MCAT, DAT, OAT and GRE Score Comparison

BU Medical Sciences
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I haven't but i've read somewhere that OAT is the easiest test of them all, Gre is 2nd easiest on this, Pcat is 3rd easiest, Dat is the 4th easiest, and the 5th and hardest is the Mcat.

Apparently the Mcat is the queen of all pre-prefessional tests.
 
serenade said:
I haven't but i've read somewhere that OAT is the easiest test of them all, Gre is 2nd easiest on this, Pcat is 3rd easiest, Dat is the 4th easiest, and the 5th and hardest is the Mcat.

Apparently the Mcat is the queen of all pre-prefessional tests.
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I was hoping for actual scores i.e. a 21 DAT and a 28 MCAT.
 
1310 on the GRE, 33 on the MCAT

the funniest part is that I got a 6 on the GRE written portion (as high as it gets) and an O on MCAT written. I either suck at writing or I'm pretty darn good, I'm not sure which.
 
Is LSAT as tough as any of the pre-health tests? I never really looked into this. But it seems that law schools place an extraordinary amount of weight on the LSAT, during admissions into law school, so in terms of pressure to do well, is it possible that the LSAT places the most pressure on the student?
 
UST2010 said:
Is LSAT as tough as any of the pre-health tests? I never really looked into this. But it seems that law schools place an extraordinary amount of weight on the LSAT, during admissions into law school, so in terms of pressure to do well, is it possible that the LSAT places the most pressure on the student?
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from what I've seen it's largely logic games. it places more emphasis on being able to follow a train of thought and logic through things. depending on your skills, it can be quite difficult
 
What are all these tests out of? Gre is out of 1800 right?
 
I want to take LSAT, sounds like lots of logica problems, which I enjoy. Maybe I'll take a practice test and see how I do.
 
GRE-MCAT correlation is r=~0.4-0.55 (depending on subtest). There's a correlation but it's only slightly predictive. As for percentiles... the populations taking the tests are different but probably comparable. (Contrary to popular belief, pre-medical students are not the most intelligent of all college students.) According to this site, that award goes to interdisciplinary students (114 IQ) and then to physical science students (111 IQ). Bio majors are right alongside humanities at ~108 IQ and health science is about 101... (I do realize, btw, that that site is referring to students' intended majors. I couldn't find anything in my 30 second google search pertaining to college students, although there is always the chart showing docs are at the top of the IQ pool.... so once you get in, you're "elite.")
 
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UST2010 said:
Is LSAT as tough as any of the pre-health tests? I never really looked into this. But it seems that law schools place an extraordinary amount of weight on the LSAT, during admissions into law school, so in terms of pressure to do well, is it possible that the LSAT places the most pressure on the student?
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LSAT is "easier" than MCAT in my experience because there is no content knowledge necessary, you could take it cold and rock it with enough critical thinking/reading skills. It's like if the whole MCAT were VR. Comparable difficulty level to the VR imo. Except those weird logic puzzles which are no fun to me but doable. GRE is like LSAT + algebra/trig. I got comparable percentile scores on all 3.
 
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apumic said:
GRE-MCAT correlation is r=~0.4-0.55 (depending on subtest). There's a correlation but it's only slightly predictive. As for percentiles... the populations taking the tests are different but probably comparable. (Contrary to popular belief, pre-medical students are not the most intelligent of all college students.) According to this site, that award goes to interdisciplinary students (114 IQ) and then to physical science students (111 IQ). Bio majors are right alongside humanities at ~108 IQ and health science is about 101... (I do realize, btw, that that site is referring to students' intended majors. I couldn't find anything in my 30 second google search pertaining to college students, although there is always the chart showing docs are at the top of the IQ pool.... so once you get in, you're "elite.")
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IQ is inaccurate and unreliable. Also social sciences = 110IQ and Psychology is 101IQ? Last time i checked psych is a social science :laugh:.

But yah most pre-meds aren't bright.. After going through medical school however their brains will be swollen.
 
serenade said:
IQ is inaccurate and unreliable. Also social sciences = 110IQ and Psychology is 101IQ? Last time i checked psych is a social science :laugh:.

