Chronicle One
NBDE – “Non recognized bored dentist on Ebay?”
Traveling all the way across the globe from Mysore to Manhattan changed my life forever. Friends would compare Manhattan to Bombay and Bangalore. But who knew these places? I lived in that small place all my life. This new world was exciting to my eyes. Looking out at the China town dental offices on my way to the new place did I think skeptically, “Am I really going to be a dentist here?”
My husband had printed out the manual “Ultimate foreign trained dentists guide” off the internet and had gifted it to me. Well, that book surely looked ‘foreign’ to me. I could only understand that there was an exam that I was supposed to take before I applied for schools and it was the NBDE. Ebay, Dental Decks and Kaplan being my new best friends on the internet, I geared up for the exam.
Writing essay answers were comforting. Though my hands needed a spa massage at the end of the exam season, I was sure that I could get an A grade. I am sure that boasting and gloating about my answers at end of the exam day was the most annoying thing to my friends. But here in the US, I am positive that all their wishes came true. They probably wanted me get tormented with the multiple choice. Spinning off the multiple answers in a single question quite was a challenge that I never relished. But on the bright side I could never blank out on an answer! I had the comfort of saying I answered all the questions. At the exam center, “eeni meeni myni moh” did I go all through the exam as they did not let me flip coins.
My score turned out to be alright. Thanks to all the concept makers back home. NDBE part one just did not become Non recognized dentist bored on Ebay! NBDE part one lead to the sequel- Part two. I was already in school by now. The part one scores had landed me in a good school with great teachers. This time I was grounded and focused. No more “myni mohs” in the exam this time. Flipping coins- yes I did consider sneaking one in this time, but decided I could do better. And I did.
Thanks to NBDE, I am a practicing dentist in the US now.
Dr Meenakshi Umapathy is a General Dentist who graduated from India. She moved to the USA and completed her DDS from New York University College of Dentistry. She is currently practicing General Dentistry for Kids in Indiana. She shares her stories about dentistry in India and the US through her narratives at the DentistryUnited every Saturday.
Disclaimer : The views expressed in this blog are solely the views of the author and need not reflect the views of DentistryUnited.com . For any clarification you can get in touch with the author directly at the address mentioned above.
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