ORE Part 1 in 2026: Format, Booking, Syllabus and Pass Strategy
ORE Part 1 is the written half of the General Dental Council's Overseas Registration Exam: two computer-based papers, each lasting three hours, sat at a single sitting for a fee of £485 in 2026. You get four attempts, and you must pass the whole ORE — both parts — within five years of your first attempt at Part 1. This guide covers the 2026 format under the GDC's new exam provider, the documents the GDC checks before it lets you book, a subject-by-subject syllabus breakdown, and a 10-week preparation plan built around the areas overseas dentists most often get wrong.
Where Part 1 sits in the GDC registration route
If your dental degree is not on the GDC's list of recognised qualifications, the ORE is your route to full registration as a dentist in the UK. The sequence runs:
- GDC application and document check. You apply to join the ORE candidate list, pay the £115 application processing fee (as of 2026) and upload your evidence. The GDC aims to assess a complete application within 60 working days, longer in peak periods.
- ORE Part 1 — the written exam this guide covers.
- ORE Part 2 — the practical exam, testing clinical skills on manikins, diagnosis and treatment planning, and medical emergencies. Its fee rose sharply to £6,967 for 2026/27 sittings.
- Registration application — a separate GDC application with English language evidence (the GDC's benchmark is IELTS Academic 7.0 overall with no section below 6.5), an in-date certificate of good standing, and health and character declarations.
Passing Part 1 registers nothing by itself — it simply unlocks Part 2. The full route, including the recognised-qualification pathways that skip the ORE entirely, is set out on our GDC registration service page. If you qualified in India, the document specifics are in our guide to GDC registration requirements from India.
The documents the GDC checks before you can book
You cannot book a Part 1 seat until the GDC has approved your application and added you to the candidate list. The evidence it checks:
- Valid passport — used for online identity verification.
- Certified copy of your primary dental qualification certificate, with an official translation if it is not in English.
- UK ENIC Statement of Comparability confirming your degree is comparable to a UK dental qualification. Order this early — ENIC processing adds weeks, and the GDC will not assess an application without it.
- Clinical reference forms evidencing at least 1,600 hours of direct patient care in the dental chair. Observation and simulated work do not count, and you may need references from more than one supervisor to reach the total.
- Character reference — from your dean or head of school if you graduated within the last 12 months, otherwise from another professional who knows you.
- Certificate of Good Standing from your dental regulator, issued within the last three months. Time this carefully: a CGS that expires while the GDC is still assessing your file means ordering another.
- Medical certificate, only if you are requesting exam adjustments.
The most common self-inflicted delay is sequencing: candidates order the CGS first because it is easy, then wait weeks for ENIC, and the CGS lapses. Start with ENIC and the clinical references — they take longest.
ORE Part 1 format: Paper A, Paper B and the pass mark
Part 1 is a computer-based exam with every question mapped to the GDC's learning outcomes for UK dentists.
| Paper A | Paper B | |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Clinically applied dental science and clinically applied human disease | Clinically applied dental practice, including law and ethics and health and safety |
| Duration | 3 hours | 3 hours |
| Question types | Single best answer and extended matching questions | Single best answer and extended matching questions |
| Requirement | Pass required | Pass required |
The GDC does not publish a fixed question count, so treat prep providers quoting precise numbers with caution — plan for a high-volume paper where you cannot afford two minutes per question. You receive a percentage mark for each paper, and you must pass both papers to pass Part 1. Fail either and the attempt is spent: you rebook the whole exam.
The pass mark is criterion-referenced, not a fixed percentage of candidates. A panel of examiners judges, question by question, how a candidate who is just safe enough to practise would perform — a modified Angoff approach — and the GDC's published results are normalised so the pass mark shows as 50%. The practical consequence: you are measured against a safety standard, not against the other candidates in the room.
