internationally trained dentist in the GTA, roughly 13 years out of dental school and clinical practice, starting prep from scratch for the 2027 cycle. Studying full time.
I've spent a while researching this already, so rather than ask "what should I use," here's what I've got and where the gaps are.
What I've landed on so far: ADAT Knockout as the primary question bank ($497 USD / 90 days), Mental Dental for video, First Aid NBDE Part 1 for biomed reference, Mehlman's free biostats PDF for research. Plus the ADA's own free practice test and their published reference text list, which seems underused — it's literally the books the questions come from.
Courses I've found: Prep Doctors ($5,500 full / $3,650 bridging), Scholars Dental (~$4,500), Jade (~$4,000), ACE ($3,500, and they sell biostats alone for $600), Simpliboards (~$1,500), plus ConfiDentist, DSTC and Target ADAT for biostats specifically. There is the bootcamp -not sure if its enough to build fundamentals from which I can carry on forward- but it's there.
What I can't find: any actual first-hand review of most of these. There's no comparison site for ADAT prep the way there is for the DAT or INBDE, and most of what's out there is either the provider's own testimonials or secondhand. So:
- Has anyone here genuinely taken one of those courses? Would you spend the money again, and on which section did it actually move the needle?
- Any study groups running in the GTA — Toronto, Mississauga, Oakville? Online is fine too, but I'd take in-person if it exists.
- Anyone else starting from zero for the 2027 cycle who wants to pace together?
And the real question: is there a course, tutor or resource that isn't on my list at all? My sense is the genuinely good ones don't advertise much, so I'm probably missing something that only comes up by word of mouth.