Dr. Amina Mukhtar graduated from de'Montmorency college of dentistry in the batch 2019. She gave FCPS Part 1 and JCAT right after her housejob and topped the JCAT with a score of 188. She wrote this guide to help all young dentists who want to give the exam.
After my house job in 2021, I decided to clear my exams first and then join any private practice so I did my FCPS first (August '21 attempt) and then JCAT (October '21 attempt)
Now I will focus more on JCAT and its preparation. In JCAT you have to choose the correct option and fill the bubble sheet. There is no negative marking.
Total 125 MCQs and each MCQ carries 2 marks.
Passing marks: 150
In JCAT, dentistry related MCQ ratio is quite high unlike FCPS.
Final year books play the most important role
For FCPS you have to prepare for 1st and 2nd year course only but in JCAT you have to prepare 1st year to final year.
I always prefer to read main books rather than solving MCQs.
Since I had prepared for FCPS first, that preparation of mine helped me. It took me 4 to 5 months to prepare for both exams.
Physiology: BRS
Pathology: USMLE + BRS (1-7) chapters
Biochemistry: USMLE
Oral biology: Zohaib (just most important topics)
Pharmacology: Kaplan
Periodontology: NBDE 2
Oral Pathology: NBDE 2
Dental Materials: McCabe
Final year books:
I preferred main course books
Surgery: Tucker
Orthodontics: Balaji + Ulfat bashir notes. I did not have time for contemporary so I skipped it.
Operative: Art and science + Grossman for Endodontics
Prosthodontics: NBDE 2 + few topics from main book of Mccraken’s RPD
SK pearls and eesha notes (I prefer for FCPS but this book has a lot of main points)
MCQ Book
Dentogist Clinical Sciences (mainly for JCAT)