Failed First Year How do I learn properly?

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Hey guys I started dental school last year and unfortunately I got killed by the sciences specifically biochemistry, anatomy and histology. I was not able to pull through and failed those classes. I will be resuming next year as a first year again. I do want to be a dentist, and while I struggled a lot with my hand skills and wax ups I think I can actually do that part. Obviously I am trying to spend the summer learning the material but How do I actually learn how to learn? My undergrad was at a pretty easy state school and I aced all my classes by reading the slides the night before, perhaps making some flashcards. That obviously didn't work in d-school.

TL;Dr: failed first year sciences and need to figure out how to learn

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You have to look at the material more than once, and start studying the material several days in advance so you have time to look at it more than once.
 
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Hey guys I started dental school last year and unfortunately I got killed by the sciences specifically biochemistry, anatomy and histology. I was not able to pull through and failed those classes. I will be resuming next year as a first year again. I do want to be a dentist, and while I struggled a lot with my hand skills and wax ups I think I can actually do that part. Obviously I am trying to spend the summer learning the material but How do I actually learn how to learn? My undergrad was at a pretty easy state school and I aced all my classes by reading the slides the night before, perhaps making some flashcards. That obviously didn't work in d-school.

TL;Dr: failed first year sciences and need to figure out how to learn
Go to the MD forums of SDN for study advice. Similar classes (probably more in depth but they have more free time since no hand skill stuff). And more type A ppl as well as people who failed stuff then got their crap together. And there's a lot more med students than dental students on those forums (and irl)
 
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First year is tough, most probably the hardest year. Once you get behind, hard to come back unless you're getting up at 5 am on weekends. Don't beat yourself up too much.

We had 2-3 repeat the year and made it through. Study ahead, be efficient with your time. Be on top of material. You have a few months before you begin again. You should know the first and second exam material from all your classes by then.

By the way, I'm still figuring how to be more efficient with my learning. I did flash cards until last semester of D2. Now I'm just reading the power points and 1 or 2 study guides that are posted, a few times.
 
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Go to the MD forums of SDN for study advice. Similar classes (probably more in depth but they have more free time since no hand skill stuff). And more type A ppl as well as people who failed stuff then got their crap together. And there's a lot more med students than dental students on those forums (and irl)
I will do that thanks!
 
Was there anything that distracted you from learning? What was your undergrad major? What other styles of learning did you try during your first year? I changed my learning styles a bunch of times during the first 2 years of dental school. I literally needed to talk to a counselor because of the anxiety I was getting that was preventing me from focusing on school. So once you find what is stopping you, you either fix it or work around it. Good luck! :)
 
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Go to the MD forums of SDN for study advice. Similar classes (probably more in depth but they have more free time since no hand skill stuff). And more type A ppl as well as people who failed stuff then got their crap together. And there's a lot more med students than dental students on those forums (and irl)

"more free time" this has to be a joke lol. Medical school is 100 times more time-consuming than dental school (with the exception of their 4th year)...
 
"more free time" this has to be a joke lol. Medical school is 100 times more time-consuming than dental school (with the exception of their 4th year)...
Really depends. Most schools (in the state I'm in) are p/f with nonmandatory classes. While the dental schools are 8-5. You think sitting in lecture for 8 hours instead of watching lectures on 2-3x speed saves more time? You think having only 7 hours (5-12 am) of time to study for courses will give you more free time? And when there's hand work stuff as year 1s or 2s, it's gonna be different.

If we could skip all our dental courses and watch them on much higher speed, it would be another story. Or if there wasn't random labwork BS and we could just keep our noses in a book or a powerpoint or flashcards for 10 hrs a day, life would be easier.

And I get this info from med students I know as well as reading a lot on the MD forums- some of their schedules (with watching lectures on 2x speed) are like wake up at 11 am, go to the gym, watch lectures for like 2 hours, then study for 4-8 more hours. You have no idea how much of extra time you have if you aren't forced to attend lectures from 8-5.

