Dental Admission Test

The Dental Admission Test (DAT) is a multiple-choice standardized exam taken by potential dental school students in the United States. The DAT is a computer based test that can be administered almost any day of the year. Tests are taken at Thomson Prometric testing centers throughout the United States after the preliminary application through the American Dental Association is completed. Each applicant may only take the test a total of three times before having to ask special permission to take the exam again. After taking the exam you must wait 90 days before repeating it. Each exam costs $175.

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Test Sections

The DAT comprises four sections: survey of the natural sciences (90 minutes), perceptual ability (often called the PAT, 60 minutes), reading comprehension (60 minutes), and quantitative reasoning (45 minutes). The mathematics of the quantitative exam is similar to that of the SAT. The first section is divided into questions about biology (40 questions), general chemistry (30 questions), and organic chemistry (30 questions). The second section is divided into six different problems sets designed to test perceptual ability, specifically in the areas of three dimensional manipulation and spatial reasoning. The third section of the DAT is divided into three academic essays, each of which is followed by questions about the passage's content. The final section tests basic mathematics skills, with emphasis placed on algebra, critical thinking, fractions, roots, and trigonometric identities.

Scores

Immediately after completion of the test, eight standard scores on a scale of 1-30 are calculated and passed on to the test taker. The first six scores come directly from the test: perceptual ability, reading comprehension, quantitative reasoning, biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. The remaining two scores reported are summaries of the previous six: the Academic Average is the average of five scores rounded to the nearest whole number: quantitative reasoning, reading comprehension, biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. The Total Science score is a standard score based on all 100 questions in the biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry tests. Dental schools frequently summarize their applicant's scores by listing the academic, science, and perceptual ability scores they typically see in their matriculating classes. Schools tend to emphasize the importance of high perceptual ability and biology scores, though the competitive applicant earns high marks across all sections of the test.

The average DAT score is about 18. Approximately 8000 people a year take the DAT. A score of 20-22 will likely lead to admission.

See also

• American Dental Association
• Dentistry
• Standardized test
• List of dental schools in the United States
• TopScore Pro for the DAT - Preparatory Materials for the Dental Admission Test[1]
• The KSF Review - Preparatory Materials for the Dental Admission Test
• Kaplan, Inc.