Explain Something To Me About Cheating....

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Let me preface by saying that I'm not a cheater. I don't cheat on exams and I don't ever plan to. I understand that the issue is somewhat taboo but I am just curious about one topic that has bugged me for a while.

What I wanted to ask in this thread was how cheating is prevented on the DAT. On the MCAT, the exam is administered on one day every couple months. Unlike the MCAT, the DAT can be administered on any (normal) day. How is cheating prevented if one person takes the exam on Monday and his friend takes it on Wednesday? Do they have multiple versions floating around?

 

[jonishere5]

Let me preface by saying that I'm not a cheater. I don't cheat on exams and I don't ever plan to. I understand that the issue is somewhat taboo but I am just curious about one topic that has bugged me for a while.

What I wanted to ask in this thread was how cheating is prevented on the DAT. On the MCAT, the exam is administered on one day every couple months. Unlike the MCAT, the DAT can be administered on any (normal) day. How is cheating prevented if one person takes the exam on Monday and his friend takes it on Wednesday? Do they have multiple versions floating around?

They have a video camera watching you, and a prometrix employee walks by you randomly about every 10minutes. I really don't see a possibility that you could cheat on the test, they also have multiple versions of the test and the test versions are used only for a certain amount of time.

 

[ajhalls3]

It's pretty easy to cheat, just go through all the Kaplan, Princeton, ADA, CDP, Topscore... material. Almost every question is there, memorize them and you are ready for any version of the exam they give you.

 

[Kahr]

It's pretty easy to cheat, just go through all the Kaplan, Princeton, ADA, CDP, Topscore... material. Almost every question is there, memorize them and you are ready for any version of the exam they give you.

I've always heard this is the case, that they have mock applicants take the test repeatedly and make a catalogue of questions from exams, slightly re-written. I never knew if it was actually true though... Alan, since your videos are essentially a tailored course for the DAT sections, how did you guys (you and Chad I assume are the team) decide what to put in and not put in them? Or is that a secret? 😉

 

[Veloce]

There are some questions from destroyer etc that I swear were word for word on the DAT.

 

[ajhalls3]

I've always heard this is the case, that they have mock applicants take the test repeatedly and make a catalogue of questions from exams, slightly re-written. I never knew if it was actually true though... Alan, since your videos are essentially a tailored course for the DAT sections, how did you guys (you and Chad I assume are the team) decide what to put in and not put in them? Or is that a secret? 😉

Chad writes all his own questions as it relates to his video lectures. He has seen all the other practice material which is how he knows to tailor the material but the questions are all his as are the solutions. He hasn't ever taken the DAT and can't due to professional conflict 🙂

 

[jeffity]

That professional conflict thing is interesting. Can you imagine how fast he could blaze through chemistries on there?

I didn't see one question that looked like it was right out of Destroyer. I hear it all the time. But I had a wacky set of questions or something.

 

[ajhalls3]

The conflict is that he is writing prep questions, if he took the test, it could be construed that he is behaving unethically which is something he would never do. If he decided to abandon tutoring he could surely ace the exam and get into a school of his choice, it just isn't what he wants out of life, he would rather help others reach those goals.

 

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[Deleted]

 

[ajhalls3]

I think the op is asking more so what stops a friend from taking the exam one day, telling his buddy specific questions, then his buddy takes it the next day. Are there multiple versions of the dat out at once?

Yes, several. Even two people taking it on the same day, same check in time will likely have different versions. If it weren't the case people would be saying things like "Don't take the test this week, it has the piano passage" type of things.

 

[jeffity]

I explain it to people as a huge pool of questions and you randomly get what you get when it pops up in front of you. Like it's dynamically created on the spot. Whether any of that is true or not, I don't know.

 

[dentalWorks]

Let me preface by saying that I'm not a cheater. I don't cheat on exams and I don't ever plan to. I understand that the issue is somewhat taboo but I am just curious about one topic that has bugged me for a while.

What I wanted to ask in this thread was how cheating is prevented on the DAT. On the MCAT, the exam is administered on one day every couple months. Unlike the MCAT, the DAT can be administered on any (normal) day. How is cheating prevented if one person takes the exam on Monday and his friend takes it on Wednesday? Do they have multiple versions floating around?

Yes. Sometime after I took the DAT, I called up ADEA and the guy who picked up was VERY knowledable about how the DAT exam versions are grades, how the curve is applied, how many "hard" questions each version gets etc etc etc.

