NBDE Part I

-->Test questions with solutions/explanations: [dentalarticles.com/nbde] <--
edit: apparently the link above no longer works. I looked around and found this site (not too sure how great it is): [http://quiz.dentalebooks.com/tag/part-i/]

National Board Dental Examination Part I

Books and link above were my main go to study resources. And wikipedia of course--love you wiki. 

Below is an utterly long summery of my time studying for boards. I'll start off with my summer schedule last year and then tell you what a lot of my classmates did. 

Actually, let's start off with how to sign up! Remember your dentpin number for the DAT exam? We're going to revisit those digits to sign up for the NBDE. You're applying to be eligible to sign up for the exam (making sure you meet the requirements such as not having had taken the exam within so and so prior months etc). It took me about a week for ADA to email me my eligibility (for some reason, it's in my head that they review & qualify these eligibility applications on a Tuesday of each week ... if you care and need to know). So it was a blissful week of not feeling guilty for not signing up for a test date yet ;). So you apply here for eligibility: here. If you attend a non-accredited dental school, you will need to fill out another form here. And from here on out I think it's self explanatory / I don't remember what happened after. And I did not do anything for the "Dean's Certification." I'm pretty sure your school will be automatically told when you sign up/pass/fail. Anyway, I believe you might have to pay during this process--non-refundable ($345 for me during summer of 2012).

Once you receive the eligibility email you have to wait 24 hours before scheduling (yay 24 more hours to procrastinate signing up!). The email will contain the code you will enter when signing up at prometric. At the prometric website, you want to schedule for an exam with ADA as your test sponsor.  There are 3-4 choices for the NBDE Part I (nbde part 1, nbde part 1: 2 hrs, nbde part 1: 6.5 hrs, etc). I chose: NATIONAL BOARD DENTAL EXAMINATION PART 1 (exam code NB1). 


On to how I used my summer last year between first and second year. At UCSF we got our first and only 3 months of summer between first and second year, so I was able to take advantage and use it to study for boards. I went to Viet Nam in June to volunteer/vacation for about a month. Came back by July and started browsing through decks for fun and couldn't retain anything. Dental decks are 1330 flash cards that are supposedly enough study material (I think not--it's too much blah to handle). The front will have questions/quizzes/facts, and you flip it around and it will tell you answers in more detail. My class emailed the dental decks company for a group discount--so maybe you guys could and should do the same. My dear upperclassman R sent me PDF versions of more updated decks that I uploaded onto Chris's ipad to study from, as well as, PDFs of another university's dental morphology and occlusion review (the best!--Christina you can borrow mine!). So between July and most of August, I went through the decks trying over and over to finish them in a 2 weeks schedule that an upperclassman had planned out (+80 cards/day). That never happened. I kept revising my 2 weeks schedule. So I got around probably 80% of the decks before I decided this sucks and I don't know how much I'm really remembering. Initially I did decks and some of First Aid (a few chapters...maybe biochem/some anatomy). Occasionally I referenced "Clinical Anatomy Made Ridiculously Easy" for a few things that I couldn't grasp--book definitely made anatomy easier. Towards mid/end of August I decided to switch over and take a look at Boards Buster.

So, each day I'd wake up around 9 or 10AM and start thinking about studying and then actually start around lunch. I stayed at my sister's apartment in LA carless, so I couldn't do much besides walk to the closest cafe 1 mile away--thus I couldn't wander off even if I wanted to. Or my friend Ben would pick me up and bring me somewhere not depressing for studying --thanks!! And then my sister would get off work we'd go around LA and find new places to eat. Other times I would study at Irvine Spectrum and then shop/walk around the area for breaks. I still had time to start and finish a few shows like White Collar and Drop Dead Diva hehe. So my point is: no, I don't think you have to study all day (if you had a 2 months to study). 

I signed up at the end of August to take my exam at the end of September right before school starts. So that was the real push that made me take studying more seriously. I spent most of my studying just on boards buster by this point. The reason I liked board busters is that it was a condense version of decks and first aid into one book (but FYI, it's just the major main points from the two, no extra fluff or random facts). I stopped looking at decks and first aid. It was almost like a book of main bullet points. I liked that it was a book so that I can take notes on the side and reference other pages with similar topics. I started looking at Tooth Morphology and Occlusion PDFs provided by my upperclassmen and kept reviewing all of it every few days. I looked at only that and not board busters/decks/first aid or anything else for tooth morph/occlusion. That was enough for me and I felt confident in that section. 

