DAT Breakdown - 8/10/2012

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drill-and-fill

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Perceptual Ability 23
Quantitative Reasoning 24
Reading Comprehension 23
Biology 23
General Chemistry 26
Organic Chemistry 26
Total Science 25
Academic Average 24

First off, I would like to give a shout out to all SDN users whose DAT breakdowns were invaluable to my success: demps, letsgo2dschool, slyguy2098, dusk, ironjeff, ushaseos, and vlaura0214.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the scores... During the whole test, I was thinking, 'man I'm gonna have to retake the test...' When the test was over, I literally prayed for about 2 minutes during the optional survey part to get at least 20 across the board. Needless to say, I was quite surprised and happy to see what I got :D I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but there were other test takers there so I had to hold it in haha

I prepared for the exam for about three months... I took a week off after the spring semester ended in early May in order to get some needed rest and also to prepare a study schedule for the summer. I initially used the 8-week study guide to study, and while it was a great way to get the ball rolling I realized that I was treating the study schedule like a check list... I was just going through the motion, checking off the chapters that I studied without really getting into that mind-set that I should be learning and memorizing everything in detail. So I modified the study guide a bit to suit my needs but I still made sure that I studied every science subject each day. I also studied QR on a daily basis; PAT and RC, I didn't really study for since I took a few CDP and CDR exams and did well on them so I decided to spend most of my time on other stuff.

For the first month, I studied anywhere from 6 hours to 8 hours a day, 6 days a week at home. 2nd month, I started to feel like the walls at my house were closing in on me so I decided to go study at a library near my house owned by an optometry school. I also decided to spend more time studying and started studying 12 - 14 hours a day... I would leave my house around 9 and stay at the library until 10 or sometimes 11 at night. The library was really nice, all the students there were mature and serious about their studies thus I didn't really have to worry about people making noises and such. Lol the guy who worked at the front desk tried to recruit me, saying that they would give me a discount if I went to their school. I was like 'haha... no. Thanks though.' No offense to optometry peeps! :)

For the third month I continued studying for 12 hours a day but I was starting to feel burnt out... I couldn't focus as much as I used to and my mind began to wander every few minutes. But I decided to suck it up and keep going; if you're reading this and feel the same way, don't give up! Just keep going; it will be all worth it in the end. Your hard work and dedication WILL pay off.

I started doing practice exams right after my second month of studying ended. I know alot of people save those up until the last week, but I didn't wanna do bad on them days before the actual test and bring down my confidence so I did them pretty early. I recommend you guys to do the same; if anything, just save the 2007 ADA until the last week to boost your confidence :D During the last week of my studying, I pretty much went over ALL my notes for each science section everyday; I think I had about 20 pages of notes for BIO, 34 pages of notes for GC, and 40 pages of notes for OC... It was HELL going over all of them day after day but it was worth it. I also went over all the practice exams I did so that I won't' forget anything.

As for study materials, I used Cliff AP BIO, Destroyer, KBB, Chad, Alan's notes, qVault, Math destroyer, Crack DAT Reading, Crack DAT PAT, Topscore, Achiever, 2007 ADA, 2009 ADA, free OAT, wikipedia, and my notes from previous courses that I've taken. The following are my scores from practice tests and qVault. I didn't include Achiver scores because I only took the first test and did poorly on it (18 AA) and decided not to take any more of their tests even though I bought all 7 tests... sigh what a waste of money.

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BIO
Cliff's AP BIO: 10 / 10. This book contains most of the knowledge that you'll need to get at least 20 on DAT. It does go overboard on some subject and it lacks details on endocrinology and skeletal system but everything else is golden. Make sure you go over the questions at the end of each chapter and also at the end of the book. I went through it just one time, but I read each chapter twice as outlined in the 8 week study guide.

Destroyer: 9 / 10. Just like its name, this book will destroy your confidence the first time you go through it. BUT! It will test you on all BIO subjects so this book is also a must. I went through it three times.

KBB: 7 / 10. This book is not THAT bad folks. I think the majority of Alan's notes is based on this book. It has a killer endocrinology section; I have not taken a physiology class yet but their endo chapter goes over pretty much everything you'll need to know regarding hormones so I was quite thankful. I must have read that chapter about 30x times lol. Their skeletal chapter was pretty good as well; other sections were alright.

qVault: 10 / 10. Their chemistry sections (especially orgo, but more on that later) are riddled with mistakes but their bio section is pure gold! It will teach you so much stuff that other resources do not cover. Also the way their questions worded are really similar to how the actual DAT questions are worded, so I highly recommend you get their Bio section at least. I went through all their questions at least 4 times.

