INBDE Blog Day 1
Today our first INBDE class was extremely interesting. One of the things observed was that out of the 20 dentist enrolled in the class, 50% had an average understanding of the basic sciences and the other 50% had a below average understanding of the basic sciences. When we mention basic science we are referring to Biochemistry, Physiology, Gross Anatomy, and Pathology. There were several factors that contributed to their lack of proficiency in the basic sciences.
Why are some of the students lacking the basic science knowledge needed for the INBDE
1. Some of the dentist had not seen the basic sciences since early in their dental school training. For some that was over 10 years ago.
2. Some of them explained that the university they attended for dental school did not really emphasize learning the basic science and focused more on the clinical sciences.
Do you really need to know basic science for the INBDE exam?
One of the myths that many of the students believed was that basic science was not going to be tested on the INBDE exam. Just to clarify for anyone reading this blog, “that is not true”. The basic science areas will be covered on the INBDE and they will be more challenging since the questions will be integrated in the clinical patient box. If a student has an average understanding of the basic sciences they will do fine when it comes to those types of questions on the exam.
How do you teach students who are at different proficiency levels?
With these challenges Dr. Young, Dr. Sutton and the team had to figure out a way to bring everyone to the same level, without disrupting the flow of the classroom instruction. This would require some outside of class homework and good plan of action from the MDI Prep administrators. The question was, How can we bring everyone to the same level? During the MDI Prep INBDE development meeting, Dr. Kapadi suggested the following:
1. Provide all 20 students in the INBDE class with a basic science packet that includes previously recorded videos, notes and associated quizzes.
2. Hold each student accountable for reviewing a minimum of 5-6 videos per week.
3. Each student would also be required to keep a notebook of topics they do not understand regarding the videos and ask those doubts to the instructors at the beginning of each class.
4. Make sure MDI Prep instructors are asking each individual students questions during class to make sure they understand the material and to make sure they are engaged in the class. For this reason each student will be required to have a working microphone.