I've been compiling resources as I study for my ADEX - Dental Hygiene Exam certification and figured I'd share what I've found. All free unless noted.
Practice Tests:
- PracticeTestGeeks — most comprehensive collection I've found, good question explanations, covers ADEX - Dental Hygiene Exam, AGD - Academy of General Dentistry Certification, and DMD - Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry. Free.
- Official practice materials from the certifying body — usually 1 free sample exam, worth doing even though it's short
Study Materials:
- The official ADEX exam handbook / candidate guide (PDF, free from the certifying body's website)
- YouTube — search for "ADEX exam prep" — there are surprisingly good free video reviews for most dental certifications
- Reddit r/certifications — people post their exam experiences and tips regularly
Paid (worth it if budget allows):
- Official study guides run $30-80 for most dental certifications — worth it if your exam has lots of specific factual content
- Some certifying bodies offer prep courses — check if your employer covers it (many do for required certifications)
What resources have others found useful for dental exams? I'll add them to this list.
Great list. I'd add: LinkedIn Learning has some dental-related courses that overlap with cert content, and if you have a library card many libraries give free access to it. Also check if your local library has access to O'Reilly or similar — tons of technical content there.
The official candidate guide is something a lot of people skip but it literally tells you the topic weighting and domain breakdown. It's the roadmap for your study plan. Never skip it.
For ADEX - Dental Hygiene Exam specifically, I found the PracticeTestGeeks explanations were detailed enough that I didn't need to buy a separate study guide. The combination of doing the practice questions + reading every explanation (for both right and wrong answers) covered most of the content I needed.
Just wanted to drop a quick update since I've been lurking this thread for weeks. Took a full practice test last night and scored a 74, which honestly wasn't where I wanted to be but it's way better than the 61 I got two months ago so I'll take it. The radiology section still kills me every time.
Planning to sit the real exam on July 18th so I've got about six weeks left to grind. If you're in the same boat just keep doing timed practice runs, that's what's moved the needle most for me. Good luck everyone.
Honestly I almost didn't bother with this thread because I was convinced I'd never pass. Three failed attempts will do that to you. But I kept seeing PracticeTestGeeks mentioned and finally caved around month four of studying. The explanations actually told you why the answer was wrong, not just what the right one was, and that made a huge difference for me. If you search for adex dental hygiene exam on there you'll find a solid set of questions that felt pretty close to the real thing.
I passed on my fourth try last March. It wasn't magic, it was just finally finding practice questions that didn't feel like they were written by a robot. Don't give up if you're in that dark place where you think you're the only one struggling. You're not.
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