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November 2018 DAT Thoughts


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8 hours ago, purplethang said:

OK GUYS, so I received an email back from CDA regarding my inquiry, and this is what they said: 

"I verified your record and found that you only took the DAT this November 2018. The DAT scores scale is available to only the students that take the DAT. Since you ONLY took the Nov 2018 DAT, where did you find/access this previous DAT scores scale? The score scales are based on several factors including the difficulty of questions, the performance of students that took the exam, etc. The Nov 2018 DAT scores scale that you received is accurate. Just to let you know, each year's distribution and score scales will vary significantly. Sometimes the number scores will correspond to a certain percentile similar to previous years, but this is not always guaranteed. We cannot predict each year's distribution of scores. The scores you have received is based on your performance during the Nov. 2018 DAT exam."

.... like ok, that doesn't explain much thanks. I'm also a bit worried now, since they're asking me where I got these scales from.. (there's what's called the internet).

Quite frankly, the results were disappointing and I know some of you really needed high scores on this exam. I just decided to move on, and the only way to actually get back at em is to just kill the Feb DAT. I'll show them I'm better than their scoring system. Keep your heads up everyone. Let's just try and stay positive.

 

Sigh.

Yes; as above.

TL;DR  "Too bad."


But I like purplethang's attitude...

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On 12/11/2018 at 12:15 PM, cando said:

This was posted with the scores

Screen Shot 2018-12-11 at 12.14.40 PM.png

 

Wow that's crazy! That scale makes me cringe :( 

If you took the DAT this cycle, don't get discouraged. I wrote twice and the 2nd time I wrote in February the scale was SOO much more lenient. All of my friends did signicantly better. Just write again since schools will look at your best score

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5 minutes ago, Starburst said:

Wow that's crazy! That scale makes me cringe :( 

If you took the DAT this cycle, don't get discouraged. I wrote twice and the 2nd time I wrote in February the scale was SOO much more lenient. All of my friends did signicantly better. Just write again since schools will look at your best score

Ya but that means need to wait another year.....:( so not fair

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1 minute ago, yampotato said:

Ya but that means need to wait another year.....:( so not fair

Don't worry, I was in the same boat as you guys. I didn't score as well the first time I wrote the DAT. I learned it's better to write the DAT as many times as you can if you're applying to Canadian schools since they all look at your BEST score. You don't have anything to lose from rewriting.

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2 minutes ago, futuredentist1 said:

So is it better write in february or november? Or does it not matter as long as you do well 

If i were you, I would write it again in February if you think you could've done better. You'll most likely do better and in case you don't, at least you'll have time to write the November DAT for next cycle. 

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On 12/12/2018 at 10:21 PM, Starburst said:

If i were you, I would write it again in February if you think you could've done better. You'll most likely do better and in case you don't, at least you'll have time to write the November DAT for next cycle. 

It's unfortunate because I don't want to go through all that stress again and so soon! :(  Do you have any tips?

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4 minutes ago, futuredentist1 said:

It's unfortunate because I don't want to go through all that stress again and so soon! :(  Do you have any tips or study resources on how to do well and for how much time to devote to studying? 

 
 

Don't worry I can totally relate. I would focus on exams since that's the most important thing right now. You can recover from doing poorly on the November DAT but it's hard to recover from a low GPA.

When you rewrite, focus on studying Biology and Chemistry topics listed on CDA's website (Cliff's AP Biology 3rd Edition, Kaplan book, or whatever you choose). Go over the material as many times as you can and practice using practice tests (there were some repeats on my real DAT from DATcrusher if that helps). For the PAT you have to practice on PAPER, it makes a HUGE difference. So print as many PAT questions as you can and practice whenever you get a chance. For reading comp., only practice using 50minutes like the real canadian dat. I made the mistake of using DATBootcamp's tests that are 60minutes the first time and it ruined my reading score (don't use those, they are terrible imo). Since the Feb DAT is during reading week, most people end up doing a lot better too so don't stress about your DAT scores right now. You'll all be fine.

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Now I was already thinking about re-writing because of my PAT score. The only problem is that if I wrote February’s exam, which university is even going to look at it? Don’t most of them accept November’s DAT as the latest one?

I can’t imagine adding more stress to February after this semester. I pushed all my harder courses to winter term to leave space for studying in November! 

