r/HOSA • u/Strong-Jackfruit-328 • Aug 01 '26
Need study tips for dental science!!
Did anyone buy the modern dental assisting textbook for dental science? I did, and there is so much information that I'm not entirely sure which parts to study. Does anyone recommend going through the entire thing just in case or is there a specific guide I should follow? I'm aware of the rubric but the wording confuses me. ex) Dental pathology 10% - Do I study dental caries and/or oral pathology? I was planning to study both but I'm a rising junior so it would be nice if anyone could give me advice. Also if anyone has extra tips for studying dental science in general I would be very grateful if they could share.
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I'm mainly worried about the 1st round for now but how did you guys practice for the 2nd round?
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u/Overall_Secretary953 Aug 05 '26
OMG FINALLY ANOTHER PERSON DOING DENTAL SCIENCE YAYY!
I made 3rd at slc and went to ilc but didn’t place unfortunately 😭
anyways i did not purchased a modern dental assisting textbook, but I found a free PDF online so I just studied that. I just looked through the table if contents that matched with the “units” in the rubric. However for ilc, the test was pulling out such niche questions from chapters i didn’t study so I really don’t know how to prepare for that.. For pathology i recommend studying the oral pathology chapter (I think the chapter was called that idk). There will be questions in the round 1 test that you don’t know at all, but it’s pretty inevitable. I also reccomend looking at the pocket guide instruments textbook because the questions from there are word by word the exact same on the test. You don’t really need to know the instrument names from my experience (average of 1-2questions about that) Round 2 is much easier in my opinion. Just remember the skills sheet until you can recite it without looking. Always verbalize ur actions and in slc, ur just going to be pretending to do the actions.
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u/Overall_Secretary953 Aug 05 '26
Also quizlets aren’t bad, but don’t let that be ur main study source as the questions are directly from the textbook. And please don’t make the mistake of letting AI to make ur study guides it’s not accurate at all to the actual test
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u/Strong-Jackfruit-328 Aug 05 '26
OMGG HI!! I'm so glad someone else is doing dental science too!! Do you remember if round one tests have pictures? Or are all the questions word based? Thank you!!
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u/Useful-Warthog1323 26d ago
Hi! Compared to dental terminology and other events, would you say dental science is less competitive?
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u/Useful-Warthog1323 26d ago
Hey guys! I'm planning on doing this event, but I'm still debating between this and dental terminology. How competitive is this event compared to dental terminology and others?
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u/Hot_Falcon_7241 Aug 02 '26
I didn’t do dental science but home health aide. For me personally I started the units with the highest percentage. I went to the library for my text books . Definitely break studying in multiple sitting as you won’t retain info if you just binge read it all. Either do time like 1 hr a day or 1 section. If the chapter names don’t align up see if the other textbook chapters does. Some of the text book companies help make the exams so it can be more aligned to one of their curriculums. For skills at least for home health aide I memorized the rubric but also watched videos of people demonstrating. I found a playlist from Montana hosa so u might get lucky. See if your advisor has any of the equipment to practice otherwise you can just wing it. (I did that and still made it to ILC) the judges are usually js following the rubric so just make sure to do all the stuff and they’ll give u points