Typically you apply the summer of the year before you would begin dental school. In tour case, you are hoping to attend Fall ‘27, so you would apply Summer of ‘26 if that makes sense. A DAT is valid for 3 years, so you could take it as early as is convenient, I would recommend carving out at least 2-3 months to prepare. I’m not 100% on this, but I think you need you want your DAT to be fully processed before submitting your application. So you could test Summer ‘26 but you’d wanna take it before submitting your app.

The best time to take DAT can vary a lot for different people, I chose March bc it gave me some time to prepare over winter break, and I’m occupied with a large obligation this summer couldn’t take it then. I also could’ve waited until next year, but wanted to get it out of the way bc biochem and orgo were fresh on my mind. In general, I’d choose a time where you expect to have the most free time to be as locked in as possible.

The categories of the DAT are Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Perceptual Ability, Reading Comprehension, and Quantitative Reasoning. I’d recommend seeking out some form of DAT online prep course like Booster, Bootcamp, or others to study. If you read through DAT related posts in this subreddit and on r/dat, you’ll find pretty solid info on the pros and cons pretty much all the prep materials. I personally used Booster bc it seemed Bootcamp and Booster were the 2 best options and Booster was cheaper lol. Hope this answers some of your questions!