Anyways, here's my scores, took it at Prometric Cambridge College in Metrotown in Burnaby, BC. (Because I am Canadian!)
PAT 21 87.9
QR 27 99.7
RC 24 94.0
BIO 19 76.6
GC 22 91.8
OC 21 85.7
TS 20 85.2
AA 23 98.7
I'm pretty happy about my DAT's marks. I registered for it way back in March, and never really started studying until 3 weeks before.
First week I only put in 2-3 hours/day, if that.
2nd week was barely any better, maybe 3 hours/day consistently. Then for Canada day, I went with family and friends to Seattle and Portland for some shopping LOL!
Last week I started getting nervous and putting in some serious effort, 6-8 hours per day while taking Intro Psych and Intro Stats at UBC (my school) during the night time. So yeah, I was pretty effing stressed out this last week, since I've heard crazy things about how people got Piano'd, got FRAP'd, got hardcore QR'd, and all that stuff.
I should note that I've already taken the Canadian DAT twice, the first time with an AA of 19 and a PAT of 17, the second time (Feb 2010) with an AA of 23 and a PAT of 21, just like this time lol.
The materials I had available to me are:
1. Kaplan Blue Book
2. Barron's AP Biology
3. Kaplan Subject Tests
4. Barron's DAT Book
5. CDP 10-test edition
6. Organic Chemistry by Brown, Foote, and Iverson (my school text)
7. a PDF version of Campbell's Biology 8th Edition
8. Thinkwell Videos (credit to Rlow04: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=737004)
9. the sample free DAT on ADA
10. Most importantly, the help on SDN!
So as you can see, I don't have Achiever, Destroyer, or Topscore, so I do not know how much they help in terms of content validity.
Side note: I almost got lost finding the stupid exam centre. I've never been to the "Office Galleria" of Metrotown and I had to call the centre and ask for directions 10 minutes before my exam was scheduled to start lol. Also, they took my fingerprint and a photo too, since this is a "medical-field" related exam, so it was necessary? Pretty weird experience
Breakdown
PAT: just practice CDP. I found the angles on the real DAT were much easier, the Hole-Punching was a JOKE compared to CDP, and so were the Cube Countings (no "illusions" were encountered for me). TFE was HARDER than CDP, and I found that line-counting only worked for 3 of the 15 questions I had. However, Keyholes and Pattern Folding were around the same difficulty as CDP. Note: I took 6 of the CDP tests, and scored only 18-19 on ALL of them, so CDP is definitely harder than the real PAT.
QR: This section really wasn't as hard as people say (or maybe I just got super lucky). The time constraint is a bit hard to maintain, but the difficulty of the questions themselves were easy. I had 2 questions on basic stats (1 on Variance, 1 on 68-95-99.7 rule). There were around 5 questions on stupid inequalities, which I just worked out by brute force using the answers. I had around 15 word problems total, with a few on speed/distance/time, a few on simple unit conversion (thankfully I memorized the Imperical system, such as going from ounces to pounds), and a few on trig. KNOW THE TRIG IDENTITIES! I finished this section with 10 minutes remaining, and went over it from the first question, and it turns out I made a careless mistake in that I read the question wrong. I corrected it, and I'm quite sure if I missed that one, I would've only got a 24 on QR lol...
The only studying I did for this section was going over Word Work Problems, Trig Identities, and Mixture questions since I tutor high school math and do math nearly every day.
RC: Quite easy, not sure what I got wrong. I had a passage on Fractures, one on Antibiotics, and one on Herbal Medicines (the latter 2 were quite interesting, the first one was too technical for me to enjoy reading it). I winged this section since I always do quite well on the RC section for the Canadian DAT. I guess you could say I followed a variation of VicViper's strategy (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=615852), but I always like to read the passage in its whole first and enjoy it, my theory being that if you enjoy it, you'll retain more of it, (much like how you remember who killed Dumbledore lol!),then go through the questions one by one. I ended this section with 10 minutes remaining. I stretched in my seat then ended early and moved on to the math section.
