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I found this article in a recent issue of the ADEA's journal. The topic deals with how Canadian dental schools use the different factors of an student application to evaluate success in dental school. I bet the same studies and logic work for US dental schools as well. The link is:
http://www.jdentaled.org/cgi/reprint/68/6/598.
I think you'll find it interesting. I've included a sample of what they said about the DAT. (The formating may be a little screwy since I copied and pasted out of weird pdf format.)
The DAT assesses various characteristics that contribute to learning or performance in dental school. In particular, the DAT Academic Average is a measure of general cognitive ability. Those high in general cognitive ability are superior problem solvers, acquire knowledge quickly, and excel in abstract thinking.8 Dental students are required to acquire considerable amounts of knowledge in relatively short periods of time. Individuals with high cognitive ability should have more success in academic components of their programs, as suggested by previous studies. It is not clear whether the DAT predicts success in the clinical aspects of dental training. Although the psychomotor ability components?the Carving Dexterity test and the Perceptual Motor Ability test?are thought to assess the performance skills needed in the practice of dentistry, there appears to be conflicting evidence related to this thinking. Sandow et al. in a study of 459 students found that there was a positive correlation with the Perceptual Motor Ability test and the grade point average (GPA) of the students in the first and final years, with a weaker correlation with the GPA in the second and third years. Coy, McDougall, and Sneed,10 on the other hand, in a study of 492 students found that the
Perceptual Motor Ability test accounted for only 5 to 9 percent of the variance in Preclinical Operative Dentistry practical exam scores. Similarly, Oudshoorn,11 in a study of 212 students in four successive first-year classes, found that both the Perceptual Motor Ability test and the Carving Dexterity test could account for no more than 7 to 10 percent of the course grade variance. He concluded that, ?within the context of the present study, the PA and CD scores demonstrated no practical utility as predictors
of psychomotor performance.? Gray, Deem, and Straja12 in a study of 169 students took the average of the final grades in years 3 and 4 and found that the PAT accounted for only 0.26 of the variance of the final clinical grades in selected clinical courses and therefore ?did not play a role in predicting student performance in the clinical courses.? Kramer,13 on the other hand, in a study involving 5,009 students in which eight predictor measures from the DAT including the PAT were correlated with the technique GPA of the students in their freshman and sophomore years concluded that ?the results of this study indicate that DAT subscale scores contribute unique information to the prediction of performance in the first two years of dental school.?
http://www.jdentaled.org/cgi/reprint/68/6/598.
I think you'll find it interesting. I've included a sample of what they said about the DAT. (The formating may be a little screwy since I copied and pasted out of weird pdf format.)
The DAT assesses various characteristics that contribute to learning or performance in dental school. In particular, the DAT Academic Average is a measure of general cognitive ability. Those high in general cognitive ability are superior problem solvers, acquire knowledge quickly, and excel in abstract thinking.8 Dental students are required to acquire considerable amounts of knowledge in relatively short periods of time. Individuals with high cognitive ability should have more success in academic components of their programs, as suggested by previous studies. It is not clear whether the DAT predicts success in the clinical aspects of dental training. Although the psychomotor ability components?the Carving Dexterity test and the Perceptual Motor Ability test?are thought to assess the performance skills needed in the practice of dentistry, there appears to be conflicting evidence related to this thinking. Sandow et al. in a study of 459 students found that there was a positive correlation with the Perceptual Motor Ability test and the grade point average (GPA) of the students in the first and final years, with a weaker correlation with the GPA in the second and third years. Coy, McDougall, and Sneed,10 on the other hand, in a study of 492 students found that the
Perceptual Motor Ability test accounted for only 5 to 9 percent of the variance in Preclinical Operative Dentistry practical exam scores. Similarly, Oudshoorn,11 in a study of 212 students in four successive first-year classes, found that both the Perceptual Motor Ability test and the Carving Dexterity test could account for no more than 7 to 10 percent of the course grade variance. He concluded that, ?within the context of the present study, the PA and CD scores demonstrated no practical utility as predictors
of psychomotor performance.? Gray, Deem, and Straja12 in a study of 169 students took the average of the final grades in years 3 and 4 and found that the PAT accounted for only 0.26 of the variance of the final clinical grades in selected clinical courses and therefore ?did not play a role in predicting student performance in the clinical courses.? Kramer,13 on the other hand, in a study involving 5,009 students in which eight predictor measures from the DAT including the PAT were correlated with the technique GPA of the students in their freshman and sophomore years concluded that ?the results of this study indicate that DAT subscale scores contribute unique information to the prediction of performance in the first two years of dental school.?
