should I retake because of one bad section?

[menouski]

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Just took it for the first time:

PAT: 20
QR: 15
RC: 20
Bio: 20
GC: 20
OC: 25
TS: 21
AA: 20

I wasn't prepared for math enough and ran out of time, is that 15 going to hurt me bad enough to retake the whole thing come application time?

Thanks

 

[Saiph]

I think it depends on what schools you are applying for and your GPA.

 

[menouski]

gpa is a 3.3 right now, but I'm trending upwards so I plan to be at a 3.5 give or take a little bit when I apply.

As far as schools go, I'm not picky.

 

[Adamsswag]

No need to retake. In my opinion, increasing your gpa is more important in your case than the score. The score is solid. One of my friends scored a 15 on his RCT, which is much more heavily weighed than QRT, and had an AA of a 20, and was still accepted into quite a few colleges. I think you've accomplished a lot through the DAT... I don't recommend a retake.

 

[menouski]

thanks for the input. I didn't manage my time well for the comprehension section either, although the score didn't come out quite as bad as QR section.

My fear is that if I take it again some of my other scores might go down, specifically organic, just because I think I got a little lucky on it. And I'm not sure if an increase in QR would be enough to raise my AA if I went down in other areas.

 

[ushaseos]

thanks for the input. I didn't manage my time well for the comprehension section either, although the score didn't come out quite as bad as QR section.

My fear is that if I take it again some of my other scores might go down, specifically organic, just because I think I got a little lucky on it. And I'm not sure if an increase in QR would be enough to raise my AA if I went down in other areas.

Well QR is the least important for most schools. If you have some schools in mind already, then talk to them to see if you have passed their cutoff. 15 is pretty low, but if your choice of dental schools don't care about it then it doesn't matter 🙂. There was a thread which ranked which parts of the DAT schools though were most important. If I find it I'll post it for you here.

 

[menouski]

thanks! When you say talk to the school to see how they feel about QR, are you talking about a phone call to admissions or something? I feel like I've combed through website to find specific section scores and haven't found anything.

 

[ushaseos]

Yeah I mean if you have a couple schools you are really interested in, since 15 is right around cutoffs, you may want to call the school's admissions people and ask them directly.

If say your intended school has a cutoff for QR at 16, then you'd want to retake. If your school has no cut off then you're fine! As I said though most schools apparently don't care about QR. Here is the thread I was talking about. Credit of course to doc toothache for all the hard work of compiling the statistics.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t= 657139

 

[menouski]

wow thanks ushaseos!

 

[billythekid]

I think you'll get in with that score. Just make sure and apply to a lot of schools. Most committees are lenient on the math section, especially considering how well you did on the other parts.

 

[menouski]

I think you'll get in with that score. Just make sure and apply to a lot of schools. Most committees are lenient on the math section, especially considering how well you did on the other parts.

Thanks! I'm not too too worried. As long as I finish strong gpa wise I think I'll get some looks.

 

[Tunaman]

Congrats, you should be ok, my friend received several offers with same stats, they didn't even mention his 15 in QR

 

[menouski]

Congrats, you should be ok, my friend received several offers with same stats, they didn't even mention his 15 in QR

Thanks Tunaman, I appreciate the input