Took my first diagnostic and am wondering what plan I should take from here.

[pduckworth]

Hi guys! So I signed up to take the DAT course through Kaplan and just took my first diagnostic. I went into this completely without studying or reviewing anything.

Breakdown:
Bio: 14 (45% correct)
I honestly guessed on almost 75% of these. I have never taken an anatomy course, so I was totally clueless on anything that had to do with the human body. Also, I forgot basically everything that had to do with respiration/photosynthesis, etc. Ooooops, haha. I am, however, a microbiology major, so I have plenty of resources to hopefully relearn basic bio 1 things and learn anatomy.
Gen Chem: 11 (27% correct)
AHAHAHAHA. omg. Seriously. I didn't remember a thing about gen chem... However, my boyfriend is a tutor at my university for gen chem, so he already offered to help me with things.
Orgo: 16 (62% correct)
This wasn't too bad for me. There were a several questions that came up that I never learned in orgo 1 or 2 at my school. I definitely feel like I need a refresher on my orgo.
PAT: 16 (53% correct)
I got all of the hole punching and keyholes correct! I had no idea how to do the pattern folding or top-front-end questions though... My angle ranking and cube counting weren't too great either. I also have NEVER studied these before (as mentioned). I just read the directions and hoped for the best...
QR: 17 (60% correct)
I almost ran out of time on math; I totally feel like I need to work on going faster. I also had a lot of trouble with the calculator. I would click on it... and nothing would happen. I think that is where I lost a lot of valuable time.
RC: 18 (62%)
This was my best section... which is very odd to me because I feel like I am TERRIBLE at reading comprehension. However, I am a very quick reader and I think that is what helped me. I had a ton of time left over.
TS: 14
AA: 15

Anyway! I am wondering exactly what I should do next now that I have these scores. As mentioned, my Kaplan course starts tomorrow so I will be following that. I also bought the DAT destroyer and the Math destroyer, and already have the Cliffs AP Bio book from when I took AP bio in hs. I'm not sure exactly how to work those into Kaplan.

I have not picked a test date yet, mind you. How do I know when I should decide? I just finished my sophomore year of college and was thinking about taking it right before the semester starts in August. Should I wait until I take my midterm with Kaplan and see if my scores improve (a lot)?

I apologize if this is a lot of word vomit... I'm just really nervous now about everything now! It's scary knowing that I have this super important test in front of me...

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[mario0923]

First of all I did not take any Kaplan courses. I tried once the online free tutorial that comes up every twice a month but since everyone in SDN do not recommend it I decided not to waste/spend 2000 bucks.
So I won't be 100% accurate in interpreting your score since I didn't take Kaplan and I am not an expert.
But I will tell you my thoughts

DAT score is based on how many you get right and the percentile next to the score is not the percentile that you got right but the percentile of how many people got the same or lower score than you. For example if you have 25 (99.5%) that means 99.5% of DAT takers got a same or lower score than you and only 0.5% got a higher score than you. But ADA never tells exactly how they score the test.

Back to the topic! since you are in the Kaplan course...which I think it won't really help, stick with it since you don't want to waste your money. But don't rely just on Kaplan. I do not know your goal score but if you want to score high, considering your current science scores, you should definitely put more effort.
I think if you study with Chad's video and Destroyer and your boyfriend, you will be fine.
I personally think RC, QR and PAT are practicing. So I recommend you to get as many practice questions as possible like Kaplan (since you are in the course), CrackDAT, Topscore, Achiever, Qvault

for more information take a look at my DAT breakdown (TS25 AA23 PAT23)
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=927264

 

[pduckworth]

First of all I did not take any Kaplan courses. I tried once the online free tutorial that comes up every twice a month but since everyone in SDN do not recommend it I decided not to waste/spend 2000 bucks.
So I won't be 100% accurate in interpreting your score since I didn't take Kaplan and I am not an expert.
But I will tell you my thoughts

DAT score is based on how many you get right and the percentile next to the score is not the percentile that you got right but the percentile of how many people got the same or lower score than you. For example if you have 25 (99.5%) that means 99.5% of DAT takers got a same or lower score than you and only 0.5% got a higher score than you. But ADA never tells exactly how they score the test.

Back to the topic! since you are in the Kaplan course...which I think it won't really help, stick with it since you don't want to waste your money. But don't rely just on Kaplan. I do not know your goal score but if you want to score high, considering your current science scores, you should definitely put more effort.
I think if you study with Chad's video and Destroyer and your boyfriend, you will be fine.
I personally think RC, QR and PAT are practicing. So I recommend you to get as many practice questions as possible like Kaplan (since you are in the course), CrackDAT, Topscore, Achiever, Qvault

for more information take a look at my DAT breakdown (TS25 AA23 PAT23)
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=927264

With Kaplan, the percentages were literally the percent correct. Here's a screen shot of what it looked like, http://i49.tinypic.com/2drh92.jpg

Anyway, my parents offered to pay for the course and I got quite a bit off because of some clubs that I'm involved in so I figured it couldn't hurt. I am really bad at staying on a schedule, so I figured that knowing they paid for it would guilt trip me into studying I also had a few friends take it with Kaplan and they enjoyed the instructor, so eh. We'll see.

