National Board Rates

[eyelove]

Hey everyone!

Can anyone tell me where I can find the passing rates for the National Boards of the different Optometry schools?

Thanks

-eyelove

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[oceanblue392]

sure!
lemme introduce you to the forum search function:
step 1: go to this forum at this site: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=159
step 2: do a forum search (top right corner)
step 3: search: Board Passing Rates
step 4: look through results.

easy!

Hey everyone!

Can anyone tell me where I can find the passing rates for the National Boards of the different Optometry schools?

Thanks

-eyelove

 

[mrfunnyman]

Unfortunately there isnt a central site that lists all of the schools national board passing rates.

 

[iVision]

These are the figures I got off either the school website or by contacting them:

IAUPR -
ICO - I: 84%, II: 94%, III: 100%
IU -
MCO - I: 94.1%, II: 92.9%, III: 100%
Midwestern – New school, no previous stats
NOVA –
OSU –
PCO -
PUCO - I: 89%, II: 94%, III: 94%
SCO -
SCCO - I: 76% (normally and consistently between 86-100%, dropped down for the first time last year but the school is remedying the problem), II: 94%, III: 100%
SUNY - I: 96%, II: 100%, III: 100%
UAB –
UCBSO - I: 87.3%, II: 100%, III: 100%
UHCO -
UMSL -
WU – New school, no previous stats

I only researched the schools that have stats filled in. If anyone would like to add in the missing data, please do so. Also, remember that NBEO boards are changing this year so it would be difficult to use these past scores as indicators of how future students will perform on the new boards.

 

[cunikki]

just so you know scco is not a consistent 86-100... they have a chart that shows the part one pass rates and they have been decreasing consistently for the past couple years. their 'method' of remedying the problem is to invite the kmk board review course on their campus....
and i am pretty sure the 76 is from 2 classes ago- the last class to take it had 71% pass rate...

 

[kengani]

Hey, you want to post that chart so that we can see it?

 

[opto2be]

I noticed the UCBSO part 1 board pass rate is 86.7% for 2009, below the national average of 87.3%. Does anyone know what happened that caused the decline in Berkeley's scores over previous years? I suppose some of it has to do with the change in formatting for the board, but the national average increased while Berkeley's went down. That looks troublesome to me.

 

[mshea413]

Are the pass rates being discussed in this thread overall pass rates or first time?

Also I know on NECO's web site they have their pass rates posted but they don't say if they are first time or overall.


Year 05-06/06-07/07-08/08-09
National Boards Pass Rate (All Schools) 90% 91% 90% 90%
NECO National Boards Pass Rate 78% 89% 89% 92%

 

[mathcod]

NBEO Part 1 Basic Science Pass Rates
ICO
National
National % Pass
Year
% Pass
% Pass
1st Timers
2009
98.6%
87.3%
91.9%​

http://www.ico.edu/admissions/faq/index.html

Boards have been recently revised.

ICO had a part I passing of 98.6% in 2009.

 

[optog]

NECO's passing rates listed on their website are first time passing rates.
I had called and asked the admissions office.

Year 05-06/06-07/07-08/08-09
National Boards Pass Rate (All Schools) 90% 91% 90% 90%
NECO National Boards Pass Rate 78% 89% 89% 92%

 

[UWOptom]

Also, remember that NBEO boards are changing this year so it would be difficult to use these past scores as indicators of how future students will perform on the new boards.

In what way has it changed?

 

[scvcstar]

In what way has it changed?

It's gotten more clinical...they essentially combined Part II with Part I, and now Part II is all cases - diagnoses and treatments. Part I you need to know diseases and pharm too, but don't need to know the specific dosages for treatment, just the drugs used to treat certain diseases.

I believe UCBSO (and probably other schools too) were a bit caught off guard by the distribution of questions and I've heard a lot of people saying they wished they studied anterior seg more. Two of the people who didn't pass were severely ill before/during the exam and were unable to finish their exams and did not take it the second day. I don't know the specific stats but last I heard through the grapevine, everyone who took it again passed it the second time.

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

Guess that just goes to show that people should stop worrying about what "prestigious" school they will get in to and be more worried about how dedicated and disciplined they will be once they get into a school. An OD is an OD is an OD.......

 

[scvcstar]

Guess that just goes to show that people should stop worrying about what "prestigious" school they will get in to and be more worried about how dedicated and disciplined they will be once they get into a school. An OD is an OD is an OD.......

I agree. And B = OD right? =) Clinical excellence is what matters most to me.

 

[KHE]

I agree. And B = OD right? =) Clinical excellence is what matters most to me.

Let me put a different perspective on that.

Yes, clinical excellence is important. However, once you are out in the so called "real" world, what is going to matter most to an employer is your ability to make money for that employer.

Knowing every in and out of idiopathic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy or the inheritence pattern of MEWDS is irrelevant if you have no personality or ability to interact with/relate to patients and staff.

 

[JMU07]

Knowing every in and out of idiopathic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy or the inheritence pattern of MEWDS is irrelevant if you have no personality or ability to interact with/relate to patients and staff.

 

[scvcstar]

Let me put a different perspective on that.

Yes, clinical excellence is important. However, once you are out in the so called "real" world, what is going to matter most to an employer is your ability to make money for that employer.

Knowing every in and out of idiopathic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy or the inheritence pattern of MEWDS is irrelevant if you have no personality or ability to interact with/relate to patients and staff.

I think most everyone would agree with you (at least here at my school), and that is actually what I meant, which may have been misinterpreted - excellence in the clinic encompasses both caring for your patients to the best of your ability as well as being a likeable doctor that your patients remember and can trust. Our instructors have been drilling into us both in class and in clinic that it's not the exam itself or the knowledge we may have displayed that patients remember when they go home, it's how we interacted with them and whether rapport was developed between us. Those are the patients that will come back and generate money for the practice. Of course we should also be able to do our duty as doctors and we are responsible for treating and referring when appropriate, but it is very true - if nobody likes you, it doesn't matter how smart or accomplished you are or how many pages long your CV is. When I think about my clinic instructors, the ones I admire the most are the ones (and there's a lot!) who have great rapport with our patients.

Isn't this why optometry schools have in-person interviews? Interviews are more important than the academic transcript, which is why the interviewer does not have access to the candidate's academic records during the interview process. And I think they do a pretty good job, because all the colleagues I've met here and from other schools at conferences are really great people, and great clinicians too. I don't think there's a single school out there that wants to take in and train future optometrists who have no personality and are unable to relate to patients/staff!