Hey everyone
I've been in on this forum for nearly 2 years now and have to say that this place is one of the greatest resources for pre-dental students and I first want to say thanks to everyone for posting all the tips and advice.
Secondly, I wanted to see what the consensus is about my DAT scores (although I think I know what I should do, I guess I need some backup)
Here they are:
Bio 18
GC 18
OC 16...
QR 14...
Reading 19...
PAT 19
AA 17/TS 17/PAT 19
Not exactly what I was looking for considering I was scoring 20-22 on Top Score (except for math of course which was 16-17). Going through the test, I thought it was fairly straight forward and I thought I was doing well, so I'm not quite sure what happened.
Here's what I thought of each section:
Bio: Kaplan won't do it by itself. I used Cliff's AP Bio which helped on several questions. I had 3-4 lab questions that I never ran into, even in undergrad. Also, the Bio section isn't just regurgitating facts like Kaplan, you should be able to use these facts in application problems.
Gen Chem: Kaplan covers this section sufficiently. This section was fair and I should have done better. Top Score and Achiever are both tougher than this section is on the real thing. (18-19 on Top Score, Achiever)
Orgo: I thought this was the toughest and I was scoring 18-20 on Top Score. I knew the reactions in the Kaplan book, but there were probably 4/7 reactions on the test that were not covered in Kaplan. It was fair concept wise, but I must have confused some stuff during the test.
PAT: Achiever's PAT was way too hard compared to the real thing, Top Scores PAT was more realistic (I was scoring 20-22 on Top Score), Kaplan's PAT is too easy.
RC: I had two passages that were long, and one normal length. I read through quickly and wrote down key words for the paragraphs on my laminated sheets and went back to look for them if they came up in questions. I might try something else if I'm going to be taking it again. On Top Score I didn't score less than 21 and my highest was 24 using this method. I received several tone/inference questions which kind of got me though.
QR: Math was never my friend. I think I finished about 26 questions with 2 minutes remaining unfortunately and didn't guess so good.
My cum. GPA is 3.73, science GPA is 3.6, and I attend a top tier 4 year state school. I am a biology major, with chem and business minors. I've shadowed several dentists for many hours and have dental assisted for two different dentists as well have many, many ec's, volunteering, and several leadership positions in different organizations.
I plan on applying to UIC (state), SIU (state), Marquette, Indiana, Nova SE, Mich (maybe), Louisville, Temple (maybe), Creighton (maybe), and there are possibly some others.
Like I said before, I'm 90% sure I'll have to retake, but I guess I need to be pushed into it because studying all day long wasn't cool.
Best of luck to all of you.
I've been in on this forum for nearly 2 years now and have to say that this place is one of the greatest resources for pre-dental students and I first want to say thanks to everyone for posting all the tips and advice.
Secondly, I wanted to see what the consensus is about my DAT scores (although I think I know what I should do, I guess I need some backup)
Here they are:
Bio 18
GC 18
OC 16...
QR 14...
Reading 19...
PAT 19
AA 17/TS 17/PAT 19
Not exactly what I was looking for considering I was scoring 20-22 on Top Score (except for math of course which was 16-17). Going through the test, I thought it was fairly straight forward and I thought I was doing well, so I'm not quite sure what happened.
Here's what I thought of each section:
Bio: Kaplan won't do it by itself. I used Cliff's AP Bio which helped on several questions. I had 3-4 lab questions that I never ran into, even in undergrad. Also, the Bio section isn't just regurgitating facts like Kaplan, you should be able to use these facts in application problems.
Gen Chem: Kaplan covers this section sufficiently. This section was fair and I should have done better. Top Score and Achiever are both tougher than this section is on the real thing. (18-19 on Top Score, Achiever)
Orgo: I thought this was the toughest and I was scoring 18-20 on Top Score. I knew the reactions in the Kaplan book, but there were probably 4/7 reactions on the test that were not covered in Kaplan. It was fair concept wise, but I must have confused some stuff during the test.
PAT: Achiever's PAT was way too hard compared to the real thing, Top Scores PAT was more realistic (I was scoring 20-22 on Top Score), Kaplan's PAT is too easy.
RC: I had two passages that were long, and one normal length. I read through quickly and wrote down key words for the paragraphs on my laminated sheets and went back to look for them if they came up in questions. I might try something else if I'm going to be taking it again. On Top Score I didn't score less than 21 and my highest was 24 using this method. I received several tone/inference questions which kind of got me though.
QR: Math was never my friend. I think I finished about 26 questions with 2 minutes remaining unfortunately and didn't guess so good.
My cum. GPA is 3.73, science GPA is 3.6, and I attend a top tier 4 year state school. I am a biology major, with chem and business minors. I've shadowed several dentists for many hours and have dental assisted for two different dentists as well have many, many ec's, volunteering, and several leadership positions in different organizations.
I plan on applying to UIC (state), SIU (state), Marquette, Indiana, Nova SE, Mich (maybe), Louisville, Temple (maybe), Creighton (maybe), and there are possibly some others.
Like I said before, I'm 90% sure I'll have to retake, but I guess I need to be pushed into it because studying all day long wasn't cool.
Best of luck to all of you.
