New DSST scoring?

[collegeblogger]

I took the DSST Mgmt Info Sys exam a couple weeks ago and needed a 46 to pass at my school. When I received my scores today, my score was 461 out of 500 possible points. There was a flyer included that stated that a new scoring system had been implemented ranging from 200 to 500, with 400 listed as the recommended passing score.

Has anyone else experienced this? I hope a 461 is at least equivalent to the 46 I need. Why do they always have to change things! :confused:

[SimonTam]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. If 400 is the new recommended passing score and 46 was probably the old recommended passing score, your score of 461 will be fine.

I know it kind of throws you into a panic mode when you see something unexpected, but just keep plugging away and taking tests and you will get to the end result soon enough.

Good luck,

[Clepem]

I took the dsst Management Information Systems test on March 20th of this year. I just got my score back today. I received a score of 397 out of a possible 500. I wasn't expecting this new grading scale. I can't believe that I didn't pass. I have taken many Dantes and Clep tests. I remember after taking the test that I was pretty confident that I had passed. I'm not sure why it took almost 2 months to receive my score. While I did take the test on March 20, the paper I received says that the date of the report was May 5. I have a suspicion that the testing center forgot to send my test back to dsst until I called them a couple of weeks ago to sign up for my next test. Is there any way that dsst could have messed up and graded my test wrong? Is it much harder to pass the tests with the new score scale? Does anyone know when they implemented the new scoring scale?

[precious1]

This is my first time preparing for a Dante's test. I read over the forums that give some great advice on study habits, but I heard that the information has changed. Should I continue to use these study guides or seek some other source?

[collegeblogger]

I was surprised to get my scores back exactly two weeks after taking the paper-based test. Pretty impressive.

That said, I was surprised to see the new scoring system. I actually was thinking the exam was hard and wondered if I'd pass. As far as studying, all I used was Instantcert DSST MIS, Instantcert CLEP intro to computers, and the three Peterson's exams. I can't stress taking the Peterson's practice exams enough. They really helped bring everything I learned together as their answer explanations were very detailed.

When I talked to my school (Columbia College) the advisor didn't even know they had changed the scoring system, so I'm still waiting to see if a 461 is good enough. Surely it is... I HOPE. :eek:

[knucyt]

So if the scoring sheet you received said that it now requires a 400 out of a total possible 500, that's a score of 80% as the minimum passing score.
To go from the prior scaled score of 50 (or less) out of 80 possible makes no sense to me. That's like saying you could pass before with a 63%, now it takes 80%??

I know math is not my strongest suit...but why are they making it harder to pass?? Does anyone understand/have anymore info on this?? If you look at the military pass rates for these exams in 2007 it's not like they had overly high pass rates and needed to readjust the baseline pass rate. Strange.

[zefrench]

Just talked to David at DSST, the passing is indeed 400 out of 500. He also told me all DSST exams will be paper until some time this summer when they will be electronic.

[gcalvin]

I wouldn't be too concerned about it being suddenly harder to get a passing score. If the exams remain valid, then your performance under then new scoring should be similar to your performance under the old scoring.

I would be quite concerned, though, about the new scoring in general. Has it been evaluated by ACE? Has it been evaluated and approved by Excelsior, TESC, COSC, and other schools? I'm very glad this didn't happen a few months ago, as I predict some delays in getting credit for these DSST exams. I'm not calling for panic -- my guess is that the approvals and credits will eventually come through, and I don't think anybody is going to have to re-take an exam -- but I do predict delays. We'll see if I'm right, or if that's just my streak of pessimism.

-Gary-

[alix]

I'm also worried that schools like Excelsior will switch to pass/fail for Dantes, thinking they don't have enough data to translate the scores.

I hope that's not the case, because even though my GPA isn't bad (3.49), I did want to boost it up higher with Dantes exam scores.

[bmills072200]

I just spoke with an advisor at EC and they said that they have not yet determined what the grading scale will be for the new DSST scoring system if any. She did guarantee me though that they are going to continue granting credit for passing scores. So, as long as you score better than the minimum passing score, which I gather is 400 on all exams, you will receive credit...anyway, this whole thing really sucks because I have 2 exams left with DSST and they are both being beta tested...MIS and Ethics in America...