Retaking the boards = bad?

[billiken10]

Does retaking the boards look bad for applying to specialty programs? ie. If you scored an 80 on the boards the first time you took it and retook it later on (which is possible, right?) and scored, say a 91, would you still be competitive for specialty matching? Or not really?

Thanks!

b10

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[flat4]

I'm gonna venture a guess here and say that it's better than leaving it an 80. Also it probably depends on what specialty. You have a few more years to go to take this thing. Just get 90 on the first try.

 

[tx oms]

Let's see, no chance to match with an 80... chance to match with a retake 91. What do you think?

 

[Dr. Pedo]

80= no chance
91/ 2nd time= better than 80
retaking and scoring 79= priceless


Dr.B

 

[billiken10]

80= no chance
91/ 2nd time= better than 80
retaking and scoring 79= priceless


Dr.B

LOL

So basically, the consensus that I should try and not f#%k it up the very first time. I think I'm just concerned because UIC has the boards after the first year. Thanks for the constructive advice everyone.

 

[GatorDMD]

i heard that programs only see your latest score?! but what do I know?

 

[UConn_SDM]

So basically, the consensus that I should try and not f#%k it up the very first time.

I'm convinced Part I has very little to do with what you're taught in dental school and more to do with how well you can memorize all the previous exams 2 weeks before the exam.

This is based on my doing well despite the fact that Part I seemed to be a whole lot of things we didn't focus on in dental school. I took 10 days and studied only the previous exams.

 

[Dentist1]

I do agree to that.I did the same but scored only 85 which is not bad compared to many of my classmates who studied 3 months and got 86.

 

[unlvdmd]

This is based on my doing well despite the fact that Part I seemed to be a whole lot of things we didn't focus on in dental school. I took 10 days and studied only the previous exams.

How did you do? Score? thx.

 

[UConn_SDM]

Low 90's - and I would consider myself to be in the lower 1/4 of students at UConn academically.

 

[ToothMonkey]

i heard that programs only see your latest score

same here

 

[omfsres]

Low 90's - and I would consider myself to be in the lower 1/4 of students at UConn academically.

I agree, I stopped studying everything and actually spent 16 hours everyday in seclusion trying to forget things I had already learned 3 months prior to the exam. I still got in the ninties.

I heard that the top 1/4 of students at UCONN all got 124's on part 1 studying notes from third grade.

 

[Barry20]

With regard to retaking the boards part I, does anyone know if you can retake one or two sections? Let's say a person scores in the 90's on all subjects but has one section that was low (say an 80), which drops the average below 90. Is this possibe or do you have to retake the entire exam?

 

[flat4]

I know you can retake individual sections if you fail it but not sure if you can do that to just raise your score.

 

[Barry20]

I know you can retake individual sections if you fail it but not sure if you can do that to just raise your score.

You're right. I just found out that you would have to retake the entire exam unless of course you failed a section or two. This is actually a good thing. Otherwise, people would be taking one or two sections a bunch of times in order to get that 99. Thanks for your help.

 

[Jawfixer]

The NDB part-1 are a freaking joke! I studied 11 days in total while building a home 8 hours a days and did well. You will easily be able to score 90+, just study.