Dec 2009 Exam

[enamel prizm]

I took the exam in Dec 2009 and got my score, it is 86 not a competitive score however it was my first attempt and I graduated 15 years ago so I literally had to teach myself most of the subjects especially Biochemistry which is a real pain.
Dental Anatomy is the easiest to score and basically the exam is not very difficult, it tests mostly your basic concepts and I mostly focused on the complex and in depth topics which was not really needed in my opinion.
Dental Decks are amazing if you learn them extremely well and ASDA past papers are helpful too. I read reference books too but they are not very high yield, what you would read in 6 pages in a book is printed on one card of Dental Decks. I read a lot of articles on Wikipedia as well I think it is an excellent resource.
In the second half the testlet questions from cervical and brachial plexus were difficult for me.
The dilemma for me is to decide whether to retake or not, can anyone help me find a source to research the admission statistics of various schools so I have an idea what scores are being accepted. I understand that the overall weight of the application is considered by the admission committee, I have a very very low GPA, well here are my stats;

NBDE 1: 86
TOEFL: 114
GPA: 1.75

I have been practicing as a dental hygienist in Canada for the past 3 years mostly doing orthodontics and can provide 10-12 excellent reference letters from the dentists here that I worked with.

I would appreciate if someone could offer some advice, thanks.

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[minu]

First of all, I think that because ur GPA is low, U need to improve ur score. Because most of the colleges require Good GPA.

They do accept 86 scores but with above 3.5 GPA.

And u can know the acceptance statistics by looking at the threads in SDN itself.People have posted their staistics.

U can still try applying and test ur luck..

All the best..

 

[dr37]

Your nbde score is decent and esp when you took it after sooo many years out of school. The thing to worry abt is your GPA..still i 'ld say go ahead and apply where ever you can.. no harm in trying right??

 

[Raluca]

Hi dr37 how was your exam? What other sources did you use compared to the first time? Are released exams that important? Some people say that they have studied the released exams. Do you think this is really helpful? In all disciplines or only in some.
Good luck with your Part II preparation!