D.A.T

[forkdork]

Hello everybody,

I am going to write my DAT this year (probably in February because I have way too much stuff to do in the first half of the year).

I have some questions about how I can prepare for it though. I've been so busy lately with summer courses that I haven't had time to research on what kind of prep material there is out there and which ones are good.

So basically I am looking for any advice on good books/study guides to buy and general tips on the exam. I know there are others here on Beyond who are also writing the exam/have written the exam (and became dentists already!) so I hope that some people would be willing to help me out here.

- I checked out the Kaplan book but it's all for the USA test. Is there anything tested that is not in the book?
- The IQ Book for Carving, is it helpful?
- What about the rest of the IQ books? Is it worth buying them?

Any help would be appreciated!

[sdubz]

when i studied for mine, i used all the IQ books as well as kaplan. definately get as much practise as you can. one of the most important things about the DAT is to be able to nail your timing. at the uofc bookstore there were some other DAT prep and i used them too. online, you can order TOPSCORE, which is also a good resource.
The hardest part for me was carving...on my first try i got 14 so i had to rewrite it (pretty much all the schools auto rejected me without even in interview). i really recommend spending a lot money on soaps if you are serious about it because it does take practise, especialyl if you are not a natural (i sucked so i had to practise sooo many).
When will u be applying? if you are applying for next year, taking it in feb isnt a bad idea, since u can retake the november one that it will count. if you can get 20's on all your sections, you should be able to get accepted as long as you have a pretty solid gpa. i had really marginal stats (3.7/20+ DAT/crappy interview skills) and i got multiple acceptances. so dont be intimidated...it really isnt so bad looking back at it.
good luck and let me know if you have any other questions

[forkdork]

I am planning on applying this year actually :eek: So that only leaves me with November or February. I have not started studying yet so I am left with one of 2 choices:

1) Cram everything in 3 months (I am currently in summer school so I would be studying in my spare time through the 3 months). If I don't do well then I can still rewrite in Feb; or
2) Take my time and write in Feb. The only problem with this is that if I fail then I won't be able to apply this year.

I am leaning toward choice #1 at the moment. I just bought the Kaplan book and am probably going to get the IQ books for Carvign and Reading comp (I would like to get started ASAP as I don't have much time)

Thus far my gpa is at 3.85ish (I think that is fairly competitive), I am going to try to kick that up to the 3.9's if possible this year.

Did you use any of the soap that they sell at the UofC bookstore? If so, did you find that its consistency was similar to what we are given for the test? I saw that they are selling some chalk (which I read is total crap) and packs of 12 soaps for $30ish dollars which is cheaper than what CDA is sellign them for.

Also, How long did you spend preparing for the test? I've seen some people writing it after 6 weeks of prep while others are spending like 5 months.

Thanks in Advance,
Forkdork

[jaysas_63]

you do understand that if you write in feb, then you won't be looked at for the next academic year, because the cut off is in january (for most canadian schools anyways, including UofA)

[forkdork]

The school I will be applying to (U of S) does not have a cut off. They just recommend that you take it in Nov so if you do shitty you can redo it.

[sdubz]

i strongly recommend writing it ASAP if you are applying this year. just push yourself to do it. i really regret delaying mine and looking back, it probably cost me a year.
ur gpa is amazing so you wont have any problems getting accepted.
uofs and umanitoba are the only schools that take your feb results. why are you so committed to uofs?? are you from sask?

[VWEvo]

Hi guys,

I might be able to chime in here.

First of all, I put together and taught the DAT prep program currently taught at the U of S. Secondly, I was on the admissions committee a few years ago and still keep current with admissions at the college.

I can begin by saying a few things about the DAT.

- DON'T over prepare for this test. It's a monkey exam and should be treated like that. We always advocated studyin no more than 10 days for this exam. Sounds crazy, but trust me, if you treat this like an easy exam you'll go in confident and nail it. The most common reason for screwing up this exam is because of nerves and lack of confidence.