Note: I never said which was harder or easier, just which has more or less free time. And you can see it on the SDN forums too- they all say mandatory lectures are major BS and you lose a lot of time if a prof forces you to attend compared to one that doesn't.
 
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"more free time" this has to be a joke lol. Medical school is 100 times more time-consuming than dental school (with the exception of their 4th year)...
no joke, mate
i attended both. dental at highly touted institution, med at a top 10 establishment.
med ~ fed with a silver spoon.
dent ~ force fed with a hot iron poker.
 
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no joke, mate
i attended both. dental at highly touted institution, med at a top 10 establishment.
med ~ fed with a silver spoon.
dent ~ force fed with a hot iron poker.
^yea that's another reason I stick to what I said. OMFS's always say dent is busier. Med may go more in detail and the competition may be stiffer, but in terms of keeping you busy, dent should be more annoying.
 
Really depends. Most schools (in the state I'm in) are p/f with nonmandatory classes. While the dental schools are 8-5. You think sitting in lecture for 8 hours instead of watching lectures on 2-3x speed saves more time? You think having only 7 hours (5-12 am) of time to study for courses will give you more free time? And when there's hand work stuff as year 1s or 2s, it's gonna be different.

If we could skip all our dental courses and watch them on much higher speed, it would be another story. Or if there wasn't random labwork BS and we could just keep our noses in a book or a powerpoint or flashcards for 10 hrs a day, life would be easier.

And I get this info from med students I know as well as reading a lot on the MD forums- some of their schedules (with watching lectures on 2x speed) are like wake up at 11 am, go to the gym, watch lectures for like 2 hours, then study for 4-8 more hours. You have no idea how much of extra time you have if you aren't forced to attend lectures from 8-5.

Note: I never said which was harder or easier, just which has more or less free time. And you can see it on the SDN forums too- they all say mandatory lectures are major BS and you lose a lot of time if a prof forces you to attend compared to one that doesn't.
Are you sure every dental school has mandatory lecture from 8-5?
 
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Mine pretty much did. That was the hardest aspect of 1st year. I remember busting my arse constantly between gross and lab, gross and lab...Looking back I don't know how I managed to keep my sanity. But I did, and you will too OP.
Repetition, Repetition; did I say Repetition? That is how I got through histology, biochem, etc.
This may seem time consuming to some, but this was my regimen:
Study Lecture 1, when presented with lecture 2, study lecture 2 and lecture 1, when presented with lecture 3, study lecture 1,2 and 3, and so on and so forth.
By the time the exams actually hit, I had reviewed 80% of the material at least twice, if not 3 times.
I wasn't a gunner, but I was deathly worried of failing, and I was pleasantly surprised by my rank, when all was said and done. That was what worked for me; hope it helps!! Don't give up, the beginning is always the hardest!
 
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Well, since you put it that way I can honestly see your point. I just feel that our boards compared to their boards are so much easier and require a lot less preparation. The busy work is definitely there though
 
Well, since you put it that way I can honestly see your point. I just feel that our boards compared to their boards are so much easier and require a lot less preparation. The busy work is definitely there though
Oh by no means was I comparing boards. Dental's biomedical sciences are "watered down" versions of medicine (generally speaking). But we were debating time consuming (which you initially said was a joke) NOT board difficulty. Their boards are meant to compare students' performance to see who is competitive for what residencies while ours is p/f.

The nice thing is that they get more dedicated study time (the school I'm going to doesn't have time for boards) which is nice. If you're going for OMFS, you'll be studying for CBSE (like USMLE but fewer questions) on top of classes or clinical stuff which is probably hell.
 
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Oh by no means was I comparing boards. Dental's biomedical sciences are "watered down" versions of medicine (generally speaking). But we were debating time consuming (which you initially said was a joke) NOT board difficulty. Their boards are meant to compare students' performance to see who is competitive for what residencies while ours is p/f.

