DAT Help!!

[isaac martinez]

Hey everybody/anybody,

So I took my DAT today for the 2nd time and probably the worst thing happened, I scored worse than I did the 1st time. 15AA overall, pretty much averaged 15's in every subject except PAT which was an 18 but still not good. My first time I scored a 17AA. I honestly felt so much better the second time, I honestly felt I knew every question I was asked but obviously from the scores that wasn't the case. I wanted some advice, pretty sure I am going to have to retake it, even if they took the scores from my first test.

A little bit about me. I work full time while going to school full time, I have been a Certified dental assistant for the last 4 years now, I am a Senior going to graduate with a Bachelors in Bio and Minors in Chem and Psych, my GPA is around 3.4-3.5 with a science GPA of 3.0. My GPA i feel isn't, i believe correct, ONLY because for my first year of college i didn't know exactly what i wanted to do with my life, but i found out about dental assisting school with no intentions of dental school BTW. So i dropped all my classes and got F's in those classes of course. Of course i retook the courses i failed and passed them but those grades are calculated into my overall.

Anyways I was wondering if anyone out there had any advice on how to bring up my DAT score, I honestly felt so prepared and don't know how i did so horrible. I Watched all of Chads videos, Read Cliffs and Barrons, Did DAT BOOTCAMP, Crack Dat PAT, and did some of the DAT Destroyer. I would come home after work and study for about 6-7 hours, no lie, i was dedicated and on a schedule. I honestly feel dumb, I honestly felt so prepared, did well on time for the DAT so that wasn't the issue. IDK... anyways I do plan on retaking it after my 90 days is up.

If anybody has a schedule or some advice on how i can improve, pretty much anything at all, it is all greatly appreciated. If any questions about me or anything ill be sure to answer back, i am going to take a week off to get my life together since this last study schedule took a lot out of me.

P.S. I have also sent my application in this year. Don't really think i have a chance to get in even with all the experience I have, and semi decent GPA. I have 4 letters, 2 from professors and 2 from dentists. I have done mission of mercy dental community service but due to my schedule don't really have to much time to put in for ridiculous amounts of hours as some people are able to get. I do have around 70 hours of community service and volunteer work tho. Sorry for the long post, just felt pretty down and worked super hard to not do so well. Thanks again.

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[Mountain_man7]

Just got to buckle down and do it again. This is just a minor setback for a major comeback. I took the DAT four times and made small improvements each time. I was told by most schools I applied to that they like my persistence and determination.

I used bootcamp, cdpat, cliffs, destroyer, and Chad to study for my DAT.

 

[isaac martinez]

I really appreciate the response. You're right I just don't know how I scored so low, when I felt so confident. Thanks again.

 

[Likkriue]

"Did some of the. Dat destroyer". You have to do ALL of it, multiple times.

 

[doktorinprogres]

Is it possible for you to take time off work to study?

 

[isaac martinez]

I really don't have any other source of income and live on my own. But I can pry get reduced hours. Would you know any good 6-8 weeks schedules. You think that would be long enough since the information is still fresh in my head?

 

[doktorinprogres]

I didn't use a study schedule but I think 8 weeks is sufficient. Unfortunately you have to wait 90 days to be eligible. @Likkriue is spot on in this case. If you can get through destroyer twice I think you'll see a significant improvement. Before that however I really do think you need to go back through chad's. Personally I believe Chad's is enough to get you a minimum 17AA on its own. Destroyer and BC etc are what you use to take you to the next level. To me this means you have holes in your knowledge that you have to address.

The approach I would take is after you finish going through a Chad's subject say gen chem you need to be practicing it with destroyer while simultaneously studying the next subject say ochem. Use QR and PAT as a kinda interval break interspersed within the sciences that you hit hard.

 

[super frank]

"Did some of the. Dat destroyer". You have to do ALL of it, multiple times.

+1. If you do Destroyer at least four times through and LEARN everything in it you will do very well.

 

[rhemsley]

I really don't have any other source of income and live on my own. But I can pry get reduced hours. Would you know any good 6-8 weeks schedules. You think that would be long enough since the information is still fresh in my head?

Ari's 10 week study schedule on Bootcamp is really good. You could condense it to 8 weeks if you did a little more each day.

 

[kholley25]

Open a fresh excel spreadsheet. Open destroyer and do 20 questions in a specific section (bio, ochem, genchem, math). For every question you get right/wrong, mark as such in an excel cell. Now look at your excel sheet and go back to the questions you got wrong, look at the answer guide, and figure out what you did wrong and how the actual answer can be determined. Do chunks of 20 questions until you finish a section. Now, start each section over but ONLY do the questions you got wrong in the first pass-through. Repeat theses steps until you've gotten each question correct at least once without looking at the answer key.

Repetition and maximizing your efficiency using the above method will undoubtedly improve your score.

