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RU1992

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Just wanted some advice from you guys please. I'm taking my DAT for the first time on July 3rd and just took my second practice ever and got a 17 AA. I'm obviously not happy with my score, and am going to keep at it until the exam. I just want to know what the lowest score you guys think I can get and still be admitted somewhere for dental school. I know admissions criteria vary, but just a rough idea would really help me out. Thanks again. (By the way, are there cutoffs for schools, especially for perceptual because I keep scoring 16 on that section?)

3.7 cumulative, 3.6 science --> Work at a hospital, shadow a general dentist 100+ hours, conduct research with a physician, volunteer in a non-profit organization, lots of leadership on campus, and am graduating in 3 years with a bachelors in Biology. Thanks!
 
ru1992 said:
just wanted some advice from you guys please. I'm taking my dat for the first time on july 3rd and just took my second practice ever and got a 17 aa. I'm obviously not happy with my score, and am going to keep at it until the exam. I just want to know what the lowest score you guys think i can get and still be admitted somewhere for dental school. I know admissions criteria vary, but just a rough idea would really help me out. Thanks again. (by the way, are there cutoffs for schools, especially for perceptual because i keep scoring 16 on that section?)

3.7 cumulative, 3.6 science --> work at a hospital, shadow a general dentist 100+ hours, conduct research with a physician, volunteer in a non-profit organization, lots of leadership on campus, and am graduating in 3 years with a bachelors in biology. Thanks!
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18
 
How long have you been studying?
 
I don't think anyone (even those with 4.0s) should go with a "worst case" scenario expected. Try your best, if you don't like the score, take it again in early August. However, with that being said, the practice tests usually give you a terrible comparison to the actual DAT. I just retook the DAT earlier this week. Two days before taking the actual test I used DAT Achiever and received abysmal scores of 16s and 17s. I ended up with 20AA, 20TS, and 21PA. To answer your "worst case" question, I'd say play it safe and at least shoot for a 19.
 
I've been studying for about a solid 2 months now... In regards to playing it safe and shooting for a 19, that's my minimum goal right now at least for the AA portion of the test. But I'm going to do all I can to score higher. And I can't retake until early October if I'm not happy with my scores (3 months) .. And I don't think I will score above a 20 on EVERY section, but let's see what happens haha.
 
do you know what the PAT cut off is at most schools?
 
Haha that's pretty creepy that he knows that you bombed the PAT section... I'm not sure of the cutoff though. What is usually the cutoff for the PAT section?
 
What did you get in each individual section, if you don't mind me asking, and where did you go wrong? We can private message if that works out better for you. I'm taking my DAT in about a week so I'd just appreciate some insight. Thank you so much.
 
Doe Adeer: Do you know what the PAT cutoff usually is?
 
RU1992 said:
Just wanted some advice from you guys please. I'm taking my DAT for the first time on July 3rd and just took my second practice ever and got a 17 AA.
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It really depends on which practice test you're talking about. Topscore practice tests generally give tests scores that are within 2 points give or take on the real DAT. Achiever is obviously more difficult so if you're scoring 17's on Achiever I'd say you aren't in bad shape. From my experience, the real DAT was actually easier than TS science sections. Good luck.
 
It's a Kaplan test. It was my first one in some time. I have 8 days until my exam and 6 practice exams, so I think I will take those once a day and see how I score on those. I've heard Kaplan is very on point with their grading.
 
RU1992 said:
It's a Kaplan test. It was my first one in some time. I have 8 days until my exam and 6 practice exams, so I think I will take those once a day and see how I score on those. I've heard Kaplan is very on point with their grading.
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if you've read through the forums, you'll find the exact opposite to be true for the most part. when i took my kaplan course, more than half of my class was taking the course again bc they solely used kaplan and got the "guaranteed course retake" bc they scored lower on the real thing than on kaplan exams. in fact my instructor supplemented the class with the dat destroyer and even advised us that kaplan by itself was insufficient.

but hey, maybe you might get lucky with your test.
 
