Difficult situation concerning DAT

[LadyxJC]

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Hello everyone~ I NEED advice. I took my DAT about 2 weeks ago and the worst thing happened~ My computer froze after an error message and therefore it had to be restarted. After restarting the computer, I was able to continue with my exam where I left off. At the end of the section, when you get to see all the answers you submitted, I saw that a number of the answers I had entered before the error message were cleared. I didn't have enough time to redo those questions, and therefore my score suffered. I already talked to the people at the Prometric center and they filed a report... and I spoke to the ADA. My options are, to retake the whole DAT or just keep the score I have now. My overall score now is 21... but my score for Quantitative Reasoning, which is the section in which some of my answers were cleared, is significantly lower. So my questions are: (1) How bad does it look when you have a much lower grade in one section of the DAT (the quantitative reasoning in my situtation) when you apply to dental schools? (2) would it be better if I took the exam over again? But a lot of people told me it works to my disadvantage if I take the exam multiple times without significant improvement and I dunno if i can get much higher than my overall now.

Thanx for reading... lol, I know it was kinda long but yeah, hopefully someone could share some words of wisdom cuz I have yet to find people who are willing to help me with this, including the people I spoke with from the ADA.... *sigh*

 

[Mo007]

Post your scores to get honest opinions.

If your AA is 21, I would keep it and move on.

 

[Biogirl361]

agreed. i would keep the 21 and not worry about it. if all your scores are solid besides QR, it in my opinion wouldn't be worth retaking.

 

[Bickle]

You will get interviews (depending on your GPA), and you may get asked why your QR is so low. Explain what happened, even get documentation from the Prometric center to confrim your case and show it to your interviewer.

 

[DDS2BE]

I had the same situation with my DAT. I wish my score was 21ish. You will do fine, unless you wanna retake that DAT again...

 

[LadyxJC]

Post your scores to get honest opinions.

If your AA is 21, I would keep it and move on.

MY AA is 21
My PAT is 21
My QR is 16...

And thanx to those who replied... ur advice is much appreciated~

 

[msf41]

My scores are similar to yours 20 AA/22 S/20 PAT. I got a 16 in QR, but I don't have any good excuses like you do. I just can't add very well. I'm not going to retake. I'm just moving on and hopefully will never have to look back at the DAT again. 👍

 

[hockeydentist]

Your scores are plenty competive, have you put in your application yet. Your overall academic avg indicates that you would do well in d-school as far as the academic portion. If you are doubting that you can't improve, why worry, your scores are great and you should be hearing very soon from schools. Now when you interview, if the interviewer ask why your math score is low, just say that you had a bad experience with the test center. That would be an interesting conversation. to say the least!

overall you should be happy, that you will be sitting in a lectuer hall next year as a D1.

take this time now to prepare for interviews and have some fun

best of luck
Hd

 

[jdcinza13]

LadyxJC,
With a 21 overall I wouldn't worry about it at all. Just back up your statement with documentation.

I do have a question for everyone though. Hypothetically speaking, if you scored well on most sections of the DAT, 18 or above on everything, but QR, how would the person fare? I ask because this is the perfect thread to ask on so I don't need to open another one. Here's my scores:

AA 18
TS 19
PAT 18
Bio 18
GC 20
OC 19
RC 19

QR 14????

Cum GPA 3.6
Sci GPA 3.5

I have never taken a trig class or physics, but will take them this semester. I also have a hard time with doing math in my head. What do you think the Adcoms will say about the 14 at the following schools?

Arizona, UOP, Case, Creighton, Univ. of Colorado and Univ. of Oklahoma....
What are the possibilities of them overlooking the QR score?

 

[Red823]

I don't know about the other schools listed but when I talked to a representative at Arizona, that person says they put more emphasis on the AA than any specific section. You could always try calling the schools you apply to and tell them your situation. Most schools will be happy to advise you on what to do.

 

[HBomb]

Here's my opinion:

Ask yourself: "Are my scores based on skill or luck?" If it was skill (like I believe your scores were), you can completely duplicate those scores and bring up you QR. If ADA is willing to let you retake immediately, why not do it? I think you'll duplicate you all your scores and bring up you QR too. So I have more questions: is the ADA willing to let you retake and scratch out your old scores? This is what I'm assuming.

Here's something to think about in terms of standardized tests. Standardized test are made to be very consistent. That is, it is designed so that a test taker (without improvement) gets the same score every time. That's the value of the standardized test...that it's consistent (though standardized test are shown to be biased, but that's a whole new story).

I do think that you'll get into D-school somewhere with the scores you already have. I just think that you will improve your chances at more competitive schools with a higher QR. I guess it also depends on your goals.

 

[Wolfpackgrl]

Has anyone noticed a problem with the PAT section on the DAT recently? I took it about 4 weeks ago and there a figure drawn wrong on the Cube section of the PAT. Has anyone else run into a problem like this?

 

[gatorfan99]

LadyxJC,
With a 21 overall I wouldn't worry about it at all. Just back up your statement with documentation.

I do have a question for everyone though. Hypothetically speaking, if you scored well on most sections of the DAT, 18 or above on everything, but QR, how would the person fare? I ask because this is the perfect thread to ask on so I don't need to open another one. Here's my scores:

AA 18
TS 19
PAT 18
Bio 18
GC 20
OC 19
RC 19

QR 14????

Cum GPA 3.6
Sci GPA 3.5

I have never taken a trig class or physics, but will take them this semester. I also have a hard time with doing math in my head. What do you think the Adcoms will say about the 14 at the following schools?