The nice thing is that they get more dedicated study time (the school I'm going to doesn't have time for boards) which is nice. If you're going for OMFS, you'll be studying for CBSE (like USMLE but fewer questions) on top of classes or clinical stuff which is probably hell.

haha yea very true. As someone who's studied for and taken the CBSE I can comfortably say that the age-old "dental school = med school + hand skills" is such a myth. Would venture to say that the average 3rd year dental student would score in the 50th percentile at best on the NBME. Which naturally demonstrates the knowledge gap and therefore the difficulty gap. BUT a difficulty gap isnt necessarily a "time spent" gap as you pointed out (busy work, lab work, mandatory lectures etc). Agreed on that front..
 
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haha yea very true. As someone who's studied for and taken the CBSE I can comfortably say that the age-old "dental school = med school + hand skills" is such a myth. Would venture to say that the average 3rd year dental student would score in the 50th percentile at best on the NBME. Which naturally demonstrates the knowledge gap and therefore the difficulty gap. BUT a difficulty gap isnt necessarily a "time spent" gap as you pointed out (busy work, lab work, mandatory lectures etc). Agreed on that front..
Wait 50th percentile would be average right? I bet it would be a lot lower (since they probably don't even touch on a lot of the stuff tested). Knowledge gap also is due to our courses not teaching to their board, which is good since 80+% people are doing general dentistry versus in medicine you need to learn about everything since you could potentially go into a profession that deals with any body part.

What's cool is the CBSE -> USMLE conversion is "merciful". It's not like we need equivalents to 240+ on the CBSE to land OMFS. IIRC a 75 is like a 220 or 230? And a 75 would be a pretty great score (unless you're at harvard or columbia where they teach to the boards but even then it's probably still real good).

When they say dental school = med school + hand skills they probably mean overall classes can be just as busy (maybe not as in depth especially gross from what I've heard) but then there's just random other responsibilities peppered in.
 
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It's different focuses, that's all. There are only so many preclinical hours, so dental curriculums have biomedical sciences with a focus on oral biology. Medical students don't have to worry about things like tooth anatomy, restorative protocol, caries management, classes in all of the dental specialties, and of course hours and hours of labwork. This provides medical students the ability to go more in depth with the biomedical sciences. Make no mistake though, even the "watered down" biomedical courses in dental school still take a lot of hard work to achieve high grades.
As for the schools that integrate their courses with the medical schools, I would imagine that they generally have a weaker clinical focus due to their stronger biomedical component. Again, their are only so many hours...

OP, try taking a "Destroyer" approach. Do tons of practice problems. Go over the answers you got right, but more importantly go over what you got wrong and why. It may help you in understanding concepts
 
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"more free time" this has to be a joke lol. Medical school is 100 times more time-consuming than dental school (with the exception of their 4th year)...

My brother goes to a top medical school and he tends to have a bit more free time than me, but overall it's similar workload. Most schools do not teach to the boards, so they spend a lot of time studying for their boards outside of class.

You are right that the CBSE/Step 1 is significantly harder than the dental boards.
 
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Lol forgive my ignorance but for some reason I feel like there are posts in this thread that want to prove that med school is so much more rigorous and that the dental students have it so much easier. I do agree that the level of biomedical sciences on the dental side doesn't go as deep compared to the med school. But med students don't have to do psychomotors after psychomotors while studying for exams, quizzes, and boards. I'm willing to bet that not many predoc med students know what it feels like to be critically judged not only on academic front but also on hand skills every single week. It's devastating when you are not so good at both and still have to find the balance when trying to improve. Another point that I want to bring up is that dental students (3rd and 4th years, sometimes even 2nd years) have to learn treatment planning, diagnosis, patient management AND actually do the procedure themselves. That alone is an enormous challenge that not everyone can get used to at first.

My apologies for ranting. My point is, each discipline has its own challenges, some not so apparent to other disciplines. No use belittling other professions or disciplines.
 
