DAT and your University

[dr_benj]

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Just wondering.....Do you think you were well prepared by your university for the DAT? Was everything you read in Kaplan a review? For those that scored very well (20+/20+) was it because your undergrad prepared you or because you studied a lot for it? Thanks for the replies.

P.S. - please feel free to reply even if you have average or below average scores.

 

[momowheels]

No my underrgrad sucked. i made a 22/20 DAT because of the kaplan book and the 1001 series from examkrackers.

 

[Mo007]

Originally posted by momowheels
No my underrgrad sucked. i made a 22/20 DAT because of the kaplan book and the 1001 series from examkrackers.

Whatever this guy says, is right.

I was in your shoes dr_benj, all you need is the right materials to do well in the DAT. Its a PLUS if you did well in the science pre-requisites, just make sure you study everything, those examkrackers are really helpful, I ended up with 21/20.

 

[dr_benj]

Actually, I already took the DAT, got a 20/22 (my GPA is a little below average however). Everything I read in Kaplan was review....I was just wondering if this is common among universities or not?

 

[Mo007]

Sure Dr_benj

The curriculum of all these courses are the same in all accredited institutions, also Community Colleges that are growing teach the required courses, covering all the "need-to-know" topics in each course.

The only difference is, the difficulty of a course in different institutions, thats why adcoms like to see courses obtained from 4 year institutions.

So, yes... Almost everyone who took the science courses (if they did well) will use the KAPLAN as a review. That's the whole idea of KAPLAN, a review company, they will not introduce to you new topics from courses that you have previously taken.

 

[dr_benj]

Thanks for the reply Mo007, I asked this question because a colleague of mine was studying for the DAT and said he had never come across some of the materail, or at least had only a vague understanding from his classes of it. He attends a different university than I do and I thought this was strange. From my classes I learned much more detail in all areas of the DAT than what questions are asked....I assumed this was the norm, but I guess I was wrong.

 

[Mo007]

Originally posted by dr_benj
Thanks for the reply Mo007, I asked this question because a colleague of mine was studying for the DAT and said he had never come across some of the materail, or at least had only a vague understanding from his classes of it. He attends a different university than I do and I thought this was strange. From my classes I learned much more detail in all areas of the DAT than what questions are asked....I assumed this was the norm, but I guess I was wrong.

Right.

I believe all institutions will teach all the topics in a given course. However, there is a point that needs to be understood on how courses are taught by teachers; lets just say General Chem I. This course will be taught by a teacher who will cover all sections for General Chem I, but will cover more depth (Topic 2: Gas, Kinetics and Equilibrium) than other topics (Topic 4: Solutions). Simply that teacher might feel students find Topic 2 harder than Topic 4. This may result a student who doesn't have much knowledge in Topic 4, and when it comes to KAPLAN classes sees more of Topic 4 in depth, and suddenly its all new material.

Other institutions might do the opposite, but this whole idea is general across the board in all institutions, and is all down to a good student who wants to succeed, will always learn the extras in a topic to be more prepared for the DAT.

Good Luck

 

[Balki]

My story:
I transferred schools. In School 1. I took all of the DAT classes but Orgo. Orgo I took in College 2. Now my school sucked so much that I had to study all over. Orgo on the other hand I didn't even review. I mean I looked at one of the tests ang a 25 of orgo section.
I think it's definetely important what school you go to , some schools prepare you much better than others for standarized tests.

 

[tottihead]

Well, i might be a bit different being a 3rd year candian student but i found everything to be review, however not everything was covered as in depth as the DAT for my first year courses, I found that Biochemistry and Physiology really helped(both 2nd year courses)

 

[Thaxil]

I do not think anyone can place 100% of the blame for a poor performance on the school attended. If you really want to do well on the DAT you will find a way to do it. I do not even think people even need to take the course to do well. Most of the time, the professor just repeats what is in the text. The DAT was very basic stuff, like Sn1, Sn2 reactions, no synthesis, basic stoichiometry, redox. I think out of all section the Biology was the hardest although I had a harder time in math.

 

[shizzleDDS]

The DAT is supposed to test your knowledge of the basic science courses in college. However, the test does have some material that i wouldn't have been familiar with if I had not taken upper level courses. The bottom line though, is that the DAT can be aced without having taken any basic science courses at all. There are tons of study materials that break down the DAT into the subjects and sub-subjects that it will test you on. If you rely on your university to give you the education needed to ace the DAT you could end up dissapointed, but if you put it on yourself to study the DAT on your own terms you should have no problem. Of course certain classes will give you an advantage, but it should pose no problem if you study Kaplan and take a lot of practice tests. My scores are listed below, and I only studied Kaplan and Topscore pro. And though I have taken upper level bio and orgo classes, much of the material I either had to re-learn or learned for the first time.
AA-22--98.7%
QR-19
RC-25
Bio-23
GC-21
OC-21
TS-22
PAT-19