How we build and keep improving PassADC
If you're preparing for the ADC written exam, you're trusting your study material with a lot: your time, your money and, often, a big move to a new country. It's fair to ask where that material comes from. Here's a plain explanation of how we put PassADC together, how we keep it current, and what we don't claim.
Questions built around what candidates actually see
The ADC doesn't publish its exam questions, and PassADC's questions are not official ADC questions. What we do is build our questions around the scenarios and themes that candidates report from recent ADC written exams, along with the topics that keep turning up in past papers and practice material.
Some themes appear again and again: managing a medical emergency in the chair, choosing the right antibiotic (or deciding none is needed), consent and record keeping, infection control, dental trauma in children, and the everyday restorative and periodontal decisions a general dentist makes. Our 1,200+ exam-style MCQs are written to feel like the real thing: a short clinical scenario, a realistic patient, and answer options where more than one looks reasonable until you think it through.
Answers grounded in Australian standards
An answer that's right in another country can be wrong in Australia. That's one of the biggest traps for overseas-trained dentists, so every lesson and answer explanation is grounded in the sources Australian practice actually runs on:
• Therapeutic Guidelines: Oral and Dental for prescribing, antibiotics, analgesia and management of common conditions
• Dental Board of Australia codes, standards and guidelines, including the Code of Conduct, infection control and record keeping
• ANZCOR guidelines for resuscitation and basic life support
• Australian Dental Association (ADA) guidelines, such as infection control
• IADT (International Association of Dental Traumatology) guidelines for dental trauma
• The core textbooks on the ADC's own Written Exam Resource List
Where sources disagree, we say so and explain which one to follow and why. For example, when the guidance on when to call an ambulance for a seizure differs between sources, we tell you which threshold we teach and where it comes from, so you're never left guessing.
Reviewed by a practising dentist
Content is reviewed by a practising dentist who knows the Australian system. That review is there to catch clinical errors, outdated advice and questions that are ambiguous or unfair. It's a second set of experienced eyes, not a rubber stamp, and when something doesn't hold up, we change it.
Always improving, with your help
No question bank is ever finished. Guidelines get updated, and sometimes a question that seemed clear to us confuses the people answering it. That's why there's a Report button on every question. You can report any question you think is wrong, and we'll review it. The same goes for an explanation that's unclear or a guideline you think has changed.
Candidate feedback also shapes what we build next. When people tell us a topic feels thin or a theme came up in their exam that we don't cover well, it goes on the list.
How we keep PassADC up to date
The ADC exam and the rules behind it don't stand still, and your study material shouldn't either. Here's how we keep up so you don't have to:
• We check the ADC's website every weekday for changes to exam dates, handbooks and policies.
• A fortnightly PassADC newsletter rounds up any ADC changes and the new content we've added, so you hear about what matters without hunting for it.
• Our guides and articles are updated when things change. If the ADC changes a date or a policy, the relevant guide gets updated.
• Lessons and questions are revised when guidelines are updated, for example when a new version of Therapeutic Guidelines or a Dental Board code comes out.
• New lessons are added regularly, based on the topics where candidates struggle most.
Want the newsletter? Take the free readiness check and you can join it there.
Learn, practise, retest
We don't think you should start by throwing hundreds of questions at yourself and hoping something sticks. PassADC is built around a simple loop:
1. Learn. Each topic starts with a short lesson that explains the key ideas in plain English, with the Australian rules spelled out.
2. Practise. The questions that follow test what the lesson taught, so you find out straight away whether it's sunk in.
3. Retest. The readiness check shows where you're strong and where you're weak, so your next study session goes where it'll make the most difference.
This keeps your study focused. Instead of re-reading things you already know, you spend your time on the areas most likely to cost you marks.
What we won't promise
We can't promise you'll pass, and nobody honestly can. The ADC written exam is demanding, and your result depends on your preparation, your clinical knowledge and the day itself. What we can promise is material that's built carefully, based on Australian sources, checked by a practising dentist and improved every time a candidate points out something we can do better.
See where you stand
The best place to start is the free readiness check. It takes a few minutes, shows you your strongest and weakest subjects, and gives you a short plan for what to study first.