OK, to start off, I'd like to tell everyone who has yet to take the DAT that it is not as bad as you think. It was tough, but it wasn't as bad as most of the practice test I took.
I only decided to apply to dental school at the beginning of this summer. I originally was going to wait another year, but after I figured out I could graduate this upcoming year, I decided to go ahead and apply. The only problem: I would have to take 14 hours over the summer. I didn't know much about the DAT then and went ahead and applied and signed up for the classes.
The more I read here, the more I was worried since I was in class all day up until the August 10th and the fall semester started August 20th. Logically I decided to take it the 19th, leaving only about 10 days to study. On the weekends prior to summer school ending, I got on SDn and read up on study material, so I had it all ordered and ready. I tried studying some before summer school was over, but since I was taking Physics all day and business at night, it was really hard. Another problem was that I only have the first semester of Organic. I go to a small school, so scheduling problems prevented me from taking it until this year (it's a long story).
Good news is that my state dent school has lower average DAT scores (TS: 18 AA: 19 PA: 19), so if I could just pull these off I would be OK. Well reading this forum was probably the best and worst thing I could have done. It helped by knowing to what prepare with, but it hurt hearing all the people talk about how you need months to study in order to do well.
Well anyway, my scores aren't spectacular, but considering I had 10 days to prepare, I'll take them and run.
The scores:
Bio: 18 (64.6%)
GC: 19 (73.0%)
OC: 18 (62.6%)
RC: 20 (72.4%)
PA: 20 (85.4%)
QR: 21 (93.3%)
TS: 18 (63.8%)
AA: 19 (77.2%)
I have a 3.65 and 3.55 for GPA and S-GPA respectively. Shadowing experience, military, volunteer, lab work, etc.
Breakdown:
Materials: I used Destroyer for Biology, but didn't have time to make it through the OC or GC sections. I also used Kaplan BB and Cliffs AP for Bio. For OChem, I used my textbook and part of the Odyssey book, focusing on the second semester stuff. I briefly went over equations for GC from Kaplan BB and Cliffs online. I used 3 of the 5 tests of Crack for PAT. I didn't study QR or RC at all.
The problem I had with studying was time. I tried making it through everything quickly while still retaining most of the information, but it was challenging. It kind of sucks that I didn't even get through half of the study material which cost an arm and a leg.
Bio: Random, not as bad as I thought, some of the questions were asked very weird, not like anything I had seen in practice tests. I was most scared of this section and while my score isn't great, it is what I needed.
GC: I thought I was going to nail this section. I had like a 98 in both semesters of GC and thought I would get 22-25 on this section and hopefully make up for shortcomings in BIO and GC--I didn't 🙄. The questions weren't that bad, but there were a few I had never seen before, which is odd; I guess we didn't cover it in my class. Not as easy as I thought it was going to be, but not bad either.
OC: Very straight forward. I've only had one semester of it and what I was able to pick up in the last week. Stereochemistry, not too many obscure reactions, not as bad as I thought. Had several spectroscopy questions, which I didn't study at all. I just made educated guesses on those. Again, not a great score on my end, but it is what I needed.
QR: Fairly easy; just be quick! Skip ones you don't know, even if you know how to do them, but it is going to take a while. Also, look at the answer choices; sometimes, you can get the right answer by eliminating all the wrong ones.
RC: Not too bad. Before I read, I just went to the first question, read it and started skimming, once I got to that answer, I repeated... Unfortunately, the second question on the second passage asked about something in the last paragraph....ugh!! I got the piano passage, which wasn't too bad. The others were on aspirin and cell communication. I worked fast and had time to go through a couple I marked.
PA: Overall, it was easier than Crack, other than the TFE and angles. For some reason they were really hard. The TFE had so many dotted lines, it was hard to know what was going on most of the time. The angles--I am not exaggerating--felt like they were 1 degrees different. It was really crazy. The blocks was much easier than Crack. Everything else was easier or about the same.
This is a long post; sorry for that. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll answer them, as long as it's not cheating. The take home lesson for me: don't always believe the hype. You can do moderately well without months of studying. I wish I could have gotten in the 20's in the sciences, but if my state school likes my scores, I'm good with them.
A side question: I only applied to my state school since I didn't know if I would do well on the DAT and the dentist I shadow graduated from there (MUSC). I didn't want to pay all that money and then do bad and it all be a waste. I think I can add more schools now; should I bother? I'm not sure I would be competitive at private schools. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, but at my state school I am competing with 150 people for 50 spots, while at private schools, there would be a lot more competition. Also, given the choice, I would choose my state school anyway. What do you guys think I should do? Also, any recommendations as far as school choices?
