DAT done- August 16. Advice Needed!

[mocha13]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everyone!

First of all, I would like to thank this forum and you guys for giving out lots of advices and tips. Those tips helped me to stress less during the actual exam. Anyways, I took the DAT this morning, and I have a mixed feeling about the results:

PAT 18 🙄
QR 30
RC 21
Bio 21
GC 21
OC 22
TS 22
AA 23

I am glad that I did well on the average, but 18 on PAT concerns me. I was getting 20s on practice tests, so I was expecting 20+ but I don't know what happened 🙁 This year I finished my second year in college, and I am planning on applying for 2011 application cycle. I have 4.0 GPA/ 4.0 Science GPA at my state university, and I want to go to dental school in my state (TX). Can you guys please give me advice on what to do next? Do you think I should retake DAT for a better PAT score? Please give some input on this.

Now I'll write about how I prepared for DAT. I took Kaplan class starting in June, but I didn't start studying seriously until about 5 weeks before my test. Then I probably spent around 6 hours a day studying and more later. I wanted to take it once and be done 🙂

PAT
I used kaplan online materials and crack PAT. They were helpful and I was improving on practice scores, but they didn't help me much on the actual test. For me it seemed holes in hole punching questions weren't in the right proportion during the real test, so that gave me hard time. I couldn't tell if hole was punched on the lower far right corner or one hole above... I didn't like real DAT format of hole punching pictures. They were confusing! 🙁

QR
I didn't really study this. I was in UIL math team in high school so even though I didn't take any math in college, qr wasn't a problem for me 😀 I went over formulas from high school math last night. Actual DAT QR was much easier than QR on practice tests. Make sure to know 4 quadrants and signs of sin, cos, tan on each quadrant!

RC
Wow, only through grace I got 21. I've been getting 19s on practice tests. I used kaplan strategy of making road map for each passage (spent first 5 minutes). I skimmed through passages and wrote down few key words, then I read questions and found paragraphs using my roadmap. It worked for me, and I didn't get "pianoed". Whew!

Bio
There were many random questions on genetics, and I had to guess on them based on my undergrad bio experience. I used kaplan white book and destroyer. I read cliffs for some sections. But there were many questions that weren't covered in those books.

GC
Kaplan and destroyer. I went through them twice, second time just going over previously missed questions. On the actual test, I didn't have to calculate much since answers were set up. Be sure to study the concepts!!!

OC
Kaplan and destroyer, and my college note. I had an awesome professor last year, so I was actually expecting little higher score for this section. But there were some reactions that I didn't learn before. Questions didn't have many reactions but had some concepts that weren't covered in the course.

Topscore Tests
AA/BIO/GC/OC/PAT/QR/RC/TS
1- 21/22/21/20/20/22/19/22
2- 20/21/18/21/21/22/19/20
3- 21/20/19/21/21/23/20/20

Kaplan Tests
BIO/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA
final- 19/18/20/20/18/25/19/20
mid- 18/18/18/19/18/20/18/18
prac1-20/17/18/22/19/25/19/20
prac2-21/21/18/23/18/26/20/21
prac3-24/17/16/20/22/21/20/20

Used Materials: Kaplan, DAT Destroyer, Topscore, cPAT

Another question: is it true that dental schools only except the last testing score? So if I retake it, will they only look at my new score and not my old score?
Thanks!

 

[Destiny11]

Hi everyone!

First of all, I would like to thank this forum and you guys for giving out lots of advices and tips. Those tips helped me to stress less during the actual exam. Anyways, I took the DAT this morning, and I have a mixed feeling about the results:

PAT 18 🙄
QR 30
RC 21
Bio 21
GC 21
OC 22
TS 22
AA 23

I am glad that I did well on the average, but 18 on PAT concerns me. I was getting 20s on practice tests, so I was expecting 20+ but I don't know what happened 🙁 This year I finished my second year in college, and I am planning on applying for 2011 application cycle. I have 4.0 GPA/ 4.0 Science GPA at my state university, and I want to go to dental school in my state (TX). Can you guys please give me advice on what to do next? Do you think I should retake DAT for a better PAT score? Please give some input on this.