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Lol forgive my ignorance but for some reason I feel like there are posts in this thread that want to prove that med school is so much more rigorous and that the dental students have it so much easier. I do agree that the level of biomedical sciences on the dental side doesn't go as deep compared to the med school. But med students don't have to do psychomotors after psychomotors while studying for exams, quizzes, and boards. I'm willing to bet that not many predoc med students know what it feels like to be critically judged not only on academic front but also on hand skills every single week. It's devastating when you are not so good at both and still have to find the balance when trying to improve. Another point that I want to bring up is that dental students (3rd and 4th years, sometimes even 2nd years) have to learn treatment planning, diagnosis, patient management AND actually do the procedure themselves. That alone is an enormous challenge that not everyone can get used to at first.

My apologies for ranting. My point is, each discipline has its own challenges, some not so apparent to other disciplines. No use belittling other professions or disciplines.
Naw we corrected that guy. And your point aligned with ours about not as deep but a bunch of extra stuff on the side. :thumbup:
 
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I just finished my first year and I thought it was tough as well. The most important part is time-management. Give yourself time to read, study, and review. It is also helpful to have friends to study with as well because you are learning what they are telling you and you are reinforcing what you've learned.

Whenever there is an exam coming up for me, I usually give about two/three days if it is a harder course or a day for an easier course. If you are looking to pass, you could put more effort on the harder course and do bare minimum for the other courses.
 
"more free time" this has to be a joke lol. Medical school is 100 times more time-consuming than dental school (with the exception of their 4th year)...
My dental school is 8-5. Then all the **** you take home. Grades. The medical school (also top ranked) has its first years sit through 3 hours of class a day. Straight pass/fail, no honors or anything. The Dean of the medical school lectured our class on one biochem topic because it was his/her research area, and flat out said how much worse we have it. I have friends in the medical school as well and nobody really doubts it except those med students with a chip on their shoulder who think anyone who didn't choose med school is a bumbling idiot.
 
what school was this? is there information or topics that you recommend we study before starting dental school?
 
what school was this? is there information or topics that you recommend we study before starting dental school?

Studying before dental school isn't effective since professors test off their own slides, and you will forget most of the material when the time comes that you are tested on it. The best thing to do is to manage your time wisely. Don't put off studying until the last minute, study the material in advance. I like to review all of the tested material the day before the exam, so by then, I've gone through the material at least once before and the last review makes the miniscule details more readily available to me for the test.
 
what school was this? is there information or topics that you recommend we study before starting dental school?
Focus on yourself and your personal relationships, because there will be a strain placed on them.

Don't bother studying now because you do not have your professors notes yet. That's what you will be tested on. You will just be wasting time.
 
Studying before dental school isn't effective since professors test off their own slides, and you will forget most of the material when the time comes that you are tested on it. The best thing to do is to manage your time wisely. Don't put off studying until the last minute, study the material in advance. I like to review all of the tested material the day before the exam, so by then, I've gone through the material at least once before and the last review makes the miniscule details more readily available to me for the test.
yea... I literally forgot like everything I learned 2 semesters ago even though the courses I took would have been useful for dental school. Sad
 

Do you mind telling us why you struggled D1 year? It appears that you took the TIME to study, but didn't know how to properly attack the material. But is there other factors that contributed to your demise? Let me know

Studying before dental school isn't effective....
Don't bother studying now.
yea... I literally forgot like everything...

I am going to be a senior and will graduate Dec. 2017 (a semester early than many of my peers who would graduate in May 2018). During that semester, I was planning on sneaking into some of my undegrads anatomy lectures and other relevant courses to prepare for D1 year. But it appears you guys unanimously say no, don't do this and rather relax. But my concern is that if I don't at least get my mind "academically stimulated", I will get blown away by the courseload D1 year offers (especially in my circumstance with such a long break).

My question for you guys is: Returning from your summer break going into Dental school, were you rusty and ill-prepared for the D1 courseload? With your experience in mind, what advice would you give me?
 
Do you mind telling us why you struggled D1 year? It appears that you took the TIME to study, but didn't know how to properly attack the material. But is there other factors that contributed to your demise? Let me know





I am going to be a senior and will graduate Dec. 2017 (a semester early than many of my peers who would graduate in May 2018). During that semester, I was planning on sneaking into some of my undegrads anatomy lectures and other relevant courses to prepare for D1 year. But it appears you guys unanimously say no, don't do this and rather relax. But my concern is that if I don't at least get my mind "academically stimulated", I will get blown away by the courseload D1 year offers (especially in my circumstance with such a long break).

