Abnormally high DAT scores?

[NCSMILES]

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I have heard from several posters (both in private messages and general threads) that the typical SDNer has higher DAT scores than the average dental student.

In your opinion is that true?

If so, care to speculate why? 😕

 

[HangOnSloopy]

I dunno about the actual numbers, but my guess would be that the kind of person who takes the time to surf around on the internet and find as much information as possible on the whole deal would be the same kind of person who gets labeled as an "overachiever" for making sure all their bases are covered. At least thats true for me. I had classes with plenty of people who tried to balance studying for the MCAT/DAT/GRE with working full time and doing a hundred other things, but only me and one of my friends (who, coincidently introduced me to SDN) took the DAT at a time when it was the only thing we had to focus on.

 

[edkNARF]

I agree. There is a huge sampling error due to the type of people who frequent SDN.

 

[Cornball714]

I definately agree that the SDN DAT scores are a little biased, theres people on here claiming they got 20-24's, thats pretty much 95th percentile. Thats pretty much saying they missed less than 3 questions on each section. And for people claiming they got 20-24's on PAT, i find that a little hard to beleive because again thats like missing less than 5 questions out of a possible 90. I received a 20 on my PAT and my percentile was 96.5, so anything higher than that is almost like a 99th percentile. Its a little nerve racking seeing scores like this and thinking to myself, this is the kind of people I'm up against

 

[NCSMILES]

Thanks guys for getting your votes in...I appreciate it. 🙂

Although I am still not sure as to why the answer is yes. Are there any other ideas or speculations as to why the scores are higher? (thanks to those 2 who have commented). 😕

 

[HBomb]

I don't agree. There are a lot of folks who just read the posts but don't post themselves. The ones that do post are usually the ones with higher scores. So in the end it appears that most SDNers have higher DATs but I think it's an even wash.

...unless of course people feel compelled to lie. Then we're screwed, I mean skewed. Possible? Probable?

 

[busdriver]

I definately agree that the SDN DAT scores are a little biased, theres people on here claiming they got 20-24's, thats pretty much 95th percentile. Thats pretty much saying they missed less than 3 questions on each section. And for people claiming they got 20-24's on PAT, i find that a little hard to beleive because again thats like missing less than 5 questions out of a possible 90. I received a 20 on my PAT and my percentile was 96.5, so anything higher than that is almost like a 99th percentile. Its a little nerve racking seeing scores like this and thinking to myself, this is the kind of people I'm up against

i dunno but i feel like you can miss more than 3 or 5 and still a good score (>20). that's just a feeling that i get..but i really have no clue. as for percentile...don't even look at it. you can miss a certain number of questions and get a higher percentile than someone else who took it on another day and missed the same number of questions...i'm not sure why they even give you the percentiles...

 

[Thaxil]

Think of this: which of these people are more likely to posts there DAT a person with 21/20 or a person with 16/17? Why post a weak DAT score when you already know that other would say it sucks and that you are a dumb @ss.

Percentiles are not based on all the question, but a selected group of standard questions that are common in all DATs. This is what I have been told. I got a 27 on O-chem and it said that I was in the 100.0 percentile; pretty awesome!

 

[edkNARF]

I don't agree. There are a lot of folks who just read the posts but don't post themselves. The ones that do post are usually the ones with higher scores. So in the end it appears that most SDNers have higher DATs but I think it's an even wash.

...unless of course people feel compelled to lie. Then we're screwed, I mean skewed. Possible? Probable?

This would still result in a sampling error regarding the SDN scores with respect to the general population. It is important to note that those who have received very lower scores would not be applying, so they would have to be removed from the overall sample population that is entering the application pool. Is still think will not move the mean to far to higher scores though.