Is DAT different??

[Dr. Guitar]

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With all the talk about harder DAT and different DAT's is there really a "new" DAT? Can anyone verify this?
Thanks,
Dr. Gutiar

 

[DailyDrivenTJ]

No one would have THE answer to your question unless he/she was involved in making DAT.

However the feedbacks from recent repeating test takers seem to indicate the difficulty of the test is changing.

 

[jdmsamurai]

over the long run the difficulty of everything is always getting harder as more info is crammed into sciences....like becomeing a doctor 10 years ago would be easier then becoming a doctor today....

 

[blue_moon01]

I know for a fact that the DAT is always changing.
The DAT have a set of basic science questions that they expect future dentists to have learned and also included are some "demo questions" Basically they are new questions that the DAT makers introduce. THey don't expect most people to get it right but they put it out there to test the water and to make sure that the test remain relatively equal in term of difficulty throughout the years. THe frequency of questions answered correctly and incorrectly are monitored as well. In due time, some obvious questions will be weed out and replaced by "demo questions". This is necessary to maintain quality control because the test scores are scaled.


So yes.. the DAT change. But it changes all the time ever since its conception. But our resources to prepare for it has also changed. Based on the increase in scores over the year.. I don't think the DAT makers are being unfair to us 2006/2007 takers. THey expect us to know more and we should darn well know more cause everything is at our finger tips.

so uh yea.. the DAT is kinda new in the sense that there are always new questions added

 

[danbarr]

I guess the DAT has to add new questions or change existing ones. But the questions have to be based on the guidelines specified by the ADA on their web site (2007), they just can't add up new topics without letting everyone else know. I think the problem is that so many students are relying heavily on these so called "must have dat prep materials" ( I'm not going to name them, i'm sure you guys are very familiar), I mean, sure they help with timing and there is nothing wrong with a little extra prep, but if you going to use them make sure you understand the material rather than memorizing prep tests. The other day a student claimed there were new questions on histology? I haven't seen that on the DAT webpage outline, if this is true the ADA should of added the topic of histology in it's outline. Another student complained on a post because there were so many math word problems in the QR section of DAT. If you go the webpage it clearly states 10 questions will be some kind of math word problems plus an extra 4 questions on permutations/problabilities and all that good stuff. total of about 14 word questions you might get. So this is something the ADA is telling you ahead of time for a reason , so you can prepare. Just my opinion, i hope it did't bore you guys............ha ha ha 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

 

[washingtonDAT]

I've recently taken the DAT and I can say with confidence that it's not that much different. The PAT is harder but other than that it seemed the same to me.

 

[DailyDrivenTJ]

I've recently taken the DAT and I can say with confidence that it's not that much different. The PAT is harder but other than that it seemed the same to me.

I thought PAT was way easier than any other diagnostics that I have taken. Even though I only have taken the real thing once, but I finished the whole PAT section under 45 minutes and thought I skipped a whole section and was panicing. I went back and relooked at it but I really did finished the whole thing. I went for break for 20 minutes and came back to take the RC. Nothing to brag about but I ended up getting 23 on the PAT, 99 percentile.

 

[ddstobe]

washingtonDAT & DailyDrivenTJ: Have you guys seen those famous questions that people discussed the most last summer?

 

[DailyDrivenTJ]

What was that question? I didn't know this forum existed until a few weeks ago. 🙂 What a great site!

 

[washingtonDAT]

DailyDrivenTJ congrats on your PAT, thats an amazing score! But dude your not the norm, and I hope people don't read your post and think the PAT will be a cakewalk.

 

[DailyDrivenTJ]

DailyDrivenTJ congrats on your PAT, thats an amazing score! But dude your not the norm, and I hope people don’t read your post and think the PAT will be a cakewalk.

Thanks. I guess I am not the norm. I apologize first, if I mislead anyone. You are better off preparing for the worst when it comes down to DAT.