1. Actual clinical application of math is 4th grade arithmetic. There are no physics involved at the clinical practice level, but of course it is helpful to understand what is going on, otherwise you might just as well believe saying #1 or #2 appeases an invisible space flea that grants lenses the capability to focus light into clear vision. Newtonian Physics and quantitative reasoning are only needed to pass the OAT. Geometric optics is nice to learn and is a staple on the Boards exam, but again has very little clinical relevance. All the math I do in my office is 4th grade arithmetic I can calculate in my head in seconds.
2. I never heard of electro-optics and anatomics.
3. I love my job because my employer (a hospital) gives me extremely high pay and top working conditions (because we're union). I've hated my job previously when I worked with scum bag corporations scamming scum bag clientele (meth heads), and saw 50% more patients for 50% less pay. Even though I did the exact same exam structure (not to be confused with # of exams), the levels of compensation, stress, and satisfaction greatly differed. Optometry is a saturated market, and if you expect to work for someone else, and that may not always be a great relationship. I'm only a few years out, and more than half my class has ownership of their own practice. I personally don't have the drive nor grit to run my own practice's business and growth, and taxes/accounting. If I had to do things over again, I would very likely not have ended up at my current job which I'm so blessed to have received, and I would probably survive and earn enough, but I wouldn't think of it as more than a paycheck. My other friends in an associate position or as corporate employee are already burnt out, and definitely don't show the same passion I still hold, and I don't blame them.
4.I don't work with lasers directly (I refer to those who can); usage of lasers are only in the scope of practice in some states. Who knows how legislation and scope of practice will change
tl;dr: application of math on the job is 0/10 challenge. Application of math to get into a school and get licensed: 3/10. I love this job, but if I had to do it again, I very likely would not receive the same level of success and satisfaction as I currently have - I got lucky.
If you read in my other post, I did 8 years of expensive higher education and my first job paid 97k (in late 2014), and my brother did community college and night school and earns 105k (in 2017) as a paper pusher for the government. That 97k job still exists 2 blocks away from my hospital, and truth be told, that job pays pretty much on the average what corporations pay in my state. And I had to negotiate for 97k because their initial offer was 94k, and they refused to go any higher.
Sad state of affairs. I'm so glad things worked out the way they did for me because the real world market is tough in optometry
