The DAT Candidate Guide and study guide

What’s on the DAT

Some questions are unscored trial items, and they look the same as the others. The test uses both US and metric units.

The topics, section by section

• Biology: cell and molecular biology, diversity of life, organ systems, genetics, and evolution and ecology.
• General chemistry: stoichiometry, gases, liquids and solids, solutions, acids and bases, equilibrium, thermodynamics, kinetics, redox, atomic structure, periodic trends, nuclear reactions and lab skills. A periodic table is shown on screen.
• Organic chemistry: mechanisms (including curved arrows), synthesis, acid-base chemistry, properties of molecules and spectroscopy, and structure, naming and stereochemistry.
• Perceptual Ability: apertures, view recognition, angle ranking, paper folding, cube counting and 3D form development.
• Reading Comprehension: three science passages. You don’t need to know the topic beforehand.
• Quantitative Reasoning: algebra, data analysis and sufficiency, quantitative comparison, probability and statistics, and word problems.

Organic chemistry got new topic names in 2026

ADA updated the organic chemistry specifications in 2026. It says the content hasn’t changed much. The topics are just named more clearly and broken into more detailed subtopics. Study from the version that’s in effect on your test date, and check ADA’s site for the current one.

Other free ADA documents worth reading

• Perceptual Ability instructions: ADA strongly encourages you to read them before test day.
• DAT reference texts: the textbooks ADA’s question writers use.
• Score reporting scale guide: how the 200 to 600 scale works, with percentile tables and a conversion table for old 1 to 30 scores.
• Readiness surveys for biology and general chemistry, to check where you stand.