DAT Retake: Round 3

[Treadlightly212]

Hello - I am a current dental hygienist who plans to take the DAT for a third time, in hopes of enrolling into dental school this summer. I have a 3.5 GPA, a BA in biology (graduated 2015) and a BA in dental hygiene. I spent roughly 4 months with DAT Bootcamp to prepare for my first attempt and scored a 15AA and 14TS. I spend 6 months studying with DAT Booster and retook the exam in the summer of 2022, in which I scored a 17AA and 16TS. I reviewed incorrect answers as I moved along and used Anki cards for biology retention, specifically with DAT Booster. I admit, I only took 3-4 practice exams with each of the two resources. My biology and general chemistry scores are harming my AA tremendously. After much debate, I have motivated myself to retake the exam for a third time, however I have no idea which resources to use and where to start. Would it be wise to retry Bootcamp or Booster with a longer study period? Or should I try DAT Destroyer or Chads DAT Prep? Are Kaplan, iPrep courses, and the Princeton Review resources of any benefit? How are you preparing for you exam? I truly want to become a dentist and am committed to doing whatever is necessary to get there. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

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[ChemistryDentist]

Before you go and use any resource, the same or not, I think you need to re-evaluate what has happened on your past two attempts. Namely, why is it that you haven't scored what your goal was. Is it because you were relying on those practice tests? Did you not truly internalize the information you were trying to learn? Or something else? Saying yes to any of those is perfectly normal, and totally not the end of the world! As soon as you can figure out the reason, you are more likely to succeed in studying in a way that's most conducive to you.

With all the said, it may be worth trying a new resource to get some new material from a new perspective for you. I swear by the DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer, personally - they saved me for my DAT and let me do it one and done. They are by no means easy, but definitely provide a great review of biology and gen chem especially. There is also the Gen Chem Destroyer, which I never personally used, but know some friends that did with good success.

Just keep in mind there really is no silver bullet for the DAT or any big test like this. You really need to put in the time in building a foundation and internalizing the material in a meaningful way. If that means spending 10 months studying instead of 4 or 6, so be it! Whatever you need to succeed is what you should do, regardless of the noise you may hear online or from more recent graduates.

Best of luck!

 

[Treadlightly212]

Before you go and use any resource, the same or not, I think you need to re-evaluate what has happened on your past two attempts. Namely, why is it that you haven't scored what your goal was. Is it because you were relying on those practice tests? Did you not truly internalize the information you were trying to learn? Or something else? Saying yes to any of those is perfectly normal, and totally not the end of the world! As soon as you can figure out the reason, you are more likely to succeed in studying in a way that's most conducive to you.

With all the said, it may be worth trying a new resource to get some new material from a new perspective for you. I swear by the DAT Destroyer and Math Destroyer, personally - they saved me for my DAT and let me do it one and done. They are by no means easy, but definitely provide a great review of biology and gen chem especially. There is also the Gen Chem Destroyer, which I never personally used, but know some friends that did with good success.

Just keep in mind there really is no silver bullet for the DAT or any big test like this. You really need to put in the time in building a foundation and internalizing the material in a meaningful way. If that means spending 10 months studying instead of 4 or 6, so be it! Whatever you need to succeed is what you should do, regardless of the noise you may hear online or from more recent graduates.

Best of luck!

This is great advice! I don’t think I internalized the information the way I should have. Going to seek new study methods and invest more time. Thank you so much!

 

[Ryxndek]

People say to not use Kaplan, but I used it and scored a 22AA on my first attempt. I studied about 2-3 hours a day 5x a week for about 4 months using their online self paced prep. I thought it was a great resource but it is expensive compared to some of the other options. When you mean enrolling for dental school this summer do you mean apply? You’d be enrolling the following summer if you haven’t applied for the 22-23 cycle. I’d you can, try to get the DAT done by July so you can have your app verified and officially complete by July/August so you can benefit from rolling admissions. (You can apply and submit everything else while you wait for your scores to be submitted)

I will also say you should definitely take more practice exams. I topped out at 8 exams before taking the real thing. Good luck, you can do this!

 

[PurpleSails]

I found it that when I was scoring 13-15 on initial practice tests, it was because I didn't fundamentally understand the material. For example, I skimmed when studying biology since I already took intro bio courses in college. However, I realize that studying for a test in school vs DAT was much different, even if it was the same information. I found it best to start from scratch (for example, learning what atoms are when studying chem). I found DATBooster to be super helpful, but if you only used 3-4 practice tests per resource like you said, it doesn't seem like you took full advantage of the product. HOW you study is much more important what resource you used. Don't make the mistake I did: I gathered everything that was recommended (destroyer, prepbooks, courese, etc), but ended up becoming too overwhelmed with all the resources and felt like I wasn't making any progress. I had to abandon taking DAT for an entire year because I kept adding new books and trying different strategies. Set a reasonable schedule (DATbooster has premade ones) and follow it, and make sure not to skip taking practice tests.