Alan's Notes: 9 / 10. Nice compilation of notes from KBB and Destroyer. I could tell the majority of his notes came from KBB with some notes from Destroyer. Good to go over once you're done with majority of your studying to keep the information fresh in your head. I also added some of my own notes on there as well. I think I read through the notes in its entirety about 15 times.

GC
Chad: 1000000000000000000000000000000000 / 10. This. guy. is. the. man. He knows his stuff, and he also knows what the test takers will test you on. Even though I only watched his videos once, I took detailed notes and went through his quizzes 3 times. I went through my notes periodically from time to time so that I didn't forget any of the concepts. I can't recommend him enough over any of other resources; he's also great at answering your questions on his website, so if you're confused about anything, make sure you ask him and he will respond within days, sometimes on the same day.

Destroyer: 8 / 10. I kinda have a mixed feeling about Destroyer's GC section... I mean, it's good, no doubt, and it does goes over every calculation-related problems very well but it does not really teach you the concepts of GC... If you solely rely on Destroyer for GC, you'll be very good at solving number-punching related chemistry problems but not conceptual problems such as why you shouldn't mix certain type of acid with water and also lab related questions. But it will give you confidence when it comes to solving number punching questions so it is a good resource to have. I went through it 4 times.

qVault: 9 / 10. The difficulty of their questions are very similar to actual DAT questions, and they also give you numerous conceptual and lab related questions so I really recommend it. Like I said though, their chemistry section does have some errors so don't trust everything that you see on there; for example, if you get a wrong answer and the answer that you picked is the same one that 96% of other people picked while the 'correct' answer only has 2%, it's most likely an error on their part. I went through their tests twice.

OC
Chad: 10000000000000000000000000 / 10. Same thing. Get it. Use it. Learn from it. Went through his quizzes twice.

Destroyer: 9 / 10. Destroyer's OC section is awesome. Unlike their GC section, they go over conceptual part of OC very well. Orgoman won't disappoint you here; maybe that's why they call him the 'orgoman.' Some of the reactions you may see are a bit ridiculous though, and that's why I only gave 9 / 10 because I strongly feel that you won't see those crazy reactions on the exam. Baeyer-villiger oxidation, simmons-smith reaction... really? Know the basic reactions and slightly more complicated ones such as SN1, SN2, E1, E2, claisen, hoffman rearrangement, diazomonium reactions, diels-alder, aldol, etc. and you should be fine. Went through it four times.

qVault: 5 / 10. DANGEROUS. You should NOT use their OC section unless you have a very solid OC knowledge foundation so that you'll be able to catch their mistakes. It's amazing how sh*tty their OC section is compared to Bio and GC sections, it's a shame really. Their first few tests aren't that bad, but their later tests are ridiculous to the point where I would just chuckle. They will give you wrong answers on simple, easy stuff like Hoffman vs Zeitsev products that people with good orgo foundation will be able to catch, but not those who just started studying. I'm glad I didn't use their tests until later in my studying, or I would've been confused as hell. I went through their tests once, and went through some of their tests later whenever I needed something to laugh at.

Practice Tests
2007 ADA: Too easy. Is this what they really used back in 2007? Because man, then they had it easy. Not a good practice test to see where you're at but it's a good tool to boost your confidence :D I took it a week before my test and it made me some confidence boost that I needed.

2009 ADA: Closer to actual DAT. Riddled with errors though lol smh. I hope ADA did NOT give this test to anyone in the past because it's embarrassing and it also could have ruined someone's dream of getting into the dental school of their choice due to someone's careless mistakes of not proof reading the answers. Search on SDN for wrong answers, I think there are about 5 errors.

OAT: Written by ADA, and again has some errors. *facepalm* It's free though, and SDN does have a thread where they discuss all the errors so def worth checking out.

