DAT Test Dates

When can You Take the DAT?

Prospective dental school students have to take the Dental Admission Test (DAT) and in order to fare well in the examination, it is crucial to choose suitable dates for testing. “How do I understand when I should take the DAT” -you ask? Well, for your benefit, the following section of this article will explain certain pointers that you must remember while selecting the dates.

When to Take the DAT?

The test is held throughout the year in the various Prometric testing centers located all over USA. However, this multitude of events increases confusion amongst students, instead of decreasing it. The following points describe a few essential features of the examination, you need to remember when choosing a date for taking the test:

  • Preparation time: The DAT is a graduate school admission test and hence, it can be safely said that the questions that you will come across in the examination, will be quite advanced and detailed. Moreover, it is quite a lengthy paper comprising of 280 questions that have to be completed within 5 hours (inclusive of the breaks). As it is evident, in order to ace the test, you will need to prepare well for the examination. Detailed knowledge of the topics covered in the test is not sufficient, because you will also need to be highly efficient, in order to answer the questions correctly within a limited period of time. Efficiency can be achieved only with practice. Hence, before you select a date ensure that you have given yourself sufficient buffer time to be well-prepared for the examination.
  • Admissions applications: Although the examination is held throughout the year, most students prefer to take it either in fall (October, November) or spring (March, April) of their junior year. This will ensure that they can get admission into a dental school either in the fall or spring semester. Mid-term admissions are very rare and premier dental schools do not entertain such applications. So, when you choose a time line, ensure that you have taken into account the admissions deadlines of the schools that you want to apply to.
  • Time taken for the score card to reach the dental schools: The DAT is a computer-based examination, but evaluation and the generation of a score card can take some time. It has been seen that it takes about 3 to 4 weeks for the score cards to reach the respective dental schools. Hence, you should choose a date in such a manner that your score card will reach the dental schools of your choice, before their admissions deadlines.

The above-mentioned list outlines some of the points that you must remember while selecting a date for the examination. If you keep these points in mind, you will be able to conclude when you should take the test. To help you further, some more aspects have been discussed in the following section of this article.

Nature of DAT Dates

As mentioned in the previous section of this article, the DAT is held in Prometric testing centers. Some more aspects about test centers, are as follows:

  • All Prometric centers are equipped with facilities like disability support. Moreover, a Prometric testing center means that you will receive all the facilities that any advanced testing location should have.
  • The DAT test centers often get overbooked and hence, if you want to take the test on the date of your choice, you must register for the test at the earliest.
  • Another important feature of the examination time lines is that they are not fixed by the American Dental Association (ADA). The choice of dates depends entirely on the test centers. This is primarily because a single Prometric center does not hold only this test. It also holds other entrance examinations and hence, accommodating a DAT test on a suitable date depends entirely on the administrative body of the test center.

Hence, once your registration is complete and you have received the eligibility letter, you should get in touch with the Prometric test center to confirm your test date. If you require more information about dates, then click on the following link:https://www.prometric.com/en-us/clients/ada/Pages/landing.aspx Go through this link and understand all you need to know about the testing dates and after you have become aware of your options, you should be able to select a suitable test date.