If you want to get straight to the details of what I used to study for the NBDE Part 1, then scroll all the way down. However, to get the most out of this post, you need to read it all.
First of all, I know that the exam is changing because Part 1 and Part 2 are going to be combined now. But I still feel like there is valuable information here for you to read.
As a student, how do I stack up against my peers? Well to give you a direct idea, my class rank is 91 out of 129. I have to try very hard to keep up with all the material that is thrown at us. A lot of my friends study 2-3 days for an exam and they’ll get an A, whereas I’ll study for the whole week and get a B. It definitely gets frustrating, I won’t lie. But as the school quarters have gone by, I’ve made my peace with it. We’re all made differently and we all have different capabilities. At the end of the day, I always remember that classic dental joke that we’ve all heard:
“What do you call a dental student who graduates with the lowest GPA? A dentist”.
We’re all trying to reach the same end goal and we’ll all take different paths to get there.
Why did I share the above? To illustrate that I’m very self-aware. I know how much effort I need to put in to be successful. And compared to the average dental student, it takes more of a time commitment from me. When a lot of my classmates are partying on Friday nights, I’m at home studying lectures. I also shared the above to be a kind of gauge, if you feel like you’re similar to me, this post is going to help you the most.
So as boards were approaching, I was worried that even doing my very best wouldn’t be good enough. That I would spend all this time and effort and I would fail while my peers would study ¼ of the amount I would and effortlessly pass. I did my best to push that apprehension aside and focus on doing the best I could.
I’ll be honest with you, I was an absolute wreck in the weeks leading up to the NBDE Part 1 exam. I was so worried that I would be the only one who fails. Studying for it was rather depressing as you might imagine. Especially since we had Pharmacology going on at the same time, it was really difficult to prepare for boards. I studied on and off during the months of January and February and took my exam on March 10th. When the school quarter finally ended and I had two weeks till my exam, I studied 12-16hrs a day, everyday.
Ok enough about me. Now let’s get to you.
Bottom line: if you got into dental school, you are FULLY CAPABLE of passing this exam on the first attempt. In fact, you will in all likelihood pass the exam on the first attempt. The key is you can’t take it lightly. Study for it harder than you have studied for any exam at your school. Give it the appropriate amount of time and you will pass.
So what should you use to study?
Reminder: A cleaned up, organized answer is at the bottom of this post.
For content/information: The truth is, all the sources you have probably been reading about are all sufficient in terms of information. (First Aid, Dentin, Dental Decks, B&B dental etc). They all provide you with the information you need. It all depends on how you learn best. If you’re someone who benefits from using a textbook, FIRST AID is the way to go. The DENTIN book is also sufficient but it doesn’t have that many pictures so it may be harder to absorb the material. If you prefer the flashcard method, DENTAL DECKS is the way to go. If you learn better from videos, B&B Dental is the way to go. Passthedentalboards videos on youtube are also really good for certain subjects (primarily Microbiology and some Dent concepts).
For practice questions, the MASTERYAPP is really good. It provides around 1300 problems. I would recommend it. People say that it’s much easier than the actual exam but in my opinion, the difficulty is about the same. A lot of the NBDE Part 1 exam are actually simple questions. Either you know it or you don’t. Masteryapp gives you good practice for those types of questions. For more challenging questions, I would recommend the First Aid Q&A book.
What did I use to study?
B&B videos
MasteryApp
FirstAidQandABook (not the textbook, just the additional book with all the practice questions)
When I was asking people for advice on what to use to study, the majority of people said dental decks was the way to go. Let me tell you, this could not have been MORE WRONG. Dental decks definitely has everything you need, but it is WAY. TOO. DETAILED. I went over the anatomy and biochem sections of decks and it took me so long. After I was done, I realized that I didn’t absorb anything. And when I tried to go over it again, I realized that there simply wasn’t enough time. I needed something that would teach me what was most important……
This is where B&B dental came in. Guys, I can’t recommend this program enough. It is 100% worth the money. And It was the main reason I passed the exam. The membership without the textbook is $100 and the version with the textbook is $289. My friend got the $100 version and was gracious enough to let me use it as well.
