Is the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations (ADA) so incompetent?

[dilchahtahai]

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hi,
I was horrified when I heard the story of one of my friends regarding score reports by the Joint Commission. 😕

My friend ordered extra score reports to be sent out to Universities and also ordered some extra copies at home in case there was a need to apply to more colleges. After a month, my friend received his score reports in the mail. And for some odd reason he decided to check his score report ordered. To his utter dismay, he found out that the score report ADA had sent out was not his but someone who shared his name !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Agreed amongst Indians you may come across many names common like a Parth Patel or Neha Shah. But that simply does not justify this incompetency does it? My friend had clearly stated his exam appearing date and his address in the extra score report form.Tracking the score cant be that tough can it? The score report that was sent out was from 2002 and the namesake had also given the part 2 exam in 2004 while my friend has not appeared for Part 2 exam. . No offence to the namesake but the scores were in the high 70's and virtually killing any chances for my friend.

When contacting the ADA over the phone, there was not even an apology forthcoming and they just said the right score reports will be sent out the next day and the phone was hung up. My friend has been pretty disillusioned by all this. What now about the deadlines missed for colleges due to ADA incompetency? Some colleges have raised their hands saying they cant do anything about it and you cant really blame them with the interviews and stuff being sent out already.

I just hope that this mistake has not been repeated by ADA for any of the other applicants. Many of us don't order extra copies at home and if such a mistake has occured with any of us we will never know. With us entering marks in places like CAAPID and such wrong reports being sent out, we maybe projected as liars in front of the university.

I do not want to scare any of you and I sincerely apologize if this has been the case after reading this. I thought I needed to share the plight of my friend with you people. Hope you understand.

I wish you all people luck with your admissions and interviews.

 

[poumpy]

I beleive that when we do everything on TIME, there won't be such problems. Mistakes happen and you can not expect ADA or a School to cancel someone else invitation just because of that. Don't forget you can be this someone else 😉
And it is not the Joint commission "incompetent", in case there is a mistake there is a employee befind every paper sent from there.

 

[BombayBDS]

with the kind of money and power the ADA has, its unfortunate that they make such mistakes. they can easily make everything computerised and make scores available online to universities.

 

[dilchahtahai]

I beleive that when we do everything on TIME, there won't be such problems. Mistakes happen and you can not expect ADA or a School to cancel someone else invitation just because of that. Don't forget you can be this someone else 😉
And it is not the Joint commission "incompetent", in case there is a mistake there is a employee befind every paper sent from there.

Very well but have you considered the fact that this mistake came to light just because there was an extra score report ordered at home and it was actually checked by my friend? You say one could have applied in advance. Very well. I believe if you are applying so much in(say 6 months) advance you never will order extra copies at home since you have so much time on hand. How would you possibly recognize this mistake then and correct it with 6 months in hand? There is no way. Colleges will tell you they received the score report. They don't say we got your score report with x marks written on it.
And if you read my post carefully I have accepted the fact that nothing can be done since interviews have already been sent out.
And when i said the Joint Commission, I obviously meant its employees. Isnt it a fact that the Joint Commission functions because of its employees?

 

[poumpy]

Very well but have you considered the fact that this mistake came to light just because there was an extra score report ordered at home and it was actually checked by my friend? You say one could have applied in advance. Very well. I believe if you are applying so much in(say 6 months) advance you never will order extra copies at home since you have so much time on hand. How would you possibly recognize this mistake then and correct it with 6 months in hand? There is no way. Colleges will tell you they received the score report. They don't say we got your score report with x marks written on it.
And if you read my post carefully I have accepted the fact that nothing can be done since interviews have already been sent out.
And when i said the Joint Commission, I obviously meant its employees. Isnt it a fact that the Joint Commission functions because of its employees?

I don't want to argue with you, as I applied to only one school with a notarised copy of my own results report. I remember on my application there was a place to fill up all our boards attempts and grades received. This gives a chance to the school to find out the discrepancy in your application. I also have stated my results in my resume - another chance to show it.
And I understand that after your post people can be more awared about the application process and forwarding documents, which is good 😉
Good luck ot your friend.

 

[dilchahtahai]

fair enough mate.... my intention of the post was to help fellow members just realize this fact...thats that....
Even I accept that nothing can be done now and its hard luck........

 

[make you smile]

I have not come to the stage of applying to colleges but couldn't help wondering as to why your friend didnot mention the reference number that is given to each candidate who takes the exam.Afterall it is this number that is unique to every candidate.Mentioning name ,address and test date is a good thing but he could have avoided all this trouble by adding the reference number too.