Also another strategy: you said that you review incorrect questions when studying. I also found it really useful to review ALL the questions, whether I got it wrong or right. Even if know why an answer choice was correct, review the wrong choices and see if you know why they were wrong, and if you are familiar with the concepts. I honestly learned more from the explanations of questions more than the notes I took while studying.

Lastly, it looks like you may be taking tests prematurely. After scoring lower on the first and second tests, you may have gotten a feel for what the test is like, as well as how much you may have not been ready to take them. For round 3, I would suggest you don't take it until you feel ready compared to the other tries. Good luck!!

 

[NavyBlueSuit]

As someone who had a lot of time off before my last attempt, I spent a couple months relearning gen chem and orgo(was teaching and coaching fulltime). I used chad's videos and they helped a ton, especially with orgo. I never understood orgo, and a lot of the tips helped me when I didn't know the answer. Also, the questions are not nearly as hard on the DAT for that section as they were on bootcamp.

After that period, I used bootcamp for 2-3 months. I went over questions and their explanations whenever I could, and weekends I put a lot more time into the studying. I took 3 DAT practice tests before I took my actual test as well. I did much better on my DAT than my practice test results. The main thing is to get used to the fatigue, and also review every single explanation.

One thing I don't see encouraged often is maximizing the sections you are good at. I always suggest killing reading to help inflate your score because that section gives you most of the answers. Even the inference questions. If they ask what the author meant, then they are looking for a stated opinion, or what all the information suggests their position is. Reading scientific and news articles can help anyone who doesn't have good practice with discerning the difference. For me, highlighting a couple sentences in each paragraph also helped me find answers and skim faster.

If you want to do well you will. I am not a studious person by nature, but I eventually got it done. The test seems to be more about study discipline than being brilliant imo.

 

[Ryxndek]

This post above is a fantastic example. I’m not a great test taker, I don’t like doing standardized tests. But I knew that I had to do it to get into dental school and so I hit the books. I did roughly 2 hours a day M-F for about 4 months using Kaplan. And then crunched it a lot more as I got closer to the exam. I took 7, yep 7, practice exams to get my timing right and to see as much material as possible. My strongest sections were Chem and ochem while my weakest was QR and Reading. The reading section on the DAT is different than say, the ACT, from what I can remember. The dat literally gives you the answers, which was one thing I had to practice to make sure I nailed the section when I took my official exam.

I also agree with the above I felt the Ochem section was easier than any practice exams that I took which definitely helped me. QR is slept on because it’s probably the lowest score for most folks and that score can impact your AA, so if you can be consistent with that it will definitely help boost your score.

Try to take as many practice exams as you can, the timing and endurance is the hardest part about taking the DAT, you’ve just gotta train yourself. It’s a marathon not a sprint. You got this!

 

[NavyBlueSuit]

This post above is a fantastic example. I’m not a great test taker, I don’t like doing standardized tests. But I knew that I had to do it to get into dental school and so I hit the books. I did roughly 2 hours a day M-F for about 4 months using Kaplan. And then crunched it a lot more as I got closer to the exam. I took 7, yep 7, practice exams to get my timing right and to see as much material as possible. My strongest sections were Chem and ochem while my weakest was QR and Reading. The reading section on the DAT is different than say, the ACT, from what I can remember. The dat literally gives you the answers, which was one thing I had to practice to make sure I nailed the section when I took my official exam.

I also agree with the above I felt the Ochem section was easier than any practice exams that I took which definitely helped me. QR is slept on because it’s probably the lowest score for most folks and that score can impact your AA, so if you can be consistent with that it will definitely help boost your score.

Try to take as many practice exams as you can, the timing and endurance is the hardest part about taking the DAT, you’ve just gotta train yourself. It’s a marathon not a sprint. You got this!

You just reminded me how weird the QR section is, but you are right. I taught math, and am used to problem solving, so I didn't pay much attention in previous attempts. However, while studying for my latest attempt I learned that a lot of the problems have certain strategies that can be faster and more accurate than solving them step by step. These problems are there simply to waste your time. Very strange section to tackle compared to the rest, but with due diligence should be a booster section as well.