B&B is a series of videos that teaches you HIGH YIELD material from every subject. It really helps you focus on important things. I’m sure getting the $289 version and skimming the textbook would be very helpful but I was running short on time and I felt like the $100 version was good enough. If I felt the need to clarify a concept, I would look it up in decks or dentin or simply google it.
After finishing the videos, I did the flashcards on B&B and that really helped reinforce the concepts the videos explained.
While I think the B&B videos were sufficient, in addition, I would recommend watching PassTheDentalBoards videos for Microbiology specifically. It goes into a fair amount of detail but it covers everything you need to know for that section.
For dent, “300 facts” is excellent because covers about 60-70% of the dent questions on the exam I would say. Definitely study dental concepts from any of the main sources as well though to make sure you have the other 30-40% covered (first aid, dentin, etc). Lucky for me, at our school, our professor made a booklet for us and that’s what I used.
Speaking of dent, make sure to learn the TMJ and all of it’s ligaments and anatomy and also know occlusion really well. PassTheDental Boards has two videos entitled “Picket Fence” and “Learn Occlusion in 5 minutes”, both of these videos are really good in helping you answer some of the occlusion questions.
After I went over all the information, I did the MasteryApp questions. Don’t worry about what your total percentage of correct answers ends up being (I believe mine was 60% or something), just learn from the questions and if you have time, do masteryapp again. Practice questions never hurt.
Like I said earlier, people would always tell me that MasteryApp is way easier than the actual exam. I’m not sure that’s true. I feel like the questions on the actual exam were about the same in terms of difficulty. Regardless, those people managed to scare me so I bought the First Aid Question and Answer book and did about half the questions. I feel like it had some challenging questions and it really helped me by giving me more practice.
Another piece of advice I can give you is to talk to upper classmen. They tend to have documents and sometimes they even have released exams/questions that are also really good practice.
The exam itself:
The exam breaks down like this:
400 questions total
3.5 hours to answer the first 200 questions
30 minutes lunch (optional)
3.5 hours to answer the last 200 questions
After every 100 questions it gives you an option to take a 15 minute break (and after 200 questions it gives you the 30 minute option).
All in all, it’s an 8 hour exam.
It is rather grueling, but you’ll be so focused that you wont notice the time fly by. I highly recommend using all your breaks. You’re allowed to even leave the testing center if you want which is nice because you can get some fresh air. I drank a red bull during lunch which prevented fatigue during the latter portion of the exam.
Regarding time, you will have more than enough time to answer the questions. I managed to look over all my questions twice.
Most of the questions are short and simple, either you know it or you don’t. And then right smack dab in the middle of the exam you’ll have 10 testlets. The testlets are case based questions. For each testlet, you’ll have to answer 4-5 questions. The first 5 testlets on my exam were just ridiculous. No matter how hard I would have studied, I would never be able to answer those questions. I was clueless. The other 5 were more fair and doable. There’s not much you can do to prepare for the testlets, all you can do is keep studying the material that you’ve been studying and hopefully there will be some overlap.
When you walk out of the testing center, chances are you’re not going to feel great about it. That’s a normal feeling. Most people feel like they’ve failed but they usually end up passing. I’ve heard that you need to get 60-65% correct to pass the exam. I’m not sure that’s true. I feel like I must have gotten 55-58% correct and I passed. So don’t focus too much on how much you need right, just get as many right as possible.
You are absolutely capable of passing this exam. DO NOT let it intimidate you. Study hard, study consistently and you will be just fine. Nothing would make me happier than to learn that this post helped you. Good luck!
-----------------------------------
What to use:
Practice questions:
First of all, I know that the exam is changing because Part 1 and Part 2 are going to be combined now. But I still feel like there is valuable information here for you to read.
