DAT Strategy: Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a powerful way to stay focused and beat procrastination when preparing for the DAT. It was first developed in the late 1980s by Francesco Cirillo. At the time, Cirillo was a university student and was struggling to focus on his studies and complete assignments. Feeling overwhelmed, he asked himself to commit to just 10 minutes of focused study time. Encouraged by the challenge, he found a tomato (pomodoro in Italian) shaped kitchen timer and the Pomodoro technique was born.

I. What Is the Pomodoro Technique?

Note: In the event of an unavoidable disruption, take your five-minute break and start again. Keep track of interruptions (internal or external) to try to reflect on how to avoid them in the future.

II. How Can I Implement This Technique for Your DAT Prep?

To apply this technique for the DAT, break your study time into different sessions, with each session being 25 minutes focused on a particular topic. Between each session, take a 5-minute break to breathe, relax, or get a snack/water. After taking 4 sessions, give yourself a longer break of about 20 minutes. If you finish studying a particular topic before the timer goes off, use the rest of your time for overlearning, or improving skills or scope of knowledge.

To use this technique for the DAT, there are a few rules you should follow:

1. If you’re studying a topic that requires more than four pomodoros (for example, Taxonomy), it needs to be divided into smaller, actionable sessions.
2. Any topic that will take less than one pomodoro should be combined with other simple topics (for example, Angle Ranking, Cube Counting and Hole Punching generator questions can be combined under one session).
3. Most importantly, the pomodoro is an indivisible unit of time and cannot be broken, especially not to check incoming emails, team chats, or text messages. Any ideas, tasks, or requests that come up should be taken note of to come back to later.

Sticking to this rule will help ensure you make clear progress when preparing for the DAT. If you’re new to this technique, I would recommend experimenting with it to assess its usefulness. That said, remember, everyone is different so you should ultimately use the strategy that works best for you. Best of luck!