Admission to graduate school depends on the test takers scores on the verbal and quantitative sections of the GRE. Background of the GRE

Historically speaking, there has been widespread criticism of the GRE, as some have argued for decades that GRE scores do not constitute a meaningful measure of a potential graduate student's knowledge or capability for success. Many schools and universities have disagreed with the subject test requirements, and the GRE has been considered in certain historic times as irrelevant. In fact, recent reports and questionnaires indicate that the GRE is not as significant in determining graduate admissions as once believed. Researchers have suggested implementations and changes in the GRE that would make it more realistically predictive, such as the development of improved versions of GRE test subjects in more areas of the social sciences. The graduate schools could use these social science scores to as a better gauge of how well students have retained the fundamentals basics in certain subjects during their college years. For the fall of 2005, the average score accepted by graduate schools of the GRE verbal section was 498; for the GRE quantitative, 522; for the GRE analytical, 511. Interestingly, for the percentage of students that took the GRE, 81% of them submitted to graduate schools their scores on the GRE verbal and quantitative, while only 32% submitted to schools their scores for the analytical section. The GRE is undergoing significant changes for test takers in 2007, and it will no longer be offered in computer-adaptive format. It will last four hours long, and all GRE test takers will be required to take it at the same time.

The DAT exam

The Dental Admissions Test (DAT) is a multiple choice standardized exam taken by potential dental school students in the United States. The DAT is used by dental schools as a basis for deciding whether to grant the dental school applicant into its dental school. It is a computerized test that can be administered almost any day of the year. Each applicant may only take the exam three times before having to ask for special permission to take the exam, and after taking the exam, applicants cannot take...

The DAT is made up of four sections: a survey of the natural sciences, perceptual ability, reading comprehension, and quantitative reasoning. Immediately after the exam is taken, results are available to the test taker, and dental schools usually summarize the scores by listing the academic, science, and perpetual ability scores. Schools usually place importance on an applicant's scoring on the high perceptual section as well as biology scores, though the competitive applicant scores well overall.
Background of the DAT

The DAT had been in existence since 1950, and along with DAT scores, admission into dental school requires two academic years of liberal arts study. Some schools in the United States require three or more years of college. In taking the DAT, the test taker is given a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes to complete the four tests in the DAT. The ADA (2006) reports on their website that 90% of the first year dental class completed four years of pre-professional educational and that 82% of the first year dental students had already obtained a bachelor degree. The average DAT score is 16, and a score of 18-20 is likely one that which admission to the dentals school will be granted to the applicant by the school (ADA, 2006). The ADA estimates that about 8,000 people a year take the DAT, which is a higher number in comparison to the amount of applicants that take the GRE of CPA exams, In 2005, the average pass rate for the DAT was 86.8%, making the DAT appear as a very reasonable exam as compared to the GRE and the CPA.

Conclusion

Thus, since each professional test had its own requirements, background and passage rates that each test taker should take into consideration.

Bibliography

Accounting Institute Seminars. (2006). CPA Exam Dates and Structure. Retrieved November 15, 2006 at http://www.ais-cpa.com/dates.html

ADA. (2006). Dental Admissions Test (DAT). Retrieved November 15, 2006 at http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/index.asp

Princeton Review. (2006). What is the GRE? Retrieved November 15, 2006 at http://www.psywww.com/careers.gre.htm

Wyhe, G. (1994). The…