The INBDE plan for dentists who already have a full-time job or a family
Two blueprints — six months and three months — written for people who cannot study eight hours a day. One track for dentists working full time, one track for mothers studying in fragments. This is the same pacing The Study Boards builds into every student’s INBDE course.
3-month plan
Working full time
Studying as a mother
Week-by-week tables
Start the plan that fits your week
You do not have to build any of this yourself. Enrol, and your mentors set the schedule up for you. Both plans carry the Pass Guarantee.
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The sprint plan. For booked exam dates and students revising rather than learning from scratch.
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The plan this guide is built around. Room for a bad fortnight without losing the thread.
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The Pass Guarantee: finish the course on time, score 60% or above on your TSB tests, and if you still do not pass the INBDE you get a full refund of your course fee and your exam registration fee. It applies to all Full Access plans — 3, 6 and 12 months.
Who this guide is for
Dentists preparing for the INBDE around a full-time job. Graduates restarting after a long gap. Dentists working as assistants, hygienists or in research while they study. Students fitting board prep around rotations. Mothers of young children who get their study time in forty-minute pieces. If you are also sitting the AFK, the same two blueprints work — only the subject weighting changes.
You do not set any of this up
This is the part most students worry about and it is the part you can stop worrying about. You do not plan your own schedule, you do not work out how many questions a day you need, and you do not have to enter or calculate anything. Tell our faculty your exam date, or tell them you have not booked one yet, and your mentors build the card sequence around it. If the date moves later, they rebuild it. You open the platform and the only question you ever have to answer is what to do today.
The course is also extremely personalised. Your mentor is assigned from day one and watches your scores. Red lines and assignments are given on the go, the course learns from the way you actually study, and if you fall behind the plan is adjusted around you rather than left to rot. That is the difference between a schedule on paper and a schedule that survives a bad fortnight.
What you work through inside The Study Boards INBDE course: Subject Wise Master Files for the reading, the Master Test Series for subject-by-subject testing, Case Assessments and Case Discussions for integration, the Master Revision Series, Full Syllabus Tests, Grand Tests and the Champion RQ Series for the final push, and two full two-day Simulation Exams that mirror the real INBDE format. A free live test runs every night at 9 PM New York time.
The 6-month blueprint — working full time
Twenty-four weeks at twelve to fourteen hours. Built for someone who finishes clinic at seven and has two usable weekend blocks.
| Phase | Weeks | What you do | What finishing looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | 1–2 | Your board is already built when you log in. You take one Master Test Series test cold so your mentor can see where you stand, and you start reading from day one. | Your weakest three subjects are known by name, not by feeling. |
| Foundations | 3–10 | Subject Wise Master Files for the basic and heavy clinical subjects, one subject at a time, each closed by its Master Test Series test. | Eight subjects read and tested. Accuracy climbing, even if scores still look low. |
| Integration | 11–18 | Remaining clinical subjects, then Case Assessments and Case Discussions, where the INBDE actually lives. Patient scenarios, not isolated facts. | You can read a case and name what is being asked before you look at the options. |
| Revision | 19–22 | Master Revision Series, Full Syllabus Tests, Grand Tests and the Champion RQ Series. Bookmarks from months one to four become your revision list. | Full-length scores stable and above your target band. |
| Simulation | 23–24 | Both two-day Simulation Exams, spaced about a week apart, then targeted repair of whatever they expose. | You have sat the two-day format twice before exam day. |
Your ordinary week
| Day | Time | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Mon–Thu | 75–90 min | One Master File section, then 20 to 25 questions on what you just read. Finish by reading the explanations for everything you got wrong. |
| Any night | 15 min | The free live test at 9 PM New York time. It is ranked against every other student sitting it, so it tells you where you stand without costing you study time. |
| Friday | Rest | Deliberately empty. A plan with no rest day gets abandoned in week nine. If you miss a weekday, this is where it goes. |
| Saturday | 3–4 h | The week’s Master Test Series test, sat properly and timed, then full review of every wrong answer the same afternoon. |
| Sunday | 2–3 h | Finish the subject’s reading, clear your bookmarks, and look at Analytics to see which topic needs attention next. |
Making the weekdays actually happen
Study before work, not after, if your job allows it at all. An hour at six in the morning is worth two at ten at night, and nothing in a clinic day can take it from you. If mornings are impossible, protect the first hour after you get home, before you sit down, before dinner, before the phone.
