TPS Questions Archive

	A	B	C	D
1	TPS Questions Archive - started December 2021
2	New questions? Ask in the Slack channel #questions
3	Question revisions? Email me: secretary@texaspredental.org
4	Want to add your own advice? Comment in one of the open slots below! :)
5
6	Date	Category	Question	Answer
7	12/18/21	Discount codes	What are the discount codes for DAT and PAT?	Message the current secretary on Slack!
8	12/21/21	DAT	Where to send DAT scores?	I believe they just need to be sent to the schools you are applying to. You pick which schools to send them to when you register for the test! - Deanna Mendoza
9	12/21/21	DAT	Where to send DAT scores?	You pick which schools to send to when you register for the DAT - Deanna Mendoza
10	12/28/21	Courses, DAT	Classes recommended for DAT prep? Physiology or Biochemistry?	I would have definitely taken physio and/or anatomy before taking the DAT. A&P is a pretty high-yield subject for the bio section, and although taking biochem aids your review of other important concepts like photosynthesis and cell respiration, you do NOT need to know every single detail about these pathways like you would in a biochem class. If you have a background in A&P, maybe it'll come easier to you than it did for me, but if not, I would say take physio over biochem! - Kelsey Xie
11	1/3/22	Courses	Is it okay to take physiology before anatomy?	Yes!
12	1/6/22	Courses	Should I take a “heavy semester”?	Maybe. It is not necessary though. You can take 2-3 science classes and be doing many extracurriculars like dental shadowing/assisting, community service, and more. - Ray Chang
13	1/9/22	Shadowing	How do I ask a dentist to shadow?	Asking a dentist to shadow is a compliment to the dentist, so do not be afraid! Here is a good resource that I have personally used: http://www.andtoothbetold.com/how-to-ask-a-dentist-if-you-may-shadow-them.html. - Ray Chang
14	1/12/22	Courses	Microbiology with Dr. King?	I took microbio with King last semester and I really enjoyed it! Everything on his exams were from lectures so as long as you take good notes during class, you should be fine. He recorded all of his lectures last semester and those recordings were pretty much all I looked over before exams. He’s also really nice and fun to talk to which made his class a bit more interesting for me personally. - Rachel Yi
15	3/10/22	Courses	is it possible to take ochem, genetics, and bio lab at the same time or would that be way too much? also when should one take anatomy & physio?	tough, but manageable - Kelsey Xie, Gurleen Singh,; I would take A&P before you start studying for the DAT, but if you don't have room in your schedule or want to hold off, definitely allocate a good amount of time to perfecting the A&P portion of the bio section! - Kelsey Xie
16	3/10/22	Shadowing	Is shadowing a doctor a waste of time?	Yeah dental schools want to see you shadowing dentists only. It rlly does sound like a fun opportunity, but your time is precious and I recommend putting it towards shadowing dentists! - Tanvi Siruviri, amazing learning experience if you already have your 100+ dental shadowing hours - Kelsey Xie
17	3/15/22	Application	out-of-state dental school recommendations	There are of course the top few that come up in every search: Pennsylvania, Harvard, UNC, Michigan …. But when considering out of state you have to be more investigative and reach out to admissions as much as you can. I have heard from practitioners UNC is good and even Nebraska. What is important to consider is amount of clinical opportunities versus research, class size, faculty and even figuring out scholarships and terms of residency. if you join the DAT Bootcamp or DAT booster Facebook page they offer good info. - Madeline McGuire
18	3/18/22	Courses	Does anyone know if it is okay to claim AP physics credit (PHY 302K and 102M) and only take one more physics in college for dental school? Or is it recommended to take two physics in college? (edited)	The physics courses come in pairs. Physics 1&2 + Lab. You could claim credit but it really won't do much. Save your money - Uriel Castro, Since physics is a pre-req, I remember my advisor telling me that I couldn't claim credit for Physics 1 or C, so I would suggest to double check with your advisor before claiming anything! - Kelsey Xie
