DAT Retake Today and my thoughts

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Shunwei

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Well I took my DAT again today after taking the first one in late April. Here are my score comparisons:

April Test:

PAT: 20
QR: 21
RC: 19
Bio: 23
GC: 22
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 21

Today:

PAT: 21
QR: 25
RC: 24
Bio: 24
GC: 30
OC: 29
TS: 27
AA: 26

Sciences: Since I am a Bio Ph.D., ironically I found the Bio section to be the hardest of the three. There are a lot of questions that require a lot of extrapolation and deep understanding, so I definitely do not recommend people to just memorize stuff and expect to regurgitate it on the exam. Whenever you read something, ask yourself "Why" and "How". I also think that Destroyer helped a lot here, since I didn't have it for my first run. There are a few questions that are basically the same from destroyer, and I honestly don't think that I could have improved so much in Chem without it (and some luck as well).

RC: I had ExamKrackers 101 Passages for this, and this helped quite a bit, I believe, although the nature of the questions between the DAT and the book is very different. I personally think that this is the most difficult section to prepare, because reading is a long-term skill that cannot be cultivated in a short time. For those of you who reads proficiently, I would recommend a "reading-for-comprehension" strategy, because without understanding what you read it will be difficult to assess the tone/imply questions. However, for those of you who read slowly, I think skimming the passage for a general idea and then using the questions to take apart the passage can also be a good strategy. In any case, the most important parameter is time--make sure that you allot ~20 minutes to each passage and not risk missing out on the latter part of the section.

QR: I have always been pretty good in math, but for my second run I felt like I really benefited from Barron's SAT I Workbook. This material does a good job of reviewing the basics of the math you need to know, and also contains many practice problems. I was kind of surprised today because there weren't that many word problems as the first time, and a lot of the problems were of the brute arithmetic type.

PAT: The Crack DAT PAT program really helps here. I was kind of disappointed today because I honestly thought that I had gotten into the 24-25 range, but I am still happy with a 21. If you can do the hole-punching, angles, and cubes in that program, you shouldn't have any problems with the real thing.

Overall, I took this test again not because I was so disappointed with my first run (they are still good scores), but because I honestly know that I can do better. Given that dental schools are harder and harder to get into nowadays, I felt like standing out with my true ability would have been a good service to myself. Hope my comments help you guys out there about to take the exam.

P.S.: I have some good material to sell, so if anyone is interested PM me.
 
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Those are the best scores I have seen in my life.
Nice job!!
You'll not only get in, but recieve some scholarships!!
 
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OMG...those are some fascinating numbers!
GChem - WOW! i'm choking with 16's. Did the Destroyer helped you alot on that? I'm thinking of going thru it 2-3 times more. I have only gone through it once.

Bio- interesting...deep analytical thinkin question-type ehh! i'll just leave that up to the test day.

Question: Did you use Achiever or TopScore in any form of practice while you were studying? Or did u solely depend on Destroyer?

I'm non-native speaker, so i know i'll be struggling through RC. Do u recommend going through Exam Krackers 101 and 1001 passages as a form of practice since most of the RC i been hearing include tones, implication and author's key point and ideas...

Thank you..and Good luck, you make a great dental candidate with those score!
 
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Nicely done. Any other advice on the sciences besides your doctorate? Also, if you don't mind us (read: me) asking, how long did you prepare?
 
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these scores are crazy, congrats!!!!

i dont know why u even took the DAT twice, you did very well on the first time !!!!!!

now i have somebody to compete with.... 😀🙂

anyway, good job and good luck.
 
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Tejv24 said:
OMG...those are some fascinating numbers!
GChem - WOW! i'm choking with 16's. Did the Destroyer helped you alot on that? I'm thinking of going thru it 2-3 times more. I have only gone through it once.

Bio- interesting...deep analytical thinkin question-type ehh! i'll just leave that up to the test day.

Question: Did you use Achiever or TopScore in any form of practice while you were studying? Or did u solely depend on Destroyer?

I'm non-native speaker, so i know i'll be struggling through RC. Do u recommend going through Exam Krackers 101 and 1001 passages as a form of practice since most of the RC i been hearing include tones, implication and author's key point and ideas...

Thank you..and Good luck, you make a great dental candidate with those score!
Click to expand...

