I've been working toward my CO certification for almost two years and I'm finally scheduled for the written exam. I passed my clinical hours requirement last fall but the written portion has been hanging over me. Feels good to have a date locked in, honestly.
I've gone through about 60% of the recommended study materials but I'm not sure how much weight to put on pharmacology versus ocular motility. My practice scores are hovering around 68% overall, which isn't where I need to be with 6 weeks left.
Anyone who's sat for this recently — how did the question distribution break down for you? I've heard the anatomy section can be tricky if you haven't reviewed cranial nerve pathways in a while, and that's definitely me right now.
I took it 8 months ago. Ocular motility was the heaviest section by far — probably around 35% of what I saw. Make sure you can describe and differentiate strabismus patterns cold before going in.
Don't sleep on the pediatric vision section. I underestimated it and it cost me several points. There's more depth to it than the study guides suggest.
Pharmacology is manageable — mostly topical agents and their mechanisms. Two or three focused sessions should cover it. I'd prioritize motility and anatomy over pharm any day.
68% at 6 weeks out is actually not bad. I was at 65% at that point and passed with a 77%. Just stay consistent and don't skip the practice questions.
I just passed mine three weeks ago so this is fresh. Honestly, the thing that helped me most wasn't grinding through more material — it was going back to the clinical reasoning stuff and actually understanding why, not just what. The questions are sneaky. They'll give you a scenario that looks obvious but the right answer depends on knowing the underlying mechanism cold.
Six weeks is plenty if you're focused. Don't sleep on the ethics and scope of practice questions either, I almost skipped those because they seemed like common sense and they're really not. Practice tests helped me figure out where I was fooling myself into thinking I knew something when I didn't. You've already got the hours, you know this stuff — it's more about trusting your prep than cramming at the end.