DAT scores not improving? 5 tips for getting out of a rut

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When studying for the Dental Admission Test (DAT), it is often helpful to keep track of your predicted practice test scores over time. Ideally, of course, you’d notice gradual improvement over time — but what happens if you feel that you consistently aren’t improving, or that your predicted scores are actually declining? You may be in a rut with your DAT studying. Read on for 5 tips for getting out of a studying rut and continuing to boost your scores, putting you back on track to achieving your goals!

Re-evaluate your study methods.

One of the most important things you can do when studying for the DAT is review your study methods and ensure you’re studying actively more than passively. What’s the difference? Passive learning methods, such as reading notes and watching videos, are very helpful when you’re first learning a topic. However, as you get closer to test day, it’s important to shift towards more active learning methods — taking practice tests, quizzing yourself to see how much you remember, and the like. Active learning is the best way to assess how much you know and identify gaps in your knowledge. If you’re stuck in a rut, it may be because you’re relying too much on passive learning methods and not enough on the active learning methods that will really help you retain information.

Make sure you’re reviewing your mistakes…

When you finish a practice test, it’s natural to feel too fatigued to even think about reviewing your mistakes! Take some time away from the test, but within a day, go back to your practice test and review all the questions you missed, guessed on, or struggled a lot with. Take notes on your mistakes — it’s often helpful to compile your mistakes on a document and review them periodically to keep track of what you now know and what remains challenging. This is, undoubtedly, one of the best ways to continually improve your scores and get yourself out of a rut, so be sure to always make time for reviewing your practice tests!

…and categorizing/analyzing them.

Beyond just reviewing your mistakes, if you find yourself in a score rut, go the extra mile and categorize your mistakes. On the same document where you keep track of your mistakes, you can also categorize them by question type (e.g., probability, statistics, cell biology, SN1 reactions, etc.) and mistake type (e.g., didn’t read the question carefully, didn’t understand the content, second-guessed myself, was stumped and could not attempt, etc.). In doing so, you will be better able to identify and address patterns in the mistakes that are preventing your scores from progressing, and identify any topics you may need to review or re-learn.

Test out a variety of new strategies.

Sometimes, you might have a hard time understanding a concept simply because it’s not being explained in a way that makes the most sense to you. Try out different resources (videos, notes, flashcards, etc.), and figure out what type of resource works best for you. For PAT in particular, test out different ways of approaching and visualizing these questions: check out the PAT Breakdowns on CrackDAT’s pre-dental blog for numerous strategies you can use to shift the way you approach each PAT question type. The key is to be creative and not let yourself feel stuck or fixated on one way of approaching a question type!

Troubleshoot the problems you’re running into.

From running out of time to having difficulty retaining information to feeling overwhelmed by your studying to-do list, there are many problems that can stand in the way of your progress. Check out our article on troubleshooting common DAT studying problems here for even more advice to get you out of your score rut!

Above all, if you’re finding that your predicted test scores are consistently not improving, you may be focusing too much on the testing and score tracking and not enough on the learning process, which involves active learning and reviewing mistakes. We hope this advice helps you address where you may be going wrong and get back on track to success!

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