- Definately practice the carving but learn tricks that can help you. Don't waste your time carving wax and chalk, just practice on soap. Its expensive but much better.

As for gpa's and when to write the exam.

Since it's so easy to prepare for, write the exam a.s.a.p. so if you do need to write it again, then you'll have another shot.


Currently all dental school's across Canada have had a huge jump in the number of applicants. The average's to get in have jumped alot. So work hard and keeping your GPA up.

Lastly,

ALL the dental school's in Canada are great. All have there pro's and con's but bottom line is if you are a graduate from a Canadian program you are gonna be fine.

Good luck, if you have any further questions please feel free to ask

[GTS Jeff]

The U of S is phenomenally hard to get into if you aren't a Sask resident. Your best chances are at the U of A.

Here's what you need:

30% prereq GPA - competitive is around 3.7
30% overall GPA - ditto.
30% DAT - U of A only considers reading comp, perception, and carving. They don't consider the academic stuff.
10% interview - it's a standardized CDA interview, so it's easy to prepare for. If you get an interview, let me know, I'll be glad to help you out. I have a long list of possible CDA interview questions along with the answers they want to hear.

Here is my input. You seem to already know what you're doing to get a good GPA, so that's fine. Be forewarned that the U of A truncates GPA to 1 decimal point, they don't round! So for example, someone with a 3.49 overall GPA shows up on their system as 3.4, not 3.5. Anyway, with the DAT, don't bother studying for the academic portion. It's easy bullshit first year bio and chem questions that you should be able to ace if you're pulling 3.85 gpa. Maybe do the CDA practice and call it a day. For perception, the best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. For soap carving, same thing. I wrote the DAT in November and I gave myself a whole summer to practice the soap carving. I think I bought like 60 bars of soap haha. The trick is to do 1 a day in the last 2-3 weeks before the test. At first you'll suck ass, but you'll get better. 3 weeks practice should get anyone with decent manual dexterity into the high 20s.

I did 3 things to prepare for the DAT.

1. Bought the CDA prep kit and tons of CDA soap. Went through it once. Practiced the soap carvings a lot. Oh yeah, this reminds me, practice on fat crayolas too. The soap in the test is more waxy than the practice soap you get.

2. Go to the dent prep course set up by the U of A dent students. It's AAAWEESOME. That's all I need to say. I think they do a couple days in Calgary too.

3. I got lots of help from a few students already in dentistry. Two years ago, when B18C was still a student, he helped me out tons. Current dent students have taken the DAT recently enough to actually remember how to carve soap and can also nit pick all the flaws with your soap. If you'd like, I can spend a bit of time going over carving with you.

I think that's about it....good luck with the DAT!

[in*10*se]

Originally posted by VWEvo
Hi guys,
- DON'T over prepare for this test. It's a monkey exam and should be treated like that. We always advocated studyin no more than 10 days for this exam.


dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life

[sdubz]

ahaha yeah i disagree about studying too much...that might work for some people but i needed to study a lot to do well

GTSJeff are u currently in dental school?

another "tip" for writing the DAT is to bring your own knife into the exam...i dont know if this is really allowed, but the 2 times i went, the examiners were laid back and let students use whatever they wanted. if you bring your own knife, you will be used to how dull it is. when i wrote my test, the knife they provided me was much sharper than the one i was practising with so it was a bit harder to adapt.

[VWEvo]

Originally posted by in*10*se



dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life

You think that, but I've taught over 100 students and our success rate is outstanding for this exam. This came from the fact that most of the low marks came from students who prepared months before. This isn't the case all the time. Most, including myself, who studied for 2 weeks before the exam had the highest scores.

So think what you want, we put together a proven system that had extraordinary results.

So can you overprepare for this exam, I think so!!!