Arizona, UOP, Case, Creighton, Univ. of Colorado and Univ. of Oklahoma....
What are the possibilities of them overlooking the QR score?

Those are great scores!! And a great GPA! I wouldn't worry about re-taking it..

You never took a trig class??? You should definately have a minimal math base before D-school (heck, before anything you do in life). If you still have a semester left or so in undergrad, take the easy physics 1 and pre-calc, its going to be a pain, but worth it! Take it from the guy who was "forced" to take Calc 1,2 and 3 and beyond!

 

[LadyxJC]

Here's my opinion:

Ask yourself: "Are my scores based on skill or luck?" If it was skill (like I believe your scores were), you can completely duplicate those scores and bring up you QR. If ADA is willing to let you retake immediately, why not do it? I think you'll duplicate you all your scores and bring up you QR too. So I have more questions: is the ADA willing to let you retake and scratch out your old scores? This is what I'm assuming.

I'd like to believe that my scores are based on skill... but I'm still afraid of getting lower scores because I did better on the science sections than I expected(two 25's and a 20), which is probably why my AA could have been a 21, even with my 16 in QR.

Also, the ADA is NOT willing to scratch off the first scores. All that they're willing to do for me is to let me take the whole exam again for free. Also, the schools I apply to won't have any knowledge of the computer problems which led to my scores~ How fair is that? argh~

Oh and I should also probably say that I want to stay in the city (NYC), or close by... so I'm realli hoping to get into Columbia or NYU... or Stony... what are my chances?

 

[HBomb]

Call these NYC schools and see what they say. A 16 QR is not that bad, just a bit below average. These schools are probably going to tell you not to retake. I just personally hate the idea of a 16 (or at least a score I feel cheated on), so I think it's just my personal bias talkin. Definitely see what these schools say before you do anything.

 

[grandpa]

Hello everyone~ I NEED advice. I took my DAT about 2 weeks ago and the worst thing happened~ My computer froze after an error message and therefore it had to be restarted. After restarting the computer, I was able to continue with my exam where I left off. At the end of the section, when you get to see all the answers you submitted, I saw that a number of the answers I had entered before the error message were cleared. I didn't have enough time to redo those questions, and therefore my score suffered. I already talked to the people at the Prometric center and they filed a report... and I spoke to the ADA. My options are, to retake the whole DAT or just keep the score I have now. My overall score now is 21... but my score for Quantitative Reasoning, which is the section in which some of my answers were cleared, is significantly lower. So my questions are: (1) How bad does it look when you have a much lower grade in one section of the DAT (the quantitative reasoning in my situtation) when you apply to dental schools? (2) would it be better if I took the exam over again? But a lot of people told me it works to my disadvantage if I take the exam multiple times without significant improvement and I dunno if i can get much higher than my overall now.

Thanx for reading... lol, I know it was kinda long but yeah, hopefully someone could share some words of wisdom cuz I have yet to find people who are willing to help me with this, including the people I spoke with from the ADA.... *sigh*

I just read your predicament and would like to commiserate. I had the bright idea of marking all the QR questions before completion (as you are not penalized for guessing). When I got to the last question, I hit next and kicked myself out of the test. The next few minutes were a bit tense but I managed to figure out that I could click on a question and get back in - so I thought. Having fixed the problem, I continued to complete the section. When I finished and obtained my score I was horrified to find: Reading 21, Org 20, Gen 19, Bio 18, Pat 17 and QR 14 - Ugh! This stung a bit as I have a BS in Chem/Math 3.1, an MS in chemistry 3.5, an MBA 3.4 and years of work experience in R&D and QA/QC. I immediately renewed my subscription to TopScore (directly from the company to get the full 9 months), bought Schaum's outlines for all the sections and found a wonderful book entitled "Beyond Problem Solving and Comprehension: An Exploration of Quantitative Reasoning" by Arthur Whimbey and Jack Lochhead (it's written with the MCAT and DAT in mind). I have been preparing to retake darn thing for the past couple of months.

Fortunately, I received an invitation to interview at Baylor on September 3rd! It seems that the low score in QR may not stop me. I will ask their council on retaking the test. If I get invitations from the other two Texas schools, I may not worry about taking the test again. I have spoken to a few dental students and it seems the QR is not used very much in the curriculum.

They should put a few more fail-safes in the software or work out the bugs! I feel I would have scored 25% higher, if I could take it on paper. IT is not all it's cracked up to be. 😳

 

[onetoothleft]

Has anyone noticed a problem with the PAT section on the DAT recently? I took it about 4 weeks ago and there a figure drawn wrong on the Cube section of the PAT. Has anyone else run into a problem like this?

YES!!!

I took it June 2. That was on my test and my score was a lot lower than I was hoping 🙁

there was a cube drawing that had a row of cubes lined up below where they were allowed to be according to the rules, so that the rest of the cubes were floating! I was so upset, I was not sure if I should count the bottoms of the floating cubes or pretend that they were grounded. It affected like 4 questions.

I hope that it was one of those "practice" questions that they do that were nonscoring (for use on future tests).

oh well . . . I should not complain--I still did pretty well, but it would have been more fun to get a higher score.

 

[msf41]

I had a strange PAT block question that had a figure that appeared to have a triangle block in it. I think this question broke a rule somewhere?? The blocks in the front lined up perfectly with the blocks in the back. Very sneaky I thought.