- Joined
- Apr 19, 2009
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 0
- Pre-Dental
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PAT 21 (87.9)
QR 20 (94)
RC 24 (94)
BIO 19 (76.6)
GC 18 (62.2)
OC 23 (94.4)
TS 20 (85.2)
AA 21 (93.4)
Overall I am pretty happy with my scores. I'm just glad to finally be done with studying for awhile. 😀 I studied for almost 2 months beginning in May. I started off going for about 2-4 hours a day usually taking a day off each week for the first month. Once June came around I tried to get up to around 6 hrs a day, some days only getting 2-3 hrs, depending on if I felt burnt out or not (after working landscaping 7am-1pm M-F some days I couldn't bring myself to study more than a few hours). I definitely think its important to give yourself a break especially if you don't think your retaining anything. The last 2 weeks I tried to dedicate most of my time to practice problems and reviewing why I missed each problem. Don't let practice tests kill your confidence the actual test is definitely EASIER. The day before and day of I just tried to go over reactions, equations, and some biology notes. On test day I arrived 30 min early and quickly reviewed the KBB study sheets which seemed to help. I also drank a 5 hr energy on the ride over to help with focusing and it seemed to do the trick.
BIO:
Just like everyone says it is very random and I actually had a lot of anatomy on my test. On some questions I was unsure of I was able to narrow the answer down to 2 choices and it was pretty much a guess from there. I am assuming this is where I missed a majority of my points. Cliffs AP Bio and Barrons AP Bio are very good for this section. Destroyer was also good information wise. When I went through Destroyer the 2nd time, I just read through the answers instead of answering each question for Bio. I also found this very useful study guide that someone posted on SDN awhile ago. http://www.4shared.com/document/ngP35HKz/DAT_BIO_Review_-_Final_Version.html
Hopefully this link works.
CHEM:
I expected to do a little better on this section since I felt strongest about it going into the test. Destroyer is much harder and than the actual test. I didn't have to do many calculations, just had to set up the problem to be solved. I also didn't use many equations, mostly just ideal gas law. Some questions did resemble those from Destroyer but nothing too hard. I would say more along the lines of Topscore. Other than Destroyer I used KBB and ACS Gen Chem. ACS was a somewhat overkill but it helped for extra practice with sections I was struggling in. KBB is a pretty good review of the material you need to know.
OCHEM:
I did not expect to do this well coming into the test. This was my worst section on my practice tests. Destroyer was awesome for this section, especially the road maps. I made flash cards and tried to go over the reactions at least every other night. The reactions are much simpler than those seen in Destroyer, mostly just one step. Make sure you know SN1, SN2, E1, and E2. I also used KBB and ACS O Chem. KBB was also good for covering all of the material and ACS helped with extra practice. It was also somewhat overkill like the one for G Chem. Kaplan's Organic Chemistry Edge was also good for any material that I was struggling with. It goes much more in depth than KBB. The actual test is again easier than Destroyer and I even found it much easier than Topscore. (The highest I got on Topscore in Ochem was a 16😱)
I also used Crack the Sciences but quit using it after the 5th test after not scoring above a 15 in any section. It is definitely a confidence killer, and goes way to far in depth. I did find the Bio section somewhat useful as a learning aid more than a practice test.
PAT:
CDP was the only resource I used for this section. It will definitely prepare you for everything you will see on the test. I was doing the extra angles, pattern folding, and cube counting daily for awhile but began to cut back to focus more on the sciences. This was a good representation of how I did on the actual test. I think if I would have kept with the practice I would have done a little better especially with the angles. The keyholes on the actual test have much simpler shapes than on CDP, but still are a little tricky. The pattern folding, and cube counting are both easier on the real thing, and angles, pattern folding, and top front end are about the same. I highly recommend CDP.
RC:
I only used a couple of the Crack DAT Reading practice tests and scored in the 20s on all of them. I would say this along with Topscore is a good representation of the real thing. My passages were all science related, but nothing specific to dental. Everything was pretty much just in the passage and I feel that I missed most of my points on questions about the tone and the author's main ideas.
QR:
Destroyer does a good job at representing the types of problems you will see. Also, CDM is good for practice and timing, as is Topscore. I ran out of time on almost every CDM test, due to spending too much time on problems I had trouble with. I found it much better to guess and mark problem that I am unsure of how to solve and come back if I have time left over after doing all the problems I know how to solve. This seemed to yield the highest scores for me.
My GPA is 3.67 and science GPA is 3.62. 100+ hrs shadowing Oral Surgeon, Orthodontist, and General Dentist. 100+ volunteer hours, and also Div. 1 athlete. I am a PA resident and I'm applying mostly to schools in the surrounding area (Pitt, Temple, OSU, Case, Buffalo, etc....) Any other suggestions?