[VWEvo]

By the way, I quit teaching the course after I graduated from Dental school.(2003) I was contemplating having the current students who teach bring it here for a weekend, wasn't sure about the interest though.

[forkdork]

Originally posted by VWEvo
By the way, I quit teaching the course after I graduated from Dental school.(2003) I was contemplating having the current students who teach bring it here for a weekend, wasn't sure about the interest though.

Hey volinder and jeff,
I'm actually navdeeps brother haha.

So yeah, I am going to be applying as an inprovince student at the U of S (I will have the pre reqs done for Sask this year and I don't want to overload myself with another organic chemistry etc and potentially do shitty just so I can apply at U of A). If I don't get in this year (which seems entirely possible as the average for last year was 89.65 or something) I will definately apply to the UofA for next year (after i finish the rest of the pre reqs).


I bought the Kaplan book to study the sciences (Academic Avg now constitutes 25% of your dat component of your overall score). I got 90 in the first year Bio class so I think I will be ok for that with a bit of review. I have not learned a bunch of the chemistry stuff as the 2nd half is not required at sask so I will probably have to spend a bit of time learning all that crap (Doesn't seem to be that hard). For the carving/reading cmp/and PAT I bought the IQ books just to familiarize myself with the format of the exam.

So I guess I will be fine with prep time (This is what I was worried about as I remember my brother studying for the MCAT for like a full summer).

[VWEvo]

Originally posted by forkdork


Hey volinder and jeff,
I'm actually navdeeps brother haha.

So yeah, I am going to be applying as an inprovince student at the U of S (I will have the pre reqs done for Sask this year and I don't want to overload myself with another organic chemistry etc and potentially do shitty just so I can apply at U of A). If I don't get in this year (which seems entirely possible as the average for last year was 89.65 or something) I will definately apply to the UofA for next year (after i finish the rest of the pre reqs).


I bought the Kaplan book to study the sciences (Academic Avg now constitutes 25% of your dat component of your overall score). I got 90 in the first year Bio class so I think I will be ok for that with a bit of review. I have not learned a bunch of the chemistry stuff as the 2nd half is not required at sask so I will probably have to spend a bit of time learning all that crap (Doesn't seem to be that hard). For the carving/reading cmp/and PAT I bought the IQ books just to familiarize myself with the format of the exam.

So I guess I will be fine with prep time (This is what I was worried about as I remember my brother studying for the MCAT for like a full summer).

Hey,

Well the MCAT is a whole other ball game, now thats a real exam.


As for help with carving or the perceptual section just feel free to come by my office and I can teach you stuff within a few minutes for you to practice with.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by in*10*se



dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life

:dunno: Other than the carving, there isn't really much you can study for. I basically spent a week on all the stuff except for soap carving. Then again, if you feel spending more time helps, then all the power to you, I guess. The reason you need more time for soap carving is because it's tough to do more than 1 carving a day.

Originally posted by sdubz
ahaha yeah i disagree about studying too much...that might work for some people but i needed to study a lot to do well

GTSJeff are u currently in dental school?

another "tip" for writing the DAT is to bring your own knife into the exam...i dont know if this is really allowed, but the 2 times i went, the examiners were laid back and let students use whatever they wanted. if you bring your own knife, you will be used to how dull it is. when i wrote my test, the knife they provided me was much sharper than the one i was practising with so it was a bit harder to adapt. Anyway, I don't think you should rely on sneaking in your own blade. Some proctors can be strict and enforce shit like crazy. A better method to prepare for using a sharp blade is to switch to using a sharp knife for your last 5 practice soaps. There are 2 blades included in the prep kit for this purpose.

[forkdork]

Can you buy similar blades anywhere locally?

[VWEvo]

Don't dwell to much on the blade. While this "dull" blade thing may have a little merit, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Don't forget your carving soap with sharp metal blade, it's not going to dull that much. So when you get a brand new blade you shouldn't notice that much difference.