Thanks man--believe me, hard work can pay off. Since I am working as a research scientist, I underestimated the DAT the first time around and did minimal studying. Turns out I did fine, but I knew deep in my mind that I could do better. So I buckled down hard these past two months and thankfully it paid off well. So those of you who are going to take the test: have faith that hard work and dedication can do you good.

I think Destroyer is a very good item to have, one that probably played the most part for my Chem scores. I would only recommend it to be used in a "reference" format--that is, research not only the question, but all of the answer choices, to fully extract the maximum value out of the material. Do not use it solely as a quiz, even if that is what it looks like superficially. I do think that the book is overpriced a bit, but in the grand strategic view of things it is still a good investment.

Examkrackers is a good practice, but I would not use it with the expectation that the question types on there will be very similar to the DAT ones. The DAT ones have gone from more detail-oriented to understanding-based in recent years, but there are still a lot of detail questions on there. So use Examkrackers only with the expectation to improve your reading speed and tactic, but do not think that the DAT questions are mostly inference ones.

Good luck with your test.
 
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WOW!!! Great scores!!! What else is there to say??
 
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amazing scores, never seen any think like this in my life. Now u know that u got ur ticket to any dental school that u want. Good Luck.
 
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congrats! these are amazing scores! how did you do the EK verbal? did you time it using their guidelines?

what did you do exactly for RC? would you read first and then do questions?

g'luc with the rest! :luck:
 
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If I recieved even scores like your first test in April, i'm sure I would have decided to spend my summer doing something other than studying for a retake.

Take a vacation man..

I suppose I understand that you knew those first scores didn't really represent what you were capable of so you decided to to retake to really insure that you will recieve your top choice.

Well done, but don't forget to live a little.

:luck:
 
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a 30 and a 29?? not to mention all the other scores, none in the academics which are below a 24?!?!?! ridiculous, if they are real, have fun taking your pick of scholarships. forget picking acceptances or interviews.
 
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Like someone asked before, did you use Topscore/achiever by any chance??
 
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Did you even study for your first exam? I might take it again and aim for 30's for my own satisfaction too. 🙂
 
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john9192 said:
Like someone asked before, did you use Topscore/achiever by any chance??
Click to expand...

I did for my first test, although personally I don't think they helped that much. The real test questions in all sections are very different from the ones shown in TS or Achiever. I still think they are good tools but my advice is not to place too much emphasis on these two, or think that the DAT is in that mold. For example, the bio questions on the real thing are more conceptually-based, and the GC questions far fewer calculations.
 
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Shunwei said:
Well I took my DAT again today after taking the first one in late April. Here are my score comparisons:

April Test:

PAT: 20
QR: 21
RC: 19
Bio: 23
GC: 22
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 21

Today:

PAT: 21
QR: 25
RC: 24
Bio: 24
GC: 30
OC: 29
TS: 27
AA: 26

.
Click to expand...

Amazing scores. Congrats, you surely achieved your goal
 
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Those have to be the highest scores so far this cycle! Amazing!!!!
 
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xtractime said:
a 30 and a 29?? not to mention all the other scores, none in the academics which are below a 24?!?!?! ridiculous, if they are real, have fun taking your pick of scholarships. forget picking acceptances or interviews.
Click to expand...

Yes, one of the reasons I decided to go through the ordeal again is to hope I can get a high score so I can be considered for some scholarships. All of us know that a dental education nowadays is inordinately expensive, so every dollar received helps. Hopefully, combined with my GPA (3.91 cumulative, from Rice and Berkeley), six publications, awards (NSF predoctoral and postdoctoral fellow), and shadowing experience, it will net me some good scholarships.
 
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Wouldn't you mind if I ask if english is your fist language? If it is, it is a very nice score. But if english isn't your fist language, then you are a genius!
 
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Shunwei said:
Yes, one of the reasons I decided to go through the ordeal again is to hope I can get a high score so I can be considered for some scholarships. All of us know that a dental education nowadays is inordinately expensive, so every dollar received helps. Hopefully, combined with my GPA (3.91 cumulative, from Rice and Berkeley), six publications, awards (NSF predoctoral and postdoctoral fellow), and shadowing experience, it will net me some good scholarships.
Click to expand...

wow you must be really smart
this is the second time i see such high scores..
you're a shoo-in..
enjoy it, you deserved it..
brilliant, absolutely brilliant!!!
 
