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61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The truth about the real DAT, August 23, 2002
This review is from: Dental Admission Test (DAT) Computerized Sample Tests and Guide, TopScore Pro for the DAT (CD-ROM)
I just took my DAT two days ago. Before the test I came to this website to read what people have wrote about the TOPSCORE product and the DAT in general. It seems that everyone thinks that the real DAT is much easier than the practice tests. Before taking the DAT I took the Kaplan course, and bought the TOPSCORE CD ROM. I must say that TOPSCORE is a great tool regardless of anything. The test on that CD ROM are of good quality. I was scoring consitently 25 on organic chem, 20 on general chem, 20-21 on Biology, 18 on math, 20-21 on reading, and 22-23 on PAT.
Some of my "practice test" scores like Organic, reading and PAT, never deviated from 25, 21, 23 respectively. So I came to this website nad developed a notion through reading of other reviews that the real test would be just like the practice test ADA supplies. It was not the case at all, I thought that the real test was more difficult than than any of the practice test I took before. Reading was crazy, the articles they gave on the real test were pretty hardcore. Also the organic chemistry portion was pretty difficult. The monitor wasn;t "super high resolution monitor" that ADA claims it to be. So when the PAT part came a lot of times it was difficult to see intricatedetails about the object in the monitor. I am dissapointed with my overall score of Academic - 18, PAT - 20. These are certainly not the scores I was getting on practice tests. The advice I would give to other students is this: 1) Understand that real DAT is NOT easier than the practice test on TOPSCORE. It is not MUCH harder, but it is not easier. 2) STUDY THE WHOLE SUBJECT. that wasy when you get asked something you know how to approach the question from any angle. A good example is trigonometry. Don't just memorize the inequlities, understand it. There were a LOT of TRIG questions on the QR portion on the DAT I took. 3) Kaplan course was good. However the class itself is a complete waste of time. Be ready to do ALL work on your own. 4) NEVER underestimate the power of your old textbooks. Its much better to review the whole concept of Thermodynamics, than to remember specific question types involving Hess's law. 5) Please understand that although TOPSCORE has a pretty good PAT section,the real DAT PAT is a bit harder. The quality of real DAT is a bit less, and I found key whole and ESPECIALLY angle ranking onthe real PAT more challenging. If you want to prepare yourself for real DAT angle ranking...get BARRON's DAT Book, and the ADA practice test. These bookswill prepare you well. Don;t rely on Top SCORE. Good luck
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good study material, April 18, 2005
This review is from: Dental Admission Test (DAT) Computerized Sample Tests and Guide, TopScore Pro for the DAT (CD-ROM)
Overall, TopScore Pro is worth the money and time. I took the DAT in March of 2004 and here are my scores. Academic Average 21, Biology 23, General Chemistry 22, Organic Chemistry 23, Reading Comp. 22, Quant. Reasoning 16 and Perceptual Ability 18. I have been out of college 2.5 years now, married, and have a full time job. I started off studying my college text books. Of course, college text books are very specific, but I was determined to read my biology and organic chemistry books again before I even took a study test. That helped tremendously. The first practice tests I took were actually Kaplan's DAT study guide and the test in the DAT preparation booklet put out by ADA. The Kaplan book is worth the money too for the practice. Anyway, after those initial test, I took TopScore Pro. As I read in other reviews, the science sections were harder than the actual test. I routinely scored 17 or 18 for total science on TopScore, but had 23 on the real DAT. The reading and quatitative are about the same as the real DAT. But, the real DAT perceptual ability (PA) is harder than the TopScore Pro tests. I scored about 19 or 20 with the TopScore test, but 18 on the real DAT for PA. The DAT preparation booklet put out by ADA was really closest to the level of difficulty you will see on the DAT. But, if you can master the Kaplan and TopScore science sections, you should do well on the real DAT science. With perceptual ability, basically the more practice you get, the better.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCELLENT PREPARATION!!! MUST BUY IF YOU WANT TO DO WELL!!!, August 25, 2001
This review is from: Dental Admission Test (DAT) Computerized Sample Tests and Guide, TopScore Pro for the DAT (CD-ROM)
About a month ago, I was on this website looking for additional materials to prepare for my DAT exam. I went ahead and bought this program, and I'M VERY happy that I did. Before, I was taking Kaplan practice exams and getting scores between 15-18 in the Natural Sciences, and 18-19 in the Reading Section and Perception sections, and 14 in the math. I got worried, so I bought this program immediately. I took the first test and scored average (16 Bio, 16 GChem, 17OChem, 19Perception, 19Reading, 16Math). Once I took these exams, I'd go over and over and over them, backwards and forwards, looking at and relearning concepts. By my last exam, I scored (18Bio, 18GChem, 20OChem, 20Perception, 19Reading, 17Math). But, during the few weeks before the real DAT, I was going over the 3 exams in this CDROM, and the other 3 exams I'd taken at Kaplan. I went over them religiously. On the real DAT, I scored higher than any practice exam I'd ever taken. Here are my real scores: 20Bio, 22GChem, 25OChem, 19Perception, 20Reading, 20Math. I'm VERY VERY happy with these scores. I think this program is WELL worth your money and time, if you're willing to spend the time to go over every exam repeatedly, until you know the answers perfectly. The testing screen is identical to the real DAT. This program doesn't give explanations to the answers, but it's not a big deal, because when you get something wrong, you know where to go to look it up and end up learning more than you would just by reading an answer explanation. Practice is the key for this exam, and the more you get, the better you'll do. I HIGHLY reccomend this program to anyone who is serious about doing well on the DAT. I'm generally not a good standardized test-taker, but this really gave me the confidence and most importantly the practice to really do well on the real DAT. YOU DEFINATELY NEED TO GET THIS PROGRAM.
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