Keep the Master File open on your phone. Twenty minutes between patients, on a commute or in a queue is a genuine study block and over six months it adds up to dozens of hours. Rapid Fire tests exist for exactly these gaps.
The 6-month blueprint — studying as a mother
The same twenty-four weeks and the same phases, re-cut into fragments, because your time does not arrive in neat ninety-minute blocks.
The structure above does not change. What changes is the shape of the week. Instead of four long weekday sessions you will have six or seven short ones, and your long block moves to whenever another adult can take the children. Plan for nine to eleven hours a week and treat anything above that as a bonus.
| Block | When | Length | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early block | Before the house wakes | 40–50 min | New reading. This is your sharpest time and new material needs it most. Four mornings a week if you can. |
| Quiet block | Nap time or after bedtime | 40–60 min | Questions and review. Easier to stop and restart than reading, so interruptions cost you less. |
| Pocket blocks | Whenever they appear | 5–15 min | Rapid Fire, bookmarked questions, or re-reading one table on your phone. Keeps material warm on days that have no real block in them. |
| Long block | One weekend morning | 2–3 h | The week’s Master Test Series test and its review, sat in one go. Arrange cover for this one block and defend it. |
| Live test | 9 PM New York time | 15 min | Free every night. If it falls at an impossible hour where you live, play it when the timing suits you and use the daily tests otherwise. |
What we tell mothers in the course
Run two-speed weeks on purpose
Plan one heavy week and one light week, alternating, rather than pretending every week will be the same. School holidays, illness and travel are not interruptions to the plan; they are part of it. A plan that expects them survives them.
Reading is interruptible, tests are not
Never start a timed test in a window you are not confident you can finish, because an abandoned attempt is a wasted one. Save tests for your protected block. Fill the fragmented time with reading, explanations and bookmarks, which cost nothing to pause.
Tell your mentor your real constraints on day one
If your usable time is an hour a day and one weekend morning, say so at the start. The card sequence is built around that rather than around a fiction, and you avoid the month-three collapse that comes from chasing a schedule that was never yours.
Protect the exam-month block
The last four weeks need more than the rest. Arrange whatever help you can for weeks 21 to 24, because that is where the Simulation Exams sit and they need a clear two-day run each.
The 3-month blueprint — working full time
Twelve weeks at twenty to twenty-two hours. This is a sprint, and it costs you your weekends.
Be clear about what you are agreeing to
Twelve weeks at this pace means roughly two and a half hours every weekday and most of both weekend days. It means social commitments decline for three months, and it means the two weeks before the exam need leave booked if at all possible. If you cannot say yes to that honestly, take the six-month plan instead and sit the exam with a real score rather than a rushed one.
