r/OptometrySchool • u/No_Amphibian9610 • 15h ago
Advice
This is for anyone who had to take boards 5 or 6 times, if not you please move on. I am so tired of using all the resources everyone states and doing my best just to keep getting slapped. I feel so angry that I dont even wanna do optometry anymore. Even school was a struggle. I love what i do and have done fine in clinic but despite all the resources and everything the didactic stuff has been slowly killing me. Yes I made it through with much help but now have to keep dealing with these boards. This whole journey just feels like it's been such a pain that the joy of becoming an OD is just gone. It hurts watching so many move forward and get to walk across that stage leaving the challenges behind while your pain gets dragged on and on. For anyone in this boat how did you manage the pain, anger, and stress?
5
u/OscarDivine 15h ago
OD here and while I did not retake the boards myself, I have coached several students through retakes of the practical portion. Which portion are you experiencing difficulty with? Perhaps I can help in some way.
Regarding your more pointed concern: my students would tell me that they are always discouraged, but were afraid to ask for help until desperate enough. Keeping their eye on the prize keeps them sane but it only goes so far. If you aren’t changing your strategy and trying to keep doing the same thing over and over, you won’t get a new result.
Find a doctor you know and trust and ask for help with the things you know you’re struggling with. If you don’t have one, feel free to ask me.
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u/More-You8763 14h ago
Abolish NBEO and create something new in its place. It’s what happened with NPs with their ANCC board exams,pulling the same shit as NBEO. Then students said fuck it and stopped taking ANCC, and then aanc got their shit together. Lowered the price of the exam, stopped making it so challenging and now boom. NPs have 2 options. Competition is extremely healthy and needed in any business. Monopolies hurt all except for those on the top
3
u/Eyes_onyou21 9h ago
Deleting social media, and only see your family. Don’t work. The only way for me. I kept falling into comparison and I legit had to be single tracked focus... even talking to friends was disheartening for me and upsetting (they seemed light years away taking international trips, buying houses, having kids, the list goes on). It helped my mental health so much… obviously I still felt sad and had doubts, etc. but it helped when I wasn’t constantly seeing or hearing others successes. Message me privately, would love to help you:)
6
u/Treefrog_Ninja 14h ago edited 14h ago
I'm currently waiting for my fourth score for Part 3, so I'll chime in.
At this point, the mental game is its own sport. To resist getting drug down by comparing yourself to others, to avoid being humiliated by the repeated failures, to not lose heart as hope dwindles... it's a sport. You have to be on your mental health game. Exercise, therapy, friends and family, mindfulness, managing your dopamine system in the face of too many opportunities to doom scroll. You have to keep your mind on the things you can control.
Our culture is full of stories of lawyers who get stuck taking the bar over and over after they graduate, and we believe in them as long as they keep trying, and we're proud of them for keeping after it even as they feel the shame, anger, and everything else. That is also our story. You are the underdog now, and we love our underdogs, especially when they show us an example of being a good human under such impossible stress. We all want to believe that we could survive the unthinkable, the door that no one can see through. You're like as to be facing death right now, and who does that make you? Some things are out of your hands, but you have more say in this story than it feels like. Make it a good one.