Foreign student DAT experience

[Marina1981]

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Hello everybody! First of all, sorry for mistakes in my post, I’m just a foreigner, and I lived in USA for 7 months only.
I’ve just taken my DAT today, and my scores are:
PA – 20
QR – 19
RC – 23
Biology - 28
G-chem – 23
O-chem – 21
TS – 24
AA – 23
I have been reading this forum for 3 month, and tried to follow all the advices, but reading this forum made me REALLY crazy sometimes People recommended DATachiever – OK, I’ve bought it, got 16 😀 in biology, 16 in PA, 15 in G-chem. I don’t even want to discuss my thoughts about my own performance on this test. I was just lying in bed and crying. DATachiever is REALLY hard. And, I think, I had about 5 bio questions from it on my real test. So, my advice is – buy it, but do not pay attention to the scores you get. Just understand all types of questions.
Biology was easy, I think, I got 1 question, which I could not understand because of language problems (about names of bones), but the rest was OK.
G-chem – easy….not a lot of calculation, just basic formulas….
O-chem - not difficult….basic reactions…..know ALL from Kaplan - you will be fine.
PA – angles were not as difficult, as many people described. Key hole, TFE, holes, paper folding, cubes – much easier, than DATachiever, paper folding even easier than TopScore.
RC – English is my second language, but I had 23, and I had a passage about stock market (I was praying not to get it). Please, take no offence anybody, but native speakers should not really experience any problems.
QR – easy, but time……..some problems seemed freaky, I’ve just skipped them and guess.
So, thanks everybody for advices, this forum helped me so much! And if anybody have any questions – you are welcome.

 

[mouthcracker]

How did u managed to get 23 on RC even though u dont have eng as ur native language? very impressive......
i have about three months to study for DAT and I am in states for 3 yrs but stilll having problems with organic chem and rc?
Any advise????

 

[issa]

the OP probably from canada.

 

[Marina1981]

How did u managed to get 23 on RC even though u dont have eng as ur native language? very impressive......
i have about three months to study for DAT and I am in states for 3 yrs but stilll having problems with organic chem and rc?
Any advise????

well, I passed GRE last year, and this test has a reading section as well, and it's much more difficult, than DAT. I work in research now, so I have to read lot's of scientific papers. And I did ALL practice tests, I could find (including verbal reasoning for MCAT)
3 month fot DAT is more than enough. I work full time, so I could study in the evenings only, and 3 month was OK.
Where are you from?

 

[Marina1981]

the OP probably from canada.

awfully sorry, but what is OP?

 

[sgdorfl90]

awfully sorry, but what is OP?

ORGINAL POSTER....what are ur GPA and what undergrad do u go to, if u don't mind? And where are u planning to apply to. BTW vert impressive score.

 

[Marina1981]

ORGINAL POSTER....what are ur GPA and what undergrad do u go to, if u don't mind? And where are u planning to apply to. BTW vert impressive score.

so, in this case, OP is not from Canada 😀 Actually, OP is from former USSR
I had master degree in biology, physiology of humans and animals, but it's a foreign degree, so I have to send my transcripts to wes, and they will calculate my GPA, I hope, it will be around 3.60. I'm applying to UMaryland, now I'm working there in Dental School, doing some biological research. Hope, this will help me 🙂

 

[sgdorfl90]

you are a shoe-in. That's all I can say....you are over-qualified. 😉

 

[Marina1981]

you are a shoe-in. That's all I can say....you are over-qualified. 😉

I hope, people from admission committee will think the same. But foreign degree is foreign degree.... and I will not be able to apply until June, because I have to do all this evaluation stuff....anyway, thanks for warm words 🙂

 

[issa]

was that stock market passage similar to the stock market passage in dat achiever?

 

[Marina1981]

was that stock market passage similar to the stock market passage in dat achiever?

yes, similar passage, similar formulas, but questions were different...I hated that passage

 

[food4thots]

awesome scores.. by any standards..

 

[patdmd2007]

Hi Marina, those are great scores.

English is my second language as well, so I am struggling with RC.
If I may ask for your advice, how did you tackle the RC section during the test? What is your strategy? did you even read the passages before you answer the questions? I really appreciate any tips on the RC section. Thank you.

Good Luck on your application.

