Wow! This November marks the 10 year anniversary of OptoPrep being available online to help students with NBEO® preparation!
The nostalgia is real for me as an original member of the OptoPrep team. It has been incredible and sure makes me feel old, to see where we started and how far we have come. Care to take a trip down memory lane with me?
We began creating OptoPrep back in 2010 and were behind the scenes assembling a great team of professional contributors, building content, and developing the technology platform to support a new and completely online program, the first of its kind back then. After over a year of hard work, we launched OptoPrep Part I in November 2011.
Our first group of students was preparing for the March 2012 Part I exam at the time.
We sent out our introductory round of student feedback surveys in May 2012 and took those comments and suggestions to continue building a bigger and better OptoPrep Part I while continuing to create a Part II program. We launched a beta version of Part II in September 2012 and called on students from each school to test out the program and help us continue to improve our offerings.
Since its inception, we have added some amazing upgrades and features thanks to our student feedback through surveys, conversations at presentations and conferences, and focus groups.
Because of all of you, OptoPrep has expanded to include the following highlights:
- Mobile Apps for Part I & Part II were created
- We doubled the amount of Part I questions
- The Pile of Done question retake feature was added
- Bundle subscriptions were added to save students money
- PowerPix flashcard images were launched
- We created custom Study Calendars for students who preferred a more guided study process
- Eligibility Exams were produced to assist faculty in making sure their students are ready for exam day
- We upgraded our Question Review to include filtering and starring for more ease and accessibility
- Section Exams were added to Part II to more closely mimic the exam-day process and help students gauge their time management progress
- We partnered with Affirm to offer financing options, making OptoPrep more affordable and accessible for all students
- Double-time exams were included to assist our students with testing accommodations
10 years later, we have helped thousands of students at every accredited optometry school, over 23 million OptoPrep questions have been answered, and countless congratulatory emails have been exchanged.
Man, what a great 10 years! We can’t wait to see where the next 10 take us!
Thank you to each and every one of you for your continued support!
