Thank You

[organoDDS]

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New poster here, year-long lurker. I just wanted to express my gratitude to all the folks contributing here. This sub-forum was a great resource for me when I studied for the DAT's. (I just took it a few days ago.) And since I'm an older non-trad applicant, I don't have a pre-dental club/ pre-health adviser/ fellow classmates to hook me up with the latest and greatest study materials out there. 🙂

Here's the breakdown of my scores:

PAT: 22
AA: 23
TS: 23

RC: 26
OC:24
GC:23
Bio:22
QR:22


Bit of background: Graduated 2005, major in Biochemistry from a Cal State school. Been working in a research capacity in different nanotech start-ups right after graduation. Don't want to get a PhD then post-doc then work again in another start-up or do the tenure track thing. Did some shadowing last year (ortho, OMFS, perio, endo, several GD's) and thought dentistry is a good personality fit for me. I love working with my hands. Plus, I prefer being nice to people. 😀

Anyway... I'm very happy with these scores. And without the cumulative guidance from this board, I don't think I would have done as well.

So thank you very much! You guys are awesome!

And for you folks applying for the 2013 cycle... good luck on the DAT's... you can do it! I hope to meet some of you during this year's interview cycle...

 

[organoDDS]

Quick summary of my study materials:

GC: Schaum's 3000 solved problems in Chemistry, DAT Destroyer, Brown and LeMay's Chemistry textbook as reference,

OC: DAT Destroyer, ACS Organic Chemistry Exam Guide, McMurry's Organic Chemistry textbook as reference, Silverstein's book on Spectroscopy, Organic Chem Lab Textbook (forgot the title)

Bio: DAT Destroyer, DAT Achiever, TopScore, DATqvault, Campbell's Biology, Dr. Diamond's IB 131 Anatomy lectures on Youtube.

Math: Math Destroyer, Crack the Math, DAT Destroyer, Schaum's trigonometry, old algebra and statistics textbooks

Reading: Crack the Reading, DAT Achiever, reading journal articles to get my reading speed up

PAT: Crack the PAT (I got the royal flush edition with all the bells and whistles), DAT Achiever (what a life-saver!)

I used the CDM, CDP, CDR to gauge my timing, Destroyer, Topscore and achiever for knowledge review and sometimes timing. DATqvault and Math Destroyer for drills.

 

[ushaseos]

Holy mother of god...those are some bitchin' scores and a lot of study materials. Very well done and congrats!

Funnily enough I am also from Cali and did 2 years+ of nano-tech research. I was actually headed over to industry but decided to survey the health professions and decided upon dentistry eventually.

Any ideas as to which schools you'd be applying to?

 

[organoDDS]

Thanks ushaseos... 🙂

Did you do more bio-focused nano research, or more semiconductor/material science focused research? From my experience, the semicon industry is pretty cutthroat; pharma/bio is more relaxed and forgiving, although I have heard horror stories about a small molecule synthesis start-up that rivaled my last gig.

May I ask what made you decide to go the heath profession route and not industry?

As for schools, for sure the UC's... UPenn, Columbia, Harvard, UoP, Stony Brook, Buffalo... I'm still researching schools and will add more to the shortlist... 🙂

 

[ushaseos]

My research was more Bio/Pharma (stem cell scaffolding materials). Like you said these fields are a lot more lax, but again I suspect this will change maybe in a few years.

It was the lifestyle and abusive industry practices that really turned me away. My dad is an engineer and I saw companies dying to hire him 10 years ago, now he is 52 and they refuse to even look at his resume because they want to go find a 25 year old fresh graduate to abuse next. The engineering fields have developed this use and throw attitude with employees and all that stress without proper reward thing turned me off completely. I am sure in 20 years time the Bio-E field will be the same as the current electrical engineering and software companies, either way though I am not prepared to stake my future that corporate heads will start to be more benevolent.

I am glad you already have a nice list of schools. I swear this school research is WAY more difficult than studying for the DAT. Back then it was just a to-do list, now you have to think and study and consider practical aspects at the same time!

 

[Msmouth]

Congratulations and best of luck!

