Hi all,
Just took the DAT today and what does everyone think about my score as well as possible chances of getting into dental school? Looking at UW, UCSF, OHSU, Tufts, Boston U, and possibly Texas A&M as options and will be applying next cycle (for Fall 2016):
DAT Breakdown
- AA: 19
- Bio: 18
- GC: 20
- OC: 18
- TS: 18
- PAT: 21
- RC: 19
- QR: 19
Current GPA right now is 3.54 and BCP GPA is 3.29, Science (including math, upper division bio such as genetics, A&P) is 3.19.
Any thoughts? Also to those people that are currently studying for the DAT, I honestly thought my score was going to be a lot lower than expected (especially the Science section). I took Anatomy this summer and then after the quarter ended I spent a good 3.5 weeks until today studying nonstop (I probably put in 10-hour days). I used Chad's videos throughout my studying (I started watching the videos in June but re-watched them over the past few weeks) as well as the Kaplan blue book to study for the test. I also had Crack the DAT (Science, Reading, PAT, and Math) to aid my studying and was scoring way below what I actually got (for example my TS was around 16, PAT 19, RC 17, QR 19). Also did DAT Bootcamp and did horrible on the first sample test (I believe my breakdown was 18 TS, 17 PAT, 15 RC, 17 QR). My friend also gave me the DAT destroyer book so I did some of the questions from there as well in the last week and a half or so.
What I recommend!!
- Definitely review classification, embryology, and respiration for biology! Guaranteed question on each of these on your tests. Pretty much questions are going to look similar to what I saw in Destroyer.
- GC: JUST do Chad's quizzes. Crack the DAT I was scoring in the 15's on those questions but they were so specific. I also ended up guessing on a lot of them and was surprised about my 20 on GC.
- OC: LOTS of elimination and substitution questions... also definitely review your isomers (what a stereoisomer is, stereocenter, chiral, achiral, fisher projections, R&S). Not a lot of mechanism questions on my test except Nucleophilic Acyl Substitution and some Rxns with Benzene. Chad's videos will also help but DAT destroyer was super helpful for this as well.
- PAT: Crack the PAT was super helpful for my studying.
- RC: just keep reading. Reading was not something I was good at, even on my SAT/ACT (for example my RC was a 15 on a bootcamp exam and got a 19 on the actual). What I did was search and destroy, or I looked at the questions first and then skimmed the passage. Usually the answers were literally right in the passage when I was taking the actual. Not as difficult as bootcamp but harder than Crack the DAT reading.
- QR: Gosh this part was difficult, especially at the end of the test. Crack the DAT was helpful for this part. Also Chad's videos were helpful too. Lots of application problems, especially with percentages and geometry (i.e. volume increase by 30%, what's the area/volume of original figure, etc.)
Hopefully people find my situation helpful. Literally, don't stress about the exam! You will do fine if you take at least a month or so to study to get at least an average score! If you have any feedback on my situation/scores, let me know too! Would love to hear from you all
Just took the DAT today and what does everyone think about my score as well as possible chances of getting into dental school? Looking at UW, UCSF, OHSU, Tufts, Boston U, and possibly Texas A&M as options and will be applying next cycle (for Fall 2016):
DAT Breakdown
- AA: 19
- Bio: 18
- GC: 20
- OC: 18
- TS: 18
- PAT: 21
- RC: 19
- QR: 19
Current GPA right now is 3.54 and BCP GPA is 3.29, Science (including math, upper division bio such as genetics, A&P) is 3.19.
Any thoughts? Also to those people that are currently studying for the DAT, I honestly thought my score was going to be a lot lower than expected (especially the Science section). I took Anatomy this summer and then after the quarter ended I spent a good 3.5 weeks until today studying nonstop (I probably put in 10-hour days). I used Chad's videos throughout my studying (I started watching the videos in June but re-watched them over the past few weeks) as well as the Kaplan blue book to study for the test. I also had Crack the DAT (Science, Reading, PAT, and Math) to aid my studying and was scoring way below what I actually got (for example my TS was around 16, PAT 19, RC 17, QR 19). Also did DAT Bootcamp and did horrible on the first sample test (I believe my breakdown was 18 TS, 17 PAT, 15 RC, 17 QR). My friend also gave me the DAT destroyer book so I did some of the questions from there as well in the last week and a half or so.
What I recommend!!
- Definitely review classification, embryology, and respiration for biology! Guaranteed question on each of these on your tests. Pretty much questions are going to look similar to what I saw in Destroyer.
- GC: JUST do Chad's quizzes. Crack the DAT I was scoring in the 15's on those questions but they were so specific. I also ended up guessing on a lot of them and was surprised about my 20 on GC.
- OC: LOTS of elimination and substitution questions... also definitely review your isomers (what a stereoisomer is, stereocenter, chiral, achiral, fisher projections, R&S). Not a lot of mechanism questions on my test except Nucleophilic Acyl Substitution and some Rxns with Benzene. Chad's videos will also help but DAT destroyer was super helpful for this as well.
- PAT: Crack the PAT was super helpful for my studying.
- RC: just keep reading. Reading was not something I was good at, even on my SAT/ACT (for example my RC was a 15 on a bootcamp exam and got a 19 on the actual). What I did was search and destroy, or I looked at the questions first and then skimmed the passage. Usually the answers were literally right in the passage when I was taking the actual. Not as difficult as bootcamp but harder than Crack the DAT reading.
- QR: Gosh this part was difficult, especially at the end of the test. Crack the DAT was helpful for this part. Also Chad's videos were helpful too. Lots of application problems, especially with percentages and geometry (i.e. volume increase by 30%, what's the area/volume of original figure, etc.)
Hopefully people find my situation helpful. Literally, don't stress about the exam! You will do fine if you take at least a month or so to study to get at least an average score! If you have any feedback on my situation/scores, let me know too! Would love to hear from you all
