ORE Part 1 practice questions

How ORE Part 1 questions are built

Each paper has 200 multiple choice questions in three hours, and both papers mix single best answer (SBA) and extended matching (EMQ) questions. The split between the two formats is not published.

An SBA sets out a short scenario or statement and a question, and asks for the one best option in the list. More than one option can be partly right, which is why the rationale for each wrong option is worth reading as closely as the explanation of the right one.

An EMQ gives a theme, one list of options and several short scenarios, called stems, each to be matched to the best option. In the GDC's 2018-19 sample document the list is chosen from a drop-down menu (the current provider has not published its on-screen format), and each stem is one question worth one mark, so a single theme counts as several questions.

The trainer above uses single best answer questions at present, and extended matching sets are added to it as the question bank adds them. The order adapts as you answer: a correct answer moves the next question up a level of difficulty and a wrong answer moves it down. That order is our own and is not a model of how ORE Part 1 is marked.

Working at 54 seconds a question

Three hours for 200 questions is about 54 seconds a question, and an EMQ stem shares that average like any other question. The trainer times each answer and compares it with that pace. While a subject is new, accuracy matters more than speed. As the sitting approaches, timed mixed sets show whether the pace holds, and the free mini-mock runs 25 questions against the clock at the same rate.

What ten questions can and cannot tell you

Ten questions show how you handle the format and which subjects to look at first. They cannot estimate readiness: a set this size reaches a few subjects, and one or two answers in a subject say little about it.

The pass mark is a normalised 50% on each paper and the raw score behind it is not published, so no practice percentage converts to an ORE result. Both papers must be passed at the same sitting, so a strong paper cannot carry a weak one. After the exam the provider reports a percentage for each paper and for each blueprint topic, and practice is worth tracking in the same detail.

Using practice questions well

ORE Part 1 is set at the standard of a newly qualified UK BDS graduate. For a dentist who trained or practised in another country, the answers to watch are the ones where UK guidance differs from the habits of another system, and practice questions bring those differences to light one wrong answer at a time.

1. Start with a mixed set across Paper A and Paper B before revising subject by subject, so your plan starts from evidence.
2. Read the rationale for every option, including the options you ruled out.
3. When an answer turns on a UK source, such as SDCEP, NICE, Delivering Better Oral Health, the BNF, Resuscitation Council UK or IR(ME)R 2017, write down the rule and its source, and note where it differs from what you did in practice. Paper B's questions on law and ethics and on health and safety turn on UK law and the GDC's standards.
4. Once a subject is familiar, practise it in mixed sets at 54 seconds a question, and return to the questions you missed a week later.
5. Use original questions. The GDC treats passing on exam material as misconduct.