DAT Done (Again)!!

[Chemboy23]

So, I retook my DAT again in Goodyear, AZ and I will try my best to post a complete breakdown tomorrow, my brain is pounding. I feel like I did much better this time around. I've already interviewed at Loma Linda (I'm SDA)...and I'm still waiting to hear back from the schools which I will list below.

Last Time:

AA-17
TS-17
PAT-17

BIO-18
GC-16
OC-20
RC-17
QR-16

This Time:

AA-19
TS-20
PAT-16

BIO-18
GC-24
OC-21
RC-17
QR-15

GPA: 3.46
sGPA: 3.38

Schools I'm applying to:
-Western
-Loma Linda
-Tennessee
-UNLV
-Mississippi (my home state school)
-USN-South Jordan
-ASDOH
-Midwestern (AZ)

So, I am most upset with my PAT and QR scores. I studied these sections the most for the retake...and obviously it didn't matter. I was making consistent 20s on CDP, don't know what really went wrong. Also, I studied the Math Destroyer nonstop for the past three weeks or so...don't know what happened here either. I had like 3 mins to go and about 10 questions I had yet to answer fully...time killed me. It's literally impossible to finish the type of questions I had in that amount of time. I had a lot of f(x), g(x) types that had complex fractions with sq roots in them and such....ugghhhh...I thought math was a good subject for me.

I am happy with the rest of my scores, although I haven't the slightest as to which questions I missed in the RC section. I felt really good about it, and really bad about OC...but my scores are flipped haha...oh well.

Good luck to all that are taking it soon! I will post a full breakdown and list some DAT study materials I plan on selling tomorrow. Good night SDN fam

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[Chemboy23]

Breakdown

Biology (18) - I made this same score the last time I took it. Anyone who makes over 20 on Bio, I have mad respect for. The Biology isn't hard, but like someone else said it's worded weird. The first question I had was some crazy looking graph with a bunch of letters asking me to pick a translation sequence or something. It wasn't too bad, but there were 3 or 4 that were most definitely "educated guessers" lol.

Study Materials: Went through DAT Destroyer Bio 2x, Cliff's AP 2x, KBB 2x

General Chemistry (24) - Wow! I tutored this for four years at a CC and the last time I took the DAT, I did awful in this section. This is the section I am proudest of because I made a 16 on the last one. This shows you how random the questions are (an 8 point difference). They gave me a lot of gas law questions, so make sure you know how to flip the fraction when multiplying out (if this makes since)...sort of like a complex fraction where the numerator of the bottom one becomes the denominator when you multiply out. They set the numbers up for you, so no need in calculating anything. On the last one I had a lot of conceptual problems that I couldn't even understand what the question was...very weird.

Study Materials: DAT Destroyer 3x, Chad's Videos 2x (they're good but I don't see what the mad rave about them is...I get bored very easily, so they didn't work well for me haha)

Organic Chemistry (21) - this one was a shocker to me. I did very well on my last one (IMO) and I was underestimating OChem for this one. I sort of put it on the side burner and while I was taking the OC section...I felt like I knew none of what they were asking. I made some educated guesses on a lot of them...guess I got lucky. I thought I would be lucky to get out of there with a 18 or 19 lol. But, I'll take it

Study Materials: DAT Destroyer 3x, Chad's 1x...pay special attention to the road maps in the Destroyer...they're awesome. On my last test, there were probably 10-12 questions that were off the road maps. On this one, I didn't see one rxn from road maps. I guess it's just the chances you take...but I would definitely study them again if I were to retake.

PAT (16) - This section hurts me the most of all. I was killing CDP (20-22) and did this poorly. The keyholes, TFE, and Pattern Folding were a lot harder in my opinion. I've always sucked with Hole Punching, so I didn't expect to do exceptionally well here. Angles were pretty hard too, they were on par with CDP. Cubes were fewer in quantity, but arranged a little weird...where you couldn't see behind the front ones to count the ones in the back...but this section wasn't TOO bad either. The hardest section was TFE...I was getting 14-15/15 of these right on CDP every time...and I would be amazed if I got 7 of them right on the real DAT.

