How long does it really take to prepare for the bench test? 2 weeks? 4 weeks? 2 months? 4 months? Should I just go take a live course if I get a call, then try to head straight over to the test? Or do I actually need to go through the trouble of setting up a home lab?
Do I need to practice before I get a call? I mean, I may not even get a call and I’m so not motivated to practice for something may not even need.
But what if I do get called? I could just start practicing then, couldn’t I?
Do these questions sound familiar to you? Watch the full video below!
There are 2 main factors – how close to ideal prep are you trying to get? And how are your basic hand skills?
The first factor – how close to ideal prep are you trying to get? It may seem like an odd question. Ideal, of course, right? But there’s a lot more to the story than that.
The ideal isn’t a destination we dentists can just arrive at and say, there. I have arrived. My preps are now ideal and perfect, end of the story. It’s not like a road trip where we can actually arrive at our destination, walk out of our car, and say I’m here. We say we practice dentistry for a reason. I’ll be the first to admit that I still can find ways to improve my preparations today. And I’ve been teaching other dentists for 9 years! There is always room for improvement, to get better.
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You see why I’m asking ‘how close to the ideal are you trying to get?’
The answer I get when I ask this is usually, good enough to pass the bench test.
If this is the case, you need to be roughly in the top 30% amongst your competition. That’s the average percentage of applicants who will get accepted after being invited for an interview and bench test.
Now, the top 30% of your competition is pretty good. Applicants work very hard these days. Many take courses and work at them for several months. Many have gone to bench tests last year but didn’t make it, and continued practicing all this time. Your work will need to be, let’s just say, very good, to pass the test.
Here comes factor #2. How long will it take for YOU, for YOUR skills to become good enough to pass?
Let me ask you this first – how are your foundational hand skill levels? Natural talents, if you will? If you were one of the rare ones that did such good tooth carvings in dental school that all of your classmates came to you for help, you probably have naturally good hands. If you were the one asking for help, then you probably don’t have naturally good hands. I say this with complete empathy btw, because that was also me. My hands were not good at all, preps were far from ideal when I started. So if this is you too, all is not lost, and you have hope. I’m your proof. But you do need to start working.
If you naturally have good hands, it will take you less time. Things will come easier for you. A few weeks of good practice should be enough.
On the other hand, if you’re like I was back then and have hands that need more work, give yourself a few months of dedicated practice. You can improve so much in that time and become better than most of your competitors. Not only that, the skills you learn in the process will serve you for the rest of your career. As I said earlier, I’m a better dentist because of the practice I put in when I was getting ready for the bench test. There is no better time to work on your hand skills, and if you don’t do this now and somehow get accepted, you’ll likely have a hard time in school too.
I’ve had someone join bench test mastery after starting school because she couldn’t do preps to the standards the school needed her to. If she didn’t improve fast, she wasn’t going to be able to stay in the program. You don’t want this to be your story. Right now is the best time to work on this if you want to be a good dentist later. Hand skills are a vital part of our profession, and thankfully for people like me, they can be learned and trained. Once you have it, it’s yours. It won’t leave you.
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