The previous poster I'm assuming goes to Nova and appears to be a first year. I don't want to turn this into a Nova vs. Florida war, but there are some differences in taking the clinical exam at each location.
I took the FL Board in March. The written exam is passable I didn't hear about any of my classmates failing it. Don't take it lightly because its like $800 to retake it if you fail. Also be prepared to take it during the 30 days prior to the clinical exam. You won't get clearance to take it until 30 days before the clinical and on your exam approval sheet in the mail it says you must take it by a certain day which is before the clinical exam. You won't know the results for 3-4 weeks. I finished the written exam in like 2.5-3 hours as did a lot of my classmates. You need a 75 to pass, I got an 87 if I remember correctly. Really after taking it, a lot of the exam is composed of things you should absolutely know to be a general dentist. I would definitely see if you could get your hands on old NERB reviews or exams. I saw a ridiculous amount of repeated material. If it wasn't word for word the general idea of the case was the same and it was easy to figure out. It was definitely easier than NBDE Part 2. Which is probably why a lot of people taking the NERB take Part 2 around the same time.
For those wondering why I'm talking about NERB for the Florida board, it is because the NERB examiners currently administer the Florida Dental Board Examination.
Laws and Rules is a crap shoot. I did fine on it. Some of my classmates barely passed. Good thing it's not $800 to retake it. So if you fail you take it again. You get your score right away on this one.
When they went to the new format last November they gave it at Nova and I was told they had a lot of problems with getting patients from the treatment clinic and the grading clinc, etc.. Basically wasting a lot of your examination time. I've never been there so I can't really tell you what it is like. At UF (Gainesville) I can tell you patients are treated on two floors only. During the March exam the grading was done on one of the second floor clinics. The candidiates were working on the other second floor clinic or the clinic directly above that one on the third floor. I don't know what the march exam was like at Nova either.
Where timing becomes an issue is during restorative. Everyone on the floor gets one chance to submit their restorative patient. Once everyone has that chance everyone turns their paper over at the same time. From that time you have 6 hours to prep, grade, restore, grade, submit RSD #2, prep, grade, restore and send for grade. The big unknown is how long your patient will take to get thru the grading clinic. My class 2 prep took the longest which I think was somewhere around 40-45 minutes. Before we started restorative the monitor kindly told us that we should work on finishing the first prep in under an hour. A lot of the problems at the Novemer Exam had to do with timing issues.
They will also tell you there is an express chair to request modifications. If you know you are down on time just make sure there is no decay and the prep looks ideal, and that everything is clean! If you go a little past ideal they probably won't know the difference and if they do you probably won't fail. In my opinion the express chair is not express at all. You have to call over your monitor once you have written your request for modification. They get someone to walk your patient to the express chair in the grading clinic. Then your request is approved or denied. This whole process probably is at least 15 min or more. To me express would be a grader coming to your chair and approving it on the spot.
The perio is relatively easy. The monitor comes over makes sure you papers are in order and gives you consent for anesthesia. You administer it and send your patient for pre-treatment grading. When they come back you have the alloted time for treatment (90 min I think). Everyone starts at different times. They will put a post it note with your end time on your operatory wall. They grade you on being able to identify calculus on your designated surfaces, and then cleaning them. I would suggest trying to find teeth in one quadrant. You can only pick surfaces on 6-8 teeth. Of those teeth 3 of them need at least one surface with a pocket depth of 4mm or more. I'd suggest trying list all Mesial and Distal surfaces. This way it is easier on the grader and on you when your are checking. There is also a rule in the CIB that you must clean all surfaces of the tooth. For example, if you only list 18M as the only graded surface you MUST clean all surfaces of #18. I don't know how they would penalize you if you didn't. Also you have to probe two teeth they pick. A lot of people forget to do that so don't forget it. Some of my classmates made a pact that as soon as one of them did it they would causually say out loud "I'm probing now". Some of them forgot and remembered midway thru SRP and actually stoped in the middle to probe. It's a free 12 points that you should easily get. Give your patient more anesthesia before you send them for post treatment grading.
I took one of the prep classes and even they said if you had to pick an exam site pick Gainesville. They also said a lot of the graders and proctors prefer the Gainesville site over Nova. That said location won't determine if you pass or fail. You just need to know how to work the exam and the rules. If you're qualified you can pass the procedures without problems at all.
The nice thing about Florida Boards is that they tell you if you pass or fail at the end of the examination weekend. The other boards make you wait for 3-4 weeks. The other big PLUS is that once you pass FL boards you can get NERB status in like 30+ other states accepting the NERB exam. So yes you can take your Florida license to practice in those states. Be aware if you take the NERB outside of Florida you still won't be able to get a license in FL. So for now it is a one way street.
