Many multiple-choice tests that candidates have taken prior to the National Board required systematic familiarization with the specific and perhaps unique formats that were used. This type of preparation is not necessary for successful or even optimal performance on the National Board examinations because there are no contrived formats that are used. While National Board test items will often test complex optometric material and require higher level cognitive processes (e.g., problem-solving skills) in order to correctly answer the item, the specific item format is simple and direct.

Each test item consists of a stem that contains the question part of the item, and usually four or five options, one of which is the correct or best response. Occasionally, an item will have as few as three options if three options represent the universe of possible answers (e.g., the effect of a drug on intraocular pressure can either be to increase, decrease, or not change it). Most National Board test items contain four options.

Some items will contain pictorial or other graphic material such as a fundus photo, an anatomical schematic, or a data table or graph. The item may then require the visual material to be interpreted in order for the correct answer to be selected. National Board test items do not include potentially confusing combination response options such as "none of the above," "all of the above," or subsets such as "a and b above." Thus, candidates who have taken multiple-choice examinations should not need any special preparation for the National Board format. Therefore, preparation for the multiple-choice examinations can concentrate entirely on optometric content rather than on familiarization with test format.

The stem of many National Board items contains a superlative (e.g., MOST), a pejorative (e.g., LEAST), or a negative (e.g., NOT). Many test items on the examination will contain items written with one of these adjectives or adverbs. The purpose of this type of item is not to mislead, "trick," or "split hairs," but rather, to represent some of the types of clinical decisions that practitioners often confront. For example, a patient may be treated with several regimens; however, the selection criterion is typically the MOST effective treatment with the LEAST likely discomfort. In other items, any one of several treatments may be equally effective, but there is one that should NOT be prescribed. Therefore, when confronting a test item of this nature, candidates should respond to the item as they would to the corresponding actual clinical situation. To try to prevent any misreading of the test item, the superlative, pejorative, and negative descriptors are capitalized and underlined.

Some test items refer to patients or subjects with non-normal conditions. Unless the test item provides information suggestive of an underlying non-normal condition, candidates should assume that the referenced patient is normal.

Fifty-eight sample items follow. There are 24 items obtained from the Basic Science Exam (Part I), 31 items from the Clinical Science Exam (Part II) and 3 items from the TMOD Exam. In addition, separately listed are four sample items from the PAM exam. The sample items represent the types of items that candidates may expect on the Basic Science, Clinical Science, and TMOD examinations, and the PAM section of the Patient Care examination. In fact, with the exception of the third TMOD item and the four PAM items, all of the sample items have been used on previous National Board examinations. Nearly all of these previously used items have appeared on National Board examinations since the introduction of the Basic Science and Clinical Science examinations in 1987. The subject matter represented by these items is limited in scope and therefore should not be regarded as comprising the full range of material that is tested. Following each of the sample items is a series of codes indicating the item's classification within the respective Content Outline. The Basic Science and Clinical Science items also include classification codes for their Test Blueprint. For example, the first item from Basic Science is in Human Biology (Section = A). Its sub-content classification is Gross Anatomy (Primary Sub-content Area = 1). The cognitive skill required to answer the item is "Use and Interpretation of Data; Evaluation of Problems" (Skill = 2). A detailed description of classifications by sample item is available in the Item Classification Table.

The distribution of content is given in the Content Outline. The distribution of cognitive skills tested in Basic Science, and clinical application skills tested in Clinical Science, is given in the Test Blueprint. The Content Outline for TMOD is similar to that for the Ocular Disease/Trauma section of Clinical Science. The content outline for PAM is listed separately. The item classification refers to the major content classification. An asterisk is placed adjacent to the letter of the correct response for each of the items.

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Select the Exam of Sample Test Items from the following list: