Life by PJ

Hello all, and sorry for the extended absence!  After finals week rolls around, I'm usually so caught up in my summer plans that my blogging goes by the wayside, which is exactly what happened a couple months ago. But, I'm back! And ready to type. After my last final in April, I immediately went home and got busy working on my personal statement. (Some people say type-A, I just say well prepared.) And boy did that personal statement take me longer than I thought it would. I had written many drafts, beginning as early as last summer at SMDEP, but none of them resonated with me. But when it came down to crunch time, I became inspired as all writers do with an impending deadline, and drafted something that came directly from my heart (and my keyboard.) I'm so proud of it, it makes me giddy. I never expected to have one 4500 character document explain me so perfectly. But I'm not going to say it was all sunshine and rainbows - it was pretty difficult at points trying to...

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! I just got done taking my DAT this weekend and due to the two snow days my college has called for today and tomorrow, I decided that I could use the extra time to write a How-To Guide of sorts for taking the DAT. I don't know about any of you pre-dentals reading this right now, but I read a lot of online DAT guides before my exam that terrified me. I kept reading things like, "I studied for 12 hours a day for 6 months before the exam," "I completed the DAT Destroyer 15 times and memorized it forward and backward," and "I sold my soul and gave up my first-born child for a 20 or better." (Okay, maybe the last one is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.) I knew that I would never be able to live up to these expectations and I figured that I would also fall short in my score because of this. I was extremely busy in the months leading up to my DAT, and I know many of you will be too. We're pre-dentals! Be...