Retake DAT?

[anderson2993]

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Okay here's the deal.

I took the DAT on Saturday, got 20's across the board (literally all 20's besides QR 19 & RC 22) and a 19 PAT. My sGPA/oGPA is below average at 3.3 (high upward trend the past year) and I was hoping to outweigh that with a decent DAT score. That being said, I am also involved in research for my university's med center, I am an Undergrad TA for Microbiology, I work 25+ hours a week as a Trainer/Cook at a restaurant, I have ~60 hours volunteering at a pediatric dental clinic, ~140 hours shadowing, graduated HS 1 year early and will graduate college 1 year early as well (I just turned 19)... Taking into consideration most of my application highlights, would you all honestly suggest a retake or do I have a reasonable chance at getting in this cycle. I was looking at applying to the following schools in order:

1. Herman-Ostrow
2. Western U
3. Nova
4. UNLV
5. OSU (where I go now)
6. UK
----------------------------- (back up)
7. UTenn
8. Meharry
9. LECOM
10. Howard

Please let me know what you think I should do, thanks in advance.

Bryce

 

[Incis0r]

Okay here's the deal.

I took the DAT on Saturday, got 20's across the board (literally all 20's besides QR 19 & RC 22) and a 19 PAT. My sGPA/oGPA is below average at 3.3 (high upward trend the past year) and I was hoping to outweigh that with a decent DAT score. That being said, I am also involved in research for my university's med center, I am an Undergrad TA for Microbiology, I work 25+ hours a week as a Trainer/Cook at a restaurant, I have ~60 hours volunteering at a pediatric dental clinic, ~140 hours shadowing, graduated HS 1 year early and will graduate college 1 year early as well (I just turned 19)... Taking into consideration most of my application highlights, would you all honestly suggest a retake or do I have a reasonable chance at getting in this cycle. I was looking at applying to the following schools in order:

1. Herman-Ostrow
2. Western U
3. Nova
4. UNLV
5. OSU (where I go now)
6. UK
----------------------------- (back up)
7. UTenn
8. Meharry
9. LECOM
10. Howard

Please let me know what you think I should do, thanks in advance.

Bryce

Hi Bryce,

If I were in your your shoes, I would retake and aim for 22+. You're clearly a bright student (you graduated high school & college 1 year early each time). You've got it in you. Just sit down, practice more, and knock it out of the park this time.

Your ECs/shadowing are great. Strengthen your DAT to further optimize your chances. Check out my DAT breakdown (in my signature) for some helpful tips that aided me in my DAT prep.

 

[anderson2993]

Hi Bryce,

If I were in your your shoes, I would retake and aim for 22+. You're clearly a bright student (you graduated high school & college 1 year early each time). You've got it in you. Just sit down, practice more, and knock it out of the park this time.

Your ECs/shadowing are great. Strengthen your DAT to further optimize your chances. Check out my DAT breakdown (in my signature) for some helpful tips that aided me in my DAT prep.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and agree.. I would definitely feel more comfortable taking it again I just didn't want to if I didn't have to, you know?

 

[Incis0r]

I would definitely feel more comfortable taking it again I just didn't want to if I didn't have to, you know?

You're absolutely right, and I feel you - it's a monster of an exam. Your stats are decent as they are right now, but retaking will make you even more competitive.

And like you said, retaking will make you more comfortable. You don't want to doubt yourself in the application cycle.

This goes out to you and anyone else reading this - feel free to PM me if you want someone to support you through the process!

 

[Medin2017]

Okay here's the deal.

I took the DAT on Saturday, got 20's across the board (literally all 20's besides QR 19 & RC 22) and a 19 PAT. My sGPA/oGPA is below average at 3.3 (high upward trend the past year) and I was hoping to outweigh that with a decent DAT score. That being said, I am also involved in research for my university's med center, I am an Undergrad TA for Microbiology, I work 25+ hours a week as a Trainer/Cook at a restaurant, I have ~60 hours volunteering at a pediatric dental clinic, ~140 hours shadowing, graduated HS 1 year early and will graduate college 1 year early as well (I just turned 19)... Taking into consideration most of my application highlights, would you all honestly suggest a retake or do I have a reasonable chance at getting in this cycle. I was looking at applying to the following schools in order:

1. Herman-Ostrow
2. Western U
3. Nova
4. UNLV
5. OSU (where I go now)
6. UK
----------------------------- (back up)
7. UTenn
8. Meharry
9. LECOM
10. Howard

Please let me know what you think I should do, thanks in advance.

Bryce

Retaking would be worth it depending on how you studied the 1st time. Not everyone improves by enough of a margin to justify a retake.

 

[wengerout]

Ehhh honestly retake might not be worth it. Just apply broadly and really polish your application/interviews.

 

[tyjacobs]

Okay here's the deal.