| Phase | Weeks | What you do | Non-negotiable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Triage | 1 | One Master Test Series test cold, and an honest look at Analytics with your mentor. Together you decide what to study deeply and what to study lightly. | Accept that you cannot cover everything to the same depth. |
| Core subjects | 2–6 | Master Files and the Master Test Series for the highest-yield subjects first, in the order your baseline says, not in syllabus order. | Two subjects a week. Each one closed by its test. |
| Integration | 7–9 | Case Assessments, Case Discussions and Grand Tests. The INBDE is a case-based exam and this is the phase that most rushed candidates skip. | Do not trade this phase for more subject reading. |
| Revision | 10–11 | Master Revision Series, Champion RQ Series and Full Syllabus Tests. Your bookmarks are the revision list; there is no time to re-read whole files. | Review every wrong answer the same day. |
| Simulation | 12 | Both two-day Simulation Exams, then repair only what they expose. Nothing new in the final week. | Leave booked if you possibly can. |
Your ordinary week
| Day | Time | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Mon–Fri | 2–2.5 h | Split it: one hour before work on new reading, one to ninety minutes in the evening on questions and explanations. One long evening block after a clinic day rarely survives. |
| Any night | 15 min | The free live test at 9 PM New York time, for pace and for a weekly reality check against other candidates. |
| Saturday | 6–7 h | The week’s two Master Test Series tests with full review between them. This is the day the plan lives or dies. |
| Sunday | 4–5 h | Finish both subjects’ reading and clear your bookmarks. Your mentor will tell you if next week’s pair needs to change. |
| One evening | Off | Keep one weekday evening genuinely free. Twelve weeks with no break ends in week seven. |
The 3-month blueprint — studying as a mother
The same twelve weeks, and it only works with help arranged in advance.
We will be straightforward with you: three months of INBDE preparation alongside a child under three, with no additional childcare, is not something we would advise. Not because mothers cannot do it, but because the hours are not there and the exam is expensive to fail. If your date is fixed and cannot move, here is how to make it as survivable as possible.
| Week | Focus | Where the hours come from |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baseline test, and childcare arranged for weeks 2 to 12 before anything else. | Spend this week organising, not studying. It pays for itself. |
| 2–6 | Highest-yield subjects, Master Files plus the Master Test Series. Roughly one and a half subjects a week rather than two. | Two early mornings, four quiet blocks, one covered weekend morning. |
| 7–9 | Case Assessments, Case Discussions and Grand Tests. Protect this phase even if subject reading is incomplete. | The covered weekend block moves to a full day if you can manage it. |
| 10–11 | Master Revision Series, Champion RQ Series, Full Syllabus Tests. Bookmarks only; no re-reading whole files. | Daily blocks shorten, test blocks lengthen. |
| 12 | Both two-day Simulation Exams and targeted repair. | This is the week to call in every favour you have. |
Three things that make the difference
- Arrange the help in week one, not week six. Grandparents, a partner’s leave, a few hours of paid childcare on Saturdays. Book it before you start so the plan is built on real hours.
- Cut breadth, not the case work. With limited hours it is better to know the high-yield subjects and the case format well than to have skimmed everything. Your mentor will tell you which subjects to go light on based on your baseline.
- Reconsider the date at week six. If you are more than two weeks behind at the halfway mark, moving the exam is usually the better decision. Rescheduling costs a fee; a fail costs far more. Talk it through with your mentor before you decide either way.
The four rules that make a part-time plan survive
Everything above is scheduling. These four are what separate the students who finish from the ones who stall at month three.
Never miss two days in a row
One missed day is life. Two missed days is how a plan dies, because the third becomes easy. On a day when everything goes wrong, open the app and do fifteen questions on your phone. That counts. It keeps the chain alive and it keeps the material warm.
When the week collapses, cut the reading, never the test
The test is the measurement. Skip it and you lose your only honest signal about where you stand, and your mentor loses it too. Reading can be caught up in a weekend; a missing test leaves a hole in your data for the rest of the course.
Review the same day, while you still remember your reasoning
Going through a test two weeks later teaches you very little, because you no longer remember why you picked the wrong option. Reviewing on the same evening is worth roughly double the time spent. Review Mode stays open for 48 hours for exactly this reason.
Tell your mentor before you fall behind, not after
A week of night shifts or a sick child is completely normal and we plan around it constantly. Send it through Mentor Connect when you see it coming. Due dates move, assignments get reshaped, and the plan stays honest. Students who go quiet for a month are the ones who end up asking for a reset.
