NOCE case studies
NOCE · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The National Opticianry Competency Examination (NOCE) is the entry-level certification examination in opticianry administered by the American Board of Opticianry & National Contact Lens Examiners (ABO-NCLE), the body whose site hosts the examination handbooks, testing-center scheduling links, and certification records referenced on this page. Candidates typically sit for it as apprentices, students in opticianry programs, or working dispensers who want a nationally recognized credential, and in some states a licensing board uses ABO-NCLE examinations as part of its requirements. The NOCE case studies are 5 cases and about 3,981 words.
1Better Near Vision Without Readers in a 58-Year-Old Driver
A 58-year-old school-bus driver reports 18 months of slowly worsening distance blur, halos around oncoming headlights on her 6 a.m. route, and - oddly - that she can now read her phone without the +2.25 readers she was prescribed three years ago.
699 words, about 3 min2Vertex Conversion and a Two-Millimetre PD Error in a High Myope
A 27-year-old software developer alternates between soft spherical contact lenses and glasses. Her manifest refraction through a trial frame at a 12 mm vertex distance is −12.00 DS in each eye; with −10.50 D trial lenses she reaches 20/20 and reports mild residual blur that a −0.50 D over-refraction clears.
776 words, about 4 min3A Drilled Rimless in a Plant Where Z87.1 Is Mandatory
A 41-year-old maintenance technician at a bottling plant orders new glasses. Rx: OD −5.75 −1.50 × 005, OS −5.50 −1.25 × 175.
831 words, about 4 min4A First Progressive in a 26 mm Frame on an Asymmetric Face
A 63-year-old retired teacher is ordering her first pair of progressive lenses. She chooses a metal frame with a 50-18 eye size and a 26 mm B measurement because it suits her face.
859 words, about 4 min5Prism by Decentration That Never Reaches the Pupil
A 47-year-old bank teller returns three days after collection with vertical double vision and a 'floor that slopes.' She was prescribed OD +4.00 −1.00 × 180 with 2Δ base down and OS +4.25 −0.75 × 175, in a 52-18 frame with monocular PDs of 31/31 and a 12 mm vertex distance. The order specified that the prism be produced by decentration 'to save weight.' On the lensmeter each lens reads its ordered back vertex power, the right lens shows 2Δ base down at the boxing centre while the left shows none, and the boxing centres of both lenses measure 31/31, matching the order.
816 words, about 4 min