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BACK TO BASICS Reality television shows revolve around the concept of putting up a group of determined people and having them compete against each other for everyone else's entertainment. Then they are rounded up in front of a panel of judges who gets to handpick the unlucky contestant for that week, and only one will remain by the time the season wraps up. Good thing life as a dentist student isn't as demoralizing as these shows. Perform well in class and you'll make it. There are no judges to eliminate you out of this competition. Just you. Getting in and out of a dental program is pure hard work. There's no luck involved. But before anything else, think about why you want to become a dentist in the first place. Born to be a dentist Becoming a dentist begins in knowing why you want to become one. Everybody wants to be someone, like a doctor or an engineer or an avant garde composer. Dentist don't study and train as long as doctors, but they still provide quality health care and make for a lucrative career. Your desire to become a dentist throughout the years ought to tell you something about whether you're still trudging the right career path. Going through pre-dentistry school is a lot of hard work in itself. Do you feel your inspiration slowly drying out? Or is it stronger than ever? If you find yourself constantly thinking about whether you should stay or quit to become something else then you ought to start giving your second option some serious consideration. The dental career isn't for the faint of heart. Preparing for pre-dentistry school also requires for you to particularly perform well in your high school science classes. It is not everything by any means. But if a science class is what makes your day then that's something else, a sign that you're at least on the right track. Visiting a dental clinic and watching the dentist at work is a must for student looking to get into a good dental school. For starters, it's good for the circulation. You get to observe on how a dentist goes about his day, how he work around the clinic, how he positions himself beside the patient, how he arranges his implements so he could reach for them without looking. It shows what your world would be like after dental school. All this basic knowledge of dentistry will come in handy someday when you need it—after all, studying in advance is what separates a good student from a brilliant one. Next let's talk about what it is you really need to worry about when you worry about exams: the DAT. The Dental Admission Test The Dental Admission Test, or DAT, is the MCAT for dental students. The DAT, or Dental Admission Test, is the MCAT for dental students. It is conducted on a nationwide scale by the American Dental Association (ADA) since 1950. It aims for dental schools to effectively screen applicants by measuring the student's general academic ability, perceptual skills, and ability to comprehend scientific information. This test is only one of several factors affecting your evaluation. But it weights heavily, so study hard and make sure to do good in it. The best way to prepare for the test is to seek advice from science teachers and dentist friends. If you don't have any dentist friends, it's time you make friends with your family dentist. You will learn a lot from this person. Ask him or her to recommend you good textbooks for reading, as well as teach you some fundamentals of clinical dentistry—for example, names of implements, dental hygiene and sanitation precautions, names of common oral diseases, etc. A candidate may schedule a retake as many times he or she wants. But there is a 90-day cooling period in between tests, and he or she'd have to submit a new application and fee each time. The test costs $160 and an additional $5 for processing. The Interview Before you get accepted into a dental school, you are most likely to be interviewed. Your college GPA and DAT results are important factors at this point, but the interview matters as well. Screw it up and say goodbye to all your years of hard work. First rule of thumb here is to be honest. Impress the interviewer by what you know, not by pretending to know something you don't. An applicant once wrote that he liked boating as a hobby. The interviewer, by chance, was also a boat person. So he started asking questions about it. After a couple of minutes the truth was out: the applicant had lied and he knew he'd blown the interview. You will mostly like hear this question, “Why do you want to become a dentist?”. You must come up with a good answer to this one. It's a simple question, really, but definitely one of the most difficult to answer when you're in a room full of dentists. Be honest. Focus on keeping your answer along the lines of providing quality dental care. It is what being a dentist, what being health care representative, is all about. A failed DAT attempt or a bad interview shouldn't mean the end of the world for the applicant. It just means you need to try harder next time. We hope our tips help you, in some small way, get accepted on the first try. |
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