Now that I've completed all my exams...First semester is definitely the most hectic of the two. You are basically in school 8-5 everyday unless you tend to selectively skip a class or few. The combination of dental anatomy, biochem, histology, gross anatomy in the first semester is definitely a challenge, but for them to condense the gross anatomy course into just one semester is insane. You just have to keep up with the studying and going to the gross lab or else you will not know what structure is what when you see one and that can be discouraging. DentSim is like a brief relieve to your first semester stress as you can hack all the teeth you want! But our class have given bad reviews about the machine as the drill handle is much to big and heavy, as well as they have still not been able to resolve the software issue, which combined to produce a negative feedback about the DentSim course from our class. However, light is at the end of the tunnel when you get to Thanksgiving as that is when your exams are completed and after Thanksgiving all you do is 2 weeks of sealants (so basically including Christmas break, you will have more than 1 month of no studying! Although it will be hard to start back up again in Jan as many of my friend and I have experienced). Sealant program is a great prelude to your clinical experience as you will have more confident to start off treating kids than real adults and it will be the first time to treat live patients and you will have to get use indirect vision and small mouths. This way, when you start doing prophies in 2nd semester with adults, you will have more confident as you will have some experience already. During this 2 weeks you will be able to relax and joke with the kids and do a lot of crazy stuff....well, to be precise, many interesting incidents that you will be able to laugh at!
If you do survive the first semester, second semester is a breeze...there are significantly much more free time, at least 1 or 2 hrs of free time in between classes each day and usually you will only stay on school until 3 pm everyday. The courses are a lot easier too and you will start getting into the fun stuff....clinical work! You will first start off with doing provisionals in BP Fixed and also, you will finally start treating real patients in mid semester on prophies. I know a lot of schools don't start their actual prophies until second year so having Case do this is a bonus. I have done about 10 prophies in just the 1/2 semester alone that I am comfortable in doing it at anytime. Also, if you are eager clinic person like me, if you have fulfilled your 1st year requirements early (3 prophies), the rest of the prophies can be transferred to your 2nd year requirements (12 prophies). Right now I have already finished 1/2 of my 2nd year requirements (you can only get this much if you also work extra on your free time). I guess 2nd semester will be basically time to relax and recover for 2nd year cause this will be the hardest year, as you will have many tough courses to deal with and many clinical projects to fulfill!
But either way, your 1st year will past by very quickly! I can't believe that I have finished my 1st year already so don't worry....you all will do fine. Hopefully, I will have the pleasure of bumping into some of you next year!
I guess this is basically 1st year....and I have to say, I did met a lot of great friends and even professors as well! So for those who might feel lonely as start, don't worry, it won't last long!
DDS2BE said:
hey musketeer, are you finished with your D1 yet? Would you mind sharing what it was like throughout the first year at Case d-school and what you would have done different or wish you would have known. Sorry for throwing so many questions at ya buddy 🙂 , but you have been very helpful for many of us.
Cheers
...Worth a shot I guess 
...i really can't wait for Case to say Yay or Nay to me...i wish i could make an unbiased decision, but i can't 
