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DAT Booster Review
Our detailed and all-encompassing review of the DAT Booster prep course
We’ve tested out and reviewed dozens of different DAT prep courses at this point—Kaplan, DAT Bootcamp, Princeton Review, DAT Cracker, you name it. But I have to say, after using DAT Booster, it might be my favorite, or at the very least, is right up near the top of my list. This course does have a few weaknesses (they all do), but by and large, I was very impressed. Find our full breakdown and analysis of the DAT Booster prep package below.
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Video Review: DAT Booster
In the video above, team member John delivers our thoughts on DAT Booster’s prep course. Please continue reading for more detail.
DAT Booster Price
Let’s start this review by quickly discussing cost, as that’s an important factor in choosing a DAT prep course. DAT Booster has two course offerings. Their premium membership costs $399, is good for 90 days, and gives you access to most of DAT Booster’s materials.
Then, their premium membership maxcosts $699, is good for 180 days, and gives you access to all of DAT Booster’s materials.
Putting that in perspective, Booster is cheaper than just about every other DAT prep provider on the market, except maybe DAT Cracker. However, DAT Cracker is just a practice test bank, so it doesn’t really compare at all.
When stacked up against other full prep courses, Booster costs hundreds less than Kaplan and Princeton Review, and is about $120 cheaper than their biggest competitor, DAT Bootcamp. As such, it’s a really strong value.
How DAT Booster Works & Features You Get
Now, on to the good stuff—let’s run down how this course works. From a high-level point of view in terms of organization, DAT Booster is sort of a massive library of study materials. You’ve got study notes and cheat sheets, content-based video lessons, practice questions, video problem solutions, full-length tests, flashcards, and a few other features.
In terms of structure, generally speaking, it’s all grouped by DAT subject: Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Perceptual Ability, Reading Comprehension, and Quantitative Reasoning.
Most everything is grouped into these subject-based modules, and you access your study tools and materials under each subject tab along the left hand side of the dashboard.
Without any clear guidance as to how to attack your studies, this would give it a sort of unstructured feel, as all the materials are just bucketed by subject; however, overarching everything in the course is the study schedule.
DAT Booster has created a 10-week study schedule that guides you through all the study materials in a very particular order. For reference, there are 8- and 12-week schedules as well, but the 10-week plan is the recommended approach.
In any event, the schedule is super detailed and gives a checklist of exactly what you need to complete everyday, right down to the last task. It’s very thorough and really holds the course together.
In essence, you follow this checklist-style study schedule and work your way through all of the materials in the course—video lessons, practice sets, etc. An average day can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours depending on how fast you study, what topic is being covered, and honestly, just how how far you want to take your studying that day.
And that’s about it for the high level overview. You take it day-by-day and work your way through all of the various resources in the course, just following the calendar along the way, reading cheat sheets, watching videos, and knocking out tons of practice work.
DAT Booster Strengths
Now that I’ve covered how the DAT Booster course is set up and what it comes with, let’s get to my thoughts—the pros and cons. I’m going to give you a few things I really like about DAT Booster, as well as a couple things I also wasn’t crazy about. Let’s start with the positives.
Multiple Approaches to Instruction
My first highlight is how Booster accommodates different learner types. Whether you’re a visual learner, do best with reading, or you’re one of those “learn by doing” type people, they have everyone covered. It’s not one-size-fits-all.
For example, if you’re looking at organic chemistry, you can read their study notes, watch video lessons, work flashcards, or hammer the question bank. It’s really nice how they offer different teaching styles for different learners.
Plus, even if you don’t fall exclusively into one bucket, it’s even better, as you can learn the material from different angles. In my opinion, the greater the variety of perspectives you get on material, the better you’ll understand it.
Realistic Practice Problems
The second strength here is the practice work. When it comes to DAT practice problems and tests, you’re honestly not going to do much better than DAT Booster.
For one, they have more material than just about every other course, with close to 9,000 practice problems and 80 practice tests. However, it’s not just the quantity. The realism is solid too.
A couple other companies, like DAT Bootcamp, are close, but DAT Booster has some of the best, most realistic practice work we’ve seen, right down to the interface. And this is important, as practicing under exam like conditions is hugely important.
