New member to site. DAT taken on 3/16/2010

[Loni]

Hello everybody So, I just registered for this site yesterday, but have visited it many times and it has been very helpful to me. Thank you guys so much. All of you really do put in your effort to help others. It's good to know that there are people out there who care. I took the DAT yesterday, and didn't really get the scores I was aiming for. So here is the breakdown of scores.

PA-17 GC-17
QR-14 OC-16
RC-18 TS-18
Bio-19 AA-17

And here is a little bit of my history. I'm 26, and moved to the U.S. when I was 14. I have an AA from a community college in Psychology. I double majored in Biology and Psychology at Temple University and graduated with a BA in 2008. Also had a minor in Cog. Neuroscience but I don't assume that's relevant to dental school. Here are my GPA's.
Community College--3.2
Temple U--oGPA, 3.45 and sGPA is about 3.17. But my transcripts do have some bumps on it. At community, I had 3 C's, in enlgihs comp., college algebra and statistics. At Temple U, I had 3 C's, 2 W's and 2F's, one in physics I and the other in orgo I. But I retook those classes and got an A in physics and a B+ in orgo. The W's are in Geology and Shakespeare. The C's are in cog. psych., general bio I, and physics II. But at a higher level bio, I had a B. So I would say bumps and bruises

As far as exposure to dentistry, I've had a great amount since I've been working at a dental office, as a dental assistant, since 2003, and throughout my college years. But I would assume that a job is not considered as EC. Bec auseI was working and going to school full time I didn't really have much time for EC's, but I did have a good amount of involvement in student ogranizations and volunteering. Ever since I graduated, I've been working full time at the same office, and am considering doing an EFDA program in May. I'm planning to submit my application to dental schools for 2011 in June.

What are your suggestions for me? Should I take continue education science classes at Temple and bring up my GPA's? Or should I just retake my DAT and shoot for a higher score? And what materials do you guys suggest I use to study? B/c I used Kaplan, and didn't really get good scores.

Thank you guys, I appreciate your help

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[azar87]

let me the first to tell you honestly speaking your scores are in the middle some good some bad on this forum your below average i dont want to discourage you but you will probably need a re-take to certify ur admission and trust me a lot of us have been thru it idk wat u used but some helpful suggestions would be to use kaplan blue book to review and destroyer and math destroyer is a must my friend with topscore and crack dat pat do these things and im sure ur score would go up significantly best of luck dont let others discourage you but u will need boost it up more especially with ur gpa

 

[UndergradGuy7]

If you only used Kaplan, you did not prepare enough. If you bought some more review books you could do better. You did about the national average. If you studied some more you can probably do better. Aim for 20+.

For materials, for biology use cliff's ap biology and kaplan, for general chemistry use kaplan and dat destroyer. For organic chem use kaplan and dat destroyer. Look up anything you don't get on the internet or book. You can also get acs general chemistry review books for general chemistry and organic chemistry. If you are not too good at the chemistries I would watch Chad's chemistry videos.

For pat get crack dat pat. Once you do all of that take some practice exams like from topscore or dat achiever.

 

[Loni]

Thank you guys

 

[dentalWorks]

I would just forget about additional classes at the moment and start studying for the DAT.

The good news is that you have a DAT score, so you can apply this coming June. Then you can spend most of summer preparing for the 2nd retake and take it around July.

I'll copy paste something I wrote from another thread about best study material for DAT:

"

Start with kaplan blue book, its pretty good introductory book. But its not enough (esspecially when it comes to biology). Start on kaplan BB, then go to these:

for biology: Cliffs ap bio + your biology text book for referencing
for Gen C: DAT destroyer
for Orgo: DAT destroyer
for QR : In my opinion, MATH destroyer (book with 10 QR tests) is best resource out there, if you master those 400 problems, approx 70-80% of them will reappear on the real DAT with just different numbers.
for PAT : Crack DAT PAT software, I got the 10 test version one, this is the BEST resource for PAT in the market. If you do those 10 tests, you should get AT LEAST a 19

The above mentioned is what I used, and is pretty common combo for most people around SDN. Some folks around here have done the kaplan online course, and they swear by those online kaplan tests, I personally can't comment since I never took the Kaplan course

"

 

[peanutb123]

at times like these you need to keep you chin up. Make sure when you take it the second time study hard and give it all your best... dont give up.