What Would You Have Done Differently?

[Wand]

I know there have been similar posts, but I'm just curious. To the people who are in Dental School or have recently graduated, what would you have done differently to make your time in Dental School better (less stressful, more efficient, etc)?

I'm starting Dental School in August, and would love some helpful tips from the people who have been there. From what I've read on here, Dental School is hell on earth, so I'm trying to prepare the best I can. I know time management is key, but it seems like some really smart people on here are still having trouble.

I've completely taken the summer off, and am having a blast before entering (as recommended). My game-plan for dental school is to bust @$$ on the weekdays going to school and studying, and try to have fun and relax on the weekends (if possible). But other than that, does anybody who has been through it have anything they would have done differently as far as studying or anything like that? Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

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[aphistis]

I know there have been similar posts, but I'm just curious. To the people who are in Dental School or have recently graduated, what would you have done differently to make your time in Dental School better (less stressful, more efficient, etc)?

I'm starting Dental School in August, and would love some helpful tips from the people who have been there. From what I've read on here, Dental School is hell on earth, so I'm trying to prepare the best I can. I know time management is key, but it seems like some really smart people on here are still having trouble.

I've completely taken the summer off, and am having a blast before entering (as recommended). My game-plan for dental school is to bust @$$ on the weekdays going to school and studying, and try to have fun and relax on the weekends (if possible). But other than that, does anybody who has been through it have anything they would have done differently as far as studying or anything like that? Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

I would have learned how to study--really study, not just cram the night before an exam--prior to starting dental school. The middle of a 30-credit hour semester is a hell of a time to discover you've never really learned how to study effectively.

 

[DVA]

It goes much more than studying early or any "one fits all" solution. Quite frankly, focus on the things you suck on. There really isn't that much downtime, and you should realize when push comes to shove you need to drop things that you dont need. For example, I never went to biochemistry once after first quarter. Didnt go to ortho for a full quarter, and same for a lot of other classes because I needed more lab time.

 

[the toothfairy]

I know there have been similar posts, but I'm just curious. To the people who are in Dental School or have recently graduated, what would you have done differently to make your time in Dental School better (less stressful, more efficient, etc)?

I'm starting Dental School in August, and would love some helpful tips from the people who have been there. From what I've read on here, Dental School is hell on earth, so I'm trying to prepare the best I can. I know time management is key, but it seems like some really smart people on here are still having trouble.

I've completely taken the summer off, and am having a blast before entering (as recommended). My game-plan for dental school is to bust @$$ on the weekdays going to school and studying, and try to have fun and relax on the weekends (if possible). But other than that, does anybody who has been through it have anything they would have done differently as far as studying or anything like that? Any helpful tips would be appreciated.

Don'y procastinate, start practicing your manual dexterity, make friends and study with a group. Those are things I wish I would have done.

 

[Edentulator]

Something I did that really paid off was to establish good relationships with the administrative staff and dental assisting staff. (No, my school didn't provide assistants for four-handed dentistry, just for the odd impression and to manage sterilization and stuff!)

This was really helpful whenever administrative stuff came up that I needed help with, or when I had to expedite cases or get special permissions for things. People will be much more willing to help you if you are nice to them and never rude, even when things get stressful. Don't forget to thank them sometimes, and treats never hurt on occasion.

 

[browncrack]

Be on time. Don't complain. Just do the work. It's four years long and no one likes it. If you graduate on time and are an average dental student then you're still pretty darn talented.

 

[OG1]

Well, this won't help you, but in case any applying pre-dents read this thread - I would have applied to all of the cheapest dental schools and tried like heck to get into one of them. I did this for ortho and saved a ton of money, but man, I wish I could go back and reduce the debt I accrued from dental school.

Now to answer for you - first, I would have tried to review/skim powerpoints or lecture notes before class when they are available. It's amazing how much more you can pick up during a lecture if you've got just a basic outline in your head beforehand. I'm not talking about studying them hard, just a brief skim through. This will make hard study after the lecture even more effective. The few times I did this I was astounded by how much I picked up from the lectures.

Second: keep my laptop in my backpack whenever possible. I got far more out of lectures when I forced myself to do this and took handwritten notes. I mean it, I don't care how fast you type! I type 90 WPM and I still wish I would have done it all the time. Print out powerpoints ahead of time and take notes on those. The laptop is WAYYYYY too distracting! You'll be clicking around and fiddling with powerpoints, then suddenly wondering what's on eBay, then sending text messages to your friends. Obviously, laptops are fantastic tools, but in class they provide too much temptation. Put that damn thing away!!! And please don't be like the goobers in my class who sat on the front row every day playing Age of Empires 3 with each other on their pretty little Macbooks.

