I think you would be ok to count them, but it might be beneficial to keep them separate in case someone asks. They might want to see that you've done shadowing separate from your job as an assistant. I'm sure you are learning tons as an assistant, but that is just how your doctor(s) does things. You would benefit greatly from doing shadowing separate from your assisting to see different perspectives and ways of doing things.

Many people from my school who didn't have the highest GPA's seemed to work in dentistry for a while, so they had lots of dental experience.

Definitely! I think it would be more beneficial to see other dentists to get different experiences.

I found that studying with a small group is helpful for me. I see some study groups with tons a people and I don't know how they get anything done. I like to study with a group of 4 people max.

I think you are totally fine to apply! That is definitely a solid score with an average PAT score. If there is a certain school that you really want to go to that you need to score higher for, you could consider retaking it. I'd say you should be safe applying and getting accepting to multiple schools with that score, though!

@hatfield.300 I used Kaplan. I probably started studying 6 months before the exam (but I wasn't very committed since I was busy with school). I started studying full time (50-60 hours per week) about 6 weeks before the test. Kaplan was fine. I think there are better resources out there, but it worked for me!

I took the DAT just before I applied to dental school. I believe I took mid-May and submitted my application the first week of June. I felt good about this because I had finished all my courses that the DAT covers and I had a lot of time to study leading up the exam!

Do your best to be a well-rounded student between the following: GPA, community involvement, leadership, & shadowing.

How early do you start studying before your exams? I find studying every day after class and every Saturday to be helpful! What is your study strategy that you have been using? I typically will read over the lecture slides and write down all the basic important information in a notebook. I then read over the things I wrote down several times until I feel like I understand them well. Then when I review the lecture slides again on Saturday, I already have a solid understanding of the basics and then the more complex information seems to make a lot more sense.

I used Kaplan when I took the exam back in 2018. I thought it was good in a lot of ways, but others might have been better! I think the practice exams were really good, but also more difficult than the actual exam. I was typically scoring 19-20 on their practice exams, but got a 22 on the actual DAT.

I would say it depends on the school. I believe most schools require physics as a pre-req, but it probably depends. When I applied, I would look up each school I was applying to and made sure I had taken all their required classes.

I was asked in one of my interviews about the BigPharma couples and the prices they charge for their newly developed drugs. I was also asked in several interviews how I would act in various situations with patients or with people I knew. I think it always came down to "How would I want to be treated in this situation?". I think if you're always trying to treat others with respect, you're on the right track for ethics questions.

I started studying about 6 months before taking the DAT, but I wasn't the most committed. I began to study full-time (10-12 hours per day) about 8 weeks before taking the exam. I wish I would have given myself a bit more time, but I wound up doing pretty well.