can I be a TA ?

[lazyyangyang]

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hey, gusy, my gpa is about 3.19, i want to take the dat in decemeber or January 2007, and try to get into dental school in 2008. now i have the permission to be a general chemistry teacher assistant, but everyweek, i have to spend about 12 hours on that?what your guys think about that? i am afraid that i don't have enough time to prepare for the dat, by the way, is there any no-native speakers here? how your guys prepare for the reading comprehension? thanks.

 

[714guy]

TAing really helped me with my studying for the DATs. I learned alot while helping others out. Also you will have to review the material inorder to help them out, so its like studying without knowing it. I love TAing. It helped me alot. Good Luck.

 

[dentaldentist]

hey, gusy, my gpa is about 3.19, i want to take the dat in decemeber or January 2007, and try to get into dental school in 2008. now i have the permission to be a general chemistry teacher assistant, but everyweek, i have to spend about 12 hours on that?what your guys think about that? i am afraid that i don't have enough time to prepare for the dat, by the way, is there any no-native speakers here? how your guys prepare for the reading comprehension? thanks.

TAing is a good way to help relearn your chemistry and will help you prepare for that section of the DAT, but if between your TA duties and your regular studies you do not have enough time to prepare for the other sections of the DAT, then you may want to either take the DAT later or not become a TA. Since you aren't applying until the 2008 cycle, you have plenty of time to take the DAT - you could even take the DAT next summer if you need the extra time to prepare. You don't have to have your DAT done when you apply, you just want schools to receive your scores by the time they receive your application (usually 4 to 8 weeks after you submit your application). TAing is also something that will look good on your application.

Also, just thought I would mention you should do your best to do well in your classes this year to help boost your GPA. A 3.19 is a bit on the low side, so if you can boost this even just a little bit it will really help. I would suggest focusing on your grades this semester and doing the TAing. Then next semester prepare for the DAT. As for the reading section, I would say you just need to practice. Get in the habbit of reading the newspaper or books consistently and do plenty of practice tests. Good luck.

 

[metalalchemist]

Guess you originally came from China. Based on my guess...

If you are OK in your chinese high school g-chem, you are over-prepared for your g-chem in DAT, and if you are OK for your middle school g-chem you are well prepared. For o-chem, u need spend time in preparing, but it is way easier than your university level o-chem. Biology is tricky if you want to score high, coz i know chinese education sys pay little attention to biology. Spend enough time in your Kalplan Book Biology section. A middle school chinese student can score 20 in the DAT math part, as long as he can read the questions. PAT is wierd, defintely use Barron.

Now the left part is RCT(root canal treatment or reading comprehension test😀 ). It differs from people to people. If you came here since you were in primary school, guess you will be fine. But if you have been here only for couple years, watch out! RCT is the most DIFFFFFICULT part for non-native speaker. I scored 25,25,24,23 in my sciences, but screwed as low as 15 in my RCT. You need to get prepared. Get the habit for reading daily. Focus on this part.

Those suggestion also work for non-native speakers from lots of other Asian countries and regions(Korean, Japan, India, Hongkong, Taiwan etc.), since the Math-Chem-Phys fundamental education is so hard over there.

TA is not so helpful in your application. If you really need money, do it. If not, you might choose to shadow the dentists, work in the labs or do some volunteer work.

If you came from China, hope this will be helpful. If you are not, read this as a joke.

Anyway, Good Luck.

 

[masterofpuppet]

watch out for rct. try to improve your reading speed! not just reading fast, try to see if you understand what you have just read! I have been in this country for only 3 years and scored 18 on the rct. at first I though i did ok but when i looked at the percentile it was 38 percent, meaning 62 percent of the test takers did better than me! wish me luck!