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DATCrusher Manual (Updated 2021)
DATCrusher Manual (Updated 2021)
Introduction
Congratulations on making it this far in your academic career! You’re so close to achieving your dreams
of getting into dental school! Now the only thing in your way is conquering the Canadian DAT. But don’t
worry; we’ve got you covered. ☺
The Canadian DAT will be one of the most challenging exams that you will have come across up to this
point in your academic career. This is partly because it consists of a variety of disciplines, some of which
are ones that you most likely never seen before in your formal education. But don’t worry; just by
reading this manual you’ll have an advantage. Having been in your shoes before, I understand the
frustration and anxiety that often comes along with preparing for the Canadian DAT. There is little to no
preparation material aimed for Canadian students as all major DAT preparation resources are aimed
specifically for the American DAT. That’s why DATCrusher was created; to provide thousands of Canadian
students the knowledge and expertise necessary to achieve an amazing score on the Canadian DAT.
My team and I have created this manual to help you succeed. Everything that you find here is a result of
our years of studying the Canadian DAT, our personal experience with writing the Canadian DAT, and all
of the end-of-cycle feedback that we continually receive from our amazing Canadian pre-dental students.
Who am I?
My name is Shahed, and I am a prosthodontics resident at the University of Tennessee. I completed my
dental training from the University of Alberta School of Dentistry and created DATCrusher with my team
of dentist and software developers when we noticed how there was little to no resources available
specifically for the Canadian DAT. It’s been a long journey since we first started and we have
tremendously grown the size of our team since then. At the end of every cycle, my and team and I work
hard to improve DATCrusher for our thousands of student’s nation-wide. As a result of our team’s hard
work, today DATCrusher is now the most popular Canadian DAT resource in Canada. We take pride
that we have built DATCrusher to be very representative of the Canadian over the years.
If you ever have any questions, just know that I along with the rest of the DATCrusher team will always be
here to help you succeed and that you can always reach out to us at any time. ☺
Table of Contents
1. Important Information about the Canadian DAT…….………………………….. Page 4
2. When should you write the DAT? ………………………………………………… Page 5
3. Registering for the Canadian DAT.………………………………………..……… Page 6
4. Overview of the Canadian DAT..………………………………………..………… Page 6
5. Required Resources..……………………..……………………………..…………. Page 7
6. How to prepare for each section………………………………………..………… Page 8
I. Manual Dexterity Test..…………………………………………..………….. Page 8
Furthermore, the Canadian DAT is only offered TWICE a year (once in November and once in February).
There is limited seating in each city across Canada and these seats fill up fast especially for the
November DAT, so register as soon you can. And your scores for the Canadian DAT EXPIRE after 2-3
years for most Canadian dental schools, so you should plan accordingly. If your scores expire, you MUST
rewrite the DAT in order to apply to dental schools again.
Lastly, most Canadian Dental schools look at your BEST or MOST RECENT scores from a given time-
period of 2-3 years. Yes, you read that right. That means you can write the DAT as many times as you
want without being penalized by Canadian Dental Schools. Fun fact, I know someone who wrote the
DAT six times and did well on his last attempt. He’ll soon be graduating from the Oral & Maxillofacial
Surgery residency program at the University of Toronto School of Dentistry.
1.You would have covered your core Biology and Chemistry courses by now
2.Your knowledge of the basic sciences is still relatively fresh
3.It would allow extra re-write opportunities before graduating (if necessary)
That being said, many people take the DAT at different stages of life and still do exceptionally well. So
don’t be discouraged, it’s never too late to chase your dreams.
Should you write the DAT in November or February?
Unfortunately, both days fall in the middle of the Academic semester, which usually means students end
up juggling classes with studying for the DAT. With that said, you may not think there is much of a
difference between these dates. However, there are significant advantages/disadvantages between
writing the DAT in November versus February.
If you choose to write the Canadian DAT in February: you will have the advantage of writing
the DAT during the end of reading week (This applies to most Canadian Universities).
Furthermore, writing the DAT in February will allow you to rewrite the Canadian DAT in
November just in time for the upcoming admission cycles. And lastly, most students tend to
score better on the February DAT versus the November DAT.
If you choose to write the Canadian DAT in November: you will have the advantage of
preparing for the Canadian DAT during the 4 months in the summer from May to August. This is
big advantage! And is why most students write the Canadian DAT in November. Also, if you do
write the Canadian DAT in November, you will be able to use the scores for that current year’s
admission cycle.
IMPORTANT: For the 2021 cycle, we recommend taking the May/June DAT due to the uncertainty on
whether the DAT will be administered in November. If the November DAT is pushed back, it may not be
able to apply for the 2021-2022 cycle.
