As first, I studied for about the last 7 weeks, about 14 hours a day and my scores are as following:
PAT: 22 (93.4%)
QR: 19 (91.2%)
RC: 19 (52.2%)
BIO: 20 (88.0%)
GCHEM: 24 (97.7%)
OCHEM: 23 (94.4%)
TS: 22 (95.6%)
AA: 21 (93.4%)
GPA:3.5 GPA Science: 3.4
I once read a post where someone asked why it seams that everyone on here scores above a twenty, and I have to say that if you do what those who where successful do, you will get the score that you need/want to get yourself into dental school.
Also for those of you who are freaking out, I promise you that anyone can do well on the DAT. The DAT really is 20% how smart you are, and 80% how well you prepare for the exam. I am an example where I prepared well and got a great score. Keep working hard and I promise you that you too can achieve a great score!
Study Materials:
KBB: Just about worthless outside of being a good introduction to biology
Schaums Biology: Is a little overkill, but a great resource to shore up areas that are weak after taking practice DAT's.
DAT Destroyer: A MUST HAVE, as others say, I had questions that where near word for word out of this book!
DAT Math Destroyer: A little over kill sometimes, only took the first 6 tests, but great to get timing down which is key to success in this area.
Chads Videos (General Chem, Organic Chem): THE ONE RESOURCE THAT YOU MUST INVEST IN NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT CHEMISTRY!!!! I can not speak enough about how good Chad is. Chad even responds to your messages, worth 5 times the 50 dollars it cost.
Bruice Organic Chemistry 5th edition: I highly recommend this as an addition to get a lot of extra practice to solidify how the mechanisms and reactions precede.
Crack the DAT PAT: Such a great resource to study for PAT really accurate on what you will really get on the DAT.
Achiever: Way overkill, almost near impossible! I bought the 5 test package, and the last two tests are just ridiculousness. Though I have to say that their PAT is really good, and the biology really gets you to know the material. My scores for the first 3 tests are as following:
Test #: AA/BIO/GC/OC/QR/PAT
Test 1: 17/14/23/15/16/17
Test 2: 16/15/15/14/17/18
Test 3: 15/14/17/16/15/17
So do not let your score on Achiever kill your pride, you can, and will improve your scores upon Achiever the DAT does not try to lead you astray like Achiever does.
Topscore: A good product that is similar to the real test, I recommend it though I agree with others, it does have flaws in how it shows answers. Unfortunately I deleted all my original test scores so that I could take them again before my DAT, but I averaged about an 18/19.
Week before my DAT (Recommendations for Others):
I have to say that the best thing that I did before taking my DAT, as recommended by some other reviews, was that I went through the entire DAT Destroyer, retook all my tests from Achiever, Topscore, and the Chad Quizzes. It probably was the difference for how well that I did on the actual DAT.
PAT: As I said, use Crack PAT, and you will not have any problem in this section.
QR: Was just like destroyer, timing is key and my strategy was to just skip problems that looked long and drawn out which seemed to be the best strategy for most people on SDN.
RC: WOW, I can not believe that I did this poorly in this section. I was scared from how I did on the Achiever reading sections and not scoring well, and it turned out that when they say you either have it or you don't, they are right. My recommendation is to start reading science articles using Google Scholar if you are struggling, but there really doesn't seem to by any definite answer to how to improve in this section.
Biology: I was really scared that there would be a lot of questions about hormones, etc. but as others have stated, it is really random and nothing like any practice test that you will take. Not that all those practice tests are worthless, but the answers are much more straight forward, and you either know it or you don't. I changed almost 4 answers at the end, and it did not seem to hurt me too much.
General Chemistry: Chad, Chad, Chad, and destroyer are the only things that you need. Though I was surprised at how random the chemistry section was. I felt that they really have some peculiar questions, but again Chad gives you enough of a background that you can figure the questions out.
Organic Chemistry: I really did not feel that I knew the information as well as I wanted, but overall it was much easier than any of the practice tests that I had taken. The questions where much easier to figure out the answers almost jumped out for some problems as they were not all that tricky. Again Chad, Chad, Chad, and destroyer are great, but I also enjoyed the text book as an addition for learning reactions.