I took the DAT on Saturday, got 20's across the board (literally all 20's besides QR 19 & RC 22) and a 19 PAT. My sGPA/oGPA is below average at 3.3 (high upward trend the past year) and I was hoping to outweigh that with a decent DAT score. That being said, I am also involved in research for my university's med center, I am an Undergrad TA for Microbiology, I work 25+ hours a week as a Trainer/Cook at a restaurant, I have ~60 hours volunteering at a pediatric dental clinic, ~140 hours shadowing, graduated HS 1 year early and will graduate college 1 year early as well (I just turned 19)... Taking into consideration most of my application highlights, would you all honestly suggest a retake or do I have a reasonable chance at getting in this cycle. I was looking at applying to the following schools in order:

1. Herman-Ostrow
2. Western U
3. Nova
4. UNLV
5. OSU (where I go now)
6. UK
----------------------------- (back up)
7. UTenn
8. Meharry
9. LECOM
10. Howard

Please let me know what you think I should do, thanks in advance.

Bryce

You are at the border. One factor that will play a role is where you went to school. If you went to a top school, that will help you a lot because dental schools do care where you went to undergrad (up until a point of course but in this case its def relevant).

You can apply to a bunch of private schools (add nyu, bu, tufts, temple, etc.) And see what happens. You are just risking all the $$ in applying. So thats the decision for you to make

 

[Faefly]

I don't understand the rush, you have your whole life in front of you and you always have to graduate early which affect your gpa eventually. College is beautiful, adult life is hard at best, so I don't get it.

Anyway. I would suggest retaking.

 

[jsm458]

How did you study for it the first time?

 

[anderson2993]

How did you study for it the first time?

If I am being completely honest, I used Kaplan thinking it would prepare me for what I needed (I consider myself a good test taker and usually don't need to study much)..About a month and a half before I took the exam, I started going through Destroyer, but not looking at answer explanations and didn't really review the notes I had taken from Kaplan...2 weeks before I took the exam I was maybe 1/3 through each section in destroyer and decided to take a practice test online through Kaplan, scored low (~17) began to panic & found this website / chad's videos.. About 10 days before the exam I started going through chad's videos (~ 8 hours a day OC and GC) and doing more work in destroyer + understanding what I got wrong and why... The week leading up to my exam I did all the practice tests I could find, went through Feralis notes (not in depth, just skimmed over), finished chad's videos, and worked through about 80% of destroyer.. I think If I genuinely study for content as opposed to trying to cram as much I can into my brain in 10 days, I can improve my scores significantly, but will that really affect my odds at the schools I listed above; I'm not concerned with getting accepted to Harvard or UCLA, just the 5 or 6 I named above... Let me know what you think.

 

[Medin2017]

If I am being completely honest, I used Kaplan thinking it would prepare me for what I needed (I consider myself a good test taker and usually don't need to study much)..About a month and a half before I took the exam, I started going through Destroyer, but not looking at answer explanations and didn't really review the notes I had taken from Kaplan...2 weeks before I took the exam I was maybe 1/3 through each section in destroyer and decided to take a practice test online through Kaplan, scored low (~17) began to panic & found this website / chad's videos.. About 10 days before the exam I started going through chad's videos (~ 8 hours a day OC and GC) and doing more work in destroyer + understanding what I got wrong and why... The week leading up to my exam I did all the practice tests I could find, went through Feralis notes (not in depth, just skimmed over), finished chad's videos, and worked through about 80% of destroyer.. I think If I genuinely study for content as opposed to trying to cram as much I can into my brain in 10 days, I can improve my scores significantly, but will that really affect my odds at the schools I listed above; I'm not concerned with getting accepted to Harvard or UCLA, just the 5 or 6 I named above... Let me know what you think.

It's not about getting into harvard or UCLA, the high DAT is to offset the GPA. You probably need a DAT that's close to the average of ivies (22-24) to have a safe chance of getting in with a below average GPA.

 

[jsm458]

If I am being completely honest, I used Kaplan thinking it would prepare me for what I needed (I consider myself a good test taker and usually don't need to study much)..About a month and a half before I took the exam, I started going through Destroyer, but not looking at answer explanations and didn't really review the notes I had taken from Kaplan...2 weeks before I took the exam I was maybe 1/3 through each section in destroyer and decided to take a practice test online through Kaplan, scored low (~17) began to panic & found this website / chad's videos.. About 10 days before the exam I started going through chad's videos (~ 8 hours a day OC and GC) and doing more work in destroyer + understanding what I got wrong and why... The week leading up to my exam I did all the practice tests I could find, went through Feralis notes (not in depth, just skimmed over), finished chad's videos, and worked through about 80% of destroyer.. I think If I genuinely study for content as opposed to trying to cram as much I can into my brain in 10 days, I can improve my scores significantly, but will that really affect my odds at the schools I listed above; I'm not concerned with getting accepted to Harvard or UCLA, just the 5 or 6 I named above... Let me know what you think.

I was in the same boat where I was worried about my GPA. The high DAT offsets that as another poster said. If you decide to retake the test, I would strongly reccomend you use Ari's bootcamp 10 week schedule. I think if you adhere to that and really put the effort in, there's no way you couldn't blow that test out of the water. That being said, I'm not an admin and have no idea whether or not you would get in without retaking the DAT. It would strengthen your app significantly and give you peace of mind if you did though.