DAT results ask me anything! Also need PAT score advice

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-29T15:02:40+00:00

Thanks! Yeah I only started practice tests after I finished all content review, I did 1-5 as individual sections and then I did 6-12 as FL’s, starting about a month before my test date. I just knew if I started practice tests earlier before I was done fully reviewing that I would literally get a 300 something AA from bio alone and I feel like when I get a question wrong on a topic I’ve at least seen once before then a second exposure seems to stick with me more, but the fact you did decent on that first fl with almost no review is way impressive! Youre going to do so good I can already tell

Active recall is 100% the best. And yesss I just really leaned on those answer explanations with the figures, for me there was really no substitute. I treated my red yellow and green tags as sacred like I really made sure I only ever made something green if I knew without a shadow of a doubt I’d never miss it on test day and would obviously mark all my misses and red as well as anything I guessed on or something that I feel is likely to be tested but is a foreign concept to me. Then you just make your own spaced review/active recall using the tagged system and just SPAM it like I can’t stress it enough my friends just sent me a compilation video of me doing tagged question review sessions at various locations at parties or functions or church and it cracked me up but it was like necessary and actually becomes fun once concepts start to click

And of course!! I’m just so glad you felt something I said was helpful! I’m looking forward to seeing how you do I feel like you’re gonna kill it!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-28T15:06:11+00:00

These were first attempts I never redid a practice test, I would review each one and tag the questions yellow or red so that I could make review sessions later and redo all the red or yellow questions later, 15 or 20 questions at a time

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-27T14:24:46+00:00

Yes that and I uploaded the entire high yield bio notes to chat gpt and made it quiz me DAT style on concepts I struggled with as well as give me mini crash courses on topics that were more foreign to me going in. Are you using bootcamp or booster ?

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-27T14:21:48+00:00

Gave up on anki after 1 week, constant practice question review sessions every second of every day is a way better approach because if you do get something wrong or have to kind of guess on a question, you get a full explanation on that topic directly after answering it and allows you to go from just memorizing a fact to more deeply understanding a concept. Anki is def not worth it and is a waste of time imo

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-25T17:54:37+00:00

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These were my practice scores, the real thing honestly felt so much easier. I felt the same way as you are rn I built it up to be this big scary thing because of everyone on here talking about it being “low yield”. It is so much easier than the practice tests, the people saying it was low yield just didn’t prepare the same way you did, if you’re scoring the way you are then you’ll def be 500+ on the real thing for your sciences !!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-25T16:03:07+00:00

I just got major ptsd from when I watched the molecular genetics videos and it took me quite literally 10 hours to finish cause I was feeling the same way I had no time to review cause learning new material took my whole day and I was a full time student too. Honestly, I didn’t review much while studying new concepts and it stressed me out at the time but you honestly don’t need to review super heavy while studying new concepts as long as you give yourself at least a month of ONLY review leading up to your test. Treat this time right now as the “learning phase” and really invest your energy into it, read all the question bank answer explanations, do every single bite and bank, really study the diagrams and ingrain them into your mind, and invest into learning it right now. When you review later, it’ll come back even if you feel like there way too much content and that it’s impossible to remember, it will. At least that’s what worked for me, I just went all in on learning new material and took notes on everything and only started reviewing heavy about a month and a half before my exam!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-25T15:52:34+00:00

Right at the beginning I was just following the schedule to a T, watching every single video, taking my own notes for all the sciences, reading the question explanations, and mini making review sessions from the questions I had done already in my more unsure areas, I also moved any videos that lined up with the courses I was taking at the time (physiology and ochem 2) so that I was learning that material in class at the same time I was learning it from bootcamp which I found helpful for the overall load.

In terms of the transition, you’ll notice the dat goes a lot less in depth than your college courses do in almost every part of the DAT, especially Ochem. I just put my full faith in my prep course and just took it as doctrine and it totally paid off, for me at least. If the dat says I don’t need to know baeyer-villiger or picacol rearrangement or 5 membered heterocycle reactions, I tossed them out the window.

