Retaking the DAT

[ZFlink]

Hey guys,

I was curious, I am going to be taking the DAT in mid July. I should take it earlier but my semester is stacked and either my grades or studying for the exam would suffer. SO I am going to start studying at the beginning of summer until mid July. However, if I needed to retake my DAT for some reason it would not be until mid October, after the application deadline for most of the schools I want to apply to.

My question is if I submitted my DAT score and needed to retake it, would schools still accept a newer DAT score after the application deadline?

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[Osity]

Hey guys,

I was curious, I am going to be taking the DAT in mid July. I should take it earlier but my semester is stacked and either my grades or studying for the exam would suffer. SO I am going to start studying at the beginning of summer until mid July. However, if I needed to retake my DAT for some reason it would not be until mid October, after the application deadline for most of the schools I want to apply to.

My question is if I submitted my DAT score and needed to retake it, would schools still accept a newer DAT score after the application deadline?

I'm not sure if they would take a new score after the deadline, but I would highly, highly recommend taking to DAT before you submit your application, which I'm assuming you'll do the first day that you can.

The reason is this: if you put off taking the DAT, then you'll submit an application that's incomplete. The admissions committees won't even look at your application until you have a DAT score. So if you take it in July, then your application probably won't even be complete until August, making you two months behind thousands of students that have already submitted completed applications.

Schools start sending of interview invitations mid-July, and if you don't have a DAT score, you won't get an interview. Take it in May so you can have a complete application. That also gives you a chance to retake it if necessary, but get a 20+ on your first try and then you don't have to worry about that part anymore.

 

[whatDATmean]

I began my DAT studying beginning of summer (early May) to July 27 (test date). I submitted my AADSAS couple days after my DATs. I did it this way so in case I do bad on my DATs I wouldn't have wasted the money paying AADSAS. However, it is advisable that you submit your AADSAS asap and take your DATs at a later date which is in your case. Prometric will send your scores to AADSAS or to the schools you designated when you signed up for the test at a later date. I believe that once AADSAS sends out your application without your DATs, the receiving schools will just wait until they receive your DAT scores to make a decision but at least they have it. I think AADSAS has a set date where they mass mail all their applications to dental schools. I think it was a month after I submitted my application when it was finally mailed. So you don't want to miss any deadlines submitting your application late.

If I could go back, I would of submitted my AADSAS June 1st (the day applications open) and took my DATs later. This way, I believe I would of received interviews much earlier on.

To your question about re-taking your DATs. On my interview, they said they will accept the re-take if it is higher. This shows that you are trying and that's what matters.

 

[poki]

I submitted my app on June 10th and took the dat on June 30th...aadsas didn't release my scores to schools until July 19th

Started receiving interviews invites in august and September...

I think July 27th is actually cutting it close for pre December interviews considering most schools begin reviewing apps in august...but I think u should be able to land post December interviews with good scores...

Don't go into the dat thinking about retaking it and try to nail it the first time! I think u should submit ur app in June then take the dat end of July