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:/ well that makes me a little frustrated that I used the course then. So there aren't people out there who successfully took the exam and solely Kaplan? If you're out there, PLEASE let me know.
 
At this point it'd be more efficient to go through destroyer as many times as possible while retaining as much information as possible. In my opinion, this would be better than continuing a kaplan practice test everyday.
 
By the time I get the book, it'll be July 3rd and time for my exam :/
 
Kaplan is good for Chem, OChem & QR. Their QR was good practice for me (I only did the Kaplan 6 QR practice test before I took my exam)..although I regret not focusing a bit more on Trig.

Kaplan's Chem & Ochem are similar to the actual DAT.

PAT is the worst. Under no conditions should you use Kaplan's DAT to prepare.

Bio is more or less okay. I would use Kaplan's Bio material and know it inside & out and study more on the side just in case. The Bio on the DAT is very random.

Good luck! My first Kaplan practice test I got a 18AA and with each test, I got better until I got ~21AA on Kaplan.
 
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Thanks so much for the info. How did you do on the actual exam in comparison to your scores on the last few Kaplan practice tests? And I'm not sure what to do for PAT at this point. I only have a week, I'm going to try to get an idea based on the ADEA exam online and see how I stand... But it makes me feel a lot better that you said everything for Kaplan is pretty solid 🙂
 
Why are you taking it now when you do not graduate for another 3 years from now???
 
i think practice score is always lower than the real DAT score for several reasons:
1) we are not serious when taking the practice
2) real DAT was "easier" than practice
3) some practice are overkill (DAT destroyer, hard but goood!!!) best math practice is crack DAT math
 
I'm graduating in May, I'm not sure where you got the impression of 3 years from now hahaha.
and I hope the practice tests are usually lower than the real one. I have 6 practice tests left and want to go from my 17AA to at least a 19AA and a TS of at least 18. Thanks again!
 
Honestly, every school I have talked to has told me to focus more so on the RC. It is a better correlation of what we will be doing in dental school yada yada... So try to read lots of science passages and get used to the "boring content." One of the admission board members at Midwestern University told me that it did not matter if we "failed" the other sections as long as I got higher than a 20 on the RC that would be awesome and qualified for dental school!
 
Alright that makes me feel a lot better about myself... And it's Midwestern too, which is near the top of my list 🙂
 
I used only Kaplan to study. If you have time I suggest using other material as well. I didn't do so badly though:
20 PA, 21 TS, 20 AA, 20 RC

Good luck!
 
Realistically, you should not take more than 8 weeks to prepare for the test. The more time you give yourself to study for the DAT the worst off you are going to be. You'll end up forgetting what you learned 6 weeks earlier once you hit the 7 week mark, etc. Especially the Biology stuff.... god that stuff is random and vast!
 
Yeah I know that's actually why I'm thinking of just taking it in a week. My last practice test was a 19 AA 18 TS and 16 PAT (22QR 19RC 17 Bio 18 GC/OC). I'm not sure if these are okay scores a week before my test, but I feel that if I delay it any further I'm going to have an even tougher time recalling the material from the beginning... And for someone who used only Kaplan, you did great based on everyone's horrible reviews of Kaplan 🙂
 
Thanks. My practice scores were about the same as yours, but a little higher for PA. Good luck! Do lots of practice problems timing yourself.
 
Thank you so much. Would you say the Kaplan exams are a little harder, since you said your practice scores were about the same and you scored that well on the DAT? Thanks in advance!
By the way, just took a practice today but didn't do well on the Gen Chem section (16). It was so random this one in terms of the questions. Still same AA of 19 though with a 17 PA and 18 TS.
 
The Kaplan DAT scores are done by percentiles, and some people may have taken the same exam more than once. This is why the scores seem lower than what they truly would be for the percentiles on the real DAT. Make sure you go over the problems you get wrong so you know how to do them. (Especially for the PAT and science sections)
 
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