NCSORB Spectacles Practical Exam

Hi there, long time lurker who is hoping for some help. Through a very long complicated process I have come to take my practical exam twice for both spectacles and contacts. Through ABO/NCLE.org I passed the spectacles portion but failed the contact portion. Through NCSORB I passed the contacts but failed the spectacles. Being that the state board apparently cannot merge the results from both to see I passed the practical for each section I am being forced to retake the spectacles portion once again.

My question though is I failed the PD measurement (ughhhh) and the lens neutralization. I do these two things on a constant basis at work every...single...day. That's not to say I'm not prone to mistakes but I felt really comfortable coming out of the test.

For the PD portion I set the dial to infinity and occluded one eye to take a mono distance measurement. For the near I set it to 35 (lowest for the test), again occluded one eye and proceeded to take the measurement. Somehow...I failed, and its embarrassing.

For the lens neutralization I did what I would do for any pair of lenses. To check for vertical prism I placed each lens at the mrp, looked at where the mires were sitting through the scope, notated it, then proceeded to do the same for the second lens. If the first lens was 1bu, second was 1bd, that is how I recorded it. There wasn't a section to actually write it out by way of principle, like these would add due to their direction, this just seemed to be asking if there was any prism in each lens. Granted I'm not super comfortable with checking for induced vertical and prism in progressives/bifocals, so maybe I did something wrong and I'm hoping someone who took it can maybe help me cause I would love to finally knock this out.

Thanks in advance!

Welcome to OB 7984. I've not seen nor taken your particular practical, but just a few thoughts;

Unless the test called for a specific near PD distance, you would normal measure at 40CM's ( roughly 16 inches) as opposed to 35 cm's. (roughly 13.5 inches). When checking for prism on the PAL, did you check at the fitting cross or the prism reference point? ( the point 1/2 way between to two lazer engraved circles).

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Originally Posted by optical24/7

Welcome to OB 7984. I've not seen nor taken your particular practical, but just a few thoughts;

Unless the test called for a specific near PD distance, you would normal measure at 40CM's ( roughly 16 inches) as opposed to 35 cm's. (roughly 13.5 inches). When checking for prism on the PAL, did you check at the fitting cross or the prism reference point? ( the point 1/2 way between to two lazer engraved circles).

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The test didn't call for anything specific, I just assumed the smallest option would be correct for near pd. The progressive I put at the dot just below the distance point. One lens was up, the other was down. I confirmed this was correct way to do it with my licensed optician at work and she said yes.

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Prism needs to be measured at the Prism Reference Point. Sounds like you may have done it at the fitting cross? If so that would yield different results depending on the lens powers.

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Originally Posted by Jprosp7984

For the lens neutralization I did what I would do for any pair of lenses. To check for vertical prism I placed each lens at the mrp, looked at where the mires were sitting through the scope, notated it, then proceeded to do the same for the second lens. If the first lens was 1bu, second was 1bd, that is how I recorded it. There wasn't a section to actually write it out by way of principle, like these would add due to their direction, this just seemed to be asking if there was any prism in each lens. Granted I'm not super comfortable with checking for induced vertical and prism in progressives/bifocals, so maybe I did something wrong and I'm hoping someone who took it can maybe help me cause I would love to finally knock this out.

Thanks in advance!

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Maybe they were looking for your understanding of vertical prism imbalance. In your example, the answer is 2∆. That could be due to prescribed prism, or an error in fabrication, prism-thinning only one lens for example.

Hope this helps,

Robert Martellaro

Also when checking for prism read the strongest lens first.

I just took the NCSORB exam Glasses and Contacts portion and the skill measurement portion was a nightmare. The slit lamp for contacts did not look anything like a real slit lamp and the lenometer did not look like a real lensometer. Does anyone know of any review classes for this or any where we can go to practice (not the tutorial on NCSORB website as it doenst help at all)? I want to retake it soon but I dont feel this is remotely like the real life set up.

I just took the ncsorb today in Florida. I do not feel confident. The test itself was not hard. What I found complicated was submitting and recording the answers. I Had No problem using the virtual instruments . I just struggled navigating thru the software. It’s awkward reviewing answers before quitting the task. I caught several careless data entry errors as I double checked my answers and I corrected them but I can’t remember if I hit “submit” again to override my original input before quitting the task. I bet the majority of people who don’t pass is for this reason. The format is cumbersome.

Hello I understand your concern. I just wanted to ask you a question about how did you position the bifocal lens in the lensometer to read the distance power.

Hello there, I have a lady that’s really good who offer a review for ABO, ncle & ncsorb Exam. If you’re interested I can give you her email address to get in touch.

Long overdue update. I passed the NCSORB first try in December. I was shocked honestly. The software is antiquated and awkward to navigate through. I highly recommend using a tutor to prepare for it.

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Originally Posted by ssingletary

Long overdue update. I passed the NCSORB first try in December. I was shocked honestly. The software is antiquated and awkward to navigate through. I highly recommend using a tutor to prepare for it.

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Congratulations