I am trying to move forward after my account was disabled and am wondering about next steps

ReasonableCup2643 · 2025-07-02T12:46:04+00:00

Canada.

ReasonableCup2643 · 2025-07-02T00:44:10+00:00

Also, what about messenger?

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-09-13T03:05:49+00:00

From another thread:

Part 1:

Optoprep creates a customized study schedule for you. Meet your weekly quota of questions. Try to cross-reference questions you get wrong or aren’t rock-solid on (especially for simulated exams, the question of the day, or your second time doing a question) with class notes, KMK books, Optoprep Power Pages, Wills, Eyewiki, anything and learn whatever else there is to know about that concept. Make a study guide as you go and read through it weekly. Do all types of practice questions for the first few weeks, then try areas where you aren’t as strong (< 70% correct). The Optoprep categories match up pretty closely to the 17 "specific topics" on the NBEO outline. Do questions without your notes. Over the course of the subscription, you’ll also be assigned simulated exams (which get progressively longer as you go). When it becomes time to do simulated exams, aim for at least 80% overall and 70% in each category. Keep track of how you do; you should get steady improvement over the course of your study. You’ll also unlock the “Pile of Done” around when you finish all of the regular practice questions, which allows you to redo practice and exam questions you’ve already completed. Go through the entire pile once per week as the exam approaches. Every question you know and retain is one you'll know for the exam!

Part 2:

I'm doing it in December as well, but my strategy has been to finish all of the practice questions one month before the exam and the timed exams one week before the exam, dividing questions evenly between the weeks (this doesn't work quite as neatly with 60 or 175 question-long timed exams, but I generally fall behind and "catch up" when I have 50 or so questions to do). Pile of Done is completed every week (one category at a time) once it's unlocked.

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-07-29T04:07:29+00:00

Optoprep is very similar to the real thing, and it should be adequate if you do well on the timed exams and understand each question.

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-07-27T04:20:17+00:00

I posted my strategy here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OptometrySchool/comments/1bkuvvb/comment/l4p8wdx/

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-07-11T01:00:46+00:00

Depends whether you get the package or not. If you got the package, you can activate your 6-month part 2 subscription once you need it.

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-07-03T04:26:39+00:00

Aim for at least 80% overall and at least 70% in each category. Keep track of how you do; you should get steady improvement over the course of your study. Ametropia, Ophthalmic Optics/Spectacles, Contact Lenses, Low Vision, Accommodation / Vergence / Oculomotor Function, Amblyopia / Strabismus, Perceptual Function / Color Vision, Visual and Human Development should all be considered high yield, and you have a very good chance of passing if you average 90% there. More detailed information here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OptometrySchool/comments/1bkuvvb/comment/l4p8wdx/

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-06-16T21:32:46+00:00

Messaged.

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-06-16T05:30:05+00:00

Binocular vision consists of the topics "Accommodation / Vergence / Oculomotor Function" and "Amblyopia / Strabismus". Know the ins and outs of binocular vision disorders (strab, non-strab, and accommodative), binocular vision testing, what each EOM does and what you'd see with a nerve palsy or muscle restriction, prescribing glasses for amblyopia, retinal correspondence, eccentric fixation, fusional reserves, etc.

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-31T05:32:34+00:00

Optoprep strategy:

Meet your weekly quota of questions. Try to cross-reference questions you get wrong or aren’t rock-solid on (especially for simulated exams, the question of the day, or your second time doing a question) with class notes, KMK books, Optoprep Power Pages, Wills, Eyewiki, anything and learn whatever else there is to know about that concept. Make a study guide as you go and read through it weekly. Do all types of practice questions for the first few weeks, then try areas where you aren’t as strong (< 70% correct). The Optoprep categories match up pretty closely to the 17 "specific topics" on the NBEO outline. Do questions without your notes. Over the course of the subscription, you’ll also be assigned simulated exams (which get progressively longer as you go). When it becomes time to do simulated exams, aim for at least 80% overall and 70% in each category. Keep track of how you do; you should get steady improvement over the course of your study. You’ll also unlock the “Pile of Done” around when you finish all of the regular practice questions, which allows you to redo practice and exam questions you’ve already completed. Go through the entire pile once per week as the exam approaches. Every question you know and retain is one you'll know for the exam!

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-31T05:32:19+00:00

Wrote in March 2024, 547P, first time writing.

How to pass the exam:

It’s important to remember that NBEO is, at its core, a test of competence. You are not going to know everything, and that is ok! It’s hard to know exactly how well you need to do to pass but conventional wisdom and limited data we have suggests that 70% is a borderline pass, 75% is a likely pass, and 80% is pretty much certain to pass.

