Hey everyone!
Just took my Dat today and thought I would post a breakdown. I felt really uneasy/unprepared compared to the test takers on this forum, so thought I would maybe shed some light.
Scores:
Pat:21 (wanted to hug the receptionist when I saw this) Before the exam today, I thought I would have to retake due to PAT. I never broke 18 on bootcamp and in Canadian your PAT needs to be fire
QR : 20 (anyone know if Canadian schools look at this?)
Reading: 23 (WTF!! no idea how I got this, bootcamp ranged from 15-18)
Biology: 23
General Chem: 26
Organic Chem : 25 (Anyone know if Canadian Schools look at this?)
TS: 24
AA: 23
Background:
Not going to list my GPA because I am too lazy to convert it into a 4.0 school lol (my school uses percentages). Plus my program is jokes and inflates GPA so would not really correlate well to what you guys in the states go through (I am canadian). Took the american DAT because some canadian schools accept it, and to keep some doors open should I ever want to apply to the states (that exchange rate though lol).
I am not in a bachelor of science, so my science background was not the strongest. I have taken the prereqs for most Canadian dental schools though (which are minimal compared to the amount you have to take in the states). On the tip of my head, I've taken a year of general chemistry, half of first year biology, organic chemistry I, differential Calc, and stats. Might have taken some other sciency electives but probably were not related to the DAT.
Schedule:
Was working a couple part time jobs (20-35 hrs/week) and I am a pretty slow learner so my plan was to use Ari's 10 week schedule but spread it over 13 weeks instead. Sounds like a good plan, right? Well yes, it's a solid plan when executed properly...
However, I made a big mistake of not actually setting any deadlines/guidelines and just "hoping" that by the time my DAT rolls around I would have completed his schedule lol. MAKE A SCHEDULE ! Everyone is different, so you need to tailor this
What happened was that at the beginning of my studying, I went super slow and had no sense of urgency. I figured "i'll just pce out and ask for a month off work leading to the exam if need be lol". Fast forward to 4 weeks out from the exam I still had SIX weeks left on Ari's dat study schedule. Not only was I behind, but I also found out that I couldn't take any weeks off work lol.
I then went into one week of this weird attitude where I was taking no responsibility for my procrastination, and was blaming other people for my shortcomings... After this week of acting like the mother of all betas I was ashamed in myself and use this anger to fuel the last 3 weeks of studying. Ripped through some full lengths and destroyer.
.Resources:
Chad's Videos: Solid content review. Great teacher. All you need for content review for QR/GC/OC In my opinion
Cliffs: I liked it honestly
Feralis: Way too detailed for me (non science major). Intimidating. That said, Ferali is a boss so good on him/her.
Math Destroyer: Did tests 1-12 at the beginning of my studying to take a break from the annoying biology... I love math (lol QR was my lowest score, more on this later)
DAT destroyer: AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. I'm usually not one to hype things up but it is sooo good. Did 1.5X. Would have have done more if I had the time
Bootcamp: Loved it
Some free generators on DAT genius: Really solid hole punch generator! I recommend it, feel like it was better prep than the bootcamp one (although I still love bootcamp haha)
Last words of advice:
- I was going to do what most people do, and describe section by section what my exam was like. But I can't seem to pull things out off the tip of my head. Seems like a blurr. If you have any questions about my exam/sections just comment and hopefully that triggers my memory!
- Do not underestimate QR. I personally did not find bootcamp QR to be too bad (I love math), so I was shocked when I was seeing low QR scores on breakdowns where people slayed the chems. Well I have now been on the other side of the table, and QR honestly destroyed me during the exam, it was hard. I was so mad after QR I wanted to just leave without the score report printout (little did I know that your scores show up on your screen...). Although my QR was harder than any bootcamp exam I took, IT COULD STILL HAVE BEEN DOABLE if one were to not underestimate it and study it like any other section
Edit: My point of this isn't to scare you and say you are ****** for QR. It is to actually tell you that it IS possible for it to booost your AA (given that you are prepared, which I was not). Use this as motivation to not make the mistake I did
- If you are interested in all my BOOTCAMP scores, unfortunately alot of them got erased after my full lengths (no idea why this happened, I still love Ari though). Which leads me into my next point...
- Practice scores can tell you if you for sure are not ready. If you are getting 14 on every section then I hate to break it to you, but I do not think you are ready. However, other than telling you that, practice scores are kind of meaningless, and it is so easy to let these estimated scores dictate the rest of your day (you can feel like **** or on the flipside have too much confidence). For me personally, my PAT (most important section in Canada), and RC (also somewhat important as it influences AA) predictions were pretty low. Made me so uneasy and made me want to give up. Do not let that happen to you, keep plugging away and stay motivated no matter what.
- Use student doctor network, has lots of good information. THAT SAID, also be sceptical and use common sense and take things with a grain of salt. I felt so hopeless and unprepared the week leading up to my exam (compared to other posters) , that I decided to not go on SDN for the last week. Funny enough it was probably my best decision during my studies.
