GOT QUESTIONS?

WE HAVE ANSWERS

Here are some questions we’re asked often.

Regarding Bench Test Mastery

Yes absolutely. We totally understand that learning to do preparations through an online course is a new concept, so wondering if it’ll be helpful is natural.

We took a innovative approach in creating the course to harness the power of technology while overcoming the challenge of remote teaching, and we’re proud to say we’re satisfied with what we’ve achieved. Now we’re convinced that this online course is the best way for you to prepare for the bench test. Yes more so than live courses. There are 3 main reasons for this. 1. There’s no time restriction. This means that the course content can be really long and detailed, and that also you can take your time and repeat as you need to. 2. You get a closer view with videos. Teeth are small to begin with and we’re doing iny preparations on the tooth. The handpiece head is as big as the tooth and it’s right over it, and the operator needs to be able to have a good view. This means that observing closely is difficult, and even when you do you’re missing the details. With Zoom-2-View, you see the teeth larger than it’s real size on your screen, and you can see the smallest details that were simply not available to you before. 3. We interact with you until you get accepted. Not for just a few days, which is what happens for live courses. Even if you don’t make it in this year, we’re still there for you next year. We trouble shoot together, we’re here to help you succeed.

Snap pictures of your work from a few different angles and send them to Dr. Marshall through a form that you have access to once you become a member. It’s an easy-to-use form that helps you upload photos. Once Dr. Marshall receives them she’ll pull them up on her computer, speak into a microphone, move her mouse around to point at things while recording it, so it becomes a video.

Your handpiece and burs leave trails behind. A fast spinning instrument of a specific shape (your bur) will leave marks behind everywhere it touches – is your prep. So looking at your prep Dr. Marshall can trace what movements (and more importantly, mistakes) were made with the bur. For the most part there’s a list of mistakes that are repeated time and time over, and Dr. Marshall’s good at identifying them and giving suggestions for correcting them

You’ll have access to all course materials and videos until you get accepted. Whether it’s this year, next year, or the year after. We definitely want you to make it in sooner, but we understand that this is a point that stops many applicants from preparing for the bench test before getting an interview call. Just in case they don’t get called this year. With us, there’s no risk in joining early, so please do so and get your practice going.

Along with that, daily bench test feedbacks are complimentary for 6 months or 1 year, depends on the package you’ll get. That’s over 365 personalized feedbacks that you can take advantage of, and the nice thing is that you can start that year of feedbacks at any point in time after signup.

Once you join you’ll get an email that shows you how to login to the member area. Inside there you’ll find the Bench Test Mastery Course and member resources. All the course content is avilable for you immediately, so you can start working on whatever you need to if you’re in a rush or have specific needs. The course modules are made of a combination of videos, photos, and text, and they’re super detailed.

You can move along the course on your own pace, and if you have any questions along the way there are a few different ways you can ask. If the question is about a specific module, you can comment on it directly. If not you can ask on our forum or private FB group. If it’s a highly personal question shoot us an email and we’ll be happy to help out.

In the member area there’s also a page you can use to send in your work to receive feedback. It helps you upload files and you can leave comments or questions around your prep, and you’ll get the answer back in the video feedback provided.

In large the course covers preparations, restorations, and wax exercises. For preparations, it goes through cavity preparations (amalgam and composite), crown preparations (PFMs, FGCs, and all-ceramics), and advanced indirect restorations preparations (inlays and onlays). For restorations, it covers both amalgam and composite restorations

It’s hard to say, as there aren’t many people who actually finish the course, as in go through every module of the course. Also the objective is to learn and practice yourself more than to just watch all the videos. Many students had told me that they have the course video on every time they practice and follow along. Anyway, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to learn what you need and practice. The more time you give it the better it is, as this isn’t a skill you’ll practice a little, master, and be done with – you’ll be continuously improving.

No each membership is for one person. If we learn that your account is being shared you’ll loose your membership privilegs immediately without a refund.

