The Impact of the NBDE Grading Change and Implementation of the Complete Basic Science Exam on Residency Applications

The Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations (JCNDE) has explained that the National Board of Dental Examination (NBDE) Part 1 was never designed or validated to differentiate students beyond a pass/fail level.¹  In light of this, the JCDNE announced that, as of January 1^st 2012, they would no longer report numerical scores for the NBDE Part 1.  The recent decision by the JCNDE marks a significant departure from the ways in which dental students have historically been evaluated and is presumed to have resounding effects on students, pre-doctoral educators, and residency program directors.  The purpose of this study is to assess how the discontinuation of numerical score reporting on NBDE Part 1 has affected postdoctoral residency program directors’ interview and admissions selection process.  The authors hypothesized that this change could impact how program directors weight items on an application, the number of applications received, and the percentage of candidates interviewed.

This survey-based study enrolled over half of all Postdoctoral Application Support Service (PASS) participating program directors.  A total of 326 responses were gathered which included responses from all specialties recognized by the American Dental Association.  ANOVA statistical tests were used to analyze the data collected.

In this study residency program directors were asked to rank a number of aspects of a prospective resident’s application in 2013, when all applicants had a numerical score on NBDE Part I, and in 2014, when a significant portion no longer had a numerical score, on a scale of zero to five.  In 2013, a numerical NBDE Part I score was the third highest rated aspect of an application behind GPA and class rank, respectively.  In 2014, when many applications no longer had a numerical NBDE Part 1 score almost all aspects of the application increased in importance on the five point scale, but their relative rank remained almost unchanged.  The one exception was the Complete Basic Science Exam (CBSE) newly implemented by oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) directors, which jumped to the third most important in 2014, up from ninth. Despite this minimal relative change, 71% of directors reported that it was now more difficult to select interview candidates. Similar to dental students surveyed in a previous study, 76% of program directors wanted some form of standardized score.²  The change had minimal impact on the number of applications received per residency position, even in OMS where all applicants were required to take the additional CBSE.  Furthermore, there was no significant change in the number of interviews offered per position.  However, the standard deviation of the number of interviews offered per position increased dramatically.  The authors suspect that this increase in standard deviation could be due to a variable response amongst programs which could mask a significant increase in the number of interviews offered per spot at some programs.

In conclusion, the vast majority of residency program directors felt the absence of a numerically scored NBDE Part I made selecting interview candidates more difficult.  However, the change had little measurable impact on the relative importance of individual items on an application, the number of applications per residency position, and the number of interviews offered per residency position.

REFERENCES:

1.            Examinations JCoND. National Board of Dental Examination, part II: 2010 guide. Chicago: American Dental Association; 2010.

2.            Fagin AP, Howell TH, Park SE.  The Impact of National Board of Dental Education Grading Changes on Dental Students. J Dent Educ. Accepted for publication Oct. 2013.