Just finished the DAT...

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booksmart_2005

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Biology___________________23
General Chemistry__________22
Organic Chemistry__________25
Quantitative Reasoning______21
Reading___________________16 😡
Total Science______________23
Academic Average__________21 (21.4)

GPAs:

BCP = 3.95
Sci = 3.90
Overall = 3.88

I got a low reading score. Do I have a good shot at any dental school? Do you know any dental school that may like a candidate with my stats (low reading score)? I am totally devastated. I don't know what to do. Should I retake the DAT? Any advice is much appreciated.
 
booksmart_2005 said:
Biology___________________23
General Chemistry__________22
Organic Chemistry__________25
Quantitative Reasoning______21
Reading___________________16 😡
Total Science______________23
Academic Average__________21 (21.4)

GPAs:

BCP = 3.95
Sci = 3.90
Overal = 3.88

I got a low reading score. Do I have a good shot at any dental school? Do you know any dental school that may like a candidate with my stats (low reading score)? I am totally devastated. I don't know what to do. Should I retake the DAT? Any advice is much appreciated.

WOw look at your grades, they are very very good. YOU DEFINILY NOT NEED TO RETAKE, just make yourself ready for your interviews
how was the bio and RQ section?
best of luck
 
lida said:
WOw look at your grades, they are very very good. YOU DEFINILY NOT NEED TO RETAKE, just make yourself ready for your interviews
how was the bio and RQ section?
best of luck

On kaplan tests I always got above 20 for everything but reading.

I'd say biology was easier. I ran out of time for QR. I can't believe I got such a low QR score.

At this point, I am totally devastated. Reading totally ruined my day.
 
booksmart_2005 said:
On kaplan tests I always got above 20 for everything but reading.

I'd say biology was easier. I ran out of time for QR. I can't believe I got such a low QR score.

At this point, I am totally devastated. Reading totally ruined my day.

Honestly, your stats are so good that some people might be offended by your question...

Don't worry about it. No big deal. You have a very high chance to get in. 😎
 
Flipper405 said:
Honestly, your stats are so good that some people might be offended by your question...

Don't worry about it. No big deal. You have a very high chance to get in. 😎

Thanks Flipper. I didn't mean to offend anyone. I've heard a reading score below 18 = REJECTION. I hope it is as you say. I really hope so.
 
booksmart_2005 said:
Thanks Flipper. I didn't mean to offend anyone. I've heard a reading score below 18 = REJECTION. I hope it is as you say. I really hope so.

I just got offened....just like every other day... -_-;
 
I have received email messages about the test. Hopefully, I can answer some of them with this post.

I did not see any dat achiever questions on my actual test. I have no clue why one person @ sdn kept insisting he saw 10 questions that were very similar to dat achiever questions. I don't recall seeing any question that was similar to any dat achiever questions. I believe the real RC was harder than any practice RC. I spent most of my time studying for the natural sciences (biology, G & O Chems) eventhough I knew RC is my weakness. English is not my first language. I thought that I couldn't drastically improve my RC in a couple of months. So, I decided to focus more on the sciences. I think it paid off. My total science score was @ 99% percentile. I only finished reading Kaplan's review notes for biology. I didn't do all the biology questions at the end of the chapters. Those questions are good and maybe very helpful but since I didn't look at them I don't know if any of them showed up on my test. I took all the subject tests once. I only read the review notes for biology but watched all the lesson tapes @ kaplan (chem, bio, rc everything). In retrospect, TopScore, Dat achiever, Ace, KSF didn't help me much. I believe Kaplan and college textbooks are more than enough for the sciences.

Here are my views about practice tests:

College textbooks: Best way to study. 5 stars

Kaplan: Overall very good 4.9 stars

ExamCrackers series including the 1001 series: very good 5 stars

TopScore: RC is much easier than the real RC, PAT useless (take ADA sample test instead), Bio: read Campbell. QR has mistakes, 2 stars

Achiever: QR & RC easier. PAT harder. SNS harder. Actually, I felt O'Chem was about the same. Surprisingly, I got about the same O'Chem score. Didn't expect that. One thing about achiever's QR: they used derivatives to solve one of the problems. I didn't need to know derivatives for my test !!! 3 stars

KSF = can be good in the future. 1 star overall, negative 2 for their PATs

Ace = Crap. To the authors: Are you sure you passed your science classes and got in dental school? Which undergrad and dental schools did you guys go to?! negative 5 stars

Dat professor = written for DAT or some other test?! I still haven't figured this out. star = N/A

If and when I decide to study for the DAT again I'll mainly use my own textbooks (and Kaplan). I don't agree with anyone who thinks you need to go beyond these. "You fooled me once shame on you. you fooled me twice shame on me." -> very applicable if I use any of the other practice materials again.

I won't tell anyone actual test questions. I don't want to lie to any of you by saying I remember nothing. I don't think I missed more than 2 questions in each of the three science sections. I remember which ones gave me trouble but I won't post the questions. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.
 
ACETHEDAT has so many mistakes that it doesn't even help because you can't rely on anything.
 
is kaplan blue book + examkracker 1001 series the best?
I didn't know examcracker has examcracker AND examcracker 1001.
 
Reading Comp Advice. (I got a 24 on this section). Don't read the passages at ALL or take any notes. Almost all the the questions are factual and not (How do you feel/what's the tone sort of questions).

So, read the question first and then go to the passage and find the factual answer. A super-genius would be incapable of reading these passages and remembering all the minute details needed to answer the questions in the amount of time given.

You're goal is NOT to understand what you read and see the complete picture, your goal IS to determine what fact they are looking for in the question and to find that fact. If you find yourself actually understanding what you read then you are wasting too much time.
 
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