How to study for your DANB exam
A key milestone in your dental assisting career is taking and, hopefully, passing a DANB exam to become a certificant or certificate-holder. One reason it’s such a big deal is that it takes hard work to prepare for and pass an exam. While it can seem intimidating at first, having the right study plan in place can help you feel ready for test day.
Use DANB’s free study guide plans
To help you feel prepared going into your exam, DANB has created free study guide plans for the Radiation Health and Safety (RHS) and Infection Control (ICE) exams. The General Chairside (GC) exam study guide plan will be available in spring 2025. The plans provide a study schedule template, breaking down assignments from trusted resources into a manageable, week-by-week format. The study guide plans can also show you how to get the most out of exam prep courses offered by the DALE Foundation. Dental assistants are already finding the study guide plans helpful. In a small study, candidates who used the RHS study guide plan had a 22% higher pass rate compared to those who did not use it.
Take notes
Whether you use DANB’s study guides or create your own plan, note-taking can help you learn and memorize information you’ll see on the exam. As you go through your textbook and study materials, write down key terms and concepts. This approach, a form of active learning, helps you focus on the material more closely, allowing you to comprehend, absorb, and recall it more easily. Studies have consistently shown that active learning is more effective than passive learning. A 2024 study by Engageli showed that active learners retained 94% of information compared to a 79% retention rate for passive learners.
You can structure your notes in whatever way makes the most sense to you and fits your learning style, perhaps by highlighting especially important information or circling terms and concepts you want to revisit. This will make it simpler to review and find key information you want to focus on.
Test yourself to monitor progress
Throughout your studying, periodically quiz yourself to check your progress and reinforce what you’ve learned. You can create your own flash cards, use practice questions in your textbook, or purchase a practice test from the DALE Foundation. The practice test can help you get comfortable with the timed exam environment, as well as mark questions you feel uncertain about or want to go back and review later. As you get answers correct — and more importantly, understand why they’re correct — it helps build your confidence heading into exam day. However, remember that it’s OK to get answers wrong. This just helps you know what topics, chapters, and review course modules to review. As a rule of thumb, aim to get at least 80% on practice tests and the post-course assessment.
Understand the “why”
There is an element of memorization to learning the material on DANB exams. But if you make a concerted effort to understand the concepts behind why answers are correct, it helps you comprehend the information more thoroughly. For example, you might know the proper order for putting on different PPE, but do you know why you’re supposed to put it on in that order? When you understand the scientific-based reasoning behind a concept, it helps you recall and apply the information later on — whether during your exam or in the dental office.
If you only memorize information without understanding the “why” behind it, you may not retain the information as well in the long term. Additionally, the questions you see on a practice test will not be the same ones you see on the actual exam. This is why DANB recommends completing activities in your textbook, answering recall questions, reviewing key terms, making flash cards, and using the interactive elements in review courses to drive home your learning.