Optometry Students 2015

City gave me AAA too! I think it's to do with whether you have a fourth AS..

Got an offer from Cardiff!


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Got an offer from Cardiff! ������������


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I don't think it will affect your application.. Afaik they will still accept your application..
Although could vary with each university... Bradford are very lenient and Manchester not so much

Also, I'm at Bradford studying Optometry (second year); if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

When saying that Manchester is not so lenient, would that mean that they want 3 As at AS level? and straight A predictions? ALso, do universities want really high GCSE grades? is 4A*s, 4As and 2Bs okay for Optometry?

I have chosen Bio, chem, geography and English literature for AS. the uni websites ALL say that you only need 2 science subjects (which I have chosen) but these can change any time right? so they can say that they now want 3 sciences. would that be a problem for people that have already chosen the subjects?

Hi all

Just thought I'd give an overview of life as an optom for any future candidates because I would have loved to have an insight before I became dead set on doing it at uni.

ABOUT ME: Briefly put, I did Maths, Bio, Chem and Phys at AS level, and then dropped Phys and carried on with the rest for A2. Applied for Optometry at uni and had my pick of the lot. Got my pre-registration year sorted, sat the final exam and qualified and I've been qualified for a year and a half now.

So, where shall I start? Let's start with work experience. I would strongly suggest doing some form of work experience in an Opticians just so you get a brief overview. Even if it's just for a day. The big multiple companies (as far as I'm aware) don't generally take on work experience students - too many health and safety checks to train recruits on to only have them in for a couple of weeks, basically it's a waste of their time. I did mine at a small local independent opticians, for 2 weeks. I would suggest going in person with your CV and contact details, maybe give them a ring beforehand to see if the manager and/or optometrist are in. Some places, the optometrist will be the manager. Anyway, gives them a chance to see you in person, and it's a lot easier for them to not respond or say no to a letter/e-mail/phone call, but if they see you in person (and you make a good impression) then they're more likely to say yes. There's not too much that you'll actually be able to do, probably admin work mostly, so be prepared to get a bit bored, but the main reason for doing it is so that you can get a feel for what a normal day on the job is like. Ideally, you want to get it with a place where you can shadow the optom, and sit in on a few sight tests (again you won't be able to do anything, but you can get an idea of what a routine sight test is like compared to one where the patient is having problems) - the main thing to be taking account of, is how the optom has to change the way they communicate with different patients. But definitely do it, I have known a few people who have been set on optom and then once they did work experience they realised it wasn't for them.

THE COURSE:
It is tough. Depends on which uni you go to as to the amount of detail they go in to. I have heard manchester like details! But it may be different now - either way, they all cover the same things. I did hear that Cardiff let you dissect an eyeball, but I went to Aston and we didn't do anything like that. If you have a good memory you will be fine. I have a poor one and I struggled! But it's a mix of lectures and practicals. I learn best through doing things so this was ideal for me. My advice is to keep on top of the work, it's very easy to get distracted with a social life and keep thinking "I'll start properly next week" and then before you know it it's xmas and you have a lottttt of work/revision to catch up on - which is not how I work best!
Once you've graduated, in order to become fully qualified you have to do a pre-registration year. This is a year where you are in full time work as an Optometrist, but you are supervised in what you do and have assessments throughout the year, and then you have one final one at the end, which once you've passed that, that's when you are properly qualified. You actually only need a 2:2 at graduation to get on to the pre-reg year.
BUT DON'T BE FOOLED! Pre-reg is the hardest year of your academic life as an optom. Because of the continuous assessments (I'll talk more about how often these are later) and having a full time job, you need to be very organised and you'll be revising every week. I know people who graduated with a 1st at uni, yet crumbled with their pre-reg year and had to resit their assessments and final exam in order to qualify.

QUALITIES:
I wish I was given this list so I could have evaluated myself or even prepared myself for the type of person you need to be for this job!

PATIENCE is definitely a must!! - Not every customer you see will be able to give you concise answers in order for you to do your job as quickly as you are able to do it. E.g. think of having an 82 year old, they may have alzheimers and may have come to the test alone. It takes them longer to process what you're asking them, and then longer to think of an answer and then actually say it. When showing them different lens options to make their vision better (more than likely they'll have an eye disease which makes their vision not very clear) it will take them longer to assess any difference and tell you what they see. Which is fine if you have a quiet day and no one else is booked in straight after them, but when you have a 20-25 minute testing slot and your next patient is already here, you need to be very patient with them!

COMMUNICATION - you need to be able to speak clearly and concisely to get the answers you want from you patient. You also need to be able to change the way you speak to people, as everyone is different. Some people like an upbeat chatty person, others may want you to be to the point as they have another appointment to get to. You need to be able to read people easily as well. Some patients may be scared, so you need to be reassuring from the start, others may have had a bad experience at a previous opticians and so are cautious of coming to a new place. You may have to deal with angry customers and learn how to communicate with them and calm them down, rather than say something in a tone where it annoys them further.

PROBLEM SOLVING - people come in complaining of certain things with their vision, but they not be able to give you the details you need to immediately solve it i.e. it's not your text book complaint and answer. So you need to be able to think of the right questions to get the info you need. I have literally had people come in saying 'I have something in my vision, but I can't describe it, it's not blurry but it's just... you know... do you understand me?' and you're sat there thinking huh?!

