A quick question about DAT vs MCAT

[euphaire]

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Hello all,

I've been studying the Biology section of DAT with a MCAT ExamCracker book my friend has while waiting for my DAT Destroyer books to arrive in mail. My background is not science. I took all the necessary prerequisites for dentistry, though.
The MCAT material concerns me deeply. There are things I've never learned, like a 'retrovirus', even after 12 months of 1st and 2nd year Biology/Microbiology. I suspect (correct me if I'm wrong) that MCAT also covers topics from higher year biology courses, and I'm dying to know if this applies to DAT.
If it does, I'm gonna start not sleeping like, today, because there's so much to LEARN! If anyone knows, please tell how DAT is compared to MCAT in terms of the sciences!

Thank you very much 🙂

 

[jeffity]

You've never heard of retroviruses?

It's my understanding that although both tests cover similar sciences, they are test of a different style and structure. As such, the preparation material is going to be different. Unless you're flat broke, put the MCAT stuff aside.

In regards to biology preparation, don't lose sleep over it. You could stay awake for a year straight reading and still get stumped on biology. Spend your study time wisely. Know the fundamentals of biology and then nail sections you have some control over, namely organic and general chemistry. Those will boost your AA and TS and make you look baller. Just don't pull a 15 on bio.

 

[amalgamgrillz]

No offense, but what kind of pre-requisite bios and micros don't talk about retroviruses? I'm just going to assume they taught it and you weren't paying attention. That's like a math class not teaching you long division.

Anyways, the DAT is way more specific than MCAT bio. The MCAT uses passages and makes you use previous knowledge to answer questions...so you can essentially deduce the answer. The DAT is pretty much you know it or you don't..like retroviruses lol

 

[youknowthedrill]

Do a search in the DAT formus. Many people recommend brushing up on biology using Cliffs AP Biology.

 

[euphaire]

amalgam, although you said 'no offense', what you said is pretty offensive. none of you have enough information to make assumptions on whether people "slept" in their classes or not. To do so is immature and irritating.

Moving on, thank you for your replies. However, my question is how DAT biology is compared to MCAT biology in terms of coverage. Do they cover the same topics?

Thank you,

 

[T for Teeth]

amalgam, although you said 'no offense', what you said is pretty offensive. none of you have enough information to make assumptions on whether people "slept" in their classes or not. To do so is immature and irritating.

Moving on, thank you for your replies. However, my question is how DAT biology is compared to MCAT biology in terms of coverage. Do they cover the same topics?

Thank you,

Ok so this is what i think euphaire: DAT's majority bio questions are from the two pre-req biology classes that you have taken. Some times when i was studying i would see questions that ive learned from my upper bio classes (iam a bio major), but very rarely. For the most part if you had good bio 1 and 2 teachers (and you paid attention) then you should be okay with the bio section on DAT, but it seems that your teachers might of not been so good since you dont know what Retrovirus is (HIV virus and many more), so with that being said make sure you know bio 1 and 2 pretty good and you will do fine on the bio section of the DAT. Honestly, wait for the Destroyer book, in my opinion its the best book for bio, gen chem, and orgo.
As for MCAT goes, my best friend was studying for MCAT at the same time when i was studying for DAT, her stuff was different. They have passages and cases as questions, as where we dont have that. DAT bio is pretty much straight forward, you either know it or you dont. A matter of fact, i do remember a question on my actual DAT test something about retrovirus.
Here is my advice, if you can try to take microbiology and cell biology bc those will help you further with bio section on DAT. Hope this helps buddy 🙂

 

[euphaire]

Thanks. I'll definitely wait for the destroyers. I was concerned because I took Bio1 4 years ago before transferring to engineering, and that Bio1 is heavily on ecology. It has nothing to do with cell-level biology. Then the Microbiology I took again last year just didn't focus on viruses, for some reason.. so although I meet the prereq requirement, I'm pretty sure I have some learning to do. Would I be fine if I cover all the stuff on destroyer?

Ok so this is what i think euphaire: DAT's majority bio questions are from the two pre-req biology classes that you have taken. Some times when i was studying i would see questions that ive learned from my upper bio classes (iam a bio major), but very rarely. For the most part if you had good bio 1 and 2 teachers (and you paid attention) then you should be okay with the bio section on DAT, but it seems that your teachers might of not been so good since you dont know what Retrovirus is (HIV virus and many more), so with that being said make sure you know bio 1 and 2 pretty good and you will do fine on the bio section of the DAT. Honestly, wait for the Destroyer book, in my opinion its the best book for bio, gen chem, and orgo.
As for MCAT goes, my best friend was studying for MCAT at the same time when i was studying for DAT, her stuff was different. They have passages and cases as questions, as where we dont have that. DAT bio is pretty much straight forward, you either know it or you dont. A matter of fact, i do remember a question on my actual DAT test something about retrovirus.
Here is my advice, if you can try to take microbiology and cell biology bc those will help you further with bio section on DAT. Hope this helps buddy 🙂

 

[T for Teeth]

