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These five recent graduates (four of whom are pictured below, at the banquet on June 6) were honored for outstanding performance on Parts I and II of the National Board Examination, achieving scores in the 90th percentile or higher on both examinations. Each of the five received a $1,000 scholarship award in recognition of their achievement, in addition to the $500 scholarship they had previously received for their performance on Part I of the National Board Examination. In addition, Associate Dean for Education Dr. Dorothy Perry and I enjoyed dinner at the first annual National Board Scholars Banquet at Boulevard restaurant, on May 23.
The faculty and administration take the results of the National Board examinations very seriously. We do so because we recognize that these scores can play a significant role in a student's future career options; for instance, it can influence whether a student will be able to gain entry into a postgraduate program. Even though many students are convinced that they will never want to specialize, their viewpoint may well change, even years later. The School does not want any student to feel constrained from pursuing whatever career path they want - and non-competitive scores can limit a student's future options in precisely that way. This is especially the case now that the School has adopted a Pass/Non-Pass grading system. The board scores are the only objective external metric of student performance during dental school. Typically, at this time of year, I used to wish all students taking the upcoming National Board Exam Part I (given in July) the best of luck on the examination. However, now that students can take the computer-based version of the examination at any time they want, I would just like to wish everyone all the best - and to remind students that putting in a little more effort now by careful preparation will bring disproportionate rewards later. Best regards,
Charles N. Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc Dean |
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