Would you mind sharing what study material you used most and found the most helpful? I couldn't possible use all of that. Did you think some of it was not needed in the end?

So far I have CrackDAT royal flush, Cliffs and Barrons AP Bio and flash cards, and Chad's videos. I will be studying full force this summer.

I appreciate any advice you can share.
Thanks!

 

[Muelitas]

Wow!!! Amazing scores!!! Congrats!!!🙂

 

[organoDDS]

@ ushaseos: It's good to be aware of that now... I too have the same exact gripes about my ex-profession, and I got paid waay less than an engineer. You could not have worded it any better. It's a cultural malaise- even at the start-up level.

Re schools research, at least the research phase is a bit more relaxed, relatively speaking. Imagine how much more nerve-wracking it would be come interview time.. 😛

@ Muelitas: Thanks so much!

 

[organoDDS]

@ msmouth: For bio, I personally found DATqvault and Campbell's Bio useful for the breath of coverage. THe downside of Campbells is the volume of material you have to go through. But I wasn't a bio major, which is why I needed the coverage with just the right depth, so to speak.

GC and OC: My experience is not representative of most folks, so please take this with a grain of salt. Because I was more of a chem major, and I tutored ochem in undergrad, I felt like I really didn't need much help here apart from quick review. The drills on DAT destroyer were sufficient for me. For OC, I relied a lot on the ACS study guide as well.

QR: Math destroyer and CDM for timing and word problems. The QR section I got more closely resembled CDM in difficulty, but the Math destroyer is good if you want to anticipate potential curveball problems.

PAT: Achiever tops. I would have bombed the TFE, Keyhole and pattern folding sections without it. (Pattern folding being my biggest weakness, apart from angle ranking.) CDP royal flush, for angle ranking, hole punch and cube counting. I liked the 2500 extra hole punch problems and I used them to great effect. By the time exam time came, I was cruising and very very sure of my answers in this subsection.

Reading: Achiever for getting used to the tough science passages and detail questions. CDR to practice on more tone type questions. I didn't use the search/destroy method to nail this section. I actually engaged and read the passages and memorized where to find what in each paragraph before reading the questions. This takes some practice and it may not be for everyone.

What I would advise in general when you study in the summer is to be focused and disciplined with your study time, but not overdo it to the point of getting burned out midway.

Best of luck with your prep! 🙂

 

[organoDDS]

I used the reference materials whenever there was something I needed to clarify or when I wanted to practice on certain topics: ie spectroscopy or more probability problems.

 

[Msmouth]

@ msmouth: For bio, I personally found DATqvault and Campbell's Bio useful for the breath of coverage. THe downside of Campbells is the volume of material you have to go through. But I wasn't a bio major, which is why I needed the coverage with just the right depth, so to speak.

GC and OC: My experience is not representative of most folks, so please take this with a grain of salt. Because I was more of a chem major, and I tutored ochem in undergrad, I felt like I really didn't need much help here apart from quick review. The drills on DAT destroyer were sufficient for me. For OC, I relied a lot on the ACS study guide as well.

QR: Math destroyer and CDM for timing and word problems. The QR section I got more closely resembled CDM in difficulty, but the Math destroyer is good if you want to anticipate potential curveball problems.

PAT: Achiever tops. I would have bombed the TFE, Keyhole and pattern folding sections without it. (Pattern folding being my biggest weakness, apart from angle ranking.) CDP royal flush, for angle ranking, hole punch and cube counting. I liked the 2500 extra hole punch problems and I used them to great effect. By the time exam time came, I was cruising and very very sure of my answers in this subsection.

Reading: Achiever for getting used to the tough science passages and detail questions. CDR to practice on more tone type questions. I didn't use the search/destroy method to nail this section. I actually engaged and read the passages and memorized where to find what in each paragraph before reading the questions. This takes some practice and it may not be for everyone.

What I would advise in general when you study in the summer is to be focused and disciplined with your study time, but not overdo it to the point of getting burned out midway.

Best of luck with your prep! 🙂

Thanks so much for the info! Orgo is my strongpoint as well but I need a major general chem review.

Math is my weak-point for sure, so I will be spending more time on that.
Thanks again!