Customer Reviews

DAT: Complete Preparation for the Dental Admission Test, 2001 Edition: The Science of Review

5 star:		(1)
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I do not recomend this book one bit!, it is full of mistakes and the explantions for the answers are not there. All the sections contain serious error and the phrasing of some questions is vague to say the least. The answers provided for most of the questions is wrong!, and that applies for the science section as well as the math and perceptual ability sections. You are better off taking the test without prepartion than taking it studying for it with this book.

I'm not exactly sure why this book has such a bad rating. If you skeptical about whether this book would worth your 18 bucks, let me tell you something; I bet you can't find any guides out there would actual teach you HOW to prepare and how to study DAT. I understand the big Kaplan book have lot of DAT materials and some practice questions (although not very many) for you to get familiar with the subjects, however if you don't already have a good study system or study habit, Kaplan book would not help you a whole lot. If you don't have a strong test-taking skill and take a test; it works just like trying to run when you can't even walk.

The reading comprehension section is really helpful. It shows you how to develop a mind map and show you a few techniques to tackle the passage. Knowing you'll only have a little more than a min for each question, plus reading a 1300-word passage, you really have to learn how to be a fast reader.

For the sciences chapters, the book gives you an outline for each subject. I think it's very helpful because it works like a check list, make sure you understand all the important concepts and points.

As for the Kaplan course, may I say a few things about it? Firstly, it's not cheap ($1,200) for 14 sessions (3 out of 14 classes are the mid-terms and final, so that doesn't count). If you do a simple calculation, you're hiring a pre-med or a pre-dental student $30 an hour to teach you something that you can learn on your own. It's a big waste of money. I'm actually taking that class right now. After the first session, I ask for a partial refund for the tuition and withdrawal the class and they refused. Please learn from my mistake, don't take the Kaplan.

Overall, I think this book worth more than the big Kaplan book because you can use your text books to review the materials like biology etc. but you won't be able to find anything nearly as good as what this book has to offer. If you serious about the DAT, this is the first book you ought to read.

My dental school counselor recommended Williams and Wilkins very highly. I have friends who have used this same guide for their MCAT's and they thought it was very thorough also. As for my own experience, I think this 2001 edition is very similar to the older ones, so you could save a few bucks by getting the 2000 edition, if you're a little parsimonious. Otherwise, you can't beat 29 bucks for a 235 page guide. My only complaint is they could have included more practice. I know the MCAT version has more practice. Overall, I really like the book and am still going through it slowly. It is well organized and help you organize your time and notes for studying for the DAT.

This book has great suggestions on how to prepare for the DAT, and it can help you increase your self-discipline if you decide to not go with at standard DAT preparation course. It doesn't, however, have any summaries of important facts for the science section. The PAT section of the practice test they give you is shortened and it has several wrong answers. You can go ahead and buy it if it makes you feel any more secure about your approaching test, but I wouldn't recommend it.

There's very good examples and review on the quantative analysis part of the exam. But if you're hoping to review over the biology part of the exam, you're not to worry about this book. It only gives you an outline on the natural science part of the test. You can even get the outline from the DAT application booklet. This book does have some full length mock DAT tests though.