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- Apr 9, 2010
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I just took my DAT today, and I am very happy with my scores. I've gotten a lot of great advice from the SDN community, so I am hoping to give a few tips that might help others in the future. First, here are my scores:
AA 23 (99.7%)
TS 24 (99.7%)
PAT 23 (96.2%)
BIO 21 (97.6%)
GC 24 (98.0%)
OC 30 (100.0%)
RC 20 (78.5%)
QR 21 (97.6%)
Bio
Resources: Cliff's AP Bio, Wikipedia, Kaplan, Campbell's
Breadth before depth! The questions on my DAT were very, very simple, but you just have to had exposure or seen the facts somewhere before. Bio is just so broad that it seems impossible to study everything there is for this. The best preparation, it seems like, is just do well in your Bio classes. It's really impossible to cram for this section. I spent about 75% of my studying time on Bio alone, and I still got questions that I had no idea about. I made about 300 Anki flashcards on Bio facts, which I'd go over on my phone just walking around.
Gen Chem / Orgo
Resources: Chad's videos, Destroyer
Both sections on the DAT were very straightforward. The answers in GC were set up for you, so you didn't have to do any calculations. I had no weird reactions in Orgo either. Chad's videos are golden. If you just study his videos, you'll know everything you need to know for GC and OC. My advice is to just build speed in this section. For example, instead of writing stoichiometry setups on your scratch paper, try practicing doing them in your head. It might seem difficult at first, but trust me, it saves a TON of time on your actual test.
PAT
Resources: Crack DAT PAT
Crack Dat is very good practice for the real DAT (hands down, the best resource out there), but there are a few key differences. For Keyholes, there are a lot more proportions (i.e. you have to find the figure with the correct ratios). For Hole-Punching, they had quite a few half-folds, which I'd never seen before on Crack Dat. For Angles, I used the quick-eye method. My suggestion for this section is get practice picturing a 3-D figure, not just counting lines. It'll help with speed and accuracy on the real thing. Overall, I say just go through this section as quickly as you can (especially the angles - don't spend too much time analyzing these), and check whatever you can at the end.
RC
Resources: Just practice tests
I'm actually really happy with this score, since RC is my worst section (by far). I'm not a very fast reader, and I think that hurts a lot in RC. I just used S&D, but the real test had a lot more tone and inference questions than Kaplan or Topscore, so it would've helped to actually read and understand the material. I used the same general technique on this section as I did with all the others – just answer the questions as fast as I can (even if I have to just guess), and check the marked questions at the end.
QR
Resources: None
I underestimated this section. I actually didn't study for this part at all, except for the practice tests that I took. I knew that a lot of dental schools aren't too concerned with this score, so I didn't put much time into it. It's only when I took the 2009 ADA exam this past weekend when I found that the real QR is many times more difficult than Kaplan and Topscore (which I was averaging around 25's on). This was the only section that I didn't finish on time. The things that got me were trig identities – definitely spend some time to get familiar with these!
Overall
Resources: Chad's Videos, Crack Dat, Destroyer, Kaplan, Topscore, Achiever
I studied for about 2 months total, averaging anywhere from 2 to 12 hours a day. I'd say the sciences were on par with Topscore, and the PAT was on par with Crack Dat. The RC is somewhere in between Kaplan/Topscore and Achiever. I'd say that the must-haves for anyone studying are (in order of helpfulness): Chad's Videos, Crack DAT PAT, Destroyer, Topscore. My scores on Topscore were very indicative of my real score (I got around 23 on all of them). The only resource I do not recommend is Achiever – it is just unnecessarily difficult and kills your confidence.
I'm relieved that this part of the process is complete. To give a brief background about me, I'm a career changer from engineering to dentistry. I have about a 3.5 overall GPA, 3.3 science GPA (engineering classes bleh), 3.6 BCP GPA, and 4.0 Post-Bacc GPA. If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me.
AA 23 (99.7%)
TS 24 (99.7%)
PAT 23 (96.2%)
BIO 21 (97.6%)
GC 24 (98.0%)
OC 30 (100.0%)
RC 20 (78.5%)
QR 21 (97.6%)
Bio
Resources: Cliff's AP Bio, Wikipedia, Kaplan, Campbell's
Breadth before depth! The questions on my DAT were very, very simple, but you just have to had exposure or seen the facts somewhere before. Bio is just so broad that it seems impossible to study everything there is for this. The best preparation, it seems like, is just do well in your Bio classes. It's really impossible to cram for this section. I spent about 75% of my studying time on Bio alone, and I still got questions that I had no idea about. I made about 300 Anki flashcards on Bio facts, which I'd go over on my phone just walking around.
Gen Chem / Orgo
Resources: Chad's videos, Destroyer
Both sections on the DAT were very straightforward. The answers in GC were set up for you, so you didn't have to do any calculations. I had no weird reactions in Orgo either. Chad's videos are golden. If you just study his videos, you'll know everything you need to know for GC and OC. My advice is to just build speed in this section. For example, instead of writing stoichiometry setups on your scratch paper, try practicing doing them in your head. It might seem difficult at first, but trust me, it saves a TON of time on your actual test.
PAT
Resources: Crack DAT PAT
Crack Dat is very good practice for the real DAT (hands down, the best resource out there), but there are a few key differences. For Keyholes, there are a lot more proportions (i.e. you have to find the figure with the correct ratios). For Hole-Punching, they had quite a few half-folds, which I'd never seen before on Crack Dat. For Angles, I used the quick-eye method. My suggestion for this section is get practice picturing a 3-D figure, not just counting lines. It'll help with speed and accuracy on the real thing. Overall, I say just go through this section as quickly as you can (especially the angles - don't spend too much time analyzing these), and check whatever you can at the end.
RC
Resources: Just practice tests
I'm actually really happy with this score, since RC is my worst section (by far). I'm not a very fast reader, and I think that hurts a lot in RC. I just used S&D, but the real test had a lot more tone and inference questions than Kaplan or Topscore, so it would've helped to actually read and understand the material. I used the same general technique on this section as I did with all the others – just answer the questions as fast as I can (even if I have to just guess), and check the marked questions at the end.
QR
Resources: None
I underestimated this section. I actually didn't study for this part at all, except for the practice tests that I took. I knew that a lot of dental schools aren't too concerned with this score, so I didn't put much time into it. It's only when I took the 2009 ADA exam this past weekend when I found that the real QR is many times more difficult than Kaplan and Topscore (which I was averaging around 25's on). This was the only section that I didn't finish on time. The things that got me were trig identities – definitely spend some time to get familiar with these!
Overall
Resources: Chad's Videos, Crack Dat, Destroyer, Kaplan, Topscore, Achiever
I studied for about 2 months total, averaging anywhere from 2 to 12 hours a day. I'd say the sciences were on par with Topscore, and the PAT was on par with Crack Dat. The RC is somewhere in between Kaplan/Topscore and Achiever. I'd say that the must-haves for anyone studying are (in order of helpfulness): Chad's Videos, Crack DAT PAT, Destroyer, Topscore. My scores on Topscore were very indicative of my real score (I got around 23 on all of them). The only resource I do not recommend is Achiever – it is just unnecessarily difficult and kills your confidence.
I'm relieved that this part of the process is complete. To give a brief background about me, I'm a career changer from engineering to dentistry. I have about a 3.5 overall GPA, 3.3 science GPA (engineering classes bleh), 3.6 BCP GPA, and 4.0 Post-Bacc GPA. If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me.
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