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- Jun 1, 2009
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Had the dat early morning in a city 45 minutes away from home. just got back home from downing some beers with a college buddy. i can say im pretty satisfied with my score. this is my second time taking the dat, i applied this cycle and got a few interviews but got wait listed at most of the schools. hopefully now im more competitive for this cycle. I've been working as a chem tutor at a local college since in august so it made studying kinda easy since i was basically getting paid for it the entire time. i'd say about 4 months passive studying. the week before the test i pretty much just lazy'd it out. i told myself i was gonna study a few times, but every time i sat down i was just like "eff it, i just wanna be done with this".
5/6/10->5/28/11
PAT 19 -> 21
QR 17 -> 22
RC 18 -> 24
BIO 23 -> 23
GC 21 -> 25
OC 21 -> 23
TS 21 -> 24
AA 20 -> 23
oK So the day before i ate one of those melatonin brownies around 4pm so i could fall asleep in time. i thought they were gonna kick in slowly in about 3 hrs, instead in less than 1 hr i kept dazing in and out of sleep and before you know it i was knocked out cold. i woke for a few hrs and just lied there for while then fell asleep. i woke up at 6:30 with ease and got to the testing site around 8.
PAT- CDP,topscore- theres no real way to explain the difficulty of this section sometimes. im surprised i did as good as i did, i thought i was gonna get another 19 or something.
keyholes- this was harder than any cdp or topscore test. some of the shapes had all sorts of contortions and random ridges everywhere. there were like 6 of them which were indistinguishable. i spent like 15 minutes on this section.
TFE- i wouldn't lose more than 2 max on this section on practice tests, but on the real thing it was just a lot harder. i guessed more than i typically did. i used like another 15 minutes on this section.
Angles- beleive it or not this section was actually easier than topscore and cdp. just go with your instincts.
Hole Punches- this was way easier than topscore. i did some markings on the board to help me visualize the holes. finished this section quickly.
Cubes- this section was on par with cdp and topscore. there was one set-up where there was a definitive hidden cube. i could see how it could trap some ppl.
Pattern Fold- not terribly difficult, on par with topscore but differnet types of questions.
QR- math destroyer- i did 9/10 test and they prepped me pretty well. i time myself for each section and then if necessary go back and do the questions i starred without being timed to see what i was doing wrong.
RC Holy crap i did not expect to do this good at all! The whole search and destroy thing doesn't work with me, i always lose focus. but the passages i got were really interesting so i was able to read into them really well and remember most of the information. they were about
quantum mechanics- have been into reading about these types of topics when im bored on the computer. My physics professor who wrote me a recommendation did research with particles near absolute zero. so i remembered chatting with him about it.
hurricanes- being from fl i've experienced these alot.
stomach bacteria- i did a medical trip to costa rica a few winters ago and one of the main things we were treating were gastritis so the information seemed more interesting to me.
Natural Sciences- i finished this section with 30 minutes left. i went to the bathroom in that time and then just reviewed some of the bio questions i was stuck on.
Bio - cliffs, kaplan blue book, datqvault, khan acadamy, dat destroyer- funny thing is the first time this was my most confident section and i was aiming for a 30. this time it became the section i was concerned the most due to the variability of the questions. its only a few questions difference between a high score and a average score. there were a handful of questions which werent covered in any of the above material but i knew only because took upper level bio courses like, physiology, embrology, and molecular genetics. some of the questions seriously made me just sit think about it for a few minutes. its like i was trying to go back in time in my brain and remember. i had at least 4 questions which i got down to 2 choices and just took a 50/50 guess. There would be questions about topics i know in depth, but don't remeber specific vocab words for. DATQVAULT is amazing! there were at 2 questions that i knew directly because of datqvault. On datqvault i was scoring between 18-20 for most of them. I'm really happy i at least broke even with my old score. my thoughts: this section is not to be taken lightly. although most of the questions are straight forward, there are some that really require you to think and analyze just what the hell is going on.
