I believe that there is no "one" way to pass this exam, and I am willing to share my own experience to show you how I passed this time.
After failing five times, I just sat down and analyzed my scores for each subjects. For all the five times I took it, my particular weakness was operative dentistry, prosthodontics, and case based items. So i told myself, I will study each every subject hard but I will hit those three subjects even harder. So i digged up my old class notes(I finished dent school in May 2008) for operative dentistry and prosthodontics and I just started reading them every day and every morning. It just became ritual to me and I always gave my priority to these subjects. As far as cased base items-my husband(who graduated with me) runs a dental office, and I went with him to his clinic and assisted him and read x-rays and discussed patient cases-I believe these things helped me a lot as far as keeping the knowledge current and fresh. .. and of course, I did old exam questions to know how they ask the questions as well.
For oral surg, ortho, and perio, I just did a lot of old exams and started figuring out the patterns and repeats... and (laughs) after studying these subjects for last two and half years, I got very familiar with these subjects. When I do old exam questions, if there is anything that I do not understand, I would look it up in the notes/textbooks/internet to figure out what it is. I didn't leave anything blank in my mind- I wanted to fill all the blanks and know everything.
For path and pharm.. what can I say other than just know your stuff! Thest subjects are pure memorization, and I used High yield pharmacology book and used class lecture notes for pathology. These ref worked for me was suffice for the exam.
As far as telling you guys how many hours I studied each day... I studied however much I wanted to study each day which varies from 6hrs to just 30 mins a day- I always took wkds off to keep my sanity. Think of the studying period as a marathon-you want to give your brain some break after some studying. Make sure you are eating nutritious food, exercising, and most importantly-always look forward. Do not look back how you failed, but think about how great it would be to finally have passed it. That's how i coached myself through all this time and changing your perspective brings great change in your mind.
The day before the exam-remember to take it easy(I did not look at any studying material and I watched my fav DVD at home) and get plenty of sleep. I know I got at least 7 hrs of sleep and ate good breakfast.
I know each of you will pass. It is a matter of time and your day will come- Know that you can do it and you will. You can take me as an example.. I failed five times and finally did it on my sixth time. I believe I went through this experience to help people who may be going through this tough time...
Let me know if any of you need tips or questions.
🙂👍
