NBEO Boards Prep, but make it good.
EyeQ® is a research-backed, all-in-one platform for NBEO Part I — adaptive practice, OD-vetted study notes, and an AI study plan that bends to your weak areas and exam date.
Your boards prep command center.
Research-backed, student-requested features and tools that make NBEO prep as intuitive as it is successful.
Your daily study HQ.
A single dashboard that tells you what to study next, how far you are from exam-ready, and where your weak spots hide.
A living content ecosystem.
4,000 practice questions*. 8 full length practice tests*. 3,000 Flashcards. 90 chapters, expertly crafted to help you pass.
Ask EyeQ® AI.
A board-tuned tutor in your pocket — explain a concept, summarise a chapter, or generate practice on any weak topic.
Analytics you can act on.
See accuracy, confidence and pacing per topic — then let EyeQ® rebalance your plan around what the data shows.
Search and Compare.
Look up any pathology, drug, or technique — and compare across conditions side-by-side without flipping between sources.
Meet our academic review board
Our secret formula? Professionally vetted content from the field's brightest minds — practicing ODs, residency directors and clinical educators.
Meet The BoardBuilt around what students actually want.
Independent survey research on optometry students' experience with NBEO Part I prep — every product decision in EyeQ® traces back to a finding from this study.
of surveyed KMK users said the platform wasn't worth what they paid — modal spend was $1,701–$2,000.
of students reported only partial alignment between their school curriculum and their commercial prep platform.
ranked practice questions as their #1 most preferred study tool — by a wide margin over any other format.
Source: Lanier AM (2025). Optometry Students' Perspectives on Commercial NBEO Part I Board Preparation: A Mixed-Methods Survey. Michigan College of Optometry, Ferris State University. N=72 from 18 U.S. schools.
Questions, answered.
Most students follow an 8–12 week plan with daily 60-minute sessions. EyeQ® tunes your plan to your exam date, so if you have less time it'll prioritise high-yield content first.
Textbooks aren't adaptive. Other tools focus on a single thing — questions OR content. EyeQ® combines all three high-leverage learning techniques (practice, content review, spaced repetition) into one daily plan, and it adjusts as you learn.
Every piece of content is written or reviewed by practising ODs, residency directors and clinical educators on our academic review board. Content is refreshed twice a year.
EyeQ® is in active development. The research preview gives a group of optometry students free early access while we build — in exchange for feedback that shapes the platform.
Nothing during the research preview — early-access members get full access for free. We'll share pricing well before the preview ends, and preview members will get first access to any launch offer.
Tap any “Join Research Preview” button and tell us a little about your timeline. We're onboarding students in waves and will email your access details when your spot opens.
Yes. EyeQ® is fully responsive — we've designed every screen to work on phone, tablet and laptop. Many students do their daily QBank session on their phone during commutes.
Preview members get direct email support, and our team includes ODs who can answer clinical questions. Your questions also help us prioritise what to build next.
Pass NBEO Part I with confidence.
Join the EyeQ® research preview — free early access while we build, in exchange for your feedback.
Optometry students' perspectives on commercial NBEO Part I prep
✕The three findings that shaped EyeQ®
A 72-student survey across 18 U.S. optometry programs surfaced three patterns we used to design EyeQ® from scratch.
of KMK users said it wasn't worth the price
reported only partial curriculum alignment
ranked practice questions as their #1 study tool
Why this study mattered
NBEO Part I prep is a concentrated, high-cost market. Leading commercial packages retail near $1,975 — comparable USMLE and NCLEX prep is generally less expensive, despite serving much larger populations.
Meanwhile NBEO Part I U.S. first-time pass rates sit around 67%. The exams aren't equivalent — direct comparison is contextual — but the spread is striking.
Until this work, peer-reviewed survey data on optometry-student satisfaction with prep platforms was thin compared to richer literature in other health professions.
Mixed-methods, IRB-exempt
N = 72 students and recent graduates from accredited U.S. optometry programs.
18 schools represented. Largest shares: MCO/Ferris (27.8%), NSU (16.7%). 94.4% Class of 2026.
Used at least one commercial or institutional Part I resource (e.g., KMK, OptoPrep). No identifiers collected.
~10–15 min online questionnaire: spending, study timeline, platform ratings, tool rankings, value, alignment, free text.
Quantitative: descriptive statistics. Qualitative: thematic coding.
IRB review determined research to be exempt. Hosted on a secure platform with consent screen.
Four data-backed patterns
Click each finding to see the underlying figure and how it shaped EyeQ®.
Most students spend $1,700–$2,000 on prep
Fig 1 · Self-reported spending on NBEO Part I prep (n=72)
Modal spend: $1,701–$2,000 (50% of respondents). 13.9% spent over $2,300. Total range: under $400 to over $2,300.
EyeQ® delivers the item count and content depth of the leading commercial platforms — in one place, built for genuine exam-readiness.
KMK users were the most likely to say it wasn't worth the price
Fig 2 · "Was it worth the price?" — paired across two leading platforms
KMK (n=66): 13.6% yes / 25.8% maybe / 60.6% not. OptoPrep (n=45): 60.0% yes / 28.9% maybe / 11.1% not. Themes: KMK — cost, item realism, tech. OptoPrep — depth, navigation.
EyeQ® obsesses over the two things students rated highest in OptoPrep — item realism and navigation.
Two-thirds of students said their prep only partially matched their curriculum
Fig 3 · Reported alignment between commercial prep and school curriculum
Self-reported alignment with school curriculum: close 25.0%, partial 65.3%, disconnect 8.3%, unsure 1.4%.
EyeQ®'s content and item bank map directly to the NBEO Part I content matrix — not a vendor-specific outline — and our medical review board re-aligns content twice a year.
Practice questions are the #1 study tool — by a wide margin
Fig 4 · Most preferred study tool, ranked #1
Top-ranked study tool: practice questions 61.1%, written content 18.1%, video 6.9%, guides 6.9%. Most students study 3–6 months pre-exam.
EyeQ®'s adaptive QBank is the centre of the product — every other surface (notes, plan, mocks) feeds back into a question stream that re-prioritises your weak areas in real time.
What this study can't tell us
Convenience sample (N=72), heavily weighted toward MCO/Ferris and NSU. Self-report data carries recall and social-desirability risk. Cross-sectional — no causal claims. NBEO outcomes were not linked to platform use. Findings should not be generalised to all U.S. optometry students.
Future work: larger and more diverse samples; longitudinal designs; ethical outcome linkage; coverage of NBEO Parts II–III.
Cited in this work
01Hobbs BN, Bryant J. Optom Vis Sci. 2019;97(1):3-4. doi:10.1097/OPX.0000000000001455
02van Staden D, Chetty V, Munsamy AJ. Syst Rev. 2022;11(1):33. doi:10.1186/s13643-022-01906-7
03Bitton E, et al. Optom Vis Sci. 2023;100(10):652-659.
04NBEO. Exam statistics. nbeo.org/stats.cfm
05USMLE. Performance data. usmle.org/performance-data
06NCSBN. NCLEX pass rates. ncsbn.org
07Vernon M, et al. BMC Med Educ. 2025;25:738. doi:10.1186/s12909-025-07233-4
08O'Hanlon R, Laynor G. J Med Lib Assoc. 2019;107(2):251-256.
09Zuberi H, et al. Arch Dermatol Res. 2024.
10Ranabhat SK, et al. BMC Med Educ. 2024;24(1):543. doi:10.1186/s12909-024-05511-1
Acknowledgements: Faculty advisor Dr. Emily Aslakson; Dean Daniel Taylor; course coordinator Dr. Avesh Raghunandan. Thank you to optometry student participants nationwide and SOLN members who helped distribute the survey.
The clinicians and educators who vet every page of EyeQ®.
✕Every chapter, question stem, rationale and flashcard in EyeQ® is reviewed by a panel of optometry clinicians, residency directors, and course faculty before it ever reaches a student. Our board members come from accredited US optometry schools and bring active clinical practice, recent residency training, and current didactic teaching experience — the combination that makes board-prep content both up-to-date and exam-honest.
Vet every chapter
Each NBEO Part I domain chapter is reviewed against current standards of care, peer-reviewed literature and the latest clinical guidelines before publish.
Calibrate every question
Item writers draft NBEO-style stems; reviewers calibrate difficulty, kill ambiguous wording, and confirm the answer + distractors map to current high-yield references.
Refresh on a 6-month cycle
Content is re-audited twice a year. Anything affected by new guidelines or treatments is flagged, rewritten, and re-published — students always see the current version.
Current board members
Emily Aslakson, OD, MA
Ocular Health
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Christopher Albright, OD
Ocular Health · Anterior Segment
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Eric Syverson, OD, MHS
Posterior Segment · Ophthalmic Neurology
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Vandana Rajaram, PhD, OD, FAAO
Visual Perception
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Mark Swan, OD, MEd, MA, FAAO
Visual Motor Systems · Binocular Vision
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Joe Pole, PhD
Geometric · Ophthalmic · Physiological · Physical Optics
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Jamie Brady, MEd, AAS
Clinical Spectacle Optics
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Josh Lotoczky, OD
Contact Lenses
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Sarah Hinkley, OD, Dipl. (HERS Institute)
Low Vision
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Lillian Kalaczinski, OD, MPH
Ocular Pharmacology
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Dr. Scott
Systemic Health
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Jacqueline Peacock, PhD, MB(ASCP)CM
Systemic Pharmacology
Pennsylvania College of Optometry
Interested in joining the board? Reach out at academics@cleverprep.com.