- Joined
- May 27, 2006
- Messages
- 98
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 0
- Dental Student
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PA 20
QR 22
RC 21
BI 24
GC 29
OC 29
Total Sci 26
Ac Ave 25
Good Karma makes me share a little about my experience but no details. Ok, so where shall I start...first of all, no matter how confident you think you are, no matter how cool you think you are under pressure, the only way to simulate what taking the test will feel like is to do this:
-- chug 10 cups of coffee followed by
-- having someone slug you in the stomach 4 times.
-- Immediately thereafter your stomach and heartrate will be in the right simulated conditions to take practice exams...
-- also, put earplugs in so you can hear your racing heartbeat...that helps simulate the nerve-racking test environment...
I'm not kidding, i was prepared, i've been slacking the last week because i've felt so prepared, but come test morning...wow...if you've every played sports for a national championship or big ten championship or something, you know how it feels...i could have taken a horse tranquilizer and i still would have been nervous.
IMPRESSIONS ------------------------------------
ADA sample
- similiar science, similiar math. PAT and RC can't compare because wasn't on computer screen. The detail level of the ADA sample is consistent with where you need to be. If you're worrying about what the name of the vein is where renin is released in response to decreased blood pressure, you're in too deep. I knew about 1000 times more bio information than I needed to know. My advice on bio is to NOT go into the details that all the practice tests inspire you to go into. Waste of time.
TOPSCORE- PAT too easy. the real deal was generally harder across the board...it was not impossible. I finished the real deal with 20 minutes to review.
SNS, I started averaging 20, finished averaging 23 with topscore. Topscore science questions are similar but the wrong answers you get in topscore are due to "out of the ballpark" questions like "whats the flagelatted coenocytic protist class named?"...which will never be on the real DAT. the wrong answers you get on the DAT are challenging simple questions that test your comprehension of very basic stuff...but use words like "what is best description of this..." couple of them I felt more than one answer choice was legitimately correct....
- Math? I got a 22 overall and was getting about the same in topscore.
- RC - similiar
DAT ACHIEVER
even worse than topscore regarding "too much detail" useless questions. I got 20s on first sns, and 17-18s on the rest. Motivates you to study, but overall not worthwhile. PAT too hard.
ACETHEDAT
Frankly I only took the practice tests, and then one of the timed tests because I found so many errors and wrong answers that it was more irritating than helpful.
KAPLAN TESTS
I dind't take the course but I had access to all the exams. Definitely helpful. Generally were harder, but on subjects that were relavant. Kaplans tests were too detailed but were helpful in zoning in on most relevant subject matters. Kaplan Math and Ochem WAYYY harder than real deal.
OVERALL ADVICE
- Seriously do what you can to try to simulate actual test taking mentality...Had I taken the real DAT in perfect mental comfort I would have done better. Get the coffee brewing and find someone willing to hit you a few times. Find ways to amplify the stress and nervousness as that will help you during the real deal.
- Studying for Reading Comp is silly. I tried, I bought those stupid MCAT books...don't bother. To succeed in RC, you need to be able to find obscure words quickly, and then quickly put together the question, answer choices and material thats in the 5 sentence passage containing the key word. Only way to do this is to practice FOCUSING. Meditation was my method. I know no other way than to truly practice focusing. When I took my first practice test on RC, I was getting 14s... why? because while I'm taking the test, I'm wondering to myself what i want for dinner...or whatever. I only took 3 timed RC sections...what can I say? counting deep breaths 500 at a time does wonders for focus.
- Math - If you can do problems like the sample ADA test and do them backwards and forwards and different versions, you'll be alright. The test is doable and errors made are generally due to time-pressure. I finished with about 10 minutes to spare and went over all of the questions I had marked due to mild uncertainty about my answer choice. I still got 6-7 wrong which means I probably made several boner math errors on the easier problems!
That's about all I have to say. For all you out there that don't have 20's+, don't be intimidated. As I said in another post, there is a 1 in 2 chance of getting into dental school and most will get in. People on this board are working, studying hard, and are doing the things that need to be done to perform. Lastly, the DAT is an extremely manageable test where you can do well, provided you are capable of managing your mental problem solving pace and have the backbone of information necessary to draw from. Having a BIGGER backbone of info (as I had) didn't help. If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent less time on bio, and more time on simple basic math...to NOT get a 30 in math is embarrassing...i'm serious.
