I want to do OMFS, but my sim lab grades arent great?

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Jumpman26

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Im a rising D2 who entered dental school with the hopes of pursuing OMFS. From day one, ive done everything i can to put myself in a position to match, trying to keep my class rank high and engaging with my home Oral surg department. Throughout D1 year, i spent alot of time studying for the basic science didactic courses and managed to do well in them, however the down side to that is I spent so much time studying for those classes that i often neglected my lab exercises. I felt that i was way behind in terms of sim clinic skills in comparison to my classmates. The highest grade ive gotten on a practical is a B+, i usually end up just passing. Again, i could probably do better if i spent more time coming in to practice after hours, but im constantly worried about studying for exams. Truthfully, its difficult to get myself to care about caries removal and crown preps. Because of my lab grades, my overall my class rank is just within the top 20, and based on what ive read here that is the borderline for an OMFS candidate. I guess i just want to know if any OMFS docs had similar experience in dental school? Im a little worried that if i dont match into OMFS, I will come out of dental school without the confidence and skills necessary to be a good dentist. Is it worth it to continue to focus on didactic courses and not spend as much time on sim lab?

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Luckily the consensus is that CBSE > Rank. My rank is similar to yours but I’m not very concerned because I broke 80 on the CBSE. Try not to drop any further and do well on the CBSE and you’ll be fine.
 
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Im a rising D2 who entered dental school with the hopes of pursuing OMFS. From day one, ive done everything i can to put myself in a position to match, trying to keep my class rank high and engaging with my home Oral surg department. Throughout D1 year, i spent alot of time studying for the basic science didactic courses and managed to do well in them, however the down side to that is I spent so much time studying for those classes that i often neglected my lab exercises. I felt that i was way behind in terms of sim clinic skills in comparison to my classmates. The highest grade ive gotten on a practical is a B+, i usually end up just passing. Again, i could probably do better if i spent more time coming in to practice after hours, but im constantly worried about studying for exams. Truthfully, its difficult to get myself to care about caries removal and crown preps. Because of my lab grades, my overall my class rank is just within the top 20, and based on what ive read here that is the borderline for an OMFS candidate. I guess i just want to know if any OMFS docs had similar experience in dental school? Im a little worried that if i dont match into OMFS, I will come out of dental school without the confidence and skills necessary to be a good dentist. Is it worth it to continue to focus on didactic courses and not spend as much time on sim lab?
Top 20 is fine. Like the above said, CBSE is far more important. 75+ you should be fine
 
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I hate sim lab grading... just stopped by to say this
 
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The reason I think dental school is harder than medical school is because of sim lab. There's so much ambiguity and inconsistency in terms of grading and fairness that it just makes life unnecessarily more complicated. Like above posters said, I think CBSE is the ticket to interviews. That being said, the standard for a good score is going up every year.
 
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The reason I think dental school is harder than medical school is because of sim lab. There's so much ambiguity and inconsistency in terms of grading and fairness that it just makes life unnecessarily more complicated. Like above posters said, I think CBSE is the ticket to interviews. That being said, the standard for a good score is going up every year.

Med school grading is ambiguous too though. My brother is in med school and his MS3 and MS4 grades are based off of attending faculty reviews/evals of his performance at 10-12hr/day hospital rotation shifts. And the grading just depends whether he gets lucky and gets assigned to an easier attending or not.
 
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Med school grading is ambiguous too though. My brother is in med school and his MS3 and MS4 grades are based off of attending faculty reviews/evals of his performance at 10-12hr/day hospital rotation shifts. And the grading just depends whether he gets lucky and gets assigned to an easier attending or not.

Yeah but it is the the SIM lab component on top of the didactics that just kick you in the butt. My bro is a physician and told him what we had to endure D1-D2 and he says that he had a lot of free time. Do not worry though, they make it up with their mandatory residencies.
 
Med school grading is ambiguous too though. My brother is in med school and his MS3 and MS4 grades are based off of attending faculty reviews/evals of his performance at 10-12hr/day hospital rotation shifts. And the grading just depends whether he gets lucky and gets assigned to an easier attending or not.

Having done both, dental school is way more ambiguous. You'll have two dental faculty at the same lab table that look at the same prep and give an A versus an F. Medical school has more standardization and they take shelf exams at the end of each rotation that make up a big percentage of their final grade.

As far as those 10-12/day hospital rotation shifts, you are a lowly med student. You are "following" the patients on the service while the residents/chiefs/attendings are the ones actually treating the patient. In dental school, when you have a full day scheduled with crowns, restorative, and exos...you and you only are doing all that work.
 
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Having done both, dental school is way more ambiguous. You'll have two dental faculty at the same lab table that look at the same prep and give an A versus an F. Medical school has more standardization and they take shelf exams at the end of each rotation that make up a big percentage of their final grade.

As far as those 10-12/day hospital rotation shifts, you are a lowly med student. You are "following" the patients on the service while the residents/chiefs/attendings are the ones actually treating the patient. In dental school, when you have a full day scheduled with crowns, restorative, and exos...you and you only are doing all that work.

Thanks for your perspective. I’m a rising D3 student myself, and I had always viewed my brothers med school work as being a lot tougher.
 
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