Yes. The ADA gives you a periodic table on the DAT, and it says so in writing. The 2026 DAT Candidate Guide prints the exact image the exam uses and states that it's "available to candidates as they complete the General Chemistry section."
That's the whole official statement. It names one section, and it doesn't describe the interface or promise the table anywhere else. Everything below is built on the actual image the ADA publishes, which we pulled from the 2026 DAT Candidate Guide and checked box by box (verified August 28, 2026, against the guide dated 08/04/2026).
- The ADA confirms a periodic table is available during the General Chemistry section of the DAT.
- The official table shows atomic number, symbol, and atomic mass only. No element names, no electronegativity values, no oxidation states, no group names.
- It also carries a strip of constants: Avogadro's number, Faraday constant, Planck's constant, speed of light, and the gas constant in both unit systems.
- The ADA does not state whether the table stays available during the Organic Chemistry items in the same section, so plan as if it doesn't.
- Everything that actually gets tested about the periodic table, meaning trends, group behavior, charges, and polyatomic ions, is still pure memorization.
What the Official DAT Periodic Table Actually Shows
Each element box holds exactly three things: atomic number (top left), element symbol (centered), and atomic mass to two decimal places (bottom left). Group numbers 1 through 18 run across the top, lanthanides and actinides sit in a detached block underneath, and the whole thing is black and white with no color coding.
Underneath the table there's a constants strip a lot of students don't know is there:
| Constant | Value on the official table |
|---|---|
| Avogadro's number | 6.02 x 10^23 /mol |
| Faraday constant | 96,500 C/mol |
| Planck's constant | 6.63 x 10^-34 J*s |
| Speed of light | 3.00 x 10^8 m/s |
| Universal gas constant | 8.314 J/(molK) and 0.08206 (atmL)/(mol*K) |
That strip is genuinely useful. If you've been drilling gas law problems trying to remember whether R is 0.0821 or 8.314, the DAT hands you both.
What it does not show
This is the part that decides how you study:
- No element names, only symbols. If you can't recognize Sb, W, or Sn on sight, the table won't help you.
- No electronegativity values, oxidation states, or common charges.
- No electron configurations.
- No group names. Nothing labels group 17 as the halogens.
- No metal or nonmetal shading and no staircase line.
- No atomic or ionic radii, ionization energies, or melting points.
- No polyatomic ions, solubility rules, or activity series.
So the table is a lookup tool for mass and position. It is not a cheat sheet. Every conceptual periodic question is still answered from memory.
One quirk so it doesn't rattle you: the ADA's image is an older-style table, ending at element 112, and a few symbols and masses don't match current IUPAC values. It never affects a DAT answer.
Which Sections Is the Periodic Table Available In?
Here's the honest breakdown of what the ADA documents and what it doesn't.
| Section | Official ADA position |
|---|---|
| General Chemistry (30 items) | Periodic table available. Stated directly in the Candidate Guide. |
| Organic Chemistry (30 items) | Not addressed. The ADA never says it's available and never says it isn't. |
| Biology (40 items) | Not addressed. No reference material is described. |
| Quantitative Reasoning | A digital calculator is provided. The guide shows an image of it. |
| Perceptual Ability, Reading Comprehension | No reference tools described. |
The ADA does name a section when a tool is section-specific, using the same sentence pattern for the Quantitative Reasoning calculator. So the periodic table sentence naming General Chemistry, and only General Chemistry, is meaningful.
Here's where online answers overreach. General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry sit in the same 90-minute Survey of the Natural Sciences block, delivered as one continuous run of 100 items. Whether the table stays reachable once you cross into the organic items is a software question the ADA doesn't document, and the confident answers on Reddit and Facebook go both ways. We won't launder those into a fact. We also couldn't verify from any ADA source what the control even looks like, whether it's a button, a tab, or a split pane. The ADA publishes the image, not the interface. To see it yourself, use the DAT tutorial the ADA links from its official DAT page, or the optional 15-minute tutorial at the start of your appointment.
Practical rule: study organic chemistry as if you have no table. You can look up an atomic mass, but not a mechanism.
What You Still Have To Memorize
The table gives you position and mass. The DAT asks about behavior. That gap is your study list.
Periodic trends, and the reason behind each one
Two ideas explain almost every trend. Effective nuclear charge is the net positive pull outer electrons actually feel, and it rises as you add protons across a period without adding a shell. Shielding is the screening from inner electrons, and it jumps every time you start a new shell going down a group.
| Trend | Across a period (left to right) | Down a group | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atomic radius | Decreases | Increases | Effective nuclear charge rises across a period and pulls the same shell tighter. Down a group you add whole new shells. |
| Ionization energy | Increases | Decreases | Tighter hold means more energy to strip an electron. Down a group the outer electron is farther out and better shielded. |
| Electron affinity | Becomes more negative (more energy released) | Becomes less negative | An incoming electron feels a stronger pull in a small, high-charge atom. |
| Electronegativity | Increases | Decreases | Same logic applied to electrons in a shared bond. Fluorine is the maximum. |
| Metallic character | Decreases | Increases | Metals lose electrons easily, which tracks inversely with ionization energy. |
| Effective nuclear charge | Increases | Roughly flat | Protons increase across a period with little added shielding. |
Ionic radius follows its own rule: cations are always smaller than their neutral atoms, anions always larger. In an isoelectronic series, radius shrinks as atomic number climbs, so N3- is bigger than O2-, then F-, then Na+, then Mg2+, then Al3+.
The exceptions the DAT likes
The trends are easy points, and test writers know it, so the discriminating questions live in the exceptions.
- Ionization energy dips from group 2 to group 13. Boron is lower than beryllium because boron's outermost electron is in a higher-energy p orbital that the filled s subshell shields. Same story for aluminum versus magnesium.
