Retaking DAT and Reapplying

[david609666201]

Hello guys I took my DAT TWICE
1st:
AA: 19 TS: 18 PAT: 21 RC: 16

2nd:
AA: 20 TS: 21 PAT: 23 RC: 15

I applied 16 schools this cycle, only Interviewed in two schools (USC, TOURO) and wait listed for them both.
Since it's April already, I am already losing hope and planning to reapply. I always did a bad job on RC no matter what method I tried. I am a very slow reader, when I read fast I will always miss some part of the information or even ignored what the passage talking about. Can you guys give me some link on people who studied for DAT and give me some suggestion for my 3rd retake please? THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!!

NOTE: 3.7 s and o GPA

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[Mr.Smile12]

Hello guys I took my DAT TWICE
1st:
AA: 19 TS: 18 PAT: 21 RC: 16

2nd:
AA: 20 TS: 21 PAT: 23 RC: 15

I applied 16 schools this cycle, only Interviewed in two schools (USC, TOURO) and wait listed for them both.
Since it's April already, I am already losing hope and planning to reapply. I always did a bad job on RC no matter what method I tried. I am a very slow reader, when I read fast I will always miss some part of the information or even ignored what the passage talking about. Can you guys give me some link on people who studied for DAT and give me some suggestion for my 3rd retake please? THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!!

NOTE: 3.7 s and o GPA

I can't really recommend you retake the DAT until you get that RC issue fixed. I always recommend 20's across the board and having a low RC really stands out badly, regardless of how well you may have done in school with non-science coursework. Schools have a history of knowing how much help people need if the RC score is that low, and this is especially true when it comes to their concerns about your communications skills with patients.

Did you always have this difficulty with reading comprehension in a timed test-taking scenario? How well did you do on the ACT or SAT?

 

[david609666201]

I can't really recommend you retake the DAT until you get that RC issue fixed. I always recommend 20's across the board and having a low RC really stands out badly, regardless of how well you may have done in school with non-science coursework. Schools have a history of knowing how much help people need if the RC score is that low, and this is especially true when it comes to their concerns about your communications skills with patients.

Did you always have this difficulty with reading comprehension in a timed test-taking scenario? How well did you do on the ACT or SAT?

Yeah, first at all thank you for replying and answering my question.
My entire undergrad life didn't really involves fast reading and answering question. For most of my scientific paper, I usually read it like 5 times thoroughly in order fully understand everything. So I don't know why, fast reading is like a blind spot for me and I am keep struggling with it...

My high school GPA is not very good therefore I didn't take the SAT before I go to Community College. Thank you.

 

[LeagueofLigTies]

I got into NYU with a 20 DAT and 3.75 ogpa! I’d consider applying there.

 

[LeagueofLigTies]

I’m not sure if it’s worth it for you to retake the DAT again... you could do worse and mess up your application.

 

[david609666201]

I’m not sure if it’s worth it for you to retake the DAT again... you could do worse and mess up your application.

Yeah, this is what I am thinking about also !

 

[bch18]

I got into NYU with a 20 DAT and 3.75 ogpa! I’d consider applying there.

did u get 20's across the board?

 

[frenzysword]

I think RC is more about techniques/logic...if English is not your second language, and you don’t need dictionaries to look up the words, then you should be fine...I am an immigrant and reading comprehension is always not my favorite topic since high school SAT...my advice for you is to take a look LSAT...I read the reading comprehension book as a practice for RC and felt it was really helpful...I believe for every single passage, there is a logic behind it. And your job is trying to find out what it is while reading it first time...Good luck.

 

[S_Diamond_DDS]

I am a slow reader too. The RC section for us should be more of a strategy game then simply reading the passage. Look up “search and destroy” on sdn. Imo, search and destroy only helps with a few questions, but gives you an idea about strategizing this section. What I did to prepare is I read a book on speed reading, which really just teaches you how to skim (so may not be necessary for you), then I practiced the RC section by taking a bunch of practice RC tests. I recommend DAT bootcamp and Crack DAT, there’s also a bunch of cheap/free RC tests available online. Eventually I found a personal strategy that worked for me. I only read the first 2/3rds of the passage, then read the questions, answered the ones I knew, then search and destoyed the rest. I realized reading only about 60%-75% of the passage told me a lot. It told me about the point of the passage (the rest can often be inferred), told me how the passage is organized (which helps when looking back to the passage to answer specific questions), and told me what I haven’t read yet (when reading questions, if I see a question about something that I don’t have the vaguest recollection reading about, it’s probably located in last part of the passage that I didn’t read). This is the way I saved time and did well in this section despite the fact that I am a slow reader.