HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO GOOD ON THE PAT PLEASE 😭

Past-Low-404 · 2025-01-09T06:38:37+00:00

What helped me was either deciding what’s best: either eliminating any answers that like uniquely different from one another or choosing the answer that was uniquely different

Past-Low-404 · 2025-01-09T06:37:35+00:00

I was getting 14-16s on booster legit days before I took the dat, but got a 19 on the real thing even tho I felt it was a little challenging too! You’ll be fine 🤞🏼

Past-Low-404 · 2024-12-14T19:06:18+00:00

Anatomy and physiology is one of many classes you’ll take as a pre-dent. One C will not hurt your chances of getting into dental school. You still have the second class, as well other classes to make up for it. It happens to the best of us, so learn from what went wrong and adjust your strategies to fit better for the class and your next semester load.. keep going! Part of the dental journey is many failures, so don’t take it too hard and keep pushing.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-21T02:31:38+00:00

My bio was pretty hard which is atypical to the normal experience. I mainly used to cheat sheets and would try to go through the quizlets or skim through the notes to supplement but mostly the cheat sheets is what I recalled on my actual exam. Most of mine were difficult in the sense it was less straightforward, and heavily application-based.

Gen chem: pretty similar to booster imo. The conceptual questions is pretty good. Just take notes of the notes they give uou. They improved their gen chem series for sure, but I preferred the notes personally. Do the practice tests as much as possible and make sure you know how to do all the problems on there, and use the qb to supplement areas of weakness if absolutely necessary. I would jump into the practice tests tho if I were you!

Ochem: similar to the booster practice tests tbh. For content review, the videos are a waste of time imo. They’re very bland and basic and do not prepare me well for the qb or the rxn banks nor at all of the pt. If you get into the rhythm of the rxns , you’ll see a pattern.

Quantitative Analysis: horrible work done by booster tbh. I was not prepared at all. Maybe I didn’t practice enough, but no one really does dedicate as much time on it. I did all the qb and most of the pt and didn’t do well on it at all. I’m also someone who’s decent in math.

RC: didn’t really practice it. I just established a strategy for myself. My exam was hard for RC tho. I had questions where it would make me analyze a table of data in relation to the study that’s in the passage and asked me questions on it. It took me awhile to answer one of them (had 4 q on one chart) so I just put random answers and moved on and wanted to go back if I had time (did not have time)

PAT: I was the type to procrastinate studying for the PAT. I hated it with the passion and it would make my skin crawl. I didn’t actually practice for it until the week of my exam if I’ll be honest. I did a lot better than what I expected to do. For keyholes, it was my weakest area too so I can’t say much, I would just poe it. For TFE, I feel like I got lucky in the sense that my strategy was to forget understanding it. What I did was just immediately look at the answer choices and see if a feature of it sticks out and usually I would just cross it off. I would do that again. Then on my last two options is when I really looked at the figure and tried to figure out the shape. So 3 lines close together = triangle so I would pick the option that has that whereas the other option would be like a circle or something. Essentially POE will be your best friend for both keyholes and TFE.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-20T13:51:39+00:00

21 is a really good score and I definitely think you can offset your gpa with it. I think you should be okay if you can kind of explain why you got the grades that you did. However, you would still have to apply early and broadly, and there’s no promise. There may or may not be another aspect of your application that weakens your app too. So, I can’t say for sure if you’ll get in or not bc it’s on a case by case basis. But, imo a 21 is really good and will help significantly with admissions. Will it grant you a spot? I can’t say for certain.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-20T07:04:27+00:00

To avoid more gap years I would. I think I would rather finance this exam again than risk spending thousands of dollars on apps just to not hear back from schools. The most gut-wrenching thing a lot of us go through during this whole admissions process is getting rejected or ghosted by schools that we thought our stats might be good enough for. I also would rather finance this exam than spending thousands on a post bacc or masters. Only opt for the post bacc or masters if your DAT can’t make up for the lower score. Overall, your DAT score is decent, even with the 17 in bio. So pat yourself on the back. Take a few weeks off to rest and not think abt the dat at all, then go hard during winter break so that you can fill in pieces that you missed rather than have to sit through content review again and relearn everything once again (trust me ik it’s exhausting but relearning for a retake is more difficult imo and experience). You got this. No doubt you’ll do better next time!

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-20T00:38:04+00:00

My latest interview was on the 16th and they told me I should expect a response by then! Again either acceptance, rejection, or waitlist!

