FEB DAT ---aftermath

[shimmer2006]

hey all... so lets vent our feeling about the feb dat. I wrote mine at uft and not a lot of ppl wrote it. carving went fine, PAT was hard as usual, bio chem reasonable but READING COM WAS A KILLER. i guessed on all of them.. they were sooo tough.

anyone got anything to say?

[DentistWannaBe]

I thought science and carving are pretty easy since it was my 3rd time writing it . I think carving design is same as the one given in last Nov. But the short triangle notch eat a lot of my time.

 

PAT was bit tough, for some reasons the angles part is hard. I spent more time than I expected.

 

And RC is a killer for me. I managed to finish reading all the passages, but I guessed on so many answer Do they scale reading score if everyone did horrible?

[wishywish82]

I don't think they scale the DAT at all, they scale the MCAT to ****. The RC in the past has had crazy high scores with the 50th percentile being around 20. They may have made the RC harder in an effort to lower scores. Wannabe did u find it harder or easier than before?

[DentistWannaBe]

yeah, the RC this time was tougher compared to previous year. There were too many "how many statements above are true" I wonder if other ppl feel the same?

[wisdom_tooth]

BIO SECTION WAS KILLER

 

nothing on hormones, nothing on the kidneys, or circulation or anything that Kaplan said was important!!!! (what a waste of money)

 

carving was great, PAT was mediocre (the usual), chem was okay, reading comprehension was good, except that last one about steam engines, I ran out of time and had to guess a few of the last questions pertaining to that passage

 

I'm still pretty peeved off about bio, it was so random

 

well we have 6 weeks until we get our results, so we should just relax during that time and then decide after the 6 weeks whether or not we should write it again lol

 

oh btw, is it true that you can't write the DAT more than 3 times or is that 3 times consecutively??

 

thanks

Wisdom_tooth

 

ps. registration was so disorganized at the toronto centre, there was no line just a blob of people lol

[dr.drill]

oh btw, is it true that you can't write the DAT more than 3 times or is that 3 times consecutively??

 

I've never heard of a limit, but after the 3rd time, you should be wondering if dentistry is a realistic goal.

[bellaortho]

The schools really tell u what the limit it is to how many times you can write the DAT.

 

I personally find that you look at if the school:

 

1.) takes your best score (write it as many times as the limit allows)

2.) averages your two best ( write it until you get 2 really good scores)

3.) takes your last DAT ( write it until you are comfortable with your score and don't be greedy, because you don't want to get "screwed over".)

 

As you can see, there are different reasons for how many times you want to write it and therefore schools tend to understand.

 

This might indeed make applying across Canada a little tricky, because some schools might wonder why you have written your DAT 5 times, while others might accomodate the fact that 5 times was needed to achieve your score & value the overall improvement trend.

 

So it depends, are u showing persistence or like dr drill says, are u not made to be a dentist!?

 

Hope this helps

________

Video Reviews

[wisdom_tooth]

I've never heard of a limit, but after the 3rd time, you should be wondering if dentistry is a realistic goal.

thanks

 

and if you're really dedicated to something, and you put your heart and soul into it (not to mention tears) than it doesn't matter how many times you take it because with every try you only get better. If you're truly passionate about something, than three attempts is nothing. I admire perseverance and it only motivates me to do better.

 

 

ps. I've only taken the DAT once, who knows I might need to take it only one time or maybe another 10x but I'll never give up as cheesy as it may sound.

[wisdom_tooth]

The schools really tell u what the limit it is to how many times you can write the DAT.

 

I personally find that you look at if the school:

 

1.) takes your best score (write it as many times as the limit allows)

2.) averages your two best ( write it until you get 2 really good scores)

3.) takes your last DAT ( write it until you are comfortable with your score and don't be greedy, because you don't want to get "screwed over".)

 

As you can see, there are different reasons for how many times you want to write it and therefore schools tend to understand.