I can tell you that you will want to wear an old t-shirt to the exam. When your hands start to sweat the soap can get slippery. You'll want to constantly wipe your hands on your t-shirt. When I wrote my exam and guy dropped his soap on the ground and it broke. It's game over if that happens.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by VWEvo
I can tell you that you will want to wear an old t-shirt to the exam. When your hands start to sweat the soap can get slippery. You'll want to constantly wipe your hands on your t-shirt. When I wrote my exam and guy dropped his soap on the ground and it broke. It's game over if that happens. Heh I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy that dropped his soap mid test and just stuck it back together with spit and wrapped it up in the paper towel so that it would look like the soap broke in transit...apparently he did well. :nut: `

[sdubz]

haha i heard that too...
the night before the exam i practised glueing 2 soaps together for emergency lol
i tried searching everywhere but i couldnt find a blade identical to the DAT one...i guess mine was just really dull because there was a HUGE difference in my knife and the knife provided on the exam.

if your hands sweat like me, bring latex goves to the exam (but make sure you practise using gloves if you do). around 1/3 of the people writing the exam brought gloves.

[ashee]

What's the DAT?

[1-Bar]

Originally posted by GTS Jeff
Heh I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy that dropped his soap mid test and just stuck it back together with spit and wrapped it up in the paper towel so that it would look like the soap broke in transit...apparently he did well. :nut: `

I know a guy who cut his finger and handed in red soap :rofl: Too bad he didn't fair off as well as your the one mentioned above.....

[B18C]

The U of A DAT prep course is pretty good if you know what you are getting. The course is taught by second year dent students as one of their yearly fundraisers. When I taught the course I found that some of the students didn't have a clue about the exam.

If you are going to take the course by the U of A guys, or any other course for that matter, I would make sure you have at least tried some of the practice exams. UThe U of A guys will go through the CDA sample test during the course so try to do other practice exams before you go.

The best part of the courses taught by dent students is that they know a lot about the process and you can ask them about the interview, the questions to expect and how to answer them.

As for how much to study, I tend to disagree with those that say you can over study. I mean, sure you CAN overstudy but don't let that be an excuse for not studying enough. If you want to be a dentist then you gotta jump through the hoops. Don't let your ego hold you back a year. That said, there are some things I would concentrate on more than others.

Soap Carving - GTSJeff's thing about carving a soap a day is excellent.
Perceptual Ability - I've heard people say you can't study for this but I can assure you that you can. Experience and tricks you learn can go a long way in speeding up your time on the easy sections. Other than soap carving I would spend the most time on this for sure.
Sciences - I would go over this a little but it's not that important. If you have more than one old exam I would do one when you start studying to see how well you do. If you do well then I wouldn't touch it until like a week before the exam.
Reading comprehension - I don't care what people say, you can study for this, with the right material. If you have old/sample exams DO THEM. Once you get comfortable with the type of questions they ask you'll find it a lot easier to pick out what you need to know from the passages.

Anyways, this rant has gone on long enough. If you have any questions just PM me.

[B18C]

One more thing. Write the DAT as soon as you can. There is no experience like the real one. Then even if you do poorly then re-write it in feb no harm done. In fact, you will have more experience so you are bound to do better.

[VWEvo]

Originally posted by B18C
The U of A DAT prep course is pretty good if you know what you are getting. The course is taught by second year dent students as one of their yearly fundraisers. When I taught the course I found that some of the students didn't have a clue about the exam.

If you are going to take the course by the U of A guys, or any other course for that matter, I would make sure you have at least tried some of the practice exams. UThe U of A guys will go through the CDA sample test during the course so try to do other practice exams before you go.

The best part of the courses taught by dent students is that they know a lot about the process and you can ask them about the interview, the questions to expect and how to answer them.

As for how much to study, I tend to disagree with those that say you can over study. I mean, sure you CAN overstudy but don't let that be an excuse for not studying enough. If you want to be a dentist then you gotta jump through the hoops. Don't let your ego hold you back a year. That said, there are some things I would concentrate on more than others.

