Henry's #1 Recommendation While Studying for the DAT

Hello aspiring Pre-Dents! My name is Henry and I am a current 2nd year, studying Biological Sciences. I started hard-core studying using Bootcamp on December 15, 2024 then took the DAT on February 3, 2025 - scoring a 26 AA with a 27 TS. I used only Bootcamp as my study guide and here’s how I did it!

General Tips

The number one tip I’d say is to allow yourself to have a break and do activities that allow you to destress. Even though I had a tight deadline, studying for 10 hours straight in a day is more harmful than helpful, so I was lenient on my studying and gave myself time to play volleyball, hangout with friends, and overall relax. Another tip is to study with a friend and do it at a place outside of something comforting - what I mean by comforting is that if you are more relaxed than focused at your physical location. I studied with my friends (shoutout Ryker and Quincy) during this time and we always went to a library or cafe together to hold each other accountable,
while being productive and having fun. These tips allowed me to stay motivated and relaxed - allocating some time away from studying is never harmful. As long as I followed my routine, I always got my studying done during the day while having fun!

Study Schedule

Winter break started for me on December 13, so I had no coursework or classes for about 4 weeks and allowed me to entirely focus on studying DAT during that time. This was extremely helpful for the small amount of time I had to cram all the material, and by the time I got back to school, I only had about 3 chapters left of O-Chem to study for! I used Dr. Ari’s schedule, but accelerated it accordingly to allow myself to cram a 2.5 month plan into 1.5 months. Such as if I were on day 1, I would cram day 1 and day 2 together which worked perfectly for me. This allowed me to finish a biology and chemistry chapter everyday and I practiced the respective question banks for each of them. I made sure to stay on track with my sciences, while practicing every PAT section a little bit everyday as that is the only “new” subject that school doesn’t teach you. For QR and RC, I didn’t stay exactly on track with the schedule, but rather practiced them whenever I had free time or wanted a break from studying the sciences. I still managed to finish every single video that Bootcamp had to offer in the 7 weeks I had and highly suggest watching all of them to new DAT studiers! I also never particularly had a full rest day, but rather a calmer day by either doing some new science topics, or reviewing past science topics that I already went over. That’s why I had my breaks spaced out during the day!

The #1 Thing to Do While Studying for DAT

People around me - including my dentists that I interned at - told me to give myself extra time to do practice tests and full length tests. I must say that this was one of the best pieces of advice that I’ve heard, as you truly gain experience of how the tests go and realize how much you need to review all of the material that the DAT can hold. My schedule allowed me to cram all the material in about a month and gave myself 3 weeks of pure practice tests. I did 5 solo tests of each science subject and 1-2 of each other subject (RC, PAT, QR) in the first week. After I realized how the tests worked, I did a full length practice test every other day for the following 2 weeks; with the days in between, I would review the exams and redo the question banks, BioBites, and especially the Reaction Bites. “Building stamina” is a real thing for the DAT, you can’t afford to lose focus and get tired during the real test so practicing this is an actual thing to consider. A main thing to realize is to not worry too much about the score Bootcamp tells you after a test. It is a rough estimate and not the score you will actually get on the real DAT, take it with a grain of salt and learn from what you did wrong!

Exam Day!

Go in every exam - not just the DAT - confident! I knew I was prepared and went in knowing that I could crush the DAT. I highly recommend doing the tutorial in the beginning so you know how the software works, as my computer was slightly laggy at the testing center. Bootcamp definitely prepares you well - you could even say it over prepares - and the real DAT felt easier compared to some of the practice tests. Some questions were either extremely similar or the exact same from the practice tests, so it is very worthwhile redoing them. The main thing I was worried about was RC as I scored relatively low, but on the real DAT, it was much more straightforward and digestible to read. So trust in your test-taking abilities and know that you will do good.

Overall Thoughts

The DAT is a huge milestone that every Pre-Dent takes, so know that you have people you can rely on! Study with actual intent and have a consistent schedule. Try to do everything that Bootcamp has to offer as they are insanely helpful. Stay motivated and disciplined throughout your entire journey and I can assure you that you will do good. Make sure to relax and have fun during the process!
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I wish good luck to every Pre-Dent on their DAT! You got this!!!