The original intention of writing this series is to record those colleagues who have crossed the border and restarted their careers in the two places. In this issue, we invited a conversation guest who had just completed the Hong Kong dental licensing examination (HKDLE) for the first time. He passed five subjects in this Part1 examination. He unreservedly shared the pits he stepped on in the distribution of question types, time management and the logistics around the examination room, hoping to leave the most intuitive reference for future candidates.
(Note: in order to respect the privacy of the respondents, the content of this article has been anonymized.)
Interviewee: Doctor E
Mainland background reference candidates have recently completed the first HKDLE Part 1 exam in 2026.
The number of competitors is not large, and the number of candidates for the first examination is only 40 or 50
Before entering the examination room, doctor e was prepared to deal with the huge group of candidates. However, according to his actual counting and observation at the scene, there are about 80 seats in the whole examination room. Excluding the re examination peers, the number of people who really participated in the first examination for the first time may be about 40 or 50. This data once again confirms the industry’s previous judgment that this track has “large information gap and few competitors”.
Contempt of anticipation and periodontal “Waterloo”
When it comes to specific exam subjects, doctor e’s feedback is very representative. Before the exam, he listened to past experience and devoted a lot of time and energy to the conservation of Dentistry (Cons). This saturated review was rewarded in the examination room, and he did not feel too much pressure on options when facing cons’ questions.
However, the biggest mistake in this exam is in the periodontal (perio) course. Because he belittled the breadth of this subject, he encountered a “Waterloo” on periodontal disease. Sure enough, this subject finally died with regret. Dr. e recalled that this year, the periodontal subject examined a lot of clinical details and theoretical support about non-surgical periodontal treatment. The examination method was meticulous and logical, which was far beyond the scope of the traditional review outline in the mainland. It is very worthy of high vigilance for future candidates.
The high pressure of one question per minute and the difficulty of choice
In addition to the test site itself, the form of the test also has a great impact on the psychological quality of candidates. Dr. e said frankly that the biggest difficulty of the whole exam was that the time was extremely tight, and it was almost necessary to keep the pace of completing one question in one minute, leaving no room for candidates to check and deliberate again and again.
What is more devastating is that the interference options of the test paper are designed very well. In such a tight time, there are two or three confusing options for many topics. Dr. E admitted that he was a little difficult to choose at that time, and repeatedly tangled between several options, which not only consumed valuable time for answering questions, but also disrupted the pace of answering questions in the second half.
Never live in central blindly
In addition to the contest on the examination paper, the logistics arrangement outside the examination room is also the key to determine the examination status. This time, Dr. e paid the tuition on the accommodation options.
Thinking about the schedule after the exam, he decided to locate the hotel in the bustling central. Results due to the location of the examination room, it was necessary to leave for the examination room one and a half hours in advance in the morning of the examination day. To make matters worse, the short lunch break at noon was completely unable to return to the hotel for a rest, and only a short rest around the examination room. He suggested later candidates with his personal experience that the hotel should be directly located in Huangzhukeng near the test site for the next test, which can save a lot of commuting time and can be changed after the test.
This exam was a profound trial and error for Dr. E. Although the failure of the periodontal examination was regrettable, he found out the scene of the examination room, understood the questions of dentists in Hong Kong, experienced the high-pressure time rhythm, and stepped on the pit of accommodation. These accumulated experience will be the confidence for him to enter the examination room next time.