DAT Relevance: Post your thoughts!

[Sanedor]

I'm curious to see what other peoples thoughts are on the DAT, both pre-Dent and especially those of you that have already been in 1+ years.
Admissions are hinge so heavily on how you do in these sections but WHY?
Do you feel there could be any modifications or alterations to the test itself to better select for Dental Students?
How relevant do you feel the DAT overall is/was? Regardless of how well you did, high or low, just state how relevant you feel the test was.

Just based on the different sections I think we should break it down and look at each section individually but feel free to just post your thoughts!

Section:
Relevancy: 1-5 out of 5 (1 being no relevance to dental field in your opinion and 5 being highly relevant)
Comment:
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Section: Sciences
Relevancy: /5
Comment:

Section: PAT
Relevancy: /5
Comment:

Section: Reading Comprehension
Relevancy: /5
Comment:

Section: Quantitative Reasoning
Relevancy: /5
Comment:

Other: Any section you feel should be added or modifications that should be made.
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My personal opinion :


Section: Sciences
Relevancy: 4/5
Comment: IMO this sections sums up your undergraduate studies nicely and shows a reviewing committee how well you retain information. Most anyone I know had to study to get a refresher on the material but the Biology section especially serves as a great basic foundation. I'm not quite so sure how the Chemistry and O Chem sections relate however.

Section: PAT
Relevancy: 5/5
Comment: Probably the most important section in my eyes. As dentists we certainly will have to be able to mentally manipulate what we view i.e. mouth mirror

Section: Reading Comprehension
Relevancy: 4/5
Comment: From the schools I have spoken with, it seems that this section shows how well you are able to quickly read, interpret and use information. Something very relevant to dental school considering the amount of reading we all will have to be doing!

Section: Quantitative Reasoning
Relevancy: 1/5
Comment: Completely stumped on this one... I have yet to hear a school strongly defend this section, most likely why the scores in this section are not as stringent as in other sections.

Other: I think a manual dexterity section (i.e. carving or such) would be just as crucial as a PAT section.

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[drill-and-fill]

I agree... I don't know why we need QR as dentists.

 

[jeffity]

Maybe they're looking at well-roundedness with the whole math thing. Physics hardly relates and it's still a pre-req. (Spare me the details of why you think physics is used so much in dentistry that it requires a pre-req.)

 

[FutureDrM]

Rather than give them a score I am going to just rank them in order of importance.

#1 : Science Average
Why : We have pre-reqs for a very good reason and we need to prove that we will be able to do well on our boards.

#2 : PAT
Why : like you mentioned, we as dentists will need to visualize the mouth with very little to work with (think the cube section)

#3 : Reading
Why : while in dental school we will have to cram in a lot of information in a very small amount of time. Having a strong foundation of reading comprehension will allow us to tackle this task.

#4 : Academic Average
Why : It's so low because it has QR (Math) included.

#5 : Quantitative Reasoning
Why : Though the name has the word "reasoning" in it, it's just math. Personally, I can kind of see where the test makers were trying to go with this, but math fails to do so. Essentially, we as dentists will have to take a problem and find a logical solution. Math is essentially logic but with a lot of memorization. I think a better way to do this would be in a fashion similar to the LSAT with Logic Games. However, those are ridiculously hard and take lots of practice. A tailored version of logic games would be better suited for testing our reasoning skills.

 

[moler]

http://www.ada.org/sections/educationAndCareers/pdfs/dat_validity_study.pdf

 

[Predoctalk]

Relevance to dental school:
Biology: 5 (not necessarily all of it, but you will encounter bio in dental school so it applies.)

RC: 5 (while the passages on the DAT themselves are useless, the skill is very important in dental school. )

Some schools consider TS to be most important, but from most of the admissions people I have talked to say that reading is right up there, and is the score that best correlates with success in D school.

Gen Chem: 1

Orgo: 1

Pat: 1

Qr: 1

This being said, schools obviously like a well rounded applicant,so do your best on all!

 

[Sanedor]

Pat: 1

Really? Can you elaborate on this one? I was under the impression that most schools look for a slightly higher score in this area based on the relevance.

 

[Predoctalk]

Really? Can you elaborate on this one? I was under the impression that most schools look for a slightly higher score in this area based on the relevance.

I'm not saying that schools don't place emphasis on this section for admittance, because I know there are schools that certainly think highly of it. As a dental student who sees patients clinically, I'm telling you there is no link between top front end/keyhole and looking in a mirror to do a prep. Others may disagree, but this is my experience.

In addition, there are also many schools that understand this and place little emphasis on PAT. (granted you can't get like a 14 and expect admittance because schools need some sort of cutoff)

 

[ushaseos]

AA/TS, PAT and RC get the most buzz and QR gets the least but the exact order is up to your imagination; nobody knows this stuff concretely. Just do your best. Get the highest score you can and apply is always my advice.

AA is very important because it measures your entire academic aptitude. Sciences + RC + QR. Yes QR is factored but it is 4/5 sci + RC

Sciences are probably the most important because we'll mostly learning higher concepts in these subjects in d-school.

PAT is a bit too simplistic for me to present any real world challenge. Yes we'll have to use mirriors to visualize, but angles? Its kinda BS.

RC is genuinely important because we'll have to read tons and tons and tons of stuff. Analyzing it quickly and efficiently will be very important.

QR is more a test of quickest/smartest algorithm than a true math test. If you identify the shortest path to the right answer QR is cake. If you try to brute force your way through like a math test, your score suffers. Its a clever test, but I can't see how math algorithms translate to real world problem solving.

P.S. I scored pretty well in every section so my comments aren't coming from any special hatred or love for a particular section

 

[UCLAzy]

thread relevance: 0

your opinion: -1

 

[Davermz450]

thread relevance: 0

your opinion: -1

But you still took the time to comment hahaha jokes on you

 

[colombianDDS]

DAT summer = worst summer of my life