PAT Expertise
Another major highlight is the PAT Generator. In case you didn’t know, DAT Booster was originally PAT Booster. The PAT was literally all they focused on at the beginning.
Obviously, they’ve since expanded into full DAT prep, but because this was their original specialty, their institutional expertise is clearly the PAT and everything that comes along with it. Booster provides a really, really good PAT generator tool and analyzer.
With their generator, you can create as many problems as you want, broken down however you want by filters. Not to mention, they give you a cool analyzer tool as well, which provides feedback on where you need work.
Lastly, their 3D review tool is awesome and a lot of their video content centers around PAT. So if PAT is a weak area for you (or think it might be), this is definitely something to think about.
Cool New Gamification Aspect
One cool aspect of the DAT Booster course is how they have sort of gamified the learning experience. Within the program, outside of the main coursework, you can compete in learning-based games against other users.
Not only are the games kind of fun, and I liked the competition aspect, but you can also win prizes. The prizes tend to include more boring things, like the ability pause or extend your membership, but it’s nonetheless fun and has a financial aspect to it. So props to them on juicing up engagement with these game- and achievement-based tools.
Tutoring-Like Support (Crazy for $399)
The final thing I need call out is that Booster gives you coaching and live support as part of your package. Despite only being $399, Booster still kicks in time with their expert DAT team.
To be clear, this is not intensive, daily tutoring sessions. They simply couldn’t pull that off at their price point. However, if you have a few questions or you’re hung up on some topic, you can talk to their DAT experts directly on the platform and get personalized answers within just a few minutes.
We tried it out and they were great. Again, these aren’t full, hour-long sessions, but for getting through trouble spots here and there, they were very helpful. I was shocked they provide this feature for free.
DAT Booster Weaknesses
Having covered what I like, now let’s get to the things I don’t necessarily like. In other words, the negatives.
Slightly Disjointed Feel
The first downside of this program is that while the course overall has a very clean and streamlined feel (the online program is super sleek), it’s also a little disjointed.
For one, your course schedule is a separate PDF from the portal. It’s not directly integrated into the dashboard.
To be honest, the videos are surprisingly good, but it’s also kind of a pain. For whatever video lesson you’re assigned to watch in your study schedule, you have to separately hunt it down in the classroom portal.
I’d personally like to see them produce more own in-house video lessons (love the videos, but need more) and integrate everything into the online portal. It would be much cleaner and simpler that way.
No Hardcopy Study Materials
My other complaint is that there aren’t any hardcopy (i.e., printed) prep books, study notes or cheat sheets with this course. Everything is digital and accessible through the online portal.
I think it’s cool to save trees like that, but I do think there is a benefit to printed materials. You can highlight key points, haul your notes to places where a laptop isn’t practical, and drop in post-it notes if you want.
Maybe I’m old school, but I’d like to see DAT Booster roll all their text-based materials, like study notes, cheat sheets, and even flashcards into print form.
Verdict: Is DAT Booster Worth It?
That covers the detail in this review, so here’s my verdict. All in all, I think DAT Booster is an incredible value for what you get. The study schedule gives you a ton of detailed guidance on what to study and when; the practice problems are insanely realistic of what you’ll see on test day; the video lessons and written study notes are on point; and even the other features, such as flashcards and expert support, are huge value adds.
I do have a couple minor gripes about the slightly disjointed nature of some of the materials and there being no printed materials, but altogether, I think Booster is a highly effective course at an awesome price point.
FAQ
What is the DAT Booster price?
DAT Booster has two course offerings. Their premium membership costs $399, is good for 90 days, and gives you access to most of DAT Booster’s materials. Their premium max membership costs $699, is good for 180 days, and gives you access to all of DAT Booster’s materials.
DAT Booster vs Real DAT, how close is it?
DAT Booster is very similar to what you’ll see on test day with the real DAT. Apart from maybe DAT Bootcamp, it is perhaps the most realistic of all DAT practice materials.
DAT Bootcamp or DAT Booster?
Choosing between DAT Booster and DAT Bootcamp is very hard, as both offer strong courses. Yet, each has its own strengths and weaknesses. See our guide for full analysis.