But yah most pre-meds aren't bright.. After going through medical school however their brains will be swollen.
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Haha... true. IQ isn't the best measure but it actually is quite reliable (r=~0.9 depending on the test). Where it fails is in external validity.
 
apumic said:
Haha... true. IQ isn't the best measure but it actually is quite reliable (r=~0.9 depending on the test). Where it fails is in external validity.
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Hmm.. how can a faulty statistic create a reliable equation lol..
 
serenade said:
Hmm.. how can a faulty statistic create a reliable equation lol..
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Reliability ≠ external validity.

IQ's external validity has been a big question for years. Its reliability is not in question and it is a valid measure of certain types of intelligence. The questions about external validity come from its inability to measure certain types of intelligence (e.g., creative).
 
apumic said:
Reliability ≠ external validity.

IQ's external validity has been a big question for years. Its reliability is not in question and it is a valid measure of certain types of intelligence. The questions about external validity come from its inability to measure certain types of intelligence (e.g., creative).
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Hmm Well i suppose but the problem is that IQ tests arent precise or accurate in any sense. Psychologically for a IQ test to be precise or accurate it would merit something like. A grown man taking a IQ test today and then the same in 3 weeks and getting a similar school with maybe some minimal deviation. But as my psych teacher says this isn't the case since after full development there shouldn't be much deviation.

But yah i think of reliability and I cant see it sorry lol.
 
armybound said:
from what I've seen it's largely logic games. it places more emphasis on being able to follow a train of thought and logic through things. depending on your skills, it can be quite difficult
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I haven't taken the LSAT, but have friends who did. Apparently it is very hard to improve...doing well is almost innate. So if you're really good at logic games and on-the-fly critical thinking, you will do well. The DAT, PCAT, and OAT are basically subject tests from what I've heard...if you know the content you'll do well.

The MCAT seems between those...a good degree of logic is needed as well as a certain degree of content. Maybe that's why it's so hard...having to juggle those two mentalities.
 
serenade said:
Hmm Well i suppose but the problem is that IQ tests arent precise or accurate in any sense. Psychologically for a IQ test to be precise or accurate it would merit something like. A grown man taking a IQ test today and then the same in 3 weeks and getting a similar school with maybe some minimal deviation. But as my psych teacher says this isn't the case since after full development there shouldn't be much deviation.

But yah i think of reliability and I cant see it sorry lol.
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Can't say... I'd have to go look up the actually r values but I do know they are quite high (in the 0.9 range) for the most common IQ tests. Not sure where your psych teacher got his/her information. The value range I was taught by my profs in college also fits the r values I've seen cited in other papers. To know for sure would require looking it up. Cognitive tests such as IQ tests and achievement tests like the MCAT, SAT, GRE, etc. tend to have quite high reliability. (Probably less-so for the standardized tests, though, since they are not built to prevent studying for them.) There are, however, testing effects, etc. that have to be controlled for. In reality, your illustration about someone taking the test twice and scoring similarly both times suffers from testing effects (i.e., the 2nd time, he should do better because he has seen the same or similar questions prior; an equivalent test, however, should produce similar results regardless on the condition that its items are different enough to negate the subject's prior experience).
 
apumic said:
Can't say... I'd have to go look up the actually r values but I do know they are quite high (in the 0.9 range) for the most common IQ tests. Not sure where your psych teacher got his/her information. The value range I was taught by my profs in college also fits the r values I've seen cited in other papers. To know for sure would require looking it up. Cognitive tests such as IQ tests and achievement tests like the MCAT, SAT, GRE, etc. tend to have quite high reliability. (Probably less-so for the standardized tests, though, since they are not built to prevent studying for them.) There are, however, testing effects, etc. that have to be controlled for. In reality, your illustration about someone taking the test twice and scoring similarly both times suffers from testing effects (i.e., the 2nd time, he should do better because he has seen the same or similar questions prior; an equivalent test, however, should produce similar results regardless on the condition that its items are different enough to negate the subject's prior experience).
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Well she did a study which compared IQ tests to Gre's & Sat's. She found that the Gre & Sat had very little deviation after the third time taking. While i personally disagree with the Sat being accurate either but it has a bit of reliability with it. I actually want to retake the sat right now... see what i get after completing English comp. Then again i'd doubt it'd change because reading about a squirrel and then really analyzing it/remembering it for the next 10 questions wont happen with me.
 
