New D2 AMA
Started by Teeth and Titanite
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How long did it take you to adjust to the didactics schedule? Are you confident going into D2? I know a lot of folks would say that's the worst year in terms of studying.
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I would say it took me a month to adjust to the didactics. My performance was all over the place September/early October but since then I've been doing consistently well. If you aren't doing well, be willing to experiment with your study methods and ask an older student what worked for them. For example, I didn't make a single flashcard in undergrad but anki has been super helpful in dental school. Whenever possible, I try to incorporate active recall in my studying. I was scared to try it, but it turned out to be a game changer.
Yeah, I would say I am confident going into D2. We have our exam schedules and it seems like a definite step up compared to D1, but at the same time I imagine the jump from D1 to D2 is smaller than the jump from undergrad to D1 was.
My school is in the Midwest. Best thing about first year has to be the camaraderie with your new classmates, I really feel like I lucked out with mine. Going through those initial struggles with didactics, learning completely new skills in lab from scratch, and making time to enjoy ourselves have all made for some really cool memories.
Worst thing about first year has been sim lab practicals. These are arguably the most stressful part of dental school. They are a huge part of your lab grade and it can be deflating when you practice diligently for months only to barely pass (but a pass is a pass lol).
Something pre-dents should know going in is that hand skills develop far slower than you might think. No matter how good you are doing the first couple weeks, you need to practice-its going to get much tougher. I don't care what your background is: dental assistant, hygienist, gamer, artsiest-fartisiest future Picasso, get in lab and practice!!! Once you start, you'll realize dental school is actually kinda short for the volume of knowledge and skills you are meant to attain.
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Have you started talking about board prep?
My school finishes biomedical sciences in the first 12 months of the program. The last course wrapped up in August and we had to take a 150 question mock-INBDE for which all biomed course content from the previous 3 semesters was fair game. Half of the questions were basic science, and other half were patient boxes.
That's all we've had so far, but quite frankly we are out of the loop for the INBDE. Most people seem to be taking it in Fall of D4. I have no clue how we are expected to carry over the basic science knowledge that far.
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You don't need to worry about basic science knowledge for INBDE. By D4 year, you will know most of the stuff from clinical experience and the test prep material should cover the rest. I didn't have any basic science questions on my exam.
