Confused Freshman

[MeaganM]

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I am a second semester freshman and so far everything has been going well. I just finished a semester of G. Bio, G. Chem, and Calculus, so I think that I am on the right path, but I started looking at possible dental schools and I saw something that I have never heard of....PAT. I went on Kaplan's website to find out more, but I'm still confused. Please explain and is it necessary?

🙁I'm a little confused and scared because from what I saw, it was utter confusion.

 

[jigabodo]

The ADA website might have some extra information on PAT. The website is www.ada.org.

 

[Imperium]

PAT is something you have to learn and practice yourself. The concepts are simple but you have to exert some mental effort doing the problems; some people are naturally gifted at this.

 

[rkamsterdam]

I am a second semester freshman and so far everything has been going well. I just finished a semester of G. Bio, G. Chem, and Calculus, so I think that I am on the right path, but I started looking at possible dental schools and I saw something that I have never heard of....PAT. I went on Kaplan's website to find out more, but I'm still confused. Please explain and is it necessary?

🙁I'm a little confused and scared because from what I saw, it was utter confusion.

the PAT stands for perceptual ability test and is a required section of the DAT. It tests your ability to view and manipulate 3-dimentional figures drawn 2d. However, the PAT score is not considered into your academic adverage dat score and thus many schools largely ignore it. <-some more than others.

I would spend a decent amount of time practicing the PAT, though, at least to the point where you are comfortable with it, and aim for at least an 18 on the section because while many schools say they dont consider the PAT, a <16 on any section will be hard to ignore.

 

[Danny0230]

.

 

[dackmonkey]

I am a second semester freshman and so far everything has been going well. I just finished a semester of G. Bio, G. Chem, and Calculus, so I think that I am on the right path, but I started looking at possible dental schools and I saw something that I have never heard of....PAT. I went on Kaplan's website to find out more, but I'm still confused. Please explain and is it necessary?

🙁I'm a little confused and scared because from what I saw, it was utter confusion.

The PAT is a section of the DAT. I think it's short for 'Perceptual Ability Test'. It's essentially a section that tests one's ability to reason with objects in 3D space among other things.

 

[lindsey122]

This is the section of the DAT that it supposed to correlate to hand skill in dentistry. To many schools it is a big deal. It is by far the easiest section to improve on because it does not entail a myriad of information. Take as many practice PAT's as you can and you will drastically improve.

It's importance varies from school to school but at my school (the wonderful OSU) it accounts for %10 of your entire application....that's a lot for just one section of a test. Oh yeah and when you study don't use any Kaplan methods for Math or Reading. Their strategies are terrible.

 

[blankguy]

MeaganM,
go to a bookstore and checkout the DAT prep books. That should enlighten you on the DAT. The PAT is broken down into 6 sections.