BIO: What to say what to say? This section was totally random, with questions coming out of nowhere. Yes, I skimmed through Campbell's 8th edition Chapters 18-21, but NONE of my random questions were from those parts of the text. Quite a few on gametes, a few on taxonomy, and a LOT on genetics (Hardy-Weinberg, Founder/Bottleneck effects, Natural Selection). I even had 1 question on Biomes, which I had absolutely no idea since it wasn't very obvious. Also a significant amount on cell organelles. One question on cell-cell adhesion. Barely any questions on Human biology, which is stupid, since isn't that what we want to be working with as dentists? Yeah I finished this section with like 10 questions marked, so I knew I wouldn't do too hot on this one. I spent the most time on this since I felt this was my weakest subject too, and it obviously shows eh?
Oh and another thing, WATCH THOSE THINKWELL VIDS! Not sure if you'll get tested on Plants (cuz I didn't), but that guy in the pink shirt is EXCEPTIONAL at explaining hard concepts.
GC: Considering how I'm a Chem major, this should've been my strongest subject, NOT QR! Anyways, I went over Kaplan's BlueBook once, did the Kaplan Subject Tests, and that's about it. I got a lot of questions on equilibriums, acid/base/pKa/pH, and a crapload on mp/bp trends. Also know how to do rate law questions.
OC: I didn't get any questions on IR, but I did get 2 very easy NMR questions. Also know the different separation methods (filtration, columns, GC, MS, TLC) I had around 5 reaction questions, everything else was simply organic trends (higher bp, more polar, stuff like that) or SN1/SN2/E1/E2 theory. Oh yeah, you have to know some reaction intermediates too, I had a few on those. I've gotten C's in organic chem throughout my undergrad career, so I put in a lot more effort into this than GC. I went through Kaplan's BB once, made notes, then attempted to do Kaplan's Subject Tests. Yesterday I was still memorizing reactions too lol!
Some test strategies: since it's hot as heck in terms of Vancouver weather right now, I was glad that the testing centre I went to had pretty strong A/C turned on hah. Anyways, don't be like me and still cram in reactions day before the test. During the test, I finished the NS section early (15 mins to go!), so I followed this SDNers advice (I forgot what his/her name was, sorry!), and drew out the cube counting tables and the 3x3 grids for hole punching. I also took my 15 minute break, walked out of the computer room, went to take a leak, drink some water, walk around a bit, then go back in.
In terms of the study guides and what I would rate them
1. KBB - 8/10. I recommend everyone picking this up, especially if your science background is already quite strong. If the listed price is too expensive, get it used or get it off Amazon. Use this mainly for GC and OC. For Bio, not a bad start, but you need a supplement. Avoid using for QR and PAT
2. Barron's AP Biology - 9/10. I couldn't find a Cliff's AP Bio, so I don't know how this compares. But Barron's was easy to understand, covered more material than KBB in nearly every chapter too. Excellent for Plants and Photosynthesis and Respiration too! Lots of practice problems in the book, and it can be had for under 13$ from Amazon.
3. Kaplan Subject Tests - 8/10. Not sure how most people obtain these if you never took the Kaplan course, which I didn't, but I instead got it off SDN.
4. Barron's DAT Book - 8/10. Excellent for math. Has the Word Work problems, Common Imperial Units (remember I'm Canadian, we work in metric!), and Mixture questions. Also good initial PAT tutorial to get you started, buy it!
5. CDP 10-test edition -10/10. You know what they say, to succeed on the PAT you have to get CDP. I won't argue with that.
6. Organic Chemistry by Brown, Foote, and Iverson (my school text) - 3/10 (in terms of usefulness for DAT). Too much detail. KBB is enough.
7. a PDF version of Campbell's Biology 8th Edition - 2/10. Pretty much useless really. Way too wordy if you've never used it for a school class. Thankfully I found it on the interwebs for free.
8. Thinkwell Videos (credit to Rlow04: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=737004) - 10/10. both FREE AND USEFUL. Watch them for topics you need help on!
9. the sample free DAT on ADA - 4/10. Nearly useless, way too easy compared to real DAT. Also no explanations for answers (as expected), but bonus points for being free! A good confidence booster though!
10. Most importantly, the help on SDN! - 10/10. Free, personal, and always available.
And that's it ladies and gents! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
My science GPA is 3.06, total GPA is 3.19. I know it's a few standard deviations below the mean (heh!) so I hope my DAT scores can make up for it.
