General Information About The Canadian Dental Aptitude Test (DAT)

The Dental Aptitude Test is a standardized exam administered by the Canadian Dental Association (CDA).

The DAT is designed to help students determine their aptitude for a career in Dentistry and to assist Dental schools in selecting applicants.

The Canadian DAT (English) consists of 4 sections.

The English DAT consists of a Survey of Natural Sciences, a Perceptual Ability Test, a Reading Comprehension Test and a Manual Dexterity Test.

The Canadian DAT (French) consists of 3 sections.

The French DAT consists of a Survey of Natural Sciences, a Perceptual Ability Test and a Manual Dexterity Test. There is no Reading Comprehension Test on the French DAT.

As of November 2011, the Manual Dexterity Test is optional. Some Dental schools do not use the manual dexterity test results.

Please check on the Dental school websites to determine if the school you are interested in applying to requires the manual dexterity test score.

There are a total of 210 questions on the English DAT, plus the Manual Dexterity Test (Soap carving).

There are a total of 160 questions on the French DAT, plus the Manual Dexterity Test (Soap carving). There is no reading comprehension test on the French DAT.

• The Survey of Natural Sciences consists of 40 Biology and 30 General Chemistry questions.
• The Perceptual Ability Test consists of 90 questions.
• The Reading Comprehension Test consists of 50 questions.

TS = Total Science. Weighted Average from Biology and Chemistry.

AA = Academic Average. Weighted Average from Biology, Chemistry, Reading Comprehension and Perceptual Ability Test.

PAT = Perceptual Ability Test (angle discrimination, form development, cubes, orthographic projections and apertures)

Each score may range from 0-30 . Ideally you would want a score in the 20-30 range.Unlike the American DAT, the Canadian DAT has the optional carving portion but there is no Organic Chemistry or Quantitative reasoning section. The Canadian DAT is also completely paper-based, whereas the American DAT is computer-based.

For the list of topics covered on the DAT, click here.

For more information about the Dental Aptitude Test, please go to CDA’s website for more information.