My mentality towards my grades in dental school - any suggestions?

[iAiAiA]

Before I elaborate, here's my situation:

-D1
-Do not plan on specializing
-Plan to go down GP route
-Do not plan on attending residency


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I'm in the habit of striving for As in undergrad in order to get into dental school. This expectation sometimes comes with an emotional "sting" in the chest at the sight of any grade less than an A.

Now that I'm in dental school, I'm starting to embody the perspective that GOOD (i.e Bs) grades are OK but it comes with a guilty conscious.

My conflicting thought process:

1. I feel like tuition is so high and the only way I'll extract real value from dental school is making the most out of it and getting the best grades

2. my definition of "making the most out of it" is changing and I don't know if it means getting straight As anymore... I'd much rather be a talented Clinician and honestly a great person to my patients.


----

that being said, my current mantra has been:

DO MY BEST BUT DON'T BE BURDENED IF I DON'T GET STRAIGHT A's

I'm afraid if I shift my perspective to: "just pass" ill fall short of the mark. So it's more of a "shoot for the stars to land on the clouds" thing.

Also, I don't want to embody a mentality now that will make passing the boards hard later

---

I would love any 2 cents / practical wisdom.

It feels ideal to just say get straight A's and put in the time for it all. However, I want to be wise and objective driven instead of embodying cookie-cutter feel good ideas. Don't get me wrong I'm willing to put the TIME AND ENERGY into Clinic to make sure I master those skills.

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[lemoncurry]

Cs get degrees

 

[Greyangel6]

Aside from a case of bruised ego, I personally enjoyed my dental school life as much as I could. Because even if I stressed, I wouldn't do my treatments any differently (because you will realize soon enough that your treatment/treatment plan is often dictated by your preceptor/attending), and I'd just be stressed for things out of my control. My goal is to pass dental school, then do MY OWN kind of dentistry (within statues and regulations, etc.)

 

[ysrebob]

first B of dental school

 

[iAiAiA]

Aside from a case of bruised ego, I personally enjoyed my dental school life as much as I could. Because even if I stressed, I wouldn't do my treatments any differently (because you will realize soon enough that your treatment/treatment plan is often dictated by your preceptor/attending), and I'd just be stressed for things out of my control. My goal is to pass dental school, then do MY OWN kind of dentistry (within statues and regulations, etc.)

Totally agree.

In regards to your comment on “a bruised ego” — would love for you to dive deeper into that if you don’t mind. Fascinating statement.

 

[iAiAiA]

first B of dental school

Absolutely enlightening.

 

[Rambunctious]

As a new associate, your employer doesn't care what your GPA is.

 

[free99]

I'll break the mold -- your bullet points in the beginning are what you want now, that may change. I had the same opinion as you -- dental school costs way way too much to not try as hard as you can and keep all doors open. That doesn't mean working all the time, though; I found I did really hit my stride when I made time to have hobbies, work out, spend time with wife. Prioritizing those things meant the time I devoted to studying had to be efficient. Personally I found studying 3-4 hours in the early AM before exams and quizzes to be very effective. Cram 'n dump.

 

[TanMan]

Before I elaborate, here's my situation:

-D1
-Do not plan on specializing
-Plan to go down GP route
-Do not plan on attending residency


------

I'm in the habit of striving for As in undergrad in order to get into dental school. This expectation sometimes comes with an emotional "sting" in the chest at the sight of any grade less than an A.

Now that I'm in dental school, I'm starting to embody the perspective that GOOD (i.e Bs) grades are OK but it comes with a guilty conscious.

My conflicting thought process:

1. I feel like tuition is so high and the only way I'll extract real value from dental school is making the most out of it and getting the best grades

2. my definition of "making the most out of it" is changing and I don't know if it means getting straight As anymore... I'd much rather be a talented Clinician and honestly a great person to my patients.


----

that being said, my current mantra has been:

DO MY BEST BUT DON'T BE BURDENED IF I DON'T GET STRAIGHT A's

I'm afraid if I shift my perspective to: "just pass" ill fall short of the mark. So it's more of a "shoot for the stars to land on the clouds" thing.

Also, I don't want to embody a mentality now that will make passing the boards hard later

---

I would love any 2 cents / practical wisdom.

It feels ideal to just say get straight A's and put in the time for it all. However, I want to be wise and objective driven instead of embodying cookie-cutter feel good ideas. Don't get me wrong I'm willing to put the TIME AND ENERGY into Clinic to make sure I master those skills.

If you really want to extract the value of your education, learn what you need to get your license, filter the rest of the useless material out, and reinforce what makes you a profitable dentist. Passing the boards is EASY (in my time, Part I/II). A week is enough to pass. Getting good grades doesn't extract "value" out of your education. Becoming a profitable dentist who has their license has extracted the most value out of their education.

When you start to have many many exams in a week, you need to ration your time. Aim for a B so if you undershoot, you get a C (or even D's if your school allows D's as passing). Our school allowed D's, it was notated in our transcript, but who cares if you're doing GP.

 

[teehee69]

A lot of people like you regret not truly applying themselves later in life. You never know if you will change your mind about specializing in the future. Maybe its best to just always give everything you do 100%

 

[Captain Underplants]

A lot of people like you regret not truly applying themselves later in life. You never know if you will change your mind about specializing in the future. Maybe its best to just always give everything you do 100%

Very true, the number of students who start clinics then find out they really like Endo/Ortho/OS etc and end up posting in D3 year on SDN asking about advice on how to apply to Endo/Ortho/OS with a 2.9-3.2 GPA is large enough to make you really reconsider how sure you are you won't want to specialize or at least do a GPR

 

[2TH MVR]

Yep. I had your same plan until D2 where I realized that I did not want to do general dentistry the rest of my life. Gotta keep your options open.