DAT done, 7/28/2009

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researchlove

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please give honest opinions about this.. i already submitted AADSAS application before the test, (i didn't want to wait another year) and it seems like it'll be too late to re-take the exam in october..

PA: 21 (93.0%)
QR: 17 (63.2%)
RC: 18 (38.1%)
BIO: 18 (61.9%)
GC: 19 (70.7%)
OC: 20 (79.2%)

TS: 19 (73.6%)
AA: 18 (60.7%)


do you think i have a shot at tufts/nyu/nova?? it does fall into their average category.. my GPA lies within their range also.. do you think i need to re-take it??
 
please give honest opinions about this.. i already submitted AADSAS application before the test, (i didn't want to wait another year) and it seems like it'll be too late to re-take the exam in october..

PA: 21 (93.0%)
QR: 17 (63.2%)
RC: 18 (38.1%)
BIO: 18 (61.9%)
GC: 19 (70.7%)
OC: 20 (79.2%)

TS: 19 (73.6%)
AA: 18 (60.7%)


do you think i have a shot at tufts/nyu/nova?? it does fall into their average category.. my GPA lies within their range also.. do you think i need to re-take it??
How are your ECs?
Do you have an early application?
Which state are you from?

 
i have 200+ hrs volunteer hours in a dental office, 500+ hrs of research experience (two papers published). national honor society, pre-dental society, leadership position in one of the student associations.

i currently work in a cancer research lab (clinical research) -- i tend to engage in research while in dental school. i've noted that on my personal statement also.

i feel like this is about the same as most people's extracurricular activities.. i mean would i at least get an interview? b/c i heard GPA and DAT score are the only things they look at before inviting you to an interview..


oh and i'm from washington state, but i'm not a resident in any of the states.. (but am a citizen)
 
i have 200+ hrs volunteer hours in a dental office, 500+ hrs of research experience (two papers published). national honor society, pre-dental society, leadership position in one of the student associations.

i currently work in a cancer research lab (clinical research) -- i tend to engage in research while in dental school. i've noted that on my personal statement also.

i feel like this is about the same as most people's extracurricular activities.. i mean would i at least get an interview? b/c i heard GPA and DAT score are the only things they look at before inviting you to an interview..


oh and i'm from washington state, but i'm not a resident in any of the states.. (but am a citizen)
IMO you have a chance of getting interviews at NYU and NOVA, considering the fact that you have great ECs. I'm not familiar with Tuft.
Best of luck to you!
 
Sure,

BIO: Kaplan review notes, DAT Destroyer, and AP Bio (Princeton review 02-03 edition, i had it with me.. took AP bio during junior year of my high school), TopScore, and Barron's (this one sucks, especially because the full-length tests had several errors). i actually saw Cliff's AP Bio and i seriously wished that i had taken a look at it before the exam. way more detailed and i actually saw one of the questions that i got on there. plus, some questions from DAT destroyer popped also. maybe like two.. out of 300 something questions on there. but definitely do look over Cliff's AP Bio. BUT IT IS RANDOM like what others said.. i remember that there were few questions regarding some proteins that i haven't even heard of.. but don't really go much into detail. i got two endocrinology problems, and maybe like two or three ecology. TopScore tends to have these weird classes that they ask, but I didn't get ANY taxonomy problem. as i said, it is RANDOM.

Gchem: Kaplan review notes, Destroyer, TopScore, and Barron's. Barron's (review) was actually better than Kaplan because they explained it well enough in a very concise way. but you definitely want to look at Kaplan for the origination of certain equations that you need to memorize. Destroyer was just bunch of calculations and yes, just like what others said Destroyer is a bit more than the actual test. but it does prepare you well-enough. for me, i sometimes went back to my gchem txtbook (from school) to try to understand the concept. this actually helped A LOT. I would say the level and the amount of calculation you do is around the same as TopScore questions.

Ochem: Kaplan, TopScore, Destroyer, Barron's (practice test). I actually thought I was gonna do way better because I've been getting 23-25 on my practice tests. I think at some point I made stupid mistakes. Got 1 IR spec problem and 1 HNMR. they were pretty straight forward, but make sure you know more than just C=O and -OH for the IR. it's not THAT straight-forward. Destroyer Road map helps!! actually DESTROYER IS A MUST FOR OCHEM, but kaplan review notes help too.. just understanding how stuff works, but if you were to memorize the rxns, destroyer is the best help.


PAT: Kaplan, and TopScore, and Barron's (Practice Test). I honestly never took the time to try to study for this.. i've been doing practice tests just to see where I stand and I always got over 20 so I wasn't really worried about it. but the actual test did seem harder than the practice ones.. practice test I got 24-25. Key-hole was about the same (compared to TopScore), Top-Front-End was harder, Angle was pretty easy, Hole-Punching was about the same (maybe like two to three questions were a little harder.. some crazy folds..), cube counting was about the same (but for one of the figures, i had to count twice because the way it was stacked looked reallly confusing), pattern folding was harder than TopScore.

QR: NOT ENOUGH TIME. i freaked out after i've seen all the posts with like 14-15.. and saying how it was just too hard. I AGREE. i had multiple crazy trigonometry questions and i think most of my questions.. more than half were word problems. i literally had to guess like 8 questions.. I used TopScore, Kaplan, Barrons(practice test), and Destroyer. Destroyer helped the most I think because it had multiple word problems near the end. just be prepared for trig problems (graphs) because even destroyer problems don't really cover that part. I got like 23 on Barron's.. so I wouldn't recommend it. I had like 5 mins left even after the practice, but the real test is wayy harder.. at least mine was.

RC: I got floating bridge, which was my first passage. after the 15 min break I was just out of it and this one person right behind me started making weird noses .. and the testing center ppl didn't say anything. what they did was provide us with ear plugs.. and for like 30 mins it kept going on and everyone started staring at the same direction. DIDN'T STUDY FOR THIS.. I just didn't know how =( two other passages were science -- epidemiology and neuroanatomy. I've only taken TopScore to see where I stand, I got like 21.. actual test was not as straight-forward. "search-and-destroy" wasn't so helpful for me.
 
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please give honest opinions about this.. i already submitted AADSAS application before the test, (i didn't want to wait another year) and it seems like it'll be too late to re-take the exam in october..

PA: 21 (93.0%)
QR: 17 (63.2%)
RC: 18 (38.1%)
BIO: 18 (61.9%)
GC: 19 (70.7%)
OC: 20 (79.2%)

TS: 19 (73.6%)
AA: 18 (60.7%)


do you think i have a shot at tufts/nyu/nova?? it does fall into their average category.. my GPA lies within their range also.. do you think i need to re-take it??

I don't think that falls into their average category since NYU had a 20AA last year followed by 19.33 for nova and 19 for tufts. With your ECs I'd say if you have a 3.6+ GPA you would have a good shot considering your DATs are evenly distributed. Anything below that is iffy.
 
I think you will be OK with those scores at a private school if your GPA is 3.5 or better.
 
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