 

[Marina1981]

awesome scores.. by any standards..

thanks! 🙂

 

[Marina1981]

Hi Marina, those are great scores.

English is my second language as well, so I am struggling with RC.
If I may ask for your advice, how did you tackle the RC section during the test? What is your strategy? did you even read the passages before you answer the questions? I really appreciate any tips on the RC section. Thank you.

Good Luck on your application.

thanks!
my strategy was not to read the whole passage, when I did this on practice tests, I always ran out of time 🙁 so I changed the approach - I read the question, and begin scanning passage for key words, then just read the sentence with key words from question, 90% - you will get the answer. If you can not find key word from first time of scanning the passage, just skip the question, probably, during scanning for other questions, you will notice key word. And do as many practice tests, as possible, I practice on GRE and TOEFL (I passed them before DAT). And for some questions about biology passages I just knew the answer from textbooks, so I didn't have to find it in the passage, and it saved me some time. If passage seems difficult or it's about something unfamiliar to you, you can try creating a short map, just a list of 2-3 key words from every paragraph. But it takes additional time, so it worth doing on really difficult passages.
Hope this will help. Good luck on DAT

 

[patdmd2007]

thanks!
my strategy was not to read the whole passage, when I did this on practice tests, I always ran out of time 🙁 so I changed the approach - I read the question, and begin scanning passage for key words, then just read the sentence with key words from question, 90% - you will get the answer. If you can not find key word from first time of scanning the passage, just skip the question, probably, during scanning for other questions, you will notice key word. And do as many practice tests, as possible, I practice on GRE and TOEFL (I passed them before DAT). And for some questions about biology passages I just knew the answer from textbooks, so I didn't have to find it in the passage, and it saved me some time. If passage seems difficult or it's about something unfamiliar to you, you can try creating a short map, just a list of 2-3 key words from every paragraph. But it takes additional time, so it worth doing on really difficult passages.
Hope this will help. Good luck on DAT

Thank you so much Marina. that's what most people said on here but wasn't sure if that's also a good strategy for a non native english speaker. Now, I know. thanks again

 

[sanaz2231]

dear friend
CONGRADULASTION
I just enroled in this site a few minutes ago and your email was the first one I read. I really need your advice .I'm a foreign student and I want to pass the DAT . I studied environmental engineering in Iran ( I 'm from Iran,where are u from?). I'm always worry about how should start ? and haw 's difficult to study DAT in english?
please help me
best wishes
bye

 

[Marina1981]

dear friend
CONGRADULASTION
I just enroled in this site a few minutes ago and your email was the first one I read. I really need your advice .I'm a foreign student and I want to pass the DAT . I studied environmental engineering in Iran ( I 'm from Iran,where are u from?). I'm always worry about how should start ? and haw 's difficult to study DAT in english?
please help me
best wishes
bye

thanks!
first get Kaplans book, if you can get through it - you can get throught DAT (these are not my words, these are words of my friend - who is currently in orthodontics resedency programm 😉 )

 

[Ali-karimi]

dear friend
CONGRADULASTION
I just enroled in this site a few minutes ago and your email was the first one I read. I really need your advice .I'm a foreign student and I want to pass the DAT . I studied environmental engineering in Iran ( I 'm from Iran,where are u from?). I'm always worry about how should start ? and haw 's difficult to study DAT in english?
please help me
best wishes
bye

Nice...I did n't know there is persian on this forum....Koool 😀

 

[RockstarDMD]

Great scores! 👍

 

[mahGOL]

way to go girl....
What did you study for biology? I've got kaplan book and baron's and I know every single word from those two books. But I feel they are not enough, at least my frieds who took DAT told me.

 

[Marina1981]

Great scores! 👍

thanks! good luck to you in July!

 

[Marina1981]

way to go girl....
What did you study for biology? I've got kaplan book and baron's and I know every single word from those two books. But I feel they are not enough, at least my frieds who took DAT told me.

I mean, if you can get through Kaplan in sense of language, you can get through DAT. well, as many peole here, I would recommend Shaum's Outline for bio. But it depends on how much you remember from your classes. As for me, I spend 6 years of my life 😱 studying biology, so I just had to revise it quickly, and refresh some small details, and Shaum's helped me a lot. And I agree with your friend - I think Kaplan is not enough for bio in sense of science, imo

 

[xenomblack]

wow
great scores !!!!1
I'm also taking the DAT this august,
and i'm going to go through the KAPLAN course.
I am working right now, and about to start studying for the test.
How many hours per day would you say I should spend about??