My question for you guys is: Returning from your summer break going into Dental school, were you rusty and ill-prepared for the D1 courseload? With your experience in mind, what advice would you give me?


Live. You cannot get time back. Nothing can prepare you for the courseload in terms of memorization. If you want to do your best get a good workout routine, learn to cook some healthy meals and prepare yourself for the social immersion you are about to participate in. But just live and have fun before it starts because you won't be able to do some of your hobbies when D1 starts.
 
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I am going to be a senior and will graduate Dec. 2017 (a semester early than many of my peers who would graduate in May 2018). During that semester, I was planning on sneaking into some of my undegrads anatomy lectures and other relevant courses to prepare for D1 year. But it appears you guys unanimously say no, don't do this and rather relax. But my concern is that if I don't at least get my mind "academically stimulated", I will get blown away by the courseload D1 year offers (especially in my circumstance with such a long break).

My question for you guys is: Returning from your summer break going into Dental school, were you rusty and ill-prepared for the D1 courseload? With your experience in mind, what advice would you give me?

I took 3 years off between undergrad and starting dental school. I didn't even have an anatomy course under my belt from undergrad, and I did well in my courses so far in dental school. What's most important is the time you allot to your studies while in dental school. If you put in the time, you will do well.

There are some few exceptions, but they are more rare (like not having good hand skills, even after putting significant time into pre-clinical work). There is really nothing you can do now that will have a worthwhile impact on your performance in school, and your performance is mostly dependent on your work ethic. So keep up a good work ethic during dental school and you will be fine.
 
I took 3 years off between undergrad and starting dental school. I didn't even have an anatomy course under my belt from undergrad, and I did well in my courses so far in dental school. What's most important is the time you allot to your studies while in dental school. If you put in the time, you will do well.

There are some few exceptions, but they are more rare (like not having good hand skills, even after putting significant time into pre-clinical work). There is really nothing you can do now that will have a worthwhile impact on your performance in school, and your performance is mostly dependent on your work ethic. So keep up a good work ethic during dental school and you will be fine.
so you would say just working hard can probably allow you to ace classes? I read on the md forums some ppl study a buttload and still do badly. Which is weird b/c I was under the assumption that med/dent classes aren't hard from a critical thinking POV but just lots of info so idk how that would happenn
 
There were people in my D1 class that had previously taken courses like anatomy and biochem. I saw no difference between their performance or those taking it for the first time. You test to the professor.

If you REALLY want to study, just reinforce your familiarity with the metabolic processes from biochem. This way you can focus on the new info you learn in other classes.
 
Hey guys I started dental school last year and unfortunately I got killed by the sciences specifically biochemistry, anatomy and histology. I was not able to pull through and failed those classes. I will be resuming next year as a first year again. I do want to be a dentist, and while I struggled a lot with my hand skills and wax ups I think I can actually do that part. Obviously I am trying to spend the summer learning the material but How do I actually learn how to learn? My undergrad was at a pretty easy state school and I aced all my classes by reading the slides the night before, perhaps making some flashcards. That obviously didn't work in d-school.

TL;Dr: failed first year sciences and need to figure out how to learn

This is my experience and what I used in med school, it should apply just the same.
So you have to figure out what type of learner you are; kinesthetic, auditory, visual. After you have that figured out go with what works for you. If you are more visual then reading and videos might be the thing for you. Auditory---audio lectures, kinesthetic---draw it out. That depends up to you and it is figured out by trying every single until you find one that you like and that works. Now besides having a clear method you have to have an active study method, meaning you "digest" the material and end up making it your own. For an example taking what you read and trying to explain it from memory and using your own words (which is how I have studied). I would most of the time explain it to myself out loud using a drawing board, but you can explain it just using words or whatever other way that you prefer. Other examples are book summaries, concept maps, etc. I think one of the most important things with your study method is that it should have some sort of active recall, really forcing you to remember the material.

