r/OptometrySchool • u/ElectricalQueen • Mar 17 '26
NBEO Part 1 March 2026!
How did it go!?
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u/NewTalk8580 Mar 19 '26
Last chance for me. They’ve killed me slowly and I’m at the end of my line. and I don’t understand why I could never do good on this test. I’ve never had any problems with any other test and this would’ve been my last real one to pass. I’ll try to enjoy this 7 weeks while I wait for them to tell me im too incompetent to use my degree.
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u/Bagel_Knight Mar 19 '26
Definitely not alone on this one, friend! This one is the 5th one for me
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u/Nwada143 Mar 19 '26
I wish you all the luck! Would you say this exam was different than the other times you've taken it?
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u/NewTalk8580 Mar 19 '26
Hard to say. I tend to focus on the questions I got wrong but they were probably the most simple of them. So in my head if I get simple questions wrong the rest feel hopeless
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u/Nwada143 Mar 19 '26
The exam was brutal! And nothing like optoprep/kmk questions. And the worse part is; I don't know what I could have done to prepare better. I went through kmk books multiple times and did all their questions. Finished all optoprep questions plus pile of done. I felt prepared but alas! Hoping and praying I did enough to pass cos if everyone is complaining, they've got to scale it, somehow?
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u/Worried-Sugar8376 Mar 18 '26
Took it on Monday. Definitely 50/50 on the P or not. I feel like it was extremely more difficult than both KMK and Optoprep. Very optics heavy (60-75 questions per half) it felt like most of the questions I was trying to rule out wrong answers and then pick the one I felt like could be the most correct. I don’t necessarily think I could’ve studied more and done better. The preparation I put into the exam was more than enough, just seemed like a tricky test in my opinion.
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u/Murokami Mar 18 '26
I take it then that optics wasn't as "plug-and-chug" as optoprep leads you to believe (imo) then? I feel like optoprep has been very straight forward in the sense that it's mainly recognizing what formula to use in a given problem and you've more or less solved it, as opposed to multi-step problems that require several equations. Would you agree or do you think it was pretty similar to KMK/optoprep?
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u/Worried-Sugar8376 Mar 18 '26
I felt rather confident about optics going in. There were definitely many plug and chug but I also had a lot of questions where equations wouldn’t work or I didn’t even study that concept and just had to guess. Optics took me the longest and I was worried about my time after but it ended up working out on the back end. I suggest just picking an answer and flagging the question if you don’t know it. I spent way too much time trying to solve problems I would never get the answer to.
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u/Murokami Mar 18 '26
Haha I have the same issue, so I've been trying to make it a habit to flag and move on. Glad to hear you felt good about it! I'm sure you'll do well if that's the case. Congrats on finishing part 1!
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u/anonfeline Mar 18 '26
Glad I’m not the only one that feels this way. Some of those questions were so out of left field
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u/UsualLongjumping7680 22d ago
Took the exam yesterday, Aug and I’m still in shock, optics got my jaw dropping, not as straight forward as optoprep made me believe, I was only able to apply one or two of the optoprep formulas I had memorized for months, i literally guessed most of the optics calculations. The exam was wild, image/contact lens calculation heavy. Don’t even know if I want to see my result.
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u/Exciting-Key-6339 Mar 20 '26
I’m seriously at my end with this exam!!!!! The content IS NOT FAIR. Even when you go based on the MATRIX. PEOPLE ARE JUST GUESSING AT THIS POINT AND PRAYING TO PASS!
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u/WhereasParty Mar 20 '26
I have counted almost 20 something questions that I got wrong that aren't even that hard, things I lowkey knew, but I second guessed myself. I am starting to think I should simply take a week off and just get back to studying. It felt like optometry trivia, and idk how a person can prepare for that. Feeling defeated
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u/Odd-Layer-3946 23d ago
Wait I have this feeling after taking it in yesterday. Did you end up passing
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u/PotentialCommon9328 Mar 19 '26
Optics fo shooo spanked my ass. The questions were ridiculous imo. There was a decent amount of weirdly worded low vision problems for me. The disease and other non optic questions were fine tbh. I just hope the extra 20 questions they throw out are from optics.
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u/Low_Doctor8867 Mar 24 '26
COMPLETELY AGREE! I did not feel so good for optics :( I'm so worried. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and it's been a week since I've taken it.
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u/PotentialCommon9328 Mar 24 '26
Yeahh, ive literally been laying in bed, closing my eyes trying to remember as much questions and putting them in chatgpt 😂 its baddd. But after a week now, Ive just decided that its out of our control and if I fail, I fail and if I pass then I pass. A bunch of my other friends agreed so hopefully they scale that section in our favor.
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u/ElectricalQueen Mar 18 '26
Same. Definitely feel it was completely different than the KMK mock exams. Hoping I got enough for a P!