Two weeks before my test date I decided I should start looking at exams. UCSF had tests online, as well as, a booklet. So I opted for the online ones because it would simulate the real test best. I believe your schools will provide old exams. The exams are 400 questions. The first time I tried doing an exam, I was watching Drop Dead Diva and fell asleep at 80 questions. It's all about endurance! I felt confident two weeks before the exam date--things started making sense, random facts started coming naturally. And then a week before I didn't remember a thing. So I freaked out. I crammed the books again like a mad man. Not sure if that was the smartest thing. I feel like the shorter time you study, the more efficient you'll be and the least likely information will begin leaking out like it did for me. I'd also browse through a bunch of the anatomy and pathology questions on the dentalarticles.com/nbde website where it had explanations to test questions (a lot of test questions from the dental articles site were the same as the old exams I was going through).

How a lot of my classmates studied: they reviewed decks and first aid around 2 times. I mainly only used and liked the board busters. We all used some files floating around for the Occlusion/Morphology review. 

Exam Day: Test period is from 8-4:30 ish I believe. You get two "white board" paper and a marker to write notes or any facts you can spit out quickly. I wrote down all the eruption dates. I finished my first section by 10am and took an hour break. Ate M&M peanuts and a small sandwich. You can review some material if you want. I only reviewed the eruption dates, root formation dates, etc for the teeth so that no other information can freak me out before the next part. Then I finished around 1/1:30. I had around 40 total  marked questions and started looking through them. I stopped going through marked questions, because I really had no idea what the questions and words in front of me were, so I decided to stop second guessing my first guesses. Each section had clinical scenarios and multiple choice questions. The test was extremely hard. I thought it was a joke because it felt like I failed the first half. A lot of words I didn't know existed. When you're done with the exam and submit it, there will be a quick survey. No scoring of anything will show up. When you leave prometric, they'll hand you a paper just stating that you took the test that day. The End!! 

Some people got their scores around 2 weeks later. I got mine a month later. So I thought I failed for sure. haha It's the best feeling ever when you find out you pass! If you study and try hard, you will pass :) No worries. 

Scoring: apparently there's a curve.. perhaps even a generous one. I heard for pathology or anatomy, you can score a raw score of ~55% and it curves out to 75% (passing). But for dental occlusion/morphology I heard you have to actually pass pass that section. This could be all rumors. 

Update: To add in a few more notes: a lot of my classmates suggest using the old exam as a study method. Knowing the ins and outs pertaining to the topic referenced in the question. Use 1-2 old exams as part of your studying resource by figuring out why each answer choice is and isn't the right answer to a question. There were a few old exam questions on my exam--I don't know how likely that's going to happen for each exam. And when I did practice test towards the end, my raw scores were raw passing. My first practice test before studying was a fail though :) I'd break down the exams and take the test by subject so I know where my forte and weaknesses are. A few times I did get 55-60% for pathology. That mentally killed me, but if the curve thing is true, then that's fine hehe. Study smart and efficiently. Studying all day everyday doesn't mean that's the best way. So relax when you're tired and give yourself a 10 minute breather and then go back to concentrating when you've calmed down. 

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And here's my moment of sincere appreciation and gratitude: 

Thank you to my famiree, especially my sister, for pushing me to study, forcing me to sign up for a test date, and forcing me not to postpone hehe. Thanks for cooking for me!!

Thank you Chris for lending me your iPad for the summer. It wouldn't have made my first half of studying that much more fun and possible. 

Thanks to Ben for driving to LA a lot so that I could have a study buddy.Thanks for being the one that calmed me down numerous times--the one that achieved easing my nerves the night before the exam.

Thank you Chris, Twiggy, & Tina for always driving the distance to Irvine when I "had to" study at Spectrum's Coffee Bean. Thanks for bringing fruits and spoiling me with macarons and encouragement. Thanks for studying with me during the summer, when really, you guys didn't have to study that much at all. 

Thanks Ramina for all the files and encouragement you gave me!

Thanks to Yeun Joo and Mandy for giving me Anatomy Made Easy, First Aid,  & Board Busters.

Thank you Debra for your school's materials/binders. 

I hope this essay full of off tangent commentaries was somewhat useful. Good luck!! -oli