Is Optometry School Easy, like the OAT?

[sampler]

Ok, so obviously opt school is not easy for the average Joe off the street. But here's the premise of my question: When I was in undergrad, I considered going to either MD or OD. I studied hard and got the grades to go to either...specifically, I went to class, took good notes in lecture, and also read the textbook pretty thoroughly for most science classes, or at least the pretty detailed study guide that we were given for the class. Back then I was leaning toward MD and took some quick looks at the MCAT and felt that the difficulty of the material tested was about at the level that I was being tested in my classes. However, I am now leaning more toward OD (after having been out of school for a few yrs because I had to work for various reasons), and I have recently taken a look at the OAT, and have been pleasantly surprised by how easy the material tested seems to be compared to the MCAT and compared to the depth that I needed to know in undergrad to do well in my classes. The OAT seems to just test a basic understanding of the concepts...there's not a lot of depth, tricks, etc. to throw you off. I feel like it tests at the level I would have gotten just by going to class and taking good lecture notes in undergrad, and not having to do a lot of textbook reading for homework.

And so I wonder if this transfers to opt school as well...even though you take many science classes in opt school, is the depth at which you are tested on these classes not so intense, to the point where most of what you need to know you will get just by going to class and taking good notes, without having to do lots of textbook reading at home? I ask because reading science textbooks at home was the most miserable part of undergrad...it would have been much easier and more fun if it was like high school, where most/all the info was taught in class and you really just needed to understand that material. Going to opt school now as an older student worries me a little, as I dread being cooped up in my room non-stop for 2 yrs reading science textbooks, but if it's more laid back then that, and really just a matter of reviewing your class/lecture notes, and otherwise having a good amount of free-time after class instead on non-stop studying, it seems much more palatable.

I hope my question is clear...stated another way: Is the depth of understanding of undergrad science classes required to do well on the OAT similar to the depth of understanding of opt school science classes required to do well in opt school?

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[kh93]

Coming from a first year student here. The difficulty is definitely more challenging than the OAT. The basic science classes are along the same level, but once you start getting into higher level classes that you have no background knowledge, you're going to have to read. In school the material isn't necessarily difficult, it's the short amount of time you have to learn everything and the course load. You'll be enrolled in roughly 20 hours usually. So hate to break it to you, but you'll be studying ALL the time. Of course you'll have easy weeks and time you can have fun, but that is the exception to an otherwise busy schedule. Most days I probably spend 6 hours in class and another 4-5 hours studying.

Ok, so obviously opt school is not easy for the average Joe off the street. But here's the premise of my question: When I was in undergrad, I considered going to either MD or OD. I studied hard and got the grades to go to either...specifically, I went to class, took good notes in lecture, and also read the textbook pretty thoroughly for most science classes, or at least the pretty detailed study guide that we were given for the class. Back then I was leaning toward MD and took some quick looks at the MCAT and felt that the difficulty of the material tested was about at the level that I was being tested in my classes. However, I am now leaning more toward OD (after having been out of school for a few yrs because I had to work for various reasons), and I have recently taken a look at the OAT, and have been pleasantly surprised by how easy the material tested seems to be compared to the MCAT and compared to the depth that I needed to know in undergrad to do well in my classes. The OAT seems to just test a basic understanding of the concepts...there's not a lot of depth, tricks, etc. to throw you off. I feel like it tests at the level I would have gotten just by going to class and taking good lecture notes in undergrad, and not having to do a lot of textbook reading for homework.

And so I wonder if this transfers to opt school as well...even though you take many science classes in opt school, is the depth at which you are tested on these classes not so intense, to the point where most of what you need to know you will get just by going to class and taking good notes, without having to do lots of textbook reading at home? I ask because reading science textbooks at home was the most miserable part of undergrad...it would have been much easier and more fun if it was like high school, where most/all the info was taught in class and you really just needed to understand that material. Going to opt school now as an older student worries me a little, as I dread being cooped up in my room non-stop for 2 yrs reading science textbooks, but if it's more laid back then that, and really just a matter of reviewing your class/lecture notes, and otherwise having a good amount of free-time after class instead on non-stop studying, it seems much more palatable.

I hope my question is clear...stated another way: Is the depth of understanding of undergrad science classes required to do well on the OAT similar to the depth of understanding of opt school science classes required to do well in opt school?