Now I'll write about how I prepared for DAT. I took Kaplan class starting in June, but I didn't start studying seriously until about 5 weeks before my test. Then I probably spent around 6 hours a day studying and more later. I wanted to take it once and be done 🙂

PAT
I used kaplan online materials and crack PAT. They were helpful and I was improving on practice scores, but they didn't help me much on the actual test. For me it seemed holes in hole punching questions weren't in the right proportion during the real test, so that gave me hard time. I couldn't tell if hole was punched on the lower far right corner or one hole above... I didn't like real DAT format of hole punching pictures. They were confusing! 🙁

QR
I didn't really study this. I was in UIL math team in high school so even though I didn't take any math in college, qr wasn't a problem for me 😀 I went over formulas from high school math last night. Actual DAT QR was much easier than QR on practice tests. Make sure to know 4 quadrants and signs of sin, cos, tan on each quadrant!

RC
Wow, only through grace I got 21. I've been getting 19s on practice tests. I used kaplan strategy of making road map for each passage (spent first 5 minutes). I skimmed through passages and wrote down few key words, then I read questions and found paragraphs using my roadmap. It worked for me, and I didn't get "pianoed". Whew!

Bio
There were many random questions on genetics, and I had to guess on them based on my undergrad bio experience. I used kaplan white book and destroyer. I read cliffs for some sections. But there were many questions that weren't covered in those books.

GC
Kaplan and destroyer. I went through them twice, second time just going over previously missed questions. On the actual test, I didn't have to calculate much since answers were set up. Be sure to study the concepts!!!

OC
Kaplan and destroyer, and my college note. I had an awesome professor last year, so I was actually expecting little higher score for this section. But there were some reactions that I didn't learn before. Questions didn't have many reactions but had some concepts that weren't covered in the course.

Topscore Tests
AA/BIO/GC/OC/PAT/QR/RC/TS
1- 21/22/21/20/20/22/19/22
2- 20/21/18/21/21/22/19/20
3- 21/20/19/21/21/23/20/20

Kaplan Tests
BIO/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA
final- 19/18/20/20/18/25/19/20
mid- 18/18/18/19/18/20/18/18
prac1-20/17/18/22/19/25/19/20
prac2-21/21/18/23/18/26/20/21
prac3-24/17/16/20/22/21/20/20

Used Materials: Kaplan, DAT Destroyer, Topscore, cPAT

Another question: is it true that dental schools only except the last testing score? So if I retake it, will they only look at my new score and not my old score?
Thanks!

Want a cookie? You have nothing to worry about unless your GPA is a 2.5 or if you have no social skills.

 

[shiftypoptart]

I am glad that I did well on the average, but 18 on PAT concerns me.

lolol you're funny.

 

[UCLAbruinz]

i heard somewhere in this forum that texas schools dont give as much weight for PAT. so just apply to the 3 texas schools and i think u have a great chance at any of them.

 

[MowgliR]

Were you ever pressed for time using the mapping strategy?

 

[mocha13]

Were you ever pressed for time using the mapping strategy?

I think the key is not to spend more than 5 minutes making roadmap. I was spending 10 minutes making roadmap and spending 10 minutes answering questions during practice tests, and with that method I never finished last 5 questions. On the real DAT I spent first 5-7 minutes skimming, writing down key words that are really important (date, anything inside "", italicized word, phrase like "most important") and then answering questions using my road map. If I didn't see it on my RD I did search and destroy. And while skimming I interpreted author's tone. Well it helped to do RC much better than expected and I wish you the very best luck too! ^^

 

[FurmanGal]

Kaplan Tests
BIO/GC/OC/PAT/RC/QR/TS/AA
final- 19/18/20/20/18/25/19/20
mid- 18/18/18/19/18/20/18/18
prac1-20/17/18/22/19/25/19/20
prac2-21/21/18/23/18/26/20/21
prac3-24/17/16/20/22/21/20/20