Any one gone through this before? Is writing feb that important for dental schools (disregarding aus schools)?

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8 hours ago, Lolomegabyte said:

Now I was already thinking about re-writing because of my PAT score. The only problem is that if I wrote February’s exam, which university is even going to look at it? Don’t most of them accept November’s DAT as the latest one?

I can’t imagine adding more stress to February after this semester. I pushed all my harder courses to winter term to leave space for studying in November! 

Any one gone through this before? Is writing feb that important for dental schools (disregarding aus schools)?

 

Most if not all the Canadian universities take this November DAT as the last acceptable one for this cycle. I'm not 100% on Aussie schools. 

Personally I haven't written in February for the past couple of times I've written it but I have many friends that wrote it then after writing a November DAT. Don't get me wrong, work is work but IMO I think it would be a little bit easier to relearn the information given that you had put in the work to learn the content for the most recent November DAT. 

When it comes to writing November v.s. February, I'm pretty sure less people write during the February sitting. Regardless of when you write and the number of people that do write, this doesn't change the fact that you still have to do well on that particular test (albeit relative to everyone else but you can only control how well you do so you might as well focus on that). I really like @purplethang's outlook on it. Hungry. Resilience and heart right there. You can come up with whatever reason one month may be better to write than the other but if you hit a home run with that particular test, there shouldn't be a reason that they can't give you a higher score. I think for this sitting, we can dismiss some of the lower scoring as an anomaly and just hope for the best in future rewrites.

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13 hours ago, Take_Your_Time said:
 

Most if not all the Canadian universities take this November DAT as the last acceptable one for this cycle. I'm not 100% on Aussie schools. 

Personally I haven't written in February for the past couple of times I've written it but I have many friends that wrote it then after writing a November DAT. Don't get me wrong, work is work but IMO I think it would be a little bit easier to relearn the information given that you had put in the work to learn the content for the most recent November DAT. 

When it comes to writing November v.s. February, I'm pretty sure less people write during the February sitting. Regardless of when you write and the number of people that do write, this doesn't change the fact that you still have to do well on that particular test (albeit relative to everyone else but you can only control how well you do so you might as well focus on that). I really like @purplethang's outlook on it. Hungry. Resilience and heart right there. You can come up with whatever reason one month may be better to write than the other but if you hit a home run with that particular test, there shouldn't be a reason that they can't give you a higher score. I think for this sitting, we can dismiss some of the lower scoring as an anomaly and just hope for the best in future rewrites.

@Take_Your_Time, This was. So helpful. To read. 

As I was reading it I kept realizing that I was essentially looking for random excuses to not write the feb DAT (the CDA messed up, I have a busy schedule, who’s gonna accept it, how am I gonna fit it in).

When you mentioned @purplethang‘s outlook on this whole situation, I realized I wasn’t hungry enough for it, as you described it lol. If you really want something, nothing can really distract you from it. I figured I could make all the excuses in the world to not write it again and then feel meh.OR, I could learn from this past November DAT experience, triple my efforts, apply all the mistakes I learned, and get a HECK of a better score (insha’Allah-God willing). 

Thanks a lot homie. 

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To be honest, I thought their response was pretty honest in their position. I know some of you are pissed af and that this really impacted you both mentally and physically, but what can we do? There's a very small (if not at all) chance that the CDA will do anything about it. This had happened before back in like 2012 I believe, as I spoke with someone I know and he told me that his friend got screwed over that year due to low scaling like this. It ain't super common, but it's also not uncommon apparently.

Yes, at first I was obviously pissed too and almost thought about just giving up. But I know I'm stronger than that, and there's a REASON for why things happen. For now it probably seems like there is no reason and that everything is just CDA's fault, but if they say it's accurate, then I guess it is accurate. I'm not being submissive, I'm just embracing what happened and moving on. 

This will make you grow as an individual in my opinion, and my resilience will eventually show who I am. I personally believe pouting over these low scores will do no good for me anymore, let alone affecting me negatively. I strongly believe your outlook on this and current disposition will show during interviews. If I stay pissed, I feel like my negativity will eventually pop out and cause some inconvenience to me. If I embrace it, say a big F U to the system and double my efforts to succeed, one day I know I'll get there.

I remember this quote from one of my favourite movies, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry, and you cry alone".

We can all push through this together. Don't lose your hope everyone.

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