CBSE - Feb. 2023

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Anyone have any advice on how to retain information while juggling dental school? I start D1 in a few days, and I have ~2 weeks of dental school before CBSE.
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ToothJockey said:
Anki spaced repetition

A bit confused, are you planning on taking the CBSE 2 weeks into D1?
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+1 keep up with anki at least until you start uworld preferably up until NBME time. I did 200k reviews in 7 months but dropped off during Uworld and fully regret it.
 
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I studied for CBSE in my last semester of undergrad and am about to take it at the start of D1 (about 2 weeks in) sorry for the confusion. I gave up on using Anki about 5 months in. I finished UWorld and am on NBMEs now (I take 29 today). Thank you for the advice though!
 
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This is the first I've heard of someone taking the CBSE 2 weeks into D1 lmao

Honestly didn't think AAOMS lets you sign up until you're in dental school
 
ToothJockey said:
This is the first I've heard of someone taking the CBSE 2 weeks into D1 lmao

Honestly didn't think AAOMS lets you sign up until you're in dental school
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Yeah it might seem a little weird lol; I'm trying to do it this way because I'm gonna be in a 3-year program.
 
Mirizzi said:
I studied for CBSE in my last semester of undergrad and am about to take it at the start of D1 (about 2 weeks in) sorry for the confusion. I gave up on using Anki about 5 months in. I finished UWorld and am on NBMEs now (I take 29 today). Thank you for the advice though!
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I fully support this. Get it over with early - especially if you’ve always known you’re pursuing OMFS. There’s only a handful of us out there. Knocking it out july d1 is great and gives you the freedom to not worry about it and be ahead and focus just on dental school.
 
odontogenesis said:
I fully support this. Get it over with early - especially if you’ve always known you’re pursuing OMFS. There’s only a handful of us out there. Knocking it out july d1 is great and gives you the freedom to not worry about it and be ahead and focus just on dental school.
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Thank you for the kind words! But to be completely honest I'm not too confident that I'm only gonna take this once lol.
 
I'm not hating, I'm a big proponent of pre studying CBSE before dental school. I've just never heard of someone taking it 2 weeks into D1 lmao.

Even if you don't do well this time, 6 months later you can take the Feb exam and ace it.
 
I’ll come out and say I don’t think pre-studying is a good idea. I guess it's different at a 3 year school but for 99% of people pre-studying simply doesn't make sense and would be too inefficient as the jump from undergrad to med school board level is massive. Before D1, 3 of my classmates formed a CBSE study group and started studying. Two of them ended up failing out and one of them lost interest in OMFS.

Also the aim should always be to take the CBSE once. This exam consumes your life and takes a huge toll on your relationships, I studied for 9 months and some of my relationships have not recovered since Feb. I can't imagine starting school already studying 24/7 for it, you would have to totally isolate yourself from your new classmates during the time most people are becoming best friends.
 
Pleurodynia said:
I’ll come out and say I don’t think pre-studying is a good idea. I guess it's different at a 3 year school but for 99% of people pre-studying simply doesn't make sense and would be too inefficient as the jump from undergrad to med school board level is massive. Before D1, 3 of my classmates formed a CBSE study group and started studying. Two of them ended up failing out and one of them lost interest in OMFS.

Also the aim should always be to take the CBSE once. This exam consumes your life and takes a huge toll on your relationships, I studied for 9 months and some of my relationships have not recovered since Feb. I can't imagine starting school already studying 24/7 for it, you would have to totally isolate yourself from your new classmates during the time most people are becoming best friends.
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Pleur brings up a great point. Don't underestimate the importance of making friends during orientation week when friend groups form and already begin solidifying. To pre-dents: I'm an advocate for moderate studying before dental school in the last 6 months as I and a friend did, while not going hard and spending time with family while you still have it. Family time's hard to come by nowadays
 
Pleurodynia said:
I’ll come out and say I don’t think pre-studying is a good idea. I guess it's different at a 3 year school but for 99% of people pre-studying simply doesn't make sense and would be too inefficient as the jump from undergrad to med school board level is massive. Before D1, 3 of my classmates formed a CBSE study group and started studying. Two of them ended up failing out and one of them lost interest in OMFS.

Also the aim should always be to take the CBSE once. This exam consumes your life and takes a huge toll on your relationships, I studied for 9 months and some of my relationships have not recovered since Feb. I can't imagine starting school already studying 24/7 for it, you would have to totally isolate yourself from your new classmates during the time most people are becoming best friends.
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Yeah these are super good points. Fortunately, I'm in an accelerated BS/DDS program, so I've already gone to undergrad w/ like 30% of my class and have made some friends.

As for the burning out thing... yeah I might be in a pickle lol.
 
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I hear ya. Maybe I’m in the minority for sure. I took the CBSE before officially starting D1 year. I’m just of the camp that if you know what you want to do, go do it. And in my experience AAOMS supports that. Burning out seems to be, like most things, a trendy cord to pull when convenient. In reality, undergrad was pretty easy for most (when compared to graduate training certainly), and when things get busy you’ve just got to put your head down and focus. definitely balance your time, but we’ve all got the same amount of time in a day - spend it very wisely. Just my unpopular $0.02
 
Also, does anyone know how much your score can change in two weeks? And were the concepts from the NBMEs relatively representative of the material on the CBSE?
 
Mirizzi said:
Also, does anyone know how much your score can change in two weeks? And were the concepts from the NBMEs relatively representative of the material on the CBSE?
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Depends on where you are in your learning. For example, mine increased by ~10% in the last couple weeks. And yes, the material is pretty spot on
 
odontogenesis said:
Burning out seems to be, like most things, a trendy cord to pull when convenient.
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Yeah Idk why people pretend like your life ends when you start studying for the CBSE. If anything residency will probably be worse. Friends come and go, they won't pay your bills when you're 40 years old. Your career is your future.

Put your head down and study lol
 
Lol yeah what are you guys talking about? Studying for the CBSE doesn’t mean you need to abandon your friends and everything fun in your life. You gotta put in long hours of studying but you should still hang out with your friends from time to time. Probably can’t go to the bar with them every weekend while you’re studying but it’s important to make time for them for your mental health and sanity.

I would say the ideal time to take it is probably D2 Feb exam for your first try. Gives you plenty of opportunity for retakes if necessary. I took mine D3 Feb. You should not worry about studying before starting dental school. Those last few months between college and dental school should be spent relaxing with friends and family before you start a stressful part of your life where you will have less opportunity to see family. Then once you start you gotta of course put in time to make your friends that are going to bring you happiness in those 4 years of school. Don’t let this test get in the way of that. At the end of the day you need to live. This is just a test (a very hard one at that) and you will have plenty of time to study for and take it. Don’t let it get in the way of your personal relationships at critical moments of your life
 
Wouldn't replace the friends I made in dental school with any score on the CBSE... I was skipping most parties and all, but they understood why and didn't give me a hard time for it. I don't get how some of you are losing friends over some stupid exam lol.
 
You definitely need to make time for friends and family. All I was trying to say is that instead of going out with my friends 1-2 times a week, that turned into 1-2 times a month. Over the course of 9+ months that added up and as a result, I wasn’t as tight with some people as I was before. My close friends obviously understood what I was doing.

My point was that the longer you study for this, the less time you’ll have to invest into friendships, relationships, class rank, research, gym, etc. And by studying before D1 I guarantee you that you will lengthen your total study time vs. if you optimized a strategy after experiencing school first.

The goal should be to maximize your score in as little time as possible.
 
Between CBSE studying and the day to day dental school grind, you do have to make a conscious effort to maintain your relationships in a way that you might not have needed to do before. It’s good practice because it doesn’t get better in residency.
 
stealyoface said:
Lol yeah what are you guys talking about? Studying for the CBSE doesn’t mean you need to abandon your friends and everything fun in your life. You gotta put in long hours of studying but you should still hang out with your friends from time to time. Probably can’t go to the bar with them every weekend while you’re studying but it’s important to make time for them for your mental health and sanity.

I would say the ideal time to take it is probably D2 Feb exam for your first try. Gives you plenty of opportunity for retakes if necessary. I took mine D3 Feb. You should not worry about studying before starting dental school. Those last few months between college and dental school should be spent relaxing with friends and family before you start a stressful part of your life where you will have less opportunity to see family. Then once you start you gotta of course put in time to make your friends that are going to bring you happiness in those 4 years of school. Don’t let this test get in the way of that. At the end of the day you need to live. This is just a test (a very hard one at that) and you will have plenty of time to study for and take it. Don’t let it get in the way of your personal relationships at critical moments of your life
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I’m in my D3 year just starting to study for the CBSE now. Do you think it’s enough time until February exam?
 
For those who took the Feb exam, if you don't mind, what'd you get on your practice scores and real deal? Can DM if you prefer
 
stealyoface said:
You gotta make time if this is what you wanna do. Study from 5-7am before clinic. Study from 6-11pm after clinic. Study in between patients, at lunch, or during no shows
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1. I understand where you coming from and I want it. But can we be realistic here too please? I am exhausted everyday after clinic and so I need adequate enough sleep to be ready next day. The 6-11 works but also have to factor in cooking meals and working out for health. Really not Trying to come off as a softie but thats just me

2. What would you focus on doing? My plan now is to watch med bootcamp videos, do anki, and attack uworld questions. The problem is doing all those three together take up a lot of time and if i focus on one I dont put in time for the others. Been having trouble finding a balance between learning the actual material and doing qbank
 
dentalchamp98 said:
1. I understand where you coming from and I want it. But can we be realistic here too please? I am exhausted everyday after clinic and so I need adequate enough sleep to be ready next day. The 6-11 works but also have to factor in cooking meals and working out for health. Really not Trying to come off as a softie but thats just me

2. What would you focus on doing? My plan now is to watch med bootcamp videos, do anki, and attack uworld questions. The problem is doing all those three together take up a lot of time and if i focus on one I dont put in time for the others. Been having trouble finding a balance between learning the actual material and doing qbank
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You don’t have to be hard core studying during that time. You can take breaks to make food/work out and such. Hell some people don’t even need as much study time to retain info. That is how I did it though. Not to say I held sole attention on studying for those hours but I had stuff out and was studying over the course of those hours. I still ate and if I went to the gym I was answering uworld questions in between sets. It all adds up. Lots of coffee also helps

I used boards and beyond and sketchy micro to build a foundation and then I did a ton of UWorld. UWorld I believe is the most important component. Shows you how to answer questions and explains why other answer choices are wrong. I also referenced first aid. Each person if different though and what works for one person may not for the other. Just some ideas
 
stealyoface said:
You don’t have to be hard core studying during that time. You can take breaks to make food/work out and such. Hell some people don’t even need as much study time to retain info. That is how I did it though. Not to say I held sole attention on studying for those hours but I had stuff out and was studying over the course of those hours. I still ate and if I went to the gym I was answering uworld questions in between sets. It all adds up. Lots of coffee also helps

I used boards and beyond and sketchy micro to build a foundation and then I did a ton of UWorld. UWorld I believe is the most important component. Shows you how to answer questions and explains why other answer choices are wrong. I also referenced first aid. Each person if different though and what works for one person may not for the other. Just some ideas
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Thank you for that, you are absolutely right. I feel like its more so of me being lazy in the past and not putting it all in into practice. So how much time would you say you put into building a foundation vs doing the practice questions?
 
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