Univ of Michigan Entrance Exam

I recently heard from a student who came back from the Univ Michigan practical exam. They were pretty upset with the way the exam was conducted. I'll repeat some of what she said - but this is second hand and should be taken lightly until confirmed. She said that the typodonts were supported by a vertical rod, not a horizontal rod and ball joint as we usually have in manikins, AND that they weren't supplied with mirrors. If this is accurate, then I don't think I could do a decent job on any preparations, nor could anyone else. All of the preparations were on maxillary teeth, including an MOD amalgam preparation. AND they were required to do amalgam fillings. I didn't think that any school was requiring the filling - I have said that I miss teaching that part for these exams (I do it all the time for our clinical courses), because it is something that few people do well at all. On the other hand, most people never had time to even do the filling. Apparently the hand instruments that they supplied were dull.

Now, how much of this is literally true I don't know, but it certainly wouldn't seem to test a candidate's skills in clinical dentistry as well as I think they could have done.

If you are going to apply in 2010 to this school - better call ahead and see if the same thing will be done then. There are other details about the exam that were told to me, and if you are interested just post a comment and I'll fill you in.