19	3/22/22	Other	summer activities	Shadowing dentists especially general dentists, dental/healthcare-related service activities, dental assisting if you have an RDA license, and pursue hobbies & activities that you are passionate about, don't just be a dental robot! - Ray Chang, If you’re a freshman or sophomore, I highly recommend registering for SHPEP! I think it’s too late for this year, but it’s SUPER helpful since it’s a one month program at UT Houston where you get to build connections with the dental school faulty (+admissions :wink:). They also teach you all you need to know about prepping for dental school, interviews, DAT, and you also get to do some dental and medical work (on dummies). - Hansha Chen
20	4/4/22	DAT	what are the DAT resources preferred/best. also, how many weeks do you need to study	Ana, from what I've heard from past and current members who have taken the DAT, there is a consensus that Bootcamp is the way to go for general prep. But you need to supplement their 10-week studying plan with other practice material such as Destroyer and Chad’s exams, and throw in an Anki deck or 2. Also keep in mind the commitment necessary to study for 4-7 hours almost daily in a 10 week time period. I personally plan to study for 12-13 weeks this summer! - Ray Chang, To piggy back off of Ray, whenever I was planning to study I was bombarded by all of these different resources: destroyer, cliffs AP biology notes, bootcamp, booster, and so on. I got the math and all other subjects destroyer, bootcamp, and cliffs AP biology. I ended up only using the math destroyer, bootcamp, and supplemental booster in the later half of my studies for more practice and PAT content. Bootcamp has been around the longest and is constantly improving, so it is a good go to. I would start with bootcamp, and self-reflect on weaknesses and strengths as early as you can and from there decide for any supplemental material. For time to study, it definitely depends on how many things you need to teach yourself/already know. Some days I would study all day and some days I could only do half and I ended up studying for 10 weeks. If you want, DM me for any other questions :), Of course! and your schedule will range while you are studying, but if trying to do 10 weeks I would say some days could be 4 hours where others will be longer study days. Ari’s schedule (bootcamp) usually has sundays off and is more of a review/rest day. Everybody studies differently. I personally take a long time to study, but I found time to study a little less on Sundays to get ready for the week and somedays I was just not feeling it and was able to catch up on other days. Since you are planning, my best advice is to make a study plan now. Look at ari’s schedule (bootcamp) and adjust it to the amount of weeks you can study and the days you want a break and/or busy. Make a rough estimate for days you want to study around 4 hours and put less content and then longer days for more content to stay on track. It is super helpful to have things planned before to have one less thing to worry about and gauge time, but at the same time know it will not always go as planned and you will have to rearrange your schedule a bit. - Madeline McGuire
21	7/21/22	Courses	Computational Bio with Bentley	all hw and a project - Salma Amor
22	7/21/22	Courses, DAT	Anatomy before DAT?	no anatomy on the DAT - Erick Velarde, Bootcamp prepares you enough for the anatomy portion - Tae-Young Uhm
23	7/21/22	Courses	Anatomy last semester?	Yes! especially if you already took the DAT, anatomy lab part is time-consuming - Tae-Young Uhm
24	7/21/22	Courses	ochem lab with biochem or physio?	biochem - Marissa, Kaitlyn Nguyen
25	7/22/22	Professor	Is professor Lashinger for NTR 312 as difficult as RMP makes it out to be? I haven't taken bio chem and now I'm scared	definitely not an easy class that's for sure :sweat_smile: had to study quite a bit for her class because there was alot of content but if you manage your time well and don’t procrastinate by keeping up with the material then it should be fine - Roy Manaloto, I agree with Roy! I relied on her slides a good amount and as long as you are staying active with the material, you will do fine! What really helped me was making tables and trying to relate all of the information to each other by making visuals like that because it was heavy on memorization. - Madeline