GC- i've been tutoring this for quite a few months so i've just naturally gotten better at it. after explaining concepts and doing questions with students i pretty much covered most of the topics. i watched a few chads videos from a friends account too.
OC- destroyer, odyssey. to most ppl this would be a great score, but im kinda bummed on it. i did the ENTIRE odyssey, i understood everything to the bone. i know exactly which 2 questons i got wrong. they both were very tricky and had ambiguous answer choices. i wouldn't get more than 1 question wrong on topscore. my official opinion on odyssey if you are a first timer don't bother with it, destroyer is enough with chads. if your taking it your 2nd time and you have a relatively strong base and want to perfect it and have a lot of time to kill, then yeah i'd reccomend it then.
cdp results: all pretty much averaging 20
topscore aa/ts/bio/gc/oc/qr/rc/pat
test 1: 20/20/21/20/18/20/21/20
test 2: 21/21/19/19/28/19/21/21
test 3: 21/20/18/19/28/20/20/21
my job is pretty chill and most of the time i end up not having anything to do so i pretty much studied on the job and almost never outside of work. there would be days where i would not have a student so i'd spend the entire time goofing off on the computers. eventually stumbling got boring and studying sounded fun. if your a recent graduate just wanting to kill time while applying to dental school and am need of money then i highly recommend working as a tutor at your local college. there is a lot of money in it and its the perfect bridge between undergrad and dental school because it keeps your mind up to pace. my base pay is 13/hr plus if you can get a pool of private students then your net gain increases dramatically. i charge anywhere between 35-50 an hour and students are willing to pay. im pulling in about 2k a month, which i know may not seem like a lot to some of you, but it basically covers all my bills, car payments, rent, and still leaves me a significant amount left over.
my stats cgpa/sgpa/bcp of 3.54/3.37/3.4
im applying to 20 schools this round. i know some of you might think thats a lot. it's just that im a reapplicant and i dont want to take any chances of having to waste another year again. My first choice is UoP because of it's accelerated program. i dont think im gonna take any classes this upcoming year because i know ill be busy with interviews most of the time. although i might take anatomy b/c its a pre-req for a lot of schools. i ordered one of those waxing kits so ill have something to do at work this following year since im done studying for the dat.
5/6/10->5/28/11
PAT 19 -> 21
QR 17 -> 22
RC 18 -> 24
BIO 23 -> 23
GC 21 -> 25
OC 21 -> 23
TS 21 -> 24
AA 20 -> 23
oK So the day before i ate one of those melatonin brownies around 4pm so i could fall asleep in time. i thought they were gonna kick in slowly in about 3 hrs, instead in less than 1 hr i kept dazing in and out of sleep and before you know it i was knocked out cold. i woke for a few hrs and just lied there for while then fell asleep. i woke up at 6:30 with ease and got to the testing site around 8.
PAT- CDP,topscore- theres no real way to explain the difficulty of this section sometimes. im surprised i did as good as i did, i thought i was gonna get another 19 or something.
keyholes- this was harder than any cdp or topscore test. some of the shapes had all sorts of contortions and random ridges everywhere. there were like 6 of them which were indistinguishable. i spent like 15 minutes on this section.
TFE- i wouldn't lose more than 2 max on this section on practice tests, but on the real thing it was just a lot harder. i guessed more than i typically did. i used like another 15 minutes on this section.
Angles- beleive it or not this section was actually easier than topscore and cdp. just go with your instincts.
Hole Punches- this was way easier than topscore. i did some markings on the board to help me visualize the holes. finished this section quickly.
Cubes- this section was on par with cdp and topscore. there was one set-up where there was a definitive hidden cube. i could see how it could trap some ppl.
Pattern Fold- not terribly difficult, on par with topscore but differnet types of questions.
QR- math destroyer- i did 9/10 test and they prepped me pretty well. i time myself for each section and then if necessary go back and do the questions i starred without being timed to see what i was doing wrong.
