TBJ1 Posted March 25, 2007 Report Share Posted March 25, 2007 Does anyone have any idea what is the nature of this computerized personality test that we have to write on the day of the interview? Maybe it is just me, but I cannot understand why they would have such a test if interviews are already used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shocker_2345 Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 no doubt man, this really makes no sense to me either why they would have this test. the interview should be good enough for assessing an individual and from the psych classes i have taken regarding personality tests, they are very unreliable at assessing an individual and offer very little validity but o well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllSmiles Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 That would be nerve wrecking...what if they think you have psychotic tendencies or are short tempered because you misread a question or you misinterpreted it....that would bite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flintabatty Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 shocker, it depends on which personality inventory they use, not all are unreliable. If there are particular criteria they are looking to find, these tests will be very reliable, considering the tested group will be very homogenous to begin with (pre dental/med students from middle/upper class families). Also, most tests have redundancy built in regarding misunderstanding questions and also inconsistency in responses (ie, lying, social desireability bias, etc). Possibly they want to have something semi-objective to compare their interview results against and find trends and so forth. Seems like a lot of extra time and money to me though! sorry, I have a psych degree this May and I couldnt help myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBJ1 Posted March 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 Am I correct to assume that this test is NOT written, but rather multiple choice? They didn't mention the length of the test either.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neuromuscular Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 One of my best friends started Dent at Dal this year and in talking to the former Dean found out that he was the guy who put this test in place at Dal. Oddly enough, he said that they've found a very strong correlation between this test and clinical performance, while they've found a poor correlation between DAT carving scores and clinical performance. That's the rationale for doing it as weird as it sounds. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom_tooth Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 I wrote one of these last year. They are a joke. If you look hard enough you can find some online and they are relatively easy to manipulate. I have a Biology degree and have taken plenty of chemistry and physics. I have also taken several psychology courses (because they are easy A's - at all levels) and I can say the academic rigor is not even comparable. 1st year chemistry is far more conceptually difficult and a more demanding course than any senior level psych course ( I have taken both). Psycholgy is interesting but... Stangely enough, Social psycholgy emphasizes that what people say and what people actually do are two very different things. Yet we have an interview process where they try to psycho-analyse responses to the "what would you do" type of question and a personality test just in case someone did well on the interview who really shouldn't have... I'm sure someone will disagree, but the interview is a game. They ARE looking for questions to be answered a certain way. To say there is no right or wrong answer is just misleading. First of all what does the easiness of psych courses at your school have anything to do with the personality test in question? Second, I'm a psych major doing a bsc and i have taken bio, chem, physics and all those naturalistic sciences in addition to psychology courses. All psych courses are not easy A's you probably just took the easy ones, seeing that you're not a psych major. I can easily say that the biology courses that I've were easy A's but that would be unfair of me to say since I'm pretty sure there are harder bio courses offered at my school (genetics is a good example). I've seen people walk out of first year psycs with fails, Ds and Cs and some with As and A+'s. I'm pretty sure if you did nothing in those psych courses you'd fail. It all depends on your work ethic and I do agree with you that chem maybe involve more conceptually difficult but you're comparing apples and oranges when you compare a naturalistic subject with psychology. -wisdom_tooth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom_tooth Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 and about the whole "psycho-analyzing our responses", my take is that they're not trying to determine what you would do, because you are right, what people say is not necessarily what they would do, instead they're looking at how we'd think through a problem, basically problem solving skills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tode Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 There is an element of truth in what each of you is saying. Yes, there are in fact right and wrong answers. First, giving a wrong answer to a question is sufficient to receive a poor mark for that particular question. For example, last year at UWO I was asked [paraphrasing] 'what would you do if your employer asked you to lie in a court hearing?'. If you said that you would lie, then there is no doubt that you will receive a poor mark for that question. Second, altough it's necessary to give a "right" answer, it's not sufficient for receiving a good mark. Not only do you have to give the "right" answer you have to show that you are thinking. You need to demonstrate that you have thought about if not all then many of your options, and why each one may or may not be a good choice. As far as personality tests go: there are many studies published in The Canadian Journal of Dental Education that cite personality tests as good indicators of clinical performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkmkhan Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 As far as personality tests go: there are many studies published in The Canadian Journal of Dental Education that cite personality tests as good indicators of clinical performance. meh...just purely correlation. we're all trying to get past this, how many of us will actually make it good in the clinic??? the system is biased to begin with ...i strongly disagree with it but, then again I am not a psycholoist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom_tooth Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 Speaking of interviews, when asked a question is it best to argue both sides? for example would you argue the pros and cons for saying yes to the question as well as argue the pros and cons for saying no, and then from there, weighing the pros and cons, choose the best answer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom_tooth Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 okay, wait lol sorry, Tode kinda answered my question anyways, people who were successful with their interviews, did you use this method?? or did you straight up answer the question not looking at the potential benefits or disadvantages of the other option?