The truth is, there has never been more a competitive time to apply to dental school as many students across the board are completing shadowing hours, volunteer, and research activities. What can set you apart? In the most objective sense, having a strong didactic record (GPA and DAT) will undoubtedly get your foot through the door and eyes on your application. While many dental school programs have a holistic review process, I like to advise students to put their best effort in every controllable factor such as your test scores.
In our observation mentoring over 60 students in the last eight years, there is a statistical trend of the average DAT score for the admitted student to be increasing. Now that Wilson and I are over 6 years removed from the DAT testing process, we have the enlisted the help of some of our super star mentees that have conquered the DAT to guide the next generation. I have surveyed five students who have earned TS/AA scores ranging from 24-29 (yes, 29!), scoring in the 99th percentile and above of the DAT and here's the advice they have to share:
Special shout out to our wonderful students who have participated in this blog post:
Student | TS Score | AA Score | Matriculated Dental School |
Judy Qin | 29 | 26 | UCSF School of Dentistry, Class of 2028 |
Ethan Huang | 25 | 26 | UCSF School of Dentistry, Class of 2029 |
Nicole Louie | 28 | 26 | TBD |
Hannah Ashraf | 28 | 28 | TBD |
Kimia Tashakor | 28 | 26 | UCLA School of Dentistry, Class of 2028 |
What resources did you utilize? ie. DAT Bootcamp, DAT Booster, DAT Destroyer
Across all five students, students utilized DAT bootcamp, DAT Destroyer, with additional mention of DAT Booster and Anki flashcards.
How long did you study for?
All five of our students dedicated 3 months to studying. Judy mentions " I mainly focused on getting through/learning all the content during the 1st month and doing practice problems/exams during the 2nd month."
What's one piece of advice you have to help students achieve the same success in the DAT?
Getting into a consistent schedule and taking breaks for other activities is very important! Without consistency and set breaks, you can burn out very quickly and lose motivation to study. In addition, if you aren't scoring up to your target on the practice exams, thats okay! I feel that the real DAT is much easier than the practice exams from DATBooster, and I scored a few points higher than my practice test average. Relax the day before and do your best! |
One piece of advice I have for students is to really customize your studying based on your own strengths and weaknesses. Create a personalized study schedule that will allow you to focus your attention primarily on topics you feel shaky with, because mastering those concepts is what will actually bring your score up! Continuously review the questions you get wrong on practice exams/question banks and make sure to truly understand both why the answer you chose was wrong and why the correct answer is right. Tackling this exam is an incredibly difficult process, but know that hard work does pay off. Give it everything you've got and try to find ways to motivate yourself along the way, even when times get tough! |
I split up my 12 weeks in the following way: the first 4 weeks was dedicated to content review, watching videos, and taking notes. For the next 4 weeks, I focused on taking subject practice tests. For the final 4 weeks, I completed full-length practice tests and dedicated the following day after a full-length test to carefully reviewing every single question. The most valuable tool when studying for the DAT is definitely the full-length practice exams. I highly recommend stimulating your testing environment while taking these practice tests - I even went so far as to visit my testing center ahead of my DAT and wear my testing outfit while practicing! |
Both Bootcamp and Booster are valuable sources in their own way. Booster is better if you have time and want to fully comprehend and dive deep into everything that could possibly be on the exam. Booster is great for practice questions and exams that have a similar difficulty and wording of the actual exam. I started using Bootcamp and going along with the 3 month schedule they suggested. I set deadlines each week so they were on track with their schedule, which allowed me to study what I felt like studying for each day without falling behind. For bootcamp, I would download their slides and watch the videos and take notes along with the slides. After watching all the lesson videos and answering practice questions, I downloaded the bootcamp and booster quick notes. These notes were great because if covers the majority of content I assume would be on the exam. I told myself if I memorize everything on these Quicknotes, then I would know the majority of the material on the exam. I would force myself to read through the Quicknotes of the biology, general chemistry, and o chem before every practice exam/ practice section I took so the material and and would be fresh before taking it. I also would go though the Quicknotes and used different colored high lighter to indicate what I needed to focus more on comprehending. I would like to note that studying was like my full time job at the time. I did not have other classes or clubs since i had just graduated. Even if you don't plan on studying for that day or have not started preparing for the exam yet, I would suggest trying to just do the daily DAT questions online. I used bootcamp for the first 2-3 months of practice to absorb the material. Then I switched over to booster for practice questions and exams for the last couple weeks. |
Create a study plan that works for you, stick to it, and give yourself flexibility! I used Anki daily, and I made my own decks to better understand the material. If I could change anything, I would focus more on breadth and utilizing the cheat sheets during content review. The DAT Destroyer books were particularly helpful for Orgo and Bio. |
Note: For all students challenging the DAT in the 2025, it is important to be aware of the scoring system change effective March 2025. I am a firm believer in understanding the scoring system, which now more closely mirrors the MCAT scoring nomenclature, and how the test is written to help you reverse engineer how you can optimize your test scores. We will detail this in a future blog post.
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If you are a pre-dental student and would like to seek assistance in your personal statement or mock interview practice, please email us at thepredentalguide@gmail.com or send us a message in our chatbox to your right.
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