Aug 18 DATs DONE

[jorasic]

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[navneetdh]

GOOD JOB!!! YOUr PAT is awesome.

It feel great to be done 👍👍

 

[prsndwg]

well done, congrates👍

 

[jorasic]

Thanks Nav! You did well too! What an improvement!

 

[ZzZzSleepyhead]

Great job, thanks for the breakdown. I sure hope your comment on watching football is true 🙂. Season is just kicking off wooo. Go seahawks!😀

 

[yumi43]

congrats on your awesome scores!!!!

my DAT is in two days and i have a couple questions for you, if you don't mind:

1) how did you prepare for QR? i purchased CDM recently (like a week ago), and have only gotten through 3 full tests and the rest of the time, i've just been focusing on word problems and trig questions on cdm because those are the ones i am having the most trouble with.

2) everyone keeps saying bio is random and that you're at an advantage if you've taken a lot of bio classes, etc. well, as a post-bacc student, i've only taken bio I and II. i've been using kaplan and cliff's AP bio to study. am i screwed?

thank you.

 

[whawha]

Congrats 👍

 

[DawitGoshime]

DATs Done Today!

Thanks for everyone on SDN for helping me out.
Here's how it went today:

PAT 26
RC 21
QR 18
Bio 18
GC 21
OC 23
TS 20
AA 20

Detailed Section Breakdown

Biology
It was pretty random like everyone says. I got a hard set. Everyone will have different questions so I could only do so much on advice. I gotta admit, it was fair. I know a lot of biology and its my favorite subject, but this tests your many years of learning biology, you can't just do it in a summer. It tests on Basic Biology. Not too detailed on most questions, but it requires you to know the basics of EVERYTHING. Just like Gchem, Just like Ochem... Get the trend? Treat evolution like Photosynthesis in terms of importance. Everything is fair game. I got As in all my Upper Div Biology classes at UCLA, but I didn't review the subjects that would be considered minor in most bio courses.
Topscore: 17, 22, 18

GChem
Of course it was easy, but the question is... can you get most of them right. I got a 21, so that's -3? Watch Chad's videos twice if you can.
I actually had to work pretty hard for this one the last couple weeks. So don't sleep on this section. It seemed easy to do well, but I can see where many students can get easy points off. Study hard and this will be the easiest way to raise your scores.
Topscore: 18, 19, 19

Ochem
I got lots of IR, CNMR, HNMR, separation techniques. Lucky cus I focused hard on those the last days of studying. You should too! Watch Chad's Ochem vids, he'll get you a point or two on this.
Topscore: 18, 20, 30

RC
The best thing to do is not read these forums and let other people's stories get to you. The key is to read and have fun. Make it enjoyable and TRY to be interested in what you're reading.
Topscore: 21, 20, 20

QR
Damn hard. Wow. Wow. If you haven't put in serious time into this, it'll show. I didn't study but I was getting decent topscores, but trust me, there is no practice test out there that compares to the real thing. Work your ass off for this!
Topscore: 21, 20, 21

PAT
CDPish but harder because you've got the nerves on you. Practice your weaknesses before taking further practice tests.
CDP: 22, 23, 25, 26, 25, 25, 21, 22, 25, 26

Overall
Not too bad in terms of difficulty. Your hard work with def. show up on the scores. I spent the most time on OC, then GC, then Bio. And my scored showed. I worked hard practicing RC, and it showed. Bottom-line: make sacrifices, be consistent with studying, and don't stay focused until the very end. I'm gonna be a little cold here, but it'll help motivate you: You will get what you deserve, don't expect to get lucky, don't expect to get unlucky. The test isn't easy, the test is challenging.

Topscore Advice:
If you are honestly testing yourself on topscore, being strict with timing, not looking at the answers, etc, and you're hitting 18+ in bio, you should be okay. For Gchem, try to hit 19+. For Ochem, its pretty much the same, hit 20+ and you'll get 20+ on the real thing. Do Topscore 3-4 times and make sure you can get 30s for all the sciences if you were to take it again. You'll see similar stuff on the real DATs.