Study Materials: CDP, Acheiver, Topscore

Reading Comprehension (17) - Don't know what went wrong. I thought I made sure the answers matched the question for the majority of them. I had a lot of tone questions this time, so maybe that's what happened. I never can figure out what some of the descriptive words they use mean. My three sections were: NMDA/AMPA receptors, Genes and Cancer, and How exercise benefits physical and mental health...I got pianoed last time and got a 17 haha. I'm a little upset about this section, but it will be ok I guess.

QR (15) - Another one that was very low. I don't really know how I got this many wrong in this section. I though I would miss, at most, 4 or 5. This section is ridiculous to begin with because there's no where near enough time to finish it. I had 10 mins left and about 7 questions left to answer plus a couple I had marked. The types of questions they give you take WAY longer than one minute per problem to solve. Solving them isn't my problem...it was the time. Make sure you work on time with this section.

Study Materials: Math Destroyer, didn't use it for the last one...guess I should have bought the thing for this one either haha. I felt way more prepared than my score indicates here.

AA-19
TS-20

Well, hopefully I get in somewhere. My wife and I are dreaming about getting in at MS because it's so cheap and we will not be in a mountain of debt when we get out. Also, I interviewed at Loma Linda and loved it there, I'm SDA...and the school was really nice. I would love to go here too. I don't care where, I just want to get in somewhere...so nervous. Anyways, I hope you all are doing very well and I want to be among the first to wish everyone a Happy Holidays!!!

Best Regards,

-Scott

 

[glo1984]

I am glad to see you made some great improvements! Could you put the actual percentiles next to the score as well. In any additional interviews, be prepared to address the same RC score as well as why you dropped in PAT/QR although we all know most school care less about QR.

Schools will continually tell you that it's about the total package. The grades, the DAT, the experience and the overall vibe from the interview. You definitely made your DAT scores far more competitive so congrats!

 

[Chemboy23]

glo1984 thanks a lot...I was upset about the reading score. I guess I can't read or something...I considered myself to be an avid reader before that test. Oh well, I'm happy I brought my scores up at least...from what I hear the AA and TS are the most important. I know PAT is very important too...would you suggest I retake? I'm scared to do that because lord knows what scores I'd get this time.

 

[duckdds]

Good work Chemboy, a great improvement.

Your PAT score is kinda low, but I am not sure if it is low enough for you to retake. I would call schools and ask them what you should do.

 

[Chemboy23]

Hey duckdds...thanks a lot man. Yeah, I really want to steer away from a retake at this point. I've had about all I can take of the DAT lol...My home school in MS actually averages about 16-17 in the PAT testing and that's one of my top choices. So, hopefully it will be ok. I was concerned about it as well, I wish I had at least made an 18 or so. But, from my last test...this is a great improvement like you said

 

[Chemboy23]

Thanks mein kampf

 

[molar3]

Congratulations!
I know you've been worrying about this for a while as ive seen you on forums since the summer stressing about this 2nd exam. Im glad you did well.
I have very similar PAT and qr scores as you, i got a 17 and a 16. (AA was 20 and 20 TS) My sGpa is much lower than yours tho its a 2.7 and a cum of 3.3 , i've gotten no interviews (FML). I hope that you can get in this cycle though even though your dat may have been considered a bit late, but w/e you still have a shot. Goodluck and congrats, your hard work seems to have paid off.

Also i have no idea how to raise my PAT score either!!!!!! I HATE tfe, like i could stare at it all day and never understand it, same with some of the pattern folding stuff (especially with the shaded figures and the dice, wtf?!!!!!) but i'm hoping to SOMEHOW raise my PAT score my 2nd time around. ugh

 

[Chemboy23]

Congratulations!
I know you've been worrying about this for a while as ive seen you on forums since the summer stressing about this 2nd exam. Im glad you did well.
I have very similar PAT and qr scores as you, i got a 17 and a 16. (AA was 20 and 20 TS) My sGpa is much lower than yours tho its a 2.7 and a cum of 3.3 , i've gotten no interviews (FML). I hope that you can get in this cycle though even though your dat may have been considered a bit late, but w/e you still have a shot. Goodluck and congrats, your hard work seems to have paid off.

Also i have no idea how to raise my PAT score either!!!!!! I HATE tfe, like i could stare at it all day and never understand it, same with some of the pattern folding stuff (especially with the shaded figures and the dice, wtf?!!!!!) but i'm hoping to SOMEHOW raise my PAT score my 2nd time around. ugh

Haha, yeah I actually was a little nervous about the PAT and RC sections...also I applied at USN and their page says they will not accept ANY score under 16, which seems funny. If all other schools care less what you make on QR...it seems funny that a brand new school would be more picky. But oh well, I guess I can mark that one off my list.

