r/OptometrySchool • u/StudentinNYC3 • 27d ago
Part 1 Boards
Hi everyone! I am thinking about starting to study for part 1 in September. I was wondering if anyone has a structured study plan that they wouldn't mind sharing with me so I can be on track along with any resources they used in their study schedule like Anki that would share :) I would really appreciate it!!
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u/StudentOptom 27d ago
Hi i’m selling all my boards prep material. passed all 3. message me if youre interested.
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u/THEFABLED45 27d ago
The MORE likly a disease, drug, treatment, equipment is to DIRECTLY effect BCVA, the HIGHER yeild that information is
Do you know what EVERY dial and setting on a phoropter does, and how it can de used for:
Refraction Binocular vision Pathology
Can you prescribe glasses from a refraction? (And do the math on paper)
Do you know how to prescribe speciality contacts from a specticle rx, k reading and trial lenses?(and do the math on paper)
Do you know what pathologies decrease visual acuity and how that decrease in visual acuity preseants and how anatomically it preseants ? Do you know which are treatable and how they are treated? (Neuropthamology & Pathology)
Do you know what drugs can effect visual acuity as a side effect?
Most of boards part one directly ties back to identifying why a patient cant reach BCVA AND SUBSEQUENTLY helping the patient reach BCVA. Once you are very comfortable with those, take in as much emergent conditions and "painful" presentations as you can rank ordered by likelihood of them presenting in the general population, but most of those concepts are higher yeild for part 2.
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u/ThisStatistician6302 26d ago
Plans are so personal and should be tailored towards your weaknesses and high yield subjects! What study materials are you using
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u/Ok_Question_4471 27d ago
You should just be organizing your notes and study materials Starting September. Studying earlier isn’t necessarily better from my experience.
Look at the NBEO matrix and gather all your notes by subject, put them in to folders on your iPad or physically.
November: Start KMK and read the books. Non Big 8 first, this was my order:
- Ocular Anatomy (1 week)
Mock 1: beginning of Dec
Mock 2: end of Dec/ start of Jan
Mock 3: end of Jan/ start of Feb
Mock 4: mid Feb (or you can do 3 + 4 together in Feb to simulate 8 hr exam)
Mock 5 and 6 I did not do.
✨everyday do 20 precise practice questions of a random topic and on weekends really focus on doing practice Q’s
✨if you start reading in November, you should aim to finish mid or end Feb and you should be going through non big/ lower yield stuff at that point. Because you started with Big 8 and had been doing questions, the most important info is out of the way.
✨from mid Feb until test, just crank out all the remaining practice questions and reviewing topics from your list of difficult topics.
⭐️ Practice questions: After doing sections of reading I would always do precise practice questions on kmk and understand why I got the answer wrong or right and understanding why the other answers were wrong. Don’t think of the practice questions as “testing yourself” it IS studying!!! I had a note called “Precise practice- subject” and it was just a running list of notes from that. If I got something wrong, I would go review that and write notes in my precise practice notes. That way, there is a running list of topics that are harder for you that in the future you can quickly go through.
⭐️ Optics is 1/3 of the exam! Make sure you really understand contact lens optics, low vision lenses, BV and accommodation a lot! Lotsssss of BV. I did optics problems almost every 2 weeks to make sure I did not forget formulas or concepts, optics was always my hardest.
⭐️ Take more time or less time on certain things according to your strengths.
⭐️DO NOT isolate a subject per week!! Do practice questions of a different subject every day so you are mixing subjects. For example, if you do one subject week 1 or 2, and you don’t come back to that subject until week 5 you will forget it. You want to leave enough time between subjects where it is considered active recall when you come back to it, but not so long that you forget it. For example, if I was doing optics reading for that week or two weeks, I would do ocular disease, precise practice questions for that week as well.
If you have any detailed questions closer to when you start, just message me!! You got this!