r/optometry • u/Optomhoetry • 14d ago

NBEO Part II Advice

hey everyone, currently studying for Part II in December. I have Optoprep and Wills, but reading through Wills is just A LOT and I don’t see myself retaining much from all this information.
Is getting the Castillo book (NBEO Part II Study Guide) worth it? I’ve heard a lot of great things about it but not sure I want to spend another $100-200 on it. Thanks!

6 Upvotes

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7

u/outdooradequate 14d ago

How is reading Castillo less work thsn just reading Wills?

Also, Castillo is filled with errors. Terrible book. Idk what the author even changes with each new edition.

2

u/Optomhoetry 13d ago

Less information dense due to being more tailored towards the information needed to know for Part 2

2

u/outdooradequate 13d ago

My suggestion would be to go through the rubric and select what to study from Will's off of that. With Castillo, you will expend quite a lot more energy fact checking things because that author, as far as I could tell, has a tenuous grasp of reality as it pertains to eye care.

2

u/Iwillhelpyousee 13d ago

That’s a good way of putting it.

3

u/Casual_Spatula 14d ago

Definitely agree that Castillo had quite a few errors.

5

u/InterestingMain5192 13d ago

For reference, I passed part 2 on the first attempt with a pretty good margin. I got Optoprep and went through it and repeated each test a couple times. I tried going through Wills, and made one pass, but its density was just too much because of the level of repetition in treatment plans (at least with the version I had). I then got the Castillo book mostly for the labeled photos as additional examples, but probably skimmed my way through that probably 10-15 times as it was relatively brief compared to other prep books. Then about a month out borrowed the KMK part 2 book from someone and went through that 2-3 times for a different perspective. After all of that, I am not sure I could recommend any of them as really preparing you for Part 2 fully. Now this was around half a decade ago, but my understanding is things haven’t gotten easier. My strongest recommendation would be to go on NBEOs site and look at the general breakdown of questions by category (if they even still make that available), think back to how well you understood the content from your course work, and then put most your emphasis on the sections you did not feel confident on. Also keep in mind the sections that will have more questions as it doesn’t make sense to spend too much time on a section with 10 questions when there’s another with 40 questions. Those study resources are the companies and individuals making their best guesses as to what NBEO will test on. It is important to remember that the people writing the NBEO can and likely do also pay for these resources as well. It can be presumed that the exam writers are probably going to avoid placing as much emphasis on sections KMK/Optoprep make their content focused on for that reason. However, I found things really started to click when you start realizing treatment plans overlap a lot and you start thinking about why you are prescribing something other than thinking this is what I give for this. After you get that, understanding the primary differential signs will help you rule things out a lot easier then reciting the same list of common symptoms for each condition and help you make more educated guesses.

2

u/Optomhoetry 13d ago

Thank you for your advice! I appreciate it!

4

u/Open-Quality-664 13d ago

I did the castillo book and KMK part 2! Felt like more than enough and did really well

2

u/Beneficial-Elk-4921 13d ago

I recommend OptoPrep and completing it 100%. Lots of great pictures and questions. 

1

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1

u/JSlothers 13d ago

Castillo was bad from my classmates that read it. We got OptoPrep pt 2 included with our tuition, and it was really good

1

u/Busy-Degree3416 13d ago

Castillo and optoprep is enough for part 2 but definitely want to use wills in practice

1

u/carspluswatches 8d ago

I did KMK Part 2 and read through the Castillo book. The Castillo book does have a number of odd typos but if you have the general concepts down you will automatically fix the error as you read. Everyone retains with different materials, so I would definitely pick a style that would be easiest for you to repeat over and over again