waz up with the PAT...comp error.???

[Yellow-Jellow]

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I did my DAT , and i did good on most of the test , but when I got my PAT score , I was shocked ,,I mean ...i got above 17 in the practic exams of Kaplin
and the TOP SCORE by SCHOLAR WARE , but in the DAT i got a score of 14 😱 😕 😡 ....I thought that i was doin' good at least at most of the PAT parts ...so i didnt worry so much about the pat ...then ..i got my scores..could it be a comp error...I mean maybe their computer missed up the score... 😕

BIO-18
ORG CHEM-17
GEN CHEM-19
MATH-19
READING-22
PAT-14 😱

 

[DMD_hopeful]

I did my DAT , and i did WELL on most of the test , but when I got my PAT score , I was shocked ,,I mean ...i got above 17 in the practic exams of Kaplin
and the TOP SCORE by SCHOLAR WARE , but in the DAT i got a score of 14 😱 😕 😡 ....I thought that i was doin' good at least at most of the PAT parts ...so i didnt worry so much about the pat ...then ..i got my scores..could it be a comp error...I mean maybe their computer missed up the score... 😕

BIO-18
ORG CHEM-17
GEN CHEM-19
MATH-19
READING-22
PAT-14 😱

I doubt there was a computer error.. I'm pretty sure I saw on the ADA website that they check each exam to ensure its accuracy.

About your 3 point drop... Do a search here, you'll surely find the '3 point drop' mentioned many times. It happned to me too.

I'd call the schools you are applying to and see if they have any minimums on DAT sections.. Some schools have a 16 min., whiles others do not.

Good luck.

 

[Yellow-Jellow]

thanx 4 your reply...well...getting in the dental school is not a big problem for me..i still got time to retake my dat...but what bothered me was my pat score..'cause i know that i studied well...but it didnt come as i thought..but how do they check your score if u get it in few seconds after finishing the whole exam???....thanx again!! 😀

 

[Dr.Smiley-OR]

thanx 4 your reply...well...getting in the dental school is not a big problem for me..i still got time to retake my dat...but what bothered me was my pat score..'cause i know that i studied well...but it didnt come as i thought..but how do they check your score if u get it in few seconds after finishing the whole exam???....thanx again!! 😀

I believe they will check it by hands (mannually). If you read something in the DAT instruction booklet, it says that before DAT center send your scores to the schools, they will look over your answers and compare them to the key answers to make sure the computer did its job right.
Just retake the DAT, and try to pull up that PAT score. It is a bit low and will affect you for sure. Although only a few schools emphasize on PAT, a score of 14 on PAT is a sign of weakness and it will hurt you.

 

[abina81]

That brings up a question. If they do find an error in their scoring, will they ever tell the tester? If they do, how can you find out if they made corrections?

 

[DrTacoElf]

That brings up a question. If they do find an error in their scoring, will they ever tell the tester? If they do, how can you find out if they made corrections?

I thought there was an error in my math section (part of a question was omitted) I wrote about it in the survey, but I wasnt compensated for it.

PS. Your 14 seems dead on if your getting 17 on kaplan PAT...

 

[luder98]

If it ever makes you feel better, I dropped 5-7 points on PAT and Math. When you underestimate something, that's what you'll get.

Regarding the software, I did encounter one problem on Math section. After I submitted answer for the last question, it would not let me go back to view other questions. It only let me view the Marked ones. Not sure if this is a bug, but definitely doesn't make sense to me. I lost my damn five or so valuable minuites. 😡

 

[Sprgrover]

...About your 3 point drop... Do a search here, you'll surely find the '3 point drop' mentioned many times. It happned to me too...

The '3' point rule is amazingly accurate. I was scoring usually 21 on the practice PAT and ended up with an 18, and I know such a similar scheme played out for other people too.

 

[Yellow-Jellow]

when i was doin' the test i thought that i will get a score above 20..and that my PAT is the best score i'll get in the dat..it was pretty easy..but after i finished i was totally confused..i was lookin' at he comp and the only thing i wanted to do is destroy it... ...
thanx 4 all your replys.. 🙂 😀 🙂

 

[aceking]

when i was doin' the test i thought that i will get a score above 20..and that my PAT is the best score i'll get in the dat..it was pretty easy..but after i finished i was totally confused..i was lookin' at he comp and the only thing i wanted to do is destroy it... ...
thanx 4 all your replys.. 🙂 😀 🙂

Usually if you think that there was an error you have to report it on the site right away otherwise it is just going to be a difficult to deal with it later, but if you were getting 17 on your practice exams then a 14 on the actual does not surprise me. If you have time just take it again and i am sure you will do better
good luck

 

[Pevi]

there were definitely errors on my PAT section. i was getting 24s or 26s on kaplan and on the real thing i got a 19. the hole punching was definitely messed up for some of the questions, the angles are nothing like kaplan, and some of the cubes were drawn incorrectly. like i stared at it for a few minutes, and i knew that you can't see a cube like that.
anyway, when i talked to the dean of the school i want to go to, he admitted that he's heard from most applicants about the PAT trouble. and so schools know. they realize it's very hard to get an exceptional score. but 18 is considered a very good score for most schools, if not all. guess there's nothing we can do about it now...just wait till 10-20 years down the road and jump on the examination board for dATs!!!