8/17/06 DAT: To retake or not?

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So I took the DATs today and here are my scores:

Gen Chem: 23
Orgo Chem: 23
Bio: 17 <------ 🙁
RC: 23
PAT 23
QR: 15 <------
TS:21
AA: 20

That was perhaps the worst testing experience ever! Couldn't sleep last night but finally fell asleep at 5am! Woke up a lil late and had to completely skip breakfast. Got to the Prometric Center right on time and took my test. My stomach was growling throughout the whole test. So during my break, I ran next door to McDonalds. Devoured a burger in less than a minute and went back. Big Mistake! Started getting really drowsy after finishing RC. I went way too slow on the math and had 10 questions left with 2 mins left. Hence the low score 🙁 It's really embarassing too cuz I am double majoring in Bio and Math 😱

I am debating if I should retake the DATs or not. I called up UOP (My first choice) after my test and they said I should retake since I have scores below a 20 🙁 Should I just completely forget about UOP and not retake and move on? Or should I retake? My GPA is 3.3, sGPA: 3.19 Applying to: UOP, UCSF, UCLA, USC, UNLV, BU, Tufts, NYU

Overall view of the DATs:
Gchem - alot easier than Kaplan, only had 2 questions that required calculations, the rest were just properties, periodic table, etc
Ochem - again, not too bad. I also had 1 NMR and 1 IR question with graphs which I did not expect. I think I got them both wrong.
Bio - I was surprised by the bio section. It was really intense, about 1/3 of the stuff was not in kaplan, or Schaum. They were stuff I've never seen before, not even in SDN. So it was alot of narrowing down to 2 answers and guessing.
PAT - was similar to Topscore but a lil more intense
QR - Alot of fraction problems, and like I said, by this time of the test, I was struggling to keep awake 🙁

 

[Envision]

Hey,

I think your scores are really good. i don't know if you want to risk retaking it since most of your scores are already so high. UOP won't take you if you any score below 20? that seems more like a guideline then a policy...in anycase i hope thats not the case bc i also have one score below a 20. congrats on the good scores and gl in this cycle.

 

[Yellow Snow]

I don't see anything wrong with your scores. I guess UoP might take issue with them but they are strong numbers for most schools out there. Your PAT is sooo high. I just took the achiever PAT today and it was miserable.

 

['11]

i know how it feels like doing math after a burger
forget uop
but i think even with those scores you can still think of some school (should apply to more schools if you are not planning to retake it)
i know a friend of mine got a 17 on bio and got into ucla ... strange things happen all the time and one more thing i gotta tell you....DAT scores are not everything,....that is why you fill out 20 damn pages of aadsas application
if it was only your dat scores then aadsas application would have been only one question: SCORES
anyways, if you are seriously thinking about retaking it, you should also think about all the time and effort you are going to put plus all the bad feelings/guilty feelings .....
g luck anyways

 

[djeffreyt]

Devil's advocate

some schools won't look at you since you have A score under 16. You need to find out what the minimums are at the schools you are applying to. Call and ask if there are minimum requirements. Tell them your scores and see what they say. If the 15 means 3 out of the 8 schools you applied to, perhaps even your top couple, then retake it.

 

[Yellow Snow]

[QUOTE='11]i know how it feels like doing math after a burger
forget uop
but i think even with those scores you can still think of some school (should apply to more schools if you are not planning to retake it)
i know a friend of mine got a 17 on bio and got into ucla ... strange things happen all the time and one more thing i gotta tell you....DAT scores are not everything,....that is why you fill out 20 damn pages of aadsas application
if it was only your dat scores then aadsas application would have been only one question: SCORES
anyways, if you are seriously thinking about retaking it, you should also think about all the time and effort you are going to put plus all the bad feelings/guilty feelings .....
g luck anyways[/QUOTE]

Is a 17 in bio really that devestating despite other scores being great? Say QR was a 16 instead of 15. Bio on the DAT seems to be strange in that one year of general bio (at least at my school) covers only like a quarter of what you need to know.

 

[lovechild404]

does UoP typically look for a 20+ in ALL sections?
all of my scores are above a 20 except for RC in which i got a 19.

 

[cbc32]

If thats the case then I wish I hadn't applied to UoP. I have a 19/20/19 and there was no way that I was even going to consider retaking that test. One time is enough stress for me. My lowest score was a 17 in QR but everything else is 19 or higher. I just warn you now that if you retake it, there is still a good chance you don't get excepted to UoP. It seems that you either have awesome scores or you know somebody to get into UoP. My dad went there and I can still tell you that I probably won't even get an interview there. But good luck to you anyway.