MULTI-TASKING - when you're testing at 20-25 mins, you need to get good at being able to ask questions and write down notes from the questions the patients have just answered. Obviously the more you do it the better you get and the faster you become, but if you can't mult-task at all, it does make the job slightly more difficult!

And the rest are standard: polite, good mannered, happy, pro-active, good time-keeping skills, organised etc

Just remember though, a lot of these skills you develop during uni/extra-curricular activities/your pre-reg year and you continually develop whilst you work as well.

PRE-REG YEAR:
I did mine from July to July. There are 2 stages and 1 final exam called an OSCE. If you're good, you can do it in the 12 months no problem. You get all this info given to you at uni and in your pre-reg year so this is just briefly put:
Stage 1: Basically you have 3 assessments where an assessor from the college of optometrists comes into your store to assess you. They sign you off on a list of competencies which once achieved you can move on to stage 2. The first one is roughly 4-6 weeks after starting. Then the next one is about 6-8 weeks after and the third 6-8 weeks after that. So like I said earlier, you need to be on top of things from the start. (If you don't manage to sign off all your competencies in the 3 visits, you can have a 4th one, but any more after that you have to pay for). I managed mine in 4 which meant I was still on track to finish in the 12 months.
Stage 2: A different assessor assesses you on a handful of competencies they choose, and watches you do a sight test and a contact lens aftercare. (This is roughly 8-10 weeks after your last stage 1 visit).
Once you've completed stage 2, you can enroll for the OSCE exam. I thinkkk it alternates between Manchester and London. Mine was in Manchester.
OSCE: There's basically a big room with smaller rooms that come off it. I think there are 16 rooms overall (sorry, this bit is blurry to me now).. But basically there will be a group of you and each one of you stands outside a room. In each room there will be a scenario to test if you're competent. Its 5 mins per room, and you get a minute outside each room before you go in to read the 'instructions'. One is a 'rest station' where you get 5 mins to compose yourself and have a drink of water. 2 of them are 'pilot rooms' where it doesn't matter if you pass or fail, they're just 2 scenarios which they're testing to see if it goes well and may add it in to the next years OSCE exam - but you don't get told which ones these are. Anyway, I think you have to pass 10 at the very least to pass the OSCE exam (again the details seemed to have escaped me!). And then you get the results a few weeks later and it will say either 'pass' or 'fail'. If you fail you can re-take up to another 2 times. Fail the 3rd time and you have to either resit the entire pre-reg year I think.

(Oh just so you know, salary for pre-reg year isn't brilliant.. I roughly got paid £12000)

THE JOB -
I currently work for a multiple, but have worked at different stores for them in the past and that coupled with the work experience I did with the independent I know the job definitely depends on who you work for and what your manager is like (and also the team you work with).
Salary - starting as a newly qualified after pre-reg is roughly £31,000. Some companies may offer more/less really does depend.
Working days - Be prepared to give up your weekends! It's retail (again depends on who you work for and what your contract says) but I work every Saturday without fail - unless I book it off as a holiday, but that depends on if any other optom in my area already has it off but that's another story! It's okay if your friends/family have weekend jobs as well, but if they work Mon-Fri and socialise on weekends you do miss out! It has it's advantages, day off during the week means any errands you need to run in town, its quieter so it's better. But again, if your friends/family work mon-fri you'll be off by yourself.
Hours - If you run behind on your clinic, and it's a small store and you're the only optom testing, you have to catch up by yourself or pray that someone cancels their appointment. So your lunch break will be booked into the clinic, but if you finish your patient booked in before your lunch 10-15 mins late, then you can't just take an extra 10-15 mins lunch because your next patient will be due after your original lunch break. And same for at the end of they day. But my manager is quite nice and if over the week I've not got a full lunch break or if I've finished late, I can claim time back and finish a bit earlier on another day.
Bank Holidays - again depends on your contract, but if I want bank holidays off, I need to be quick and book it off in advance.
The best bit (for me), is that you're not stuck staring at a computer all day, or stuck at a desk all day. Its a mix, it's very practical but there's still the desk stuff to do. But you're meeting new people every day, and each sight test may be the same in terms of the tests you perform, but because every person is different you have different conversations and learn different things.

It's a good job overall. Job prospects are pretty good. Salary is okay - move around every 2-3 years and you can work it up into the high 40's and maybe push into the 50's if you're clever. Room for progression down the management side or could look at opening a franchise or your own independent store. Can develop further as an optom and supervise pre-reg students, could go into lecturing at a uni, get a phd, further learning and get further optom qualifications in specified subjects or look at independent prescribing. Work at a hospital and a store half and half (but hospitals are pretty difficult to get into from what I've heard). All depends on you as a person and your ideals will change the older you get.

Anyway, hope this helps! Good luck future optoms!

You don't know how helpful your post has been to me! Thanks
If you don't mind me asking which company do you work for? And the post pre reg salary sounds really good is that in London?
Because some people say its getting saturated how true is that though? Will there still be plenty of jobs in 3/4 years ?


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Do you need a lot of experience to work in a hospital as an optometrist? why is it harder to get a job in a hospital?

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