As a student, how do I stack up against my peers? Well to give you a direct idea, my class rank is 91 out of 129. I have to try very hard to keep up with all the material that is thrown at us. A lot of my friends study 2-3 days for an exam and they’ll get an A, whereas I’ll study for the whole week and get a B. It definitely gets frustrating, I won’t lie. But as the school quarters have gone by, I’ve made my peace with it. We’re all made differently and we all have different capabilities. At the end of the day, I always remember that classic dental joke that we’ve all heard:
“What do you call a dental student who graduates with the lowest GPA? A dentist”.
We’re all trying to reach the same end goal and we’ll all take different paths to get there.
Why did I share the above? To illustrate that I’m very self-aware. I know how much effort I need to put in to be successful. And compared to the average dental student, it takes more of a time commitment from me. When a lot of my classmates are partying on Friday nights, I’m at home studying lectures. I also shared the above to be a kind of gauge, if you feel like you’re similar to me, this post is going to help you the most.
So as boards were approaching, I was worried that even doing my very best wouldn’t be good enough. That I would spend all this time and effort and I would fail while my peers would study ¼ of the amount I would and effortlessly pass. I did my best to push that apprehension aside and focus on doing the best I could.
I’ll be honest with you, I was an absolute wreck in the weeks leading up to the NBDE Part 1 exam. I was so worried that I would be the only one who fails. Studying for it was rather depressing as you might imagine. Especially since we had Pharmacology going on at the same time, it was really difficult to prepare for boards. I studied on and off during the months of January and February and took my exam on March 10th. When the school quarter finally ended and I had two weeks till my exam, I studied 12-16hrs a day, everyday.
Ok enough about me. Now let’s get to you.
Bottom line: if you got into dental school, you are FULLY CAPABLE of passing this exam on the first attempt. In fact, you will in all likelihood pass the exam on the first attempt. The key is you can’t take it lightly. Study for it harder than you have studied for any exam at your school. Give it the appropriate amount of time and you will pass.
So what should you use to study?
Reminder: A cleaned up, organized answer is at the bottom of this post.
For content/information: The truth is, all the sources you have probably been reading about are all sufficient in terms of information. (First Aid, Dentin, Dental Decks, B&B dental etc). They all provide you with the information you need. It all depends on how you learn best. If you’re someone who benefits from using a textbook, FIRST AID is the way to go. The DENTIN book is also sufficient but it doesn’t have that many pictures so it may be harder to absorb the material. If you prefer the flashcard method, DENTAL DECKS is the way to go. If you learn better from videos, B&B Dental is the way to go. Passthedentalboards videos on youtube are also really good for certain subjects (primarily Microbiology and some Dent concepts).
For practice questions, the MASTERYAPP is really good. It provides around 1300 problems. I would recommend it. People say that it’s much easier than the actual exam but in my opinion, the difficulty is about the same. A lot of the NBDE Part 1 exam are actually simple questions. Either you know it or you don’t. Masteryapp gives you good practice for those types of questions. For more challenging questions, I would recommend the First Aid Q&A book.
What did I use to study?
B&B videos
MasteryApp
FirstAidQandABook (not the textbook, just the additional book with all the practice questions)
When I was asking people for advice on what to use to study, the majority of people said dental decks was the way to go. Let me tell you, this could not have been MORE WRONG. Dental decks definitely has everything you need, but it is WAY. TOO. DETAILED. I went over the anatomy and biochem sections of decks and it took me so long. After I was done, I realized that I didn’t absorb anything. And when I tried to go over it again, I realized that there simply wasn’t enough time. I needed something that would teach me what was most important……
This is where B&B dental came in. Guys, I can’t recommend this program enough. It is 100% worth the money. And It was the main reason I passed the exam. The membership without the textbook is $100 and the version with the textbook is $289. My friend got the $100 version and was gracious enough to let me use it as well.
