boxmixer Posted April 26, 2009 Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 As you all know the DAT is the most important part on any Dental School Application. I have collected over 1000 dollar in studying material over the last two years in preparation for the Canadian DAT. I personally went to two different carving tutors and in turn learned the best methodology for carving. I have every carving design from the past 8 Canadian DATs and over 1000 different perception questions including a computer software program with 5 full length DAT. This allowed me to get a 22 on perception and 26 on my carving finishing in the 95 percentile in every section. I am selling all my DAT material if any of you are interested including the software KSF DAT review, all the IQ publications, Kaplan's 2008-2009 book, Rock the DAT material, Baaron's DAT review. If you live in Winnipeg and want personal tutoring with all this material I would be more than happy to help you out. Just message me or email me at boxmixer@gmail.com if anyone is interested in any of the materials or the tutoring (the further in advance you prepare the better you will do) Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr.drill Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 There seems to be a misconception that the more you spend on prep materials, the better prepared you will be for the DAT. This has been fueled by people on forums like this one preying on wannabe dental students giving them the impression that they need to buy all this stuff if they want to have a chance to get into dentistry. Dental school is expensive enough. Don't let people fleece you out of more $ by trying to scare you in regards to the DAT. Why spend thousands on prep material when they all say the same thing? Pointless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayeeee Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 I feel the same way. People will always try to make a buck off your insecurities. If it helps for anyone, I bought my study books (kaplan notes, baron's) second hand from a 1st year student for about $30, and bought the soap package from the CDA. I did fine on the exam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael777 Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 I feel the same way. People will always try to make a buck off your insecurities. If it helps for anyone, I bought my study books (kaplan notes, baron's) second hand from a 1st year student for about $30, and bought the soap package from the CDA. I did fine on the exam. Exactly. I just bought the Kaplan book new off amazon for $40.00 (on sale) and got some old soaps from a friend and did fine on the DAT. There is absolutely no rationale for spending over $1000 in study materials for the DAT. That is just ridiculous. And also...@Boxmixer - I don't know who told you the DAT is the most important part of the application cycle, but in Ontario it is pretty much peanuts. The interview and GPA are the most important components by far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Exactly. I just bought the Kaplan book new off amazon for $40.00 (on sale) and got some old soaps from a friend and did fine on the DAT. There is absolutely no rationale for spending over $1000 in study materials for the DAT. That is just ridiculous. How much did you spend on your MCAT materials? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael777 Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 How much did you spend on your MCAT materials? Lol contach, that is comparing apples with oranges. The DAT has one book (Kaplan) that contains everything in it to do well on the DAT. The MCAT is very different in their approach and you would have to spend at least a couple hundred. This is because the MCAT also has physics, orgo, writing section, and verbal. So Princeton doesn't sell one book with all of the different sections in it, but sells like 5 or 6 different books for all of the sections combined because of the breadth of material. There is a lot more to study for the MCAT and it is a much more difficult test. So I would say it is normal to spend a couple hundred for that test, but for the DAT....not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamgosu Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 i found that the Kaplan and Barron's books didn't have any stuff on genetics...and I never learned that in my science courses either, hence I bombed the biology section. Where do you guys get the genetics stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayeeee Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Lol contach, that is comparing apples with oranges. The DAT has one book (Kaplan) that contains everything in it to do well on the DAT. The MCAT is very different in their approach and you would have to spend at least a couple hundred. This is because the MCAT also has physics, orgo, writing section, and verbal. So Princeton doesn't sell one book with all of the different sections in it, but sells like 5 or 6 different books for all of the sections combined because of the breadth of material. There is a lot more to study for the MCAT and it is a much more difficult test. So I would say it is normal to spend a couple hundred for that test, but for the DAT....not so much. I spent $120 on the examkrackers books and scored a 34. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 i found that the Kaplan and Barron's books didn't have any stuff on genetics...and I never learned that in my science courses either, hence I bombed the biology section. Where do you guys get the genetics stuff? Kaplan definitely has genetics. I am teaching the Kaplan DAT, and I very specifically remember prepping a section on the Punnet Square and Medellian's 2 Fundamental Laws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Lol contach, that is comparing apples with oranges. The DAT has one book (Kaplan) that contains everything in it to do well on the DAT. The MCAT is very different in their approach and you would have to spend at least a couple hundred. This is because the MCAT also has physics, orgo, writing section, and verbal. So Princeton doesn't sell one book with all of the different sections in it, but sells like 5 or 6 different books for all of the sections combined because of the breadth of material. There is a lot more to study for the MCAT and it is a much more difficult test. So I would say it is normal to spend a couple hundred for that test, but for the DAT....not so much. does the MCAT have "reading comprehension", "carving", and "perceptual"? What do you mean the MCAT is a more difficult test? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael777 Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 does the MCAT have "reading comprehension", "carving", and "perceptual"? What do you mean the MCAT is a more difficult test? All the sections you mentioned can be found in the Kaplan book. For the MCAT, you have to buy different books for each section and they are big books and that is why it would be more expensive. As for the difficulty of each test, I have written both of them. I found the MCAT to be much more difficult. The chem and the bio were in much more depth than the DAT. Perceptual and carving are almost fun to study for compared to physics, orgo, writing essays, and verbal reasoning. But the DAT is still hard and both tests take a lot of hard work to do well in. However, back to the original point lol, I don't think it necessarily takes $1000 in extra books and software in order to get a decent score, but to each his own I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 But a good score still means that you have to beat out the rest of the people writing the test. Even if a test had addition and multiplication on it only, does not mean it is easy, because once the scores are normally distributed and you are aiming for a 80th percentile plus, it becomes very challenging (maybe you can only get 1 or 2 wrong out of 50), despite it still being only addition and multiplication. Suddenly, what you would call "an easy test" is no longer easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Contach Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Yes back to the point... I don't think it takes 1000$ to do well on the DAT either. However, if you are serious about dentistry, i think an investment of 500$ for materials is worth it if it means you won't have to spend another summer/month studying for the DAT and/or if it means you can get into dental school one year earlier. Mind you, the DAT is like the smallest part of the pie when it comes to admissions... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael777 Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 Yes back to the point... I don't think it takes 1000$ to do well on the DAT either. However, if you are serious about dentistry, i think an investment of 500$ for materials is worth it if it means you won't have to spend another summer/month studying for the DAT and/or if it means you can get into dental school one year earlier. Mind you, the DAT is like the smallest part of the pie when it comes to admissions... True, you will be saving yourself quite a bit of money in application fees for the following year. I think U of T was something like $230 and Western was even more. So I guess spending $500 might not be so bad if you look at it as "covering all the bases" because you will make up for it with the money you save by not applying next year (plus you save yourself a bunch of stress in studying). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.