Normally, the Canadian DAT is offered only twice a year. However, for the 2020-2021 application cycle,
there will be multiple dates available for the November DAT (November 23-26th, 2020) and the February
DAT (Feb 16-18th, 2021) due to public health concerns regarding COVID-19. Keep in mind, seating is
limited in every city, so we highly recommend that you register early or you will have to fly to another
province/city to write the DAT. To register for the Canadian DAT, use the link below:
https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/register_dat/
Break 30 minutes*
Break 15 minutes*
Break 15 minutes*
*Time is approximated but can be delayed due to time required to set up, returning from break, student questions,
facility check, or instructions per section. Therefore, some sections may not start on time but you will still be given
the full-amount of time for each section
5. Required Resources
The following are all of the resources that you need to do well on the Canadian DAT:
On the next few pages, we will go over each section in detail and show you how to approach each
section so that you gain a better understanding of the Canadian DAT.
Recommended Resources:
● DATCrusher Soap Carving videos (Highly recommended): A series of in-depth soap carving
videos that show in detail how to carve a perfect soap in order to score a 30.
● RockTheDAT Course (Optional): In-person course with dental students from the University of
Alberta that will show you have to carve a perfect soap.
http://www.cda-adc.ca/en/becoming/dat/information/
For the Chemistry section, be sure to review the DATCrusher notes and video series prior to completing
all of the practice tests. Keep in mind, the questions on the Canadian DAT will be straightforward like the
DATCrusher practice tests. Therefore, it’s important to prioritize understanding the general chemistry
concepts and learning how to solve all of the basic chemistry problems.
Important: Be sure to take advantage of the Mark Learning system on DATCrusher as it will help you
review all of the questions you marked throughout your study period. Furthermore, tru to a few hours
reviewing the questions that you got wrong as those questions could show up on your DAT.
Recommended Resources:
● DATCrusher Practice Tests (Highly recommended): These are the most high-yield practice questions
available for the Canadian DAT and contains questions similar to what you will encounter on the real
DAT. High-yield questions that have historical shown up on the Canadian DAT are also pointed out
within the practice tests.
● Feralis-Booster Biology Notes (Highly recommended): High-yield notes created specifically for the
DAT and are available for free online. These notes will help guide you on areas to focus on and give
you an idea of what can show up on the DAT.
● DATCrusher Chemistry Notes (Highly recommended): Included with your DATCrusher subscription
and contains everything that you need for the Chemistry section.
● DATCrusher Biology and Chemistry Video Series (Highly recommended): These video series are
created by our team and contain key information for the Canadian DAT.
● DATDestroyer (Optional): This is an amazing resource and it’s the only American DAT that I would
recommend as it helps you prepare well with tons of extra question.
1. Apertures / Keyholes
2. Top-Front-End
3. Angle-Ranking
4. Hole-Punching
5. Cube-Counting
6. Pattern Folding
For the sections that you are weak in, try practicing as many problems as you can using generators and
practice tests. And if you don’t understand the correct answer or get stuck, keep trying to answer that
question in your spare time without timing yourself until you understand the correct answer. This is how
you develop perceptual ability skills. Remember, you want to develop natural perceptual ability skills to
answer these questions on your own for the real Canadian DAT. At the end, this section is all about
practice.
Recommended Resources:
● DATCrusher Practice Tests (Highly recommended): These practice tests mimic the same difficulty
of the Canadian DAT and have similar types of questions that have shown up on the Canadian DAT
in the past.
● DATCrusher Printable PAT Generators (Highly recommended): Allow you to print UNLIMITED
PAT questions on paper so that you can practice questions just like the real Canadian DAT. These are
included in your DATCrusher subscription.
● PATBooster PAT Analyzers (Highly recommended): Analyzes your performance while you practice
and will pinpoint the exact types of questions that you’re weak in.
● PATBooster Advanced Online PAT Generators (Highly recommended): These generators allow
your to customize the way you practice by allowing you to train specific types of questions that you
are weak in (ex. Obtuse or Acute angles).
There are many different strategies and approaches for this section but before deciding which one to
use, it is worthwhile to learn the types of questions that you may encounter:
1. Recall Questions: These types of questions concern statements found directly in the passage and
they test your memory rather than your comprehension skills.
2. Tone Questions: These types of questions are less common, and they test your ability to gauge
the author’s bias towards the specific topic, whether positive or negative. Such biases are often
implied rather than directly stated within the passage.
3. Inference Questions: Similar to tone questions, inference questions do not test your knowledge
on content directly within the passage, but instead they test your ability to draw conclusions based
on certain statements.
4. Overarching Questions: These questions test your understanding of the passage as a whole
rather than specific parts (ex. determine the conclusion or main point of the passage)
It was not too long ago when the reading comprehension section of the Canadian DAT was composed
primarily of recall questions. In recent years however, the DAT has changed to include a few more
comprehension type questions such as tone and inference questions.
At the end of the day, the reading comprehension section is the most variable of the section of the
Canadian DAT as you never know what topic and types of questions you will end up getting on exam
day. And just like all the other sections, the time limit is what makes this section difficult for students and
so the key to success is to increase your speed while maintaining your understanding of the passage.
Recommended Resources:
● DATCrusher Practice Tests (Highly recommended): These practice tests are the same difficulty of
the Canadian DAT and have similar types of questions / topics that have shown up on the Canadian
DAT in the past.