Selecting a Good Study Guide for DAT
How to Select a DAT Book?
Preparing on your own for the Dental Admission Test (DAT) can prove to be a daunting task unless you have a good book, which will guide you, throughout your preparation. There are a number of books available in the market and that can make the task of choosing one, more difficult. The following section of this article will discuss some of the things that you must remember while purchasing a book.
How to Choose Guide Books for DAT?
If you check out the books available in the market, you will find each of them have at least one unique quality. However, before you purchase one, ensure that it meets most of your requirements. For example, if you need to revise your knowledge of Biology, then select a book that provides greater importance to this particular sub-section. The following list broadly outlines some of the essential features that a book must have:
- Equal importance to all sections of the examination: The DAT comprises of 4 sections and numerous topics are covered through the questions in these sections. You will have to answer questions ranging from Chemistry, to Biology, to Mathematics to questions based on comprehension passages and so on and so forth. Hence, the guide book that you purchase must provide ample importance to all the sub-sections so that none of the topics are left out.
- Practice modules: The DAT can be excelled only with sufficient amount of practice and hence, choose a guide book that has a number of practice questions. The test comprises of 280 questions that have to be completed within 5 hours (this time limit is inclusive of the breaks). As is evident, in order to ace it, you will have to increase your efficiency and that is possible only with practice.
- Develop tips and strategies: The guide books you purchase must have a section, which teaches you how to develop tips and strategies to answer the questions more competently. The books must also have an exhaustive answer key which will help you develop your own set of tips and strategies, to take the examination well.
If you study the above-mentioned list carefully, choosing an ideal book will become easier. To help you further in this endeavor, the features of some of the better known study guides have been discussed in the following section of this article.
Some of the Better Known Books
There are a number of books available in the market and most of them are printed by renowned publishers. Reviews of some of the well-known ones are as follows:
- DAT Achiever Dental Admission Test Prep: The unique feature of this particular book is that it comprises 3 complete mock question papers. Moreover, these tests are available only on the CD ROM provided with the guide book. This ensures that you take the tests under time constraints, similar to that you will face during the actual test. Thus, if you want to practice solving sample questions then you can consider purchasing this book.
- Cracking the DAT (Dental Admission Test): This book is published by Princeton Review, which is a test prep company that has more than a decade’s experience in preparing students for the DAT. Hence, the book printed by them reflects their years of expertise. It comprises two complete practice tests along with thorough discussions of the topics covered in the test. If you require a complete study guide then you should purchase this book.
- McGraw-Hill’s DAT with CD-ROM: This particular book will help you develop tips and strategies to take the test more efficiently. These strategies have been designed by tutors, who have been prepping students for the DAT for quite some time. Hence, if it expert’s advice you require, on how to take the test, then McGraw-Hill’s DAT is just the right book for you.
The above-mentioned list outlines some of the essential features of guide books. However, before you purchase any, browse through them and buy only those, which you find suitable. Once you have purchased a guide book, follow the instructions given in it closely, because that will ensure good results in the examination.