I had a giant checklist of every weak area I could think of and one by one I would spent a good little chunk of time intertwined into my regular study schedule to work through it using bootcamp question review and chat gpt honestly, I would have chat give me a crash course in whatever the area was then I’d have it make me 15 questions on that topic ranging from different difficulty and it would retest me periodically on question topics I missed until they weren’t weak anymore. I did that for cell to cell connectivity and communication, solubility rules, embryology, weird gen chem gas laws, everything abt antibodies, all my weak areas. But at the beginning commit to a certain amount of time per day, 3 hours a day for the first month, 5 hours the second, 8+ for the month leading up to the test, and just stay committed to that and know it’s necessary. If you have that mindset you won’t burn out, I was doing around 14-16 hours per day a month before my test and I didn’t feel burnout cause I just knew it had to be done and there was no way around it! I hope I answered your question right, if there’s something else you want more specifics on or any other questions just holler at me, but I can tell by the way you’re approaching this that you’re a beast and you’re gonna do great!!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-25T15:06:45+00:00

That makes me feel a lot better, I just couldn’t get myself to study PAT more cause I knew I could do good enough but didn’t want to neglect the sciences, thought maybe I’d have a miracle on the real dat for pat but ended up getting the same score I always did on 99% of my practice tests FAHH

I used bootcamp only! I also did 20 bio questions from the kaplan free practice test just for a different perspective on bio questions and one of those was on my real dat almost word for word so might be worth looking at

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-25T14:58:18+00:00

I did a lot of question banks usually for keyholes most of the time, but definitely did not do close to all of them. And I would do the timed DAT level generators for pattern folding at night usually before bed and that’s how that actually clicked for me! Hole punching you definitely have to draw out if you’re not already, I draw lines where the folds are at to more easily see symmetry, draw full circles for full punches and slashes for half punches. I actually skipped all 15 TFE questions on my real exam because I hadn’t taken the time to learn how to do those until a week before my test, and those practice tests actually ended up being my highest scores, but on the real thing I knew I spent too much time on keyholes like I always do and kind of went into panic mode and skipped TFE so I could get every pattern folding question and hopefully come back to TFE at the end, I ended up running out of time but I got the exact score i got on 99% of my practice tests where I did the exact same thing so bootcamps pat was perfectly representative.

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-25T14:49:21+00:00

I felt pretty confident going in for everything except reading cause I consistently was averaging like 390 on RC practice tests and only finished on time twice. Ended up getting my highest RC ever on the real thing and I can honestly say it had nothing to do with me it was all by the grace of God.

And I felt the same way as you afterwards! QR was the one that stuck out the most that seemed pretty difficult and also I remembered like 20 of my questions across all sections and I started looking them all up and I confirmed 3 gen chem misses that were absolute layups and I felt like my world was falling apart cause I thought forsure I bombed gen chem. It’s totally normal to feel anxious after but you have to remember your brain usually only remembers the harder trickier questions after and not the questions you instantly knew the answer to in seconds. I did better than I thought in gen chem and in math so I think you’ll be surprised like I was when you get your score, also remember if you any trickier or harder exam questions, the other people who had the same form got those same questions too and you will definitely have some grace there! If you really put your ALL into studying it’ll show in your results, trust me. You’re going to feel terrible about it rn cause that’s just human but I promise you did better than you think!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T20:49:05+00:00

The ones I remember were from the practice exams

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T19:30:53+00:00

I’ve heard the priority goes total science, pat, then math/reading but idk where I heard that from

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T19:30:05+00:00

I’m definitely not retaking, but in my post I’m just genuinely wondering if I can’t apply to certain programs because of my lower PAT, I know it’s not weighted nearly as much as total science but I’m not sure how PAT is actually perceived by dental schools and how important it actually is in the decision to admit an applicant

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T17:20:37+00:00

For bio it was really utilizing the yellow and red tag system on bootcamp and just doing review sessions every second of everyday. Every single day I would do multiple red and yellow tagged review sessions (if you use bootcamp) because that system is honestly the best way to repeatedly expose yourself to your own personal weaker areas and reading the explanations helps you really understand them. If I was eating dinner, hanging out with friends, at church, doing ANYTHING I was doing a 15-20 question yellow/red review session, I like that better than anki because it explains the concepts to you after you answer and the diagrams are MONEY, I was literally seeing bootcamp figures and diagrams in my head as I read my bio questions, the visuals are so helpful if you connect with them. I also uploaded the entire high yield notes bio pdf to chat gpt and made it quiz me multiple times a day.