I hope this helps out those of you that are looking to get a great score, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
PAT: 22 (93.4%)
QR: 19 (91.2%)
RC: 19 (52.2%)
BIO: 20 (88.0%)
GCHEM: 24 (97.7%)
OCHEM: 23 (94.4%)
TS: 22 (95.6%)
AA: 21 (93.4%)
GPA:3.5 GPA Science: 3.4
I once read a post where someone asked why it seams that everyone on here scores above a twenty, and I have to say that if you do what those who where successful do, you will get the score that you need/want to get yourself into dental school.
Also for those of you who are freaking out, I promise you that anyone can do well on the DAT. The DAT really is 20% how smart you are, and 80% how well you prepare for the exam. I am an example where I prepared well and got a great score. Keep working hard and I promise you that you too can achieve a great score!
Study Materials:
KBB: Just about worthless outside of being a good introduction to biology
Schaums Biology: Is a little overkill, but a great resource to shore up areas that are weak after taking practice DAT's.
DAT Destroyer: A MUST HAVE, as others say, I had questions that where near word for word out of this book!
DAT Math Destroyer: A little over kill sometimes, only took the first 6 tests, but great to get timing down which is key to success in this area.
Chads Videos (General Chem, Organic Chem): THE ONE RESOURCE THAT YOU MUST INVEST IN NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE AT CHEMISTRY!!!! I can not speak enough about how good Chad is. Chad even responds to your messages, worth 5 times the 50 dollars it cost.
Bruice Organic Chemistry 5th edition: I highly recommend this as an addition to get a lot of extra practice to solidify how the mechanisms and reactions precede.
Crack the DAT PAT: Such a great resource to study for PAT really accurate on what you will really get on the DAT.
Achiever: Way overkill, almost near impossible! I bought the 5 test package, and the last two tests are just ridiculousness. Though I have to say that their PAT is really good, and the biology really gets you to know the material. My scores for the first 3 tests are as following:
Test #: AA/BIO/GC/OC/QR/PAT
Test 1: 17/14/23/15/16/17
Test 2: 16/15/15/14/17/18
Test 3: 15/14/17/16/15/17
So do not let your score on Achiever kill your pride, you can, and will improve your scores upon Achiever the DAT does not try to lead you astray like Achiever does.
Topscore: A good product that is similar to the real test, I recommend it though I agree with others, it does have flaws in how it shows answers. Unfortunately I deleted all my original test scores so that I could take them again before my DAT, but I averaged about an 18/19.
Week before my DAT (Recommendations for Others):
I have to say that the best thing that I did before taking my DAT, as recommended by some other reviews, was that I went through the entire DAT Destroyer, retook all my tests from Achiever, Topscore, and the Chad Quizzes. It probably was the difference for how well that I did on the actual DAT.
PAT: As I said, use Crack PAT, and you will not have any problem in this section.
QR: Was just like destroyer, timing is key and my strategy was to just skip problems that looked long and drawn out which seemed to be the best strategy for most people on SDN.
RC: WOW, I can not believe that I did this poorly in this section. I was scared from how I did on the Achiever reading sections and not scoring well, and it turned out that when they say you either have it or you don't, they are right. My recommendation is to start reading science articles using Google Scholar if you are struggling, but there really doesn't seem to by any definite answer to how to improve in this section.
Biology: I was really scared that there would be a lot of questions about hormones, etc. but as others have stated, it is really random and nothing like any practice test that you will take. Not that all those practice tests are worthless, but the answers are much more straight forward, and you either know it or you don't. I changed almost 4 answers at the end, and it did not seem to hurt me too much.
General Chemistry: Chad, Chad, Chad, and destroyer are the only things that you need. Though I was surprised at how random the chemistry section was. I felt that they really have some peculiar questions, but again Chad gives you enough of a background that you can figure the questions out.
Organic Chemistry: I really did not feel that I knew the information as well as I wanted, but overall it was much easier than any of the practice tests that I had taken. The questions where much easier to figure out the answers almost jumped out for some problems as they were not all that tricky. Again Chad, Chad, Chad, and destroyer are great, but I also enjoyed the text book as an addition for learning reactions.
I hope this helps out those of you that are looking to get a great score, and feel free to PM me if you have any questions!