With PAT, I have no idea what to tell you. My PAT test was ridiculously hard...the TFEs would have taken ten minutes to figure one of them out, seriously. I was smoking the CDP TFE...but that was some crazy stuff on the real DAT. I thought the keyholes were a lot more difficult as well. Just the types of shapes they gave me were very odd. I suck the worst with hole punching, I never could get that down pat. The pattern folding on mine (both of them) seemed to be very straight forward. I know I missed mine in TFE and keyholes. I like keyholes too...but those were crazy.

What's crazy is I studied QR and PAT for the retake (about 90% of my studying)...and I did the worst in those sections. The DAT is all about luck, I don't care what anyone says. For example, on my last test I must have had 10 questions on random ecology that I'd never heard of...on this one, NONE. LOL!!! As long as it gets me into dental school...I don't care what my scores are though. I'm hoping to get into Loma Linda...but they like high PAT scores...so I don't know how much they'll compromise on this. I know one thing...I really really really don't want to retake, it's getting too costly and I'm all out of motivation for this thing. I barely could push myself to re-study for this one. Best of luck to you!

 

[NewBee12]

Congratulations Chemboy
Great improvement

 

[Chemboy23]

Congratulations Chemboy
Great improvement

Hey thanks newbee...

 

[hoylematt]

Hey I was excited to see how much better you did this time around. It's tough man to see a 16 on the PAT, hopefully that won't hold you back.

Funny story about the PAT: So when I first opened a review book about the PAT it was like 3 weeks before the first time I took the test. I went through all the introductions and decided I would just take the first CDP test to see where I was at with my "Natural Intellect". (HA!) Yeah I think I may have gotten to the end of the TFE section before the hour time limit hit. I had this insane panic attack because I honestly thought it would have been easier seeing as I always did really well with logical stuff. The PAT isn't logic as you know.

Well, the day of the test after practicing some (although I didn't have much time because of the other sections I tried to run through) when I came to the PAT section, that same feeling of panic hit me. I was on track for time for the keyholes, then I got to the TFE section. I remember spending 2 minutes on the first problem and deciding that it wasn't worth screwing up the entire test because I couldnt do TFE. I literally marked and skipped the entire TFE and moved on. Well as the story goes, I ran out of time when I was on the pattern folding and had to guess on 6 of the pattern folding and the remaining 14 TFE questions. My first PAT was a 15.

In retrospect it's laughable how little prepared I was the first time around, but at the time I was a mess. Good luck getting into your state school, from what I understand you are a shoe-in! Grats man!

 

[losinghair]

wow congratulations!! I just took my first DAT yesterday. I'm also SDA and am applying to LLU. My scores aren't very competitive though.(bio:19,GC:16,OC:18,QR:15,RC19,PAT25), so I'm probably going to have to watch this cylce go by and do my best to retake and put my best foot forward for 2012.
Anyway, you and I seem to be polar opposites lol. with my pat score and your well, everything else lol. we would be unstopable! haha
Since it's the only area I did well in, I can try to help you some in the pat area. But hopefully you wont need to retake it anyway. I doubt you will. To tell the truth , I only used the big blue kaplan book for the pat. I know everyone says its pretty worthless for that, but it explains the basics on how to approach the problems pretty well and once I understood the foundations of it, I murdered that section on every practice test. I you really wanted I could explain how I did every section, but for now I can just tell you that I used topscore for my practice tests. Everyone said that they were a lot easier than the real thing,but to tell the truth, they were much worse. when I saw the real thing I narrowed down my answer choices more than twice as fast as in practice. How? well, the size of the figures in topscore is really small, and they look like they've been sketched with a pencil so its really difficult to make accurate choices. Their angles are almost all the same, the paper folding is extremely disorienting, and the apertures are the wrong sizes. But, it made me work a lot harder and once I saw them on a nice big screen, and well drawn out, with only 2 viable answers instead of 4, it made my choices a lot easier. The cube sections were the same, but the bigger size on the real thing made things very nice. I scored in the 99th percentile so I'm guessing I only missed 2 or 3. Hope this made sense.

Awesome job, I'm sure your wife is very proud of you!!!

