2/5/09 DAT done frapped, panicked, ran out of time!

[dleodyddlek]

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Oh man.... I've heard so much about this mysterious frap version and as soon as i started my first DAT tonight, my 5th question or something was the infamous frap and I already started panicking. Science and PAT flew by quite quickly and after taking about 5 mins of break, I thought I was ready for upcoming ethics passage. I was wrong. I was totally lost reading this ethics passage and spent about 40 mins solely on this passage and by the time i realized I still have another 35+ questions to do in 20 min, I pretty much gave up. After all that guessing and skimming thru, I managed to QR section and I was still in a shock that I spent 15 out of 45 min staring at 3 questions. Of course I ran out of time again on this section and guessed and skipped some of the questions. I'm really worried about these sections and wondering if i'll have to retake it in May. Any inputs please????




RC:18
QR:18😡
PAT:27😍
BIO:20
OC:22
GC:23
TS:21😕
AA:20😕

GPA/sGPA:3.55ish
maybe not so outstanding but some EC's. Will have done about 70hrs of shadowing+volunteer by the time I apply this coming May.

I'll add more details on how I studied or about my EC's and all if anyone is interested. I'm really glad I finally got it over with but kinda worried about those two 18's... What are my chances???





*Brief breakdown

CDP- didn't use it.

Achiever: heard its really hard. I thought it would it overkill so didn't buy it.

Topscore: bought it. But it expired even before I had a chance to open the program.

Cambell: didn't even buy it for my bio classes. So nope, didn't have access to it.

Kaplan BB: I would say I pretty much used it extensively. Good for brief review. Good explanation on concepts in Orgo and Gchem but lacks problem solving methods. Lacks alot of info in bio section. Ignore their PAT. Way too easy compared to actual one.

Kaplan Online material & prep course: nope. I heard some people saying it's waste of money. I didn't wanna risk it.

Barrons: Be warned. This book has tons of errors and misleading explanations and questions. Use it as additional source ONLY if you know what you're doing. I used their PAT and Bio section in addition to Kaplan BB.

Destroyer: I actually bought this book, solved about half of most sections. Alot harder than actual DAT but for the most part, if you know this book COLD, it will help you tremendously. I really wanted to finish this one and review several times, but due to lack of time, I didn't manage to do so.





Bio: Seriously. They have random and detailed questions on actual one. Many other questions are straight forward and easy.
Studied Kaplan BB, Barrons, my own notes that I made whenever I found something important. I really should've spent more time on this section.

Orgo: Actual exam is really easy. They won't trick you. Just know the basic reactions. When you have reactants in front of you and you can see how they will interact, you're good enough to go.
Kaplan BB and Barrons didn't really help much altho they do have pretty decent amount of info. It's been over 2 years since I took my orgo so I wanted to review what I actually did in class. So I skimmed thru my old text book once. reading 1300pgs in a day wasn't fun at all. 🙁 But it helped me recall some of my old stuff. Went over Kaplan BB and Barrons questions once. A few questions on Destroyer. I really think doing Destroyer would've helped me alot more.

Gchem: Some concept questions and some calculation question. Not too hard.
Same thing as orgo I guess.

PAT: It's not as hard as some people think. Just get used to their question types. Don't try to learn some weird tricks from other source. It takes more time to figure out those tricks than finding your own. You really need to know how to spin things in your head.
Solved questions on Kaplan BB and barrons. Though I pretty much don't understand their so-called "tricks".

RC: Didn't study much actually. Tried two passages on Barrons and scored 22+ but I didn't think I could actually study for this part. Always my weak part esp. since English isn't my native tongue.

QR: Seriously, actual DAT questions in this section isn't hard at all. Just know your high school stuff cold. The most important thing about this portion is time management. Just know that there's no going back with this part and take each question down fast and surely. Also know that since this is the last part of the DAT, you'll be really tired and lose concentration. With practice problems, I always had 24+ but I really messed up actual one.

 

[eilrahcmi]

those are great scores, congrats

 

[khakwanit1]

you will get in hopefully

 

[achilles2]

You know what your in pretty good shape. If you think you totally **** the bed while taking the test its nice to have a 20 score as your base.


Simply retake in 3 months and hold off on applying until you retake. Study hard for the next 90 days and do it up 👍


I mean a 3.5 + a 20AA and 21 TS and 27 PAT are hardly poor stats. Unless your applying to like Harvard/Columbia/Stony/UCLA I think your stats are competitive for most and even those with the exception of Harvard you have a fair crack at. But if you think you can do better always retake.

In terms of your 18's I know for sure its not a big deal in QR. But reading comp is actually fairly weighed so that MIGHT be reason for SOME concern but I think in the big picture your looking pretty good. And a 27 on PAT while most schools don't weigh PAT as the end all its still impressive and they will notice it for sure.

But DEF retake if you know you can do better. Your competitive now but dental schools just keeps getting more and more competitive. You really want to show what you can do on the DATs.

GL

 

[eldirty]

I think you did really well and have great stats ... a strong application ... good luck!

 

[vlct0ria]

You got an 18 in QR & RC even with flipping out and skipping a bunch of questions? Not too shabby haha

 

[shinbone86]

congrats, dawg! you're good to go.

 

[Zubnaya Feya]

Oh man.... I've heard so much about this mysterious frap version and as soon as i started my first DAT tonight, my 5th question or something was the infamous frap and I already started panicking. Science and PAT flew by quite quickly and after taking about 5 mins of break, I thought I was ready for upcoming ethics passage. I was wrong. I was totally lost reading this ethics passage and spent about 40 mins solely on this passage and by the time i realized I still have another 35+ questions to do in 20 min, I pretty much gave up. After all that guessing and skimming thru, I managed to QR section and I was still in a shock that I spent 15 out of 45 min staring at 3 questions. Of course I ran out of time again on this section and guessed and skipped some of the questions. I'm really worried about these sections and wondering if i'll have to retake it in May. Any inputs please????




RC:18
QR:18😡
PAT:27😍
BIO:20
OC:22
GC:23
TS:21😕
AA:20😕

GPA/sGPA:3.55ish
maybe not so outstanding but some EC's. Will have done about 70hrs of shadowing+volunteer by the time I apply this coming May.

I'll add more details on how I studied or about my EC's and all if anyone is interested. I'm really glad I finally got it over with but kinda worried about those two 18's... What are my chances???

Duuuude, I had the same trouble as you!
I also had FRAP and I also spent liek 30 min on Ethics passage (it was evil!!) and then because of the rush for RC, I couldn't concentrate enough for QR and screwed it up too a lil bit.... pain!
I think your scores are good though!

 

[supraman]

Ran out of time but still knocked down the test, good job

 

[BDC27]

you did great regardless of what you think..... you have really competitive scores!! Congrats! 👍

 

[adizzle87]

Great scores, explosive PAT score wow. You are in the top 40 of the people who took it this past year probably.

 

[suhshi]

how long did you study for the DAT?

 

[dleodyddlek]

how long did you study for the DAT?

Well.. Actually im a senior. I was going to apply last summer but getting recom took alot longer than I thought so I changed my mind to take a year off after graduation.

So basically I studied all my last summer and this winter break. Sitting down in library 8+ hrs/day (actual study time maybe 3~4hrs. Youtube is evil! lol), 4~5 days/week. By the beginning of this semester, I thought I wasn't ready so I postponed it for 2 weeks and "tried" to study with my course works which was a big no-no. I'm taking another hardcore 21 credit semester and there was simply no time for any studying or what so ever. I'm glad I got it over with.

 

[JamesOSU]

I would not retake - you will at least get in at your state school (if you have one). QR and RC seem to usually be people's low points. I think it's general lack of studying for those sections since people focus so heavily on science and PAT (Great score btw!). Like I said I think you'll get interviews and an acceptance somewhere. Now pull up that GPA and get some life experiences!

 

[KappaSig]

congrats on the great scores, i wouldn't do a retake those are solid scores..

question, what materials did you use to study? did you use cdp for pat?