 

This might indeed make applying across Canada a little tricky, because some schools might wonder why you have written your DAT 5 times, while others might accomodate the fact that 5 times was needed to achieve your score & value the overall improvement trend.

 

So it depends, are u showing persistence or like dr drill says, are u not made to be a dentist!?

 

Hope this helps

 

You're right, it all depends on the school. For the schools I am interested in applying there is no limit and they take the most recent DAT score.

 

It was just a rumour I heard, thank God it's just a rumour. I mean It would be kind of strange if there was because in the end of the day the DAT is a business and there out to make money therefore it's hard to believe that they would limit someone from taking the DAT more than 3x. It would be their loss.

[1T0_Dents]

To be honest....Nobody cares if you took the DAT once or 10 times.....take it until you get what you need to get in. It's the same with majors...it doesn't matter if you specialized in Microbio or Poli sci, to admissions only the biggest number counts.

 

 

Cheers,

 

[DentistWannaBe]

Since the DAT raw scores are standarized into a standard score out of 20, would the standarization scheme be a abit different if the Feb. exam is harder than Nov.'s exam? Are raw scores standarized based on how other ppl perform on the same exam? Can anyone explain? Thanks!

[UBCfnh]

I think it only depends on the other people writing that particular exam and not on the difficulty of the exam.

[wishywish82]

I don't think the DAT is standardized at all. It's just whatever you get as a raw score converted into a DAT numerical score. If you look at past DATs the 50th percentile varies from 15-20 just based on the difficulty of the exam and the abilities of the candidates who write it.

[DentistWannaBe]

so,, who is really right? Any one have some insight on how standarization work?

[clive]

This is from the CDA site:

 

The results are reported to dental schools in terms of standard scores rather than raw scores. Through the use of standard scores, it is possible to compare the performance of one candidate with the performance of all candidates. Scores used in the testing program range from 1 to 30. While there are no strict passing or failing scores, the standard score of 15 signifies average performance on a national basis. The standard score is based on the underlying ability distribution and can be interpreted as norm referenced or criterion referenced.

 

A detailed explanation of the test scores is forwarded to all candidates with the student copy of the official transcript.

 

http://www.cda-adc.ca/en/dental_profession/dat/information/testing/default.asp

[DentistWannaBe]

after reading it, I take it that standard score is based on the performance of other test takers since they try to make the average standard around 15.

[Goldenboy6]

Yes that is correct. That's the whole point of standardized tests like the mcat and dat; to see how well you shine compared to all the other applicants writing the same test.

[DentistWannaBe]

GOOD, i am keeping my finger crossed for my RC score. I guess like close to half of the questions.

[apical meristems]

I believe that the carving is the only section that is curved. The other sections are like wishywish82 said, a basic conversion. When I wrote the exam a couple years ago, the highest mark on the PAT was a 23 (100th percentile) and a 19 worked out to 85th percentile. Obviously, this case is not based on the performance of others.

 

Standardized score just means the 30 point scale. The numbers that convert may vary based on the difficulty of the exam.

 

ap

[Adversary]

I do remember that DAT, Apical Meristems. I think we both took the same DAT. It did hurt my perception score and I did wonder how can they fairly compare me to others who wrote it at different times.

[Goldenboy6]

I believe that the carving is the only section that is curved. The other sections are like wishywish82 said, a basic conversion. When I wrote the exam a couple years ago, the highest mark on the PAT was a 23 (100th percentile) and a 19 worked out to 85th percentile. Obviously, this case is not based on the performance of others.

 

Standardized score just means the 30 point scale. The numbers that convert may vary based on the difficulty of the exam.

 

ap

 

Well, from what I understand about standard scores, its similar to calculating a z-score, but then each standardized test (MCAT, SAT) has their own way of displaying the results. Standard scores always depend on the mean and the standard deviation on the test, so that your score does end up depending on how others do. And besides, the statement:

 

"Through the use of standard scores, it is possible to compare the performance of one candidate with the performance of all candidates. "

 

This statement wouldn't make sense if using standard scores was simply a case of making it out of 30.