I am a bit annoyed with people saying how the Wreb is so easy and all can pass.
It isn't easy and the passing score was raised a while ago. Yes the procedure and somethings aren't as screwy but for one reason or another, during the exam many lil crap can come up and get you unexpectedly.
Thank god I finally passed mine with 85%!
Therefore don't go in thinking WREB is "easy".
I took both the WREB and NERB and I 100% agree. The WREB is much harder than the NERB. Yes, the examiners are much nicer for the WREB, but all exams are needed to be passed together to make sure you pass the whole exam. I mean if you fail one section of the WREB most likely you will have to take the whole thing over again. Also, WREB is extremely critical based on the criteria in the manual. This includes late times. If you are late 1 minute you will definately lose 2 points, I know one girl who was late 14 minutes in endo and the proctor said if she was late one more minute she would lose ALL points for endo section.
The NERB, especially the CIF (Curriculum integrated format) you have multiple chances to take the prostho, written, and patient exam before graduation. The WREB is a very hard exam and anyone who has guts to go through it deserves credit. Those who have the resilience to go through it twice or thrice definitely deserve some respect. the WREB does a great job in relaxing the candidate, but all bets are off you really need to know what you are doing.
The median of scores for the WREB is between 77-79% that means if you are average and are late 1 minute you will lose a score of 2 points, that puts you at 75-77% if you are late by 5 minutes on one section and have done average work you can fall below 75%.
-- Do NOT lose points on rejections. If you are unsure about your perio patient submit 2 quads instead of one so they approve it.
--If you are unsure about your lesions keep looking and asking until you are sure. Change the xray time and angles to find the best xray to submit.
--Do not be late on any submission
--Use Caries detector, I highly recommend Snoop, it is dark blue and stains beautifully.
-- If you think it is caries, demineralization, etc ask for a mod. I was doing an amalgam prep and was unsure if I had caries so I asked for four mods (extend facial wall, extend axial wall, extend gingival floor, they approved two and rejected two. However if I had only asked for two but have caries on the third one they could fail you. this is the only area you should risk losing points on if you have to, but make sure you ask and for the areas you dont ask for a mod be 100% sure there is no caries there.
-- Read the manual, make a note sheet.
-- Take models of your patient and have them with you
-- Have an awesome assistant, especially one who can calm you down. I paid $300 for mine and she was worth every penny. My amalgam fractured (the school i took my exam had these weird amalgamators and I could not figure out the time to titurate the amalgam I use). It was 4:05pm I had to submit a patient at 4:30, I used up 4 spills of amalgam out of 5 that I had (2 of them I had to test on these retero amalgamators, 1 didn't mix well, I used one, and I had only one left.) Instead of burnishing the amalgam, I decided to take it out. Tighten the matrix band and wedge it and go at it. I used the disposable matrix bands from ultradent.
-- Remember what can go wrong, will go wrong and be prepared for the worst.
-- For endo, I would recommend choosing two teeth that are in close proximity together. Taking the rubber dam on and off is horrible and you lose lots of time. If you have #9 and #12 you can rubber dam them together, access them together take xrays and fill together. I had #10 and #19 and it was a pain going back and forth. Have canals with straight canals. premeasure the length before you set the teeth. Practice on a few "bad teeth" those w/ craze lines, calcified canals. If you are lucky to extract your own teeth on patients try to see if they have twins (lets say you are doing a full mouth extraction on someone and they are getting #12 and #5; #19 and #30 you can save one and practice on one, most teeth from the same patient usually have the same anatomy. Its like getting a sneak peek before the exam.
- Try to find both class II's on the same patient.
-- take many xrays of the teeth at different times and angles. Make sure how much room you have from the pulp. 85% you can figure out if there is danger of hitting the pulp. Your amalgam will be between 1.5-2.5 mm deep measure that on the xray and see "worst case scenario"
-- Work on your patient before you use them on the WREB, If they have other cavities you can test out what their dentin looks like, how well they handle anesthesia and rubber dam.
-- USE LOUPES, the examiners use them why shouldn't you? All the examiners at my site had 4.0x loupes. You want to see exactly what they see.
- Try to find teeth that are a little rotated, and note this before submitting: "Tooth is rotated, please note preparation will not be ideal." Just that note will give you lots of room to prep and not worry. If there is light contact, note that, "contact present, but light."
-- Do not give up, there will be surprises, stuff you never thought about in your wildest dreams and stuff you can't control, so don't let anything freak you out.
-- This exam is your "hazing" before you get into this fraternity which we call dentistry. Looking back you will realize that it was all worth it.
Good luck to everyone.
DesiDentist
Wow...its time to go on vacation! So for those who have had ****ty weekends with pink slips..there is light at the end of the tunnel. 
