Looking for some much needed advice.

[HuskyUC]

Hey guys, so I kind of alluded to this in the DAT sub forum but I figured I would ask here too to gain some insight.

So my DAT is scheduled for next week, about 6 days. I have been studying very hard for the past two months, but I am still not doing well on Orgo, PAT and QR. I am bombing the BC exams for those subjects, and am not confident whatsoever. I decided I'm going to push my DAT back, but I am unsure of when. I understand that a good DAT score trumps being early, but I'm just unsure as to which side of the coin I should be on.

At this moment, there are only dates available for early/mid August and that is too late. I feel I will just start forgetting the things I have already learned at that point. I will be scouring the Prometric website for a date closer towards the end of this month.

Do you think that will still put me in a good position timeline wise? I want to be as early as possible, and haven't submitted my application yet. I do have all of my LoR's, shadowing, and transcripts mailed and received by AADSAS, but no GPA verification yet.

I'm only concerned because my GPA isn't the strongest, but I do have a good upward trend. My EC's are also well, I have done a lot of volunteering and such.


TL;DR: When would be the absolute latest I could take the DAT and still be ahead of the game timeline wise?


Thanks in advance, you guys rock.

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[fearthewild]

I think you could get a decent answer from looking through the Interview/Acceptance/Rejection thread from last year for people that are in your situation--I know the wisdom of those that have been through the process before will be much more helpful.

A note about your DAT: it's really easy to get discouraged by practice tests and I know I didn't feel ready when my test date arrived. BUT, in agreement with many, many people on SDN, I was pleasantly surprised by my scores. If you feel that you're under too much pressure to finish your application in a timely manner, then by all means push it back. However, you might be more ready than you think you are.

 

[Faux]

what are your practice scores?

 

[Scumbag_Steve]

,

 

[whitepapertree]

Hey guys, so I kind of alluded to this in the DAT sub forum but I figured I would ask here too to gain some insight.

So my DAT is scheduled for next week, about 6 days. I have been studying very hard for the past two months, but I am still not doing well on Orgo, PAT and QR. I am bombing the BC exams for those subjects, and am not confident whatsoever. I decided I'm going to push my DAT back, but I am unsure of when. I understand that a good DAT score trumps being early, but I'm just unsure as to which side of the coin I should be on.

At this moment, there are only dates available for early/mid August and that is too late. I feel I will just start forgetting the things I have already learned at that point. I will be scouring the Prometric website for a date closer towards the end of this month.

Do you think that will still put me in a good position timeline wise? I want to be as early as possible, and haven't submitted my application yet. I do have all of my LoR's, shadowing, and transcripts mailed and received by AADSAS, but no GPA verification yet.

I'm only concerned because my GPA isn't the strongest, but I do have a good upward trend. My EC's are also well, I have done a lot of volunteering and such.


TL;DR: When would be the absolute latest I could take the DAT and still be ahead of the game timeline wise?


Thanks in advance, you guys rock.

If it makes a difference, I got an 19 on my BC gen 1 test and another 19 on BC gen 2 test. I gave up and decided to just look at the answers and how they figured the problem out. I did no RC because I didn't want to spend 55 minutes doing something I could that would detract from me actually doing things I could LEARN from. You'll never feel "READY" but you are probably prepared. I got a 24AA/25TS nothing below 21. You should check Prometric dates now, because they might not have any soon. I don't think you should push it back but do what you must.

 

[HuskyUC]

I think you could get a decent answer from looking through the Interview/Acceptance/Rejection thread from last year for people that are in your situation--I know the wisdom of those that have been through the process before will be much more helpful.

A note about your DAT: it's really easy to get discouraged by practice tests and I know I didn't feel ready when my test date arrived. BUT, in agreement with many, many people on SDN, I was pleasantly surprised by my scores. If you feel that you're under too much pressure to finish your application in a timely manner, then by all means push it back. However, you might be more ready than you think you are.

what are your practice scores?

