ophthoquestions.com: A Review

I realized early in medical school that, for me, the best way to learn is by doing questions. USMLE World and Kaplan's QBank got me through Step 1, Step 2, and Step 3. When ophthalmology residency started, I was relieved to hear about www.ophthoquestions.com. A much smaller pool of buyers (US and maybe UK ophthalmology residents) means the company can not have nearly the same profit margin as USMLE World and Kaplan. Nevertheless, I was quite surprised to see that the product was still very good. I have been VERY please with my experience, here are my thoughts…

ADVANTAGES

• The online format is unique in the field of ophthalmology. There are many great review books and question books to prepare for the OKAPs and the American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) Exam, but nothing as portable and technologically savvy as ophthoquestions.
• The questions are well written and parallel very well the questions on the OKAPs. I am told they also parallel well the questions on the written ABO Exam. Having not taken the ABO Board, I can not verify this.
• For the most part, the explanations are detailed enough to learn the finer points of the pathophysiology without being overbearing. If anything, ophthoquestions errors on the side of being to succinct. They can do better at having more robust explanations. In this regard, USMLE World and Kaplan's Q-Bank are superior products. 
• The questions are obviously written by subspecialists with knowledge in the specific fields, making the answer explanations very reliable.
• If you do all the questions in the database you will be VERY well prepared for OKAPs
• The price may seem steep (~$150 per year) compared to question books, but with 3,500+ questions nothing has the same amount of content

DISADVANTAGES

• In my opinion, the current (May 2015) content on the site does not properly reflect to proportions of subspecialty content on exams. For example, and huge proportion of the ophthoquestions content is devoted to refractive surgery, while very little is devoted to uveitis. This does not reflect the content on exams, and certainly does not reflect the content that ophthalmologists should know.  Of course, you can simply not do all the refractive surgery questions, and this would solve the problem. 
• The writers occasionally become defensive and personal when defending their questions and answers. I respect their opinions but I really don't think that a question bank is the place for defensive answers. 
• If you do NOT complete all the questions in the database, the price (~$150 per year) is certainly very high. If you are only going to do a few hundred questions, you might as well purchase a question book like Chern: Review Questions in Ophthalmology. 

CONCLUSION

I am very pleased with my ophthoquestions.com experience and recommend it to all new residents. It is the best product on the market for OKAP and ABO board preparation. It has some faults, but to be honest, not that many. I am not someone who will read the whole BCSC series, because I will never remember chapters and books. But the content in ophthoquestions is presented in a memorable and organized way that has CERTAINLY helped me do well on the OKAPs exams.

Some other ophthalmology review tools: