6/14 DAT Breakdown plus Questions!!

[onebigsmile]

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Took my DAT today!

PAT 22 93.4😀
QR 16 63.5 😱
RC 22 84.4
Bio 18 63.9🙁
Gchem 22 91.8
Ochem 22 90.4
TS 20 85.2
AA 20 87.6

I am very happy with my scores minus QR and Bio.
Resources Used:
Kaplan Course- the class is a joke but the online software is great. Of all the practice material I had, Kaplan tests were the closest to actually looking like the real DAT.
---------------- TS AA
Diagnostic 14 15
Midterm 14 15
Test 1 17 17
Test 2 17 18
Test 3 15 16

I bought the 3 Topscore tests:
On the first one I got a 17AA, 17TS, 21 PAT
On the second one I just took the sciences and got a 17TS

Also got CDP 10 tests, but only did 5: 20,20,20,19,21(these are in order, tests 1-5)

Bought Chad's videos for 1 month, flew through the O-chem and G-chem in like 2 weeks. I wish I could have had chad as my gen chem and organic teacher. Chad is the man.

I was worried about not having destroyer since everyone says it is a must but I am very satisfied with my chem grades so don't worry if your not using destroyer.
I am upset about the bio grade because it is just like everyone says, very random. There were some questions on there that I just had no idea and had to make an educated guess.
I'm not happy with QR but was kind of expecting it. The trig was my downfall, there were like 4 trig questions and I only knew one of them.

So now that I have my DAT Scores I need to decide which schools to apply to!
Here are my stats:
overall GPA: 3.3
BCP: 3.3
Science GPA: 3.15
-huge upward trend in gpa, started with 2.7
500 hours dental experience, paid and non-paid at different offices
200+ volunteer hours
Research and hoping to have it published this semester
Strong LOR, 2 from professors, 2 from dentists

These are the schools I am thinking about applying to:
-VCU (in-state and I really really want to go here!)
-Maryland
-Buffalo
-Louisville
-Pitt
-Case Western
-Indiana
-Detroit Mercy
-Midwestern IL
-UConn
-Kentucky
-University of New England
-University of Utah
and possibly these:
-michigan
-detroit mercy
-NOVA

Please help me decide which schools to remove or add! I really want to narrow my list to about 10 or 11.
If you have any questions or suggestions for me, feel free to reply!!
Thank you

- and for anyone who is getting ready to take the dat and is discouraged by seeing everyone on here receive 23's, don't be. I thought I was going to get an 18 but was pleasantly surprised 😀

 

[finchy86]

I believe it would be a waste of your time and money (or anyone's for that matter) who isn't a resident of Utah to apply to the University of Utah.

 

[DoeAdeer]

Took my DAT today!

PAT 22 93.4😀
QR 16 63.5 😱
RC 22 84.4
Bio 18 63.9🙁
Gchem 22 91.8
Ochem 22 90.4
TS 20 85.2
AA 20 87.6

I am very happy with my scores minus QR and Bio.
Resources Used:
Kaplan Course- the class is a joke but the online software is great. Of all the practice material I had, Kaplan tests were the closest to actually looking like the real DAT.
---------------- TS AA
Diagnostic 14 15
Midterm 14 15
Test 1 17 17
Test 2 17 18
Test 3 15 16

I bought the 3 Topscore tests:
On the first one I got a 17AA, 17TS, 21 PAT
On the second one I just took the sciences and got a 17TS

Also got CDP 10 tests, but only did 5: 20,20,20,19,21(these are in order, tests 1-5)

Bought Chad's videos for 1 month, flew through the O-chem and G-chem in like 2 weeks. I wish I could have had chad as my gen chem and organic teacher. Chad is the man.

I was worried about not having destroyer since everyone says it is a must but I am very satisfied with my chem grades so don't worry if your not using destroyer.
I am upset about the bio grade because it is just like everyone says, very random. There were some questions on there that I just had no idea and had to make an educated guess.
I'm not happy with QR but was kind of expecting it. The trig was my downfall, there were like 4 trig questions and I only knew one of them.

So now that I have my DAT Scores I need to decide which schools to apply to!
Here are my stats:
overall GPA: 3.3
BCP: 3.3
Science GPA: 3.15
-huge upward trend in gpa, started with 2.7
500 hours dental experience, paid and non-paid at different offices
200+ volunteer hours
Research and hoping to have it published this semester
Strong LOR, 2 from professors, 2 from dentists

These are the schools I am thinking about applying to:
-VCU (in-state and I really really want to go here!)
-Maryland
-Buffalo
-Louisville
-Pitt
-Case Western
-Indiana
-Detroit Mercy
-Midwestern IL
-UConn
-Kentucky
-University of New England
-University of Utah
and possibly these:
-michigan
-detroit mercy
-NOVA

Please help me decide which schools to remove or add! I really want to narrow my list to about 10 or 11.
If you have any questions or suggestions for me, feel free to reply!!
Thank you

- and for anyone who is getting ready to take the dat and is discouraged by seeing everyone on here receive 23's, don't be. I thought I was going to get an 18 but was pleasantly surprised 😀

I think you should take out the schools in red and add NYU, Boston, and Tufts.

 

[RU1992]

I agree with DoeAdeer. You really have a slim chance especially at Buffalo and Pitt and Maryland, and NYU, Tufts, and Boston are usually the easier ones to get into especially if you're out of state.
I'm taking the Kaplan course and really am doing all of the online material. Would you say to focus more on the online Kaplan quizzes or the section tests, especially for the sciences and the perceptual ability stuff? Do you happen to remember any of your questions on the exam by the way?

 

[onebigsmile]

Thank you guys for the advice, it really helps!

@RU1992, I think both the quizzes and the section tests are important because when you miss questions or get questions you don't know, the solutions are usually really good and descriptive. They not only tell you why the correct answer was correct, but also tell you why the other ones were wrong and what their functions or whatever are. I didn't finish everything Kaplan had to offer but used a combination of tests and quizs. I think the most important thing is just to make sure you read and understand when you get questions wrong and read the other answer's description as well.
Hope this helps

 

[RU1992]

Definitely helped. One last question, in terms of Orgo 2 stuff, what types of reactions did you see on your test? If you could just remember a few of the types of reactions that came up, that would be great. And if you know what kinds of mathematical questions came up for your Gen Chem, that'd be awesome! Thanks again!

By the way, did they get you with the stupid taxonomy questions on Bio :/ I see that's your only downfall on the entire exam...

 

[onebigsmile]

For orgo, most of what I saw was EAS, knowing which groups are activating and deactivating. An easy question I got was which group is deactivating but also an ortho/para director and you just have to know that it is a halogen. I had an ester hydrolysis question and also one that asked to name the enol intermediate. There were also a few sn2/sn1/e1/e1 questions. I had a few spectroscopy questions, like how many carbon signals will show up in this molecule.. and a proton nmr question.
For math I got a bunch of trig questions, which I suck at 🙁 there was a question on combined rates, average and variance, a few geometry questions. There is a bunch that I'm forgetting.

No i didn't get any taxonomy questions, and yes, bio was my downfall 🙁 but I'm hoping my chem grades make up for it.

 

[RU1992]

I definitely think that your scores will balance one another out, because everything is high except for Bio and QR. just as long as schools don't have a >17 cutoff for every section because QR would put you out on that part.... What kind of stuff stumbled you on Bio? And you gave me the QR stuff, I was more wondering about the Gen Chem stuff. Thank you so much for all your help! Did you apply yet?

 

[onebigsmile]

Thanks, I hope so too. I'm planning on applying to 7 or 8 schools and having my applications submitted on next Thursday because my professor is looking over my personal statement. I am really hoping I will still be in the first batch of applicants if I have everything submitted by next Thursday. I will call the schools and ask about the cutoff too.
From bio, I think I stumbled on one or two mitosis/meiosis questions which were like in which phase would this happen and I had to make a good guess between two. I might have messed up on a phylum question. I'm having trouble remembering any of the questions from the bio section.

For gen chem, make sure you can do the problems you know you are going to see like molarity, molality, ph, ksp and such. Know the periodic table well, and by this I mean the directions of like electronegativity, atomic radius, ionic radius and such. Honestly I am really surprised that I got a 22, because I had been getting like 16s and 17s on my practice tests for gen chem. I like to think that it wasn't luck😀

 

[RU1992]

Hahaha definitely all skill 😉 well if you can think of questions on especially Bio (my hardest section) or any other section especially orgo Id really appreciate it. Let me know and keep me updated! You should try to submit asap! Right when your personal statement is ready have your application ready to go because it still has to be verified and whatnot!