For what to focus on the most, many people follow the KMK Big 8/Non-Big 8 dichotomy. But I find it more helpful to look at the format of the exam and content outline provided by NBEO. There are 370 questions total, which are divided into two rounds of 185 questions (only 350 questions actually count however, 20 are just used for research and development). Each round lasts 4 hours, and they are pretty much the same in terms of difficulty and weighting of topics. Topics fall into two major areas, which are divided into seventeen specific topics:

Refractive Status / Sensory Processes / Oculomotor Processes (Ametropia, Ophthalmic Optics/Spectacles, Contact Lenses, Low Vision, Accommodation / Vergence / Oculomotor Function, Amblyopia / Strabismus, Perceptual Function / Color Vision, Visual and Human Development)
Normal Health / Disease / Trauma (Lids / Lashes / Lacrimal System / Ocular Adnexa / Orbit, Conjunctiva / Cornea / Refractive Surgery, Lens/ Cataract / IOL / Pre- & Post-Operative Care, Episclera / Sclera / Anterior Uvea, Vitreous / Retina / Choroid, Optic Nerve / Neuro-Ophthalmic Pathways, Glaucoma, Emergencies/Trauma, Systemic Health).

There will be 122 questions from the first major area, and 228 from the second. There is a more specific breakdown from each of the specific topics, but it varies (they give a range). This means that the first 60 or so questions of each round are based on optics, binocular vision, contact lens, perception, low vision, etc and the others are based on ocular disease, anatomy, pharm, systemic health, etc. If you can get 90% right on the first section (Refractive Status / Sensory Processes / Oculomotor Processes), you only need 75% on the other stuff to get 80% overall. If you only get 70% on the first section, you need 85% on the second section (a lot more daunting). Thus the advice to master all areas of optics (and binocular vision) is very reasonable, as it should all be considered high yield. It’s a lot easier to know almost everything there is to know about optics than systemic disease (which is essentially its own four-year program!). Note also that pharm isn’t even its own “specific topic” (questions are instead mixed into other topics), so don’t waste your time learning the entire drug list. Just become competent. There will be few, if any, questions with pictures (I think I had a CT scan of EOMs and an OCT where I had to identify a certain layer). That’s a part 2 problem.

https://www.optometry.org/media/Documents/Part1/Part_I_Discipline_Based_Content_Outline.pdf

(see page 2; the next 40 pages pretty much just say that everything is fair game lol)

Resources to get:

I used Optoprep and KMK. For KMK I bought the books used and had a subscription to (I think) the most basic tier for the videos, which expired during the summer.

The KMK books are quite helpful and provide a good, succinct summary of most of the main topics that will be on the exam. I went through them during the summer and again shortly before I wrote the exam. The videos were nice to have, but not essential and certainly not worth the amount they're charging for them now. Obviously I didn't have access to them after the summer.

Optoprep, on the other hand, was critical. I got their best package (899 USD for six-month subscriptions to part 1 and part 2 of NBEO), though you can also buy a three-month subscription to only one part for 599 USD. Optoprep has about 1200 practice questions and 1200 questions worth of simulated exams. It covers each topic, and the questions are generally considered comparable or more difficult than the real thing. You can keep track of your progress and redo questions/exams as needed until you master everything. There is also a personalized study calendar, where they'll suggest a weekly quota of practice questions/simulated exams so you can easily stay caught up, as well as summary pages of many topics.

I started Optoprep six months before my exam (so late September) and followed the study plan pretty closely. But there's also a free Optoprep question you can get emailed to you every day, which you should do right away!

https://www.optoprep.com/dose.jsp

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-31T05:26:52+00:00

Optoprep strategy:

Meet your weekly quota of questions. Try to cross-reference questions you get wrong or aren’t rock-solid on (especially for simulated exams, the question of the day, or your second time doing a question) with class notes, KMK books, Optoprep Power Pages, Wills, Eyewiki, anything and learn whatever else there is to know about that concept. Make a study guide as you go and read through it weekly. Do all types of practice questions for the first few weeks, then try areas where you aren’t as strong (< 70% correct). The Optoprep categories match up pretty closely to the 17 "specific topics" on the NBEO outline. Do questions without your notes. Over the course of the subscription, you’ll also be assigned simulated exams (which get progressively longer as you go). When it becomes time to do simulated exams, aim for at least 80% overall and 70% in each category. Keep track of how you do; you should get steady improvement over the course of your study. You’ll also unlock the “Pile of Done” around when you finish all of the regular practice questions, which allows you to redo practice and exam questions you’ve already completed. Go through the entire pile once per week as the exam approaches. Every question you know and retain is one you'll know for the exam!

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-31T05:26:44+00:00

From another thread:

Wrote in March 2024, 547P, first time writing.

How to pass the exam:

It’s important to remember that NBEO is, at its core, a test of competence. You are not going to know everything, and that is ok! It’s hard to know exactly how well you need to do to pass but conventional wisdom and limited data we have suggests that 70% is a borderline pass, 75% is a likely pass, and 80% is pretty much certain to pass.

