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HOW I SURVIVED THE NOV-DEC 2018 DENTIST LICENSURE EXAM || PART 1: Everybody's favorite topic to

  • Corine, DMD.
  • Jan 31, 2019
  • 5 min read

If you want to know how to make months fly by as quickly as possible, prepare for a licensure exam.

We have A LOT to talk about, but let me introduce myself first. I'm a newly-licensed Filipino dentist. I graduated from the University of Perpetual Help System-DALTA in Las Pinas City in April of 2018. I took and passed the November-December Dentist Licensure Exam of the same year. I took my oath on January 20, 2019, and have been living the beautiful life of a licensed and registered Filipino dentist since then. I put great emphasis on being a Filipino dentist, because as much as I deeply love and greatly respect the endeavors of our counterparts internationally, or even just regionally, the transition from student to dentist is unique in every country. Though the levels of difficulty are comparable, the processes are different, the restrictions are different, and the privileges are different. Every dentist's journey is beautiful, but as far as this transition goes, I've come to realize that only a Filipino dentist can fully understand another Filipino dentist. I've been a licensed dentist for eight days, and so far, they've been wonderful.:) Okay, this is going to be a very lengthy post.

Graduating students and general board-bound humans love to ask about review centers. As far as my opinions go, this is the longest, not to mention most tedious and most complicated review-related concern for to talk about. I don't know how and why, but enrolling at a review center for a board exam preparation course is pretty much the norm. This isn't to say that a review center will guarantee board exam success. I know people who didn't want to spend on a review course, but still passed the exam on the first take; and I also know people who enrolled multiple times, but had to take the exam more than once. I attended not one, not two, but three review centers. I actually started reviewing in the first semester of SY 2017-2018. Reviewing at least one season earlier than my actual board season was really a priority for me, because I wanted to gradually retrain myself to go back to routine didactic studying after being stuck in clinics for much longer than I had hoped. I attended two university-based review centers, one for each semester of my final year. I'm not going to lie, I liked one more than the other. I've found that university-based review centers to be reflective of the typical type of instruction done in the undergraduate level. It's literally squeezing a semester's worth of lessons into an 8-hour session. Compared to undergraduate lectures, I'd say that review lecturers, though still fairly traditional, yet are more relaxed. I remember one lecturer even telling us that if we needed to nap, we can go right ahead, as long as we kept our voice recorders on, so we can listen to the lecture when we're ready. Another lecturer told us that she's a lot stricter when teaching undergraduates, but being reviewees, we're allowed to chill. Due to transcript release policies, I had a few months to spare before taking my boards. At that point, I felt very reviewed out. After two review cycles, I really didn't want to take review classes anymore. I felt like I had everything planned out, but there's this thing called FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. FOMO didn't come after me, it came after my mother, and almost as soon as it did, I was on my way to my third (and last!) review center.

My third review center is unaffiliated with any university. It was one of those stand-alone review centers that I will not name. Being that it was an independent review center, matters relating to instruction were quite on the liberal side. Let's put it this way-- university-based review lecturers come from the roster of professors, usually the veteran professors of that field, and most certainly holders of MA or MS, sometimes even PhD degrees, as required by universities for their teaching staff; but an independent review center would be under no obligation to adhere to the same requirements for their teaching staff. In an independent review center, it's very possible to have an accomplished pharmacist-physician teaching Pharmacology one day, and have a newly-passed dentist with a five-month-old license handling an Orthodontics Q&A discussion a week later. It's also very possible to meet a lecturer with no teaching experience prior to the day of your class. The difference may render the instructors of independent review centers more relatable, which is a possible advantage, depending on the needs of individual reviewees. Many reviewees would be okay with minor inconsistencies with instruction, but this may be deemed less than ideal by a select few. At the end of the day, it will always be a matter of preference. Now that my personal experiences are out of the way, we can move on to my actual reminders. REAL TALK. Once you attend class, you need to be committed to actually paying attention, otherwise it would be pointless. The nature of review presents rigid scheduling, so unless you plan to review again in the next season (or you have superior catch-up skills), you better take today's lesson seriously, because chances are, you'd be so busy having moved on that you'd have run out of time to look back. REVIEW BFFs. I've met some of my bestest friends in review centers-- some of them, I never would have met if not for them moving to Manila to review. It's nice to encourage other people, and to allow them to encourage you. The review load wasn't necessarily lightened because of the new friends I've made, but knowing that I wasn't alone in my struggle, just made me more willing to carry on, no matter how difficult things got. KEEPING YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE. Another thing to remember is that while it's good to have a review friend group, it's still a good idea to spend some time alone. In the event of underperformance, you might end up being focused on just outrunning each other, only to underperform in the actual examination-- or worse, you might end up complacent because everybody scored badly in the sample exam anyway.

DISTRACTIONS DURING CLASS. This should be pretty obvious, as far as general guidelines on social graces go-- shut it during class. No, I won't victim-blame by telling the distracted to tune the talkative people out, because ultimately, the beginning and the end of distraction lies with the clatterfart who makes the conscious decision to misbehave. If I'd tell you stories about talkative people whose heads I've wanted to bonk against each other, I may never finish typing, but let me just leave you with this-- Sometimes, luck favors those who have been unlucky; and whoever took serenity away from who needed it the most may be left empty-handed. Feel free to read between the lines.

DITCHING CLASS. This is quite controversial, because some people insist on sitting through class even your mind is elsewhere, while some would say that it's okay to just leave. To come to class, or be absent; to sit through the lesson, or to leave the classroom-- it's always your choice. I won't tell you what to do, or what not to do. I will tell you, however, to consider what you'd miss, and whether or not you can compensate on your own. Do what's best for you, and make sure that you won't regret it. "SURE BALL" TEST PAPERS. Okay, they simply don't exist. There will be rumors floating around about how this review center or that review center has information on what will come out during the board exam, and the only thing I can tell you is to not believe them. Don't believe them, don't bank on them, don't look for them. The only sure ball way to crack the board exam is to prepare well.

Let's call this a post. You got this, Dr. :) On the next post, I'll tell you all about my experiences with review logistics-- my routines (schedule), study places, study supplies, and a few other bits and bobs.

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