Besides studying what is also fundamental is the review. You have to review and often. Personally, I use the spaced repetition method to determine with what interval I should review and use the from memory explanations for the review itself. It doesn't matter what method is better for you to review, just as long as you do and have a good dose of active recall (taking evaluation quizzes is another great way to review).

As for myself, I was always a visual learner. I liked videos that explained the most fundamental and gave a good introduction before I hit the books. This way I knew what was important when approaching the book and didn't have to wade through all the fluff that reference books often have. Often times the vid lecture was also good enough so that I only had to add a few details from the book and it became a sort of review. For the basic sciences I always liked Lecturio, the videos were always short and to the point and provided me with the needed introduction (often when I didn't get it because of not so great lecturers. Another good option is Najeeb, however, his videos are mad long. These two that I have mentioned are targeted more towards med students but I think that for the most part, the basic sciences program should be the same.

The vid lectures + lecture notes became my basic study guide which I complemented from the book. I would consider the topic known when I could explain it from memory using my own words and reviewed with spaced repetition.

Is this what you should use....maybe if it works for you. Again, it is up to you to conclude what method works best now that cramming a few days before won't cut it anymore.

I hope this helped.
 
so you would say just working hard can probably allow you to ace classes? I read on the md forums some ppl study a buttload and still do badly. Which is weird b/c I was under the assumption that med/dent classes aren't hard from a critical thinking POV but just lots of info so idk how that would happenn

Some people don't have it in them, sure, and there are also some geniuses that look at material the day before and remember every minutia. For most, hard work brings good results.
 
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I am not in Dental school. But I believe my tactic could be successful. My method relies on what Med student 18 said
you "digest" the material and end up making it your own.

  1. Compile all information that will be tested (look at lectures, in-class notes)
  2. MAKE SURE this gathered information is accurate (cross-reference your info with other notes, students, etc). You will be using this accurate Master study guide to "make the information your B**** / own, lol"
  3. Preliminary organization of the gathered information (make sure the information is structured how you like it/whatever makes sense to you)
  4. Copy & Paste exam objectives into word document
  5. Find the answers to the exam objectives from your preliminary organization/accurate master study guide
  6. Modify answers & add more information if necessary (this shouldn't happen b/c you should have collected all relevant info from step 1). But I guess, you can word it better.
  7. Review the course objective study guide that you made
  8. Try to memorize the exam objective study guide, and rewrite it on a sheet of paper without looking at your study guide
  9. Repeat step 8 over and over until you can write out the whole exam objective study guide by memory (you can make adjustment to help yourself memorize it better)
Short & Sweet: Get accurate info, Organize, filter info that will be relevant to test, practice practice practice on what is relevant for test until you "digested" the material.

QUESTION:
Does MOST didactic faculty provide STUDY Guides/exam objectives for upcoming exams? Or is it up to the dental student to determine what is relevant for the exam? Or is there a review session, TAs help, etc?

I guess each professor is different and even each school is different. But from your experience, was your didactic professor helpful? And in what specific way?
 
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Do you mind telling us why you struggled D1 year? It appears that you took the TIME to study, but didn't know how to properly attack the material. But is there other factors that contributed to your demise? Let me know





I am going to be a senior and will graduate Dec. 2017 (a semester early than many of my peers who would graduate in May 2018). During that semester, I was planning on sneaking into some of my undegrads anatomy lectures and other relevant courses to prepare for D1 year. But it appears you guys unanimously say no, don't do this and rather relax. But my concern is that if I don't at least get my mind "academically stimulated", I will get blown away by the courseload D1 year offers (especially in my circumstance with such a long break).

My question for you guys is: Returning from your summer break going into Dental school, were you rusty and ill-prepared for the D1 courseload? With your experience in mind, what advice would you give me?

just rest. chill. relax your mind.
stressed out isn't recharging/stimulating your brain.
think it as running a marathon. it is not a sprint... you will get there eventually no need to waste your energy early on.
 
School from 8 to 5?
Can you name these schools so I know before hand!
 
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