McGuire, Definitely not an easy class , but doable. You have to do a lot of memorization + actually go to lectures because she has quizzes which were lowkey a little bit harder than the exam IMO. But the exams were actually an easy A, they didn't go that in-depth. When I took her (fall semester) our final wasn't cumulative and zoom was an option for lectures(maybe that's why I didn't really struggle). If you go to the TAs review lectures before the exam just basically study that and you should do good :relaxed:good luck ! Also I took notes in QUESTION form and definitely made life easier when studying for the exam I just when over that and it helped tons it made it easy to memorize vitamins, cycles, etc + many of my questions that I made were on the exam and also there's no extra credit. - Brittany Morales
26	7/24/22	Professor	Juegner or Linder/Havird for Evolution	I took Linder/Havird! I personally thought the class was fine and I liked both professors. However, not many people like the idea of co-taught courses since you would have to relearn how they format their exams. I'm not sure about Juenger but, all their exams are comprised of short answer free responses, so that means you have to really know the material very well (i.e. use key/particular words in your answers). Overall, I felt the tests were fair and they curve them quite a decent amount if the average is low enough. I just rewatched their lectures and did fine in the class! (edited) - Vinh Tran
27	7/24/22	Professor	Partridge microbio professor	was good for intro bio! - Chelsea Pendelton
28	7/24/22	Courses	Cell or molecular bio?	cell bio with DeLozanne - interesting, but not super difficult - Makaylee Carter, molecular bio with Kim is rough - Kelsey Xie
29	7/26/22	Professor	genetics professors	Dr. Kim - extra credit, lots of asynchronous group work, open-book tests, super sweet! - Morgan Patek, Dr. Sung - practice tests are almost identical to exam - Tae-Young Uhm
30	7/26/22	Professor	Lloyd for genetics	boring lectures, guaranteed A, TA discussions can be good - Ana Brown, not a lot of structure, barely learned anythng - Cara Tejeda
31	7/26/22	Courses	easy upper division writing flag	biochem lab BCH 369L - Marissa
32	7/26/22	Courses	microbiology lab dental pre-req?	Nope!
33	7/26/22	Courses, Application	is it okay to take pre requisite courses (ex. ochem lab or anatomy etc.) on my senior year after I'm done applying?	Yup! As long as you finish all of the by the time u graduate, you should be good. - Tanvi Siruviri
34	7/27/22	Courses	Courses for Sophomore Year	ochem, genetics, bio lab, upper division writing course, flag requirement - Shabeeb Bahar, It really depends on your major but for predent: ochem I & 2, genetics, biostats, any core classes you need, bio lab, chem lab, I would also recommend taking ochem lab with ochem II but that's controversial haha - Ray Chang
35	7/27/22	Resources	Where to find a four year plan for college?	Under Points-> Social -> https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1ttA_J5dCk3tJF25q1augs_KoqFlMoUggbJyybPkZ2Fc/edit
36	7/28/22	Professor	Biochem Professor Recommendations?	mixed reviews with Labrake: tests are easy, lots of group work where she doesn't teach as much, pre-recorded videos, weekly quiz, really fair and extra credit - Ethan Chang, Erick Velarde
37	9/10/22	DAT	Sending DAT Scores if opted out during DAT registration	If you opted out, you have to pay for each DAT being sent to schools (in Texas) which amounts to around $200 if you send to all 4 Texas dental schools. I believe AADSAS only requires you to submit one score report to AADSAS and it will send the scores to whichever schools you apply to. - Ray Chang
38	9/12/22	Missed meetings	Who to contact if I miss a meeting?	Contact the current Vice President
39	9/14/22	Points	How do I keep track of points?	Check our website texaspredental.org for the current semester Points Sheet!
40	9/20/22	Courses	Do we have to take anatomy and physiology?	Currently, only Texas A&M Dental School requires anatomy and physiology and only the lectures, not the labs - Maddy McGuire
41	9/20/22	Points	What's the DEI point?	It's a point to help educate TPS members about how to support diversity and inclusion in healthcare through various meetings and activities - Ray Chang
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100