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Predental FAQs:

What is on the DAT?

Biology:

  • The Kaplan DAT Review Notes is a valuable resource for reviewing biology. You can buy Kaplan books on Amazon that are relatively inexpensive. Barrons’s AP Biology (3rd) and CliffsAP Biology (3rd) are a general review of biology, and since the questions that you will see on the DAT are not that detailed, these are very helpful books. If you are still having trouble with Biology, you might consider buying Thinkwell’s biology course. This online class gives general lectures about a wide range of topics.

  • It is very easy to spend too much time studying these topics (relative to the number of questions that will be asked), so be very careful not to waste time on these lectures.

  • Another resource that consolidates information, particularly for plant and animal classifications, is datQvault. It would be very beneficial to be familiar with/ memorize some of these classification charts because you will most likely see a question from them (datqvault.com).

 

General Chemistry:

  • Use Chad’s Videos and the DAT destroyer questions to study. Additionally, the Princeton Review Cracking the AP Chemistry Exam is available for general review.

 

Organic Chemistry:

  • Chad’s Videos are a good review for O Chem. Another resource that has practice questions and explanations is Organic Chemistry Odyssey.

 

Perceptual Ability Test (PAT):

  • This section will come easier to some than others. But do not fear. If you are struggling initially, practice is key. Perceptual Ability is a learned skill, and if you keep plugging away at it, you will get the scores you want. You should always remember to review the problems that you missed and understand why you missed them. The PAT is divided into 6 sections. Below are some helpful hints on each section.

 

Perceptual Ability Section (90 questions in 60 minutes)

  • Apertures (Keyholes)

    • Practice is key.

  • Top-Front-End Views:

    • A proper understanding of dotted and dashed lines is very important. A helpful post explains exactly how to approach these problems, different tricks to narrow down the choices, etc. Read the majority of the post here to help: http:// forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=528643

  • Angle Ranking

    • You will want to cruise through this section to make up for the time you had to spend on the other two sections. Do not linger on this section. Learn how to quickly discern between the angles and move on. Here is a helpful post that might help you on this section http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php? p=11246290.

  • Pattern folding/ hole punching

    • Make a grid (tic-tac-toe) box with four boxes vertical and horizontal. Then starting at the last fold on the screen, mark all the boxes which have a hole punched in it. Move to the second to last fold on the screen. After mentally unfold the paper, again mark all the squares that would have a hole punched in it. This will help you avoid careless errors. On the real DAT, you can draw all your tic-tac- toe boxes for this section during the 5 min tutorial before you begin the test. This site gives an example of a hole punching problem. (http://predds.net/dat-pat-tic- tac-toe-method-hole-punches/).

    • If you are having trouble mentally unfolding the paper, then physically work it out. Take a square, fold it, punch a hole, and mentally picture what it would look like as you unfold it. This may be very helpful to some students initially.

  • Cube Counting

    • This section gives you a three-dimensional object made of cubes, and you have to determine the number of sides that would have to be painted to paint the entire outside surface of the object. There are three to four questions for each object. The most reliable way to approach this section is to quickly write out the number of “painted sides” on all the cubes. I systematically worked from front to back on one row, and then I moved to the next row. Then count up how many sides have one, two, three, etc. painted sides. This will prevent you from making careless mistakes when you are rushing.

  • 3-D Form development (Pattern Folding)

    • Practice is key. 

 

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