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Hey guys,

 

For anyone who is writing the DAT this upcoming November 5th I thought I'd let you know that Rock The DAT is coming up in the middle of September for its first date and in mid October for its second date. Here's the website and facebook page:

 

http://www.rockthedat.com

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rock-the-DAT/159741197376499?ref=ts

 

The instructors that are teaching were very successful writing the DAT and all obtained acceptance into dental school. The highest scores for the Rock The DAT instructors are RC-28(100%), Carving-30(100%), PAT-28(100%) and AA-23(100%). Keep in mind though that not all of these instructors will be teaching the course at the same location.

 

Hope this information is helpful for those interested.

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I would also highly recommend this course. A major obstacle for people is not necessarily their skill level, but not knowing how to approach an exam like the DAT or to know what to expect. I will be instructing at the Edmonton location this year and did fairly well on PAT (28) and carving (27) so hopefully I can be of some help to people.

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I would also highly recommend this course. A major obstacle for people is not necessarily their skill level, but not knowing how to approach an exam like the DAT or to know what to expect. I will be instructing at the Edmonton location this year and did fairly well on PAT (28) and carving (27) so hopefully I can be of some help to people.

 

 

I am in edmonton too and I was wondering with limited money if it would be better to spend that money on more practice and resources or the rock the dat in which I would not be able to spend as much money on other resources

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Good question. In my experience there were things that i learned from others that were invaluable. You can get all the soaps you want but unless you actually learn with another person, 1000 soaps may not help you. It's different for everyone though. Plus in the long run, $500 for Rock the DAT is nothing if you end up getting in. I spent a lot of money prepping for the DAT, but I saw it as an investment.

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Good question. In my experience there were things that i learned from others that were invaluable. You can get all the soaps you want but unless you actually learn with another person, 1000 soaps may not help you. It's different for everyone though. Plus in the long run, $500 for Rock the DAT is nothing if you end up getting in. I spent a lot of money prepping for the DAT, but I saw it as an investment.

 

Oh, plus if you refer a friend to us in Edmonton you get $50 off, so maybe find some people that want to get into dental school too and save yourself some money.

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I am in edmonton too and I was wondering with limited money if it would be better to spend that money on more practice and resources or the rock the dat in which I would not be able to spend as much money on other resources

 

Education should be thought of as investment. The DAT is a significant component of your application and it's not something you want to take chances on. You're paying $250 to write the DAT anyway and if you end up having to rewrite, that will cost you another $250 plus several hours of preparation and another year of applying. Trust me... been there, done that.

 

Several other students in my class took Rock the DAT and did extremely well (score 25-30). I'm pretty sure an extra $400 or $500 is worth it if it means being more competitive, prepared, and confident on the DAT.

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I'm thinking about taking this course in Ottawa in October. Worth the 500$ you guys think? Can anyone who has taken the course and scored high on the DAT acknowledge this? :)

 

I took Rock The DAT two years ago when I was applying. I really had no clue how to carve even though I had practiced on about 30 soaps already. It was really challenging for me because I didn't know anyone else writing the DAT or who had done it in the past so I had ZERO advice from other students on how to carve properly.

 

The course showed me what a 20-30 looked like and woke me up to the fact that I was only carving about a 15-20 and it was taking me about 45 min to carve that. After the course I did about another 20 soaps and knew what I had to do to improve. I increased my speed so I could do it in about 24-25 minutes because I learned a lot of tips and tricks. In the end I scored a 24 which was I think 93%ile which I was okay with. I also really benefited from the PAT training and scored a 23 my first DAT and a 24 on my second DAT. RC went poorly for me the first time I wrote but the second time I wrote I got a 20. RC really wasn't my thing and I knew that I wasn't going to do very well. As for the sciences, those everyone mostly knows or doesn't know from undergrad.

 

I'd say that without going to the course I don't think I'd have made it into dental school in the 2009 cycle because I just made it by with GPA but my DAT was what boosted my application.

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I am in edmonton too and I was wondering with limited money if it would be better to spend that money on more practice and resources or the rock the dat in which I would not be able to spend as much money on other resources

 

Sigh. Dentistry is very expensive. Try not to think too much about the money because it will drive you crazy. First year alone cost us over $35,000 and right now the loupes+light that I'm looking at buying cost $2200 :eek: . So for me, I don't really think about the $1000 I paid for prep materials and courses to get in...

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I took Rock The DAT two years ago when I was applying. I really had no clue how to carve even though I had practiced on about 30 soaps already. It was really challenging for me because I didn't know anyone else writing the DAT or who had done it in the past so I had ZERO advice from other students on how to carve properly.

 

The course showed me what a 20-30 looked like and woke me up to the fact that I was only carving about a 15-20 and it was taking me about 45 min to carve that. After the course I did about another 20 soaps and knew what I had to do to improve. I increased my speed so I could do it in about 24-25 minutes because I learned a lot of tips and tricks. In the end I scored a 24 which was I think 93%ile which I was okay with. I also really benefited from the PAT training and scored a 23 my first DAT and a 24 on my second DAT. RC went poorly for me the first time I wrote but the second time I wrote I got a 20. RC really wasn't my thing and I knew that I wasn't going to do very well. As for the sciences, those everyone mostly knows or doesn't know from undergrad.

 

I'd say that without going to the course I don't think I'd have made it into dental school in the 2009 cycle because I just made it by with GPA but my DAT was what boosted my application.

 

Thanks a lot for the feedback man. I registered for ROCK THE DAT yesterday for the Ottawa course in October. Hope it doesn't get cancelled :P

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  • 2 weeks later...

I took RTD in the Fall of 2008 in Calgary, and I already had a decent grasp of carving when I went into the course. The people teaching the course were able to take me from a pretty solid base to a level that got me a 29 on the actual test. It really made a big difference for me to get real 1 on 1 advice from someone who knew what they were talking about, so I highly recommend it to people of any skill level, not just total beginners. I saw people come in who hadn't touched soaps before come out a thousand times stronger and more confident about what they could do and what they needed to do.

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The September dates are coming up This Weekend so if anyone is interested in still taking the course I'd highly recommend signing up tomorrow in Edmonton or Calgary. There will be an extremely strong turnout for those two locations. The Van and Tor courses are being pushed back to October so if your interested in those locations sign up for them.

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why is this not in london?

 

There's only so many places RTD can run each year. The decision was made to expand to Ottawa since it is 5 hours from Toronto while London is 2 hours away. If you are interested or if anyone else is interested in attending RTD from London PM me or email me at sschalk@ualberta.ca because there is a discount offered to UWO students because of the traveling involved. I emailed the predent society at UWO to pass this message along but I don't know if that made it out to any predent students at UWO. Perhaps email them too and ask if they received any information about RTD discounts.

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