Topscore: CRAPPY interface. Lol when I first opened it up, I thought I opened up Word by accident because it looks exactly like it. So I kept closing the program and reopening it like five times until I realized thats just the way their program looks like. They also have not updated their stuff since WW 2 era since their BIO answers are all sourced from Campbell 4th edition... But other than those two gripes, their tests are pretty good and they will also show you where you're standing. Most people say that you will score 2 points higher on the actual DAT if you go through Topscore, and thats what happened to me so I must give my recommendation to their program. But please update the questions and the software! Oh, and please don't reuse the same PAT figures in all three tests! lol

Achiever: 3 / 10. Waste of money. Practicing with Achiever tests is like having a six year old practice for her math exam by giving her practice questions for USMLE. Someone on SDN said that the good thing about Achiever is that their interface is exactly like the DAT. LOL he or she must be on their payroll because the actual DAT's interface reminded me more of Crack DAT programs. Achiever lets you cross off answer choices so that when you come back to the question later, you can easily eliminate the wrong answers choices and I was thinking that DAT will have the same function but nope! I was fooled. Their PAT section is ridiculous as well, designed to make you throw your laptop / computer monitor out the window. Please save your money and not bother with Achiever unless you like being frustrated or pushing yourself to the limit. I spent around 110 dollars for seven exams and only used the first test ugh.

RC
CDR: 10 / 10. Another invaluable resource; the questions on the real thing were eerily similar to CDR's questions. If you're good with CDR, then you should be fine with the actual RC. I think I scored 20 on all of them except one where I got 23... I don't know how I got 23 on the DAT, guess I just got lucky.

qVault RC: 2 / 10. Useless. Long, uninteresting, technical passages, with 95% S&D questions with answer choices that are word for word same as sentences from the passages. You will NOT see questions or answers like that on the real thing. The real thing actually tests whether or not you understood what the passages are saying, so don't bother with qVault.

The best strategy for RC IMHO is to read the passages while writing down key words and dates from each paragraphs. S&D may work for some tests, but it's a gamble; either you win big or you lose big time. You may get lucky and get mostly S&D questions in which case the S&D method will pay off, but if your test is like mine where half of the questions were tone questions... you'll be screwed. You will waste valuable time panicking and searching the passage for answers, time that you could have used to actually read the passage first. I highly recommend the Kaplan method over the S&D method.

PAT
CDP all the way. I took three tests and got 23 on all of them so I didn't really spend too much time on PAT but CDP will be sufficient enough for most people.

ACTUAL DAT
Like alot of people said on SDN, the way they worded the majority of their questions was very strange... I had to re-read alot of the questions a few times. They really test whether or you actually learned the stuff during your studies or if you just memorized the questions and answers from your study resources. The questions weren't exactly hard, but they were worded in a way that you really had to dig in your brain and use the concepts that you learned. If you studied hard and learned the concepts though, you should be fine. Just don't panic and have faith in yourself. Also the bio section didn't test all areas; mine was based on genetics and reproductions for the most part. GC had only about 3 questions that actually dealt with numbers, with the majority of questions being conceptual questions such as which atom is bigger, should you mix this with that, what happens when you mix something with certain pH with something with certain pKa, etc. OC was the same, no extreme reactions which I was kinda bummed out because I spent so much time memorizing all the ridiculous reactions (yes, even the baeyer-villiger and simmons-smith). No 45 step reaction questions like those on Destroyer, the max was like 2 steps. So know your basic conceptual stuff well, because that's what they will test you on.

PAT was a bit a harder than CDP... harder keyhole, TFE, and hole punching sections, same angle and cube counting, and easier pattern folding. When I say they were harder than CDP though, they were nowhere near the difficulty level of Achiever, so you don't have to get Achiever just for their PAT. Just go over CDP and you'll be set.

RC... I had one easy passage, one medium passage, and one difficult passage, in that order. I actually finished the first passage within 17 minutes, so I was very happy about that, and the second one I finished within 20 minutes so I figured I would have enough time to go over the questions that I marked but the last passage was really difficult... it was really technical and had about 16 long paragraphs. I spent the rest of the time finishing up the last passage so I didn't really have time to go over the ones that I marked but somehow I ended up lucky with 23. Use CDR, their questions are really similar to the actual thing. Stay away from qVault RC.

QR -> Math destroyer FTMFW. The first time I took its test, it took me over 2 hours, no joke. I was really depressed, and cursed to the dental gods why we need to pass QR to become dentists. But no matter how much I whine and complain I knew the QR section wouldnt go away so I studied QR everyday with math destroyer... near the end of my studying I could finish each math destroyer test with 10 mins to spare, so math destroyer is a MUST. On the real thing, I had about 8 mins left to go over stuff that I skipped. Oh, and the key to doing well on QR is to skip, skip, skip! If a question required too much thinking, move onto next question and come back later. No need to spend 4 mins on a question when you could have answered 6 other questions during that time.

