Acceptance pending RC retake

[SoCalBlondie]

I had my interview at Loma Linda today and it went great! Went twice as long as it was supposed to

He told me that my application was one of the best, but that my reading comp. score might be the only thing that holds me back.

He reccomended that I retake the DAT and mainly focus on the RC since it was my lowest score.

WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO PREPARE!?!?!?!
I did kaplan and top score but they obveiously didnt help
Any o/test preps? Online, books?
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

thanks a million!!!!!!!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Kokugeka Shiro]

I had my interview at Loma Linda today and it went great! Went twice as long as it was supposed to

He told me that my application was one of the best, but that my reading comp. score might be the only thing that holds me back.

He reccomended that I retake the DAT and mainly focus on the RC since it was my lowest score.

WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO PREPARE!?!?!?!
I did kaplan and top score but they obveiously didnt help
Any o/test preps? Online, books?
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

thanks a million!!!!!!!

I actually used the strategy Kaplan sets out (not reading every word) for longer passages. I also just read newspapers, business and science journals, etc. multiple times a day just to get the speed up and working on picking up important info even when scanning.

Best of luck!

 

[supraman]

what did you get on RC if you don't mind me asking, was it sub 18?

 

[SoCalBlondie]

what did you get on RC if you don't mind me asking, was it sub 18?

ya I only got a 17.. ;(

i was using kaplan and top score and i was getting 19-21's..the actuall DAT was so much harder..

what should i do??

 

[SoCalBlondie]

I actually used the strategy Kaplan sets out (not reading every word) for longer passages. I also just read newspapers, business and science journals, etc. multiple times a day just to get the speed up and working on picking up important info even when scanning.

Best of luck!

great. thanks!

 

[supraman]

Holding you back on RC sounds stupid to me, but to be frank I didn't study more than 3 hours combined for it. During the tutorial, number your sheet from 1 to 20 and leave spaces between. Set 20 mins to each passage. Read each passage within 8 minutes. After reading each paragraph, write down keywords. Words that are unique to the passage. You should speed read, kind of read out loud but in a whispering way. You will find that you will knock everything down. I jumped to "search and destroy" on my first passage and said F this, because it was not working. I jumped to the second and third passages using the above method and it was a breeze. Went back to the first one, unforunately not as much time, so had to still search and destroy. Gluck blondie lol

 

[SoCalBlondie]

Holding you back on RC sounds stupid to me, but to be frank I didn't study more than 3 hours combined for it. During the tutorial, number your sheet from 1 to 20 and leave spaces between. Set 20 mins to each passage. Read each passage within 8 minutes. After reading each paragraph, write down keywords. Words that are unique to the passage. You should speed read, kind of read out loud but in a whispering way. You will find that you will knock everything down. I jumped to "search and destroy" on my first passage and said F this, because it was not working. I jumped to the second and third passages using the above method and it was a breeze. Went back to the first one, unforunately not as much time, so had to still search and destroy. Gluck blondie lol

thanks!

ya it makes me sad but he told me that rc is the #1 predictor of part one boards and so they look very highly on it

 

[deus85]

So the guy basically told you that you will be accepted if you retake the test and do better on RC then you're automatically accepted?

 

[Jake8]

Well I didn't want to study for finals so I read your past posts you've made. I would say that your DAT score is a little bit on the weak side (I saw 18 overall) but you also appear to have major ties to the school and the community. In all honesty I think you are fine, but plan to retake anyways. Most likely you will find out in two weeks that you are in and be able to drop studying all together.

 

[blondiegurlkg]

I studied for this in a pretty unconventional way. I hate reading textbooks, science journals, and other academic type reading. Since I could never make myself study that way, I just read difficult (but interesting) novels! The key was that I was able to "study" like that for hours a day, but reading boring science journals I could only study a few hours a week. I'd try this as a last ditch effort if you have the same problem as me and time to pour through good books. I got a 28 RC.