- Ionization energy dips again from group 15 to group 16. Oxygen is lower than nitrogen because oxygen's fourth p electron has to pair up in an already-occupied orbital, and that electron-electron repulsion makes it easier to remove. Sulfur versus phosphorus repeats it.
- Chlorine has a more negative electron affinity than fluorine, because fluorine's 2p shell is so compact that adding an electron costs extra repulsion.
- Group 2 and group 18 have essentially unfavorable electron affinities. Filled subshells have nowhere good to put another electron.
- Atomic radius is nearly flat across the transition metals, because added d electrons shield the outer s electrons enough to offset the rising nuclear charge.
- Chromium is [Ar] 4s1 3d5 and copper is [Ar] 4s1 3d10, not the configurations the filling order predicts. Half-filled and filled d subshells are more stable.
- The lanthanide contraction makes hafnium about the same size as zirconium, which is why second and third row transition metals are so similar.
Group names the table doesn't label
| Group | Name | Behavior worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alkali metals | Most reactive metals, always +1, react violently with water. Hydrogen sits here but isn't one. |
| 2 | Alkaline earth metals | Always +2, less reactive than group 1. |
| 3-12 | Transition metals | Variable oxidation states, colored complexes, d orbitals. |
| 15 | Pnictogens | N and P dominate DAT questions. |
| 16 | Chalcogens | O and S. Oxygen is nearly always -2. |
| 17 | Halogens | Always -1 as ions, diatomic as elements, most reactive nonmetals. |
| 18 | Noble gases | Full octets, highest ionization energies, essentially inert. |
| Bottom block | Lanthanides and actinides | Inner transition metals, f orbitals. |
Common charges and oxidation states
Main group charges follow position: group 1 gives +1, group 2 gives +2, group 13 gives +3, group 15 takes -3, group 16 takes -2, group 17 takes -1, and group 14 goes either way. The rules that generate the rest:
- Elements in their standard state are 0.
- Fluorine is always -1.
- Oxygen is -2, except -1 in peroxides and +2 in OF2.
- Hydrogen is +1 with nonmetals and -1 in metal hydrides.
- Oxidation numbers in a neutral compound sum to zero, and in a polyatomic ion they sum to the ion's charge.
- Transition metals vary. Know iron as +2 and +3, copper as +1 and +2, silver as +1, zinc as +2.
Polyatomic ions
These show up constantly in stoichiometry, equilibrium, and redox, and nothing on the provided table hints at them.
| Charge | Ions |
|---|---|
| 1- | Nitrate NO3, nitrite NO2, hydroxide OH, cyanide CN, acetate CH3COO, permanganate MnO4, bicarbonate HCO3, hypochlorite ClO, chlorite ClO2, chlorate ClO3, perchlorate ClO4, thiocyanate SCN |
| 2- | Sulfate SO4, sulfite SO3, carbonate CO3, chromate CrO4, dichromate Cr2O7, oxalate C2O4, peroxide O2 |
| 3- | Phosphate PO4, phosphite PO3 |
| 1+ | Ammonium NH4, hydronium H3O |
Learn the "-ate" form of each family first, then generate the rest: one fewer oxygen is "-ite," "per-" adds one, and "hypo-" removes one.
How to Practice With the Table
Drill General Chemistry with a plain periodic table open and nothing else. No notes, no ion list, no trend chart. That's the exact information environment you'll have. Then run a second pass with no table and see what still holds. Missing a question because you blanked on a symbol is a low-value miss. Missing one because you blanked on a trend, a charge, or an ion is a real gap.
For the full section plan covering stoichiometry, equilibrium, thermodynamics, and kinetics, use our DAT General Chemistry guide. To put the periodic reasoning above under a clock, work through the free DAT general chemistry practice questions. For how the 30 General Chemistry items sit inside the rest of test day, see the DAT section breakdown.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I get a periodic table on the DAT?
Yes, in General Chemistry. The 2026 DAT Candidate Guide prints the image and says it's available to candidates while they complete that section.
Do you get a periodic table on the DAT for Organic Chemistry?
The ADA doesn't say. Its only statement names General Chemistry. Both subsections are delivered inside the same Survey of the Natural Sciences block and students report different experiences, but those are candidate accounts, not documented ADA policy. Prepare for organic chemistry assuming you have no table.
Can I bring my own periodic table to the DAT?
No. The Candidate Guide prohibits books, notes, study materials, and scratch paper in the secure testing area. You get two note boards without graph lines and two low-odor fine tip markers from the test center, and you can't write on them before the test starts or during scheduled breaks.
Is there a DAT periodic table PDF?
Yes, free and official. The exact image is printed in the ADA's DAT Candidate Guide PDF, immediately after the General Chemistry topic list. Study from that one. Third-party "DAT periodic tables" often add electronegativity values and color coding you won't have on test day, which trains the wrong habits.
Does the DAT periodic table show electronegativity or oxidation states?
No. Each box has only the atomic number, symbol, and atomic mass. Electronegativity values, oxidation states, electron configurations, and group names are all things you bring with you.
Does the DAT give you a calculator too?
Yes, but only in Quantitative Reasoning. The Candidate Guide shows an image of the digital calculator available for that section. There's no calculator in the Survey of the Natural Sciences, which is why General Chemistry math rewards estimation.
What periodic table topics does the DAT actually test?
The official General Chemistry specifications list Periodic Properties as its own topic area: representative elements, transition elements, periodic trends, and descriptive chemistry. Atomic and Molecular Structure is listed separately and covers electron configuration, orbital types, and quantum theory.
More DAT Science Guides
DAT general chemistry guide · DAT organic chemistry guide
Then drill what you reviewed with our free DAT practice questions in a replica of the test interface.
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