Just took my Dat today and thought I would post a breakdown. I felt really uneasy/unprepared compared to the test takers on this forum, so thought I would maybe shed some light.
Scores:
Pat:21 (wanted to hug the receptionist when I saw this) Before the exam today, I thought I would have to retake due to PAT. I never broke 18 on bootcamp and in Canadian your PAT needs to be fire
QR : 20 (anyone know if Canadian schools look at this?)
Reading: 23 (WTF!! no idea how I got this, bootcamp ranged from 15-18)
Biology: 23
General Chem: 26
Organic Chem : 25 (Anyone know if Canadian Schools look at this?)
TS: 24
AA: 23
Background:
Not going to list my GPA because I am too lazy to convert it into a 4.0 school lol (my school uses percentages). Plus my program is jokes and inflates GPA so would not really correlate well to what you guys in the states go through (I am canadian). Took the american DAT because some canadian schools accept it, and to keep some doors open should I ever want to apply to the states (that exchange rate though lol).
I am not in a bachelor of science, so my science background was not the strongest. I have taken the prereqs for most Canadian dental schools though (which are minimal compared to the amount you have to take in the states). On the tip of my head, I've taken a year of general chemistry, half of first year biology, organic chemistry I, differential Calc, and stats. Might have taken some other sciency electives but probably were not related to the DAT.
Schedule:
Was working a couple part time jobs (20-35 hrs/week) and I am a pretty slow learner so my plan was to use Ari's 10 week schedule but spread it over 13 weeks instead. Sounds like a good plan, right? Well yes, it's a solid plan when executed properly...
However, I made a big mistake of not actually setting any deadlines/guidelines and just "hoping" that by the time my DAT rolls around I would have completed his schedule lol. MAKE A SCHEDULE ! Everyone is different, so you need to tailor this
What happened was that at the beginning of my studying, I went super slow and had no sense of urgency. I figured "i'll just pce out and ask for a month off work leading to the exam if need be lol". Fast forward to 4 weeks out from the exam I still had SIX weeks left on Ari's dat study schedule. Not only was I behind, but I also found out that I couldn't take any weeks off work lol.
I then went into one week of this weird attitude where I was taking no responsibility for my procrastination, and was blaming other people for my shortcomings... After this week of acting like the mother of all betas I was ashamed in myself and use this anger to fuel the last 3 weeks of studying. Ripped through some full lengths and destroyer.
.Resources:
Chad's Videos: Solid content review. Great teacher. All you need for content review for QR/GC/OC In my opinion
Cliffs: I liked it honestly
Feralis: Way too detailed for me (non science major). Intimidating. That said, Ferali is a boss so good on him/her.
Math Destroyer: Did tests 1-12 at the beginning of my studying to take a break from the annoying biology... I love math (lol QR was my lowest score, more on this later)
DAT destroyer: AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. I'm usually not one to hype things up but it is sooo good. Did 1.5X. Would have have done more if I had the time
Bootcamp: Loved it
Some free generators on DAT genius: Really solid hole punch generator! I recommend it, feel like it was better prep than the bootcamp one (although I still love bootcamp haha)
Last words of advice:
- I was going to do what most people do, and describe section by section what my exam was like. But I can't seem to pull things out off the tip of my head. Seems like a blurr. If you have any questions about my exam/sections just comment and hopefully that triggers my memory!
- Do not underestimate QR. I personally did not find bootcamp QR to be too bad (I love math), so I was shocked when I was seeing low QR scores on breakdowns where people slayed the chems. Well I have now been on the other side of the table, and QR honestly destroyed me during the exam, it was hard. I was so mad after QR I wanted to just leave without the score report printout (little did I know that your scores show up on your screen...). Although my QR was harder than any bootcamp exam I took, IT COULD STILL HAVE BEEN DOABLE if one were to not underestimate it and study it like any other section
Edit: My point of this isn't to scare you and say you are ****** for QR. It is to actually tell you that it IS possible for it to booost your AA (given that you are prepared, which I was not). Use this as motivation to not make the mistake I did
- If you are interested in all my BOOTCAMP scores, unfortunately alot of them got erased after my full lengths (no idea why this happened, I still love Ari though). Which leads me into my next point...
- Practice scores can tell you if you for sure are not ready. If you are getting 14 on every section then I hate to break it to you, but I do not think you are ready. However, other than telling you that, practice scores are kind of meaningless, and it is so easy to let these estimated scores dictate the rest of your day (you can feel like **** or on the flipside have too much confidence). For me personally, my PAT (most important section in Canada), and RC (also somewhat important as it influences AA) predictions were pretty low. Made me so uneasy and made me want to give up. Do not let that happen to you, keep plugging away and stay motivated no matter what.
- Use student doctor network, has lots of good information. THAT SAID, also be sceptical and use common sense and take things with a grain of salt. I felt so hopeless and unprepared the week leading up to my exam (compared to other posters) , that I decided to not go on SDN for the last week. Funny enough it was probably my best decision during my studies.
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! You should be happy to be done with it! Very solid scores in all sections