 

[Jake8]

If you want hard to read books I recommend Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

 

[supraman]

I studied for this in a pretty unconventional way. I hate reading textbooks, science journals, and other academic type reading. Since I could never make myself study that way, I just read difficult (but interesting) novels! The key was that I was able to "study" like that for hours a day, but reading boring science journals I could only study a few hours a week. I'd try this as a last ditch effort if you have the same problem as me and time to pour through good books. I got a 28 RC.

From one blondie to another

 

[Kokugeka Shiro]

thanks!

ya it makes me sad but he told me that rc is the #1 predictor of part one boards and so they look very highly on it

Yeah I was interviewed by Dr. Valenzuela, who said that RC, PAT and I believe also Ochem were the "big three" indicative sections for them. Not 100% sure whether she said Ochem or Bio, but she really stressed RC and PAT (and the importance of consistency between sections) to me.

No other schools gave explanations of what they really looked for in the DAT during the interviews, so it was pretty interesting to hear.

 

[prydA]

i don't think the kaplan strat was particularly useful... i actually think it can seriously hinder your time. what i did was skim the passage very quickly, putting emphasis on the progression of the passage as well as what paragraph talked about what. then after reading each question, i would scan the passage for the keyword. use your eyes and find the shape of the word (i did a lot of word searches when i was a kid i think that helped lol) and then just go from there. worked very well for me and i ended up with a 24 on RC.

there will be the occasional "authors view" kind of questions during which you cant apply this strat, but that is where the scanning comes into play. also, if you keep a rough map in your head on what paragraph talked about what, you can narrow your search by estimating around where a certain topic came up. i remember for mine, there was a passage about bacteria affecting the nasal passages. the progression went something like...

paragraph 1: INTRO
2: what kind of infections nasal passages are prone to
3-7: certain strains and their symptoms
8. possible treatments
9. topics of research to better understand this problem
10. conclusion and authors POV

very basic outline but something like that...


hope this helps and good luck!

 

[NAVY DDS 2010]

I had my interview at Loma Linda today and it went great! Went twice as long as it was supposed to

He told me that my application was one of the best, but that my reading comp. score might be the only thing that holds me back.

He reccomended that I retake the DAT and mainly focus on the RC since it was my lowest score.

WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO PREPARE!?!?!?!
I did kaplan and top score but they obveiously didnt help
Any o/test preps? Online, books?
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

thanks a million!!!!!!!

by no means am I trying to burst your bubble, but do you realize how many people get told the same line? They are not going to discourage you at the interview. You wouldn't get an interveiw if they didn't think you were qualified. But, they also want yo to know where your weak points are. So, the comment that was made to you was their polite way of letting you know, your applicantion is competative with the exception of the RC score.

 

[SnohSeason]

Hey good seeing you today!

Everybody's suggestions are fantastic and i think you should use a combination of all of the above!

What pryda is describing to do is pretty much the kaplan strategy and seems to work well for a lot of people - Definitely figure out how the article is structured so u can refer back to paragraphs easily (i'm teaching the DAT for kaplan now). Combine that with what Supra says and take mental/written notes of keywords while your doing your first skim through.

I didn't take kaplan classes myself but i guess i got practice by reading bio and chem textbooks while studying for the NS (scored 28 on RC).

 

[klutzy1987]

If you want hard to read books I recommend Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

ZzzzzzZzzzzz

I would fall asleep on the first line.

 

[needa20]

I had my interview at Loma Linda today and it went great! Went twice as long as it was supposed to

He told me that my application was one of the best, but that my reading comp. score might be the only thing that holds me back.

He reccomended that I retake the DAT and mainly focus on the RC since it was my lowest score.

WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO PREPARE!?!?!?!
I did kaplan and top score but they obveiously didnt help
Any o/test preps? Online, books?
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!

thanks a million!!!!!!!

I was scoring 21 to 23's on kaplan and topscore, I was dissappointed with 19 on the real DAT. So I can see how your 17 would be disappointing.

One of the interviewers at LLU told me that RC and BIO were the biggest predictors of part 1 boards.