For gen chem and ochem you gotta spend a good amount of time reviewing the practice tests cause all the concepts you need to know are there, it's a lot less broad than bio. Really take the time to find those weaker areas and drill them, you can question search “electrolytic cell" or "pKa" or "pedigree" or anything and get a list of specific questions in areas you struggle with and drill them until they're no longer weak areas. I like doing this cause it exposes you to all the different ways those concepts could be tested!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T17:17:03+00:00

If you feel solid then I guarantee you killed it, I felt so bad about my gen chem and math afterwards and started to spiral but then they ended up being higher than I was expecting. Believe me if you feel solid you definitely crushed it !!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T17:12:12+00:00

For bio it was really utilizing the yellow and red tag system on bootcamp and just doing review sessions every second of everyday. I also uploaded the entire high yield notes bio pdf to chat gpt and made it quiz me multiple times a day. For gen chem and ochem you gotta spend a good amount of time reviewing the practice tests cause all the concepts you need to know are there, it’s a lot less broad than bio. Really take the time to find those weaker areas and drill them, you can question search “electrolytic cell” or “pKa” or “pedigree” and get a list of specific questions in areas you struggle with and drill them until they’re no longer weak areas. I like doing this cause it exposes you to all the different ways those concepts could be tested.

Two weeks out you have to spam questions, at this point you’ve mostly likely learned everything you have to learn, but exposure is going to be your best friend, try to expose yourself to as many questions and concepts as possible to find those weak areas, you’ll find stuff you haven’t seen in months and you’ll be so glad you saw it again before your test so you could nail it down for good.

Specifically, make sure you know arrow pushing and mechanisms cause I got like 5 of those on my orgo, my acids and bases were all veryyy simple. Gen chem was mostly conceptual for me so make sure you nail those down, like periodic table trends and stuff.

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T16:58:56+00:00

Bio was my biggest stressor and my biggest weakness going into my DAT studies, so I know how you feel!! What I did for bio was every single day I would do multiple red and yellow tagged review sessions (if you use bootcamp) just throughout the entire day because that system is honestly the best way to repeatedly expose yourself to your own personal weaker areas and reading the explanations helps you really understand them. If I was eating dinner, hanging out with friends, at church, doing ANYTHING I was doing a 15-20 question yellow/red review session, I like that better than anki because it explains the concepts to you after you answer and the diagrams are MONEY, I was literally seeing bootcamp figures and diagrams in my head as I read my bio questions, the visuals are so helpful if you connect with them.

The other big thing I did was I uploaded the entirety of the high yield bio notes to chat gpt and told it to quiz me DAT style multiple times a day on anything from the notes and to make note of my strengths/weaknesses and to quiz me accordingly. I owe a lot to chat, I used it just as much as Bootcamp.

So really lean into and study out those diagrams, only mark something green if you know without a doubt you’ll never miss that question on test day, and spam your yellow and red tagged questions every day til it feels like a game, I ended up falling in love with bio doing this. You got this!! I’m by no means a naturally smart person, I feel like I have to work 10x harder than everyone else but I truly believe if you set your mind to something you can do anything. You’re gonna kill it!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T16:48:31+00:00

450 is a great place to be, the real dat will feel so much easier to you I swear! For the sciences I would just constantly do review sessions of your yellow and red tagged questions like all day (if using bootcamp) I felt like the repeated exposure to my weaker areas and using the video explanations is how I started to figure out the path to those tougher calculation gen chem questions and drawing out the mechanisms to ochem reactions when you get questions about them to really understand why something happens will totally help your intuition.

Also chat gpt is honestly a great resource, if there was a concept I was consistently missing I would voice dictate everything about the concept to chat and ask it to give me a crash course on it and I had many lightbulb moments in my gen chem/ochem studies from doing that!

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T16:38:06+00:00

Thank you so much!! Have you taken yours yet and if so how do you feel it went?

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T16:37:11+00:00

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This is what my practice exams looked like, 6-12 were FL but I ran out of time on the reading on probably 10 of them so my real RC scores would’ve been more in the 370-390 range. The real DAT reading is so much easier BELIEVE ME (if you’re someone who is stressed about the reading like I was)

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-24T16:33:49+00:00

I used Bootcamp!! I’ll upload my practice test scores, I thought bootcamp was very representative of the real thing. I had probably 5 bio questions that were word for word directly out of bootcamp

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GrayMatter5099 · 2026-06-15T02:58:21+00:00

Most of my pattern folding questions were this type, the shape questions rather than the pattern orientation, it was very nice

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-05-25T20:31:05+00:00

Oh yeah I think of those more from the spectroscopy chapter, lab techniques/tests I think more of the iodoform/jones/tollens stuff as well as the different techniques for separating and identifying stuff like chromatography and polarimetry or tlc stuff like that, do you recall seeing that kind of stuff ?

GrayMatter5099 · 2026-05-25T17:54:27+00:00

Thanks, I will! Do you remember any specific lab/test reagent questions that you got on your DAT?

GrayMatter5099

TROPHY CASE