DAT TEST SECTIONS
Test Sections
There are four sections in the DAT test. Each section is further sub-divided in to several sub-sections or not sub-subsections at all. The four sections are
- Survey Of The Natural Sciences
- Perceptual Ability (PAT)
- Reading Comprehension
- Quantitative Reasoning
Survey Of The Natural Sciences
The first section of Survey of the Natural Sciences is further divided in to subdivisions of biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. Questions are based on these subjects. This section totally caters 100 question and 90 minutes are allotted to complete this section.
The biology section has 40 questions related to biological aspects of plants. Questions related to plant history like Origin of life, Cell metabolism, Photosynthesis, Developmental mechanics, Fertilization etc are covered.
The Basic concepts and principles of Inorganic chemistry that are required for the students to study in the first years of college are covered in this section. This section has about 30 questions.
The Organic chemistry section covers 30 questions related to the major concepts of Organic chemistry.
Perceptual Ability Test (PAT)
The PAT section tests the candidate’s ability to relate and work out relationships between structures and spaces. Types of non-verbal perceptual test items are included in the PAT. One part covers the two- dimension perception and the other part covers the three-dimension perception. There are about 90 questions based on the above mentioned concept in this section.
Reading Comprehension
This section is a regular comprehension type. Once has to answer a set of questions that are based on the passage given. Each question is provided with multiple-choice of answers to select from. The passages will be related to medicine. No prior preparation is necessary for this section because anyone good in the English language can read through the given passage and answer the questions. Three passages will be given. 50 minutes will be given to answer 50 questions.
QUANTITATIVE Reasoning
The ability to solve problems and equations and to manage quantitative figures is tested in this section. It has about 40 questions that need to be answered in 45 minutes. This section is a part of the American states exams only. The Canadian examinations do not include this section. By quantitative questions it means anything from Algebra, Fractions, Percentages, and Statistics etc.