DAT done 06/04/2012 Complete breakdown and study plan

Started by ToBeDDSS
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ToBeDDSS

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Hi. I have been lurking here for a while. I learned a lot from SDN community. It's time to give back 🙂
I took my DAT June 4th. I dont know what to make of it. The old lady next door tells me her crystal ball says Retake, what do you guys think? I appreciate your honesty .

Bio: 23 😀
G.Chem: 23😀
Orgo: 22 😀
QR: 16 😡
PAT:17 😕
RC: 15 :scared:
TS: 23
AA:20

I am very happy with my science scores, I did expect that. For the rest I have no one to blame but me. with regard to math i was cocky ( I knew it all ) I got A+ in both calc 1 and calc 2. But DAT is a whole new ball game. In other words I didnt study the QR as I should have. The same goes for reading. I only did one passage from Kaplan ( and if I've done more bla bla bla...) for the PAT again I only did 2 days.

Material used: For Sciences Kaplan, KBB, text books from college, AP cliff notes and Destroyer. For reading: Exam crackers and Kaplan ( by the way Kaplan helps a lot. I just didnt do more ). for the PAT: crack that Pat is a must have.

I studied for about 7 weeks intense. here is my plan of study:
week1: 3 hours of chem in the morning. 3 hours of Orgo in the afternnon and 3 hours of Bio in the evening. For chem I started with kaplan and Wade and McMurrey text books. I did a few problems at the end of each chapter and used Kaplan to solidify the basics. I studied for 2 hours then took a 10 min break. I then wrote down every concept I remember on a separate sheet of paper ( I used this in the final week as a review). For Orgo I used Kaplan and my text book, and for Bio I started with AP cliff notes ( Awesome)

week2: Same routine. ( still no math no reading no PAT )----> Huge mistake
week3: I picked up a pace a bit.More problem solving. If I dont understand something I look it up. At this point my confidence level started to increase. Still no math no reading no PAT ---> someone shoot me plz

week4: Destroyer here I come 🙂 did 3 hours of Chem in the morning. I got about 60% right. The ones I got wrong I looked up in the solution. Same for Orgo and for Bio I only got about 40% right ---> back to my text books
At the end of week 3 I decided to look at the math. I did a few problems from Kaplan and 1 test from Destroyer ( Test # 5). didn't do that bad

week5: More Destroyer ( Sciences only). At this point I started to use the destroyer as a study guide. By that I mean I used the solutions in the back to reinforce the concepts.
at the end of week 5 I decided to do some reading. I did exam crackers. After 30 min I gave up and went to Kaplan. used Search and Destroy. yaayyy it worked. That's all the reading I did ----> shoot me again plz
week6: More Destroyer. By now I get most of them right. My confidence level is way up there. Then I did some PAT ( CDP). Very awesome. My mistake is I only did angle ranking and Key hole.

week7: I did the entire Destroyer again. Used the notes I made early as a study guide. I did 2009 ADA and 2007 ADA tests ( sciences only) ----> Big mistake

The day before the test: didn't do much. At the back of my head I knew I should look more at the math, reading and pat, but I didnt.

The day of the test: I was a bit nervous. I knew the gods of math, reading and pat will punish me 🙁

After the test: My biggest regret for math is not doing enough destroyer. looking back now I should have done at least 5 or more tests. A lot of things on the test were covered on Destroyer. same goes for PAT and reading. For reading I think Kaplan is good enough.

Sciences: Text books, Kaplan if you forgot the basics, AP cliff notes and Destroyer ( must have)
Reading: Kaplan all the way ( Kappy rules!!!!)
PAT: CDP. it saved my ass even though I didn't do the rest of it ( I would have gotten way less)
QR Kaplan for basics and math Destroyer for practice.

My biggest mistake is I haven't done any practice test ( topscore, Achiever etc..)

I hope this helps.
 
3.6 overall. 3.45 Science GPA

for math i only did 1 test.

I think you have a chance of getting into a dental school as long as you avoid the ones with the cutoffs. I would strongly advise a retake, though. I think you'll do really well on the next retake if you prepare for the AA sections.
 
Bio as everybody says was random. some questions require some thinking ( eliminate the obvious wrong choices....) most of it is just facts.

For Kaplan I used Blue Book.
 
Well done on sciences. The 15 on reading may hurt you. Some schools have a cutoff. Apply to as many schools as possible. You can always claw the schools and ask them if you need to retake. It doesn't hurt to ask.
Good luck