I honestly do not have a goal score. I have no idea what is realistic for me. Maybe a 22? A 20? 30? (just kidding!) I'm clueless! My GPA currently is a 3.72.

I'm definitely planning on putting in the effort I just read up on how to do angle problems and I already feel much more confident about them, haha. My first angle practice I got a 14/15 and my first cube counting I got 15/15. Improvement considering on my diagnostic, I got 2/5 correct for both sections

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll definitely look into the other resources that you mentioned.

 

[Dentist94]

I am just begining to study for DAT can you tell me where can I get that Chad video and all study material.

Sent from my PC36100 using SDN Mobile

 

[pduckworth]

I am just begining to study for DAT can you tell me where can I get that Chad video and all study material.

Sent from my PC36100 using SDN Mobile

course AKHDFSDKFHSDF saver.com
Click on "videos" and then "DAT videos". Currently, all of his biology ones are free it seems. To order a subscription for all of the DAT videos, click on "paid subscription".
Remove the " AKHDFSDKFHSDF " from what I wrote of course.

 

[MuskieMan33]

Chad has angle ranking too! And some nice little QR videos that have helped me review some of the things from algebra that I forgot.

 

[dentalchick2016]

Hi guys! So I signed up to take the DAT course through Kaplan and just took my first diagnostic. I went into this completely without studying or reviewing anything.

Breakdown:
Bio: 14 (45% correct)
I honestly guessed on almost 75% of these. I have never taken an anatomy course, so I was totally clueless on anything that had to do with the human body. Also, I forgot basically everything that had to do with respiration/photosynthesis, etc. Ooooops, haha. I am, however, a microbiology major, so I have plenty of resources to hopefully relearn basic bio 1 things and learn anatomy.
Gen Chem: 11 (27% correct)
AHAHAHAHA. omg. Seriously. I didn't remember a thing about gen chem... However, my boyfriend is a tutor at my university for gen chem, so he already offered to help me with things.
Orgo: 16 (62% correct)
This wasn't too bad for me. There were a several questions that came up that I never learned in orgo 1 or 2 at my school. I definitely feel like I need a refresher on my orgo.
PAT: 16 (53% correct)
I got all of the hole punching and keyholes correct! I had no idea how to do the pattern folding or top-front-end questions though... My angle ranking and cube counting weren't too great either. I also have NEVER studied these before (as mentioned). I just read the directions and hoped for the best...
QR: 17 (60% correct)
I almost ran out of time on math; I totally feel like I need to work on going faster. I also had a lot of trouble with the calculator. I would click on it... and nothing would happen. I think that is where I lost a lot of valuable time.
RC: 18 (62%)
This was my best section... which is very odd to me because I feel like I am TERRIBLE at reading comprehension. However, I am a very quick reader and I think that is what helped me. I had a ton of time left over.
TS: 14
AA: 15

Anyway! I am wondering exactly what I should do next now that I have these scores. As mentioned, my Kaplan course starts tomorrow so I will be following that. I also bought the DAT destroyer and the Math destroyer, and already have the Cliffs AP Bio book from when I took AP bio in hs. I'm not sure exactly how to work those into Kaplan.

I have not picked a test date yet, mind you. How do I know when I should decide? I just finished my sophomore year of college and was thinking about taking it right before the semester starts in August. Should I wait until I take my midterm with Kaplan and see if my scores improve (a lot)?

I apologize if this is a lot of word vomit... I'm just really nervous now about everything now! It's scary knowing that I have this super important test in front of me...

Hey there! So hopefully my comments will help you because I did take a Kaplan course and took the DAT the first week of June.

Your diagnostic is identical to how mine was. I had a really hard time increasing my gchem and ochem scores, bio got better with lots of reading and memorizing. I only used kaplan as my prep, took the DAT not feeling confident about gc and oc, and got lower scores in sciences. Here's my brkdwn on real DAT: 17AA;17TS;18PAT;18Bio;15GC;17OC;15QR;22RC

Kaplan is super comparable to real deal because I had 17AA on my final practice test the week for my DAT. Mind you, every time i took a practice test, the scores were inconsistent mainly in gc and oc...sometimes bio and qr.

What I'm doing now to prep for a retake in sept is DAT destroyer, math destroyer, chad's videos and cliff's ap bio. I was like you and didnt want to spend another penny on prep materials after spending a fortune on kaplan, but wish I did use those other resources too. So i hope this helped you out. =)

 

[pduckworth]

Hey there! So hopefully my comments will help you because I did take a Kaplan course and took the DAT the first week of June.

