YAY! Finished dat DAT today!

[ALTOSS]

Guys, I just finished dat DAT today. What a relief!

PAT: 24
Bio: 19
Chem: 23
Orgo: 26
QR: 18 (man, i thought i got them all!)
RC: 19

AA: 21
TS: 21

I study Kaplan exclusively for bio, and course notes for both chem and orgo. For bio, though, contrary to what others may say (at least in my opinion) you CAN do well if you memorize the whole Kaplan Bio content (I mean really, word for word).

Chem: less calculations than I expected (thus much easier)

Orgo: I thought the Qs were very easy, straightforward. I don't know what I missed.

QR: this section was tough. Time flew by, and the section ended before I knew it.

PAT: what a surprise! I am not sure if Kaplan helped me at all. Angle ranking and hole punching sections were much more difficult than I expected. For cube counting, there were just too many figures; tallying the cube method was completely useless.

Ask me w/ any Qs!

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[osimsDDS]

what do you have to say for bio section? I know you took kaplan are the subject tests online equally as difficult or easier? thanks

 

[War Eagle]

What practice tests did you take, and what were your scores?

 

[TheGreenWave]

Guys, I just finished dat DAT today. What a relief!

PAT: 24
Bio: 19
Chem: 23
Orgo: 26
QR: 18 (man, i thought i got them all!)
RC: 19

AA: 21
TS: 21

I study Kaplan exclusively for bio, and course notes for both chem and orgo. For bio, though, contrary to what others may say (at least in my opinion) you CAN do well if you memorize the whole Kaplan Bio content (I mean really, word for word).

Chem: less calculations than I expected (thus much easier)

Orgo: I thought the Qs were very easy, straightforward. I don't know what I missed.

QR: this section was tough. Time flew by, and the section ended before I knew it.

PAT: what a surprise! I am not sure if Kaplan helped me at all. Angle ranking and hole punching sections were much more difficult than I expected. For cube counting, there were just too many figures; tallying the cube method was completely useless.

Ask me w/ any Qs!

Wow congrats bud, awesome scores!! Im still on the studying side of the fence and I could use some advice.

Orgo: I did pretty well when I took the class two years ago. To what detail should i study. I dont have problems with nomenclature, stereospecificity, or projections. The only thing I really need to go back and do is memorize the reactions. My questions are, should i focus on the main reactions or learn every last one? should i know all the solvents? how much SN1/SN2/E1/E2 was there?

RC: were the passages all approx 12 paragraphs or did you have any extremely long ones? did you have a lot of mood or tone questions?

And, lastly, what materialss???

YOURE the BEST if you answer all my questions. Sorry but this would really help!! and congrats again!!!

 

[billythekid]

Great scores! I'm sure you will get into a great dental school.

Did you take a Kaplan course or did you just study from the book? Thanks so much!

 

[ALTOSS]

well, about bio, it's hard to say. bio stuff is either you know it or you don't. honestly, i don't think there's one comprehensive book that you could study and get 30. after having studied Kaplan bluebook and its other online stuff for at least 6-7 times, i still ran across new things that weren't in the material on the actual exam. there weren't any "hard" questions, but most of them were something like "what is X?" "what is Y?" i stupidly relied too much on kaplan and suffered in the bio section. kaplan is good for basic building blocks. once you have it done, you should read stuff like schaums or something. on the other hand, though, i thought schaum has TOO much detail, which isn't all that necessary to do well on the bio section.

for chem and orgo, i thought the questions were much easier than kaplan practice tests. if you do well on those practice exams, you shouldn't have problem (i don't think). in any case, all this stuff is only one person's opinion!

 

[ALTOSS]

what do you have to say for bio section? I know you took kaplan are the subject tests online equally as difficult or easier? thanks

well, about bio, it's hard to say. bio stuff is either you know it or you don't. honestly, i don't think there's one comprehensive book that you could study and get 30. after having studied Kaplan bluebook and its other online stuff for at least 6-7 times, i still ran across new things that weren't in the material on the actual exam. there weren't any "hard" questions, but most of them were something like "what is X?" "what is Y?" i stupidly relied too much on kaplan and suffered in the bio section. kaplan is good for basic building blocks. once you have it done, you should read stuff like schaums or something. on the other hand, though, i thought schaum has TOO much detail, which isn't all that necessary to do well on the bio section.

kaplan's subjest tests, i found, were somewhat more difficult than the actual. if you do well on those tests, i think you're in good shape. when i took those tests, my average score was about 80%.

for chem and orgo, i thought the questions were much easier than kaplan practice tests. if you do well on those practice exams, you shouldn't have problem (i don't think). in any case, all this stuff is only one person's opinion!

 

[ALTOSS]

Great scores! I'm sure you will get into a great dental school.

