Opinions

[cavit]

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I have been a long time reader of these message boards, and I have finally joined. I want to get an opinion about something from those who are currently in dental school, and those who have already graduated from dental school.

As I am sure most schools do, the class above you distributes and archive of notes, study guides, charts, etc. There might be an occasional exam if students memorized questions, or the professors posted a copy of the exam, etc. The class presidents are in charge of obtaining and distributing the resource material. Interestingly enough, many people have noticed that the class president along with his/her clique of friends studying materials that not all of us have. And the best part is, this person says it's all on the archive... which it is not. So, many people in my class have started to think that the class president took all of the exams and more beneficial study materials off of the resource archive before distributing it to the rest of us. A classmate of mine overheard this person talking about our finals, and how this person apparently has had old copies of many of our exams which have changed very little over the years. Does it frustrate me that I do not have these materials, and other people do? Yes. As I think it does other people in the class. Also, this same person who overheard the class president talking about the old exams, has apparently intercepted some emails (i.e. they were not supposed to get them, but were somehow on the distribution list) that actually talked about having copies of the exams, distributing them, etc. And the funny part about this is apparently the names that are attached to this email are those of the class president and class vice president. I thought the class president and vice president were supposed to represent the entire class, not just their clique of friends who they are helping out. I guess my frustrations stem from the fact that I am working my butt off to make the grades I do and the people who have these materials are coasting through dental school. Maybe it will catch up to them in the clinic next year if they haven't learned the material. I think in a lot of ways, they are doing a disservice to their patients, especially having had a copy of the operative exam. If all they are having to do is memorize questions, are they really learning the material? Granted, I do not have any proof. This is what I have a heard. But would you do anything about this if you were in my shoes? Would you do anything about this if you were in the person's shoes who has heard this stuff and received emails on accident? What would you do? I am not a cut throat, vindictive person, and I don't want to ever possibly destroy the career of one of my future colleagues, but if this is all true, it is definitely not right. Have any of you ever had similar situations occur in your class or other classes at your school? What happened?


P.S. The class president and vice president were re-elected again...

 

[drpharMD]

Not a dental student, but I can relate. Ultimately, you have two choices. If you are scoring well on your exams WITHOUT the use of the previous years exams, then I would leave it alone. Whether you have an exam or not shouldn't determine your prowess if you are learning the material and performing well. The material is the same for everyone, so it shouldn't really matter.

However, if you are struggling/not performing as well as you could, then I would be proactive. Have you tried to ASK the pres/vp for a copy of the tests? Trust me, they will NOT say no to you because you aren't part of their clique/not a friend. The good thing about those with former tests is that if word gets out, they cannot control the demand. They will feel OBLIGATED to give you a copy or give you access to them, for fear of what you might do, ESPECIALLY if they are class officers. Imagine their fear if they receive an email from a dean who wants to squash their use of practice exams? They would never take that chance to ruin their prowess on exams AND to be looked at negatively from the faculty.

In closing, I think if you feel this really makes a difference, then I would email the pres/vp and ask for access to practice exams. I am pretty sure, do to what I have stated already, that he/she will NOT rebuff you, and then the playing field will be level. Don't sound threatening - just say something like, "I heard you have access to some old exams.....etc." Remember, it is YOUR grades hanging in the balance - do whatever it takes to make sure you perform at the highest level on all your exams.

 

[Istr8nthem]

I feel as though this is a problem at every dental school. Not always is it a class president/VP though. When I was in D school we had several groups of students that got certain hand-me-downs from upper classmen that no one else had, and occasionally someone outside of these groups would talk them into giving it to them and then spread it around the class, which just caused them to be even more secretive with their materials in the future. It is a very tough situation; one that is difficult to know the right thing to do. Like it has been said before, you can directly ask them if they have things they are not sharing, or you can simply go to the upper classmen and ask them for materials that they had from the years past that may be the info that your president has currently.

It can be incredibly frustrating when there are questions that test more than just the info that was supposed to be learned in the class, and those with the old exams get it right, and no matter how hard you studied, you get it wrong... If this trend persists and there is concrete evidence of your class leaders keeping info from you guys, you can arrange to speak with the professors of your classes along with other students in your class and explain that there are old tests floating around that are not available for certain individuals to see. This can create a school-wide issue where professors begin to make all new exams and puts everyone back on the same playing field. Now, I would suggest this as a last resort because it can cause a divide within your class and within your school, but this can be used as leverage to get the old materials. Just my 2 cents from experiences similar to this.

 

[tinman831]

Yes. It happened. The instructor found out prior to the exam taking place and re-wrote the exam. It was an already easy class to start with. The instructor just made the exam that much more harder. 😡

 

[Oracle DMD]

how is it possible that your whole class doesn't know this? that sucks. i hope nobody is memorizing answers from tests and archiving them...that could be BIG trouble.

 

[Daurang]

This has been going on forever at every school, undergrads and grads. Some dental schools even have previous year's board exam questions; you should concentrate on getting your hands on those. You will become a dentist even if you graduate last in your class so don't mind what other people are doing.