Thanks. I'll definitely wait for the destroyers. I was concerned because I took Bio1 4 years ago before transferring to engineering, and that Bio1 is heavily on ecology. It has nothing to do with cell-level biology. Then the Microbiology I took again last year just didn't focus on viruses, for some reason.. so although I meet the prereq requirement, I'm pretty sure I have some learning to do. Would I be fine if I cover all the stuff on destroyer?

hmmm that is very strange how some colleges do that Microbio but no viruses, but nevertheless i think you will be fine if you just focus on Destroyer, because it has all the stuff that you need. The way the destroyer is set up is that when you read the answers to the question it kinda teaches you the stuff at the same time. One more thing if u want to do while you wait for destroyer. Get like a cliff note book on the bio section, skim through some concepts there, try to refresh some important stuff like, TCA cycle, glycolysis, ETC etc to you will be more familiar. I didnt have cliffs notes (my friend did) i had Kaplans Review notes that i used to refresh my memory a little before i attached the Destroyer. 🙂

 

[dentalWorks]

Here is the truth about DAT biology... its an ocean. You will NEVER be 100% prepare (not even 80%) unless ur sitting with a photographic memory.

The best thing you can do is prepare with the most popular resources (cliffs AP bio, Kaplan blue book, and yes even exam kracker mcat bio is pretty good but not a very common one used by pre-dents)

The resources I described above are good enough to land you a respectable score of 19-20. If your aim is higher (sometime I don't recommend), your going to have to spend ALOT of DAT preparation on biology alone (cause your gonna have to read Campbells biology multiple times ~ 1200+ pages text book, this is where DAT creators took biology questions from).

The most efficient way to study for the DAT sciences is to spend a good 80% of your time mastering General chemistry + orgo, its alot easier to score huge with these than biology alone. If you play your cards right, you can end up with a big AA+TS due to those 2 sections.

All the best.

 

[UCLAzy]

i learned about retrovirus in one of the intro bio classes! and i cant believe u took microbio without one or two lectures on virus types, life cycle and structure/function.

shame on your teachers. virology is an important part of microbiology.

 

[amalgamgrillz]

amalgam, although you said 'no offense', what you said is pretty offensive. none of you have enough information to make assumptions on whether people "slept" in their classes or not. To do so is immature and irritating.

Moving on, thank you for your replies. However, my question is how DAT biology is compared to MCAT biology in terms of coverage. Do they cover the same topics?

Thank you,

OK, if you don't like that assumption, then it's safe to say your undergrad is BS/your professor has no idea what he/she is doing..because retroviruses are pretty standard for microbiology and gen bio. Have you ever heard of HIV? Yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

 

[euphaire]

Uhm, I think you might be a troll. You're now on my ignore list.

OK, if you don't like that assumption, then it's safe to say your undergrad is BS/your professor has no idea what he/she is doing..because retroviruses are pretty standard for microbiology and gen bio. Have you ever heard of HIV? Yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

 

[winnie bear]

Hello all,

I've been studying the Biology section of DAT with a MCAT ExamCracker book my friend has while waiting for my DAT Destroyer books to arrive in mail. My background is not science. I took all the necessary prerequisites for dentistry, though.
The MCAT material concerns me deeply. There are things I've never learned, like a 'retrovirus', even after 12 months of 1st and 2nd year Biology/Microbiology. I suspect (correct me if I'm wrong) that MCAT also covers topics from higher year biology courses, and I'm dying to know if this applies to DAT.
If it does, I'm gonna start not sleeping like, today, because there's so much to LEARN! If anyone knows, please tell how DAT is compared to MCAT in terms of the sciences!

Thank you very much 🙂

I did Destroyer and it was very helpful just as the other poster had mentioned. What I liked about it was the explanation for those random questions. A number of them relate to a general bio concept that we're more familiar with. I agree that it's kind of hard to prep for BIO b/c it seems to cover everything under the sun, but ADA outline on their website for the BIO is helpful as a general guideline for studying and categorizing your notes. I wouldn't rely solely on Destroyer for BIO though because it doesn't cover all the categories set forth by the ADA outline.

I did a couple of MCAT bio quizzes and although the questions were posted in different ways (in ways I wasn't used to), it was about similar topics. So, I think MCAT would be a good "check" after you feel more comfortable about your basics. It would probably be best to focus more on the high yield questions though.

Hope this helps and good luck to you!

 

[Sunspear]

Believe it or not, I studied a lot of Bio from the Achiever biology questions I got wrong. A lot of them forced me to look up Campbells to learn more about the topic. I made flash cards for every question I got wrong on Achiever and often used Campbell to flush out my knowledge. It prepared me really well and I ended up with a 24 in Bio. So yeah, I know Achiever is really difficult (moreso, in my opinion, than the actual exam) but it's a great study tool, especially for Bio. (again, these are my personal opinions)

 

[amalgamgrillz]

Uhm, I think you might be a troll. You're now on my ignore list.

Yes. Ignorance is bliss.

 

[HoustonDAT]

Cliffs, Kaplan, and other "cram guides" are helpful in PREPARING to study for the Bio section. The real understanding of the material comes from reading textbooks.

These are the textbooks that the DAT writers use in formulating questions.

http://www.ada.org/sections/educationAndCareers/pdfs/dat_reference_texts.pdf