Soap Carving - GTSJeff's thing about carving a soap a day is excellent.
Perceptual Ability - I've heard people say you can't study for this but I can assure you that you can. Experience and tricks you learn can go a long way in speeding up your time on the easy sections. Other than soap carving I would spend the most time on this for sure.
Sciences - I would go over this a little but it's not that important. If you have more than one old exam I would do one when you start studying to see how well you do. If you do well then I wouldn't touch it until like a week before the exam.
Reading comprehension - I don't care what people say, you can study for this, with the right material. If you have old/sample exams DO THEM. Once you get comfortable with the type of questions they ask you'll find it a lot easier to pick out what you need to know from the passages.

Anyways, this rant has gone on long enough. If you have any questions just PM me.


Well put!!!

[Red@8]

Ashee the DAT is the dental aptitude test.

Also forkdork the 89 avg for u of s last year was one of the higest they have ever had. I would doubt if it was that high again this year. But as an out of province student it certainly doesnt hurt to have the higest avg possible.

A 20+ avg on the dat should put you pretty comfortable with the rest of the applicant pool at u of s.

[szw]

bumping...I have been toying with the idea of dental school, but I haven't really looked into it too much.

How GPA centric are the dental schools? I have a fairy low GPA, but I have already completed my degree (B.Sc. Electrical Engg). Do you think this would be viewed as favourable? Also I looked at U of T's admission requirements and they require some general biochemistry or general mammalian physiology courses and a bunch of other prereqs. In engg I didn't take any of these prereqs, so would I be spending a year taking all these courses before I could even apply, or are there exceptions if I already have completed a degree.

I'll have more questions the more I research, but here is just the start.

[GTS Jeff]

Originally posted by szw
bumping...I have been toying with the idea of dental school, but I haven't really looked into it too much.

How GPA centric are the dental schools? I have a fairy low GPA, but I have already completed my degree (B.Sc. Electrical Engg). Do you think this would be viewed as favourable? Also I looked at U of T's admission requirements and they require some general biochemistry or general mammalian physiology courses and a bunch of other prereqs. In engg I didn't take any of these prereqs, so would I be spending a year taking all these courses before I could even apply, or are there exceptions if I already have completed a degree.

I'll have more questions the more I research, but here is just the start. Hey Sean, I'll share my knowledge with you. First off, consider that you are a resident of Alberta and that most dental schools have only a couple out of province spots available, which means you have to be VERY competitive to get in. What does this leave you with? The U of A, because you are an in-province student, and UBC, because they don't distinguish between in and out of province. Word of caution though, UBC costs a boatload! Well, they all do, but UBC moreso.

Second, how low is your GPA? Canadian dental schools are VERY GPA-centric, though your candidacy can be improved if you have a degree. For example, the U of A will drop your lowest year's GPA from the overall GPA calculation if you have 4 or more years of school. To give you an idea, this year's class at the U of A entered with an average of 3.8 overall GPA, 3.84 prerequisite course GPA, and around 22 on the DAT.

Finally, regarding the prereqs, there are never any exceptions. The faculty will not waste their time on people who are not committed enough to put in the work. Besides, those prereqs are absolutely essential to understanding and keeping up with the stuff you learn in dental school anyway.

[wagovan]

wow great info in here!
thanks guys!

[forkdork]

2 weeks left!

This damn reading comprehension seems impossible to finish in the given time! I find myself just skimming through it crazy fast and looking back at the text for the questions (so i'm really not comprehending anything i guess ;) )

8 pages of reading and 50 questions all to be done in 50 minutes?!! I don't even think the speed reading guy off the tv infomercials can do that :nut:

I find myself actually enjoying that PAT (I guess im a loser), I always break a "mental sweat" rotating all those shapes and folding/unfolding all those papers etc in your head.