RC Holy crap i did not expect to do this good at all! The whole search and destroy thing doesn't work with me, i always lose focus. but the passages i got were really interesting so i was able to read into them really well and remember most of the information. they were about
quantum mechanics- have been into reading about these types of topics when im bored on the computer. My physics professor who wrote me a recommendation did research with particles near absolute zero. so i remembered chatting with him about it.
hurricanes- being from fl i've experienced these alot.
stomach bacteria- i did a medical trip to costa rica a few winters ago and one of the main things we were treating were gastritis so the information seemed more interesting to me.
Natural Sciences- i finished this section with 30 minutes left. i went to the bathroom in that time and then just reviewed some of the bio questions i was stuck on.
Bio - cliffs, kaplan blue book, datqvault, khan acadamy, dat destroyer- funny thing is the first time this was my most confident section and i was aiming for a 30. this time it became the section i was concerned the most due to the variability of the questions. its only a few questions difference between a high score and a average score. there were a handful of questions which werent covered in any of the above material but i knew only because took upper level bio courses like, physiology, embrology, and molecular genetics. some of the questions seriously made me just sit think about it for a few minutes. its like i was trying to go back in time in my brain and remember. i had at least 4 questions which i got down to 2 choices and just took a 50/50 guess. There would be questions about topics i know in depth, but don't remeber specific vocab words for. DATQVAULT is amazing! there were at 2 questions that i knew directly because of datqvault. On datqvault i was scoring between 18-20 for most of them. I'm really happy i at least broke even with my old score. my thoughts: this section is not to be taken lightly. although most of the questions are straight forward, there are some that really require you to think and analyze just what the hell is going on.
GC- i've been tutoring this for quite a few months so i've just naturally gotten better at it. after explaining concepts and doing questions with students i pretty much covered most of the topics. i watched a few chads videos from a friends account too.
OC- destroyer, odyssey. to most ppl this would be a great score, but im kinda bummed on it. i did the ENTIRE odyssey, i understood everything to the bone. i know exactly which 2 questons i got wrong. they both were very tricky and had ambiguous answer choices. i wouldn't get more than 1 question wrong on topscore. my official opinion on odyssey if you are a first timer don't bother with it, destroyer is enough with chads. if your taking it your 2nd time and you have a relatively strong base and want to perfect it and have a lot of time to kill, then yeah i'd reccomend it then.
cdp results: all pretty much averaging 20
topscore aa/ts/bio/gc/oc/qr/rc/pat
test 1: 20/20/21/20/18/20/21/20
test 2: 21/21/19/19/28/19/21/21
test 3: 21/20/18/19/28/20/20/21
my job is pretty chill and most of the time i end up not having anything to do so i pretty much studied on the job and almost never outside of work. there would be days where i would not have a student so i'd spend the entire time goofing off on the computers. eventually stumbling got boring and studying sounded fun. if your a recent graduate just wanting to kill time while applying to dental school and am need of money then i highly recommend working as a tutor at your local college. there is a lot of money in it and its the perfect bridge between undergrad and dental school because it keeps your mind up to pace. my base pay is 13/hr plus if you can get a pool of private students then your net gain increases dramatically. i charge anywhere between 35-50 an hour and students are willing to pay. im pulling in about 2k a month, which i know may not seem like a lot to some of you, but it basically covers all my bills, car payments, rent, and still leaves me a significant amount left over.
my stats cgpa/sgpa/bcp of 3.54/3.37/3.4
im applying to 20 schools this round. i know some of you might think thats a lot. it's just that im a reapplicant and i dont want to take any chances of having to waste another year again. My first choice is UoP because of it's accelerated program. i dont think im gonna take any classes this upcoming year because i know ill be busy with interviews most of the time. although i might take anatomy b/c its a pre-req for a lot of schools. i ordered one of those waxing kits so ill have something to do at work this following year since im done studying for the dat.
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I'm nervous I won't feel prepared that soon, but I don't want to change the date or else I'm afraid I'll slack on studying if I take off the pressure!