 

[OpticalBlackOut]

Ok, so obviously opt school is not easy for the average Joe off the street. But here's the premise of my question: When I was in undergrad, I considered going to either MD or OD. I studied hard and got the grades to go to either...specifically, I went to class, took good notes in lecture, and also read the textbook pretty thoroughly for most science classes, or at least the pretty detailed study guide that we were given for the class. Back then I was leaning toward MD and took some quick looks at the MCAT and felt that the difficulty of the material tested was about at the level that I was being tested in my classes. However, I am now leaning more toward OD (after having been out of school for a few yrs because I had to work for various reasons), and I have recently taken a look at the OAT, and have been pleasantly surprised by how easy the material tested seems to be compared to the MCAT and compared to the depth that I needed to know in undergrad to do well in my classes. The OAT seems to just test a basic understanding of the concepts...there's not a lot of depth, tricks, etc. to throw you off. I feel like it tests at the level I would have gotten just by going to class and taking good lecture notes in undergrad, and not having to do a lot of textbook reading for homework.

And so I wonder if this transfers to opt school as well...even though you take many science classes in opt school, is the depth at which you are tested on these classes not so intense, to the point where most of what you need to know you will get just by going to class and taking good notes, without having to do lots of textbook reading at home? I ask because reading science textbooks at home was the most miserable part of undergrad...it would have been much easier and more fun if it was like high school, where most/all the info was taught in class and you really just needed to understand that material. Going to opt school now as an older student worries me a little, as I dread being cooped up in my room non-stop for 2 yrs reading science textbooks, but if it's more laid back then that, and really just a matter of reviewing your class/lecture notes, and otherwise having a good amount of free-time after class instead on non-stop studying, it seems much more palatable.

I hope my question is clear...stated another way: Is the depth of understanding of undergrad science classes required to do well on the OAT similar to the depth of understanding of opt school science classes required to do well in opt school?

Had a few classmates who never even studied and did well on the OAT, so optometry courses are way harder than that.

However, most of us also never studied from a textbook except for research papers, so the difficulty has to be in between.

 

[sampler]

Had a few classmates who never even studied and did well on the OAT, so optometry courses are way harder than that.

However, most of us also never studied from a textbook except for research papers, so the difficulty has to be in between.

Thanks for responding. I'm a little confused by your comment. By "most of us", do you mean that you and your UNDERGRAD classmates hardly studied from textbooks (and therefore succeeded in undergrad just by studying your class/lecture notes), or do you mean that you and your OPT SCHOOL classmates hardly had to study from textbooks to be successful in opt school?

And so "the difficulty has to be in between", meaning opt school difficulty is in between studying for the OAT (easy) and studying textbooks in UNDERGRAD (hardest of the 3??). Again, I'm a little confused. Please clarify! Thanks.

 

[undecisiveone1]

Are you considering optometry because you believe it could be easier then med school? I suggest you shadow both an optometrist and ophthalmologist and see which lifestyle suits you. Optometry may be less competitive than med school in terms of admissions but I'm sure the program itself is no walk in the park either

 

[sampler]

Are you considering optometry because you believe it could be easier then med school? I suggest you shadow both an optometrist and ophthalmologist and see which lifestyle suits you. Optometry may be less competitive than med school in terms of admissions but I'm sure the program itself is no walk in the park either

No, that's not it at all. If anything, even when I considered med school, I always had in the back of my mind that I'd probably like opt more than med, and I have shadowed opts before. I like the lower stress life of opt, few emergency calls, every decision isn't life or death, flexible hrs and allowing for better work-life balance, it's "clean" but yet still in health care and still helping people, etc. I would never choose any career solely because it's easier than med school.

 

[OpticalBlackOut]

Thanks for responding. I'm a little confused by your comment. By "most of us", do you mean that you and your UNDERGRAD classmates hardly studied from textbooks (and therefore succeeded in undergrad just by studying your class/lecture notes), or do you mean that you and your OPT SCHOOL classmates hardly had to study from textbooks to be successful in opt school?

And so "the difficulty has to be in between", meaning opt school difficulty is in between studying for the OAT (easy) and studying textbooks in UNDERGRAD (hardest of the 3??). Again, I'm a little confused. Please clarify! Thanks.

Sorry, poor job of explaining on my part since I was on my phone before.

The OATs had extremely basic science questions, so there's really no basis for comparison there. It's actually been too long for me, but I did well enough to tutor the course for Kaplan. Also had multiple classmates who achieved a perfect score (hmmm, in retrospect they also were at the top of the class, and I never thought about this until now...so think SAT v.s. undergrad as the barometer. So if you did well on the OATs, this definitely bodes well)

During optometry school, I found no reason to read textbooks because the concepts were never cryptic. Plus our class was great at sending compiled notes and there were always smarter colleagues who could explain tough ideas in the library. Most of the professors were also eager to help and small class sizes definitely make office hours easy to attend.

The difficulty of opt. school comes from juggling 6+ science courses along with labs and (later on) clinic shifts.
Everything needed to do well in school could be found in the powerpoint notes, so if your biggest worry is reading textbooks, I can answer anecdotally that I did well without ever touching one.

 

[Zebrazen]

Great thread.