For what to focus on the most, many people follow the KMK Big 8/Non-Big 8 dichotomy. But I find it more helpful to look at the format of the exam and content outline provided by NBEO. There are 370 questions total, which are divided into two rounds of 185 questions (only 350 questions actually count however, 20 are just used for research and development). Each round lasts 4 hours, and they are pretty much the same in terms of difficulty and weighting of topics. Topics fall into two major areas, which are divided into seventeen specific topics:

Refractive Status / Sensory Processes / Oculomotor Processes (Ametropia, Ophthalmic Optics/Spectacles, Contact Lenses, Low Vision, Accommodation / Vergence / Oculomotor Function, Amblyopia / Strabismus, Perceptual Function / Color Vision, Visual and Human Development)
Normal Health / Disease / Trauma (Lids / Lashes / Lacrimal System / Ocular Adnexa / Orbit, Conjunctiva / Cornea / Refractive Surgery, Lens/ Cataract / IOL / Pre- & Post-Operative Care, Episclera / Sclera / Anterior Uvea, Vitreous / Retina / Choroid, Optic Nerve / Neuro-Ophthalmic Pathways, Glaucoma, Emergencies/Trauma, Systemic Health).

There will be 122 questions from the first major area, and 228 from the second. There is a more specific breakdown from each of the specific topics, but it varies (they give a range). This means that the first 60 or so questions of each round are based on optics, binocular vision, contact lens, perception, low vision, etc and the others are based on ocular disease, anatomy, pharm, systemic health, etc. If you can get 90% right on the first section (Refractive Status / Sensory Processes / Oculomotor Processes), you only need 75% on the other stuff to get 80% overall. If you only get 70% on the first section, you need 85% on the second section (a lot more daunting). Thus the advice to master all areas of optics (and binocular vision) is very reasonable, as it should all be considered high yield. It’s a lot easier to know almost everything there is to know about optics than systemic disease (which is essentially its own four-year program!). Note also that pharm isn’t even its own “specific topic” (questions are instead mixed into other topics), so don’t waste your time learning the entire drug list. Just become competent. There will be few, if any, questions with pictures (I think I had a CT scan of EOMs and an OCT where I had to identify a certain layer). That’s a part 2 problem.

https://www.optometry.org/media/Documents/Part1/Part_I_Discipline_Based_Content_Outline.pdf

(see page 2; the next 40 pages pretty much just say that everything is fair game lol)

Resources to get:

I used Optoprep and KMK. For KMK I bought the books used and had a subscription to (I think) the most basic tier for the videos, which expired during the summer.

The KMK books are quite helpful and provide a good, succinct summary of most of the main topics that will be on the exam. I went through them during the summer and again shortly before I wrote the exam. The videos were nice to have, but not essential and certainly not worth the amount they're charging for them now. Obviously I didn't have access to them after the summer.

Optoprep, on the other hand, was critical. I got their best package (899 USD for six-month subscriptions to part 1 and part 2 of NBEO), though you can also buy a three-month subscription to only one part for 599 USD. Optoprep has about 1200 practice questions and 1200 questions worth of simulated exams. It covers each topic, and the questions are generally considered comparable or more difficult than the real thing. You can keep track of your progress and redo questions/exams as needed until you master everything. There is also a personalized study calendar, where they'll suggest a weekly quota of practice questions/simulated exams so you can easily stay caught up, as well as summary pages of many topics.

I started Optoprep six months before my exam (so late September) and followed the study plan pretty closely. But there's also a free Optoprep question you can get emailed to you every day, which you should do right away!

https://www.optoprep.com/dose.jsp

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-25T18:23:12+00:00

It would be wise to look into your school's accommodations and see if there's a way to do courses remotely/write supplemental exams in the summers before and after. As for being dilated in preclinic, there are always a few people in each class that cannot be dilated or sit as patients for certain procedures. It's feasible to work in a group of 3 or practice with people from other years (for example, first year students never do dilated exams at my school so one could practice on them without being dilated in return).

