This ABO cheat sheet distills the American Board of Opticianry's Basic (NOCE) exam into a printable rundown of the facts examiners test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free ABO toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
ABO exam at a glance
- Questions: 125 multiple-choice (100 scored + 25 unscored pretest)
- Time: 2 hours (120 minutes), computer-based at Prometric
- Result: Pass/fail — criterion-referenced (Modified Angoff); no fixed passing percentage
- Cost: About $225 (dated anchor — verify at abo-ncle.org)
What’s on the ABO cheat sheet
- Ophthalmic Optics (25%) — the largest area — dioptric power, vergence, Prentice's rule, transposition, spherical equivalent, and vertex distance.
- Ophthalmic Products (20%) — lens materials by index and Abbe value, coatings and photochromics, multifocal designs, and frame products.
- Dispensing Procedures (20%) — monocular and binocular PD, segment height, the boxing system, pantoscopic tilt, and frame alignment.
- Instrumentation (15%) — the lensmeter (focimeter), the Geneva lens clock, the distometer, and the corneal-reflex pupillometer.
- Ocular Anatomy & Refraction (10%) — eye structure, myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia, and reading a spectacle prescription.
- Laws, Regulations & Standards (10%) — ANSI Z80.1 tolerances, the FDA impact-resistance rule, ANSI Z87.1 safety eyewear, and the FTC Eyeglass Rule.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Ophthalmic Optics (25%) plus Ophthalmic Products and Dispensing Procedures (20% each) — together nearly two-thirds of the exam. If you master three areas from the sheet, make them these.
- Drill the optics formulas until they're automatic: power (D) = 1 ÷ focal length (m), Prentice's rule (prism Δ = decentration in cm × power), transposition in three steps, and spherical equivalent = sphere + cyl ÷ 2.
- Read the standards block the night before — ANSI Z80.1 tolerances, the FDA drop-ball impact-resistance rule, ANSI Z87.1 safety eyewear, and the FTC Eyeglass Rule show up as quick recall questions.
- Pair each review pass with a short timed practice set (roughly 1 minute per question to match the 125-item, 2-hour pace) so your timing feels routine on test day.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your ABO practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
ABO cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the ABO cheat sheet downloads as a PDF for free, with no sign-up and no account. It sits alongside Career Employer's free ABO practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your whole opticianry prep toolkit costs nothing.
It condenses the highest-yield facts for the ABO Basic (NOCE) exam into a fast reference: the dioptric power formula, Prentice's rule, transposition and spherical equivalent, lens materials and index, the boxing system and PD, and the ANSI, FDA, and FTC standards. Everything is grouped by the six ABO-NCLE content areas so it mirrors how the exam is weighted.
It is built from the current ABO-NCLE Basic Exam content outline and the ANSI, FDA, and FTC standards opticians are tested on, and we review it against the official ABO-NCLE handbook regularly. Prices and fees are dated anchors, so confirm the current numbers at abo-ncle.org before you register.
No — it is a review and last-week cram layer, not a replacement for working optics problems and reading rationales. The ABO is scored pass/fail against a criterion-referenced standard, not a flat percentage, so use the sheet to lock in formulas and facts and the practice test to prove you can apply them across all six content areas.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page and the PDF opens instantly. Bookmark the page so you can pull it back up in the days before your Prometric appointment.
References
- 1.American Board of Opticianry & National Contact Lens Examiners (ABO-NCLE). “ABO-NCLE Basic Exam Candidate Handbook & NOCE Content Outline.” abo-ncle.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.American National Standards Institute (ANSI). “ANSI Z80.1 — Prescription Ophthalmic Lenses (Tolerances) & Z87.1 — Personal Eye & Face Protection.” ANSI, 2026. ↑
- 3.U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). “21 CFR 801.410 — Impact-Resistant Lenses in Eyeglasses & Sunglasses.” FDA / eCFR, 2026. ↑
- 4.U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). “Ophthalmic Practice Rules (Eyeglass Rule), 16 CFR Part 456.” FTC, 2026. ↑
- 5.National Academy of Opticianry (NAO). “Exam Preparation for the ABO — Opticianry Education.” nao.org, 2026. ↑
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