just took DAT! oh well..

[desh]

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Hi,

I have just taken the DAT today.

My scores:

PAT: 19
QR: 17
RC: 17
Bio: 17
Chem: 20
Ochem: 21
AA: 18
TS: 19

I know my scores aren't great. But, I think I will try to apply with these scores and see where it takes me I guess. Or maybe I will retake it. I dont know.

Bio: was really random. and it was around 3-4 topics and cliff wasn't really helpful based on the questions I got, almost nothing I have studied was on there..

Reading: Omg! Search and destroyer was only useful for the one of the passages. For the other two I got almost all application questions. I felt like I was in one of my undergrad bio courses. Practice exams I was getting 19-20.

QR: I am actually kind of good at math. But these math questions just threw me off. Lots of word problems... on my practice exams I have never got below 20.

Chem: was reasonable. some hard some easy questions.

OChem: I liked it. It was straight forward and clear.

PAT: at the end I thought I got like 15.. seriously.. angles were like a joke and hole punching questions were like CDP kind of hard.

 

[IsaacYankem]

Not too familiar with the admissions process, but those scores should be in range for a competitive application based on what I've read. What is your GPA and EC's like? How many times have you taken the DAT? What materials did you use to study?

I'm not sure if a retake is in order. It's possible, but others on this forum who have more knowledge will certainly be able to give you better insight. Again I'll reiterate that many schools have cutoffs of 16 so you might be competitive. A lot of that depends on your GPA and if you think you have it in you to retake.

 

[desh]

My GPA : 3.5
EC: I have volunteered about 100+ hours and some shadowing experiences.
This is my first time taking the DAT.
I used destroyer, chad videos (they are the best ones out of all the study materials), top score, AP cliff, barron's ap bio notes, CDP, Kaplan Tests ( all the sections that I got 17 on the real DAT, I was getting 20's on Kaplan, and all the ones I got above 17, I was getting 17 or below on Kaplan)

 

[Ari Rezaei]

Did you feel like you had a lot of stats/ data analysis questions in the QR section? How much of an emphasis was there on geometry/trig?

 

[rebelwithacause]

With these scores, you should make the cut-offs for many schools.

Do you think you could do better if you retook?

 

[hl4jn]

I think you'll be fine with those stats =) You've definitely met the cut offs for schools and you're at an average for dental school admissions (meaning there are going to be lots of people with worst stats than you that get in so no worries!).

Good luck chica/chico =)

 

[Longcatislong]

Hi,

I have just taken the DAT today.

My scores:

PAT: 19
QR: 17
RC: 17
Bio: 17
Chem: 20
Ochem: 21
AA: 18
TS: 19

I know my scores aren't great. But, I think I will try to apply with these scores and see where it takes me I guess. Or maybe I will retake it. I dont know.

Bio: was really random. and it was around 3-4 topics and cliff wasn't really helpful based on the questions I got, almost nothing I have studied was on there..

Reading: Omg! Search and destroyer was only useful for the one of the passages. For the other two I got almost all application questions. I felt like I was in one of my undergrad bio courses. Practice exams I was getting 19-20.

QR: I am actually kind of good at math. But these math questions just threw me off. Lots of word problems... on my practice exams I have never got below 20.

Chem: was reasonable. some hard some easy questions.

OChem: I liked it. It was straight forward and clear.

PAT: at the end I thought I got like 15.. seriously.. angles were like a joke and hole punching questions were like CDP kind of hard.

When you say angles were a joke, do you mean that they were easier than expected or much harder than expected?

Also, if Cliffs didn't do well in preparing you for Bio, in hindsight, what do you think would be a better prep for this section? Just answering more Destroyer questions (those seem pretty random and cover lots of topics..idk)?

Thanks!

Also your scores look good to me! I'd be happy with those scores 🙂 Congrats on finishing.

 

[Eastcoast24]

Hi,

I have just taken the DAT today.

My scores:

PAT: 19
QR: 17
RC: 17
Bio: 17
Chem: 20
Ochem: 21
AA: 18
TS: 19

I know my scores aren't great. But, I think I will try to apply with these scores and see where it takes me I guess. Or maybe I will retake it. I dont know.

Bio: was really random. and it was around 3-4 topics and cliff wasn't really helpful based on the questions I got, almost nothing I have studied was on there..

Reading: Omg! Search and destroyer was only useful for the one of the passages. For the other two I got almost all application questions. I felt like I was in one of my undergrad bio courses. Practice exams I was getting 19-20.

QR: I am actually kind of good at math. But these math questions just threw me off. Lots of word problems... on my practice exams I have never got below 20.

Chem: was reasonable. some hard some easy questions.

OChem: I liked it. It was straight forward and clear.

PAT: at the end I thought I got like 15.. seriously.. angles were like a joke and hole punching questions were like CDP kind of hard.

Our scores are almost identical(my bio and qr is one point higher but my PAT is 1 point lower. Everything else is identical. I have 19aa/ts). I will still be applying with those scores this summer. Good luck!

