Exam Guideline for DPCD Exam

on

- Dr. Mahin Nadeem



Diploma in Primary Care Dentistry

I am a fresh graduate who attempted the online exam of DPCD held in June 2023 and here is how I was able to pass it in my first attempt alongside my house job.


First off, RESEARCH. I cannot emphasize on this enough, take weeks to just know what this exam is, what benefit would it give you if you pass it and how intensive the preparation needs to be.  I would recommend joining study groups after doing some research or you might feel lost with all the PDFs thrown your way once you join one without any prior knowledge and that can be overwhelming. The RCSI website offers all the basic information you need, the syllabus, fee structure and eligibility criteria.


Note: You need a valid passport and a laptop with working camera and microphone to attempt this exam and as for the exam charges, contact your bank to ask for breakdown of international transaction charges, withholding tax, etc. that can be applied when you pay online to give you a better idea of what amount you actually will be paying as a foreign applicant. 650 euros are paid when booking the exam and 250 more paid when you pass the exam. (Please refer to the college website for most recent fees) 


When it comes to what books to study from, I believe it depends on which ones you are most comfortable with. Some people chose Oxford Handbook of Clinical Dentistry 6th or 7th edition and some like me, who preferred Master Dentistry Vol 1 and 2 as their primary source. It’s up to you which one you find more comfortable studying from while keeping the other as a secondary book.

I preferred Master Dentistry because it was a little more detailed and every chapter has questions at the end which helped me assess my knowledge retention and also how deep I should be studying.

Along with this a few chapters from Oxford Handbook of Applied Dental Sciences (now called

Oxford Handbook of Integrated Dental Biosciences) and you are good to go.



What to study from Blue Book (Oxford Handbook of Applied Sciences)


Table 1.2 Stages of craniofacial development and Table 1.3 Embryonic contributions

Table 2.8 & 2.9 CNS

Cardiovascular system

Table 3.1

Table 5.10, 5.11, 5.12

Pulp pg 98 till appositional stage pg 114

Table 8.2 (only read it)

Mastication pg 150- 156

Swallowing

Table 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4 (v. imp!!)

Ch 33 Saliva

Ch 38 Palate

Ch 45 Hemodynamic

Part 8 Behavioral sciences


This is ALL that I studied from the blue book, it is too detailed and just the tables would also be enough as very less questions are asked from the syllabus that you have to study from this book.


All books and past questions books are available online so you don’t need to spend any money unless you study better from hard copies like me.


The most important step is attempting questions; without practice you won’t be able to successfully attempt questions they ask in the exam. Not only does it improve your knowledge retention by revision but also helps to avoid silly mistakes such as not paying attention to keywords like which of the following is incorrect, most likely or not true.

 


I recommend the following ebooks for practicing questions:

 

In my opinion all of this is enough for you to pass, you do not need any crash courses or extra study material, just a good amount of revision and ample study time which I believe depends on you and your study habits. I prepared for 2.5 months roughly 3 hours a day, it could take you more or less time depending on your study routine, your attention span and prior knowledge about these topics as these are general dentistry questions majorly based off of what you studied in dental school.


Good luck!

Comments

Post a Comment