 

[losinghair]

So, I retook my DAT again in Goodyear, AZ and I will try my best to post a complete breakdown tomorrow, my brain is pounding. I feel like I did much better this time around. I've already interviewed at Loma Linda (I'm SDA)...and I'm still waiting to hear back from the schools which I will list below.

Last Time:

AA-17
TS-17
PAT-17

BIO-18
GC-16
OC-20
RC-17
QR-16

This Time:

AA-19
TS-20
PAT-16

BIO-18
GC-24
OC-21
RC-17
QR-15

GPA: 3.46
sGPA: 3.38

Schools I'm applying to:
-Western
-Loma Linda
-Tennessee
-UNLV
-Mississippi (my home state school)
-USN-South Jordan
-ASDOH
-Midwestern (AZ)

So, I am most upset with my PAT and QR scores. I studied these sections the most for the retake...and obviously it didn't matter. I was making consistent 20s on CDP, don't know what really went wrong. Also, I studied the Math Destroyer nonstop for the past three weeks or so...don't know what happened here either. I had like 3 mins to go and about 10 questions I had yet to answer fully...time killed me. It's literally impossible to finish the type of questions I had in that amount of time. I had a lot of f(x), g(x) types that had complex fractions with sq roots in them and such....ugghhhh...I thought math was a good subject for me.

I am happy with the rest of my scores, although I haven't the slightest as to which questions I missed in the RC section. I felt really good about it, and really bad about OC...but my scores are flipped haha...oh well.

Good luck to all that are taking it soon! I will post a full breakdown and list some DAT study materials I plan on selling tomorrow. Good night SDN fam

Hey chemboy , again, awesome job. God will work things out for you. Psalms says that "He will not forsake you or abandon you. He will fulfill his purpose in you"

I was wondering if you could help me out on how to better my g-chem score. what did you use for materials? this is and has always been the BIGGEST thorn in my side. help please!!

 

[Chemboy23]

Hey I was excited to see how much better you did this time around. It's tough man to see a 16 on the PAT, hopefully that won't hold you back.

Funny story about the PAT: So when I first opened a review book about the PAT it was like 3 weeks before the first time I took the test. I went through all the introductions and decided I would just take the first CDP test to see where I was at with my "Natural Intellect". (HA!) Yeah I think I may have gotten to the end of the TFE section before the hour time limit hit. I had this insane panic attack because I honestly thought it would have been easier seeing as I always did really well with logical stuff. The PAT isn't logic as you know.

Well, the day of the test after practicing some (although I didn't have much time because of the other sections I tried to run through) when I came to the PAT section, that same feeling of panic hit me. I was on track for time for the keyholes, then I got to the TFE section. I remember spending 2 minutes on the first problem and deciding that it wasn't worth screwing up the entire test because I couldnt do TFE. I literally marked and skipped the entire TFE and moved on. Well as the story goes, I ran out of time when I was on the pattern folding and had to guess on 6 of the pattern folding and the remaining 14 TFE questions. My first PAT was a 15.

In retrospect it's laughable how little prepared I was the first time around, but at the time I was a mess. Good luck getting into your state school, from what I understand you are a shoe-in! Grats man!

Hey thanks Matt, not really a shoe in...but my family knows people at the school and they've put in a good word for me. I don't know if this constitutes having a "shoe-in" but maybe it does lol. I'm far from being PROMISED a spot in the class, if that's even possible. I really would love to get in at Loma Linda though, I was very impressed with how happy their students were and how nice the clinics were. Mississippi is next to impossible to get into if you're not a minority right now...due to the new healthcare bill (an inside source from the dental school confirmed this, a DS professor). There are only like 35 seats in the class, and it's very hard to get in here. Avg. GPA is ~3..8 and DAT is 18...so I guess that means AA...not too sure. My GPA is a little low and my DAT is slightly above average, so who knows. I guess we'll have to see. It's not the end of the world for me if I don't get in in MS though. Good luck to you too my friend, where is your first choice? I think mine is probably Loma Linda. I know you interviewed there, so maybe we'll both get in here

 