I'm applying to BU, NYU, Tufts, UPenn, U of Pacific, and Temple University.
PAT 21 87.9
QR 27 99.7
RC 24 94.0
BIO 19 76.6
GC 22 91.8
OC 21 85.7
TS 20 85.2
AA 23 98.7
I'm pretty happy about my DAT's marks. I registered for it way back in March, and never really started studying until 3 weeks before.
First week I only put in 2-3 hours/day, if that.
2nd week was barely any better, maybe 3 hours/day consistently. Then for Canada day, I went with family and friends to Seattle and Portland for some shopping LOL!
Last week I started getting nervous and putting in some serious effort, 6-8 hours per day while taking Intro Psych and Intro Stats at UBC (my school) during the night time. So yeah, I was pretty effing stressed out this last week, since I've heard crazy things about how people got Piano'd, got FRAP'd, got hardcore QR'd, and all that stuff.
I should note that I've already taken the Canadian DAT twice, the first time with an AA of 19 and a PAT of 17, the second time (Feb 2010) with an AA of 23 and a PAT of 21, just like this time lol.
The materials I had available to me are:
1. Kaplan Blue Book
2. Barron's AP Biology
3. Kaplan Subject Tests
4. Barron's DAT Book
5. CDP 10-test edition
6. Organic Chemistry by Brown, Foote, and Iverson (my school text)
7. a PDF version of Campbell's Biology 8th Edition
8. Thinkwell Videos (credit to Rlow04: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=737004)
9. the sample free DAT on ADA
10. Most importantly, the help on SDN!
So as you can see, I don't have Achiever, Destroyer, or Topscore, so I do not know how much they help in terms of content validity.
Side note: I almost got lost finding the stupid exam centre. I've never been to the "Office Galleria" of Metrotown and I had to call the centre and ask for directions 10 minutes before my exam was scheduled to start lol. Also, they took my fingerprint and a photo too, since this is a "medical-field" related exam, so it was necessary? Pretty weird experience
Breakdown
PAT: just practice CDP. I found the angles on the real DAT were much easier, the Hole-Punching was a JOKE compared to CDP, and so were the Cube Countings (no "illusions" were encountered for me). TFE was HARDER than CDP, and I found that line-counting only worked for 3 of the 15 questions I had. However, Keyholes and Pattern Folding were around the same difficulty as CDP. Note: I took 6 of the CDP tests, and scored only 18-19 on ALL of them, so CDP is definitely harder than the real PAT.
QR: This section really wasn't as hard as people say (or maybe I just got super lucky). The time constraint is a bit hard to maintain, but the difficulty of the questions themselves were easy. I had 2 questions on basic stats (1 on Variance, 1 on 68-95-99.7 rule). There were around 5 questions on stupid inequalities, which I just worked out by brute force using the answers. I had around 15 word problems total, with a few on speed/distance/time, a few on simple unit conversion (thankfully I memorized the Imperical system, such as going from ounces to pounds), and a few on trig. KNOW THE TRIG IDENTITIES! I finished this section with 10 minutes remaining, and went over it from the first question, and it turns out I made a careless mistake in that I read the question wrong. I corrected it, and I'm quite sure if I missed that one, I would've only got a 24 on QR lol...
The only studying I did for this section was going over Word Work Problems, Trig Identities, and Mixture questions since I tutor high school math and do math nearly every day.
RC: Quite easy, not sure what I got wrong. I had a passage on Fractures, one on Antibiotics, and one on Herbal Medicines (the latter 2 were quite interesting, the first one was too technical for me to enjoy reading it). I winged this section since I always do quite well on the RC section for the Canadian DAT. I guess you could say I followed a variation of VicViper's strategy (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=615852), but I always like to read the passage in its whole first and enjoy it, my theory being that if you enjoy it, you'll retain more of it, (much like how you remember who killed Dumbledore lol!),then go through the questions one by one. I ended this section with 10 minutes remaining. I stretched in my seat then ended early and moved on to the math section.