I only decided to apply to dental school at the beginning of this summer. I originally was going to wait another year, but after I figured out I could graduate this upcoming year, I decided to go ahead and apply. The only problem: I would have to take 14 hours over the summer. I didn't know much about the DAT then and went ahead and applied and signed up for the classes.
The more I read here, the more I was worried since I was in class all day up until the August 10th and the fall semester started August 20th. Logically I decided to take it the 19th, leaving only about 10 days to study. On the weekends prior to summer school ending, I got on SDn and read up on study material, so I had it all ordered and ready. I tried studying some before summer school was over, but since I was taking Physics all day and business at night, it was really hard. Another problem was that I only have the first semester of Organic. I go to a small school, so scheduling problems prevented me from taking it until this year (it's a long story).
Good news is that my state dent school has lower average DAT scores (TS: 18 AA: 19 PA: 19), so if I could just pull these off I would be OK. Well reading this forum was probably the best and worst thing I could have done. It helped by knowing to what prepare with, but it hurt hearing all the people talk about how you need months to study in order to do well.
Well anyway, my scores aren't spectacular, but considering I had 10 days to prepare, I'll take them and run.
The scores:
Bio: 18 (64.6%)
GC: 19 (73.0%)
OC: 18 (62.6%)
RC: 20 (72.4%)
PA: 20 (85.4%)
QR: 21 (93.3%)
TS: 18 (63.8%)
AA: 19 (77.2%)
I have a 3.65 and 3.55 for GPA and S-GPA respectively. Shadowing experience, military, volunteer, lab work, etc.
Breakdown:
Materials: I used Destroyer for Biology, but didn't have time to make it through the OC or GC sections. I also used Kaplan BB and Cliffs AP for Bio. For OChem, I used my textbook and part of the Odyssey book, focusing on the second semester stuff. I briefly went over equations for GC from Kaplan BB and Cliffs online. I used 3 of the 5 tests of Crack for PAT. I didn't study QR or RC at all.
The problem I had with studying was time. I tried making it through everything quickly while still retaining most of the information, but it was challenging. It kind of sucks that I didn't even get through half of the study material which cost an arm and a leg.
Bio: Random, not as bad as I thought, some of the questions were asked very weird, not like anything I had seen in practice tests. I was most scared of this section and while my score isn't great, it is what I needed.
GC: I thought I was going to nail this section. I had like a 98 in both semesters of GC and thought I would get 22-25 on this section and hopefully make up for shortcomings in BIO and GC--I didn't 🙄. The questions weren't that bad, but there were a few I had never seen before, which is odd; I guess we didn't cover it in my class. Not as easy as I thought it was going to be, but not bad either.
OC: Very straight forward. I've only had one semester of it and what I was able to pick up in the last week. Stereochemistry, not too many obscure reactions, not as bad as I thought. Had several spectroscopy questions, which I didn't study at all. I just made educated guesses on those. Again, not a great score on my end, but it is what I needed.
QR: Fairly easy; just be quick! Skip ones you don't know, even if you know how to do them, but it is going to take a while. Also, look at the answer choices; sometimes, you can get the right answer by eliminating all the wrong ones.
RC: Not too bad. Before I read, I just went to the first question, read it and started skimming, once I got to that answer, I repeated... Unfortunately, the second question on the second passage asked about something in the last paragraph....ugh!! I got the piano passage, which wasn't too bad. The others were on aspirin and cell communication. I worked fast and had time to go through a couple I marked.
PA: Overall, it was easier than Crack, other than the TFE and angles. For some reason they were really hard. The TFE had so many dotted lines, it was hard to know what was going on most of the time. The angles--I am not exaggerating--felt like they were 1 degrees different. It was really crazy. The blocks was much easier than Crack. Everything else was easier or about the same.
This is a long post; sorry for that. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll answer them, as long as it's not cheating. The take home lesson for me: don't always believe the hype. You can do moderately well without months of studying. I wish I could have gotten in the 20's in the sciences, but if my state school likes my scores, I'm good with them.
A side question: I only applied to my state school since I didn't know if I would do well on the DAT and the dentist I shadow graduated from there (MUSC). I didn't want to pay all that money and then do bad and it all be a waste. I think I can add more schools now; should I bother? I'm not sure I would be competitive at private schools. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket, but at my state school I am competing with 150 people for 50 spots, while at private schools, there would be a lot more competition. Also, given the choice, I would choose my state school anyway. What do you guys think I should do? Also, any recommendations as far as school choices?
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