B&B is a series of videos that teaches you HIGH YIELD material from every subject. It really helps you focus on important things. I’m sure getting the $289 version and skimming the textbook would be very helpful but I was running short on time and I felt like the $100 version was good enough. If I felt the need to clarify a concept, I would look it up in decks or dentin or simply google it.
After finishing the videos, I did the flashcards on B&B and that really helped reinforce the concepts the videos explained.
While I think the B&B videos were sufficient, in addition, I would recommend watching PassTheDentalBoards videos for Microbiology specifically. It goes into a fair amount of detail but it covers everything you need to know for that section.
For dent, “300 facts” is excellent because covers about 60-70% of the dent questions on the exam I would say. Definitely study dental concepts from any of the main sources as well though to make sure you have the other 30-40% covered (first aid, dentin, etc). Lucky for me, at our school, our professor made a booklet for us and that’s what I used.
Speaking of dent, make sure to learn the TMJ and all of it’s ligaments and anatomy and also know occlusion really well. PassTheDental Boards has two videos entitled “Picket Fence” and “Learn Occlusion in 5 minutes”, both of these videos are really good in helping you answer some of the occlusion questions.
After I went over all the information, I did the MasteryApp questions. Don’t worry about what your total percentage of correct answers ends up being (I believe mine was 60% or something), just learn from the questions and if you have time, do masteryapp again. Practice questions never hurt.
Like I said earlier, people would always tell me that MasteryApp is way easier than the actual exam. I’m not sure that’s true. I feel like the questions on the actual exam were about the same in terms of difficulty. Regardless, those people managed to scare me so I bought the First Aid Question and Answer book and did about half the questions. I feel like it had some challenging questions and it really helped me by giving me more practice.
Another piece of advice I can give you is to talk to upper classmen. They tend to have documents and sometimes they even have released exams/questions that are also really good practice.
The exam itself:
The exam breaks down like this:
400 questions total
3.5 hours to answer the first 200 questions
30 minutes lunch (optional)
3.5 hours to answer the last 200 questions
After every 100 questions it gives you an option to take a 15 minute break (and after 200 questions it gives you the 30 minute option).
All in all, it’s an 8 hour exam.
It is rather grueling, but you’ll be so focused that you wont notice the time fly by. I highly recommend using all your breaks. You’re allowed to even leave the testing center if you want which is nice because you can get some fresh air. I drank a red bull during lunch which prevented fatigue during the latter portion of the exam.
Regarding time, you will have more than enough time to answer the questions. I managed to look over all my questions twice.
Most of the questions are short and simple, either you know it or you don’t. And then right smack dab in the middle of the exam you’ll have 10 testlets. The testlets are case based questions. For each testlet, you’ll have to answer 4-5 questions. The first 5 testlets on my exam were just ridiculous. No matter how hard I would have studied, I would never be able to answer those questions. I was clueless. The other 5 were more fair and doable. There’s not much you can do to prepare for the testlets, all you can do is keep studying the material that you’ve been studying and hopefully there will be some overlap.
When you walk out of the testing center, chances are you’re not going to feel great about it. That’s a normal feeling. Most people feel like they’ve failed but they usually end up passing. I’ve heard that you need to get 60-65% correct to pass the exam. I’m not sure that’s true. I feel like I must have gotten 55-58% correct and I passed. So don’t focus too much on how much you need right, just get as many right as possible.
You are absolutely capable of passing this exam. DO NOT let it intimidate you. Study hard, study consistently and you will be just fine. Nothing would make me happier than to learn that this post helped you. Good luck!
-----------------------------------
What to use:
- Anatomy: B&B videos and flashcards
- Biochem: B&B videos and flashcards
- Microbiology: PassTheDentalBoards Videos + flashcards
- Pathology: B&B videos + flashcards
- Dental: 300 Dental Facts + Booklet provided by my professor
Practice questions:
- MasteryApp
- First Aid Q and A Book