What Is a Good DAT Score for Dental School? (2026)

There's no single number that answers "what is a good DAT score for dental school." There are bands: below-average, average, competitive, and top-tier, and each one maps to a different set of schools. A 20 AA is good for a lot of dental schools and not good enough for others — the honest answer depends on where you're applying and what your GPA looks like next to it.

The Real Answer: Score Bands, Not One Magic Number

The DAT has used two scales. Through early 2025 it ran on a 1-30 scale for each section and the Academic Average (AA), with roughly 17 as the national average. Since March 2025, the ADA reports scores on a 200-600 scale in 10-point increments, with roughly 400 as the new average. Older forum threads and advisors still talk in 1-30 language, so we'll give you both.

Treat those new-scale numbers as rough approximations, not an official conversion — the ADA publishes its own concordance table for exact equivalences. The bands are the takeaway: "good" starts once you're clearly above the national average and keeps climbing in tiers, rather than snapping into place at one cutoff.

For context: we both scored in the 97th+ percentile on the old scale — a 25 AA with a 30 in organic chemistry, and a 27 AA with a 29 Total Science. That's the top-tier band above, and it's rare. It's also not the bar every applicant needs to clear, which is the whole point of this article.

What Is Considered a Bad DAT Score?

A bad DAT score isn't just "any score below X." It's a score meaningfully below the national average and nothing else in your application to balance it out. An AA below 17 on the old scale (roughly under 390 on the new scale) with a weak GPA and no upward trend is a genuinely difficult position for most applicant pools.

That same below-average score can be far less "bad" in context. If a target school's accepted range comfortably includes it, your GPA trajectory is strong, or you're already planning a retake after fixing one clear weak section, it's a data point to act on — not a verdict on your candidacy. The real red flag is a mismatch with no plan: your score sits below where your list actually accepts, and you have no fix in motion. If that's you, our guide on whether a 17-20 AA is good enough to skip a retake walks through the decision.

Why "Good" Depends on Your Target Schools, Not a National Number

Every dental school reports (or informally shares) the range its accepted class typically falls into. A score that's excellent for one program can sit below the middle of the pack at another — that's the entire reason "what is a good DAT score" doesn't have one universal answer.

• Build your school list first, score target second. Pull the typical accepted range for every school on your list, then find the number that clears most of them with room to spare.
• Reach schools need reach scores. If a program's average accepted AA is 23, hitting exactly 23 puts you at the middle of their pool, not ahead of it.
• Don't over-target either. Grinding for a 25+ AA when your whole list accepts comfortably at 20-21 is time you could've spent on PAT, secondaries, or your personal statement.

We built a full breakdown of accepted ranges by program in our DAT score requirements by dental school guide — that's the resource to build your real target from, not a generic "aim for 22+" rule of thumb.

GPA and DAT Score Work Together, Not Separately

Admissions committees read your GPA and DAT score as one combined picture, not two separate hurdles. A strong DAT can offset a so-so GPA and vice versa, but neither fully replaces the other.

• High GPA, average DAT: Often still competitive, especially with an upward GPA trend and strong science courses.
• Average GPA, high DAT: A strong DAT can shift how a committee reads a shakier GPA, particularly if the low GPA has a clear, non-repeating explanation.
• Both above average: This is what "very competitive" actually means — not one metric doing all the work.

If either number is genuinely weak, don't chase an unrealistically high score in the other to compensate. Get both as strong as your runway allows, and apply broadly enough that your list isn't entirely reach schools.

AA, Total Science, and PAT: Which Number Actually Matters

The Academic Average (AA) is the number most people mean when they ask "what is a good DAT score" — it's the average of Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Reading Comprehension, and Quantitative Reasoning. Total Science (TS) is the average of just the 100 science questions (Bio, GC, OC) and is reported separately. The Perceptual Ability Test (PAT) is scored on its own and is not part of the AA at all.

• AA is the headline number most published "accepted range" charts refer to.
• PAT gets separate, real weight at plenty of programs, since it's a distinct skill from the academic sections.
• Individual section scores (especially OC and QR) sometimes get their own look if a program sets a minimum by section, not just by AA.

Don't optimize AA in a vacuum. A 22 AA with a 15 PAT tells a different story than a 22 AA with a 21 PAT, even though the AA is identical.

How to Set Your Own Target Instead of Chasing a Random Number

1. List your target schools and pull each one's typical accepted DAT range.
2. Find the number that clears the middle of that range across most of your list, not just your top reach school.
3. Check it against your GPA. If your GPA is on the lower side for your list, aim slightly above the DAT midpoint to compensate.
4. Set that as your real target and stop studying once your practice scores are consistently landing there — not before, and not long after either.

That last step is the one students skip most. Chasing an arbitrary AA past what your school list requires isn't discipline, it's diminishing returns. The DAT rewards a fixed, learnable set of concepts; once your practice scores consistently clear your real target, more studying past that point buys you very little. That's the whole philosophy behind DATPractice.

Weighing a specific number? We cover it in detail in Is a 21 or 22 AA a Good DAT Score? and Is a 23-25 AA Competitive for Top Dental Schools?