Please ask! There’s a forum on the member area for our community. If you have a personal question you can always email us too!

Yes absolutely. It can be a bit odd to wrap you head around taking a course to prep plastic teeth when you’ve been treating patients for a while, but bench tests are so different from clinical work. While treating patients we take care of what needs to be given the situation we have. Crown preps take about 15 minutes at most and it’s rarely performed on an intact tooth. We never look at the angulation to make sure it has a 6-8 degree taper and that the chamfer is 0.5mm wide. We perform subgingival margins, so we don’t make sure the margins follow the contour of the gingiva closely. Cavity preparations are the same thing – who looks at exit angles and tries to keep the clearance less than 1mm? We remove caries and/or existing restorations and work with what we have.

The objectives of the preparations being different come with a lot of challenges, the precision needed is unlike anything you’ve done before. This forces you to go back to the basics, the basics that you probably didn’t learn extensively back in dental school. Did you agonize over internal line-angles of cavity preparations in dental school? Probably not. This is different territory from patient treatment, and your performance in this test is critical to acceptance. So yes, I’d highly recommend taking the course regardless of your clinical background – unless you’re okay risking it.

Regarding Editing Services

Nope not at all. The first session with your editor can be used to discuss and brainstorm what to include in your SOP. In fact that’s where we start from with most of our clients, even if they had an SOP from before. You can’t edit a weak SOP to make it strong, you have to make sure the topics you write about are also strong. It’s actually great to start from the drawing board together with your editor to discuss those topics together and outline the essay before writing it.

That’s an interesting question – when you approach each essay uniquely it is actually more difficult to plagiarise. We don’t refer to other essays in the process, but rather solely focus on bringing out your uniqueness to help distinguish you from the crowded pool of applicants.

No, we don’t and we really shouldn’t be doing that anyway. Our role is to help present you as the best possible candidate you can be. It’s crucial that your essays convey your own voice in them, which isn’t possible with ghost writing. I understand that writing essays is a daunting task – try writing your first draft without worrying about whether this is good or not, but rather just let it come out as if you’re telling your story to a friend – you can always edit it. It helps the creativity going.

Your SOP is a joint effort between you and your editor. Most SOPs are done after 2 rounds of edits, that is, you write, editor edits, you make more changes, editor touches it up again, and this end result usually ends up satisfying both the editor and you.

Each round of edits take about 4-5 days, so you can count the editor’s time as 8-10 days considering the 2 rounds. The final time will depend mostly on how long you take to do your part

Writing is a creative process, and to bring out the best story possible the results are better when revisited several times over a period of a few days rather than sitting down and writing out everything at once. Don’t you do that sometimes? Maybe you have a difficult conversation you need to have with someone and you think about how to approach it for a few days? And while you take your few days to think about it you come up with the best way to approach it? It’s best to give your editor the time to go have that kind of time, it’s your applications and you want it to be good, don’t you?

We will try our best to accommodate you, we definitely don’t want you to miss a deadline. Though we will secretly (or not so secretly) wish you had contacted us sooner to give your projects ample time.

There is a rush fee associated with it – shoot us a message to get the current rush rates, let us know what projects they’re for!

Screen Shot 2015-01-15 at 11.29.55 AM This is what the process looks like simplified. You and your editor will stay in close touch during this process.

Once clients get started, most get help with everything, and this is what we recommend for several reasons.

1. It doesn’t look good to submit an awesome personal statement and not-so-good CV or CAAPID application. The application lacks consistency and errors in your CAAPID application or CV will lower the quality of your overall application. The way things are worded and described are important.

2. Your editor knows your situation now, so it’s easy to continue on. It will also streamline your application to build a strong and consistent persona to present to the committee.

3. All of our past clients who did so were happy they did.

Of course the decision is yours, and you don’t have to make it until you want to or you’re ready to do so. You can always first get started with the personal statement.

Sign-up for a free 15 minute consult session to discuss your current situation and application documents, and get all of your questions answered.