BIO: What to say what to say? This section was totally random, with questions coming out of nowhere. Yes, I skimmed through Campbell's 8th edition Chapters 18-21, but NONE of my random questions were from those parts of the text. Quite a few on gametes, a few on taxonomy, and a LOT on genetics (Hardy-Weinberg, Founder/Bottleneck effects, Natural Selection). I even had 1 question on Biomes, which I had absolutely no idea since it wasn't very obvious. Also a significant amount on cell organelles. One question on cell-cell adhesion. Barely any questions on Human biology, which is stupid, since isn't that what we want to be working with as dentists? Yeah I finished this section with like 10 questions marked, so I knew I wouldn't do too hot on this one. I spent the most time on this since I felt this was my weakest subject too, and it obviously shows eh?
Oh and another thing, WATCH THOSE THINKWELL VIDS! Not sure if you'll get tested on Plants (cuz I didn't), but that guy in the pink shirt is EXCEPTIONAL at explaining hard concepts.
GC: Considering how I'm a Chem major, this should've been my strongest subject, NOT QR! Anyways, I went over Kaplan's BlueBook once, did the Kaplan Subject Tests, and that's about it. I got a lot of questions on equilibriums, acid/base/pKa/pH, and a crapload on mp/bp trends. Also know how to do rate law questions.
OC: I didn't get any questions on IR, but I did get 2 very easy NMR questions. Also know the different separation methods (filtration, columns, GC, MS, TLC) I had around 5 reaction questions, everything else was simply organic trends (higher bp, more polar, stuff like that) or SN1/SN2/E1/E2 theory. Oh yeah, you have to know some reaction intermediates too, I had a few on those. I've gotten C's in organic chem throughout my undergrad career, so I put in a lot more effort into this than GC. I went through Kaplan's BB once, made notes, then attempted to do Kaplan's Subject Tests. Yesterday I was still memorizing reactions too lol!
Some test strategies: since it's hot as heck in terms of Vancouver weather right now, I was glad that the testing centre I went to had pretty strong A/C turned on hah. Anyways, don't be like me and still cram in reactions day before the test. During the test, I finished the NS section early (15 mins to go!), so I followed this SDNers advice (I forgot what his/her name was, sorry!), and drew out the cube counting tables and the 3x3 grids for hole punching. I also took my 15 minute break, walked out of the computer room, went to take a leak, drink some water, walk around a bit, then go back in.
In terms of the study guides and what I would rate them
1. KBB - 8/10. I recommend everyone picking this up, especially if your science background is already quite strong. If the listed price is too expensive, get it used or get it off Amazon. Use this mainly for GC and OC. For Bio, not a bad start, but you need a supplement. Avoid using for QR and PAT
2. Barron's AP Biology - 9/10. I couldn't find a Cliff's AP Bio, so I don't know how this compares. But Barron's was easy to understand, covered more material than KBB in nearly every chapter too. Excellent for Plants and Photosynthesis and Respiration too! Lots of practice problems in the book, and it can be had for under 13$ from Amazon.
3. Kaplan Subject Tests - 8/10. Not sure how most people obtain these if you never took the Kaplan course, which I didn't, but I instead got it off SDN.
4. Barron's DAT Book - 8/10. Excellent for math. Has the Word Work problems, Common Imperial Units (remember I'm Canadian, we work in metric!), and Mixture questions. Also good initial PAT tutorial to get you started, buy it!
5. CDP 10-test edition -10/10. You know what they say, to succeed on the PAT you have to get CDP. I won't argue with that.
6. Organic Chemistry by Brown, Foote, and Iverson (my school text) - 3/10 (in terms of usefulness for DAT). Too much detail. KBB is enough.
7. a PDF version of Campbell's Biology 8th Edition - 2/10. Pretty much useless really. Way too wordy if you've never used it for a school class. Thankfully I found it on the interwebs for free.
8. Thinkwell Videos (credit to Rlow04: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=737004) - 10/10. both FREE AND USEFUL. Watch them for topics you need help on!
9. the sample free DAT on ADA - 4/10. Nearly useless, way too easy compared to real DAT. Also no explanations for answers (as expected), but bonus points for being free! A good confidence booster though!
10. Most importantly, the help on SDN! - 10/10. Free, personal, and always available.
And that's it ladies and gents! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
My science GPA is 3.06, total GPA is 3.19. I know it's a few standard deviations below the mean (heh!) so I hope my DAT scores can make up for it.
I'm applying to BU, NYU, Tufts, UPenn, U of Pacific, and Temple University.
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