Booking, fees and the five-year rule in 2026
2026 is a transition year. The GDC signed a contract with a new exam provider, UCL Consultants Ltd, in March 2026, with exams restarting from August 2026 — and for the first time, candidates book through their MyGDC account rather than a separate portal.
| Part 1 sitting | Places |
|---|---|
| 25–26 August 2026 | 600 |
| 14–15 October 2026 | 600 |
| 2–3 February 2027 | 600 |
| 6–7 April 2027 | 600 |
That is 2,400 Part 1 places in the first year of the new contract — and the GDC itself has said demand will outstrip supply in the short term. Booking windows open roughly eight weeks before each sitting (the August 2026 window opened on 30 June 2026), places go first come, first served, and sittings have historically filled on the day the window opens. Three practical rules: confirm you can log in to MyGDC before the window opens, have your card ready because the full £485 fee is payable at booking, and treat the opening morning like a flight sale. Candidates approaching the five-year limit and those with refugee status get priority access to places.
On refunds: examination fees are not normally refundable. The GDC operates a withdrawal policy and refunds on medical grounds need evidence — read it before you book, not after. Fees now attract VAT and change annually, so check the current figure first. The complete money picture — both parts, retakes, travel and registration — is in our full ORE cost breakdown.
Two limits govern your whole campaign: four attempts at Part 1, and a requirement to pass the entire ORE within five years of your first Part 1 attempt. That clock is the reason not to sit Part 1 "just to see the exam" — a casual first attempt starts a countdown that Part 2's limited places will eat into. Part 1 is also sat in the UK, so overseas candidates plan an exam trip, usually on a Standard Visitor visa — see our UK visit visa guide for Pakistani applicants.
The Part 1 syllabus — and where the marks are
The GDC keys Part 1 to its published learning outcomes and the subject areas below. It does not publish percentage weightings, so the priority column reflects how much clinical ground each area covers and where candidates consistently report the exam concentrating.
| Subject area | Paper | Priority | Highest-yield focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Human disease (medicine and surgery) | A | High | Cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine and haematological conditions as they change dental management |
| Pharmacology | A | High | Local anaesthetic maximum doses, UK antibiotic prescribing, anticoagulants and drug interactions |
| Pathology and oral pathology | A | High | Ulcers, white and red patches, radiolucencies, red-flag cancer referral criteria |
| Anatomy, dental anatomy and embryology | A | Medium | Head and neck anatomy behind local anaesthesia and spread of infection |
| Bacteriology, immunology, biochemistry, physiology | A | Medium | Cross-infection organisms, inflammation and healing, applied not theoretical |
| Statistics and evidence | A | Low–medium | Study design, sensitivity and specificity, reading a paper |
| Restorative dentistry (cons, endo, perio, pros) | B | High | Diagnosis and treatment planning to UK standards, not just technique recall |
| Oral surgery, oral medicine and radiology | B | High | Extraction complications, radiographic selection criteria, IR(ME)R duties |
| Paediatric dentistry and orthodontics | B | Medium | Trauma management, caries in children, safeguarding triggers |
| Law, ethics and professionalism | B | High | GDC Standards, valid consent, capacity, record-keeping, duty of candour |
| Health and safety and infection control | B | Medium–high | Decontamination cycles, sharps injuries, HTM 01-05 expectations |
| Dental materials | A and B | Medium | Material choice justified by properties and clinical situation |
A 10-week ORE Part 1 preparation plan
Most successful candidates prepare for 10–14 weeks at 15–20 hours a week alongside work. The plan below assumes your GDC application is already approved, so a booking window does not catch you mid-syllabus.
| Weeks | Focus | Target by the end |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diagnostic: sit a full timed mock cold, map scores against the syllabus table above | A ranked weakness list — this drives everything else |
| 2–3 | Human disease and pharmacology (Paper A core) | Medical conditions and drug interactions answered from UK management, not home-country habit |
| 4–5 | Restorative, oral surgery, oral medicine and radiology (Paper B core) | Question-bank accuracy above 60% in each area |
| 6 | Law, ethics, consent, GDC Standards, health and safety | The UK-specific block done properly, not skimmed |
| 7–8 | Second pass on your weakest three areas plus daily mixed question blocks | Accuracy above 70% on mixed timed blocks |
| 9 | Two full timed mocks under exam conditions, one paper per day | Pacing locked: never stuck on one question beyond 90 seconds |
| 10 | Error-log review only — every question you have ever got wrong | No new material; sleep, logistics, MyGDC login and travel confirmed |
The single highest-value habit is the error log. Part 1 rewards breadth, and reviewing your own wrong answers is the only revision guaranteed to target your gaps rather than the syllabus's easy middle.