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umm
this makes me think if i should try to improve my score as well...
 
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Shunwei said:
Well I took my DAT again today after taking the first one in late April. Here are my score comparisons:

April Test:

PAT: 20
QR: 21
RC: 19
Bio: 23
GC: 22
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 21

Today:

PAT: 21
QR: 25
RC: 24
Bio: 24
GC: 30
OC: 29
TS: 27
AA: 26

Sciences: Since I am a Bio Ph.D., ironically I found the Bio section to be the hardest of the three. There are a lot of questions that require a lot of extrapolation and deep understanding, so I definitely do not recommend people to just memorize stuff and expect to regurgitate it on the exam. Whenever you read something, ask yourself "Why" and "How". I also think that Destroyer helped a lot here, since I didn't have it for my first run. There are a few questions that are basically the same from destroyer, and I honestly don't think that I could have improved so much in Chem without it (and some luck as well).

RC: I had ExamKrackers 101 Passages for this, and this helped quite a bit, I believe, although the nature of the questions between the DAT and the book is very different. I personally think that this is the most difficult section to prepare, because reading is a long-term skill that cannot be cultivated in a short time. For those of you who reads proficiently, I would recommend a "reading-for-comprehension" strategy, because without understanding what you read it will be difficult to assess the tone/imply questions. However, for those of you who read slowly, I think skimming the passage for a general idea and then using the questions to take apart the passage can also be a good strategy. In any case, the most important parameter is time--make sure that you allot ~20 minutes to each passage and not risk missing out on the latter part of the section.

QR: I have always been pretty good in math, but for my second run I felt like I really benefited from Barron's SAT I Workbook. This material does a good job of reviewing the basics of the math you need to know, and also contains many practice problems. I was kind of surprised today because there weren't that many word problems as the first time, and a lot of the problems were of the brute arithmetic type.

PAT: The Crack DAT PAT program really helps here. I was kind of disappointed today because I honestly thought that I had gotten into the 24-25 range, but I am still happy with a 21. If you can do the hole-punching, angles, and cubes in that program, you shouldn't have any problems with the real thing.

Overall, I took this test again not because I was so disappointed with my first run (they are still good scores), but because I honestly know that I can do better. Given that dental schools are harder and harder to get into nowadays, I felt like standing out with my true ability would have been a good service to myself. Hope my comments help you guys out there about to take the exam.

P.S.: I have some good material to sell, so if anyone is interested PM me.
Click to expand...
You have much to be proud of. I have never even heard of scores as good as yours. You are the apex at which all predental students strive to reach but most fall short of. What school have you applied to?
 
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marianirj said:
You have much to be proud of. I have never even heard of scores as good as yours. You are the apex at which all predental students strive to reach but most fall short of. What school have you applied to?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words. Honestly, after my first test I was very close to just hanging all the books up and just go with it; in fact, my application is already at the schools and I applied early. However, deep in the back of my mind I just didn't feel right about it. I know that I could do much better, so that's why a month ago I decided to just bite the bullet and do it. Given that my current test scores will most likely still be reviewed in time, I thought that it was worthwhile to just invest the several hundred dollars and hopefully get some scholarship offers (incidentally, I also got an offer from Kaplan today to tryout for teaching their classes). So in the end I think it was a good decision. I suppose you just got to have that "No way I am letting this (insert your own word) beat me" attitude.
 
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HeatingHomer said:
Great Scores!! How much of it do you attribute to the destroyer?
Click to expand...

It's hard to quantify the contributions of each. I do think that Destroyer helped significantly. I would advise researching as many resources as you can possibly find. You'd be amazed at how many free class lecture notes are online, and many of them are good. Wiki is always a good place to start and I benefited from that as well.
 
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i think your scores show your extremely determined and will only accept the best of yourself.
Congrats and make sure to enjoy dental school
 
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IsRaEl21 said:
Any one can wish for this scores. congratulations again.
Click to expand...

I appreciate everyone's kind words. I am glad that this is all over and I wish all of you who are about to take the test the very best of luck. Just prepare your best to go to war for 4 1/2 hours and I am sure that you can come out victorious. I also don't blame those of you who think that I might be lying and fantasizing, since we are on the internet and who knows what is really going on behind that screen. The reason I posted my scores is that I feel like I owe a portion of this accomplishment to some of the previous posts I found here on SDN (unfortunately can't remember exactly who the posters were) that suggested study materials such as Barron's or Examkrackers. I really felt these did help a lot.
 