Overall, it was not as bad as I thought it would be and it is a huge relief for it to be over with. I think the key is to not be discouraged by a low practice test score and use it to concentrate on what you are struggling with. 2 days before my test I got 16 on all 3 of the sciences on my last Topscore test. The best thing is to be confident when you go to the testing center and you'll do fine.😎
Also, I am probably going to list most of my study materials on Ebay in the next few weeks so feel free to PM me if you are interested in any of them (nothing has any sort of writing or anything in them):
2010 DAT Destroyer
KBB DAT 7th edition(newest)
Kaplan Organic Chem Edge
Barron's AP Bio
Cliff's AP Bio
ACS Gen Chem and O Chem Study Guides
I also have all of the Exam Krackers MCAT Study Guides
QR 20 (94)
RC 24 (94)
BIO 19 (76.6)
GC 18 (62.2)
OC 23 (94.4)
TS 20 (85.2)
AA 21 (93.4)
Overall I am pretty happy with my scores. I'm just glad to finally be done with studying for awhile. 😀 I studied for almost 2 months beginning in May. I started off going for about 2-4 hours a day usually taking a day off each week for the first month. Once June came around I tried to get up to around 6 hrs a day, some days only getting 2-3 hrs, depending on if I felt burnt out or not (after working landscaping 7am-1pm M-F some days I couldn't bring myself to study more than a few hours). I definitely think its important to give yourself a break especially if you don't think your retaining anything. The last 2 weeks I tried to dedicate most of my time to practice problems and reviewing why I missed each problem. Don't let practice tests kill your confidence the actual test is definitely EASIER. The day before and day of I just tried to go over reactions, equations, and some biology notes. On test day I arrived 30 min early and quickly reviewed the KBB study sheets which seemed to help. I also drank a 5 hr energy on the ride over to help with focusing and it seemed to do the trick.
BIO:
Just like everyone says it is very random and I actually had a lot of anatomy on my test. On some questions I was unsure of I was able to narrow the answer down to 2 choices and it was pretty much a guess from there. I am assuming this is where I missed a majority of my points. Cliffs AP Bio and Barrons AP Bio are very good for this section. Destroyer was also good information wise. When I went through Destroyer the 2nd time, I just read through the answers instead of answering each question for Bio. I also found this very useful study guide that someone posted on SDN awhile ago. http://www.4shared.com/document/ngP35HKz/DAT_BIO_Review_-_Final_Version.html
Hopefully this link works.
CHEM:
I expected to do a little better on this section since I felt strongest about it going into the test. Destroyer is much harder and than the actual test. I didn't have to do many calculations, just had to set up the problem to be solved. I also didn't use many equations, mostly just ideal gas law. Some questions did resemble those from Destroyer but nothing too hard. I would say more along the lines of Topscore. Other than Destroyer I used KBB and ACS Gen Chem. ACS was a somewhat overkill but it helped for extra practice with sections I was struggling in. KBB is a pretty good review of the material you need to know.
OCHEM:
I did not expect to do this well coming into the test. This was my worst section on my practice tests. Destroyer was awesome for this section, especially the road maps. I made flash cards and tried to go over the reactions at least every other night. The reactions are much simpler than those seen in Destroyer, mostly just one step. Make sure you know SN1, SN2, E1, and E2. I also used KBB and ACS O Chem. KBB was also good for covering all of the material and ACS helped with extra practice. It was also somewhat overkill like the one for G Chem. Kaplan's Organic Chemistry Edge was also good for any material that I was struggling with. It goes much more in depth than KBB. The actual test is again easier than Destroyer and I even found it much easier than Topscore. (The highest I got on Topscore in Ochem was a 16😱)
I also used Crack the Sciences but quit using it after the 5th test after not scoring above a 15 in any section. It is definitely a confidence killer, and goes way to far in depth. I did find the Bio section somewhat useful as a learning aid more than a practice test.
PAT:
CDP was the only resource I used for this section. It will definitely prepare you for everything you will see on the test. I was doing the extra angles, pattern folding, and cube counting daily for awhile but began to cut back to focus more on the sciences. This was a good representation of how I did on the actual test. I think if I would have kept with the practice I would have done a little better especially with the angles. The keyholes on the actual test have much simpler shapes than on CDP, but still are a little tricky. The pattern folding, and cube counting are both easier on the real thing, and angles, pattern folding, and top front end are about the same. I highly recommend CDP.
RC:
I only used a couple of the Crack DAT Reading practice tests and scored in the 20s on all of them. I would say this along with Topscore is a good representation of the real thing. My passages were all science related, but nothing specific to dental. Everything was pretty much just in the passage and I feel that I missed most of my points on questions about the tone and the author's main ideas.
QR:
Destroyer does a good job at representing the types of problems you will see. Also, CDM is good for practice and timing, as is Topscore. I ran out of time on almost every CDM test, due to spending too much time on problems I had trouble with. I found it much better to guess and mark problem that I am unsure of how to solve and come back if I have time left over after doing all the problems I know how to solve. This seemed to yield the highest scores for me.
My GPA is 3.67 and science GPA is 3.62. 100+ hrs shadowing Oral Surgeon, Orthodontist, and General Dentist. 100+ volunteer hours, and also Div. 1 athlete. I am a PA resident and I'm applying mostly to schools in the surrounding area (Pitt, Temple, OSU, Case, Buffalo, etc....) Any other suggestions?
Overall, it was not as bad as I thought it would be and it is a huge relief for it to be over with. I think the key is to not be discouraged by a low practice test score and use it to concentrate on what you are struggling with. 2 days before my test I got 16 on all 3 of the sciences on my last Topscore test. The best thing is to be confident when you go to the testing center and you'll do fine.😎
Also, I am probably going to list most of my study materials on Ebay in the next few weeks so feel free to PM me if you are interested in any of them (nothing has any sort of writing or anything in them):
2010 DAT Destroyer
KBB DAT 7th edition(newest)
Kaplan Organic Chem Edge
Barron's AP Bio
Cliff's AP Bio
ACS Gen Chem and O Chem Study Guides
I also have all of the Exam Krackers MCAT Study Guides
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