 

[Tooth]

I went to an extremely competitive undergraduate university. I had to study my balls off to just get a 3.36 GPA. However, once I made it to dental school it was all downhill. So, first ask yourself what kind of experience are you having right now. If your undergrad is a breeze, dental school will be hard. Or vice versa.

That being said, I have plenty of friends at dental school who had the mindset that C's get degrees. If you have no plans on specializing, dental school can be very easy for you. Trying to turn B's into A's is exponentially harder. The dental school has a vested interest in keeping you around. They want donations! As long as your not in the bottom 5%, you'll stay off the radar.

 

[klpennin]

You say that you want to relax on the weekends. I would say that you should relax 1 day. I always took Saturday off to spend time with my family. But Sunday was a study day to get ahead on the tests the upcoming week. I say this beacuse you will have classes 8-5 and there is not much time to study during the week. After a full day of classes, you are a bit brain dead and just want to relax, eat dinner, and then maybe study a few hours.

As others have said, make friends. They will help keep you sane and you can have eachothers back if you forget about something to turn in and what not.

About taking notes, I think it depends on your personality and if you can resist not going on the internet and getting distracted. It was no problem for me to take notes on the laptop and pay attention in class. Its a hassle to print out ppts every night and it wastes paper.

 

[Rutsy]

Be organized. Either have a pocket calendar with you, or use one on your laptop. Dental school sucks because they throw so much at you and you don't really get to have a break. In undergrad you have midterms and finals, and everything else is pretty much cake. In dental school, at least where I go, there are midterm sized tests weekly, with sim clinic lab work, quizes, and case presentations interspersed. You don't get that break that you did in undergrad to collect yourself again. Thus, be organized. Write down everything due weekly and all of your exams, that way you can find down time and still be efficient.

 

[cresophene]

I would of probably gotten myself a girlfriend.

 

[newyorkblork]

Remember to stay balanced.

I feel that for some of us, it's very tempting, having 'reached' dental school, to say, "Now I am Going to BE A DENTAL STUDENT", and think that that means studying 24/7, taking everything super seriously, never going out (that was for undergrads, not DENTAL STUDENTS), not making friends (I'm only here for four years anyway, and my real friends are back home), so on, so forth. I don't know if you are one of these people, but I can't tell you how wrong, how harmful, how stressful, and how idiotic this mentality is in the long run.

I came to school thinking that I was ready for some sort of 24/7 grind where I didn't really need other people all that much. I am very much the type of person to super-focus on one thing, then remember life has other things. 4 years is a lot longer than it seems, and will be a lot worse than it needs to be, without a good structure of peers and relaxation in place.

As far as extracurriculars, a lot of people might say "You can't afford to spend time doing reading/video games/music/poetry/sock puppets/whatever it is that gets you going in dental school". The truth is probably quite the opposite: you can't afford not to make some private time to do these things, because unless you are one of those rare, soulless beings, you will burn out. Hard. And it will suck.

What would I do differently? I'm still a D1, and already I can say that in first semester, I would have focused more on developing close relationships with people I care about, and focused less on school. I would have learned more about effective stress management, and less about the Golgi apparatus. Balance is key to survival, especially in a place like this.

 

[NotPennysBoat]

Remember to stay balanced.

I feel that for some of us, it's very tempting, having 'reached' dental school, to say, "Now I am Going to BE A DENTAL STUDENT", and think that that means studying 24/7, taking everything super seriously, never going out (that was for undergrads, not DENTAL STUDENTS), not making friends (I'm only here for four years anyway, and my real friends are back home), so on, so forth. I don't know if you are one of these people, but I can't tell you how wrong, how harmful, how stressful, and how idiotic this mentality is in the long run.

I came to school thinking that I was ready for some sort of 24/7 grind where I didn't really need other people all that much. I am very much the type of person to super-focus on one thing, then remember life has other things. 4 years is a lot longer than it seems, and will be a lot worse than it needs to be, without a good structure of peers and relaxation in place.

As far as extracurriculars, a lot of people might say "You can't afford to spend time doing reading/video games/music/poetry/sock puppets/whatever it is that gets you going in dental school". The truth is probably quite the opposite: you can't afford not to make some private time to do these things, because unless you are one of those rare, soulless beings, you will burn out. Hard. And it will suck.

What would I do differently? I'm still a D1, and already I can say that in first semester, I would have focused more on developing close relationships with people I care about, and focused less on school. I would have learned more about effective stress management, and less about the Golgi apparatus. Balance is key to survival, especially in a place like this.

THIS is the good stuff. Thanks dude/dudette.