Your diagnostic is identical to how mine was. I had a really hard time increasing my gchem and ochem scores, bio got better with lots of reading and memorizing. I only used kaplan as my prep, took the DAT not feeling confident about gc and oc, and got lower scores in sciences. Here's my brkdwn on real DAT: 17AA;17TS;18PAT;18Bio;15GC;17OC;15QR;22RC

Kaplan is super comparable to real deal because I had 17AA on my final practice test the week for my DAT. Mind you, every time i took a practice test, the scores were inconsistent mainly in gc and oc...sometimes bio and qr.

What I'm doing now to prep for a retake in sept is DAT destroyer, math destroyer, chad's videos and cliff's ap bio. I was like you and didnt want to spend another penny on prep materials after spending a fortune on kaplan, but wish I did use those other resources too. So i hope this helped you out. =)

Thank you so much! I had my first class today with Kaplan and my instructor was awesome. He is showing us how to weave in CDP, Chad's, DAT Destroyer, and Cliffs AP Bio into the course. He told us that we definitely will not get 20+ using only Kaplan, and my class actually has 3 people redoing the Kaplan course because they were unhappy with their real DAT scores.

Hopefully my midterm exam will be much better than my diagnostic... haha. I'm so worried about picking a test date because I don't want to have to reschedule it.

 

[dentalchick2016]

Thank you so much! I had my first class today with Kaplan and my instructor was awesome. He is showing us how to weave in CDP, Chad's, DAT Destroyer, and Cliffs AP Bio into the course. He told us that we definitely will not get 20+ using only Kaplan, and my class actually has 3 people redoing the Kaplan course because they were unhappy with their real DAT scores.

Hopefully my midterm exam will be much better than my diagnostic... haha. I'm so worried about picking a test date because I don't want to have to reschedule it.

Your welcome! You're lucky that your instructor was open and honest with you. While i had a great instructor, its like him and the TA's couldnt tell us that for chances of getting fired or something you know? So they just said you will get as much out of kaplan as you put into it. I knew it wasnt going to make me very competitive but didnt want to spend more on prep. But, do exactly what yours is telling you b/c thats what ppl on SDN are saying helped them the most to get 19+ on every section. Good luck!

 

[pduckworth]

Your welcome! You're lucky that your instructor was open and honest with you. While i had a great instructor, its like him and the TA's couldnt tell us that for chances of getting fired or something you know? So they just said you will get as much out of kaplan as you put into it. I knew it wasnt going to make me very competitive but didnt want to spend more on prep. But, do exactly what yours is telling you b/c thats what ppl on SDN are saying helped them the most to get 19+ on every section. Good luck!

Thank you! Good luck to you as well! My instructor is a really cool guy. He actually didn't make it into dental school last year and is reapplying, so he's really honest about everything, haha. He said that telling us about other programs was against the rules, but he said it was whatever

 

[dentalchick2016]

Thank you! Good luck to you as well! My instructor is a really cool guy. He actually didn't make it into dental school last year and is reapplying, so he's really honest about everything, haha. He said that telling us about other programs was against the rules, but he said it was whatever

right on! lol

 

[MLE250]

I took the first Kaplan diagnostic and got a AA of 13 or 14 - i took the class then studied for a month straight, and on the real DAT i got a 22. Don't be discouraged by these scores you have plenty of time to study - pick a test date one month after your last class for review, practice tests, and chads videos (seriously). You'll do great!

 

[Master Yoda]

Thank you so much! I had my first class today with Kaplan and my instructor was awesome. He is showing us how to weave in CDP, Chad's, DAT Destroyer, and Cliffs AP Bio into the course. He told us that we definitely will not get 20+ using only Kaplan, and my class actually has 3 people redoing the Kaplan course because they were unhappy with their real DAT scores.

Hopefully my midterm exam will be much better than my diagnostic... haha. I'm so worried about picking a test date because I don't want to have to reschedule it.

whould you please share with us how we can weave in CDP and those other stuff with Kaplan?

 

[pduckworth]

I took the first Kaplan diagnostic and got a AA of 13 or 14 - i took the class then studied for a month straight, and on the real DAT i got a 22. Don't be discouraged by these scores you have plenty of time to study - pick a test date one month after your last class for review, practice tests, and chads videos (seriously). You'll do great!

That is awesome! Thank you so much! Congrats on your score

whould you please share with us how we can weave in CDP and those other stuff with Kaplan?

To make a long story short, he was effectively saying to follow the order of the Kaplan syllabus, and then add in other material to supplement during the week. Like for instance, the second session with Kaplan is the PAT, with an emphasis on TFE, hole punching, and angles. Do CDP's practices on those sections! Then, for the third session with Kaplan, read the sections of Cliff's that correspond with the bio material that they go over. Hope that helps!