DAT score shifts

[WheatLom]

So I've read hundreds of times the DAT average scores are getting higher and people are getting 20+ more and more and I believed it for a while. I now have a hunch this just can't be true. The reason I say this is while people can and do get really high scores. The test is scaled and percentile based.

If a "20+" is getting more common, they would just scale it back to a 19 or 18 and maintain the distribution. Therefore a 20 really is an indication that people are getting a high score against the general population.


Any thoughts on this. I could be mistaken, but why not discuss this as it seems relevant.

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[WheatLom]

Bump. Just seeing if anyone had any thoughts on this.

 

[Bingwen]

My one thought is that the average DAT score is climbing, as reported by schools that I have looked at, as is the minimum for some schools. I would take this too mean that, if you assume that the number of students applying each year isn't drastically changing, that the scores must be increasing. The DAT book does say that, "a scale score of 18 typically signifies average performance on a national basis."

My other thought is that you are getting more scores in the 20+ and more scores in the 18-. This would keep the average at 18 but increase the pool toward the top.

 

[WheatLom]

My one thought is that the average DAT score is climbing, as reported by schools that I have looked at, as is the minimum for some schools. I would take this too mean that, if you assume that the number of students applying each year isn't drastically changing, that the scores must be increasing. The DAT book does say that, "a scale score of 18 typically signifies average performance on a national basis."

My other thought is that you are getting more scores in the 20+ and more scores in the 18-. This would keep the average at 18 but increase the pool toward the top.

Ah I see so we might see a double peak in the scores, but the median still is 18.
That would make sense. Because, I was thinking that there is no way a 20+ is getting easier. It would just renorm to the 18 if so many got those scores.

Plus there is the SDN population. Most of us score pretty high. Honestly, I owe SDN for helping me achiece a great score.
I know some are actually deterred from being on here cause they feel they aren't as competitive as us when it comes to scores. So we are not seeing the other people what are sub 18.

I wonder if a total renorm of the test will eventually occur and getting 20+ actually becomes a lot harder (single peak in the data)

 

[Bingwen]

Ah I see so we might see a double peak in the scores, but the median still is 18.
That would make sense. Because, I was thinking that there is no way a 20+ is getting easier. It would just renorm to the 18 if so many got those scores.

Plus there is the SDN population. Most of us score pretty high. Honestly, I owe SDN for helping me achiece a great score.
I know some are actually deterred from being on here cause they feel they aren't as competitive as us when it comes to scores. So we are not seeing the other people what are sub 18.

I wonder if a total renorm of the test will eventually occur and getting 20+ actually becomes a lot harder (single peak in the data)

Yeah, it is definitely a little intimidating when you first look at the scores that some people achieve here but if I remember right there were 60k+ applications last year. This also included people who applied more than once, but if you figure that means there were probably close to 10k applicants. This helps to put it into perspective a little bit that some of these people are definitely in the top 1% of applicants.

 

[WheatLom]

Yeah, it is definitely a little intimidating when you first look at the scores that some people achieve here but if I remember right there were 60k+ applications last year. This also included people who applied more than once, but if you figure that means there were probably close to 10k applicants. This helps to put it into perspective a little bit that some of these people are definitely in the top 1% of applicants.

60k? I think there about 12-16k applications each cycle. This is from the ADA guide.

Did I misread you?

 

[Bingwen]

According to ADA that is the number of applications reviewed by the schools. That isn't unique applicants though and so that is where the 12-16k unique applicants comes in. I know that there aren't that many people posting inhuman DAT scores here. And I am very thankful for that

 

[WheatLom]

According to ADA that is the number of applications reviewed by the schools. That isn't unique applicants though and so that is where the 12-16k unique applicants comes in. I know that there aren't that many people posting inhuman DAT scores here. And I am very thankful for that

Oh ok, that makes sense.

 

[Charles_Darwin]

aren't the DAT scores percentile based? So if everyone did better, the percentiles wouldn't be affected? correct me if I'm wrong