How is this fair? Look! Another DAT discrepancy

[dent2009]

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So i've been going through some DAT scores on this website and found something that I found was rather puzzling and unfair.

Student A - Bio/G chem/O chem score of 17/26/24 (total 67) = TS 20
Student B - Bio/G chem/O chem score of 19/23/19 (total 61) = TS 20

The catch is.... In person A's case his science scores added up to 67 whereas person B's total came to be 61 meaning in the end although their TS is the same, person A's Academic Average will be 1.2 points higher. How is this fair? To me it doesn't make any sense. It's as though student B got jipped of one point, at most 2 points (ie say B's AA came out to be 19.4 but was rounded down to 19. If he wasn't "jipped" the 1.2 points, then his AA could've possibly been 20.6 rounding up to 21. BIG Difference!). What do you guys think?

Another example:

Student A - Bio/G chem/O chem score of 21/27/27 (total 75) = TS 24
Student B - Bio/G chem/O chem score of 22/25/24 (total 71) = TS 24

Student B gets jipped 0.8 points (basically 1 point) on his AA score. So as you can see this occurs on various TS scores.

 

[Streetwolf]

This isn't a discrepancy as you put it and people here know about it.

TS is a scaled score based on the 100 science questions regardless of subject. If you get 80 questions out of 100 right you'll get a certain score (let's say an 18 for the sake of argument), regardless of how it was achieved. So someone with 40/40 bio, 30/30 gen chem, and 10/30 orgo would get the same TS as someone with 32/40 bio, 24/30 gen chem, and 24/30 orgo.

The AA is based off of the individual science sections to give a more accurate overall score.

 

[futuredent22]

Hmm keep in mind that your way of analyzing it treats all 3 science sections equally, when I think the TS is just based on how many science Q's you got right out of 100, so Bio has more influence.

But regardless of that, I do agree that the fairness of the test, like a lot of tests, is somewhat suspicious. But what can you do? I try to keep on studying and not think about any of that.

 

[IDoWhatIWant]

Hmm keep in mind that your way of analyzing it treats all 3 science sections equally, when I think the TS is just based on how many science Q's you got right out of 100, so Bio has more influence.

But regardless of that, I do agree that the fairness of the test, like a lot of tests, is somewhat suspicious. But what can you do? I try to keep on studying and not think about any of that.

To some extent, I agree with the first paragraph. But that's why their scoring method is adjusted. Just getting 1 wrong for GChem can land you around a 25. Getting it all correct can get you a 28. Bio and Ochem have different score adjustments although I must say.. they are pretty rough on Bio.

 

[dent2009]

You guys are definitely missing my point. When calculating the AA, obviously those 5 sections weigh equally unlike in TS where Bio is most heavily weighed. Look at the #s carefully and analyze. With the same TS of 24 (meaning they both got the same total #s of science questions right) how is Student A rewarded more points from the science section when it comes to calculating AA? They both got the same # of question right but Student A was "rewarded" 4 more points when adding the 5 scores together used to calculate AA. I can't seem to explain this as well as I want so maybe someone who understands what i'm trying to say can be more clear about it.

A B
Bio 21 22
GC 27 25
OC 27 24
RC 19 19
QR 16 20
PAT 20 20
TS 24 24
AA 22 22

 

[Streetwolf]

They didn't necessarily get the same # of questions right. A lot of the middle range scores have more than 1 raw score per scaled score. For example a scaled score of 20 might correspond to a raw score of 84-86 correct out of 100.

 

[dent2009]

They didn't necessarily get the same # of questions right. A lot of the middle range scores have more than 1 raw score per scaled score. For example a scaled score of 20 might correspond to a raw score of 84-86 correct out of 100.

Hmm... I guess you're right when it comes to a score of 20 but in the higher ranges of TS 23, 24 and up this corresponds to an exact number of incorrect questions hence more than likely student A and B had the same # correct.

 

[americanpierg]

Hmm... I guess you're right when it comes to a score of 20 but in the higher ranges of TS 23, 24 and up this corresponds to an exact number of incorrect questions hence more than likely student A and B had the same # correct.

YES, but OBVIOUSLY you're not even reading other people's posts. Okay we see that you understnand TS is the total # wrong, and AA is average of all three parts, BUT if you would just READ what other people have already said, each section is calculated independent of each other. 1 wrong in OC can mean the difference between a 26 and a 23, but this may correspond to the same as 4 wrong meaning the difference between a 17 and a 19 in bio.

So A gets 4 MORE bio wrong, 1 more OC correct, and 3 more GC correct. Both A and B therefore got the same correct, but because of how the grading is scaled when you get above 22, B gets a higher AA.

 

[DrReo]

It just shows that the difference between a 25 and a 26 isn't that much. It's only a question or two. What's the big deal?

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Anything over a 21 or 22 in each section, who cares. If you have a 22+ on DAT, calm down.

 

[doc3232]

I think it is fair.