OphthoBook Questions!

Welcome fellow student … or perhaps I should say pupil! You’ve just picked up the greatest question book ever written for the beginning eye student. This book contains over 300 multiple choice questions, sampling every subspecialty within our field. It’s perfect for the struggling student or technician trying to get ahead!

Are you a crazy person who likes hard books?

Before you continue, ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. Do you revel in esoteric exam questions and spend your nights playing trivia in bars?
2. Are you a student “gunner” hated by your classmates and looking to one-up your peers with your mastery of minutia?
3. Do minor typos and grammatical errors drive you insane and compel you to write scathing book reviews?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this is the wrong book for you.

You see, this is a SIMPLE book, designed for the NEW student. These questions are intended for “normal people” trying to get a grip on the fundamentals of ophthalmology. This is NOT an advanced book designed to master fine details.

This book is appropriate for medical students, optometry students, and eye technicians scrambling to learn the basics as quickly as possible. The material within these pages is BASIC! Experienced residents and practicing doctors will find this series too easy.

Why bother with a basic question book?

As a medical student, I found ophthalmology intimidating and difficult to grasp. Rather than teach me basics, my preceptors seemed to imply that EVERYTHING was important. This was obviously not true. I remember being sent to the library to spend hours studying the effects of homocysteinemia on the eye – a condition that I haven’t seen ONCE during my residency training, or in my busy private practice.

An unfocussed, tangential approach like this is paralyzing and inefficient for the new student. Professional students (that’s YOU) know that old exams and test questions are invaluable for honing in on the “important” material (and for scoring well on exams).

Unfortunately, as a student I simply couldn’t find any eye question books appropriate for my level of training. The internet was barely just starting, and the classic ophthalmology question books (Chern, Mass Eye & Ear, ProVision) were written at an advanced level to help experienced eye doctors pass their board certification exams. These massive tomes were filled with obscure facts bearing little relevance to real life and just weren’t appropriate for the beginning student.

Hopefully, this book will be more useful and appropriate for YOUR level.

The unconventional layout?

Question books normally force you to flip pages to read the answer key in the back of the book. This keeps you from “cheating” as you take the virtual test. This sounds great in theory, but it quickly becomes tedious. The fastest way to learn a skill is through IMMEDIATE feedback. That’s why I’ve placed each answer immediately AFTER each question.

I’ve also included a great deal of detail with each answer so that you don’t have to reference outside books. And I’ve added some humor, silly answers and cartoons, all in an attempt to add a little spice and make the book easier to swallow.

Enjoy it and send me money!

I encourage you to purchase the printed version of this book to support this project. The receipts allow me to donate books to students and to keep the website running. If you ARE reading the printed (paid) version of this book – I salute you!
Thanks a bunch!
Tim Root