To all my fellow optometry students, 

Were you the type of student who would always get good grades in all of your classes? Were you that student who was good at tutoring other people? The one who could magically understand something the first time around?

But then reality hit you. You made it into optometry school and suddenly things were so much harder. Your grades are nothing like they were in undergrad - and not in a good way. 

Don’t beat yourself up. 

Optometry school is extremely different from undergrad. 

For me, I used to easily pickup new material and made A’s in a lot of my classes in college. But, as I entered optometry school, I realized that I was nowhere near as prepared as I thought I was. 

Instead of getting it in 1-2 days, it takes me ~1-2 weeks to understand what was going on in my classes. It took me weeks to properly scan a cornea with a slit lamp.

The point is…you don’t have to be perfect to do well in optometry school and get that OD. You’re probably not going to understand everything during the first try, but that’s totally ok. It doesn’t mean that you’re dumb. It just means that you’re finally starting to know yourself better, so you can improve. 

And, if you still want to get those A’s or B’s in optometry school, you can’t be afraid to ask for help. You have your classmates, your doctor, the TA’s, and even your professors that you can rely on. Just… don’t let your pride or cocky personality cloud your judgment. You’re attending optometry school to become a doctor one day, not competing with other people for ranks like in high school.

Remember that these people are going to be your colleagues in the feature. Grades won’t matter 10 years from today. What will is helping your patients live their healthiest lives.