OAT - new scoring effective 5/1/09

[cloud99]

This info was posted on my University's pre-health site on 3/18/09.

Effective 5/1/09, grading of OAT's will change. They are rescaling tests so the average score goes back down to 300, not the 330 that is currently the "average".

Old OAT score scales (prior to 5/1/09) and new OAT score scales will not be comparable, so a 300 on an old test will NOT equal a 300 on a new test.

Scores are gonna look a whole lot lower, apparently. I wonder if the new "cut off score" for many schools will now be a 270 instead of a 300?

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[captainnerd]

Will schools still accept the older scores? Or will they rescale those scores?

 

[cloud99]

I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine them saying all old OAT's are invalid and everyone must re-take.

I think it means that old can only be compared to old, and new can only be compared to new. The test itself is unchanged (as far as I know), just the score scale is changing.

 

[jymezg]

I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine them saying all old OAT's are invalid and everyone must re-take.

I think it means that old can only be compared to old, and new can only be compared to new. The test itself is unchanged (as far as I know), just the score scale is changing.

where are you getting this info?

 

[jc812]

This info was posted on my University's pre-health site on 3/18/09.

Effective 5/1/09, grading of OAT's will change. They are rescaling tests so the average score goes back down to 300, not the 330 that is currently the "average".

Old OAT score scales (prior to 5/1/09) and new OAT score scales will not be comparable, so a 300 on an old test will NOT equal a 300 on a new test.

Scores are gonna look a whole lot lower, apparently. I wonder if the new "cut off score" for many schools will now be a 270 instead of a 300?

Do they explain why they are considering the change in the scores? I see no benefit to this... There is no restructuring of the test itself, why change the "average" score, etc?

 

[thanotoriousfob]

This info was posted on my University's pre-health site on 3/18/09.

Effective 5/1/09, grading of OAT's will change. They are rescaling tests so the average score goes back down to 300, not the 330 that is currently the "average".

Old OAT score scales (prior to 5/1/09) and new OAT score scales will not be comparable, so a 300 on an old test will NOT equal a 300 on a new test.

Scores are gonna look a whole lot lower, apparently. I wonder if the new "cut off score" for many schools will now be a 270 instead of a 300?

Do they say this anywhere on the opted.org website?

 

[jymezg]

Do they say this anywhere on the opted.org website?

Negative. That's why I'm curious where this is actually coming from...

If it was changing opted would have a big notice on the page.

 

[cloud99]

I didn't see it on Opted's site either so it really took me by surprise.

 

[jymezg]

Again, whats the source of your info?

 

[cloud99]

Copied and pasted this from my schools pre-health website:

Revision to Score Scale for Optometry Admission Test (OAT)

Revision to the Score Scale for the Optometry Admission Test (OAT)
Effective May 1, 2009
When an examinee takes the OAT, a raw score is produced for each area of the test that equals the number of correct answers. This raw score is converted to a standard score so that examinees' performance on the test can be compared to other examinees' performance. In the OAT, the mean is assigned a standard score of 300. The range of scores for the OAT is 200 to 400.
Recently, the mean may has exceeded 300 in all sections, and has exceeded 330 in certain instances. As part of the ongoing validation process for the OAT, a request was made by ASCO to recalibrate the score scale so that the score scale mean is again close to 300 and the standard deviation is 40. The data for this rescaling study were responses from 2,520 examinees taking the OAT for the first time in 2008. The rescaling for each of the OAT sub-tests was accomplished through the use of logits from the Rasch model, which takes both examinee's ability and item difficulty into account. As a result, the average mean of each of the OAT sub-test is as close as possible to a mean of 300 and standard deviation of 40.
Interpretation of the New Score Scale
This new score scale will take effect May 1, 2009 and has several major implications for anyone involved in interpreting OAT scores. Please pay particular attention to the bulleted items:
• The new score scale and the old score scale are not comparable. Scores from the new scale cannot be compared to the old scale.
o A 300 on the old scale is not the same as a 300 on the new scale.
o If an examinee tested in January 2009 and then retested in July 2009, the two sets of scores cannot be compared to each other.
• The OAT is not a harder or more difficult test but overall the scores will appear to be lower than they have been in recent years because the mean has been set back as close as possible to 300.
• Going forward scores will be able to be compared as they have been in the past. For example, an examinee that tests in May 2009 and December 2009 will be scored on the same score scale and those sets of scores can be compared to each other.
o When reviewing an examinee's score, it will be important to note the date the test was taken to compare the scores to the correct scale.
Paige Pence
Director, Student and Professional Affairs
Association of Schools & Colleges of Optometry

 

[blysssful]

It does actually make sense. The OAT and the DAT are extremely similar, but the scoring of the DAT is MUCH less lenient. The point of rescaling the exam in this way would be to have a more distinguishable difference between the people who score above average.

