Canadian Boards - need help

[texas_dds]

to the students and docs from the Great White North
I need to take the boards for a canadian license in 2005. Can you be in your final year to take the March exam? What do you study? Any info would be so great

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[Frank Cavitation]

Hi,

I think all dental students in Canada write their boards in 4th year. It's like the 2nd part of the American boards. They'll ask just about anything, and from most accounts the OSCE last year was confusing and stressful. Find out more at their own site: http://www.ndeb.ca

 

[gryffindor]

There were a couple of threads on this exam and what to study for it and expect around Feb. or March on this board earlier this year. Look them up or do a search.

Yes, you can take it in March of your senior year, some of my classmates did this. I think there is a written section and a bell-ringer practical section. My classmates were studying the part II Dental Decks in addition to the old exams which I think are on that website.

 

[tooth_doctor]

Everyone in my school (McGill) takes it in March of their 4th year. We use the American board decks to study because there isn't a similar resource made for the Canadian ones. The exam covers the material of the first and second American exams. There is a new format as of 2004. Each question may have up to 15 answer options given. Some of the options have positive value, and some (the wrong ones) have negative value, and some have no value (neutral nor positive) at all. For example, the question might ask for possible diagnoses of a radioopaque lesion. Radioopaque answers that are potentially true would have positive values, radiolucent answers would likely have negative values. The values of the answers varies (eg some options might be worth half a point while others might be worth a whole point0, and there is no indication given of how many correct answers might be included in the list! As I understand, it has not yet been determined if the same format will be used this year (?).

 

[the big wand]

oh, my god....that sounds so difficult...... I thought they are all MCQ with one correct answer.

 

[DrRob]

The exam is not hard and it doesn't really cover a lot of what the american part 1 covered. The best resource are the old exams posted on the website given by Frank. Look up the answers - you will see these questions again.

I took the exam in March 2002 - I did not have to take the new OSCE afternoon session (I heard that was frustrating). Just remember almost no one fails this test.

I used Dental decks for part 2/ Dental Secrets/ and the old tests. The old tests were by far the best resource.

 

[Smilemaker100]

to the students and docs from the Great White North
I need to take the boards for a canadian license in 2005. Can you be in your final year to take the March exam? What do you study? Any info would be so great

Dear texas_dds,

I am from the "Great White North" ( and no, I don't live in an igloo ! ).
I wrote the exam in March when they added a new component to the OSCE (objective structured clinical exam). We were the "guinea pigs" this year or like they say in french, "les cobailles". I don't know if they will keep it next year. They asked us to fill out a survey in regards to the new component to get our impression and perhaps do any necessary modifications for the upcoming years. I don't know what they will be doing next year but I believe they will keep it.

Yes, as far as I understand, you have to be in your final year to write the Canadian NDEB in March. If you write it later, you won't get your NDEB certificate when you graduate and this is important to obtain if you want to practice as soon as you graduate. However, you also have to look into the provincial dental associations to know their licensing requirements ( usually involves a certain fee) since all provinces have their individual associations.

If you go to the website www.ndeb.ca, there will be a summary of the subjects you need to be familiar with and you will find the past exam (2004)version posted there. However, there are versions of the exams for the years 2001-2003 (passed in between students-ask your collegues from past years). In regards to to the first day of the exam (300 multiple choice questions) you can use several review materials:

1) Dental Decks Part II (for the US NDEB)
2) Dental Secrets ( which sucks!)
3) Review of Oral Diagnosis, Oral Medicine, Radiology and Treatment Planning by Norman K. Wood

As for the second day of the exam (OSCE) , the morning component was rather fair- we had about 50 or so stations with 4 minutes per station each station usually had an Xray or study models or dentoforms ( mannequins) with preps (for crown/ cavities/ occulsal rests that were either adequate or inadequately prepared) and we had a couple of questions for each station. Some stations had a whole medical history as well as perio charting and some Xrays. But sometimes it was not even necessary to read all those things because some of the questions had nothing to do with the information eg. Stafne defect . Read the question before all else to know what to look for.

I think the best way to prepare for the second part (afternoon) of the OSCE is to look at the old exams and familiarize yourself with the format. The multiple extended matching is hell -you have as many as choices A-Q for one question and they don't always indicate how many are correct so if you have all the correct answers and one or two wrong answers, you can still loose points . It's a very weird format . I think the most important thing is to get LOTS of rest before the second day. Even though I did, I was pretty tired that afternoon.

I have a few friends that will be writing it next year. My advice to them was to start studying as early as possible. I had a friend who wrote Part II of the US NDEB this past summer (you can write it in between 3rd and 4th year). I told her that she is way ahead of the game because that will help her with the Canadian NDEB. In any case, give yourself a couple of months to review. And I have to emphasize again, look at the old exams but don't expect them to reappear for the first day (for the 300 MCQ ), however, studying the question format for the second part (OSCE) will help you get ready for the OSCE.

Good luck!!!!