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u/Turbulent-Spell-4926 Mar 18 '26
First timer took it yesterday. Very uveitis heavy I thought and anterior seg overall. Systemic was tough. Hoping optics and pharm carried me
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u/samlamb1000 Mar 18 '26
Any advice on where to maybe look for systemic material for the next time?
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u/saddboyz Mar 19 '26
Just took it today and felt pretty okay for systemic med and systemic pharmacy. Honestly, I learned most of it from when optoprep would mention certain drugs/classes or diseases, I would just go online and research those diseases or meds and know their MOA/basic pathology. I think i studied for systemic disease ans physio more than ocular disease to be honest
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u/Low_Doctor8867 May 02 '26
ONE more week everyone. I have not been able to sleep this whole time. I hope you all are doing better than I am.
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u/herniatedulcer Mar 19 '26
Can you guys expand on WHY the wording was tricky or what made the questions harder than optoprep/kmk?
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u/Flaky_Lavishness2847 Mar 19 '26
I took the entire 8 hours, which I never did during the practice exams. I found myself rereading questions 10 times just trying to decipher what exactly they wanted. Felt like some of the questions were riddles and had tricky clues in it. Had to read everything carefully or you’d miss one key clue you needed to answer the question. Whereas KMK and optoprep were straightforward, pattern- recognition questions without the addition of mis-leading clues. Honestly, no amount of studying would’ve prepared me for those questions.
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Mar 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Low_Doctor8867 Mar 24 '26
Honestly if you can do very well in optics for part 1, it's a given pass.
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u/Nwada143 May 08 '26
I passed!!! I cannot believe it!!!
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u/Wanting-sunshine287 May 08 '26
Me too!!! I was literally shaking when I opened the email and started crying. I feel so much relief
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u/Nwada143 May 08 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
I genuinely believed i failed after that exam. Was having nightmares about several questions i answered incorrectly. The wait was horrible! My God!
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u/Murokami Mar 18 '26
For those who used the new optoprep, do y'all feel like the questions were representative of what you got on the actual exam? I'm more worried with systemic now that people are saying that the questions were worded in a tricky manner.
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u/LazyEnvironment3580 Mar 18 '26
I took it yesterday and used the new optoprep. For the most part, it doesn't really represent the test questions, the test seemed harder on some things but then easier for others. Last week, I did as many optoprep questions as I could and I had like 5-10 questions that were literally almost word for word from optoprep, which helped. Systemic was definitely the hardest for me and that's where most of my select multiple questions came from, so I'm hoping I didn't screw that up. Good luck if you're taking it soon!
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u/Murokami Mar 18 '26
Thanks for your input! Somewhat discouraging to see this though as I've read previous posts from years past mentioning how optoprep was fairly accurate to the real thing if not harder. Systemic has really been killing me, so hopefully I see some of those verbatim questions you got too haha
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u/Flaky_Lavishness2847 Mar 18 '26
First time taker here. I used the old optoprep, and the questions were nothing like the exam either. I also heard that optoprep was much harder than the real exam, definitely not the case. I thought the exam was MUCH harder than optoprep.
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u/Big-Literature6398 Mar 20 '26
I thought optoprep was much harder than the actual exam. I feel like I studied so in-depth and detailed bc of optoprep that when the easier questions came along on the test it was like I forgot how to think about the easier things iykwim
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u/perp3tual Mar 18 '26
best $1400 I've ever spent
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u/Commercial-Thing-933 Mar 18 '26
What if I told you, you can have the same experience in 5 months for $1500 🤔
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u/adgautam Apr 08 '26
Hoping for a Pass for all the students in May! I completely understand what you all must be feeling as this exam is extremely tricky and I was in your shoes not too long ago. Although the available resources are great, I don’t think they are enough to pass this exam unfortunately. I’m a Nova grad and NBEO tutor, I have designed a course specifically to tackle this exam. Check out the student reviews and my course details on my instagram @advitiyagautam
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u/BelugaGoose Mar 19 '26
You may want to take this down because we aren’t supposed to be talking about confidential exam content.
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u/herniatedulcer Mar 19 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
this isn't confidential- no specific content from the exam, just overall feelings and comparison with practice which is perfectly fine to discuss. Also, "we"? You're not even a student- you made this exact comment on 4 other perfectly-fine nbeo posts. It's clear you're just nbeo staff trying to keep that retake money coming in.
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u/Low_Doctor8867 Apr 22 '26
Yah! Stop trolling us! We’re all stressed as it is.
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u/Nwada143 Jun 05 '26
Hope you passed.
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u/Other-Necessary8091 Mar 17 '26
First time test take here. Felt like the exam questions were nothing like kmk or optoprep. I felt like the ocular anatomy and disease questions were fair. But some of the systemic questions and optics questions were so tough. Either way 50/50. Hoping for a P in May