 

[achilles2]

I would not retake - you will at least get in at your state school (if you have one). QR and RC seem to usually be people's low points. I think it's general lack of studying for those sections since people focus so heavily on science and PAT (Great score btw!). Like I said I think you'll get interviews and an acceptance somewhere. Now pull up that GPA and get some life experiences!

depends on the state. If he is from NY a 20 is way below what will get you into Stony on avg for example it might get you into Buffalo but even thats getting harder to get into. Of course people w/20's get accepted to both schools but I'm just saying its competitive out there 😱

There are no guarantees in this game anymore. My advice is to retake if you are confident you can score better. Don't get me wrong a 20 good score. But its so competitive and I'm sure next year is going to be even more intense.

 

[dleodyddlek]

depends on the state. If he is from NY a 20 is way below what will get you into Stony on avg for example it might get you into Buffalo but even thats getting harder to get into. Of course people w/20's get accepted to both schools but I'm just saying its competitive out there 😱

There are no guarantees in this game anymore. My advice is to retake if you are confident you can score better. Don't get me wrong a 20 good score. But its so competitive and I'm sure next year is going to be even more intense.

That's exactly my problem here. I'm currently attending Stony brook and I'm applying to both Buffalo and stony brook, which are pretty tough even with AA20 TS21.

 

[achilles2]

That's exactly my problem here. I'm currently attending Stony brook and I'm applying to both Buffalo and stony brook, which are pretty tough even with AA20 TS21.

Well ask yourself do you honestly think you can put up better numbers. Granted your risking dropping your PAT score since a 27 is pretty out of this world.

Heres what I see, your odds of increasing your reading comp score are in conflict with the risk of dropping your PAT score 😎

If I were you I'd sign up right now to retake in 90 days. Then I'd study my ***** off until then. If you decide you don't want to retake then thats cool but at least you leave the option open.


What did you use to study? If you didn't use the Kaplan online material then I would DEF retake and get that. Also cliffs AP bio and Destroyer are useful to ice the cake. But I give alot of credit to the kaplan online practice material they really helped me for the science of the DAT. Totally worthless for PAT tho but I see you don't have that problem 😛

 

[dleodyddlek]

congrats on the great scores, i wouldn't do a retake those are solid scores..

question, what materials did you use to study? did you use cdp for pat?

I actually didn't use CPD. I only went thru barrons and Kaplan BB practice exam once for PAT. The actual PAT is alot harder than Kaplan BB but pretty comparable to Barrons. Since I didn't use CPD, i can't compare with that.

I'll update with break down soon if you want

 

[khakwanit1]

That's exactly my problem here. I'm currently attending Stony brook and I'm applying to both Buffalo and stony brook, which are pretty tough even with AA20 TS21.

If you are already attending Stony Brook undergrad, you have a better chance of getting in.

 

[JamesOSU]

I would be terrified of taking the DAT with the possibility of actually scoring worse, that would be awful! With these scores, I think that may be a possibility. It isn't easy to duplicate high scores like this, and after doing so well one might not study quite as hard the second time... I had a long think about whether to retake mine (20AA/19TS/24PAT), and while many would say that's plenty to get into a school - I didn't get in! So I retook and studied my butt off to make sure I didn't do worse, because that would be the kicker, ended up with 22AA/21TS/23PAT, don't mind that my PAT went down at all.

 

[jbrenn4]

Great scores especially you PAT score.....im usin crack the DAT PAT...what did you use/recommend for the PAT

 

[gentile1225]

AWESOME JOB! Congratulations! Apply early and you are guaranteed to walk into several schools. By far one of the best PAT scores I've ever seen. What schools are you looking into?

 

[allstardentist]

good job

 

[TexasDDS]

RC:18
QR:18😡
PAT:27😍
BIO:20
OC:22
GC:23
TS:21😕
AA:20😕

I'll add more details on how I studied or about my EC's and all if anyone is interested. I'm really glad I finally got it over with but kinda worried about those two 18's... What are my chances???

congrats on the great score!!
can you give us more details of how you studied?

 

[smileforme31]

no need for a retake