I'm scheduled for the RDA in 5 weeks and starting to panic a little. I passed dental school with a 3.4 GPA so I'm not a bad student, but the sheer volume of material is overwhelming. Anatomy, radiology, infection control, chairside assisting - where do you even start?
I've been reading about rda meaning and what the credential actually covers in practice, and it's broader than I expected. I thought it was mostly chairside stuff but the infection control and radiation safety sections are substantial.
Currently scoring around 68% on practice questions. I'm studying 2 hours a day on weekdays and about 4 hours on weekends. Is there anyone who went from that range and passed? Or did you need to be in the 80s on practice before you felt ready?
Radiology safety is worth extra study time. I missed 6 of those and barely passed. Make sure you know film processing, exposure settings, and radiation protection inside out - they test the details.
I was scoring 65-70% on practice tests and passed on my first attempt. The real exam felt about the same difficulty as the harder practice sets. Infection control was the biggest section for me - probably 20% of the questions.
Your schedule sounds solid. I did 90 minutes a day for 6 weeks and passed with room to spare. The anatomy sections are more about landmarks and tooth morphology than deep physiology so don't overthink it.
Quick update for anyone following this thread. I sit for the RDA in 9 days and honestly I'm feeling way better than I was a month ago. Took a full timed practice test yesterday and pulled an 84%, which is the first time I've cracked the 80s. Infection control and radiography were always my weak spots but something finally clicked. What worked for me was stopping the endless re-reading and just hammering practice questions until I understood why the wrong answers were wrong.
So don't panic about the volume. You've got 5 weeks, that's plenty. I was scoring in the low 60s when I started and the jump happens faster than you'd think once you're testing yourself daily instead of just highlighting notes. Pick one weak area, drill it, move on. I'll report back after the real thing and let you know if the practice scores actually held up.
I'm the cautionary tale here so let me save you some pain. I failed my first attempt and I'm pretty sure it's because I studied the way I studied for school, just reading and re-reading my notes until I felt like I knew it. I didn't. Feeling familiar with the material and being able to recall it cold under a timer are two totally different things, and the real exam exposed that fast. Second time around I switched to doing practice questions almost exclusively, got everything wrong on purpose early so I could see my weak spots, then drilled those.
The other thing that actually helped was getting really clear on what the exam even covers before I dove in, because I'd wasted a ton of time the first round studying stuff that barely showed up. I went back through the registered dental assistant requirements and built my schedule off the actual weighting instead of just my gut. Infection control and radiology carried more weight than I expected. You've got 5 weeks which is plenty if you stop reading and start testing yourself this week. You're not a bad student, you just need the right kind of practice.