For example: currently, if people get 36-40 questions right in the biology section, those test takers would all get a 400 for the bio section. Rescaling the test would mean that maybe getting 39-40 questions right in that section would mean a 400, while 37-38 would mean a 390, and 35-36 right would be a 370. (Note this is just a hypothetical example, and of course I have no idea how much they're scaling it, but its just as an example.)


What all of this means for admissions and what lowest scores schools would accept is up for debate, and would probably be dependent on each individual school. The most important thing for test takers is still to score as high as possible, and be concerned more with percentiles rather than raw scores.

 

[KHE]

This info was posted on my University's pre-health site on 3/18/09.

Effective 5/1/09, grading of OAT's will change. They are rescaling tests so the average score goes back down to 300, not the 330 that is currently the "average".

Old OAT score scales (prior to 5/1/09) and new OAT score scales will not be comparable, so a 300 on an old test will NOT equal a 300 on a new test.

Scores are gonna look a whole lot lower, apparently. I wonder if the new "cut off score" for many schools will now be a 270 instead of a 300?

It's been a while since I've taken statistics but my understanding was that the whole POINT of "scaled scores" was so that you COULD compare old testing strategies to new ones. Why would they say that they won't be comparable?

 

[Noemimi]

I found info on it:

https://www.ada.org/oat/index.html click the score update PDF.

I am nervous now because, according to this, your scores will come out lower. All is fine, but how will we find out what the new standard for each school will be? since the the old stats are all based on old scores, which cannot be compared to the new ones.

 

[preopt2012]

Will schools still accept the older scores? Or will they rescale those scores?

they will accept the old score. your old score will be only compared to students with old scores at least thats what my friend said. she contacted few schools (ICO, UMSL, & PCO) and they said that they will accept the old score.

 

[DawgOD]

I found info on it:

https://www.ada.org/oat/index.html click the score update PDF.

I am nervous now because, according to this, your scores will come out lower. All is fine, but how will we find out what the new standard for each school will be? since the the old stats are all based on old scores, which cannot be compared to the new ones.

I thought I was the only one to see this... I'm a little nervous... I'm tryiing to KILL this test.. and now they are changing the scoring to make the average lower?? what the heck!!

 

[blysssful]

It's been a while since I've taken statistics but my understanding was that the whole POINT of "scaled scores" was so that you COULD compare old testing strategies to new ones. Why would they say that they won't be comparable?

They wouldn't be comparable if the difficulty is the same but the scale is not. If person A took the test when getting 80% of the questions right equates to a 360, and when person B takes it 95% of correct questions equates to a 360, would it be fair to compare those scores (assuming the questions were the same level of difficulty)?

 

[princess1012]

My GPA is a 3.7! I just found the information about the new scale and was wondering what was competitive at most schools with the new scale? Thanks!!

 

[JMU07]

Princess - if they're saying the new mean is now 300, it just looks as if your scores are average. Some schools don't accept any scores below 300, I don't know if that's changing now with that new scale or what. Although your GPA is pretty good I would take the time to call the schools you're interested in and see if they would recommend re-taking it.

 

[cloud99]

Princess-

Since we really don't know what a 290 or a 320 is anymore in the eyes of the opt. schools, I think the important thing to look at here is the percentile. I'm betting that this is how schools are going to gauge applicants, rather than just saying "we used to want all scores above 300, so now we're gonna say we want all scores above 290..." In this case, your TS of 320, which at first doesn't look that impressive, is really pretty good, cuz you scored better than 68% of all test takers.

I am wondering if scores are roughly 20 points lower in each section now, because ASCO originally said that the mean scores had inched up as much as 20-30 points in some sections and they wanted to bring them back down to 300. So following this logic, your 360 in GC would have previously been a 380, but both would show 93rd percentile.

Maybe takers of the "old" scored exam could post their scores along with their percentile. Then "new" exam takers could at least compare their percentiles then see how much lower the scores are. In fact, I'm gonna start a new topic now.