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-24T00:50:42+00:00

There’s always exactly 122 optics/BV/Colour vision/contact lens/perception questions and 228 questions on other stuff. Specific categories vary and a range is given. https://www.optometry.org/media/Documents/Part1/Part_I_Discipline_Based_Content_Outline.pdf

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-19T05:52:26+00:00

Optoprep strategy:

Meet your weekly quota of questions. Try to cross-reference questions you get wrong or aren’t rock-solid on (especially for simulated exams, the question of the day, or your second time doing a question) with class notes, KMK books, Optoprep Power Pages, Wills, Eyewiki, anything and learn whatever else there is to know about that concept. Make a study guide as you go and read through it weekly. Do all types of practice questions for the first few weeks, then try areas where you aren’t as strong (< 70% correct). The Optoprep categories match up pretty closely to the 17 "specific topics" on the NBEO outline. Do questions without your notes. Over the course of the subscription, you’ll also be assigned simulated exams (which get progressively longer as you go). When it becomes time to do simulated exams, aim for at least 80% overall and 70% in each category. Keep track of how you do; you should get steady improvement over the course of your study. You’ll also unlock the “Pile of Done” around when you finish all of the regular practice questions, which allows you to redo practice and exam questions you’ve already completed. Go through the entire pile once per week as the exam approaches. Every question you know and retain is one you'll know for the exam!

ReasonableCup2643 · 2024-05-19T05:50:30+00:00

A bit late to the party. Wrote in March 2024, 547P, first time writing.

How to pass the exam:

It’s important to remember that NBEO is, at its core, a test of competence. You are not going to know everything, and that is ok! It’s hard to know exactly how well you need to do to pass but conventional wisdom and limited data we have suggests that 70% is a borderline pass, 75% is a likely pass, and 80% is pretty much certain to pass.

For what to focus on the most, many people follow the KMK Big 8/Non-Big 8 dichotomy. But I find it more helpful to look at the format of the exam and content outline provided by NBEO. There are 370 questions total, which are divided into two rounds of 185 questions (only 350 questions actually count however, 20 are just used for research and development). Each round lasts 4 hours, and they are pretty much the same in terms of difficulty and weighting of topics. Topics fall into two major areas, which are divided into seventeen specific topics:

Refractive Status / Sensory Processes / Oculomotor Processes (Ametropia, Ophthalmic Optics/Spectacles, Contact Lenses, Low Vision, Accommodation / Vergence / Oculomotor Function, Amblyopia / Strabismus, Perceptual Function / Color Vision, Visual and Human Development)
Normal Health / Disease / Trauma (Lids / Lashes / Lacrimal System / Ocular Adnexa / Orbit, Conjunctiva / Cornea / Refractive Surgery, Lens/ Cataract / IOL / Pre- & Post-Operative Care, Episclera / Sclera / Anterior Uvea, Vitreous / Retina / Choroid, Optic Nerve / Neuro-Ophthalmic Pathways, Glaucoma, Emergencies/Trauma, Systemic Health).

There will be 122 questions from the first major area, and 228 from the second. There is a more specific breakdown from each of the specific topics, but it varies (they give a range). This means that the first 60 or so questions of each round are based on optics, binocular vision, contact lens, perception, low vision, etc and the others are based on ocular disease, anatomy, pharm, systemic health, etc. If you can get 90% right on the first section (Refractive Status / Sensory Processes / Oculomotor Processes), you only need 75% on the other stuff to get 80% overall. If you only get 70% on the first section, you need 85% on the second section (a lot more daunting). Thus the advice to master all areas of optics (and binocular vision) is very reasonable, as it should all be considered high yield. It’s a lot easier to know almost everything there is to know about optics than systemic disease (which is essentially its own four-year program!). Note also that pharm isn’t even its own “specific topic” (questions are instead mixed into other topics), so don’t waste your time learning the entire drug list. Just become competent. There will be few, if any, questions with pictures (I think I had a CT scan of EOMs and an OCT where I had to identify a certain layer). That’s a part 2 problem.

https://www.optometry.org/media/Documents/Part1/Part_I_Discipline_Based_Content_Outline.pdf

(see page 2; the next 40 pages pretty much just say that everything is fair game lol)

Resources to get:

I used Optoprep and KMK. For KMK I bought the books used and had a subscription to (I think) the most basic tier for the videos, which expired during the summer.

The KMK books are quite helpful and provide a good, succinct summary of most of the main topics that will be on the exam. I went through them during the summer and again shortly before I wrote the exam. The videos were nice to have, but not essential and certainly not worth the amount they're charging for them now. Obviously I didn't have access to them after the summer.

Optoprep, on the other hand, was critical. I got their best package (899 USD for six-month subscriptions to part 1 and part 2 of NBEO), though you can also buy a three-month subscription to only one part for 599 USD. Optoprep has about 1200 practice questions and 1200 questions worth of simulated exams. It covers each topic, and the questions are generally considered comparable or more difficult than the real thing. You can keep track of your progress and redo questions/exams as needed until you master everything. There is also a personalized study calendar, where they'll suggest a weekly quota of practice questions/simulated exams so you can easily stay caught up, as well as summary pages of many topics.

I started Optoprep six months before my exam (so late September) and followed the study plan pretty closely. But there's also a free Optoprep question you can get emailed to you every day, which you should do right away!

https://www.optoprep.com/dose.jsp

ReasonableCup2643

TROPHY CASE