By Blair Golightly Coffman, Third-year Student, University of the Incarnate Word Rosenberg School of Optometry
The second year of optometry school is often the period when things start to click. You are still busy, but you feel more confident than you did during your first year, and you can begin to be more intentional in how you spend your time. Many students, me included, describe this year as a shift from simply surviving to actively building skills for the future.
This is the year to start thinking beyond exams and grades and focus on how your learnings will translate to clinic and boards.
The overall goal of the second year is to strengthen clinical confidence, while taking your first steps in thinking like a doctor. By focusing on skill development, leadership, and the transition from classroom learning to clinic, you’ll set yourself up for a smoother transition into the more clinically demanding years ahead.
First Semester: Practice Makes Perfect
The first semester of second year is often when coursework begins to feel more directly connected to patient care. Classes like pathology of the anterior and posterior segments, along with clinical skills related to dilated fundus exams, become a main focus. It’s important to spend enough time in lab learning dilated fundus skills, since these are essential for everyday clinic. These skills are often more challenging than those learned during your first year, and thus usually take time to master. Muscle memory develops with repetition, so don’t get discouraged if it takes you longer to learn than expected. Being intentional about practicing early helps build confidence, and it makes the transition into clinic much smoother.
Additionally, many second-year students choose to tutor first-year students. Teaching is one of the most effective ways to solidify your own understanding of previous courses, which is helpful for future board prep. If you don’t tutor, try to connect previous courses to current ones, such as ocular anatomy to pathology of the posterior segment.
First semester is also a great time to take on leadership roles within student organizations. It can be both fulfilling and professionally valuable to serve as an officer in a club you genuinely care about.
Second Semester: From Classroom to Clinic
By the second semester, many students feel more settled into their routines and expectations. You might have to balance class with more patient encounters, but things should feel more familiar. This is a time when confidence often starts to grow both academically and clinically.
This is also a good time to move from memorizing information to thinking about how it applies to real patients. Instead of just memorizing, you should be able to connect symptoms with exam findings and management. This will help turn facts into quality patient care. When you’re in lab or clinic, try to slow down and focus on why you’re doing each step rather than just getting through it. My school had a class just for this! If your school doesn’t, stop and ask yourself, do the exam findings correlate with the patient’s chief complaint, symptoms and final diagnosis?
Summer After Second Year: Preparing for What’s Next
Depending on your program, this summer may be the first time you’re regularly seeing patients. Balancing clinic with early board preparation can feel overwhelming, so it helps to keep things simple. Many students find it useful to review the NBEO Part I outline and connect topics back to what they are seeing in clinic. For example, if you encounter a condition or test in clinic, take a few minutes later to review the basics behind it. These small connections add up over time.
This summer is also a good opportunity to reflect on where you feel confident and where you feel less sure. Noticing patterns, whether it’s certain conditions, exam techniques, or clinical decision-making, can help guide what you focus on next and make the transition into more clinic-heavy years feel less intimidating.
Blair Golightly Coffman completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Oklahoma in 2023 with an emphasis in Biology and Public Health. She is currently a third-year student at UIWRSO, where she serves as President of the Optometric Vision Development and Rehabilitation Association and is Secretary of the Contact Lens Society. Her professional interests include pediatric optometry and myopia control.
