Passed 7/21!
Hello! I decided to make my own post after reading through so many on here before my exam and after. This community helped me a lot through the whole process.
I am an international dentist in my 4th out of 5 years and did the exam in July, and passed!
I used Booster to study. I went through all the notes and took my own notes focusing on the highlighted high yield info. I then did the questions and marked any I didn't understand or got wrong. I read through the explanations of each. I also used the videos together with my own notes to review all the topics one more time and completed the mock exam.
I also did Bootcamps mock exam and I believe it covered more patient management, which I also saw a lot of on my exam.
This whole process took around 3 months, with the first month being more relaxed and the final two more intense study around 4-5 hours per day.
The final week I took notes on Bootcamps high yield questions and went over all my marked questions one more time.
Walking out of the exam I did not feel confident at all. A lot of the questions felt new and most relied more on clinical decision making than pure knowledge. Around 10% was very easy. 40% was application based but manageable. I found 30-40% difficult or was between two answers. And 10% around was very unfamiliar or guessing. Day two was more manageable since the patient boxes had more key words that helped with picking an answer.
I had to wait 3 weeks and one day for my results which I believe is more than normal. They came out at 3:21pm ET. I did get an email but I believe it's because I "followed" my own account on the ADA website.
My biggest advice is to make sure you are understanding why answers are correct or incorrect. Try not to memorize at all. On the exam when between two answers I would imagine the patient came into my clinic with this scenario, what would I do?
I've attached my Booster scores with the mock exam below and the pass proof.
Good luck everyone! I know the exam is tough but so are you!