Monday, September 20, 2010

It's been a while- FIRST TEST!

Today I had my first test in optometry school!  It was in Physiology, which was okay.  I could've studied more, but it's always really hard to study for a 40 question multiple choice test over TONS of "review" material.  I had definitely learned everything at least once before, it was just definitely rusty in the back of my brain and it's hard to decide (when studying), what he will find important.

Anyway, after the test in Physiology, I had a quiz in Optics.  We always have a quiz on our reading at the start of each new unit.  I made an 80, so that's not too bad.  The majority of that class is based on group work, and my group works fantastically together, so I'm not worried overall in that class.  However, I did wish we had more lecture time (sounds crazy doesn't it!).  I mean we read a lot outside of class to teach ourselves and then work through group assignments together to "learn" Optics.  It's just difficult sometimes because if we don't truly understand what we read, we "brew up" ways to solve the problems.

I have my next two tests on Friday back to back.  The first one will be at 7:45am (Anatomy), and the second will be at 8:45am (Theory and Methods).  Anatomy will certainly be tough!  I've never had this much information for one class in my entire life!   It's intense!

After lab today, I had work study for 2 hours, then I went up to the lab room to practice retinoscopy.  We have a practical next Thursday, and I've been really inconsistent with my ability to do well.  Basically, we can find patient's prescriptions by looking at how a beam of light is reflected.  We try to see if there is "with" or "against" motion, and from there we know whether to add plus or minus.  We also have to take into account if there is any astigmatism.  We look for the astigmatic band and make sure to neutralize the correct meridian first.

When I'm in lab, I have a lot of trouble because there are so many people around me doing different things and we have to work side by side with our partners using one chair and one phoropter- not much space at all!  Plus hearing other people talk about how their neutralizing their schematic eyes doesn't help me think through why I am doing what I am doing.

I practiced for another hour and fifteen minutes after I got off work, and it went much better.  I still need to work on my speed.  By next Friday I need to be able to neutralize 10 lenses in 30 minutes.  It should be crazy, but I am going to practice more this week, weekend, and next.

My white coat ceremony is NEXT THURSDAY! :)  I am so excited to finally have that thing in my possession.

Well... now that I have rambled enough- I am going to go study for optics and anatomy!

Kim :)

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