Basically, there are about 50+ versions of the DAT, which one you'll get is completely random. And some versions have overlapping questions (even overlapping reading passages).

But, because there are SOOO many versions going around, its almost impossible to get a feel for the questions, unless of course, you got about 200+ kids all taking the DAT in the same weak and all of them having a gifted photographic memory, cheating is just not going to happen.

 

[americanpierg]

Basically, there are about 50+ versions of the DAT, which one you'll get is completely random. And some versions have overlapping questions (even overlapping reading passages).

There are not 50+ versions lol. There are more like only 5-10 different versions at any one time. I remember going through SDN a couple years ago after taking my exam, and I could find like 10 different people who took the exact same version as mine by looking at their breakdown of their RC section on what passages they had and the percentage breakdowns. You can also find who has the exact same version of yours by looking at the percentages. No one on this site discusses specific DAT questions nor should they (rightfully so) so theres no way to tell by that way, but I guarantee you if you find a breakdown where someone tells what the topic of their reading passages are and its the same ones as yours, then they took the same exam as you. You can also go through the breakdowns people are giving right now and I bet you there will be a couple that took the exact same exams (just compare their RC topics and percentages if they have any identical scores).

 

[dentalWorks]

There are not 50+ versions lol. There are more like only 5-10 different versions at any one time. I remember going through SDN a couple years ago after taking my exam, and I could find like 10 different people who took the exact same version as mine by looking at their breakdown of their RC section on what passages they had and the percentage breakdowns. You can also find who has the exact same version of yours by looking at the percentages. No one on this site discusses specific DAT questions nor should they (rightfully so) so theres no way to tell by that way, but I guarantee you if you find a breakdown where someone tells what the topic of their reading passages are and its the same ones as yours, then they took the same exam as you. You can also go through the breakdowns people are giving right now and I bet you there will be a couple that took the exact same exams (just compare their RC topics and percentages if they have any identical scores).

you think there is only 5-10 active exam versions going on through out the year? that is not correct at all. Its way more than that

 

[Kahr]

you think there is only 5-10 active exam versions going on through out the year? that is not correct at all. Its way more than that

Isn't this all just speculation? I'd think the smartest way for them to design it, is to have no "version" at all, but to have a bank that randomly compiles each test every time.

 

[dentalWorks]

Isn't this all just speculation? I'd think the smartest way for them to design it, is to have no "version" at all, but to have a bank that randomly compiles each test every time.

that would make the most sense HOWEVER.... it doesn't work that way because sometimes people land the SAME version (You can tell this by looking at the composite scores and their percentiles).

The reason why I am highly against this notion that there are only 5-10 version floating around is because.... well that means you'll have a high-enough chance of re-landing the same version 90-days after your initial take.

 

[MobiusStrip]

Ten different full length exams is realistic but 50 different versions would be over 14000 questions. I would imagine that they probably have five or so versions which are rotated out every 90 days for five new, completely rewritten exams. Who am I to say, your guess is really as good as mine.

 

[americanpierg]

that would make the most sense HOWEVER.... it doesn't work that way because sometimes people land the SAME version (You can tell this by looking at the composite scores and their percentiles).

The reason why I am highly against this notion that there are only 5-10 version floating around is because.... well that means you'll have a high-enough chance of re-landing the same version 90-days after your initial take.

which does happen... probably more than we think. its impossible to know how many versions there are, but i do kno that there are few enough exam versions that they even have to have that 90 day wait policy in the first place to hope that a new version (or previous version from previous cycle... seems a couple versions of the piano keeps resurfacing) is released to decrease the chance of getting the same version

 

[violetuu]

It's pretty easy to cheat, just go through all the Kaplan, Princeton, ADA, CDP, Topscore... material. Almost every question is there, memorize them and you are ready for any version of the exam they give you.

This is called hard working not cheating!

 

[ajhalls3]

This is called hard working not cheating!

The questions and answers are all given to you for the most part, there isn't a new "trick" question that wasn't in any of those prep materials.

Instead of wondering how many different versions of the test there are, the better question is how large the question pool is. Between all the different prep materials there are probably around 10,000 - 15,000 questions. Most of them are, or have been questions on the actual DAT. There could be infinite variations, but in reality they choose out a few hundred questions that may be displayed in any order.

So in order to "cheat" you would have to either know all the questions (which is possible to some extent) or know version of test you were going to get and only know the info for that test (which isn't possible).

Study hard and do well