I have a question about your kaplan test scores. in what order did you take these? and how long before your actual DAT? i just took the practice test 3 today and scored a 16 in both gchem and ochem!!! (which is significantly lower than i have been doing) i have been freaking out all day. my test is wednesday. but i noticed that your practice test 3 gc and oc were lower than all your other scores too... so im hoping maybe these sections were harder for everybody?? and it doesn't mean all the studying i have been doing these past few weeks have actually lowered my scores 4 points??? lol

 

[mocha13]

FuranGal,

I took them in this order: mid, prac1, final, prac2, prac3. I took prac 3 days before my actual test. I think there were lots of calculation problems, and I just took them as good lessons to learn. Don't worry. You'll be in great shape by the test date!

 

[FurmanGal]

Okay thanks! I sure hope that i can do as well as you did this wednesday. Anyway, congrats! Your scores are awesome. You shouldn't worry too much about the 18 PAT - thats still above average. I would def. not retake just to improve your PAT, if that's what you're thinking. With your AA & TS, I'm sure you will get interviews wherever you apply.

 

[DrRoyal Pains]

I've been doing the 10 minutes on mapping and 10 minutes for answer questions also and it works sometimes, but your very short on time. How do you create the road map in 5-7 minutes? Thats nuts! Do you literally just FLY through the paragraphs and write down anything that pops out? (i.e., dates, names, etc.)

 

[mocha13]

DrRoyal Pains,

Ya, that's what I did. I read the first paragraph and skimmed through the rest, jotting down key topics and 2 or 3 keywords for each paragraph. Fortunately topics on all my passages were familiar to me, so I didn't have too much trouble skimming them. Difficult passage takes more time to map. But try to start answering questions before 10 minutes b/c sometimes you don't even need roadmap to answer some questions. Actual readings on DAT weren't as difficult to read as readings from topscore or kaplan, so I could spend less time mapping. Hope this helped!

Oh, and I need to add that english is my second language, and I came to the states when I was 15. Bottom line: anybody can get +20 on DAT RC with practice and luck!

 

[mocha13]

UCLABruinz,

That's great! Where did you hear about that? And though my priorities are TX schools, I'm still going to apply to several out of state schools. I don't know which schools yet, but will my PAT score be a hindrance?

 

[DrRoyal Pains]

Sweet, sounds good! I'll def be giving it a try tomorrow, thanks.

 

[UCLAbruinz]

i heard that from reading on this forum for a while. check in the texas school thread. u should call the schools as well if u want to make sure. but im sure no schools are going to tell u to retake because of the 18 PAT.

for oos schools, apply to those that care only for high AA and not PAT - so not UOP for sure. but provided that ur GPA is good im sure u have a great shot!

 

[mustardseed5]

hey nice work,

I also got a 30 in QR on 8.16.10 and am still reeling from it. I didn't study a lick for this subject...got a 16 on it the first time I took the test..so weird

 

[sfoksn]

할수있어요

 

[Barns318]

할수있어요

I didnt no your Korean
Btw awesome scores !! I really envy you !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mocha13]

Haha smart buddy... yes I'm Korean. I really hope I can make it to TX or UC schools! I have a year till I apply so I can retake DAT before then (san antonio PAT avg was 19). I wish I had just gotten 19 LOL

 

[Barns318]

Haha smart buddy... yes I'm Korean. I really hope I can make it to TX or UC schools! I have a year till I apply so I can retake DAT before then (san antonio PAT avg was 19). I wish I had just gotten 19 LOL

With your 23AA retake DAT? no way..
you have a perfect score 30 on QR instead!! omg..just enjoy your summer. If you dont have any plan you can help me with RC hahaha...😛

 

[mocha13]

Barns318,

Thank you for your encouragement. I have one more day to get ready for moving in, so I've been shopping back and forth 😀 Good luck in RC! Be confident, you are a smart person and you can do it!!

 

[Lethstang]

im not sure why you are asking for advice?

look at your stats.

look at the average stats of the schools youd like to go to.

notice the large discrepancy between yours and their standards.

.....youre obviously a pretty sharp fellow, not sure why you need us to tell you that youre fine.