Best Study Tools and Grades:
CDP is a must 9/10
Destroyer will seem hard at first, but you'll gain valuable knowledge from it and it'll help you get to the next level in the sciences 7.5/10
Topscore is the best thing in the DAT universe 9.5/10
Achiever, eh, you don't need it 6/10
Blue Book. Without it, you have no foundation 9/10
SDN searching and posting also helped tremendously


Additional Info For KICKS
Here are some of my stats:
- Just got my BS at UCLA, Graduated with Physiological Sciences Major + Art History Major
- GPA : 3.4 Overall, 3.3 Science,
3.8 in my last year with the pretty tough classes (neruoscience, phy sci, etc) with up to 20, 24, 25 units each quarter haha. did
bad first 3 years If you are still in school, work extra hard and make sure you have an upward trend. They wanna see you end
well because your recent work will translate at their dental school!
- 50 Hours shadow
- Letter of Rec from USC Dental School Professor, Physiological Science Professor - we got lunch 3 times 🙂, Research Professor, Physics
- Honduras Medical Trip, weekly Mobile Clinic Caseworking, weekly Foodserve at downtown LA, church worship leader, counselor for incoming freshmen, sports organization at ucla, tutoring program, went to China for missionary work, Dental Mobile Clinic, and a few other things. research was published!
- Researching now with Drosophila and Aging Theories.

For those who are planning their future!
Don't worry, its never too late to turn it around. Get involved. Get to the books. Have a fun time studying the DATs. You can do that easily by studying at Borders, Barnes, Starbucks where the environment is nice and lively. Oh yeah, and make sure your girlfriend understands that you'll be in a hole for the next month or more 🙂 And watch football. It'll help you get into dental school.


If you need any help or extended advice, feel free to PM me or AIM me at lambastedatmiami.
I've gotten a lot of help and a big part of the apps and DATs and ESPECIALLY school is being on top of things (that's what she said) and knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. A heads up will def, give you an advantage. The least I can do is give back. Just please don't do too well as to take my seat in a dental school. lol.

Congrats man.I PM you and wished you good luck. Congrats again. You aced it

 

[TedyBearSuicide]

DATs????????

 

[jorasic]

DATs????????

Too much time on your hands bro. People don't spell check or edit their posts. I apologize and I will be sure to say the singular form DAT from now on. I am sure you're upset or confused that I may have taken 2 DATs on a single day because that is always a possibilty. lol.

To everyone else who had a little more normal, generally DAT related posts, thanks!!! Thanks DAWIT!!

 

[jorasic]

congrats on your awesome scores!!!!

my DAT is in two days and i have a couple questions for you, if you don't mind:

1) how did you prepare for QR? i purchased CDM recently (like a week ago), and have only gotten through 3 full tests and the rest of the time, i've just been focusing on word problems and trig questions on cdm because those are the ones i am having the most trouble with.

2) everyone keeps saying bio is random and that you're at an advantage if you've taken a lot of bio classes, etc. well, as a post-bacc student, i've only taken bio I and II. i've been using kaplan and cliff's AP bio to study. am i screwed?

thank you.

For QR, you have to really stay calm and be patient. Skip the ones you don't know and do the ones you know right away. Its really hard to improve math. I got a really tough one. I usually get 21s on practice but a 18 on the real thing. And I consider myself pretty okay with math. Sorry but the only thing you can practice now is speed. But its okay! Its easy to pull off a 18+ . Math is considered the least important part of the DAT by a survey that all the dental schools took. So if you hit 19, 20, 21 on practice, move on to sciences.

Biology isn't hard at all. Its just that it had a lot of topics that I overlooked while looking over everything. So that makes no sense, but neither did the DAT bio! Just do your best on focusing on the major concepts for now because those for sure will show up. Random topics will show up as well. Now the question is, WHICH random topic will show up. You are not screwed!! Be confident and if you studied hard, it WILL show! The best bio to learn for this section is bio 1, 2, 3. So 1 and 2 you're set. The 3rd is usually DNA, the 4th is genetics and pretty easy. So get crackin on your DNA, protein syn, etc. Bio 1 is where all the weird things come out - ecology, evolution, primordial earth. All that is good to study.

goodluck

 

[bryantje]

To a previous poster regarding his lack of advanced bio courses, I was in the same boat EXCEPT that I took Biochem I. I can honestly say that Biochem I did not help AT ALL for my exam. All of my knowledge either came from bio I and II or from studying material. My best advice for bio is to study your old textbook as much as possible. It may take longer, but I guarantee you it's a better strategy than using Kaplan BB or Destroyer or Topscore by itself!

Great scores, by the way!