DentPass vs Pastest: Undergraduate BDS or Postgraduate Dental Exams?

This comparison is unusual, because for most of the people reading it there is a clear answer that does not depend on which product is better.

Pastest is a long established UK exam publisher, and its dentistry offering is pitched at postgraduate dental exams such as MFDS, together with finals level material. DentPass is written for the undergraduate BDS curriculum, starting in Year 1. Those are different exams, several years apart, and a question written for one is usually the wrong difficulty for the other.

The level problem, with an example

The same topic gets examined very differently at different stages, and it is easier to see than to describe.

Both are local anaesthesia. Only one of them is answerable with what you know in first year, and practising the harder version early does not accelerate you. It mostly teaches you that you do not yet know enough, which you could have worked out for free.

Side by side

	DentPass	Pastest (Dentistry)
Aimed at	UK BDS undergraduates, Years 1 to 5	Postgraduate dental exams and finals level
Typical user	A student revising for a university assessment	A graduate or final year sitting a membership exam
Year 1 and 2 biomedical science	Core of the product	Assumed knowledge
Question formats	Single best answer, short answer, image spotters, timed mocks	Exam style question bank
Track record	Built by two Bristol dental students, launched recently	Established UK exam publisher
Free access	Free plan, no card	Subscription, see their site

Where Pastest is the better buy

• You are sitting MFDS or a similar postgraduate exam. That is the exam their dentistry product is built around. We write nothing at that level and will not pretend otherwise.
• You want a publisher with decades behind it. There is real value in a company that has been writing exam questions since before you were at school, and we are a great deal newer than that.
• You are in final year and want harder questions. Being stretched above your level is useful when you are close to the top of the course. It is not useful in first year.

Where DentPass is the better buy

• You are in Year 1 or Year 2. The whole product is written at undergraduate level, against the systems your school teaches: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, oral biology, dental biomaterials, pharmacology, microbiology and immunology, evidence based practice.
• Your papers include short answer questions. Almost 9,000 of our live questions are short answer, because UK dental schools examine in that format and practising only multiple choice leaves half the paper untrained.
• You want to try before paying. The free plan needs no card, so you can check the questions against your own module handbook first.
• You want the marks diagnosed, not just counted. Per topic analytics from your own attempts, so the next session goes where the gap is.

Being straight about what we are not

Pastest has a catalogue, an editorial process and a reputation built over a long time. We have a database, two founders who were sitting these exams recently, and a curriculum we know intimately because we were examined on it. Those are different kinds of credibility and you should weigh them yourself.

What we will claim is fit. Year 1 is complete across ten systems and Year 2 is being written now. If you are in the clinical years today, we are not the finished article for you yet, and a product aimed at finals will serve you better this term.

Questions we get asked

Is Pastest good for undergraduate dental students?

It is a serious product, but its dentistry material is pitched at finals and postgraduate exams such as MFDS. For Year 1 and Year 2 biomedical science and dental materials it is above the level you are examined at, so most of the value arrives later in the course.

Which is better for MFDS, DentPass or Pastest?

Pastest. We do not write MFDS content and we would rather tell you that than sell you an undergraduate bank for a postgraduate exam.

Which is better for BDS Year 1?

DentPass, on fit. The whole bank is written at undergraduate level against the GDC core curriculum, including the oral biology and dental biomaterials that appear in first year papers. We build it, so check the free plan against your own handbook rather than taking our word for it.

Should I use both?

In final year, plausibly. Use your dental school's own past papers to decide the level you are actually being examined at, then pick the bank that matches it. Before final year, one bank at the right level beats two at the wrong one.

See also: our full ranking of dental revision platforms, DentPass vs Quesmed and DentPass vs Dentalnotebook.