 

[DMDDDSHopeful]

Hey everybody/anybody,

So I took my DAT today for the 2nd time and probably the worst thing happened, I scored worse than I did the 1st time. 15AA overall, pretty much averaged 15's in every subject except PAT which was an 18 but still not good. My first time I scored a 17AA. I honestly felt so much better the second time, I honestly felt I knew every question I was asked but obviously from the scores that wasn't the case. I wanted some advice, pretty sure I am going to have to retake it, even if they took the scores from my first test.

A little bit about me. I work full time while going to school full time, I have been a Certified dental assistant for the last 4 years now, I am a Senior going to graduate with a Bachelors in Bio and Minors in Chem and Psych, my GPA is around 3.4-3.5 with a science GPA of 3.0. My GPA i feel isn't, i believe correct, ONLY because for my first year of college i didn't know exactly what i wanted to do with my life, but i found out about dental assisting school with no intentions of dental school BTW. So i dropped all my classes and got F's in those classes of course. Of course i retook the courses i failed and passed them but those grades are calculated into my overall.

Anyways I was wondering if anyone out there had any advice on how to bring up my DAT score, I honestly felt so prepared and don't know how i did so horrible. I Watched all of Chads videos, Read Cliffs and Barrons, Did DAT BOOTCAMP, Crack Dat PAT, and did some of the DAT Destroyer. I would come home after work and study for about 6-7 hours, no lie, i was dedicated and on a schedule. I honestly feel dumb, I honestly felt so prepared, did well on time for the DAT so that wasn't the issue. IDK... anyways I do plan on retaking it after my 90 days is up.

If anybody has a schedule or some advice on how i can improve, pretty much anything at all, it is all greatly appreciated. If any questions about me or anything ill be sure to answer back, i am going to take a week off to get my life together since this last study schedule took a lot out of me.

P.S. I have also sent my application in this year. Don't really think i have a chance to get in even with all the experience I have, and semi decent GPA. I have 4 letters, 2 from professors and 2 from dentists. I have done mission of mercy dental community service but due to my schedule don't really have to much time to put in for ridiculous amounts of hours as some people are able to get. I do have around 70 hours of community service and volunteer work tho. Sorry for the long post, just felt pretty down and worked super hard to not do so well. Thanks again.

Seems you prepared adequately and just had a tough DAT that tested everything you may have not studied. You'll have to try again and try to cover as many topics as you can.

 

[annie_bunnie]

Hey everybody/anybody,

So I took my DAT today for the 2nd time and probably the worst thing happened, I scored worse than I did the 1st time. 15AA overall, pretty much averaged 15's in every subject except PAT which was an 18 but still not good. My first time I scored a 17AA. I honestly felt so much better the second time, I honestly felt I knew every question I was asked but obviously from the scores that wasn't the case. I wanted some advice, pretty sure I am going to have to retake it, even if they took the scores from my first test.

A little bit about me. I work full time while going to school full time, I have been a Certified dental assistant for the last 4 years now, I am a Senior going to graduate with a Bachelors in Bio and Minors in Chem and Psych, my GPA is around 3.4-3.5 with a science GPA of 3.0. My GPA i feel isn't, i believe correct, ONLY because for my first year of college i didn't know exactly what i wanted to do with my life, but i found out about dental assisting school with no intentions of dental school BTW. So i dropped all my classes and got F's in those classes of course. Of course i retook the courses i failed and passed them but those grades are calculated into my overall.

Anyways I was wondering if anyone out there had any advice on how to bring up my DAT score, I honestly felt so prepared and don't know how i did so horrible. I Watched all of Chads videos, Read Cliffs and Barrons, Did DAT BOOTCAMP, Crack Dat PAT, and did some of the DAT Destroyer. I would come home after work and study for about 6-7 hours, no lie, i was dedicated and on a schedule. I honestly feel dumb, I honestly felt so prepared, did well on time for the DAT so that wasn't the issue. IDK... anyways I do plan on retaking it after my 90 days is up.

If anybody has a schedule or some advice on how i can improve, pretty much anything at all, it is all greatly appreciated. If any questions about me or anything ill be sure to answer back, i am going to take a week off to get my life together since this last study schedule took a lot out of me.

P.S. I have also sent my application in this year. Don't really think i have a chance to get in even with all the experience I have, and semi decent GPA. I have 4 letters, 2 from professors and 2 from dentists. I have done mission of mercy dental community service but due to my schedule don't really have to much time to put in for ridiculous amounts of hours as some people are able to get. I do have around 70 hours of community service and volunteer work tho. Sorry for the long post, just felt pretty down and worked super hard to not do so well. Thanks again.

I have a very good feeling that you got so overwhelmed with everything going on. It is good that you were focused but the brain also has to relax. We sometimes tend to study to much and you mentioned you work and go to school plus 7 hours studying, nothing is left for you and for your brain to breathe. A lot of studies show that our mind only has a certain capacity to take for a day. I strongly recommend taking a time off and refresh and unwind. Once you are back then create a schedule that works best for you. If you can do a few hours in the morning then a few hours in the afternoon/night then i think it will be better for you.

 

[dshen92129]

keep your head up and keep studying! everyone's advice on here is good..! your on the right track! buckle down those 3 months and learn everything.