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbert Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 wisdom tooth I think that (and anyone correct me if I'm wrong ) the point of these interviews is to look at your thought process to see how you solved a problem and came to a conclusion. Definetly look at the pros and cons or a particular question, but choose one result, don't sit on the fence about it. Saying why you did not do a particular thing shows the interviewers that you were considering all possibilities to a problem and came to a rational conclusion, which is a good thing. hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flintabatty Posted March 27, 2007 Report Share Posted March 27, 2007 The easiness of psych at my school has nothing to do with any personality test. However, personality tests have a whole lot to do with psychology. In my experience and estimation, psychology and psychological research just don't incorporate the rigorous standards that some other disciplines do. No offense - as I said, psych is very interesting. To be honest though, some of it is some pretty flaky sh$t. So I agree, comparing the natural sciences to Psychology IS like comparing apples to oranges. LOL, you have to be kidding me. anyway, all psych profs know that coursework is coursework, and that its all about graduate studies, i believe the entry GPA to be considered here for the clinical psych program is 3.9, then the gre etc etc. Science courses arent hard, they just want you to memorize too much info, I found many "science" students who couldnt apply psychology to save their souls. "psychology and psychological research just don't incorporate the rigorous standards that some other disciplines do" I guess if you cant measure something with a meter stick or put it in a separatory funnel its bad research? gimme a break man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flintabatty Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 lol, well, if its your experience that tells you that psychological research isnt rigorous and valid, then your experience must be awfully limited. nuff said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkmkhan Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 I agree with omizu regarding the personality test ... When writing this personality test, we have our conscious minds dictating how we answer. If we are aware of what answer the school want/expects, it's very easy to fudge that answer to fit the expectation of the school. This puts the validity of the test in serious question ESPECIALLY when you are going to be deciding whether you are going to accept someone over another into dental school. U of T is doing something ridicolous in this personality test in trying to quantify traits that probably will not be reflective of the "reality". I have done a few personality tests out of interest. Will I answer the same way as I would in my leisure time? OR Try to answer in such a way to fit the prototype personality U of T is looking for? My 0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flintabatty Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 yea, thats totally valid, it bothers me however that the U of T would use such an impotent test. But I guess the real tests that are worth using take 4-6 hours to administer, way too much cost involved. But, you never know, their test might be valid, you might not even know what you are answering or how your answer will correlate to some measure. Good psych tests and research usually disguise their true nature. It would be interesting to see what they are using, if it is standardized or not and whether there are items that look at confounds inherent in such a test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tode Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 meh...just purely correlation. we're all trying to get past this, how many of us will actually make it good in the clinic??? the system is biased to begin with ...i strongly disagree with it but, then again I am not a psycholoist I'm not sure what you mean by "purely correlation": nearly all scientific studies make use of some kind of statistical analysis, so using correlation to explain the link between two things doesn't make the link or theory any less valid, in fact it supports it. I don't exactly love the system myself: last year I got rejected at UWO with a two year average of 90% and DAT of 115 but I happened to get in this year at UBC (go figure). But I'm curious, what exactly do you think the bias of the system favours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flintabatty Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 omizu, thats assuming that there are only a handful ot "types" to choose from, there are many proposed models of personality, most with some sort of dimensional basis (ie, no definate borders between traits). So mixtures of different traits can arrive at the same type of desired personality, however, that being said, i have heard about the new CDA interview as looking applicants dimensions on a 7 trait scale. This scale is funny because its basically old victorian virtues (ie integrity, sensitivity to others, concienciousness etc.) I believe the most widely accepted personality model is Goldberg's "big five" (1993). heres a link if anyone cares to research it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits some research has indicated these dimensions especially valuable in predicting relationship outcomes, like likelihood of divorce. And I would like to point out that these quick online tests do not indicate the real thing, as someone mentioned earlier that personality tests are all online. I do agree that there is huge biases! but, if you wanna play their game, you need to abide by their rules, even if they make them up as they go along Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbert Posted March 28, 2007 Report Share Posted March 28, 2007 thanks for all the info flintabatty, very helpful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom_tooth Posted March 29, 2007 Report Share Posted March 29, 2007 wisdom tooth I think that (and anyone correct me if I'm wrong ) the point of these interviews is to look at your thought process to see how you solved a problem and came to a conclusion. Definetly look at the pros and cons or a particular question, but choose one result, don't sit on the fence about it. Saying why you did not do a particular thing shows the interviewers that you were considering all possibilities to a problem and came to a rational conclusion, which is a good thing. hope this helps thanks, that actually is helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbert Posted March 29, 2007 Report Share Posted March 29, 2007 No prob wisdom tooth! When's your interview? Mine's on Saturday Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wisdom_tooth Posted March 29, 2007 Report Share Posted March 29, 2007 No prob wisdom tooth! When's your interview? Mine's on Saturday Good luck! hey norbet! congrats on your interview, no interview for me yet lol I'm applying next year. I'd be on cloud number 9 if I get an interview at UT. But since my sis just got accepted for UWO for residency, I'm leaning more towards UWO dentistry, only because (1) It'll be fun to study away from home, since I've never done it before (2) from what i've read it's a great program, they start the clinical work righ tin the first year (3) my best friend's brother goes there for dentistry (4) I probably have a better chance of getting in. But again, if I get into UofT no complaints on my part lol! good luck with the interview! ps. i actually know someone from my school who has the interview this upcoming sunday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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