A Summer Well Spent: Christina's Path to a 27 AA on the DAT

Hi everyone! I’m Christina and I took the DAT the summer after my sophomore year, and earned a 27AA only using Bootcamp. As someone who tends to overplan, I considered getting multiple DAT prep courses, but found that Bootcamp was the single best source for both study materials and practice exams.

My Study Schedule

I dedicated the entire summer solely to studying for the DAT. This gave me a timeframe from May to August, which allowed for Ari’s 90-day schedule to fit perfectly into my plan. I didn’t have a particular science to my schedule – I simply followed the pre-established schedule, and practiced a little more on days I felt like I was forgetting a particular concept/unit. It was also extremely helpful that rest days were already incorporated into the schedule, as it helped prevent me from burning out. I won’t lie though, sticking with the schedule was not easy due to the scope and breadth of the DAT. I printed a copy of the schedule out and crossed out each task I completed – having a hardcopy for myself and others to see kept me accountable and taught me a lot of discipline.

Biology

This was, and is probably for many others, the most daunting section of the DAT. At first, I tried simply memorizing the steps of different pathways, but found this to be unfeasible because there were so many other things I would need to memorize that I would forget after a week or two. I quickly learned that I would need to understand these concepts before simply trying to memorize everything. I started watching the review videos, and found them to be extremely helpful as they broke down complicated concepts into digestible chunks, and supplemented my learning with the Anki decks provided by Bootcamp. A lot of the mnemonics provided by Bootcamp have stuck with me, and have also proven to be useful in my university courses. However, in the week leading up to my exam, I was consistently scoring a 19 on the Biology section of the practice exams, which frustrated me as I felt like I hadn’t improved throughout the months. Imagine my surprise when I found the section to be the easiest on the actual DAT, with some questions almost being word-for-word what they had been on the practice exams! If you ever feel discouraged by
your scores on the practice exams (as I did), remind yourself that Bootcamp overprepares you for the Biology section, and that your scores don’t matter until the actual exam.

General Chemistry

As someone who struggles a lot with chemistry, I found Dr. Mike’s videos to be extremely informative and even helped me relearn some of the concepts I learned in university. I can’t tell you how many times he would explain the reasoning behind a question that I thought I knew the answer to, and I would go, “Oh, that’s why?” I would advise to pay close attention to how to solve some of the questions without a calculator, because it is something I struggled with even during the DAT.

Organic Chemistry

Much like chemistry, I struggled a lot with organic chemistry in university. As frustrating as it sounds, practice does make perfect in this section. I initially worried that I wouldn’t be able to memorize all the reactions in time for the DAT, but found the reactions summary sheet provided by Bootcamp to be the best supplementary material for this section, as it consolidated all the different reactions and mechanisms into a single space.

PAT

PAT has consistently been my weakest section; while the problems themselves aren’t too difficult, I found the time crunch to be extremely anxiety-inducing and challenging to keep up with. Once I thought I had a rhythm, I put off studying it and prioritized other sections until a couple days before my test date, which was a HUGE mistake. Even though you feel like you have mastery over this section, not practicing it regularly will diminish your ability over time. Make use of the mobile version of Bootcamp for this section – practice it on the go, in the car, or when you’re in a long line!

Reading Comprehension

I initially found this section to be quite confusing, but Bootcamp’s question bank was extremely representative of the DAT. A lot of the passages have similar structures, and you can start anticipating certain questions once you read enough passages. I would recommend experimenting with different methods though, as I switched from the search and destroy method to the vanilla method, and found that I was scoring higher. But remember, one size does not fit all so find what works best for you!

Quantitative Reasoning

Math has been one of my favorite subjects in school, but I struggled with some of the quantitative comparison questions. My biggest mistake was betting on the fact that there would only be one or two comparison questions on the actual exam so I neglected this section. On the actual DAT, I had five to six of these questions, which threw me off guard. Bootcamp has really solid videos that go over these types of questions, so familiarize yourself with the style and format of the questions!

Overall

The DAT is one of the biggest hurdles we have to overcome on our pre-dental journey, and it can often feel daunting and exhausting to study for it. As someone who is on the other side, the biggest challenge for me was staying dedicated and motivated, but Bootcamp’s resources will help keep you on track. Most importantly, believe in yourself! Trust in your hard work and practice, and you will see the results you wanted and more.