What overseas dentists most often underestimate
Candidates fail Part 1 far more often on the UK-specific material than on core dentistry. Four areas deserve disproportionate time:
- Human disease and medical emergencies. Paper A treats you as a clinician managing medically complex patients. Know the Resuscitation Council UK approach and the standard dental emergency drugs — intramuscular adrenaline for anaphylaxis, glyceryl trinitrate, salbutamol, aspirin 300 mg, glucagon, buccal midazolam — including doses and routes, not just names.
- Law, ethics and consent. UK consent law is stricter and more examined than most candidates expect: material-risk disclosure following the Montgomery judgment, Gillick competence for under-16s, the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and the GDC's Standards for the Dental Team. Consent is a process with the patient, never a signature.
- Radiography regulation. IR(ME)R 2017 — the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations — defines the referrer, practitioner and operator roles and the duty to justify and optimise every exposure. Candidates from countries without an equivalent framework routinely drop these marks.
- Infection control. UK decontamination practice follows HTM 01-05: instrument transport, washer-disinfectors, sterilisation cycles and sharps protocols. If your home system differs, learn the UK version deliberately rather than answering from habit.
Results, feedback and what to do after a fail
Results are released within 30 working days of the exam, as a percentage mark for each paper plus an overall pass or fail. The exam provider issues performance feedback around 21 working days after results; the GDC itself gives none. Historically, a substantial share of candidates fail Part 1 at each sitting — the full numbers and what they mean for your planning are in our analysis of ORE pass rates.
If you fail, act on three things in order. First, check your position against the limits: attempts used out of four, and time left on the five-year clock. Second, read the feedback against your own error log — a near-miss on one paper needs a different plan from a broad fail across both. Third, rebook early rather than perfectly: with places selling out on release day, waiting until you feel completely ready often costs a six-month delay the five-year window quietly absorbs. Our dentists service hub covers structured support for retakers, including study planning against a confirmed sitting date.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many attempts do you get at ORE Part 1?
Four attempts. Separately, you must pass the entire ORE — Part 1 and Part 2 — within five years of your first attempt at Part 1, so an early casual attempt costs you twice: one of four attempts, and the start of the five-year countdown.
How much does ORE Part 1 cost in 2026?
£485 for the exam itself, paid in full at booking, plus the £115 application processing fee to join the candidate list. The Part 1 fee actually fell 17% under the new 2026 contract, while Part 2 rose 65% to £6,967. Fees now attract VAT and change annually — check the current figure before you pay.
How hard is it to get an ORE Part 1 booking?
Hard. There are 600 places per sitting and 2,400 across the first year of the new contract, against a long queue of waiting candidates. Booking opens roughly eight weeks before each sitting through MyGDC and places have typically gone on the first day, so test your login early and book the moment the window opens.
What is the pass mark for ORE Part 1?
There is no fixed raw pass mark. The standard is criterion-referenced — examiners judge how a just-safe candidate would perform on each question, a modified Angoff approach — and published results are normalised so the pass mark shows as 50%. You must pass both Paper A and Paper B; failing either fails the attempt.
How long should I prepare for ORE Part 1?
Plan for 10–14 weeks at 15–20 hours a week if you are working, or 8–10 weeks full time. Start from a timed diagnostic mock, weight your plan towards human disease, pharmacology and the UK-specific law, ethics, radiography and infection-control material, and finish on your own error log rather than new content.
Between the document check, the five-year clock and same-day sellouts, when you book Part 1 matters almost as much as how you prepare for it. Global Pathways manages the GDC application, times your booking and builds your study plan around a confirmed sitting. Book a free consultation.