Pre-Dental Club at Virginia Tech
DAT
Section written by Aaron Gringer (Columbia'19, VT '15)
The Dental Admissions Test (DAT) in combination with your GPA is the key to acceptance into a dental school program. The data surrounding the score values is often hard to comprehend so we have simplified all this information for you. In addition to the study materials outlined here Gold Standard has a structured course for the DAT and promotional offers for price reductions are often announced by the club.
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Applying for the DAT
The very first step to establishing the date and location of your DAT is to apply for a DENTPIN. You recieve a DENTPIN by going to the American Dental Association’s DENTPIN registration page and selecting DENTPIN registration in the sidebar menu. Following the input of your personal information you should receive an eight digit DENTPIN number with password. Once you have recieved the DENTPIN, proceed to the American Dental Association’s DAT page and select DAT Applicaiton in the sidebar menu. You again will need to fill out personal information, pay the $385 fee to take the exam, and recieve an application ID number. The ADA will then review your application for no more than a few days. If approved by the ADA, you will recieve an eligibility ID. Once the eligibility ID is receive, go to the prometric testing website and select the American Dental Association. Select “Schedule My Test” and input the information including you eligibility ID and four digits of your last name. You will then be prompted to select your testing location and select available dates at that location. You will then receive an information receipt and your reservation will be confirmed. It is important to schedule well in advanced to have more date options. Your test results will appear on your computer screen immediately following your test and you will receive an unofficial score document. AADSAS will receive your scores about three weeks following your exam date and that is when school will receive your scores.
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Preparing for the DAT
The DAT is comprised of 280 questions and lasts five hours. The first section is the survey of natural sciences that lasts 90 minutes and is 100 questions long. Of those 1oo questions there are 40 biology, 30 general chemistry, and 30 organic chemistry. There is then the Perceptual Ability Test (PAT) that is 90 questions in a 60 minute time frame. Of those 90 questions there are 15 questions each of keyholes, top/front/end (TFE), angle ranking, hole punching, cube counting, and pattern folding. There is then a 15 minute optional break before the reading comprehension section. The reading section is 50 questions and three reading passages in a 60 minute time frame. The final section of the test is the quantitative reasoning section. This section as of 2015 is 4o questions in a 45 minute timeframe. Of those 40 questions there will be 30 basic math questions, ranging from algebra to trigonometry, and 10 applied mathematics word problems.
Biology
This section covers the most information. There are two really strong resources to utilize that our club recommends, Ciff’s AP Biology 3rd Edition and Feralis's Notes. The third edition is important in Cliff’s because the 4th Edition excludes essential plant biology information. Secondary resources that will compliment these two sources are Barron’s AP Biology and DAT Destroyer. DAT Destroyer is more useful as review questions following having read Barron’s and Cliff’s and is a better source for the chemistry sections. Feralis’s is important as review notes a few weeks before your test date. Recently, in addition to his outstanding chemistry videos, Chad at course saver has free biology videos, but as of yet the video series is incomplete. The club highly encourages all members to apply for a position as a principles of biology teaching assistant as it is a valuable position to build a strong biology knowledge for the DAT.
General Chemistry
Two resources will provide enough information to receive a strong score, Chad’s videos and DAT Destroyer. Chad’s will rebuild you knowledge base and the DAT Destroyer will advance your understanding with practice problems. A secondary resource for this section is the general chemistry textbook used in class that is selling for less than a dollar.
Organic Chemistry
Studying for this section has the same concept as general chemistry with Chad’s videos and DAT Destroyer being the focal points. Additionally, your organic chemistry textbook from class is a good secondary source if needed. The club strongly recommends taking the test following your completion of the course as you will be well prepared enough from class and won’t have to spend much time reviewing this section.
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Perceptual Ability Test
The key to this section is PRACTICE! Each section has a trick that may make your answers be more accurate and quicker. These tricks are in the videos below:
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Once a better understanding of each section and the tricks that go with them is achieved, the best thing to do is to perform practice PATs. The best software package to get is Crack DAT-PAT where you will get a package of DAT PAT practice exams.
Reading Comprehension
There isn’t a comprehensive study method for this section so the method used is at the student’s discretion. One strategy that if mastered can produce a high score is outlined at this link. That strategy is a high risk-high reward method because it uses a lot of time so tread carefully. Another high risk-high reward is the search and destroy method where the student reviews the questions and then scans the passsage for keywords to find the answer. The easiest method is the same used for the SAT Verbal section where questions are answer once the student reads the passage completely and perhaps outlines each paragraph’s keywords on the dry erase sheets. Again, this section is all about practice and Crack DAT-Reading is a good resource.
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Quantitative Reasoning
For the basic quantitative math problems, DAT Math Destroyer is a must use and is the single best source in preparing for this section.
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Practice Exams
DAT Bootcamp has some of the best practice exams that include scoring that is 1 to 2 points lower than what your actual score would be on each section. The exams are by section and provided detailed explaination to each question.
The ADA has put out the 2007 sample test with an answer key. This test is exactly what you will see when you take your exam but scores for this test are generally 1 to 2 points higher than what you would recieve for the actual exam.
How Your Scores Measure Up
As the testing materials have improved so have the average scores of dental school. The test is scored based on what percentile of questions answer correctly for that test version you fall under. The percentiles and estimates of questions right to wrong and their correlated scores, as well as the updated averages by school can be better found here.
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DAT Powerpoint by TJ Winkler: