Introducing the Personal Potential Index: A New Resource for

Introducing the Personal Potential Index: A New Resource for Presenting

and Evaluating Applicants for Advanced Dental Education Programs

ADEA PASS is collaborating with Educational Testing Service® (ETS) to include the proven benefits of its Personal

Potential Index (PPI) among the evaluation resources provided to advanced dental education programs.

Description

The ETS® Personal Potential Index (ETS® PPI) is a web-based evaluation system designed to provide a more complete

picture of an applicant's potential for success in an advanced dental education program—beyond grades, test scores, and

recommendation letters. Multiple evaluators who the applicant has selected (three to five) rate the applicant on six

personal dimensions that have been identified as critical for success in graduate education. ETS then creates an ETS PPI

Evaluation Report that incorporates the evaluations and comments from all the evaluators and is included in the ADEA

PASS application sent to advanced dental education programs the applicant designates.

In less than 15 minutes, an evaluator can fill out an ETS PPI evaluation and help an applicant demonstrate that he or she

has the attributes for success in postdoctoral dental education. The system is convenient and easy to use, and an

evaluator only needs to fill out one evaluation per applicant, even if the applicant applies to multiple residency programs

through ADEA PASS.

What does the ETS PPI measure?

The ETS PPI provides reliable information on six personal attributes that advanced dental education program directors

have indicated are critical to success in their programs:

• Knowledge and creativity

• Communication skills

• Teamwork

• Resilience

• Planning and organization

• Ethics and integrity

How does the ETS PPI relate to ADEA PASS Professional Evaluations?

The ETS PPI and the ADEA PASS Professional Evaluation Form (PEF) have important but distinct roles to play in an

applicant's advanced dental education admissions process. The ETS PPI is a REQUIRED part of the ADEA PASS

application to advanced dental education programs; the PEF is OPTIONAL. Unlike the ADEA PASS PEF, the ETS PPI

Evaluation Report provides standardized information based on an evaluator’s responses to a common set of structured

questions about six key personal attributes. The ETS PPI Evaluation Report can incorporate ratings from a number of

evaluators rather than just one, adding to the reliability of the report.

For ADEA PASS Applicants: What You Need to Know About the ETS PPI

The required ETS PPI is an integral part of the ADEA PASS application that you create when you open your personal

ADEA PASS account on the ADEA website. To enter contact information for the evaluator(s) whom you are asking to

complete an ETS PPI on your behalf, follow the dedicated link inside your ADEA PASS application to the “ETS PPI for

ADEA site” and follow the instructions.

When you enter evaluator contact information at the ETS PPI for ADEA site, your chosen evaluator(s) will receive an

instructional email and access to the secure ETS PPI form.

All ADEA PASS applicants must submit contact information for at least one, and up to five, individuals to complete ETS

PPI evaluations. Applicants will be notified by email as each evaluation is complete. Applicants must monitor the status of

the requested PPI evaluations and indicate when the full PPI is complete, by creating a “complete” report. You will be

given instructions on how to generate a report after evaluations are complete. An ADEA PASS application is not

considered ready for transmittal to designated advanced dental education programs until the ETS PPI report has been

received electronically by ADEA PASS.

Note: Applicants should not go the ETS PPI site before creating their ADEA PASS application account, as PPI data must be entered

via the ADEA PASS application in order to be received by ADEA PASS. If an applicant wishes to have one or more optional

Professional Evaluation Forms (PEF) added to an ADEA PASS application file, the applicant must enter contact information for the

evaluator(s) in her or his ADEA PASS application. The evaluator(s) will be sent an instructional email and provided online access to the

ADEA PEF.

An ADEA PASS application will be considered complete and sent to designated advanced dental education programs without

containing any PEFs. However, if an applicant has assigned PEFs to designated programs, the PEFs must be received by ADEA PASS

before the application can be sent to those programs. Applicants are strongly encouraged to request either an ETS PPI or an ADEA

PEF, but not both, from the same evaluator.

For ADEA PASS Evaluators: What You Need to Know About the ETS PPI

Once the 2013 ADEA PASS application cycle opens in May, evaluators must wait to receive an ETS PPI access email for

an applicant who is requesting an evaluation. An ADEA PASS applicant must enter evaluator contact information using

the ETS PPI dedicated link in her or his ADEA PASS application account in order to have the form delivered electronically

to each evaluator.

For ADEA PASS Program Directors: What You Need to Know About the ETS PPI

The ETS PPI report will appear inside each ADEA PASS applicant’s file that is transmitted to you electronically through

WebAdMIT for PASS. You will be able to review its contents just as you do other documents such as the dental school

transcript, ADEA PASS Professional Evaluation Form (ADEA PEF), and ADEA PASS Institution Evaluation Form (ADEA

IEF).

Note: Every ADEA PASS applicant must submit an ETS PPI; the traditional ADEA PASS Professional Evaluation Form (PEF) is

optional (but may be recommended or required by some programs at their discretion).

How the ETS PPI Works with ADEA PASS

1. An ADEA PASS applicant asks an evaluator to complete an ETS PPI and enters the evaluator’s contact

information by clicking on the dedicated ETS PPI link inside her or his personal ADEA PASS application account.

ETS sends the evaluator an online invitation to rate the ADEA PASS applicant.

2. The evaluator accepts the request to complete the ETS PPI. The applicant is notified by email that the evaluator

has accepted the request. (Note: an evaluator may choose to decline a request.)

3. The evaluator follows the link provided by ETS in the email to access the “ETS PPI for ADEA” system.

4. The evaluator provides responses in the structured ratings format and enters comments as needed to support the

rating given for each attribute for a given ADEA PASS applicant. There are four statements for each of the six

personal attributes, plus an overall rating. The entire evaluation is designed to take about 15 minutes to complete.

5. The evaluator submits the completed ETS PPI electronically. The applicant receives an email message indicating

that the evaluation has been submitted, but DOES NOT have access to the evaluation either through ETS PPI or

through ADEA PASS.

6. The applicant must monitor the status of each requested ETS PPI evaluation and create a PPI report once the

requested evaluations have been submitted.

7. After all expected evaluations have been completed, the ETS PPI report is made available in a PDF format

through WebAdMIT for PASS to all programs the applicant has designated.

8. When expected evaluations have been submitted to ETS PPI and the applicant’s ADEA PASS file is complete,

the system is closed to further activity within the applicant’s ADEA PASS application account.

*Special Requirements

To use the ETS PPI service, applicants and evaluators will need Internet access and an email account. The ETS PPI system supports

the latest production versions of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7.0.5, Firefox® 3.0.7, and Safari® 3.2.2 browsers. If an applicant or

evaluator accesses the ETS PPI website without meeting these requirements, some functions may not perform optimally or may be

disabled. You must enable JavaScript or Active Scripting, enable “ActiveX controls and plugins” (Internet Explorer only), and add

www.ets.org/ppi to trusted sites.

To view a brief video about the ETS PPI, go to:

www.ets.org/Media/Products/PPI/flashTour/ETSPPI.html

Note that the ETS PPI for ADEA PASS is separate from the version

for non-dental graduate schools. The ETS PPI for ADEA PASS is

only accessible through the ADEA PASS application.