Taking the DAT before Ochem?

[McNelly]

Hello everyone, I graduated last spring with a degree in Accounting. Worked for 4 months and I absolutely hated it. I always went back and forth on Dentristry-PA-PT-Accounting, but chose accounting because of the amount of schooling (I know, dumb, but at the time I was only worried about college athletics).

I have not started any science pre reqs yet and I planned on getting them done as soon as possible ; this January, summer, and then the fall if possible. My biggest concern is I’m 23, and im not really trying to wait an extra two-three years for dental school which is why I was hoping by some miracle I could apply this cycle. I have shadowed a dentist, and I have set up more time dates with him so that I can get atleast 100 hours, and I currently have 100 hours of volunteer work.

With all that being said would it be smart for me to take the DAT before Ochem? The university I’m going to only offered Ochem2 in the spring (which will be my first semester of pre reqs). I was thinking I could potentially find a guide DAT prep course, +YouTube and hopefully self teach myself as much as possible for the DAT. That way I can take the DAT at the end of this spring semester, apply in June and have a chance for this cycle?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DentTreadOnMe]

1. How will you knock out all your pre-reqs in just 1 year? That doesn’t seem possible. You may have to go at least 2 to get them all.

2. If you don’t have a science background, Ochem is probably one of the more difficult sciences (at least for many at my school it was). It would be hard to teach yourself that stuff, but that’s just my opinion.

 

[HKSZYU]

You said that you've taken no science coursework and you'll begin taking them this January (Spring semester.) The undergraduate chemistry series is 4 semesters long, so even at the quickest pace possible, your schedule would look like:

Spring 2020: Gen Chem 1
Summer 2020: Gen Chem 2
Fall 2020: Orgo 1
Spring 2020 Orgo 2

If your hope is to apply next cycle (which means taking your DAT by June 2020 and submitting your apps by August 2020), you'd have neither orgo 1 nor orgo 2 completed by the time of DAT testing. Orgo is an entire section of the DAT, and DAT goes fairly in depth with reactions and mechanisms. It would be inadvisable to sit for the DAT having taken neither of those courses.

Additionally, while most schools do not require that all of your pre-reqs are done by time of application, they do require that most of them are. Under your current schedule, you'd have one semester of science coursework at time of application. It seems improbable that you'd be able to complete the minimum number of pre-reqs in time for application.

 

[ChemistryDentist]

Aside from the logistics of you going through all the prereqs in one year - which, at any normal school, will not be possible because GC is a prereq of OC at most places - you really need to finish both gen chem and orgo BEFORE taking the DAT. Regardless of what resource you use to study for the DAT, without those foundations will making studying for and doing well on the exam far more challenging. It might be possible, but it will definitely set you up to either need to retake or struggle massively. Build the foundations before you go after this test. It's not worth making a $500 investment into a test you don't have the basics on yet.

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Hello everyone, I graduated last spring with a degree in Accounting. Worked for 4 months and I absolutely hated it. I always went back and forth on Dentristry-PA-PT-Accounting, but chose accounting because of the amount of schooling (I know, dumb, but at the time I was only worried about college athletics).

I have not started any science pre reqs yet and I planned on getting them done as soon as possible ; this January, summer, and then the fall if possible. My biggest concern is I’m 23, and im not really trying to wait an extra two-three years for dental school which is why I was hoping by some miracle I could apply this cycle. I have shadowed a dentist, and I have set up more time dates with him so that I can get atleast 100 hours, and I currently have 100 hours of volunteer work.

With all that being said would it be smart for me to take the DAT before Ochem? The university I’m going to only offered Ochem2 in the spring (which will be my first semester of pre reqs). I was thinking I could potentially find a guide DAT prep course, +YouTube and hopefully self teach myself as much as possible for the DAT. That way I can take the DAT at the end of this spring semester, apply in June and have a chance for this cycle?

That is a very lofty goal, teaching yourself Orgo and then scoring high on the DAT would not be easy, some would say not possible. I would miss a cycle prepare properly and then Destroy it the first time.

Just my 2 cents.

Nancy