is it true that QR score is not important?

[joonkimdds]

I am keep hearing people saying QR score is not important.
Is it because dentists don't do math except counting number of teeth?
is it because we don't take math classes in dental school?
or is it because many people do poorly on math and that's why bar was lowered?

If this is true, I want to know the original source of this information.

I am just curious~ since I am done with DAT, maybe now is time to get an interest in something I was not sure

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[razblo]

This is just my opinion but I'd say it's because most people in the real world have access to a calculator and if you don't know or can't remember a formula, like how to find the area of an octagon, then you can just look it up in a book.

I know dental schools, and I'm sure along with a lot of other pre-professional schools, preach having the student body be a group of well-rounded individuals, so taking math and being semi-decent at it is probably just a part of it.

I remember someone on SDN saying something like "having a high reading comprehension score directly correlates with doing well in dental school". Whether or not that's true is irrelevant, but maybe there's a link between doing well in math and doing well in dental school.

Edit: I remembered seeing this on the ADA website. It's a "validity study" which shows reasoning as to why giving a DAT isn't pointless. You can read it and try to make sense of it if you want

http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_validity_rpt_1_1.pdf

and

http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/dat_validity_rpt_1_2.pdf

 

[bennijai]

There is importance to it and you can't disregard a poor QR score, but in most cases as long as you don't fall below the cutoff it seems that dental schools are a bit generous with it.

 

[UCB05]

QR has a higher percentile than any other section, with RC being the lowest (based on SDN scores in July that also reported the percentiles) For example, a QR17 was 66 percentile, a RC17 was 38 percentile. One person reported RC19 (53%),QR19 (85%)on the same test. Even though schools don't "look" at the percentiles, I'm sure they are aware of where these scores fall in relation to the rest. Furthermore, the ADA must have a valid reason for keeping the QR section. After all, math is the "universal language", not RC or any of the other sections. Problem solving is a skill which requires knowledge of the principles and comprehension of the problem at hand before one can "formulate" a solution (setup an equation) and the solve it. The time restriction not only tests one's math skills, but also tests how quickly one sees "the big picture"

 

[ucla2134]

I am keep hearing people saying QR score is not important.
Is it because dentists don't do math except counting number of teeth?
is it because we don't take math classes in dental school?
or is it because many people do poorly on math and that's why bar was lowered?

If this is true, I want to know the original source of this information.

I am just curious~ since I am done with DAT, maybe now is time to get an interest in something I was not sure

i think math is important, thats why it is still in the DAT. But that section is ridiculous given only 45 minutes and the frigging erase board and markers that keep drying up on me