LSAT: 157 (only did like two weeks of on-and-off studying though...)

MCAT: 30

Hahhaa, I guess I'm pretty consistent percentile-wise....
 
In what sense? I see the pre-reqs for pharm, med, dentistry, and optometry schools as pretty much identical, so the education base for those isn't going to get any closer. The GRE is a bit of a wild card since tons of people take it, I suppose.
 
MilkmanAl said:
In what sense? I see the pre-reqs for pharm, med, dentistry, and optometry schools as pretty much identical, so the education base for those isn't going to get any closer. The GRE is a bit of a wild card since tons of people take it, I suppose.
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In the sense of self-selection. Many of these other pre-professionals started out as pre-med and switched when they realized they weren't competitive for it. Many of my friends did so.
 
I didn't realize the LSAT has logic puzzles in it. That sounds kind of interesting, actually.
 
thesauce said:
In the sense of self-selection. Many of these other pre-professionals started out as pre-med and switched when they realized they weren't competitive for it. Many of my friends did so.
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That shouldn't matter much. I'm going to guess there aren't too many people who decide they aren't competitive enough to even take the MCAT who also decide they are competitive enough to take one of the other exams. The GPA qualifications are close enough that that group is probably not terribly important.
 
MilkmanAl said:
That shouldn't matter much. I'm going to guess there aren't too many people who decide they aren't competitive enough to even take the MCAT who also decide they are competitive enough to take one of the other exams. The GPA qualifications are close enough that that group is probably not terribly important.
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Pre-meds usually have higher GPAs then pre-dents and pre-pharms, simply based on GPA averages for acceptance into those schools. So a pre-med who does well on the MCAT could maybe do better (in terms of percentiles) on the DAT or PCAT.
 
eh, it depends if you study or not, otherwise comparisons probably aren't valid.

I got a 37 on the MCAT, and a 1460 on the GRE. However, I took the GRE cold, only spent the day before perusing test format, while MCAT was a long, bruising 2 month cram session.
 
LSAT 157, MCAT 35R.

Took 1 practice LSAT, took ~9 practice MCATS.
 
apumic said:
GRE-MCAT correlation is r=~0.4-0.55 (depending on subtest). There's a correlation but it's only slightly predictive. As for percentiles... the populations taking the tests are different but probably comparable. (Contrary to popular belief, pre-medical students are not the most intelligent of all college students.) According to this site, that award goes to interdisciplinary students (114 IQ) and then to physical science students (111 IQ). Bio majors are right alongside humanities at ~108 IQ and health science is about 101... (I do realize, btw, that that site is referring to students' intended majors. I couldn't find anything in my 30 second google search pertaining to college students, although there is always the chart showing docs are at the top of the IQ pool.... so once you get in, you're "elite.")
Click to expand...

That site also says that the average college bound african american has an IQ of 92.
 
mmmcdowe said:
That site also says that the average college bound african american has an IQ of 92.
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If you ask a sociologist why IQ tests are inaccurate at testing ppl. We can stream into 2 things; socialization of idea's. IQ tests usually test a understanding of specific things of mundane nature, somewhat logical but pseudo-logical in function.
More or less it streams into conflict theory or something else and basically talks about how while we are mentally the same. We have different things imprinted and bashed into our skulls at home which make us socially a bit different.

Basically we're the same basically in the field of inborn char's however we have different things socialized into us specifically values or something. Its why Asian-American kids primarily the Indian-Americans have such a work ethic towards wanting to be either engineers or doctors and getting straight A's or doom.

EH.. Screw standardized tests...
 
I took both the MCAT and DAT. My opinion is that the MCAT is a lot harder than the DAT just because the DAT is, for the most part, entirely content based and requires little to no inference or any reading comprehension. My scores: DAT 22, MCAT 34 Q.

My best friend took the OAT an it is literally the same as the DAT except that the perceptional ability is replaced with physics. It is just scored on a different scale. We literally had the same exact questions and RC passages....no ish
 
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