How do you best learn something new within a short time and retain it for future use?
During your dental residency training, you will learn, develop, and master countless new skills. In asking this question, your interviewers want assurance that you can learn new skills under pressure and put them to use quickly in the direct care of patients as part of their program.
"I can't reiterate to you how eager I am to come to learn from and train with some of the best periodontists in the world at your institution. If I am fortunate enough to be accepted into your residency program, I would bring an attitude and open mind, ready to learn new skills daily and put them to use right away. During my dental school program, I needed to learn new concepts quickly and put them to use. In my pharmacology class, I had to cram the final four weeks' worth of material just five days before the final exam. It took extra work and commitment, but I'm happy to say I aced my final and now consider pharmacology one of my favorite areas of dentistry."
Show your interviewers that you are willing to put in the time and effort to learn every new skill possible. Come to your interview prepared to talk about how you best learn and retain new knowledge and how you will translate classroom learning into patient care as a resident. Talk about times you did this successfully during dental school.
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
During the residency program, I know we will need to learn new skills and concepts very quickly, back home when I had to learn a new skill or procedure I made sure to consult literature to keep my knowledge up to date, observe my superiors how they do it, and then practice it as much as I can. I remember when I was a resident and we had to do bite registration for complex cases, I made sure my theoretical concepts are up to date, and then I practiced it on as many patients as I can to master it.
Marcie's Feedback
So you conduct additional research during your spare time, observe your teachers, and practice as much as you can? All great ideas when it comes to retaining new information. Can you give more details about the time when you did this for bite registrations for complex cases? The more specifics you can give to explain how you learned this, the more meaningful your answer will be to the interviewer. Nice job!
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