Hi! My name is Samara Kaplan & I am Internal VP of RUPDS. In February of 2020, I took my DAT in preparation to apply for Dental School in the summer after my Junior Year. I used winter break and the first few weeks of the spring semester to study.
Here are some details about my study journey:
Resources Used:
DAT BOOTCAMP- highly recommend! Very thorough and the practice tests are structured to look like the real thing. I bought the 90 day package
Cliff’s AP BIO Book I used this to supplement the bio portion of DAT Bootcamp, but I don’t think it made a big difference!
Some Tips:
Keep yourself accountable! - make a list of everything you want to get done in the week or in a day, this will help you stay organized and not fall off track
Use a Study App - I used an app called Flora which helps you block 25 or 50 minute segments of time where you ONLY focus on studying, no food breaks, no instagram breaks!
Pick a quiet environment to study - this goes without saying!
How I personalized my studying:
Creating my own schedule: DAT Bootcamp offers a 10 week schedule, but I only had about 5 weeks to study. I modified this by condensing the schedule and going faster or slower on subject areas that I felt confident/weak in.
Make PAT fun: PAT is the visual perception portion of the exam. It was the subject area that I’d consistently scored the lowest in on practice tests. At night, I’d play the PAT stimulator games on my phone to force myself to get better at visualization. On the real DAT, I scored the highest in this section.
Take a rest day! You don’t need to study 7 days a week for 10 hours a day! It’s important to prevent yourself from burnout
Speed up Review Videos: 2x speed is the best feature!
If you have any questions about the DAT, my study schedule, or my scores, you can message me at sjk228@rutgers.edu
My score was 23 AA, 25 PAT, 23 TS