Which plan should you take
Count your real hours for one ordinary week — not a good week — and pick from that, not from optimism.
| Your situation | Real weekly hours | 6 months | 3 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clinic job, 6 days a week | 9–12 hours | workable | too thin |
| Clinic or office job, 5 days | 12–15 hours | comfortable | tight |
| Mother, child under 3 | 8–11 hours | workable | too thin |
| Mother, children at school | 14–18 hours | comfortable | workable |
| Not working, no caring duties | 30–40 hours | comfortable | comfortable |
Take the 6-month plan if
- You work five or six days a week
- You have a child under three and no regular childcare
- You graduated more than three years ago
- Your exam date is not yet booked
- You want room to absorb a bad fortnight without panic
Take the 3-month plan if
- Your exam seat is already booked and cannot move
- You can genuinely give both weekend days
- Your children are at school, or you have arranged cover
- You studied recently and are revising, not learning from scratch
- You can take leave for the final two weeks
If you are between the two, take six months. Nobody has ever regretted sitting the INBDE better prepared, and the plan compresses easily if you find you are ahead. Compressing late is simple; stretching late is not, because the exam date does not move for free.
Questions we get from working and parent students
Do I have to plan my own schedule?
No. That is our job. Your mentors build the card sequence around your exam date, adjust it when life gets in the way, and tell you what to do next. There is nothing to set up, nothing to calculate and nothing to configure. You study; we handle the planning.
Can I pass the INBDE while working full time in a clinic?
Yes, and a large share of our students do exactly that. The six-month blueprint above was shaped around them. The two things that decide it are whether you protect a weekend test block and whether you review wrong answers the same day. Clinic experience actually helps on a case-based exam like the INBDE — you have already seen the patients the questions describe.
I work six days a week. Is three months enough?
Honestly, usually not, unless you can take leave for the last two to three weeks. Six days of clinic leaves nine to twelve usable hours a week, which comes to roughly 125 hours over three months. That is thin for a first attempt. Six months at the same weekly pace gives you about 250 hours, which is a different exam entirely.
I am a mother with a toddler. How many hours a day do I actually need?
On the six-month plan, about ninety minutes a day in two pieces, plus one protected weekend block of two to three hours. That is nine to eleven hours a week, and it is enough. What is not enough is three good weeks followed by two weeks of nothing, which is why the plan is built around a realistic figure rather than your best week.
I am in a very different time zone. Can I still play the 9 PM New York live test?
The live test runs at 9 PM New York time, which lands at an awkward hour in plenty of countries. Some students play it before work; others use the daily tests and Rapid Fire instead and keep the live test for weekends. Nothing in the course depends on being awake at a particular hour, and your dashboard shows every test time in your own time zone.
I am still a student, fitting this around rotations. Does the plan work?
Yes. The phases are the same; if you studied recently you will usually move faster through the basic science Master Files and spend proportionally more time on Case Assessments and Case Discussions. Treat rotation weeks as light weeks and plan the heavy weeks around them deliberately rather than hoping they will be quiet.
I am preparing for the AFK as well. Does the same blueprint work?
Yes. The phase structure, the weekly rhythm and the four rules transfer directly to the AFK, and The Study Boards AFK course is built the same way, with a stronger weighting toward clinical application. Among students who complete the AFK course, 99% pass on the first attempt. What you should not do is prepare for both exams in the same twelve weeks while working — sequence them.
What happens if I fall two weeks behind?
Nothing punitive. Your cards carry due dates so you can see where you stand, and you can go past them and carry on. Tell your mentor through Mentor Connect and the plan is reshaped around where you actually are. If a whole phase has gone wrong, a card or board reset can be requested. Going quiet is the only genuinely bad option.
Enrol and let us build the schedule
Your mentor is assigned on day one, your board is built for you, and the plan adjusts when life gets in the way. Both Full Access plans carry the Pass Guarantee.
Talk to the Admin Team on WhatsApp
Not sure which plan fits? Tell the Admin Team (Dr. T and Dr. Kaur) your exam date and the hours you counted above, and they will tell you straight. You can also start on the free tier and play tonight’s live test before you decide.