taking the DAT a fifth time...

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Sort by date Sort by votes
There are people that have taken the DAT 8+ times, though I can't speak to their success rate in terms of admissions. I don't think any schools have a hard rule that they won't accept more than 3 DAT attempts, it may just change how they look at your score (some schools use your highest attempt, a few schools take an average, etc.). If you're passionate about being a dentist then I would say focus on taking it again but change up your approach. What kind of materials and study schedule did you use in your previous attempts, and what do you plan on doing differently this time around?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Now THAT'S dedication. Good for you for sticking with dentistry! I think that if you really nail it next time and thoroughly explain your situation, you'll probably do fine. As Feralis noted, I don't think three attempts is a hard rule. Though I would simply call schools you're interested in and see what they say.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I think that the advice you need is probably a little more deeply rooted in your personality than you could portray over the internet... With that being said, GO YOU for continuing to pursue dentistry. It's obvious there is not much else that you could see yourself doing.

Do you feel like you have a level of introspection about yourself to be able and look back at all the things you could have done better in your first 4 DAT's? I think that may be something you lack. Other than that, how much time did you spend studying? I only took the DAT one time, and that was good enough. But I also spent well over 1000 hours within 3-4 months studying/preparing/strategizing/worrying/etc. specifically about the DAT. Also, even though some students spend a fraction of that time studying, and do MUCH better than I did; it shows that everyone is different, with different capabilities. I also took a whole summer between my Sophomore and Junior undergrad. to focus solely on that.

One thing you may want to consider is that if you haven't been able to reflect on your actions as a student enough to do much better on your DAT for years, you will mostly likely have a very hard time in dental school. This isn't to say its impossible to do well on your next DAT and in dental school. I am also not posting to tell you to move on to another field, you obviously don't want to do that.

Looking forward, what will happen if you become a dentist and fall on hard times trying to start a practice or build clientele? You may be better suited with less responsibility, not only in your career but in the training, as a dental assistant. If you love teeth, the dental assistant route may be better suited toward you? I'm sure any dentist would want a capable assistant who was as persistent on dentistry as yourself? Just something to consider.

FeralisExtremum said:
If you're passionate about being a dentist then I would say focus on taking it again but change up your approach.
Click to expand...

I applaud you for your effort and think you can do whatever you want to, if you want it enough! Good luck.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allaboutteeth5 said:
that's an amazing improvement!!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I think the biggest thing for me was taking more time to study. 1st two times was 3 weeks. This time around I did my due diligence and spent 1.5 months studying/taking tests in Achiever/previous DAT samples/ bootcamp/destroyer/qVault. Feel free to pm me if you need motivation.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
After my meeting with the dental school I interviewed with I plan to start preparing. I will use my dat destroyer, I want to buy orgo as a second language. And I still have all my notes from chads videos. I want to start preparing for the QR and honestly thought about taking a summer trigonometry class or going to get tutored since that is my weakness.

Any suggestions for other good study tools? I like videos because I'm a visual learner
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allaboutteeth5 said:
After my meeting with the dental school I interviewed with I plan to start preparing. I will use my dat destroyer, I want to buy orgo as a second language. And I still have all my notes from chads videos. I want to start preparing for the QR and honestly thought about taking a summer trigonometry class or going to get tutored since that is my weakness.

Any suggestions for other good study tools? I like videos because I'm a visual learner
Click to expand...


I personally used Crack the DAT, their bundle package. It has video crash courses and they also have video explanations for all questions. 🙂
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allaboutteeth5 said:
After my meeting with the dental school I interviewed with I plan to start preparing. I will use my dat destroyer, I want to buy orgo as a second language. And I still have all my notes from chads videos. I want to start preparing for the QR and honestly thought about taking a summer trigonometry class or going to get tutored since that is my weakness.

Any suggestions for other good study tools? I like videos because I'm a visual learner
Click to expand...

For QR, I found Khan Academy videos really helpful as a review.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allaboutteeth5 said:
Hey guys! So I scheduled my 5th (I know, so bad) DAT attempt for August 25th. I know that's late, but that's the earliest I can take it since last year I took it in August.

I have been studying and using gold standard books, DAT bootcamp, and destroyer.
I am determined to dominate this exam once and for all!
My first two DAT attempts are expired (almost 3 years old) will that make a difference in the fact that this is my 5th time taking it? I was 18 when I took it the first two times (I know so dumb) I am working on my personal statement now and trying to explain why that was a mistake and what I learned from it.

Anyways, I am almost 23 with a master's in biology so I'm hoping I have the study skills and maturity to FINALLY master this exam.
Click to expand...
Best of luck!
🙂
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allaboutteeth5 said:
I am working on my personal statement now and trying to explain why that was a mistake and what I learned from it.
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't discuss DAT scores directly in your PS. I think you should really make that more about you and your reason on why you want to pursue dentistry.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
osker246 said:
I personally wouldn't discuss DAT scores directly in your PS. I think you should really make that more about you and your reason on why you want to pursue dentistry.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I wasn't going to specifically discuss the scores. But I did rush to take the DAT and graduate undergrad, so I want to acknowledge that because that really changed my as a student and I learned a lot from that. But I wasn't going to get specific
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Allaboutteeth5 said:
I wasn't going to specifically discuss the scores. But I did rush to take the DAT and graduate undergrad, so I want to acknowledge that because that really changed my as a student and I learned a lot from that. But I wasn't going to get specific
Click to expand...
I take back what I said. I personally discussed my educational roadblocks that I endured in undergrad in my PS. But these roadblocks literally affected my entire education as far back as elementary school. If you have something similar I would say discuss it in your PS. If you only had temporary roadblocks that occurred during undergrad then I would leave it out of the PS. If I remember correctly there's actually a section on the application to discuss such circumstances. Maybe somebody else can confirm that for me.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tlovaj said:
I took the DAT three times.