This is a tough decision and tough situation to be in. I'll give you a little background on my story to see if it can help. I took the DAT in mid-August the year before I applied (2014). I graduated in a after three years in May 2015, and went in knowing that I was going to have to take a year off because while if my DAT score was good I would have had a chance last cycle, if it was mediocre I would be completely out of luck with how late I was taking the exam that late. My decision to study throughout the summer paid of (25AA 24TS 22 PAT), and not only did my patience result in a better than average DAT score, it also have me opportunity to pursue other things that I wanted to do during a year off , which just so happen to strengthen my application (year of AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer). So if you don't have your heart set on this cycle I would push the DAT right up to just before you return to school. If you DO have your heart set on this cycle, just study hard until your later date ,which I would schedule for no later than the end of this month, because then you would not be "ahead of the game timeline wise". Hope this helps!

If it makes a difference, I got an 19 on my BC gen 1 test and another 19 on BC gen 2 test. I gave up and decided to just look at the answers and how they figured the problem out. I did no RC because I didn't want to spend 55 minutes doing something I could that would detract from me actually doing things I could LEARN from. You'll never feel "READY" but you are probably prepared. I got a 24AA/25TS nothing below 21. You should check Prometric dates now, because they might not have any soon. I don't think you should push it back but do what you must.

Thanks so much for the insightful posts. I really do appreciate it.

To answer some of the questions: I feel fairly confident with GC. My scores on BC would probably be an average of 18-19 the first time around, but knowing that I have studied the things I was weak in and the other day I scored a 21 on DATGenius' free GC exam. I'm not sure if this is an outlier or not, the concepts were pretty much the same as BC.

For Bio, I'm a Bio major so a lot of the classes I took, anatomy, MCB, etc really have been helping and I have been getting around 18-20 on the BC exams, but I'm sort of hesitant on retaking the BC exams because that will just inflate my scores because I can recall the answers (I will however re-do them the day's leading up to the test). I planned on getting through Feralis' notes about twice but right now I have only really gone through them half-heartedly once, but this was subsequent to reading cliffs and taking notes.

For Orgo, I definitely feel that I am way underprepared. I was never strong in organic in college either. I went through Chad's videos and quizzes, and I did well on the quizzes because I took them right after and that didn't really help me in retaining the information. On the DATGenius I got a 17, but I'm sure I had some lucky guesses when I reviewed the solutions. I took the BC one yesterday and got a 16. I really need to focus on this, so I have been saving the Orgo BC tests so I can gauge myself and get an accurate indication.

For PAT, I have been getting lower than 17 on the BC exams and they make me want to impale my head with a blunt object. They were very hard and made me really frustrated throughout. I feel okay with angle ranking, hole punching, and cube counting. TFE, keyholes, pattern folding are the bane of my existence and no matter how much I have been practicing, I can't seem to get the hang of it. Note: I am only using BC for this and I regret not getting CDP to build a strong base.

RC, I haven't done much but from time to time will read a Scientific American article. I haven't developed a strategy for it or practiced S&D or any of the ones outlined on SDN.

QR, I have done 9/14 Math Destroyer tests and wasn't doing well on them. Trigonometry is very hard for me, as well as statistics. I just don't have the time right now to focus on math, RC, orgo, and everything else to learn it all.

Background: I graduated last year so I am already in a gap year. I would really like to not take another year off. I am wholeheartedly trying my best for this cycle. That being said, I have close to 200 shadowing hours, probably around 800 volunteering hours. I have shadowed different specialties, different socioeconomic region practices, and even at the local dental school clinic. I have done undergrad research for 6 months. And clinical research in the ER for about a year and a half.

My GPA is not that strong. I have about a 3.4 with retakes. This doesn't include some of the classes I have taken at a CC during the summer (calculus, spanish, nothing science). My senior year I made Dean's List with about a 3.8 fall semester and a 3.947 (damn A-) spring semester. This was all with close to 21 credits. I over enrolled to graduate on time.

Wow sorry for the long post lol, but I think you guys can tell that I'm really freaking out.

 

[ajj70]

I would personally be ok going into the DAT in a week with those practice test scores. Can you take a full length test and see how you do--the 2009 test maybe?

 

[whitepapertree]

(calculus, spanish, nothing science).

Not sure if you've been calculating your science grades without math classes, but those are indeed science classes (calculus).

 

[HuskyUC]

Not sure if you've been calculating your science grades without math classes, but those are indeed science classes (calculus).

