{"id":11635,"date":"2016-09-04T17:36:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T22:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grockit.com\/blog\/?p=11635"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:42:53","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:42:53","slug":"whats-tested-on-the-dat-quantitative-reasoning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/dat\/whats-tested-on-the-dat-quantitative-reasoning-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What's Tested on the DAT: Quantitative Reasoning"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Quantitative Reasoning section of the DAT is designed to test the math skills that will be\u00a0required in dental school. The section contains 40 multiple-choice questions, and you will have 45\u00a0minutes to complete it. A basic on-screen calculator similar to the one below will be available only\u00a0in this section. It can be opened by clicking the \u201cCalculator\u201d button at the bottom of the screen.\u00a0The calculator can add, subtract, multiply, and divide as well as take square roots, percentages,\u00a0and reciprocals.
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Note that the calculator cannot perform the complex functions of a scientific or graphing\u00a0calculator. You also can’t input to the calculator by typing and instead will need to click every\u00a0number and operation you want to perform, which can be quite time consuming and lead to\u00a0making mistakes. For these reasons, avoid using the calculator as much as possible and instead use\u00a0mental math and quick scratch-work calculations, saving the calculator for the rare questions with\u00a0difficult multiplication or long division. Developing your ability to complete calculations without\u00a0a calculator will also be helpful for the Survey of Natural Sciences since you won\u2019t have access to\u00a0a calculator during any of that section.<\/p><\/div>
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Quantitative Reasoning 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 Quantitative Reasoning\u00a0section, 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\u00a0many questions require knowledge from more than one content area listed, especially the Word Problems category, which accounts for 25% of the section.
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Algebra\u00a0(9)<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Equations and Expressions
\n\u2022 Inequalities
\n\u2022 Exponential Notation
\n\u2022 Absolute Value
\n\u2022 Ratios and Proportions
\n\u2022 Graphical Analysis
\nNumerical Calculations (6)<\/strong>
\n\u2022\u00a0Fractions and Decimals
\n\u2022\u00a0Percentages
\n\u2022\u00a0Approximations
\n\u2022 Scientific Notation<\/p><\/div>
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Conversions\u00a0(3)<\/strong>
\n\u2022\u00a0Temperature
\n\u2022\u00a0Time
\n\u2022\u00a0Weight
\n\u2022\u00a0Distance
\nProbability and Statistics\u00a0(4)<\/strong>
\nGeometry (4)<\/strong>
\nTrigonometry\u00a0(4)<\/strong>
\nWord Problems (10)<\/strong><\/p><\/div>
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Quantitative Reasoning Strategies<\/h3>
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\nSince you will only have just over one minute for each math question, it’s important to be able to use efficient test-taking strategies to ensure you have enough time to complete each question. Many students find the timing of the Quantitative Reasoning section to be the most difficult to manage during the DAT, and this is\u00a0compounded by the fact that Quantitative Reasoning is the last section, which means many students are exhausted by that point.
\nAlthough you may normally feel comfortable using traditional math to solve all the types of questions you’ll see on Test Day, trying to complete all of the questions using the methods you usually use is likely to result in you running out of time. Instead, think about the most efficient way to answer each question, using the fact that the entire section is multiple choice to your advantage. You might be able to work backward from the answer choices to find which one is correct or pick specific numbers to work with instead of variables where it makes the math easier.However, a\u00a0well-placed guess can sometimes be the best tool you can use for a problem. Because of the severe\u00a0time constraints, you need to stay on a steady pace. If you fall behind, it\u2019s a good idea to guess on the\u00a0hardest problems and mark them for later rather than completing the full calculations right away. That\u00a0way you\u2019ll get back lost time instead of falling further behind. And while you shouldn\u2019t be afraid to\u00a0guess, you should be afraid to rush! The test makers write problems in complicated ways, and rushing\u00a0almost always leads to misperception of questions (not to mention errors in arithmetic). This is a\u00a0problem because the test makers base many wrong answers on the most common misperceptions.\u00a0Rushing through a problem almost always guarantees a wrong answer. It\u2019s far better to guess as needed,\u00a0skipping some questions and taking the time you need on others, than to rush through an entire section.
\nEven if you are ahead of schedule during a section, sometimes you simply will have no idea how to\u00a0approach a problem. Instead of throwing away three or four minutes becoming frustrated, make a\u00a0guess. If you don\u2019t know how to approach a problem, you aren\u2019t likely to choose the right answer\u00a0anyway, and you can use the time you save to solve other problems that you stand a better chance of\u00a0answering correctly.
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The Quantitative Reasoning section of the DAT is designed to test the math skills that will be\u00a0required in dental school. The section contains 40 multiple-choice questions, and you will have 45\u00a0minutes to complete it. A basic on-screen calculator similar to the one below will be available only\u00a0in this section. It can be opened by clicking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26789,"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\/11635"}],"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=11635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36342,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635\/revisions\/36342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}