1st: AA18 TS 19
2nd: AA19 TS20
3rd (and final): AA23 TS26

Use what you learned from the previous attempts and adjust your study habits for the next attempt.
Click to expand...
That's such an amazing improvement from your second to third attempt! Congrats on the great scores!! What do you think changed? I'm about to do a second retake and my first was AA 18 and TS 19, so I'm really curious as to what you did differently to get such a massive difference in your final attempt.

EDIT: Just saw that you studied more for the third attempt. Did you use different tools as well?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
osker246 said:
I take back what I said. I personally discussed my educational roadblocks that I endured in undergrad in my PS. But these roadblocks literally affected my entire education as far back as elementary school. If you have something similar I would say discuss it in your PS. If you only had temporary roadblocks that occurred during undergrad then I would leave it out of the PS. If I remember correctly there's actually a section on the application to discuss such circumstances. Maybe somebody else can confirm that for me.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I've heard that too but cannot remember. Guess I'll find out June 1st! Lol.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tlovaj said:
I took the DAT three times.

1st: AA18 TS 19
2nd: AA19 TS20
3rd (and final): AA23 TS26

Use what you learned from the previous attempts and adjust your study habits for the next attempt.
Click to expand...

What did you do differently the 3rd time? I took the DAT 2 times... The first time, I really didn't prepare. The second time, I used Chads videos and studied for about 12 weeks, I scored the same AA. Very disappointing! I will retake in Aug/Sep and apply late. I guess I'll give bootcamp a try.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MendiT13 said:
What did you do differently the 3rd time? I took the DAT 2 times... The first time, I really didn't prepare. The second time, I used Chads videos and studied for about 12 weeks, I scored the same AA. Very disappointing! I will retake in Aug/Sep and apply late. I guess I'll give bootcamp a try.
Click to expand...
Why don't you just splurge on some material? I don't see the point in taking it once unprepared, then taking it again with only chads. Just get all the material and even more supplementary practice material all together, run through it thoroughly, and nail it once. If you only add bootcamp to your repertoire, I can't see you adding that many more points. Better to be safe than take it yet again. Plus compared to MCAT classes or something, the DAT is relatively cheap.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
EDIT: Just saw that you studied more for the third attempt. Did you use different tools as well?
Click to expand...

What did you do differently the 3rd time? I took the DAT 2 times... The first time, I really didn't prepare. The second time, I used Chads videos and studied for about 12 weeks, I scored the same AA. Very disappointing! I will retake in Aug/Sep and apply late. I guess I'll give bootcamp a try.
Click to expand...

The third time I would say I spent a ton of time testing myself using destroyer, qVault, Bootcamp, Achiever, and the 2009 DAT. You can never go wrong getting feedback on where you are weak and it definitely helps you with managing your time studying.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Medin2017 said:
Why don't you just splurge on some material? I don't see the point in taking it once unprepared, then taking it again with only chads. Just get all the material and even more supplementary practice material all together, run through it thoroughly, and nail it once. If you only add bootcamp to your repertoire, I can't see you adding that many more points. Better to be safe than take it yet again. Plus compared to MCAT classes or something, the DAT is relatively cheap.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know, 1st time bad decision, 2nd time took the advice of someone to use chad to boost Science score... I don't mind spending the money, I also used crack the DAT and Kaplan book along with Chad.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
tlovaj said:
The third time I would say I spent a ton of time testing myself using destroyer, qVault, Bootcamp, Achiever, and the 2009 DAT. You can never go wrong getting feedback on where you are weak and it definitely helps you with managing your time studying.
Click to expand...

I'll give those a try. Thanks for the input! I def need to try the destroyer this time.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
MendiT13 said:
Yeah I know, 1st time bad decision, 2nd time took the advice of someone to use chad to boost Science score... I don't mind spending the money, I also used crack the DAT and Kaplan book along with Chad.
Click to expand...
I would take QVAULT over crack if you're gonna go beyond the standard BC,destroyer,Chads,Feralis route. For RC, the day before, take 1 RC test to see if you still have any bad habits.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

R
taking the DAT multiple times
Replies
2
Views
1K
DAT Destroyer
DAT Destroyer
ka.willix21
DAT Advice as a Two Time Test Taker
Replies
2
Views
1K
macsak
M
C
TAKING THE DAT NEXT WEEK AND NEED ADVICE!!! SO MUCH ANXIETY!!!
Replies
4
Views
2K
DAT Destroyer
DAT Destroyer
C
Organic chemistry on the DAT
Replies
4
Views
1K
cutiep360
C
B
should i retake the DAT?
Replies
1
Views
893
DAT Destroyer
DAT Destroyer
Top