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30 Dentistry Manual Dexterity Interview Tasks

Advice & Insight From Dentistry Interview Specialists

​Below are a selection of manual dexterity tasks that have been used in historical dental school interviews. When practising any task, you should assume that you have a time limit that creates sufficient pressure to make the task ‘stressful’. You should also assume that, to make the task tougher, you are obliged to talk to your interviewer constantly about a topic unrelated to the task at hand.
 
Please also note that many dental school interviews request multiple tasks be completed within a single time-restricted manual dexterity station.

  1. Please fit this piece of thread through the needle.
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  2. Please bend the pieces of wire into the shapes provided on the paper. You must use the pliers provided to bend the wire. 

3. Please sort the coins into piles of each type. The coins provided are UK 5p, 10p and 20p coins.
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​ 4. Please fit the pegs into the spaces on the board provided. You must fit all pegs onto the board within the time allotted.

 5. Please place the pins into the holes on the board provided. 

 6. Please sort the shapes into piles – there are squares, triangles and circles.
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7. Please place the discs onto the board. You must turn over each disc so that all discs show the same colour when placed on the board.

​ 8. Please transfer each of the balls from the container into the appropriately labelled jar, according to their colour.

9. Please sort the balls into jars, putting 5 balls in the first jar, 10 balls in the second and 20 balls in the third.

10. Please turn over each of the discs so that all show the same colour

11. Please place the cubes so that each shows the same colour on the top.

12. Please press the buttons in the pattern shown on the screen. The pattern will change each time. There will be 10 patterns shown.

13. Please bend the wire provided into the shape of a square, using your hands.


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14. Use the tweezers provided to pick up five cotton wool buds and place them into the jars provided. You should place one bud into each jar.

15. Using only your dominant hand, turn over the circles so that each shows the same colour on the top.

16. Using only your dominant hand, remove the pegs from the board and place them in the second board that is currently empty.

17. Using only your dominant hand, pick up the coins and place them in the correct jar. You are provided with UK 1p, 2p and 10p coins.

18. Use the tweezers provided to tie the string. You may tie any type of knot, including a simple loop.

19. Place the pegs into the board, in the pattern shown on the demonstration board.

20. Sort the beads into the jars according to whether their texture is rough or smooth. You may only use your dominant hand.

21. Using only your dominant hand, turn over each of the dice so that they all show a six.

22. Turn over each of the six dice so that one dice shows 1, one dice shows 2, etc, so that each is different.

23. Using only your dominant hand, sort the marbles and dice into separate jars.

24. Please set this analog clock to exactly 10:30AM. You will have one minute at the start of the task to familiarise yourself with the mechanism.

​ 25. Please create a tower ten blocks high with the Lego provided, then take it apart using the tool. Repeat this twice.

26. Please take apart this Lego structure using the tool provided. When the structure is taken apart, place the bricks into the jars according to their
colour.

27. Please stick together all the lego bricks of the same colour, creating separate towers for each colour. You are provided with red, blue and yellow
bricks.

28. Using only your dominant hand, place the wooden cubes on top of one another. You must create a tower ten cubes high.

29. Use only your dominant hand to sort the marbles into jars according to their colour. There are five marbles of each colour.

30. Using only your dominant hand, remove all the pegs from the peg board, then re-fill only the bottom two rows of the peg board.

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