Also, it's been quite a long time since i took my last biology class (about 2 semesters ago)

when you studied for the biology section, did the KAPLAN book help you alot?
(obviously since you got masters in biology you have more knowledge on that topic 🙂

thanks

 

[Comet208]

Nice...I did n't know there is persian on this forum....Koool 😀

There are A LOT more persians on this forum than you think.

Marina, AWSOME scores. you will have no problem getting into the school of your choice.

 

[Marina1981]

wow
great scores !!!!1
I'm also taking the DAT this august,
and i'm going to go through the KAPLAN course.
I am working right now, and about to start studying for the test.
How many hours per day would you say I should spend about??

Also, it's been quite a long time since i took my last biology class (about 2 semesters ago)

when you studied for the biology section, did the KAPLAN book help you alot?
(obviously since you got masters in biology you have more knowledge on that topic 🙂

thanks

I'm also working, so I could put on studing 3-4 hours each day, exept weekends, when I was lazy, and didn't study at all 😴
but last 2 weeks all that I did was studing (I was afraid that my boss would fire me , because I was doing some PAT problems during working time) ,and I took 3 days off right before the test
I think, Kaplan book is not sufficient for bio, I bought Shaum's bio, and just revised some small detales. But I remembered a lot from my classes. And imo, if you feel, that bio is your weak point, and you have enough time - buy Shaum's. And know fetal circulation 🙂

 

[Marina1981]

There are A LOT more persians on this forum than you think.

Marina, AWSOME scores. you will have no problem getting into the school of your choice.

thanks! 🙂 but I was so freaked out about DAT, that didn't do anything for application... 😱 I will not be able to apply until July-August, I think, and this is baaaaad....
that's great, that you can find people from your country on this forum.
I wonder, if there are any russians here??? 😍

 

[NoBraces]

so, in this case, OP is not from Canada 😀 Actually, OP is from former USSR
I had master degree in biology, physiology of humans and animals, but it's a foreign degree, so I have to send my transcripts to wes, and they will calculate my GPA, I hope, it will be around 3.60. I'm applying to UMaryland, now I'm working there in Dental School, doing some biological research. Hope, this will help me 🙂

Hey great DAT scores! I hope to see you at UMB!

Do you know when we will move to the new building?

 

[Marina1981]

Hey great DAT scores! I hope to see you at UMB!

Do you know when we will move to the new building?

hope to see you too, but I will not be a Dental Student until fall 2007 ....if everything goes right......till that time I'm just killing rats and doing research at UMB 😛
Everything is so unclear about moving. Clinic stuff is going to move in June...and research people only in September. But they change the dates every 2 months, so who knows? the building looks great, but it's poorly planned inside, and they have to re-build a lot of things. 👎
Do you live in Baltimore right now?

 

[Dentomorly]

thanks! 🙂 but I was so freaked out about DAT, that didn't do anything for application... 😱 I will not be able to apply until July-August, I think, and this is baaaaad....
that's great, that you can find people from your country on this forum.
I wonder, if there are any russians here??? 😍

Hi Marina,
congatulations on your score!!!!!! And thanks for all the information regarding the test. I am from former USSR as well and currently studying to take my DAT in 3 weeks. Will try to use all of your advices. What do you think helped you the most during the times that you studied?

Udachi v postupleniji!!! Russians rock!

 

[Marina1981]

Hi Marina,
congatulations on your score!!!!!! And thanks for all the information regarding the test. I am from former USSR as well and currently studying to take my DAT in 3 weeks. Will try to use all of your advices. What do you think helped you the most during the times that you studied?

Udachi v postupleniji!!! Russians rock!

Hey!!! Happy to see former neighbours!!! Good luck on DAT
the most helpful things were TopScore and DATachiever. Get them for sure. If you have any questions, p. m. me!!! 🙂

 

[Dentomorly]

Hey!!! Happy to see former neighbours!!! Good luck on DAT
the most helpful things were TopScore and DATachiever. Get them for sure. If you have any questions, p. m. me!!! 🙂

I just bought both Topscore and DATachiever. Thank you for the offer to help!