HELP, new at this

[kjlight]

I would appreciate any help you can give me. I am interested in Dental School and should have went that route the first time. I am currently a Dental Hygienist and would like to attend Dental school in 2003.I have all my prereqs in except biochem. I just took O-chem this summer I session. It has been 15years since most of my other gen. chem classes. How soon do I need to apply? Are Kaplan the best review books? I did find my chem I books and anatomy but that is it. My GPA overall is fine but I need a good review? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks kat

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[karmakola]

COngrats on the decision... that's half the battle!!
From your mail, I wonder whether it might be best for you to take some review courses esp. the ones with a classroom setting (that way you can ask a lot of questions). I haven't taken the DAT, so I can't recommend any couses, but if you go through older messages on this forum, you should get enough opinions.
I am myself a non-traditional applicant, although I have been out of school for the past 2 years. I am going to be aplying for the fall of 2003. I am going to take the last 2 pre-req classes this fall and then study for the dat early next year. that's my timeline. if your pre-req's are completed, maybe you can take the DAT asap this year and apply for the admission cyle in progress, but from the older messages on this forum, it seems the earlier you apply the better (around the june of the year preceeding your matriculation at a dental school). so you might wanna do it next year.
hope this helps.

Originally posted by kjlight:
•I would appreciate any help you can give me. I am interested in Dental School and should have went that route the first time. I am currently a Dental Hygienist and would like to attend Dental school in 2003.I have all my prereqs in except biochem. I just took O-chem this summer I session. It has been 15years since most of my other gen. chem classes. How soon do I need to apply? Are Kaplan the best review books? I did find my chem I books and anatomy but that is it. My GPA overall is fine but I need a good review? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks kat •

 

[Gil]

Since it's been 15yrs since you took Chem and bio classes, you might want to consider taking them again or studying like crazy for them. One good thing about retaking these classes at a University is that it helps you build a relationship with the professors teaching the courses and you can ask them for letters once you apply. Cell bio and Chemistry along with O-Chem are the science subjects on the DAT... study for these subjects. Kaplan might help, I didn't take their classes, but used their books to study (I got the books from a friend). You definitely need to study for the PAT, so try to get as many old PAT exams or review books you can. The PAT on the actual DAT exam seemed harder than the ones I studied.

One good thing is that there seems to be a bit of an advantage for the dental hygeine applicants. Good Luck.

 

[Beagle]

Really...cell bio is the major Biology section? I thought it included everything ranging from Botony to Molecular Biology?
Does it include a little bit of Biochem as well?

 

[waiting]

some cell bio, botany, taxonomy (major pain!), basic genetics, and basic physio.

To the hygenist....I definitely recommend Kaplan. For me it'd been 5-6 yrs. since I'd had most of the subjects tested so I needed a thorough review and got that from Kaplan. Their books are excellent and concise, hitting all the points you need to know and nothing more. Plus, the instructors are usually very knowledgeable as well. MOST importantly, though, is that they have a large library of practice tests and exams. Many of these are on the computer like the real exam which gives you great familiarity w/the actual format and sets you at ease come the exam.