The Illinois College of Optometry Student Blog

During fourth year at ICO, you meet tons of optometry students from other schools at your rotations. At both my first and third sites, we had 3 students from 2 different schools each. Sharing our experiences, we all found similarities and differences between optometry schools. Clinical experience: Some other schools don’t have students start clinical experiences until their second year. Then, it is often just shadowing. ICO, however, begins right away. During the first quarte

NBEO exams are the national optometric board certifications required in the United States. OEBC is the Canadian equivalent. Some optometry students only take American boards, and others take only Canadian, but there is a large group of students at ICO taking both. Usually, these students are from Canada and want to have the option of working in both places. Or, they are in a relationship with a Canadian and have to be open to living in either country. I’m the latter. (Side no

The first thing to do when you failed an exam at ICO: Don’t Panic. A lot of people told me that grad school would be rough. I would say, “Yeah, I’ll have to work and study hard,” but on the inside, my pride and ego would think, “I’ll be alright. I can handle myself just fine.” …Then, the vengeance and fury of grad school struck down like a two-ton hammer on top of my skull!! Failing an exam annihilated my pride and ego and left me completely dumbstruck. I thought I was ready

In third year at ICO, you see a variety of exam types. Some people prefer one type over the other, but why? What are the benefits and disadvantages of both? Do you learn more from one or the other? First, I’ll explain the two main types of exams. Comprehensive exams are the typical exams you think of when you go to an eye doctor. It is usually an annual eye exam that includes basic screening tests, figuring out a prescription, and dilating the eyes to make sure everything is

Some weeks ago, the fateful Part II boards score release day arrived. Anxiety took over. Then, relief set in. Viewing my results for Part II was just like it had been for I and III. I nervously clicked from the login page to the scores page, then peeked between my fingers to glimpse my marks in tiny print on a large grid. NBEO Part II reminded me of that little OAT exam we all took before entering ICO. In small groups on our own chosen day, we sat for the test at one of multi