Did you take a Kaplan course or did you just study from the book? Thanks so much!

i took the kaplan online course: bluebook + lesson book, w/ some online materials. i found the lesson book completely useless. bluebook was okay. the online materials, though, were very good.

 

[ALTOSS]

What practice tests did you take, and what were your scores?

again, i stupidly relied my entire DAT prep on kaplan (plus my rotten orgo memory). having said, i took every single quiz and exams on kaplan online (i paid for it, of course). for the online exams (full length), my scores had been 19-21. my QR scores had been in the upper 20s, so which means that i did much better on the sci sections than did in the practice ones. hope it helps!

 

[theedaddy77]

what did you study for PAT/ ur score was amazing

 

[ALTOSS]

Wow congrats bud, awesome scores!! Im still on the studying side of the fence and I could use some advice.

Orgo: I did pretty well when I took the class two years ago. To what detail should i study. I dont have problems with nomenclature, stereospecificity, or projections. The only thing I really need to go back and do is memorize the reactions. My questions are, should i focus on the main reactions or learn every last one? should i know all the solvents? how much SN1/SN2/E1/E2 was there?

RC: were the passages all approx 12 paragraphs or did you have any extremely long ones? did you have a lot of mood or tone questions?

And, lastly, what materialss???

YOURE the BEST if you answer all my questions. Sorry but this would really help!! and congrats again!!!

for orgo: both from my experience and others, it seems the test writers love oxidation/reduction Qs. Not much SN1 stuff was on mine.

for RC: yeah, they were all at least 12 para long. one of mine had 15 paragraphs, and it wasn't fun. the Q types were fairly well mixed i thought, details and tone Qs. hope it helps!

 

[ALTOSS]

what did you study for PAT/ ur score was amazing

i studied kaplan, just b/c i thought it was the only study aid out there! my score didn't improve much with it, though. i found the actual PAT much harder than kaplan, however. i normally had about extra 10 minutes left after kaplan, but on the acutal exam i had only 3 or so. angle ranking was hard... i'm pretty sure i got at least 5 wrong.

 

[baedero1]

how long did you study?
thanks

 

[hoss19]

nice job!

 

[harrygt]

Congrats on your scores man. YOu will definitely get in if you have a good GPA and extra activities.
I got one question. How was the difficulty of those PAT questions about top/front/end view? Normal or hard? What about the 3 dimentional projections [the last section on PAT]. What was the difficulty level?
I get a 19-20 on PAT on practice tests. I get around 26 on BIO, usually make 1 or 2 mistakes on both chem sections, Stanard 17-20 on RC and I never miss more than 2 questions on QR practice tests [I sometimes get 30]. NOt bragging, just saying that I rock on math and other science section, but suck on PAT and RC. Any recommendations?
I'm taking DAT on July, 22nd.
Good luck

 

[Orgodox]

You said there were too many figures in the cube counting. Were there more than 5 figure or do you mean too many cubes? how did you do it if not counting the cubes?

 

[ALTOSS]

how long did you study?
thanks

pat: a few Qs a day
science: bio everyday, chem and orgo not much (i had a bunch of loser teachers, so i had to study the entire txtbooks by myself; i knew them by heart). hope it helps!

 

[ALTOSS]

You said there were too many figures in the cube counting. Were there more than 5 figure or do you mean too many cubes? how did you do it if not counting the cubes?

well, i don't remember exactly how many figures i had. all i can say about it, though, is that if you take kaplan, they tell you to tally all cubes first and then tackle the Qs. well, i find this technique totally useless, b/c it was just not worth the time. i just counted as they come up.

 

[ALTOSS]

Congrats on your scores man. YOu will definitely get in if you have a good GPA and extra activities.
I got one question. How was the difficulty of those PAT questions about top/front/end view? Normal or hard? What about the 3 dimentional projections [the last section on PAT]. What was the difficulty level?
I get a 19-20 on PAT on practice tests. I get around 26 on BIO, usually make 1 or 2 mistakes on both chem sections, Stanard 17-20 on RC and I never miss more than 2 questions on QR practice tests [I sometimes get 30]. NOt bragging, just saying that I rock on math and other science section, but suck on PAT and RC. Any recommendations?
I'm taking DAT on July, 22nd.
Good luck

from what i'm hearing, i'd be just goofing off everyday if i were you. you already got what it takes to go to a good d school. for PAT, i found kaplan helpful overall, except angle ranking and hole punching --> they were, at least for me, a total nighmare. they were confusing, and difficult. other than that, kaplan practice was just fine.

 

[allstardentist]

good work

 

[jigabodo]

Good score indeed.

 

[marscole]

just wondering what kind of reading materials... scientific? abstract? non-science? or...

thank you!!