Q & A

Ask us anything & get in touch:

tinyurl.com/pdsquestions

If you have any questions regarding the Q&A, please email us at internal@pds.berkeley.edu

About PDS

How do I apply to PDS?

The process of joining PDS is super simple — fill out our membership application. This will place you on our mailing list for further updates concerning all our events, meetings, socials, and more. We are excited to have you!

What is active membership and what are the benefits?

Completing semesterly requirements (listed below) gives you access to active membership and even greater resources.

Requirements for Fall 2020*:

  • General Meetings: attend 4

  • Socials: attend 2

  • Professional Empowerment Workshops: attend 1

  • Dental Education and Outreach Program or Community Service: 1 credit

  • Public Relations: 1 blog post

  • Finance: $10 dues

  • Secretary: submit 1 test for test bank

*We are flexible with these requirements, so if you have any conflicts (ex. midterms during meetings, live in a conflicting time zone, etc) then please reach out to us, and we will work together to make sure you can still become active!

Benefits include access to:

  • ADEA/AADSAS Application

  • Interview Questions

  • Letter of Recommendation Information

  • Chegg Account

    + more!

 

DAT

How long is recommended to study for the exam? Is ~2 months enough?

This is definitely a question that varies greatly from individual to individual. However, we would be more than happy to provide some guidelines based on our experience and from what we have heard from other DAT takers!

A common range for studying the DAT seems to be 1.5 - 3.5 months (if studying full-time). A longer timeframe may be required if you are focused on other time-consuming tasks as well such as a job or classes. Thus, we would say about 2 months would be good if you are able to dedicate the majority of your day to the DAT. A good guideline that has aided many past DAT takers is DAT Bootcamp’s 10 week (~2 month) study schedule: https://datbootcamp.com/Ari%27sStudySchedule.pdf. The amount of work needed each day to follow this schedule is definitely no joke, but it provides you great structure for getting through the necessary material. Using this schedule as a guideline and modifying it to best fit your specific schedule would be a great place to start preparing for the test.