 

[AFlo1770]

Congratulations on being done! I felt the same way when I was taking the PAT. I remember at one point looking at the time and thinking that there was no way I'd be able to finish. I'm glad I put the extra time toward understanding the individual aspects of the PAT so I was able to survive the DAT's version. Definitely harder than Crack DAT PAT.

 

[LaughingGas]

with your stats, you are fine..

 

[desh]

Thanks everyone🙂

 

[desh]

@ihateochem, I have never really learned ochem at school, and I had to teach myself (so I didn't really like it and it was frustrating to learn all those reactions and some concepts) but as you see ochem ended up being my highest score 🙂
So Ochem is not that bad actually..

 

[desh]

Did you feel like you had a lot of stats/ data analysis questions in the QR section? How much of an emphasis was there on geometry/trig?

There were maybe one or two geometry and trig not so many.. I had about 12-14 word problems and I had ran out of time and had to guess 3-4 questions.

 

[desh]

When you say angles were a joke, do you mean that they were easier than expected or much harder than expected?

Also, if Cliffs didn't do well in preparing you for Bio, in hindsight, what do you think would be a better prep for this section? Just answering more Destroyer questions (those seem pretty random and cover lots of topics..idk)?

Thanks!

Also your scores look good to me! I'd be happy with those scores 🙂 Congrats on finishing.

For the angles they were very hard🙁 I pretty much started guessing at one point so that I would have more time for the other two sections that I could actually get some points.

To be honest, I wouldn't change anything in terms of my prep for bio. I would still read/study cliff and do destroyer questions and hope for the best 🙂 If the randomness of questions on the test matches with the randomness of the destroyer questions then that's really wonderful and means luck is on your side🙂
In my case, I think cliff was helpful for the 20/40 questions and destroyer was helpful for 2-3 questions. But It could be different for each test.

 

[toyotasupra]

You'll get in, but perhaps not into your school of choice.... but eh who cares! When you get that acceptance letter from any dental school you will feel like you won the lottery.

 

[Intent]

Do a retake, if you have time to study. You have time to retake before June 4th so why not? I got a, 18 my first two times and I am going for a third before June. I didn't get it last cycle. My problem I think was too much memorization and not enough understanding. I would definitely retake though. I had issues with math and reading my first time around, reading went from a 16 to 18 the second time. What were your passages? Fiber optics? Genetic diseases? Prions? Fitness? anything like that?

 

[desh]

Do a retake, if you have time to study. You have time to retake before June 4th so why not? I got a, 18 my first two times and I am going for a third before June. I didn't get it last cycle. My problem I think was too much memorization and not enough understanding. I would definitely retake though. I had issues with math and reading my first time around, reading went from a 16 to 18 the second time. What were your passages? Fiber optics? Genetic diseases? Prions? Fitness? anything like that?

Hey, I know where you are coming from. But, at this moment I feel like, since I studied enough for the test that taking it second time may or may not make a huge difference. DAT is very important but I rather come to acceptance of my score and do improve EC. Like, if I would retake it maybe this time I will get better scores for bio rc and qr and get lower scores for chem and ochem.. I dont want to risk that. Or before I risk that, i rather see what schools think. What were your sub scores like?

 

[Intent]

I think the majority of schools would ask you to do a retake, and if I were in your shoes (provided I had the time, I'm not sure if you're in school/working/family obligations) I would spend the next two - three months studying and then take it around May 20th or so. It will take two weeks to upload your scores and you'll be in the first batch of applicants You also have the material fresh in your head, and it will be easiest now to do a retake instead of relearning some of the material later on. Im just saying, you might kick yourself if you don't do a retake before June. If you get a 20 or something on the retake and you're the first batch of applicants, the adcom probably will look favorably on your app rather than if they look at it in dec or some time in the future after they've already seen thousands of 18's and 19's

 

[Shazzam]

I think the majority of schools would ask you to do a retake, and if I were in your shoes (provided I had the time, I'm not sure if you're in school/working/family obligations) I would spend the next two - three months studying and then take it around May 20th or so. It will take two weeks to upload your scores and you'll be in the first batch of applicants You also have the material fresh in your head, and it will be easiest now to do a retake instead of relearning some of the material later on. Im just saying, you might kick yourself if you don't do a retake before June. If you get a 20 or something on the retake and you're the first batch of applicants, the adcom probably will look favorably on your app rather than if they look at it in dec or some time in the future after they've already seen thousands of 18's and 19's

You honestly think that the majority of schools would ask someone to retake the DAT when their scores fall into the average of ACCEPTED applicants? Seems like a paradoxical argument to me.

 

[LaughingGas]

You honestly think that the majority of schools would ask someone to retake the DAT when their scores fall into the average of ACCEPTED applicants? Seems like a paradoxical argument to me.

Welcome to SDN. where 21+ is considered normal...