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Test Background Information
The development of the Dental Admission Testing Program began in 1945. At that time, there were 39 accredited dental schools in the , and 12,000 students were enrolled. In 2003-2004 there were 56 fully operational, accredited dental schools in the , and 17,978 students.
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There were three basic reasons for the development of the Dental Aptitude Test Battery, as it was known at that time. One was the high rate of student attrition over the four years of dental school. It was estimated that 20% to 25% of the national first-year class withdrew from dental school before graduation. |
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In 1945, the committee that was developing the Dental Aptitude Test Battery was looking at the possibility of measuring students' ability to read and comprehend, to memorize verbal and visual material, to recognize word meaning, to reason, to visualize patterns, to express themselves orally, and to demonstrate manual dexterity. The committee was also interested in the possibility of measuring a student’s interest, personality, perseverance, and social instincts. To the credit of that committee, the list was greatly reduced when the test battery was made definitive. |
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In 1981, the format of the test was once again changed to include only a test of quantitative reasoning ability, a test to measure reading comprehension ability, a perceptual ability test, and a survey of the natural sciences, which measured achievement in biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry. The Verbal Reasoning Test was dropped because there had been little evidence of any significant positive relationship with dental school performance. The two perceptual tests were combined into one, including those parts having the highest positive correlations with technique courses in the annual validity studies. The Perceptual Ability Test in the DAT currently contains 90 items, 75 scored and 15 unscored pretest items, which include problems in block counting, angle size, form development, orthographic projections, paper folding, and comparison of shapes of objects with apertures.
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Beginning in March 1989, the format of the Reading Comprehension Test was modified to include three shorter passages with 16 to 17 items associated with each passage. This format allowed for the use of the common item equating technique. Beginning with the October 1989 test administration, all of the reading comprehension standard scores were equated to the April 1989 ability scale.
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Dental Assisting & Dental Hygiene
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| Dental Admission Test (DAT), | | |
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Education & Teacher Assisting
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| ACCUPLACER (ACCUPLACER), American College Test (ACT), Arizona Educator Proficiency Assessments (AEPA), Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), ASSET (ASSET), California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST), College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), COMPASS (COMPASS), General Educational Development (GED), Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT), Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), Graduate Record Examination (GRE), Law School Admission Test (LSAT), Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL), Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC), Miller Analogies Test (MAT), National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT), New Mexico Teacher Assessment (NMTA), Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), Optometry Admission Test (OAT), ParaPro Assessment (ParaPro), Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT), Program for Licensing Assessments for Colorado Educators (PLACE), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT), Test Of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS), Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE), Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA), Washington Educator Skills Test—Basic (WEST-B), | | |
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Medical & Allied Health
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| Allied Health Professions Admission Test (AHPAT), Health Occupations Basic Entrance Test (HOBET), Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), Nurse Entrance Test (NET), Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB), | | |
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Office & Administrative Professionals
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| Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT), Miller Analogies Test (MAT), Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT), | | |
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Pharmacy Technology
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| Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT), | | |
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