I haven't actually accurately calculated them, I used the spreadsheet I found somewhere here but it's not something I'm worried about too much because its out of my control.. hopefully they do bring it up though, but a lot of my grades are retakes so I know it will be different from what I do calculate.

 

[ajj70]

Have you used the eyeballing website for the PAT? http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/ It's pretty fun actually, at least maybe for us dental dorks

 

[HuskyUC]

I would personally be ok going into the DAT in a week with those practice test scores. Can you take a full length test and see how you do--the 2009 test maybe?

I have the 2009 paper copy from ADA saved. I wanted to save it for the day or two days before the test, to get a real accurate indication. Now I'm conflicted because if I do indeed decide to push my date back, I don't want to waste this resource... So I'm just going to wait? I don't even know lol.

My plan for the next few days is to just bang out as many destroyer problems as I can, review them and try to learn the concepts as much as possible. Once I go through it one more time, I plan on redoing all the ones I got wrong, to solidify.

I really wish I had time to go through Chad's again on 2x just to make sure it's all cemented in my brain, but that looks out of the question. I figure if I do push back a week or maybe a week and a half depending on what dates open, I will definitely do all of those, and just feel much more confident. A lot of this test is confidence and I don't want to retake this test, so I'm conflicted.


Do you guys think maybe before the end of this month towards maybe the 27th or so would be still relatively acceptable? I'm just confirming because I know it takes a month to upload the scores, and all that GPA verification stuff.

 

[HuskyUC]

Have you used the eyeballing website for the PAT? http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/ It's pretty fun actually, at least maybe for us dental dorks

Yeah! haha I have been following that as per Ari's schedule on DAT BC. Solid schedule but I feel as though I need to spend more time reviewing since it has been quite a while since I've taken GC/Bio/OC etc.

 

[ajj70]

As long as you have your stuff in mid-August or so you will be fine. Maybe things are different where you are, but I tried to schedule my DAT for the end of July and had to look at about 7 different testing centers before I found one that had openings that week. I'll have to drive a hour and a half to the testing center now.

 

[HuskyUC]

As long as you have your stuff in mid-August or so you will be fine. Maybe things are different where you are, but I tried to schedule my DAT for the end of July and had to look at about 7 different testing centers before I found one that had openings that week. I'll have to drive a hour and a half to the testing center now.

I know what you mean... It's hard finding a date that fits, and especially since I am not an early bird I do not want to take it in the AM, I realize I can't be this picky now but I have been literally refreshing the prometric website every half hour to see what's open. Right now, the 29th is open, but I really would prefer maybe the 25-27th at noon lol. I'm hoping people switch their dates as well and I can quickly pounce on one of those. If worse comes to absolute worst, I'll most likely just switch to sometime early August, and then switch again getting closer to the date, which is annoying because it'll be 200 dollars, but what can you do.

 

[ajj70]

I know what you mean... It's hard finding a date that fits, and especially since I am not an early bird I do not want to take it in the AM, I realize I can't be this picky now but I have been literally refreshing the prometric website every half hour to see what's open. Right now, the 29th is open, but I really would prefer maybe the 25-27th at noon lol. I'm hoping people switch their dates as well and I can quickly pounce on one of those. If worse comes to absolute worst, I'll most likely just switch to sometime early August, and then switch again getting closer to the date, which is annoying because it'll be 200 dollars, but what can you do.

I'll trade you, I wanted morning of the 29th and got afternoon of the 27th.

 

[HuskyUC]

I'll trade you, I wanted morning of the 29th and got afternoon of the 27th.

Haha done. Btw, what do you mean by have everything in by mid-August, just like having my application submitted? or?

 

[Faux]

Thanks so much for the insightful posts. I really do appreciate it.

To answer some of the questions: I feel fairly confident with GC. My scores on BC would probably be an average of 18-19 the first time around, but knowing that I have studied the things I was weak in and the other day I scored a 21 on DATGenius' free GC exam. I'm not sure if this is an outlier or not, the concepts were pretty much the same as BC.

