Will that be single lens or bifocals? Can you see me now? If you enter the field of vision testing and prescribe glasses and contact lenses, you may be asking questions like these a lot. The vast majority of people who wear prescription eye wear visit the optometrist. An optometrist is trained and licensed to test vision and fit people with corrective lenses.

An ophthalmologist can do the same thing, but the training is much more intense and lengthy. To become an ophthalmologist, you must first become a medical doctor and then specialize. The optometrist is just as capable of fitting glasses, but cannot prescribe medications or do surgery on the eyes.

If you are hoping to become an optometrist, start your effort by looking at various optometry schools that you can find where you would like to attend. Get a listing of their entrance requirements because these can vary a little from school to school. The general course requirements are heavy math and science in high school and college.

Many optometry schools do not require a bachelors degree for admission. They do require a certain amount of undergraduate work with specific course selections. Often, students are able to leave the university after about 3 years of study to enter the optometry school.

Most optometry programs require a four year run. This means that you are facing seven years of post secondary education before sitting for your state optometry boards. You need high grades and plenty of hands on training to be ready to face these exams.

This means that you need to be prepared for seven years of intense study and hard work. To last to the end of this marathon, you will have to be certain that optometry is what you really want for your life’s work. The education requires that you actually like what you are studying. This will give you the motivation to maintain a high level of effort throughout the program.

You will be asked to learn more anatomy that you would deem necessary just to look at eyes. An in depth study of disease and aging as it pertains to vision and changes to human eyes will on the agenda, too. Your education will acquaint you with all of the different shapes and maladies that eyes have. Even the bone structure and muscles of the face and eyes will need to be mastered.

In another direction, you will have to learn about the lenses themselves and how they do their work. An uderstanding of lens grinding and construction will enable you to better guide your future patients toward the prescriptions that they need. You will have to know when contacts or bifocals, or trifocals will work or are needed.

Entrance into optometry school is competitive. This means that you have to work to build up references and other needed items that will say to the optometry school that you should be a student there. After completion of the long program, you will need to spend a little time refreshing yourself on all areas of study that you have covered. This will put you into a position to pass your state boards on the first try.