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When do we get DAT scores?


jmee

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Visceral, what did you use for studying? These are pretty awesome scores. I have no doubt that you for sure will get accepted everywhere.

 

 

Just got my letter which was sent to the region of Peel:

 

Reading Comprehension: 24

Biology: 27

Chemistry: 23

Perception: 22

Carving: 14

 

That carving scores really makes me wonder about my manual dexterity hah I got a couple chips on my soap so that probably did it for me. All I can say is thank God UofT and UWO are disregarding carving this year.

 

On a side note, I found an interesting publication about why UWO may have decided to remove perception and carving from their admission criteria. The article was actually written by a UWO professor:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14650501&dopt=Abstract

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Hey Jmee,

I used a bunch of different resources for independent study. I studied from the start of August until late October. The resources I used for each section:

 

Chemistry -

Kaplan's 2007 Edition of the DAT book was surprisingly good for this section and I feel that it presents all the information you need in a concise and organized manner. I used my freshman year general chemistry text for some additional problems and as a reference but it wasn't too necessary.

 

Biology -

Kaplan's 2007 book isn't very good for this section because it does not go into enough detail. It does, however, present a nice overview of all the material you need to know.

 

The best purchase I made was Schaum's Outline of Biology, which has all of the Kaplan info with the exact amount of depth you would need to do well. However, it goes into too much detail on taxonomy and plants so I didn't learn every detail in those sections. This book also only cost like $25, so it is the best bang for your buck of all the resources in my opinion.

 

Campbell's Biology 7ed was a reference text that helped me out with some random stuff. However, it goes into way too much detail, but the study questions are great. If you have lots of time then definitely use this book, however I only did like one read through since I didn't have too much time.

 

Reading Comprehension -

I used Kaplan's 2007 for practice. All I can say about this section is I had to find a strategy that worked for me. I started off reading it slowly first time through but then changed by strategy to using a cursory read through.

 

Perception -

I used Kaplan's 2007 once again. I found the difficulty about the same compared to the real thing, except for the angles. Those angles are so small on the real thing and I no doubt made a majority of my mistakes there.

 

I also purchased Barron's to help for perception and it helped a little but the book is riddled with errors on every section, not only perception. So proceed with caution. It only cost $20, but I felt bad for even paying that much.

 

Carving -

20 soaps later and I am little better than when I began ahhaha I don't know, I didn't think I did well, but thought I broke 15. I used the IQ publications book which definitely helped, because the DAT guide is far too simplistic. I guess without the IQ book I would have gotten < 10 haha

 

I was also fortunate enough to get a pack of Kaplan exams from people who took the course before, so I used those to prepare myself. I found all of the sections to be comparable in difficulty, especially reading comprehension.

 

In the last week, I purchased TopScore which had 3 full Canadian DAT practice exams. My perception score and chemistry scores from this resource were bang on with what I really got. However, I did better on the real biology component because TopScore asks obscure taxonomy questions. I didn't bother with the reading comprehension because it had to be done on the PC, and I was accustomed to working on paper and making notes.

 

Ulitmately, I think Kaplan's 2007 DAT book, Schaum's Biology and Kaplan/TopScore practice exams are what helped me most.

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It may as there are more applicants this year because of the double cohort. But then again, we are looking at scores from students on a dental school message board which means that the people are most likely serious about getting in so one would expect high scores. Also, people who got relatively lower scores may not want to post their scores.

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Oddly enough, I got my scores delivered on Sunday.

 

Did great on everything except carving... 11. I'm actually surprised I even got this high as I accidentally started carving a fluted end as a notched end :confused:

 

chewb83, I think you stand a good chance at an interview.. your RC is high (so you should make the cutoff easy) and your AA seems average. Not to mention, your gpa looks good so that should help too. :)

 

Visceral, congrats on making the top 5 AA scores in Canada, good job!

 

Also.. did anyone notice how the French distributions are around 4 points lower in each section as compared to the English distributions? Looks like competition is a lot less stiff for Francophones.

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Wow, some people have recieved some really nice scores!! I wrote the DAT in February 2006 (I feel left out of the excitement) :( .

 

RC 22

AA 24

Bio 26

Chem 23

PA 19

Carv 14 :confused:

 

GPA 90.4% (best two years for Western)

3.82 (lowest year dropped for U of T)

 

I am trying to stay optimistic, however, some of these great scores are making me a little nervous! I wish I had the high carving scores of others. I know both schools say they don't look at the carving score, but if things are really competitive I am sure it will factor in some how. I thing it's really going to come down to the interview! Best of luck everyone...

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Wow, some people have recieved some really nice scores!! I wrote the DAT in February 2006 (I feel left out of the excitement) :( .

 

RC 22

AA 24

Bio 26

Chem 23

PA 19

Carv 14 :confused:

 

GPA 90.4% (best two years for Western)

3.82 (lowest year dropped for U of T)

 

I am trying to stay optimistic, however, some of these great scores are making me a little nervous! I wish I had the high carving scores of others. I know both schools say they don't look at the carving score, but if things are really competitive I am sure it will factor in some how. I thing it's really going to come down to the interview! Best of luck everyone...

 

I don't think you have anything to worry about if your applying to UofT and Western. With an RC of 22, you'll pass any cutoff that Western sets and an AA of 24 is awesome.

 

I am sure that if they say that carving won't play a factor, then they mean it because they have nothing to gain from otherwise misleading us.

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People,

 

The scores posted in this thread must be among the highest scores in the country. Sure everybody has a score or 2 that they would've liked to do higher in but overall - look at how you did. These scores are absolutely insane! If you have marks for the most part in the 20's and a gpa/average > 85 you are laughing. YOU ARE GOING TO GET INTERVIEWS! You will have a great shot at matriculating - assuming a decent interview. Everyone that has posted here be happy with how you did because you really did do very well. Think of the hundreds of people that wrote this test and did not score well at all.

 

Don't look at the negatives, look at all the positives and give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done!

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Just looking at some of those scores makes me think I should re-write haha I thought I had done well last year.

 

RC 20

AA 22

Bio 22

Chem 23

Sci 22

Per 18

Carv 16

 

And the worst thing is I'm OOP for UWO and UofT :(

 

 

As far as things go...your scores don't mean a thing to UofT, after about 17 ...or 18'ish all depends on your GPA. And for Carving, they don't care if you are a 5 or 30, SERIOUSLY! And at western those are enough. There is no reason for some 1 like you to rewrite again, unless your only applying west. Good luck, your scores are fine.

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From my understanding UofT is 60% GPA, 5% AA, 5% PAT, and 30% interview.

 

So it's certainly easy to see how a lower mark in one section has little effect. For example, a 17 in RC might make it hard to get an interview at UWO, but at UofT it's not even 2% of the application process, if you go by raw divison although AA calculation is a bit different.

 

This really explains the large ranges in AA (16 - 25) and PAT (14-25) for 2006 accepted students. The difference between an AA of 20 and 23 is really minimal. Gives you a chance you stutter once during your interview maybe :P

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Just got mine

 

RC 20

Bio 18

Chem 17

 

Perception 19

Carving 29

 

Pretty excited about the carving! Didn't think it was going to be my strongest section. Hopefully overall they will be okay for UBC.

 

 

nice carving score!!!!

 

has your mark arrived the UBC dent office yet?...cuz mine hasnt although i have my mark already

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