DAT/Chances

[themoo]

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I just took the DAT

PAT 19
RC 15
QR 17
BIO 21
GCEM 25
OCHEM 21
TS 22
AA20
GPA 3.6

for those who have similar scores, what are my chances of getting into a dental school
my RC is very low, but will my other sections shadow it
also what schools are accepting low RC scores?
should i retake or not? opinions please

 

[ushaseos]

A RC of 15 will not do well. You might not make the cut for a lot of schools which normally have that particular section cut off at 17. I very strongly advise you to re-take. Yes there is a chance your sciences may go down a little, but that isn't too huge of a deal. If you can bring up RC to around 18-20 you are in good shape. The rest is actually very solid (and most schools don't care about QR).

EDIT: Sorry if I sounded harsh. I didn't mean to do so.

 

[themoo]

thx

 

[Helms99]

Your science scores are very very solid. But I agree with ushaseos and think you should retake. A 15 in RC just won't cut it. Did you do any prep on RC? If you didn't, serious prep could probably boost that score significantly on the next attempt.

 

[themoo]

yea i did the kaplan and topscore prep for RC and i felt the real thing was a lot harder, the passages were longer too. i was getting 20 on the practice ones... any suggestions on with prep. is the best for RC?

 

[JonLee]

yea i did the kaplan and topscore prep for RC and i felt the real thing was a lot harder, the passages were longer too. i was getting 20 on the practice ones... any suggestions on with prep. is the best for RC?

When studying for my DAT I combed through SDN to find what RC prep wad most representative.

I felt like ppl leaned towards CDR, so I got it, used it and totally agree!

Good luck man.

I feel like there's a small luck factor involved with the passages you get also, like I read that the dreaded "piano passage" is a real hard one. Perhaps that was the case for you.
Regardless good luck!

 

[toothhornet88]

The RC is the #1 score for most schools

 

[njohns24]

*

 

[Helms99]

Try buying MCAT prep books and doing the reading section there. I heard some people had success boosting their scores doing that. The MCAT reading section apparently harder than the DATs.

 

[AllahIsGreater]

depends on ur gpa. i have a friend who had an rc of 15 this round and got into two schools. however with his gpa he shoulda gotten into MUCH more, so it def does play a huge role. if you have a really good gpa (3.7+) than you should be fine. if not retake.

 

[invictusx]

Hm... this tough. I was also in your shoes, except I didn't get a 15 in RC, but I was accepted into multiple schools; however I didn't retake the DAT because my other scores were fine and the risk associated with the retake was way too high. However, you can most certainly improve your RC AND your sciences if you put that extra oomph into your DATs the second time around, which will be highly beneficial. But if not, you can apply to a limited amount of schools to see if your scores are, in fact, satisfactory. Or, you can go to a local dental school, if any, around your region and speak to someone in Admissions to ask for advice.

 

[ushaseos]

If you do decide to re-take, use CDR and Achiever. CDR is just the same as DAT Level - my average in CDR for the 10 tests was 21.2 and I got a 21 on the real thing.

Achiever is from hell so it is really difficult. Doing 7 scary tests like that just makes the real RC appear toothless and gives you a confidence boost. It might even make you more careful a reader because Achiever is seriously menacing in its questions.

If you did so well on sciences this time, there is a very strong chance that you'll do as well (if not better) the second time. The only issue with re-taking would be that you won't be able to apply June 4th, but if its only mid July or something you might get a lot more acceptances with an improved DAT.

 

[themoo]

I was going to apply on june 4th with the DAT that i have and retake it later on and send the new scores that way ill be in the schools system at least. do you think that is a good idea? i know that some school have a cutoff point, so if i do that i would think that they will auto reject me and i wont be able to send the new scores? im not sure how it really works?