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.
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.
