PAT 30 - what does this mean???

[XIloveteeth]

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I just took my DATS today (08.08.08 inadvertently!) and here are my scores:

PA: 30
QR: 22
RC: 21
BIO: 21
GC: 20
OC: 20
TS: 20
AA: 21

I don't know how I managed to get 30 considering I was getting 22-ish on every practice test I took but now that it's happened I was wondering what does it mean? How much does PAT weigh in scores anyway? Does it matter that my TS and AA aren't as high as I expected? Does it mean I'll just get into A school or GOOD schools? My GPA is a 3.3 (but shows MAJOR improvement over the years).
Help!!!

 

[ddsbruin]

i think you will definitely get into schools. that PAT is godlike. rarely anyone will ever get a 30 on the PAT, and you've done it. Now how important is that score? Most schools generally would like to have you scoring within a range and anything above that is great, but probably won't make you THAT much better than the other applicant. BUT then again, you have a 30. I have to say that it will definitely impress adcom's despite it's factor is not as important as the AA/TS. besides, your AA and TS are great! gl on the interviews and i'm sure they'll mention your 30 along the way! 😉

 

[doc3232]

It depends on the school, some schools (possibly you top choice) won't care for your 30. Some will love it. Find out which schools will love it and make sure you applied to those.

oh ya...
and great job.

 

[DDS13]

hey. woww, u rocked it. can u plz post ur achiever and topscore and kaplan scores if u took them

 

[T Time]

WOW, great job man! how did you study for the PAT? do you have any tricks for those of us trying to master the DAT like you did hehe? 😀

 

[Danny289]

congrat. great scores specialy you PAT.
PAT score is a little tricky. you can have 75 answers correct and 15 wrong and get 100% percentile. in other hand you can have 85 answers correct and 5 answers wrong and get for example 90% percentile!(just I made it up) for this reason your practice tests didn't show up the real scores.there is no way practice tests scored like real DAT why?
because the all of practice test scores based on 90 questions but real DAT is based on 75 questions. in real DAT 15 questions are not scored that means if you are lucky and your wrong answers contain those 15 questions, you are going to have 100% percentile! and if you are unlucky and you have just 10 wrong answers that 5 of them is from 75 scored questions, actually you answered 70 questions right and the percentile will decline deramaticly!!. it make sense? I know many people don't know this fact. important point: Nobody knows which 15 questions are not scored but ADA! notice: don't try to figure out which questions are unscored in real DAT, almost it is impossible to find out!! 😱
more information check ADA site.
this is part of it:
"In 1981, the format of the test was once again changed to include only a test of quantitative reasoning ability, a test to measure reading comprehension, a test to measure perceptual ability, and a survey of the natural sciences, which measured achievement in biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. The Verbal Reasoning Test was dropped because there had been little evidence of any significant positive relationship with dental school performance. The two perceptual tests were combined into one, including those parts having the highest positive correlations with technique courses in the annual validity studies. The Perceptual Ability Test in the DAT currently contains 90 items, 75 scored and 15 unscored pretest items, which include problems in block counting, angle size, form development, orthographic projections, paper folding, and comparison of shapes of objects with apertures "

more information:
http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_users_manual.pdf

 

[xhamburgersamx]

I think those are pretty good scores. The 30 really stands out so It will only help you even with scores not caring too much about PAT.

 

[Sandra2012]

I don't think you have to worry at all. Your scores are great and the 3.3 is probably explained by that 'great improvement' that you mentioned. Plenty of students have issues in school that cause a lower gpa that can be explained away successfully.

As long as your app is in or you get it in soon...I think you will be a member of D1 class of 2013 of a pretty good school.😀

 

[polarmolar]

It means you completely owned the PAT--great work!

 

[coambis]

Wow, amazing scores. Congrats!

Now, would you share some of your studying tips? I have just two more days till mine.

Aaahhh!!!

 

[XIloveteeth]

Thanks for the comments everyone it really takes a load off my mind! For PAT I learned basics from Kaplan then used Topscore practice tests to refine. Even then I was getting solid 22's, 23 at highest. I was usually getting perfect on TFE, Hole punching and Cube counting but for some reason Key Holes and Folding really messed me up. The way I do TFE that differed from a friend is I don't try to visualize the object AT ALL. That takes too much time and just confuses you. Just look at the events on the edges and compare them between the three views. It goes so much faster and the technique is virtually flawless. Keyholes, the actual test is a lot easier than the practice tests I was taking. If you practice a lot you generally get the hang of it and can eliminate wrong answers pretty quickly. Usually it took me 15 minutes to get thru this section but on the test I was done in 10. Folding was also a lot easier on the test than I thought. Angle ranking was a BIG problem for me because no matter how long I stared at it I couldn't tell the difference but then my friend showed me his CRACK PAT and we went thru this section where the angles only had 4* difference between them. After just doing those for an hour I was getting angles right every time. I REALLY wish I had gotten CRACK PAT earlier because it helped me improve drastically in just a limited amount of time. For Ochem I was always really bad at it but I went thru everything in Kaplan and then went thru DAT Destroyer problems to reinforce. Destroyer problems are a lot harder than the test I thikn but it really helps reinforce concepts. Also the roadmaps are EXTREMELY helpful. Memorize those and you'll definitely be fine. Of course also know the basics of IR and NMR. Gchem I just used Kaplan and it was fine. I wish I could've studied a bit more for that and I heard Destroyer is good for that too. For bio I just used Kaplan and basically memorized everything in it. I felt pretty good about it so I'm not sure what I missed but I definitely had a FRAP problem which is not covered in Kaplan at all. QR and RC I used Kaplan and Topscore. I definitely scored lower on the test for those than all my practice tests. In Kaplan for QR they don't go over permutations or combinations at all so be sure to know those two equations before you go in. I had absolutely no volume or surface area questions which was annoying since Kaplan covered that pretty extensively but that was probably just me. That's all for now...good luck to everyone! PAT -> Just practice until you are comfortable with it. It helps to work with someone on it too and talk each other through the process of elimination. Friends make everything better!!

 

[iamdangermouse]

wow, first of all congratulations!

is CRACK PAT a book? or is it this program: https://pat.crackdat.com/order/browse_products.php ?

 

[polarmolar]

wow, first of all congratulations!

is CRACK PAT a book? or is it this program: https://pat.crackdat.com/order/browse_products.php ?

Its that program you linked, highly recommended by many DATers.

 

[iamdangermouse]

thanks!

 

[whoispittsnogle]

PAT 30 - what does this mean???

hello sir, i enjoyed your inadvertently swaggerific title.

regards,

wip