As for RC, I used a combination of the methods above. read the first question, then start reading (fast as possible) the passage. If I found the answer while reading, I would answer question then move on to next question. Would read next question, and if answer was somthing that i had already read I would answer it and move to the next. If i had not read the answer yet, I would pick up the passage where i had left off. go on till passage is read or answers are all done on that passage. Hope this helps and my explaination was not too confusing.

just pace yourself so that you get to all the passages. the worst thing you can do is get hung up on a passage and get to the third with not much time left.

good luck

 

[supraman]

Yeah I was interviewed by Dr. Valenzuela, who said that RC, PAT and I believe also Ochem were the "big three" indicative sections for them. Not 100% sure whether she said Ochem or Bio, but she really stressed RC and PAT (and the importance of consistency between sections) to me.

No other schools gave explanations of what they really looked for in the DAT during the interviews, so it was pretty interesting to hear.

lol PAT score is indicative of estimate of the boards? Why is there another stupid PAT derivative on the boards?

 

[SoCalBlondie]

So the guy basically told you that you will be accepted if you retake the test and do better on RC then you're automatically accepted?

didnt exactly say that..but pretty much ya

 

[TeamGuo]

wow... retaking the DAT for just RC. To me that seems a little risky but good luck with your retake!

Other posters have already mentioned great RC tips.

 

[SoCalBlondie]

lol PAT score is indicative of estimate of the boards? Why is there another stupid PAT derivative on the boards?

llu told me they lie high pat scores because it lets them know how you are with your hands.

but bio and rc are the top predictors of part 1 boards.

my pat wasnt too high but, i attended the careers in dentistry program over the summer at llu and i was the only female, and only 1 of 3 students that recieved a perfect score on the tooth wax up, so they told me not too worry too much about that score

 

[Neuro178]

Holding you back on RC sounds stupid to me, but to be frank I didn't study more than 3 hours combined for it. During the tutorial, number your sheet from 1 to 20 and leave spaces between. Set 20 mins to each passage. Read each passage within 8 minutes. After reading each paragraph, write down keywords. Words that are unique to the passage. You should speed read, kind of read out loud but in a whispering way. You will find that you will knock everything down. I jumped to "search and destroy" on my first passage and said F this, because it was not working. I jumped to the second and third passages using the above method and it was a breeze. Went back to the first one, unforunately not as much time, so had to still search and destroy. Gluck blondie lol

This was almost exactly my strategy, and I got a 21 on RC just like supraman. I didn't mouth the words, but instead I scanned as fast as I could without actually READING but still comprehending the main material. Practice practice practice this strategy so you get comfortable with it!

Search and destroy is a weird way of doing reading comp in my opinion.. what are you really reading or comprehending??

 

[Jake8]

I read closely the first line of each paragraph to find out what the rest of it was about and then quickly scanned the rest of the paragraph looking for key words. I then wrote a quick synopsis of the paragraph and moved on. By the end of the passage my answers were easy to find and the list helped me find them quickly as opposed to rereading the passage.

A little unorthodox but I think closely reading that first sentence will help you out a lot

FYI 23 on that section for me

 

[SoCalBlondie]

This was almost exactly my strategy, and I got a 21 on RC just like supraman. I didn't mouth the words, but instead I scanned as fast as I could without actually READING but still comprehending the main material. Practice practice practice this strategy so you get comfortable with it!

Search and destroy is a weird way of doing reading comp in my opinion.. what are you really reading or comprehending??

sadly that was my strat. on the actual dat and ya it didnt work... i didnt feel like i could change what i had been practicing all the time..so i just did my best that way. i was doin good on kaplan and top score with that strat. but the real thing was much different.

i try this new strat. thanks!!

 

[SoCalBlondie]

hey good seeing you today!

everybody's suggestions are fantastic and i think you should use a combination of all of the above!

What pryda is describing to do is pretty much the kaplan strategy and seems to work well for a lot of people - definitely figure out how the article is structured so u can refer back to paragraphs easily (i'm teaching the dat for kaplan now). Combine that with what supra says and take mental/written notes of keywords while your doing your first skim through.

I didn't take kaplan classes myself but i guess i got practice by reading bio and chem textbooks while studying for the ns (scored 28 on rc).

good seein u too!!

Howd ur interview go?? Mine was almost 2 hours, it was great besides the fact he thinks i should go for a higher rc score since they look at it so high