Optometry Students 2015

Good thing though from Bradford is if you go to their open day they will drop your entry requirements to ABB and I know a person who got accepted with BBB. Probably depends on the year and how many people apply for the course.

Ohh okay! I'm doing chemistry, biology, maths and psychology in AS and am planning on dropping psychology. But the only physics knowledge I have is my A* at GCSE do you think that's enough?


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It's hard to say. I had an A in GCSE physics and I found it hard - because the stuff I was good at in GCSE isn't the stuff you do for Optom at uni. Like GCSE had a whole bunch of stuff on electricity and magnets and all that stuff, but the stuff at uni is entirely to do with light and it's properties and there's probably around 50 or 60 equations to learn to deal with it in various situations. It's the module I find hardest.

Oh right thanks for the info! So how many modules do you do all together and in that one big one is physics?

er, for Anglia it's 5 modules (Human Antomy/Physiology, Ocular Anatomy/Biochemistry, Clinical Practice, Theoretical&Practical Ophthalmic Lenses, Geometrical Physical and Visual Optics). Other universities have more, but as far as I know they just do the same stuff, they've just subdivided it into more classes than Anglia does (eg rather than one class for the ocular anatomy and biochem, they'll have split it into ocular anatomy as one class and ocular biochemistry as another). This is just for first year, by the way.

Human Anatomy is only for semester one. 3 hours per week on that.
Ocular Anatomy is 2 hours per week all year.
Theoretical/Practical Lenses is a 2 hour lecture and 1 hour practical per week all year (plus several tutorials scattered about)
Clinical Practice is 2 hours of practice, 1 hour of lectures and then up to 3 hours of 'practical lectures' per week in semester two. The 1 hour lecture is telling you about the technique you'll be practicing in the 2 hour practical. The three hour 'practical lecture' is mostly to do with communication skills and how to deal with patients effectively. (It doesn't always run for 3 hours. It's usually more like 2).
Geometrical Optics has 4 hours per week in semester one and 2 hours per week in semester 2.

EDIT: to add that there's also a whole bunch of other stuff throughout the year that isn't regularly timetabled. Like the Optics class has experiments and stuff, but they're only done for 7 weeks out of the year, and most classes have tutorials and revision every so often.

Thanks a lot for the insight! How are you finding the step up from a levels to university?
Is the work load extremely more or is it just more independent work?
Also is there a lot of extra help or support given by lecturers/tutors eg if you don't understand a topic or want to revise something again?

A lot of the work isn't 'harder' as such, it's just that there does tend to be a lot more of it and you really do need to know it in detail. You can't just show up to class and expect to pass. (At least, definitely not with the Optics and Ocular Anatomy modules. You might get away with it for the others, but it's not recommended, obviously). You need to work independently.

If you don't understand something small, you can usually go up after class and they'll give you a brief explanation, but in my experience they're reluctant to go over a whole topic again unless you're specifically in a revision or tutorial class.

Oh okay thanks, so whats your best advice for someone starting optometry?
Or what preparation can we do to make the transit from A levels to Uni run smoothly?

I suppose the main thing would be 'don't be a dick'. And I only say that because my class has a reputation for being absolute idiots (talking excessively in lectures/showing up late/generally not being fantastic at the course despite the years above being really good at it).

Aside from that I suppose I would tell you to do work as you get it and I cannot emphasize that enough. I didn't always do that and I'm feeling the strain now.

lol thanks! Also, are you overall enjoying the course? As some people have told me that it's apparently boring?
Also, if you had the chance to switch to any other course would you or would you stick to optom?

I do love the course, though I am under the impression it's gets more interesting starting next year. This year isn't the most interesting, to be fair. Like the anatomy is just 'this is here and that is there, learn it', whereas next year I believe we get a disease module, which is more 'this is what happens when that malfunctions, and you'll see it a lot in practice' which will be more interesting (at least to me)? And we get more time in the clinic next year which is my favourite part.

I applied to optometry two yeas in a row. I wouldn't switch to anything else except, perhaps, radiography (which I applied to in a few places the second year I applied to university).

What did you get in your GCSE's if you don't mind me asking?

I do love the course, though I am under the impression it's gets more interesting starting next year. This year isn't the most interesting, to be fair. Like the anatomy is just 'this is here and that is there, learn it', whereas next year I believe we get a disease module, which is more 'this is what happens when that malfunctions, and you'll see it a lot in practice' which will be more interesting (at least to me)? And we get more time in the clinic next year which is my favourite part.

I applied to optometry two yeas in a row. I wouldn't switch to anything else except, perhaps, radiography (which I applied to in a few places the second year I applied to university).

Oh so did you apply twice? also if you don't mind is that because you didn't get a place the first time?

Also, is there a lot of lab work? I mean practicals in the lab? Excluding working with patients.

I didn't get the grades first time round - I left school with BCC, so I repeated the year. I got offers from Ulster and Anglia (Manchester rejected me, and I got fed up of waiting for Glasgow when I knew I liked Anglia best) and I applied to Orthoptics at Liverpool with my last slot the first time round. Second time round I applied only to Anglia for Optom, and radiography/radiotherapy in other places.

Erm. Every week you practice lens stuff in the labs for 1 hour, so you do hand neutralisation and focimetry for an hour each week.
You do 7 practicals for the Optics class, spread throughout the whole year.
In semester 2 you go into the Optom lab with your fellow students to do clinical stuff.

Semester 1 has an anatomy practical pretty much every week. It's usually dissections, but there's some experiments about other stuff like heart rate and blood typing.

How's the accommodation at aru and the student life ?


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