After the completion of Part 1 of the first Hong Kong dental licensing examination (HKDLE) in 2026, many candidates have extremely complex experiences when they walk out of the examination room. They are not only glad to encounter the written questions, but also regret the trap options and high-voltage errors.
In this issue of Zency’s dental Atlas of Hong Kong story, we connected with a doctor G who practised in private clinics in the mainland. As an on-the-job dentist preparing for the examination, she reviewed her examination experience in the subjects of cons and prosthodontics, and deeply disassembled the “variant routine” of the question group in Hong Kong.
(Note: in order to respect the privacy of the respondents, the content of this article has been anonymized.)
Interviewee: Doctor G
Practicing dentists in private dental clinics in the mainland completed the first HKDLE Part1 examination in 2026 and passed it successfully.
The height of the test points coincides: the question bank that has been done is aligned with the knowledge points
As an in-service dentist who needs to deal with high-intensity clinical work every day, Dr. G does not have enough time to prepare for the exam. Before the exam, she mainly focused on the brushing and understanding of the real problems over the years and the system exercise book.
Talking about the overall body feeling of Part1 this time, Dr. g said that the test points of cons and repair were highly overlapped. Most of the core knowledge points in the after-school exercises or the materials of the quiz have been covered in this test paper. This undoubtedly verifies the effectiveness of the review path of “taking the knowledge points of the real topic as the core” for mainland in-service doctors who are pressed for time and pursue efficient preparation for the exam.
The routine of the problem group: the knowledge points have not changed, but the options have all changed
However, the coincidence of knowledge points does not mean that you can directly “copy the answer”. Dr. g pointed out that the most challenging point of Part1 this time is that the question group did not copy the original question rigidly, but changed the same core knowledge point from a completely different perspective to expand and set questions.
“For example, at the same test site for the characteristics of dental materials, the real question in the past may be to ask the clinical manifestations from a positive perspective, but this time it may be to examine its microscopic changes from a reverse perspective.” Dr. g recalled. This variant of “changing soup without changing medicine” means that if the examinee just recites the answers to the real questions mechanically when reviewing at ordinary times, and lacks in-depth thinking on the underlying logic of knowledge points in the examination room, it is very easy to fall into a dilemma of ambiguity and entanglement.
Lesson under high pressure: when the original question appears in front of you, why do you still have confused memories?
In the interview, Dr. G shared a very representative detail.
At the last minute before the exam, she just brushed a typical real question about “what will be the result of adding excessive acrylic resin”. According to the standard test point, excessive resin will lead to more porosity and volume shrinkage. However, when this almost identical question really appeared on the big test paper, a dramatic scene occurred.
“Because it is a continuous test of too many subjects in a day, the brain has been in a state of extreme tension and high concentration.” Dr. g said frankly, “in the second half of the test, brain overdraft is very serious. In a very short time of answering questions, the brain even produced a moment of memory disorder, and finally chose an option that was clearly wrong.”
This experience of learning, but choosing the wrong one because of high pressure and fatigue, is a real dilemma that many candidates will face.
For future candidates: from “memorizing answers” to “anti-interference training”
Dr. G’s post exam review has left two very hard core implications for all colleagues preparing for HKDLE:
First, don’t memorize the answers to real questions by rote, but understand the “versatility” of knowledge points. In the face of the flexible option disassembly of the question group, only by truly understanding the underlying principles behind the materials science and clinical steps can the options still be accurately identified when they are replaced.
Second, pay attention to psychological and mental endurance training. Hkdle has many subjects, a large number of questions and a fast pace. It tests not only the knowledge reserve, but also the concentration under high pressure. In the usual simulation, in addition to improving the speed of doing questions, we should also exercise our ability to keep awake and resist interference when answering questions with high intensity for a long time, so as to avoid letting the bound score that we originally got slip away with regret because of a momentary memory disorder.
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