November 2018 DAT Thoughts

[simsta]

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[Zezima]

57 minutes ago, Dentistry101 said:

just received my scores i got 19 PAT and and 21 AA. thing is I think my PAT is below average.

do you think UofT will take me with a 4.00 GPA? I feel like i am below average since their median GPA last year was 4.00 according to some students i spoke to..

what do you guys think? i honestly dont see how I can get 19 PAT I'm diamond on LoL, thing is UofT doesn't give you anywhere in their application to talk about your extra curriculars so now I am worried...

Tbh I'd say you're somewhere in the middle of the pack rn, your chances of landing an interview with those stats are like 50/50. It really do be like dat sometimes

[westcoastbestcoast]

8 minutes ago, simsta said:

im so confused

AA: 22

PAT: 20

these are 95th and 98th percentiles respectively but my score numbers don't show it at all... i really needed a 22 average between the two to get an interview for ubc this year (since my average was a few percent below what they accept) and im so devastated. even though percentile wise these are good, the numbers themselves dont say anything

anyone know if i still have a shot at UBC or no? so upset with this screwed up scale 

What's your average? Cuz that is a factor as well

[OmSriSaiRam]

Anyone care to explain why the scale is the way it is? I'm very confused :\ 

[IllIIlIlIIIlIIIl]

RC: 24

TS: 20

AA: 21

PAT: 19

MDT: 27

This was my first exam and I thought it was pretty difficult. Do schools look at the mark we're given or the percentages. I thought this exam was standardized, but the highest score for pat was a 22? and for bio was a 20. Or do schools look at the raw amount of questions we got correct. 

[cando]

Based on what I've read, I think the scores are based on how you perform compared to others, but they have a way of standardizing the scores across the years (not just between the Nov 2018 exams). Obviously the exact formula they use to calculate this is not something they disclose. Judging by the score scale for bio on this DAT especially, I guess all students underperformed on what they thought wasn't as difficult of an exam... 

[Loulouloux3]

I feel with everyone on this...my score itself is low but percentile is decent...

I sent out an email to Schulich and Uoft about the scores and Schulich got back to me 10 minutes ago with:

“DAT thresholds are determined based on the calibre of the applicant pool.  How we use the DAT scores and set thresholds is confidential to our office.  We are not given percentile information only scores for each DAT section”

It seems like they might standardize the score within the applicant pool but probably not within the test day...sigh

[westcoastbestcoast]

Anyone know when UBC sends out invites? Sometime in Jan?

[simsta]

12 minutes ago, westcoastbestcoast said:

Anyone know when UBC sends out invites? Sometime in Jan?

yup usually second week of january. last year it was jan 12th 

[simsta]

.

[DATfiller]

39 minutes ago, simsta said:

guys i think we should email the CDA letting them know how unfair the scaling is. how is it possible that 20 on PAT = 98th percentile, but in february 20 on PAT = 75th? and how was a 20 the highest biology score in the entire country? it makes absolutely no sense. 

 

the more we push, the higher chances are we might get a decent explanation as to why the scale is so wack 

I agree with you on this. It is absolutely unfair! I did the November DAT last year and got 23 on PAT which was 100 percentile I believe, and this time I ended up with 20 for 98 percentile. I feel like those who did the DAT in Feb might have advantage for interviews over us due to the way CDA has scored.

[LightningBoltz]

This sucks, I did so bad even though I dedicated my entire summer to follow DATBootcamp's Ari schedule. My scores are completely different than my predicted DATbootcamp scores:

Real Scores:
Bio 17
Chem 19 
PAT 18
Reading 18
Academic Average 18

DATBootcamp scores:
Bio 21-24
Chem 23-27 
PAT 23-28
Reading 21-24

Not sure what to do, I feel like I wasted my entire summer now. I have a 3.9+ GPA McGill so I know i'm not dumb. Not sure if the test was poorly scaled or if I spent too much time using a bad resource. I know bootcamp isn't representative of the Canadian DAT but I didn't think it would be this bad  

[nfmp13]

I can't help but think that there was a malfunction during the marking process aha...Looking at the scale it seems that almost everyone who wrote this test is at a disadvantage compared to everyone who wrote during other sessions.

[futuredentist1]

let us know any news 

[WeCanDoIt]

I am also confused with my scores... 

The percentiles are average to pretty high, but the scores don't seem to reflect that. 

Since schools don't receive the scales (I think they only receive your transcript), the high percentiles wouldn't really matter and they would just think I scored low.

 

I wonder if anyone has actually emailed the CDA and ask for an explanation... 

[WeCanDoIt]

2 minutes ago, nfmp13 said:

I can't help but think that there was a malfunction during the marking process aha...Looking at the scale it seems that almost everyone who wrote this test are at a disadvantage compared to everyone who wrote during other sessions.

Totally agree!!

 

[stealth]

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[Rollierollie]

I was also very disappointed with my "raw" scores as they didn't really reflect how I did on this year's DAT. I don't think schools will look at individual test years' percentiles to standardize each individual DAT section per student.

I know I studied hard for it but definitely disappointed with the results. I didn't want to jump to any conclusions yet but I did feel the need to ask CDA by sending them an email regarding how the scales exactly worked, and why there's such a huge discrepancy each year!!

I will keep you guys posted of what they say. 

[stealth]

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[stealth]

How can someone get the same percentile on a section but get -4 raw points? What the hell. At some institutions (UBC, UofT mainly)  that is the difference between acceptance/rejection. 

[stealth]

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[westcoastbestcoast]

2 minutes ago, stealth said:

Everyone email the CDA and ask for your money back, this exam didn't even give us a chance.

While the BIO and PAT scores were very low, CHEM and RC were higher. This might offset one another.

[WeCanDoIt]

16 minutes ago, purplethang said:

I was also very disappointed with my "raw" scores as they didn't really reflect how I did on this year's DAT. I don't think schools will look at individual test years' percentiles to standardize each individual DAT section per student.

I know I studied hard for it but definitely disappointed with the results. I didn't want to jump to any conclusions yet but I did feel the need to ask CDA by sending them an email regarding how the scales exactly worked, and why there's such a huge discrepancy each year!!

I will keep you guys posted of what they say. 

Thank you.

[stealth]

I think RC is where it should be, but the BIO, PAT, CHEM - terrible. Especially the PAT, like what the hell is that. One person in the whole country gets 22. I know people who guessed part of the section and still scored 23+ 

[stealth]

If everyone did well, everyone should get high scores. Because if they don't it ruins their cycle and life.  They shouldn't lower everyones scores because it was a strong group writing the exam.