IAUPR class of 2017 alumni here, passed boards part 1 and 3 first time! The purpose of my post is to offer positive feedback to those who are curious about the school program. People need to realize that you are coming to an island for school ... Power outages are not fun or ideal, but the school has no control over natural disasters and how fast the electricity company works to fix things. I lived through a drought and a major power outage. Its what happens on an island - if you think this is something you can't handle, go somewhere else. You do have to make the most of your four years out here, but if this school is your only option (it was for me) you need to be more grateful for the given opportunity and complain less. If people spent as much time studying than complaining about language barriers, our board scores would probably be better. I would say the class of 2017 was made up of people who failed out of other optometry school and needed a second chance, people who did not do well in undergrad but were now serious about school/future/education and young new college grads who were more focused on partying ... and lets not forget the small chunk who were just naturally gifted with intelligence. All of our professors speak English. English might not have been their first language, but this is what you should expect when coming to school here. Don't come here if you are narrow minded and want things to be spoon fed to you. Spanish class teaches some basics, but you need to take imitative and ask the professors how to say certain things in Spanish so you can better communicate with your patients during 3rd year. I understand that some people come from areas where there is not a large Spanish speaking population, which is why they don't make any effort to learn Spanish. Majority of your patients prefer to speak Spanish, so it is important to take initiative to learn the language because you decided to come to school in PUERTO RICO. It takes ALOT of hard work and self teaching. I truly do believe that the students are provided with all of the necessary information to pass the boards. If you party a lot, "wing classes" and use "old exams" to cheat to barely pass classes ... (it is pretty obvious to me that you will not be passing boards the first time around). Those who were dedicated and put in work to learn concepts and not just memorize facts were most successful. It is do-able, you just have to put in the work.