Well, I think that's about it... I really wanna thank everyone on SDN for their knowledge and support, I really could not have done this without you guys, especially the ones that posted thorough, well-detailed breakdowns. I will be around to answer anyone's questions, and if you're taking the DAT in the near future, just know that your hard work will pay off! Hang in there. Your glorious days are waiting for you, you just gotta believe in yourselves and keep going :D

Now it's time for me enjoy my summer! Time for some happy dance! :D

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Amazing score. You really conquer the DAT ! :D

Cant' wait to read your breakdown!

Now you can enjoy your summer! :luck:
 
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Thats some solid ownage there. Lowest 23, percentiles are all probably 95+ GREAT JOB.

If you have a low or avg. GPA this just removes any doubts. If you have a great GPA, this just verifies it and shows how great you're education is. There is no way to take this in a negative light even by the most cynical adcom folks. Enjoy yourself for a couple days...when you're ready come back and help those who're still in the "pre-DAT" phase!
 
Great job man. You dominated. I was hoping for the scores you got, but no such luck. :(
 
Congratulations. You loved the DAT so much, you revolutionized the preparation for it. Very well done.

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I wish I could have studied 10-12 hours a day like you. That's awesome. I worked a full time job doing 40-45 hour weeks, and could only study when I got home after 6pm. If I wasn't working I think I could have done better on my pat and rc. Hopefully schools will agree haha.
 
Thanks to all the money that I saved up while I was in the navy, I was able to focus on my studying for three months without having to worry about any financial needs; it's years of careful planning and sacrifices to reach my dream coming to fruition :D

Your scores are great too, you will be getting a plenty of interviews :) It's time to enjoy the summer!
 
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Amazing scores. Are you doing the navy dental program by any chance? I heard they pay for you dental school.
Good Luck.
 
Whoa. Blown away! Great job and enjoy the rest of your summer!!!!

Quick question on CDP vs real DAT, on CDP for cube counting I get 6 figures, is it the same on the real DAT?

And, for the QR section, would you say it's at the difficulty of math destroyer? I'm pretty good at math and the first test took me a while too so that has me slightly worried. (I've heard DAT Qvault is good for QR but I haven't tried it out yet. You didn't mention using DAT Qvault for QR, but I was just wondering if you did use it and have an opinion on it).

Thanks!
 
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I'm SOOO jealous...:( i take my test next week. wish this same scenario could happen to me....gotta study my ass off :(((
 
Hey shipmate, Navy here as well, hospital corpsman. Great job on your DAT! I enjoyed reading your break down and it motivated me even more after learning you served in the Navy since most people taking the DAT tend to be several years younger than us. I'm guessing you're around 27 or 28?
 
Whoa. Blown away! Great job and enjoy the rest of your summer!!!!

Quick question on CDP vs real DAT, on CDP for cube counting I get 6 figures, is it the same on the real DAT?

And, for the QR section, would you say it's at the difficulty of math destroyer? I'm pretty good at math and the first test took me a while too so that has me slightly worried. (I've heard DAT Qvault is good for QR but I haven't tried it out yet. You didn't mention using DAT Qvault for QR, but I was just wondering if you did use it and have an opinion on it).

Thanks!

Hey Toofly.

I'm not sure what you mean by 6 figures, but CDP's cube counting was very similar to actual DAT's cube counting. On my DAT though, I spent too much time on keyhole and TFE so I didn't really have time to count the cubes, I had to solve the problems without using the cube counting method which I have never done in any of my practices but somehow I got lucky and got them correct :D

QR..Math destroyer is a bit harder, but it's the best tool to get you rdy for the QR section. Qvault QR is pretty good as well, their difficulty level is more on par with the actual DAT. Do math destroyer first though, then go through the qVault QR. I went through Math destroyer tests twice, EXCEPT for test 11 and 12. I didn't even try those since I heard they're overly difficult; I got a good score without doing those two tests so you should be ok skipping those two tests as well.
 
Hey shipmate, Navy here as well, hospital corpsman. Great job on your DAT! I enjoyed reading your break down and it motivated me even more after learning you served in the Navy since most people taking the DAT tend to be several years younger than us. I'm guessing you're around 27 or 28?

What's going on fellow sailor! Yeah I just turned 27 a few months ago. I was an LS in the navy. Are you still in the Navy? I actually started saving up about 2 years before I got out, and I was also attending community colleges while I was in the navy but I dont really recommend taking any prerequisite courses at community colleges since dental schools really look down on it. But you can take general requirement classes such as math, english, social science, etc and get them out of the way so by the time you get out, you can just focus on science courses like i did. Post 9/11 GI Bill is great also, couldn't have went through college without it :D

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you out!
 
