RHONDAROBINSON said:
Congratulations on your great scores. What was your study regiment like? Did you study each subject everyday to achieve these scores? How did you use Topscore and DAT achiever? I just ordered the Topscore program. Should I order the DAT achiever also to get great scores like this. How did you learn all those Organic chemistry reactions? I am sorry for all these questions, but I am trying to attain scores like this also since my GPA is low. I thank you in advance for your response.
rdr
I basically just lived and breathed DATs for two months. Kind of slacked off the first 5 weeks. Studied a max amount of 5 hours a day and took waY too many days off to play tennis and procrastinate. The last two, three weeks I really turned up the heat and studied about 8-10 hours a day till my brain serioulsy started hurting. So the breakdown:
1) hoarded as much dat prep material as I could find off ebay and friends including: Kaplan DAT course material, Kaplan MCAT course bio, orgo, chem packets, ExamKrackers, Kapln GRE Math, Schuam's Biology and Chem outilines, Topscore Pro, Dat Acheiver, Barrons DAT and even DAT audiolearn. Classic case of overkill. I didn't actually have time to read/listen to everything.
2) Read through the Kaplan course book twice. Once towards the beginning of the two months and again a few days before my test. The actual course book is slightly better than the blue one you find at barnes and noble since it was review questions after each section which were incredibly helpful, especially in the chem and orgo sections. The explanations were pretty solid as well.
3) I supplemented the weak sections of Kaplan bio with Schaums and examkrackers which was definitely sufficient for the test. Chemistry, I needed more practice with solubilty, precipation, acid/base, so I used Schuams also. Schuam's chemistry has plenty of practice problems.
4) I think the best advice that I could give is to do as many practice exams as you can find. Pretend each test is the actual DAT. Time yourself and try your hardest. No cheating! Try not to use more than one or two tests as open book practice problems. Its more effective if you attempt the problem and figure out what you did wrong AFTER you go over the test with the solutions. Also, these practice tests are a good way to gauge what areas you are weak on so mark the questions you had to make any guesses(even educated ones) and make sure you thoroughly review those areas before taking another practice test. If you go straight into another practice test without strengthening your weakpoints, you're only cheating yourself.
All in all, I completed:
-2 practice tests from Barrons - (there are several errors in the answer key)
- looked over 3 kaplan course tests
- went to a free kaplan session to take a diagnostic test (you take the online one too through their website)
- took the Kaplan OAT book practice tests (and realized kaplan tends to recycle questions)
- 3 Topscore tests (essential)
- 3 DAT Achiever tests (even more crucial to getting 20+, especially for those of you having trouble with PAT, RC, and QR)
- oh i almost forgot about the ADA practice test which was the easiest test of them all, completely not indicative of your actual results.
PHEW...i felt like i just finished writing an expos. essay. So in summary: After you finish reading the kaplan book, take a practice test, figure out what areas you're weak in, study those sections, and REPEAT a billion times until you can score a 18+ on a practice test while dozing off.
😉
Don't sweat it guys.. DATs are DEFINITELY doable. I just hope getting into ANY dental school is still a possibility with my gpa. Oh well..only time will tell.
