The 1st Practice DAT

Let me be the first to tell you that there is nothing better than putting in a full workday only to come home and put another 4 and a half hours in for a practice DAT. I mean, what better things do I have to do with my time honestly? Needless to say, it was tough to keep up with the clock, and I ended up doing worse than I originally had hoped. Although there were a few surprises (20's on RC and PAT), I really need to hit the science, particularly the General Chemistry, really hard for the next 5 weeks.

That being said, it is good to know that there have been steady improvements over the past 4 weeks. There would be a major cause for concern if it were otherwise. My hope is that I can continue the steady climb and be consistently hitting the 20's in all categories before test day - June 9.

Besides the DAT, I have been moving along with the other portions of the application. I have made some strides in the personal statement and already have my four letters of recommendation lined up. It is a huge relief to know that those letters will be done, especially since I have enough on my plate already. My shadowing hours are piling up nicely as well; I will have 17 hours by the end of Saturday. Ideally, I would be done with them before mid-May, but I will have to pare that expectation back for the time being.

First Dental Shadowing of the Year

With less than 50 days until I take my DAT and about 60 days until I get my application materials in, I finally got my first shadowing experience of the year with a general practioner. Admittedly, I was a little anxious on my ride over to his office. The "what if's" abounded: what if I don't find the work interesting, what if I don't have any questions, what if I trip and fall into a patient while he is getting his dentures realigned? I have shadowed in the past, but now that I am in the application process, it means a lot more to me.

But, my greatest concern was that I would be reduced to yawning and struggling to keep my eyes open during the five and half hours I would shadow. Even though I am mentally prepared to become a dentist, there is a huge difference to believing you want to be a dentist and seeing it firsthand. I have heard of people who, once going to shadow, have decided that the profession just is not for them. Sure it happens, but I think I have gone through the "I-need-time-to-think-about-my-life" phase enough.

You can imagine my relief when I finally looked at the clock and realized that the time literally flew by. During my time, I found the work fascinating, had hundreds of questions to ask, and did not embarrass myself by falling into a patient. All in all, it was a great experience. And, I am even more certain that I want to be a dentist. I guess I will not be as anxious the next time I am driving to shadow.

Choosing Schools

I am not the first one or last one to really be stumped about where I should apply for dental school. The smart money says I should apply to schools in the Midwest because I know what I am getting into out here. Besides, I have my support network of friends, family, and people in the field. They are all within an hour drive of me. Needless to say, it makes sense to stay in the Midwest.

But, I am not totally convinced it is. Call it dreaming, call it Midwestern cabin fever, I really feel a need to expand my horizons. And what better time to do that then at dental school. Sure, I will have more than one sleepless night a week, have little money, and barely time to cook for myself, but the experience will be well worth it. Why not take advantage of living in a totally new city and meeting totally new, non-Midwestern people?

I would be lying if I said the only reason I want to look at schools outside the Midwest is for the experience, however. Truth is, I have a significant other who is looking at schools outside the Midwest, and we do not want to be apart for school if we can avoid it. Long distance can kill an otherwise great relationship, and we do not want that.

Like anything else, any decision I make is not without consequence. Let us hope I make the right one.

Fire Drill!

I found out during my DAT class this past Thursday that I am really behind in my application process. Needless to say, I had a very slight myocardial infarction, which ended in me walking out of the room for a glass of water. Now, I am an easily excitable person. Although I make an effort to keep myself in check, I do have moments that I cannot control myself. This was one of those moments, and I will tell you why.

The application for dental school begins May 15 - 1 month and 8 days from today. That means nearly 50% of all dental school applicants - my competition - will be sending their application to the dental application service - AADSAS. What that means is these applicants will be getting interviews around September and October, with their acceptance or rejection letters by December 1st of this year.

Had I known this, I would not have been stressing in class, but the fact is I did not know. I am far from having my application materials ready. Even if I were to devote loads of time to the application, I could not realistically have it done before June 15. And that is a concern because by the time I get my application in, nearly 75% of all the dental seats will be filled by the vigilant majority that had their applications prepared by May 15. I hope you can understand the alarm.

At this point, I must do a balls-out fire drill to get my application submitted to AADSAS by June 15th: 4 letters of recommendation, personal statement and profile, DAT, and around 40 hours of shadowing to keep up with the Jones's. Then again, would it be dental school if it weren't just a little stressful?

DAT Diagnostic and Initial Thoughts...

I took my first DAT Diagnostic yesterday. It is not that I expected to do well on it, but I wish I could have done better. And by better, I mean better in the Natural Sciences portion. The other three sections (reading comprehension, perceptual ability, and math) went all right.

If every section were an organ, the Natural Sciences portion is the heart of the DAT. There is an immense amount of information expected of the test taker, and rightfully so. I mean, you cannot expect someone to do well in the school part if they cannot perform on what is considered basic knowledge of the biological world.

Still, I question how the other DAT test components, specifically the reading comprehension, provide a measure of future performance. I guess I am still at a loss for how a timed reading test tells how "good" of a reader you are. As someone who reads particularly slow reader, I find the timed reading comprehension nerve-racking; I constantly check the time and judging whether or not I have enough time to answer the questions.

A possible and plausible response to my issues regarding reading comprehension would be: "well, if you cannot read distill the necessary information quickly from a passage, then that is going to hurt you in Dental School because we read..." And they are right. But, maybe a more effective way to test reading skills would be to read a passage and then evaluate its validity by writing about it. This is similar to how the GRE conducts its writing portion.

If nothing else, shouldn't dentists be able to communicate their thoughts in a well organized and concise manner both orally and in writing?