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- Jun 1, 2010
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Took this beast of an exam.
The exam is broken up into four parts. You get breaks in between each: Biomedical sciences, Critical thinking/ epidemiology, Dental Sciences, and Ethics+Miscellaneous. There are 200 questions in total, with the majority of the questions falling in the first and third sections. You get 1-1.5 minutes per question (depending on the section). I didn't find time to be an issue. Just don't get caught on up one question and spend 5 minutes staring at the screen (like I did, on one particularly twisty 'all of the following EXCEPT' question).
The clinical cases were decent-- the intraoral and pan radiographs and clinical photos were clear (although one photo was obviously mirrored incorrectly).
I kept a track of questions I was unsure of, and questions I had no clue for. Out of 200, I was unsure of 98, out of which I flat out guessed on 52.
How did I prepare? I didn't. I took the practice test last month, intending to hit the books. As with every exam I study for, I make a list of topics I predict will be on the exam and focus on what I predict to be high yield topics. Maybe it's cuz I just graduated and care less, maybe it's cuz I started working full-time, but I ended up not studying at all until last night, when I started browsing random wikipedia pages.
Am I glad I didn't prepare? Absolutely. Most of the questions that I flatly guessed on were nowhere on my list of topics to review. And the other quarter of questions I guessed on were on topics I vaguely remember learning once, some distant time ago. Or they asked about treatment priorities that I found subjective.
Basically, unless you're eager to re-memorize details way back from gross anatomy (not just head and neck!), biochemistry, and dental anatomy, just to answer an extra question or two, it's not worth your time. There was literally a question on the mechanism of a drug I've only heard of from seeing its television commercial. And no, I didn't pay enough attention back then to remember its mechanism. Another question tested a concept that I distinctly remember having learned in Chemistry AP, and not since then. Another question asked about a clinical recommendation that my perio prof told me recently is getting changed, so... I didn't know how to answer that question.
This being the pilot year, two residency directors told me they plan on looking at your ADAT scores after they send out acceptances, just to see how they chose. So, don't worry and everyone enjoy your summer!
The exam is broken up into four parts. You get breaks in between each: Biomedical sciences, Critical thinking/ epidemiology, Dental Sciences, and Ethics+Miscellaneous. There are 200 questions in total, with the majority of the questions falling in the first and third sections. You get 1-1.5 minutes per question (depending on the section). I didn't find time to be an issue. Just don't get caught on up one question and spend 5 minutes staring at the screen (like I did, on one particularly twisty 'all of the following EXCEPT' question).
The clinical cases were decent-- the intraoral and pan radiographs and clinical photos were clear (although one photo was obviously mirrored incorrectly).
I kept a track of questions I was unsure of, and questions I had no clue for. Out of 200, I was unsure of 98, out of which I flat out guessed on 52.
How did I prepare? I didn't. I took the practice test last month, intending to hit the books. As with every exam I study for, I make a list of topics I predict will be on the exam and focus on what I predict to be high yield topics. Maybe it's cuz I just graduated and care less, maybe it's cuz I started working full-time, but I ended up not studying at all until last night, when I started browsing random wikipedia pages.
Am I glad I didn't prepare? Absolutely. Most of the questions that I flatly guessed on were nowhere on my list of topics to review. And the other quarter of questions I guessed on were on topics I vaguely remember learning once, some distant time ago. Or they asked about treatment priorities that I found subjective.
Basically, unless you're eager to re-memorize details way back from gross anatomy (not just head and neck!), biochemistry, and dental anatomy, just to answer an extra question or two, it's not worth your time. There was literally a question on the mechanism of a drug I've only heard of from seeing its television commercial. And no, I didn't pay enough attention back then to remember its mechanism. Another question tested a concept that I distinctly remember having learned in Chemistry AP, and not since then. Another question asked about a clinical recommendation that my perio prof told me recently is getting changed, so... I didn't know how to answer that question.
This being the pilot year, two residency directors told me they plan on looking at your ADAT scores after they send out acceptances, just to see how they chose. So, don't worry and everyone enjoy your summer!
