know of any state or national practical exam on refraction?

**Mark Miller- POF** · 02-22-2011, 01:53 PM

Do you know of any state or national practical exam on refraction or vision assessment that is not offer by the AOA?

You may have noticed that I have posted this on the several forums.

I have not been on OB in a while and really could use this information

Thanks

**Barry Santini** · 02-23-2011, 11:33 AM

If there's now an "app" for your favorite phone that let's John Q do it...

just how much skill does it really take?

Discussion.

B

**wmcdonald** · 02-23-2011, 11:38 AM

Barry,
Florida has a bill in the legislature and will need some level of certification I assume. I wish them well in their efforts and will do all I can to help if they need it.

Warren

**wmcdonald** · 02-23-2011, 11:39 AM

Mark,
One was developed many years ago, but it never got any takers. ABO/NCLE placed in on the shelf if memory serves me well. We can always develop one, but I would hope it would have a practical component. Let me know if you need assistance.

Warren

**Framebender** · 02-23-2011, 11:40 AM

You might try info@roatx.org . Sam & others teach refraction so they probably know. Good luck to you!!

**Java99** · 08-15-2012, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by Framebender

You might try info@roatx.org . Sam & others teach refraction so they probably know. Good luck to you!!

Are they even still active. ROATX? The website has updates from 2007 and 2009 but it's hard to find any current info.

**SharonB** · 08-16-2012, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by wmcdonald

Mark,
One was developed many years ago, but it never got any takers. ABO/NCLE placed in on the shelf if memory serves me well. We can always develop one, but I would hope it would have a practical component. Let me know if you need assistance.

Warren

The ABO/NCLE did develop a written exam for refraction - the exam committee was chaired by myself and Phyllis Rakow (a well known CL educator).They spent a lot of $$$ to do item writing sessions, and on test development. A test item bank was established, and I believe the exam was vetted psychometrically (sp?) by PES (the company that handled the psychometrics for the NOCE and NCLE exams at that time). The exam was never offered by ABO/NCLE apparently because they thought there were not enough potential candidates. This was in the mid-to-late 1990s, but both the OAA and several opticianry colleges had already offered 90-100 hour courses on refraction all over the US. At that time we had identified over 1000 potential certificants... but they never ran the exam. It's mouldering away in the ABO/NCLE vaults. Too bad. This was a written exam - it was assumed that a practical component would be added at a later date.