r/optometry • u/Optomhoetry • 1d 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!
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u/InterestingMain5192 17h 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.
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u/Open-Quality-664 10h ago
I did the castillo book and KMK part 2! Felt like more than enough and did really well
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u/Beneficial-Elk-4921 7h ago
I recommend OptoPrep and completing it 100%. Lots of great pictures and questions.
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u/JSlothers 6h ago
Castillo was bad from my classmates that read it. We got OptoPrep pt 2 included with our tuition, and it was really good
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u/Busy-Degree3416 2h ago
Castillo and optoprep is enough for part 2 but definitely want to use wills in practice
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u/outdooradequate 19h 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.