What's going on fellow sailor! Yeah I just turned 27 a few months ago. I was an LS in the navy. Are you still in the Navy? I actually started saving up about 2 years before I got out, and I was also attending community colleges while I was in the navy but I dont really recommend taking any prerequisite courses at community colleges since dental schools really look down on it. But you can take general requirement classes such as math, english, social science, etc and get them out of the way so by the time you get out, you can just focus on science courses like i did. Post 9/11 GI Bill is great also, couldn't have went through college without it :D

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you out!

I got out in 2008 and I'm expecting to graduate with my BS next spring. I just turned 27 as well. I didn't have time to go to school while I was in the Navy, I was assigned to 1st Marine Division throughout my whole enlistment so training and deployment made taking classes difficult. After my discharge, I did attend community college until I was able to transfer to a decent 4 year school. I hope they don't look down on this too badly because I could not have gotten into the school I'm in now without my community college grades. I didn't have the best track record in high school to be honest. The city college I went to was also known for having one of the harder science curriculum so I hope at least dental schools in my home state of California will take that into consideration. I saved my Gi Bill until I transferred so I plan to use what's left to help pay for the first two years of dental when I get in.

I'm Chinese so it's also interesting to see another Asian taking a similar path I took which is particularly unconventional by our culture. Or I may be wrong and Asians in the military is just an reflection of their overall population in the US. I only met two Korean guys during my enlistment. Anyways, I'm rambling, I'm sure you chose the Navy for good reasons given what you knew at the time.

I added this thread to my favorites so I might PM you when I have some questions if that's okay.
 
I got out in 2008 and I'm expecting to graduate with my BS next spring. I just turned 27 as well. I didn't have time to go to school while I was in the Navy, I was assigned to 1st Marine Division throughout my whole enlistment so training and deployment made taking classes difficult. After my discharge, I did attend community college until I was able to transfer to a decent 4 year school. I hope they don't look down on this too badly because I could not have gotten into the school I'm in now without my community college grades. I didn't have the best track record in high school to be honest. The city college I went to was also known for having one of the harder science curriculum so I hope at least dental schools in my home state of California will take that into consideration. I saved my Gi Bill until I transferred so I plan to use what's left to help pay for the first two years of dental when I get in.

I'm Chinese so it's also interesting to see another Asian taking a similar path I took which is particularly unconventional by our culture. Or I may be wrong and Asians in the military is just an reflection of their overall population in the US. I only met two Korean guys during my enlistment. Anyways, I'm rambling, I'm sure you chose the Navy for good reasons given what you knew at the time.

I added this thread to my favorites so I might PM you when I have some questions if that's okay.

As long as most of ur pre-requisites are not from CC, u should be ok. I only took Bio 101 from CC before I realized that they dont like CC credits.

Im honored that you subscribed to my breakdown; let me know if I can help you in any way brother.
 
i second what all the koreans said. congrats on being done! time to sleep in and waste time like no other. beautiful scores! i know the olympics are over, but you deserve a gold medal for DAT.
 
Thank you for the tips! Best of luck to you and you better start preppin' for those interviews! ;)

(Regarding 5 or 6 figures, I meant on CDP for cube counting there were 5 different cube structures, labeled A, B, C, D, and E, with only a few questions per figure. I was wondering if the real DAT had as many cube structures? I thought there were only 3 or 4 different ones, with 5 questions each... but I'm probably being too hopeful here. No worries!) Thanks!
 
Thank you for the tips! Best of luck to you and you better start preppin' for those interviews! ;)

(Regarding 5 or 6 figures, I meant on CDP for cube counting there were 5 different cube structures, labeled A, B, C, D, and E, with only a few questions per figure. I was wondering if the real DAT had as many cube structures? I thought there were only 3 or 4 different ones, with 5 questions each... but I'm probably being too hopeful here. No worries!) Thanks!

Yeah there were only like five figures total I think, just like CDP.

Like I said though, I had to answer that section without using the cube counting method because I had spent too much time on previous sections, so you may wanna practice doing that just in case that happens to you too :)
 
i second what all the koreans said. congrats on being done! time to sleep in and waste time like no other. beautiful scores! i know the olympics are over, but you deserve a gold medal for DAT.

Thank you for your kind words. Yes, it's def time to waste time haha, in fact I've been busy playing COD lately lol... been awhile so I'm very rusty now:D
 
Your breakdown inspired the heck out of me when I was studying and I just noticed we have the same average, perceptual and total science scores. Sweet!
 
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