[Chemboy23]

wow congratulations!! I just took my first DAT yesterday. I'm also SDA and am applying to LLU. My scores aren't very competitive though.(bio:19,GC:16,OC:18,QR:15,RC19,PAT25), so I'm probably going to have to watch this cylce go by and do my best to retake and put my best foot forward for 2012.
Anyway, you and I seem to be polar opposites lol. with my pat score and your well, everything else lol. we would be unstopable! haha
Since it's the only area I did well in, I can try to help you some in the pat area. But hopefully you wont need to retake it anyway. I doubt you will. To tell the truth , I only used the big blue kaplan book for the pat. I know everyone says its pretty worthless for that, but it explains the basics on how to approach the problems pretty well and once I understood the foundations of it, I murdered that section on every practice test. I you really wanted I could explain how I did every section, but for now I can just tell you that I used topscore for my practice tests. Everyone said that they were a lot easier than the real thing,but to tell the truth, they were much worse. when I saw the real thing I narrowed down my answer choices more than twice as fast as in practice. How? well, the size of the figures in topscore is really small, and they look like they've been sketched with a pencil so its really difficult to make accurate choices. Their angles are almost all the same, the paper folding is extremely disorienting, and the apertures are the wrong sizes. But, it made me work a lot harder and once I saw them on a nice big screen, and well drawn out, with only 2 viable answers instead of 4, it made my choices a lot easier. The cube sections were the same, but the bigger size on the real thing made things very nice. I scored in the 99th percentile so I'm guessing I only missed 2 or 3. Hope this made sense.

Awesome job, I'm sure your wife is very proud of you!!!

Hey, sorry for the delayed response. I've been flying around the country these past few days and haven't checked my SDN as frequently as I normally do.

First of all, Happy Sabbath...I agree with you on your scores. When I first took the DAT my GC score was the same as your score. I'll tell you how I pulled it up below. But, don't get down over not getting in this cycle. If you're SDA...you may still have a decent shot at Loma. Have you interviewed there yet? They send out SDA interviews at the first of the cycle. Seems like you would've gotten an invite by now. Your PAT score is very impressive and I like your methods...wish I would've talked to you before my test haha. I actually do not think I'm going to retake...if I can get by at all without doing so.

About GC, I tutored it for five years at a CC to night nursing students for the department chair there. It's all about luck with the DAT, I don't care what anyone tells you. Look at my tests, I made a 16 on the first one and a 24 on the second. It's all about getting questions you know how to answer. Some of the problems on my first test, I didn't even know what they were asking on about 3 or 4 of them. I was so upset! I do a lot better with calculation type questions and my 1st test was more conceptual GC. You know what's funny? I didn't even study that much more for my second test...I was burnt out from the 3 month, 14 hr/day studying session for the first one. I made my mind up to let my mind relax a little. I made a sheet of all my trouble areas in GC. For me, it was nuclear chemistry, electrochemistry, decays, free energy/entropy, equilibrium shift rules, etc....Don't study what you already know. We have a tendency to do that because it makes us feel good about ourselves if we get a lot of problems right. I used TopScore, DAT Destroyer, Acheiver, and looked up online problems in the areas I listed above. What I'd recommend is to take a topscore GC test (maybe all three) and find out your weaknesses and study ~80% of your time on those sections. Make sense? This was what I did, I'm not too sure how it'll work for you though. It seems very logical though. I would definitely work through the destroyer though...it helped me so much. I hope this helps you a little my friend, if you need any help with anything else, feel more than free to PM me if you have any trouble with problems, need advice, etc...good luck Keep your head up!

 

[Chemboy23]

Hey chemboy , again, awesome job. God will work things out for you. Psalms says that "He will not forsake you or abandon you. He will fulfill his purpose in you"

I was wondering if you could help me out on how to better my g-chem score. what did you use for materials? this is and has always been the BIGGEST thorn in my side. help please!!

Awesome Psalm, I'll list one for you below as well. Keep your head up and your hard work will pay off just as mine did. Read my above post about pulling the GC section up.

Psalm 18:32: "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the highest of heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn."

Keep in touch man...we're all pulling and cheering for you!!!

 

[RedDevilDDS]

Great Improvement!!! nice job Chemboy!!! Time to wait for more interviews

 

[Chemboy23]

Great Improvement!!! nice job Chemboy!!! Time to wait for more interviews

Thanks a lot! I just hope my PAT doesn't keep me out We'll see what happens though. It's weird because I haven't received the first rejection yet, do not know if that's a good or bad thing. Anyone else in this same boat?

 

[toothdriller]

Congrats, awesome chem scores! Good luck