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Archive for December of 2009
Happy Holidays!
December 28, 2009
I know this is late, but I've been busy enjoying my break so happy holidays everyone! Stay posted for more updates in the new year.
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Clinical case: Aniridia
December 16, 2009
As a 4th year student at SCCO, we do what's called "enhancing" here which is basically helping out the 3rd years with any questions they have. I have an enhancing assignment at SCCO's external clinic at the Orange County Rescue Mission, which caters to low income patients and the mission's residents. We get all sorts of interesting cases there due to the demographics. One specific case that one of the 3rd years had was a patient with congenital aniridia; essentially, this patient was born without an iris.
NBEO II: The Aftermath
December 04, 2009
So here's my take on the NBEO II. I just took it this past Tuesday, and there were two 3.5 hour sessions (8:30 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM). The test center was in the Titan Student Union in Cal State Fullerton, and we took it inside a huge conference/meeting hall. There were many students from different schools (since they are likely around the region for rotations), but there were more SCCO students than any other. As a general rule for any standardized test, I wore layers because I didn't know what to expect as far as temperature...turns it it was freezing inside! At least that's how I felt.
The test itself involves 30 patient cases per session (a total of 60), with 5-6 questions per patient. The content was heavily clinical, with some basic science, ethics, and biostatistics concepts scattered througout. I really can't get into details with what was specifically on the exam, since we were instructed not to do so at the test site (sorry). The Part II format we took was brand new; previously Part III used to have both a written and practical portion, but now that written section of Part III was moved into Part II. Overall I felt like I studied much more than I should have. In other words I felt like I got too worked up with little details when studying for this test. Much of the test involved cases that 4th-year optometry students should know already (of course there were still some that I didn't know at all). But the scary part is, this test has fewer questions than NBEO I, thus a smaller margin for error so I can't say with 100% confidence that I've passed. But what I can say is that I did put my best effort and I don't know how else I would have studied if I had to do it all over again. SCCO has had over a 90-95% pass rate for both Part II and III so I'm hoping that my education here lead me to success. I'll keep you posted if I pass or not - I'll be finding out around mid January so we'll see!!!
The test itself involves 30 patient cases per session (a total of 60), with 5-6 questions per patient. The content was heavily clinical, with some basic science, ethics, and biostatistics concepts scattered througout. I really can't get into details with what was specifically on the exam, since we were instructed not to do so at the test site (sorry). The Part II format we took was brand new; previously Part III used to have both a written and practical portion, but now that written section of Part III was moved into Part II. Overall I felt like I studied much more than I should have. In other words I felt like I got too worked up with little details when studying for this test. Much of the test involved cases that 4th-year optometry students should know already (of course there were still some that I didn't know at all). But the scary part is, this test has fewer questions than NBEO I, thus a smaller margin for error so I can't say with 100% confidence that I've passed. But what I can say is that I did put my best effort and I don't know how else I would have studied if I had to do it all over again. SCCO has had over a 90-95% pass rate for both Part II and III so I'm hoping that my education here lead me to success. I'll keep you posted if I pass or not - I'll be finding out around mid January so we'll see!!!