For Bio, I'm a Bio major so a lot of the classes I took, anatomy, MCB, etc really have been helping and I have been getting around 18-20 on the BC exams, but I'm sort of hesitant on retaking the BC exams because that will just inflate my scores because I can recall the answers (I will however re-do them the day's leading up to the test). I planned on getting through Feralis' notes about twice but right now I have only really gone through them half-heartedly once, but this was subsequent to reading cliffs and taking notes.

For Orgo, I definitely feel that I am way underprepared. I was never strong in organic in college either. I went through Chad's videos and quizzes, and I did well on the quizzes because I took them right after and that didn't really help me in retaining the information. On the DATGenius I got a 17, but I'm sure I had some lucky guesses when I reviewed the solutions. I took the BC one yesterday and got a 16. I really need to focus on this, so I have been saving the Orgo BC tests so I can gauge myself and get an accurate indication.

For PAT, I have been getting lower than 17 on the BC exams and they make me want to impale my head with a blunt object. They were very hard and made me really frustrated throughout. I feel okay with angle ranking, hole punching, and cube counting. TFE, keyholes, pattern folding are the bane of my existence and no matter how much I have been practicing, I can't seem to get the hang of it. Note: I am only using BC for this and I regret not getting CDP to build a strong base.

RC, I haven't done much but from time to time will read a Scientific American article. I haven't developed a strategy for it or practiced S&D or any of the ones outlined on SDN.

QR, I have done 9/14 Math Destroyer tests and wasn't doing well on them. Trigonometry is very hard for me, as well as statistics. I just don't have the time right now to focus on math, RC, orgo, and everything else to learn it all.

Background: I graduated last year so I am already in a gap year. I would really like to not take another year off. I am wholeheartedly trying my best for this cycle. That being said, I have close to 200 shadowing hours, probably around 800 volunteering hours. I have shadowed different specialties, different socioeconomic region practices, and even at the local dental school clinic. I have done undergrad research for 6 months. And clinical research in the ER for about a year and a half.

My GPA is not that strong. I have about a 3.4 with retakes. This doesn't include some of the classes I have taken at a CC during the summer (calculus, spanish, nothing science). My senior year I made Dean's List with about a 3.8 fall semester and a 3.947 (damn A-) spring semester. This was all with close to 21 credits. I over enrolled to graduate on time.

Wow sorry for the long post lol, but I think you guys can tell that I'm really freaking out.

You do realize that people usually score +2 points on the real exam compared to their boot camp scores, right? Biology and GC are already fine. Organic and PAT can certainly go up to +18 in 2-3 weeks. I can't comment on your QR because you haven't taken any actual exams. But if you got through 9 exams (you really just need 10), then I'm sure you're learning something. PAT simply just needs a bit more time to click. Crack DAT PAT helped me with their videos 2 years ago.

Take advantage of qvualt imo. You simply need to put your head to work. You might need more organic content review, but other than that, you just need to be taking practice section exams.

Good luck, its certainly doable to get this all done by the first/second week of august, maybe even by the end of the month. You're really not that far off imo.

edit:regarding DAT test dates, I actually went a state away to take my exam in the afternoon(drove from ny to nj). You might want to look into that if its not too far.

 

[hoppingpre]

Hey,

I was in the same boat as you with PAT. I never scored above a 19 in BC, but I got a 22 in the actual. BC was also my sole resource for the PAT. So don't feel too discouraged!

That being said, I think TFE and pattern folding are very easy once it "clicks" as other people have mentioned. I highly recommend the BC pattern folding generator because it's essentially on the same level of difficulty as the actual. The BC TFE generator is a lot cleaner than what you'd get on the actual, but I think it is worth some time perusing because it will help you understand what the lines and dashes all mean.

Instead of trying to visualize the structure right off the bat, I think the best strategy is to focus on what's popping out, what's running through the structure, which side a tower is on, which should have a dashed line but doesn't. Etc. You can usually eliminate most of the answers that way, and then focus in on two of the remaining choices.

Same goes for pattern folding. For the dice questions you will basically have to visualize it in your head, but that just takes a little practice with the generator. A lot of the more complex patterns can be figured out simply by realizing what attaches where and which combinations would be impossible.

For me personally, the angle ranking was always what killed my score (once I got a 3/15...) so you've already got that advantage!

Good luck.