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Hi, Great job!!!!

May I ask how can I contact you? I want to buy something from you, especially the destroyer and ExamKrackers 101 Passages.
 
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Shunwei said:
Well I took my DAT again today after taking the first one in late April. Here are my score comparisons:

April Test:

PAT: 20
QR: 21
RC: 19
Bio: 23
GC: 22
OC: 22
TS: 22
AA: 21

Today:

PAT: 21
QR: 25
RC: 24
Bio: 24
GC: 30
OC: 29
TS: 27
AA: 26

Sciences: Since I am a Bio Ph.D., ironically I found the Bio section to be the hardest of the three. There are a lot of questions that require a lot of extrapolation and deep understanding, so I definitely do not recommend people to just memorize stuff and expect to regurgitate it on the exam. Whenever you read something, ask yourself "Why" and "How". I also think that Destroyer helped a lot here, since I didn't have it for my first run. There are a few questions that are basically the same from destroyer, and I honestly don't think that I could have improved so much in Chem without it (and some luck as well).

RC: I had ExamKrackers 101 Passages for this, and this helped quite a bit, I believe, although the nature of the questions between the DAT and the book is very different. I personally think that this is the most difficult section to prepare, because reading is a long-term skill that cannot be cultivated in a short time. For those of you who reads proficiently, I would recommend a "reading-for-comprehension" strategy, because without understanding what you read it will be difficult to assess the tone/imply questions. However, for those of you who read slowly, I think skimming the passage for a general idea and then using the questions to take apart the passage can also be a good strategy. In any case, the most important parameter is time--make sure that you allot ~20 minutes to each passage and not risk missing out on the latter part of the section.

QR: I have always been pretty good in math, but for my second run I felt like I really benefited from Barron's SAT I Workbook. This material does a good job of reviewing the basics of the math you need to know, and also contains many practice problems. I was kind of surprised today because there weren't that many word problems as the first time, and a lot of the problems were of the brute arithmetic type.

PAT: The Crack DAT PAT program really helps here. I was kind of disappointed today because I honestly thought that I had gotten into the 24-25 range, but I am still happy with a 21. If you can do the hole-punching, angles, and cubes in that program, you shouldn't have any problems with the real thing.

Overall, I took this test again not because I was so disappointed with my first run (they are still good scores), but because I honestly know that I can do better. Given that dental schools are harder and harder to get into nowadays, I felt like standing out with my true ability would have been a good service to myself. Hope my comments help you guys out there about to take the exam.

P.S.: I have some good material to sell, so if anyone is interested PM me.
Click to expand...

Amazing scores! On average, what scores were you getting on crack dat?
 
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Solstica said:
Amazing scores! On average, what scores were you getting on crack dat?
Click to expand...

I was getting 22-23's on there, and considering that the material is harder than the actual test, I thought I could get a 24-25. And the real test was indeed easier--so I was quite surprised at getting only a 21 on there. But that should be enough and I am not going to worry about it.

I think the material is quite good to practice on. Other than the price tag I'd recommend it to anybody.
 
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you did an awesome job! your scores are amazing! one could only wish! best of luck!:hardy:
 
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Best DAT score I have ever seen. People have one 29 every now and then. But I have never heard of 30. What will you specialize in? Ortho wanna be? Or Oral surgery? Welcome to the club. I know you will go to either Harvard, Columbia UCLA, or UCSF. Just sit there and pick your choice....Take a vacation and spend your time think about it....
 
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What's your name? I ask this because I'm sure I'll be reading it in the journals when you develope some revolutionary dental technique or finding.
 
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tinker bell said:
Best DAT score I have ever seen. People have one 29 every now and then. But I have never heard of 30. What will you specialize in? Ortho wanna be? Or Oral surgery? Welcome to the club. I know you will go to either Harvard, Columbia UCLA, or UCSF. Just sit there and pick your choice....Take a vacation and spend your time think about it....
Click to expand...

Thanks guys. You folks are very kind in your compliments. I am sure that there was some luck involved, and that a lot of people who put in the work and time can do it. To be honest, the only thing that I was a little disappointed over was not being able to take advantage of rounding up--I had a 26.4. But I can't say I was disappointed in my score, as that was more than enough.
 
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