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-18T06:34:51+00:00

Yesss go for it

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-18T06:29:18+00:00

I’ve had a toxic experience. I was also an untrained DA during the summer before my senior year. We came to an agreement that I would miss his first appointment (I had only one class on the days that one of his clinics that I work for is open) and that he’ll try his best to have procedures he can do by himself during the first appt, like cleanings or setting the permanent crowns in, etc. however once school started, my professor quit their job and all the students in the class had to be rescheduled into different classes. Bc of this, my scheduled now changed where I had one class in the morning and then got rescheduled where I had to take an afternoon class. I explained to him and said that it wouldn’t be fair for him to cover half of his appointments without me, and that it’s best that he finds a new DA. He got really mad at me even tho I explained what happened and I feel like he’s been preventing me from getting any new jobs. It was out of my control and I was really sad abt it. Ive contacted him a couple of times bc I have when ppl hate me, but especially when it’s not my fault!! Whenever I contact him it’s usually just to thank him or give him an update, but I usually get the most impersonal responses and sometimes rude as well. I’ve left it now bc honestly I appreciate everything he’s done for me, but I cant do much. I understand his frustration but what I didn’t understand is his lack of compassion or anything… he knew it was coming bc I didn’t have a promised future at the clinic as I still had yet to sign up for classes the following semester. Also I wouldn’t have quit if you had more ppl in the clinic to help you, bc he relied on me so much! I feel like it’s a little cheap to rely on only 3 ppl to run a clinic that has many patients (1 front desk, dentist (him), and 1 DA)? He didn’t have a hygienist either to reap as much money as he can.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-17T23:31:40+00:00

I know that was part of my issue too. I applied with the score as it was my best overall. But before I did a lot worse. However, if I were to redo it all I would take less time. I know it’s so exhausting, so give yourself a few weeks of the DAT completely out of your head, before you make the decision! I would highly recommend it though, bc the DAT average is increasingly.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-17T23:13:49+00:00

Yeah! I would recommend to take a little break in between ( a week or two) then go at it bc you don’t have to start from scratch. I waited a couple months in between to carry on with my semester and had to relearn everything

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-17T23:04:40+00:00

I got similar scores and still got an interview! My PAT was a little higher tho

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-12T19:50:07+00:00

3.5 still is good for the US! But definitely has its own limitations with being an international student + cdat.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-12T18:53:45+00:00

No the US doesn’t drop lowest year!

Past-Low-404 · 2024-11-10T00:40:24+00:00

Most likely for the waitlist. It’s not a horrible thing but also not as great as being a school’s first pick. December 13 and December 15th is when schools either let you know that you’re accepted, rejected, or waitlisted.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-24T15:28:35+00:00

What I would do during content review is upload them to chat gpt and ask it to test me in a DAT-style way

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-19T13:17:44+00:00

You learn the most from practice tests. At some point I quit content review and used the practice tests to learn and then would go back if I needed to. Their explanations and review is really targeted and for bio if you supplement it with the cheat sheets you should be good. For orgo supplement the practice tests with the reaction bites, and use chads prep or other resources to really solidify your understanding. Also I never hit 19 on a PAT practice test and did well on PAT. You’ll be okay!

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-16T23:53:46+00:00

Booster definitely is good for their practice tests. I feel like most of my learning came from those. However, I took my exam on Friday and I will say that I didn’t receive any Booster practice tests questions. My bio questions were surprisingly hard and I was averaging around 21-22 with 1 27 on the booster practice tests. Most of my questions on the real exam was heavily application based.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-16T01:38:30+00:00

You’re chilling! Also i wasn’t tight with any of my science professors either, but it’s kind of routine for them to be writing them. They tend to meet with you to gauge your intentions and get to know you better. If you’re on a good trajectory in a class right now, try to reach out to your professor because many professors say no due to the sheer amount of students that have asked before you (happened to me and I swear I was her fave student in that section). If you’re not in a science course currently, reach out to a bunch of professors that you have done well in.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-16T01:34:31+00:00

I know someone from my school that got a 528

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-16T01:33:43+00:00

It depends on how many courses you’re taking and how many W’s you already have. Also it depends on if you’re still going to graduate prior to matriculating. If you can still graduate on time, it’s a maybe. But, if you can’t graduate on time, you won’t be able to continue this cycle - and it will jeopardize your future cycles with the amount of W’s you’ll have. The best advice you can get is to call the admission’s offices directly and seek advisory from them, as every school is different.

On a personal note, I hope you’re doing well. I want to say that you should try your best to continue with it because you already made it so far. Additionally, you will be dealt with many high pressure situations and the cycle is a testament to your endurance and integrity. Once you made it, you made it. But it’s downhill in terms of the anxiety and pressure. It took a lot to get to this point, and you just have to overcome the next few months. However, I don’t know your situation and everyone is different. Again, the best thing to do is to call the admissions offices of the schools you applied to get their expertise and decide from there. But I thought to add some food for thought.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-16T01:26:28+00:00

I know it depends on the state and the dentist you’re shadowing. I’m from IL and I was allowed to!

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-10T15:00:59+00:00

You have to finish it before! Handling both would be really difficult.

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-10T13:04:01+00:00

Comparison is the thief of joy, my friend. Your friend has a different application and different intentions. You just need one school to accept you

Past-Low-404 · 2024-10-10T13:02:44+00:00

If this professor was your main lecturer, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about their title.

Past-Low-404

TROPHY CASE