By: Valentina Bangiyeva SUNY 2012
I think the most important thing to keep in mind for optics and optometry related subjects is that the NBEO Part 1 has questions that are clinically practical.
I started studying about 2 months in advance. I mainly focused on the KMK, I read it twice. I don’t think you can study too much because there will always be stuff that you don’t know. KMK was great in giving an overview of the material on the boards. I used class notes for things that I felt were not adequate in KMK or to clarify a topic for me. Things not to worry about and just rely on KMK are things like biochemistry, microbiology, all the general science stuff. Focus on ocular anatomy and ocular disease and pharm. If you have the LeeAnn Remington book on ocular anatomy that is a great resource as well, since there is a good amount of questions on ocular anatomy. I thought KMK did a pretty good job on ocular disease and pharmacology and I only used notes again like I said to clarify things.
In regards to optics and optometry based subjects, I thought I was least prepared for ophthalmic optics. There was a lot of questions on ophthalmic optics like spectacle magnification etc. Do not go crazy with certain first year optometry optics (especially the math and equations), no one is going to ask you to calculate the oscope magnification. You need to know practical stuff that can be used in clinic, so things that have to do with lenses, magnification. Low vision was another big topic on our boards. Remember, there is no need to memorize complex formulas, like those that require trigonometry functions because you won’t have that capability on the calculators that they give to you. Also they won’t give you a problem that takes like 10 steps to solve.
If you can get practice questions for optics and optometry related subjects that would probably be helpful. Also, some people read Schwartz book on visual function, I did not really find that helpful, KMK on visual function is enough.
In summary, I would focus on reading everything in KMK, if you have time read the LeeAnn Remington anatomy book and look over disease notes for subjects that KMK is not very thorough. Remember optics questions are usually clinically applicable and make sure you know your ophthalmic optics.
By: Valentina Bangiyeva SUNY 2012
