The Test

[sap1622]

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I just got a rude awakening... found out we can't touch the screen...which does make sense (but i didn't find out until now..good thing I did) and also the fact that not all the questions are counted?!?!?! I was reading Barron's DAT book and it said in the beginning that they use on 75 of the problems to score and the other 15 are experimental. Does anyone know if this is true or not? 😕

 

[fellforit]

This is fairly common practice in standardized testing. They do it on the GRE, the SAT, end-of-grade tests, etc. It's actually a good thing, as it means all the questions that you're answering that AREN'T experimental have been run through pretty rigorous testing beforehand.

One of our local news channels did a report about test question design for end-of-grade tests a few weeks back. Obviously not the same as the DAT, but might give you some insight: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/04/13/good-question-who-writes-the-questions-for-mca-tests/

For the record, I also think it would be awesome if we could touch the screen, even though I know it makes perfect sense that they don't let us. Still, can you imagine how easy angle-ranking would be if you could just stick your fingertip in there to gauge size? If only.

 

[dentalWorks]

I just got a rude awakening... found out we can't touch the screen...which does make sense (but i didn't find out until now..good thing I did) and also the fact that not all the questions are counted?!?!?! I was reading Barron's DAT book and it said in the beginning that they use on 75 of the problems to score and the other 15 are experimental. Does anyone know if this is true or not? 😕

Yes only 75 of the 90 PAT questions are scored. But you don't know which ones which... so your really working through all 90 like they all matter.

 

[UCF FINatic]

Yes only 75 of the 90 PAT questions are scored. But you don't know which ones which... so your really working through all 90 like they all matter.

Great I'll probably get all the questions that aren't scored correct and all the ones that are scored incorrect lol

 

[dentalWorks]

Great I'll probably get all the questions that aren't scored correct and all the ones that are scored incorrect lol

lol... we all felt that way.

PAT IMO is the easiest section of the DAT... so don't worry too much about it. It doesn't even count into your AA, you just need a score to show that you aren't perceptually-challenged (something like 19+).