{"id":11466,"date":"2016-08-24T19:02:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T00:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grockit.com\/blog\/?p=11466"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:42:54","slug":"whats-tested-on-the-dat-organic-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/dat\/whats-tested-on-the-dat-organic-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"What's Tested on the DAT: Organic Chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final subtest of the Survey of Natural Sciences is Organic Chemistry. Questions 71\u2013100\u00a0will assess your knowledge of reaction mechanisms, properties of molecules, stereochemistry,\u00a0nomenclature, reactions, acids and bases, and aromatics. Although you may have bad memories of your undergraduate Organic Chemistry courses, don’t worry: The specific content tested on the DAT tends to be much more manageable than most students think since it focuses on your conceptual understanding rather than seemingly endless lists of reactions and mechanisms to memorize.
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Organic Chemistry Content<\/h3>
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\nThe American Dental Association (ADA) has published a DAT User’s Manual on their Dental Admission Test (DAT) page<\/a> that establishes\u00a0what content can be tested on the DAT. The following outlines the exact content you will need to know for the Organic Chemistry section, and the numbers in parentheses reflect\u00a0how many questions that primarily test that\u00a0subject are likely to be on any given DAT administration. Note that many questions require knowledge from more than one content area listed, and some questions also require knowledge from Biology, General Chemistry, or other fields, so having a well-rounded background will still be helpful.
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Mechanisms: Energetics, Structure,
\n<\/strong>and Stability of Intermediates (5)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 SN<\/sub>1
\n\u2022 SN<\/sub>2
\n\u2022 Elimination
\n\u2022 Addition
\n\u2022 Free Radical
\n\u2022 Substitution Mechanisms
\nChemical and Physical Properties of
\n<\/strong>Molecules and Organic Analysis (5)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Inter- and Intra-Molecular Forces
\n\u2022 Separation
\n\u2022 Introductory Infrared Spectroscopy
\n\u2022 1<\/sup>H NMR Spectroscopy
\n\u2022 13<\/sup>C NMR Spectroscopy
\n\u2022 Chemical Identification
\n\u2022 Stability
\n\u2022 Solubility
\n\u2022 Polarity
\nNomenclature (2)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 IUPAC Rules
\n\u2022 Functional Groups in Molecules<\/p><\/div>
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Stereochemistry (3)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Conformational Analysis
\n\u2022 Geometric Isomers
\n\u2022 Stereoisomers
\n\u2022 Optical Activity
\nReactions of the Major Functional\u00a0Groups (9)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Carbon-to-Carbon Bond Formation
\n\u2022 Functional Groups Conversions
\n\u2022 Multistep Synthesis
\n\u2022 Redox Reactions
\n\u2022 Named Reactions (Grignard,\u00a0Wittig,\u00a0Diels-Alder,\u00a0Aldol)
\nAcid-Base Chemistry (3)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Resonance Effects
\n\u2022 Inductive Effects
\n\u2022 Prediction of Products and Equilibria
\nAromatics and Bonding (3)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Concept of Aromaticity
\n\u2022 Resonance
\n\u2022 Atomic\/Molecular Orbitals
\n\u2022 Hybridization
\n\u2022 Bond Angles\/Lengths<\/p><\/div>
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Studying Organic Chemistry<\/h3>
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\nInitially, the Organic Chemistry content on the DAT may appear quite dissimilar to what you\u00a0studied in your previous courses. The DAT is a multiple-choice test, so you can\u2019t be asked to\u00a0draw out complicated molecules, deduce elaborate reaction mechanisms, or synthesize specific\u00a0products based on memory alone. If the test makers ask you to determine the reactant required for\u00a0a certain reaction or the identity of an unknown molecule based on its IR absorption spectrum, the\u00a0answer must be one of five choices in front of you. The nature of the test dictates that the focus be\u00a0more on generalizations, patterns, and critical thinking rather than straight memorization, which\u00a0may seem more difficult at first but is actually easier for most students to learn in the long term!
\nTo that end, study concepts rather than memorizing a long list of specific reactions. Although it won\u2019t\u00a0hurt you to know the mechanisms for the Wittig reaction, the Newman-Kwart rearrangement, and\u00a0the Takai olefination, a basic understanding of the properties of a carbonyl and the kinds of reactions\u00a0it can take part in (the carbonyl carbon is partially positive and will react with nucleophiles, and the\u00a0carbonyl oxygen is partially negative and will act as a base)\u00a0will be much more beneficial for Test Day.
\nWhile studying, don\u2019t attempt to memorize every reaction initially but instead\u00a0focus on the general types of reactions each functional group can undergo. Only 30 percent (nine\u00a0questions) of the Organic Chemistry subtest is about individual reactions, and the named reactions\u00a0make up only a small fraction of those questions. Much more of the subtest is devoted to broader\u00a0topics, such as nomenclature, physical properties, stability, and stereochemistry. Even questions that\u00a0do require analyzing reactions can often be answered correctly using critical thinking based on a strong\u00a0fundamental understanding of why reactions take place and a solid knowledge of General Chemistry.\u00a0Learn the basics first. Only focus on memorizing specific reactions once you feel comfortable\u00a0with the concepts, which yield more points on Test Day and make memorizing the specifics easier, too.
\nFinally, with that understanding, don\u2019t panic if you see a reaction or molecule that you don\u2019t recognize\u00a0on Test Day. Instead, examine the reactants and products for components you do recognize. If you\u00a0see that xylitol is a reactant for a reaction-based question, you might not\u00a0initially know its structure (pentane-1,2,3,4,5-pentol) or how it behaves. However, you can identify that it\u2019s an alcohol right away\u00a0based on its name alone, which means you know it\u2019s likely to be a water-soluble weak acid that can\u00a0undergo deprotonation. If only one of the five answer choices shows the transfer of a hydrogen, then\u00a0you have a very good chance of getting that question right; no further knowledge is required. Once\u00a0you have the concepts down and put them into practice, you\u2019ll be ready\u00a0to think like this on Test Day and correctly answer even the questions that seem difficult to you now.
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The final subtest of the Survey of Natural Sciences is Organic Chemistry. Questions 71\u2013100\u00a0will assess your knowledge of reaction mechanisms, properties of molecules, stereochemistry,\u00a0nomenclature, reactions, acids and bases, and aromatics. Although you may have bad memories of your undergraduate Organic Chemistry courses, don’t worry: The specific content tested on the DAT tends to be much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11466"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36370,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11466\/revisions\/36370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}