because if I would have made a 20, I would have a 23 AA. I am abysmal at math. Notoriously awful at it. The way I studied was by taking the BR/BC practice exams and figuring out the patterns of the types of questions asked. From there I was scoring pretty well on the practice test, but I guess I was too nervous and choked on the actual exam. BR was wayyyyy more representative of QR than BC. I made a 15 on my first QR practice test. I got lots of data sufficiency questions, questions about lines, and work/rate problems. I did not have any geometry or trig.

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Final thoughts: This is something that I never want to do again in my lifetime. It was miserable from start to finish. I missed countless parties, birthdays, special events, a family vacation, and other things because “I have to study”. This exam takes a large toll on your mental health. I found myself going 12 hours without eating and losing copious amounts of hair from stress. Please take care of yourself and take breaks. I probably burnt out in late June but just kept going because taking a day off made me physically ill. If you have any questions, need to vent, or just need help with something about the DAT, PLEASE MESSAGE ME. I wouldn’t be able to have the success I did without the community so I hope I can give back in whatever way I can.

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I would like to thank u/Calvith, u/linlemonline78, u/icetea321, and anybody else who I have harassed while I was stressed and studying.