Took DAT today - My experience

[hoak]

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Just took DAT today. Here are my scores:

Bio 20
Gen Chem 23
OChem 23
QR 18
PAT 18
RC 17
TS 22
AA 20

I was a little disappointed about my PAT and my RC scores. I thought I could get better scores

Bio: A combination of really easy and critical thinking problems. I think the easy ones are to get you to 18 marks and the difficult ones are to get you 20+. But overall, Achiever is a lot harder. In the real test, there's no I,II,III or II,III questions. Every questions are clear and straightforward. So either you know it or don't know it, it doesn't try to trick you.

Gen chem: Unlike Topscore, there's no difficult calculation problem. There are only 1 or 2 questions that I really had to use the board. Mostly conceptual. Easy

Ochem same as Gchem, a combination of reactions, conceptual and synthesis questions. Thought I would have a perfect score on this section. Don't know what I missed

PAT: If you can do Achiever, you will do good on PAT. Same difficult level as Topscore, much easier than Achiever, especially keyhole and TFE. Angles, I don't know, just go with my gut.

RC: really messed up. I ran out of time

QC: a lot of word problems (like 7 or 8), I ran out of time,too. But 18 is acceptable.


My GPA is 3.8, sGPA is 3.87. EC: 1 year working for the American Red Cross, 1 year working at a hospital, 8 months working as a dental assistant, 2 quarters of research in pharmacology (no public yet)...

With my DAT scores, do you think I can get in at least one of five California dental schools (UCLA,UCSF,USC,UoP and Loma Linda). Is my RC 17 score gonna hurt a lot ?

Should I apply more schools to guarantee that I can get in this 2008 cycle ? Thanks in advance.

 

[laundry]

Hey mate, good job on those scores! 20/22/17 will get you into USC for sure with your other stats, especially considering that the DAT is "harder" this year.

If you don't mind sharing, what did you study with? I gather you used Topscore and Achiever. Anything else? Any advice for QR - that's one section I'm actually afraid of. What did you use for Bio?

Thanks, and keep us posted!

Oh, yea, almost forgot. I think it's obvious that the more schools you apply to, the higher your chances. But I still think that if you apply to all Cali schools, you'll get in somewhere.

Cheers

 

[pudz]

Hiya,
so you ran out of time on reading eh? What do you think you would've done differently with that section if you could? I think that stuff is pretty dense, and practicing problems isn't like the other sections... did you use a reading comp. prep book?
thanks!
pudz

PS -- You did awesome! Congrats!!! 👍

 

[hoak]

I used Kaplan, Topscore, Achiever, Campell's Biology and Shaum's Biolgy.

Here is my study plan:

Bio: First I read Kaplan, and studied it throughly. But it's not enough. Think Kaplan as a skeleton and Campell's and Shaum's as your muscles 😀 Based on your knowledge of Kaplan, add more information from Campell's and Shaum's, especially physiology, ecology and taxonomy (know basic characteristics of the 5 kingdoms and their major phyla) Use Topscore and Achiever to know what your weakness is. I used them once at a time. After I took one, I reviewed and restudied the subjects that I got wrong answers. Keep doing that until I ran out of test. Oh, yeah, don't get discouraged by the practice test, they are harder than the real one (real DAT < topscore < achiever) I wouldn't say getting a perfect score on Bio is easy, but getting 20+ is not too difficult.

Gen Chem: I only use Kaplan. Make sure you completely understand periodic trend (ionization, radius, etc.) What make a good acid, what make a good base....

OChem: Kaplan,too. again, what determine basicity, acidity, boiling point, melting point, stability of carbocation, carbanion, and stereochemistry of reactions.

QR: I don't know. I didn't really study for this section. I took 1 Achiever test (23) and 1 Topscore (21). don't know why I ended up with a 18 on the real one. I think maybe because the real one has more word problems, which take time to solve.

RC: honestly, if I'm gonna take the test again, I just do the same: skip the passage and looking for key words. I think one of main reason I got a not-so-great score is because I got too tired at that time. In the practice test, I always get around 20-21 in Topscore. If I were at a better condition, I think I might do it better. Ah, yeah, English is not my first language, so if you guys are native speaker, I think RC may be easier for you.

 

[DentalKitty]

Wow, you really rocked the science! Congrats on all your scores, especially with your GPA, I think you have a great chance at wherever you want to go. So no I/II/III at all huh? What about all of the above/none of the above?

 

[hoak]

I don't recall there's any of all of above/none of above. Every question is very straightforward. Like " What's the color of the sky?" "Answer: Red, Green, Blue, White, Black" .....If you know what the "sky" is, you have no problem answering the question 😀

To pudz: actually, I don't practice RC 😀 Just took 2 practice tests on Topscore to know what it feels like. I didn't have time, I studied for only 1 month and i had to study for my Quantum Physics and Molecular Bio at school and working,too.

 

[DentalKitty]

I don't recall there's any of all of above/none of above. Every question is very straightforward. Like " What's the color of the sky?" "Answer: Red, Green, Blue, White, Black" .....If you know what the "sky" is, you have no problem answering the question 😀

To pudz: actually, I don't practice RC 😀 Just took 2 practice tests on Topscore to know what it feels like. I didn't have time, I studied for only 1 month and i had to study for my Quantum Physics and Molecular Bio at school and working,too.

Thanks for the input!

 

[jeezy]

good post.

> Campell's and Shaum's

is that Shaum's Outline Of General, Organic and Biological Chemistry
and this champell book

 

[hoak]

Yeah, you can also buy the old edition for cheap (I got it for $10). They're basically the same.

 

[joonkimdds]

I don't recall there's any of all of above/none of above. Every question is very straightforward. Like " What's the color of the sky?" "Answer: Red, Green, Blue, White, Black" .....If you know what the "sky" is, you have no problem answering the question 😀

is it blue?😕

 

[phungy]

is it blue?😕

Tricky question, It's black about half the time 😕

 

[joonkimdds]

Tricky question, It's black about half the time 😕

but daytime is longer during the summer so could it be white?

 

[hoak]

Lol, you guys think it too far. no good, no good 😀

 

[phungy]

but daytime is longer during the summer so could it be white?

I'll settle with green if you're down 😀