Best of luck
CZ
QR 22
RC 21
BI 24
GC 29
OC 29
Total Sci 26
Ac Ave 25
Good Karma makes me share a little about my experience but no details. Ok, so where shall I start...first of all, no matter how confident you think you are, no matter how cool you think you are under pressure, the only way to simulate what taking the test will feel like is to do this:
-- chug 10 cups of coffee followed by
-- having someone slug you in the stomach 4 times.
-- Immediately thereafter your stomach and heartrate will be in the right simulated conditions to take practice exams...
-- also, put earplugs in so you can hear your racing heartbeat...that helps simulate the nerve-racking test environment...
I'm not kidding, i was prepared, i've been slacking the last week because i've felt so prepared, but come test morning...wow...if you've every played sports for a national championship or big ten championship or something, you know how it feels...i could have taken a horse tranquilizer and i still would have been nervous.
IMPRESSIONS ------------------------------------
ADA sample
- similiar science, similiar math. PAT and RC can't compare because wasn't on computer screen. The detail level of the ADA sample is consistent with where you need to be. If you're worrying about what the name of the vein is where renin is released in response to decreased blood pressure, you're in too deep. I knew about 1000 times more bio information than I needed to know. My advice on bio is to NOT go into the details that all the practice tests inspire you to go into. Waste of time.
TOPSCORE- PAT too easy. the real deal was generally harder across the board...it was not impossible. I finished the real deal with 20 minutes to review.
SNS, I started averaging 20, finished averaging 23 with topscore. Topscore science questions are similar but the wrong answers you get in topscore are due to "out of the ballpark" questions like "whats the flagelatted coenocytic protist class named?"...which will never be on the real DAT. the wrong answers you get on the DAT are challenging simple questions that test your comprehension of very basic stuff...but use words like "what is best description of this..." couple of them I felt more than one answer choice was legitimately correct....
- Math? I got a 22 overall and was getting about the same in topscore.
- RC - similiar
DAT ACHIEVER
even worse than topscore regarding "too much detail" useless questions. I got 20s on first sns, and 17-18s on the rest. Motivates you to study, but overall not worthwhile. PAT too hard.
ACETHEDAT
Frankly I only took the practice tests, and then one of the timed tests because I found so many errors and wrong answers that it was more irritating than helpful.
KAPLAN TESTS
I dind't take the course but I had access to all the exams. Definitely helpful. Generally were harder, but on subjects that were relavant. Kaplans tests were too detailed but were helpful in zoning in on most relevant subject matters. Kaplan Math and Ochem WAYYY harder than real deal.
OVERALL ADVICE
- Seriously do what you can to try to simulate actual test taking mentality...Had I taken the real DAT in perfect mental comfort I would have done better. Get the coffee brewing and find someone willing to hit you a few times. Find ways to amplify the stress and nervousness as that will help you during the real deal.
- Studying for Reading Comp is silly. I tried, I bought those stupid MCAT books...don't bother. To succeed in RC, you need to be able to find obscure words quickly, and then quickly put together the question, answer choices and material thats in the 5 sentence passage containing the key word. Only way to do this is to practice FOCUSING. Meditation was my method. I know no other way than to truly practice focusing. When I took my first practice test on RC, I was getting 14s... why? because while I'm taking the test, I'm wondering to myself what i want for dinner...or whatever. I only took 3 timed RC sections...what can I say? counting deep breaths 500 at a time does wonders for focus.
- Math - If you can do problems like the sample ADA test and do them backwards and forwards and different versions, you'll be alright. The test is doable and errors made are generally due to time-pressure. I finished with about 10 minutes to spare and went over all of the questions I had marked due to mild uncertainty about my answer choice. I still got 6-7 wrong which means I probably made several boner math errors on the easier problems!
That's about all I have to say. For all you out there that don't have 20's+, don't be intimidated. As I said in another post, there is a 1 in 2 chance of getting into dental school and most will get in. People on this board are working, studying hard, and are doing the things that need to be done to perform. Lastly, the DAT is an extremely manageable test where you can do well, provided you are capable of managing your mental problem solving pace and have the backbone of information necessary to draw from. Having a BIGGER backbone of info (as I had) didn't help. If I had to do it all over again, I would have spent less time on bio, and more time on simple basic math...to NOT get a 30 in math is embarrassing...i'm serious.
Best of luck
CZ