This is not to say I support the callous attitude of the JCNDE but it is your friend who lost out on a few colleges.The JCNDE has not lost anything,right?

 

[rose82]

When we order reports online, we have to fill up the form which has space only for your name and address. By mail,the form has space for name and test date.there is no way we can indicate our reference number.

 

[BombayBDS]

its been some time since i ordered official scores but I do recollect putting down my reference number somewhere (on the form?).
I also put it on the back of my cashiers cheque for safe measure.

 

[dilchahtahai]

I understand what you say 'make you smile' but there are certain scenarios where things don't work ideally.

Firstly,as 'rose82' mentioned. there is no place on the form to enter your reference number. Now if it helped JCNDE work better, don't you think they should have space on the form to enter the number?

second, say we squeeze in the reference number somehow on the form to help them and ourselves, now this works in a scenario where you have plenty of time on hand.
Consider this - after you gave your exam, there is a month and a half to go for a college application deadline. You wait approx 3 weeks to get your score report. Then you order the score report with the reference number (that comes on your score report) which takes around 4 weeks for processing and sending it out. So ultimately materials dont reach the college on time and you lose out on the application.
Second scenario is where if you are confident of getting a decent score, you order score reports before you actually get your result (which means you dont have a reference number) so that the scores reach the universities approximately the same time as you get your result. This enables you to apply to the college doesnt it?
Now would you rather wait and lose out on an opportunity to apply to coll so that things go smooth and wait for next yr to get into that coll?, or would you take a chance and order score reports beforehand if you are confident of getting a decent score?

Such scenarios have been observed by my friend and me and people have got into great colleges this way. Its all great to say you should apply well in advance and stuff. But with families to handle, studying MPH/MHA and stuff etc there will be scenarios in everyone's life where an early application might not be possible due to a late NBDE exam. But you would still want to try and get in for next year isnt it? that may mean your application reaches dot on the deadline. But you would want to take a chance.

 

[vibhakar]

I totally agree with dil chahta hai.
The same incident happened with me.
I ordered my NBDE score long back, but joint commision sent some other person( with same name, ) score instead of mine. I already missed one denta school deadline because of their negligence and found out recently that, my application includes score report of some other person.
I talked with ADA people. They ere very rude. I dont know wat to do.
and to mention, we dont put reference no. on score report form or on appication

 

[dilchahtahai]

I totally agree with dil chahta hai.
The same incident happened with me.
I ordered my NBDE score long back, but joint commision sent some other person( with same name, ) score instead of mine. I already missed one denta school deadline because of their negligence and found out recently that, my application includes score report of some other person.
I talked with ADA people. They ere very rude. I dont know wat to do.
and to mention, we dont put reference no. on score report form or on appication

Sorry to hear that Vibhakar. We can only imagine how it must feel to lose out this way.....

But dont lose heart...maybe there is something better in store for you. All the best with your applications and I sincerely hope ADA has sorted out your mess.

 

[Guru bhai]

You should always put reference no# for any official documents let it be any additional score report request or even application. I'm sure there should not be no problem that way cuz first name or/& last name might be the same but REFERENCE NO. is always peculiar for everybody. I agree there's no separate space for reference no# but JOINT COMISSION clearly states on the request form to mention it on the top of the form.

Hope it helps to avoid such mess up.
Good luck, everybody! 🙂

I totally agree with dil chahta hai.
The same incident happened with me.
I ordered my NBDE score long back, but joint commision sent some other person( with same name, ) score instead of mine. I already missed one denta school deadline because of their negligence and found out recently that, my application includes score report of some other person.
I talked with ADA people. They ere very rude. I dont know wat to do.
and to mention, we dont put reference no. on score report form or on appication

 

[vibhakar]

Will dental schools be able to distinguish our scores. There is no reference no on my application. wat if they put other person score with my application. My application states my score...i dont know, how will they able to distinguish

 

[dilchahtahai]

Will dental schools be able to distinguish our scores. There is no reference no on my application. wat if they put other person score with my application. My application states my score...i dont know, how will they able to distinguish

I guess all you can do is email all the dental schools that you have applied to and let them know the mistake committed by ADA....I guess after talking with ADA, they will be sending out the corrected score reports to all the places.
So in the email to dental schools state your reference no. of score report so that they can match the correct score report to your profile. Hope this works.