OphthoQuestions vs OphthaMCQ
OphthoQuestions is the established US leader. OphthaMCQ is the India-focused challenger with handwritten notes and past papers. The right answer depends almost entirely on which exam you are sitting.
These two banks are rarely a genuine head-to-head, because they were written for different examinations. OphthoQuestions is built around the American board and OKAP curriculum. OphthaMCQ is built around ICO/FICO, FAICO, DNB, MS, DO, PDCET and FRCOphth. Almost every meaningful difference between them follows from that one fact.
Blueprint divergence is not cosmetic. It changes which topics get weighted heavily, which drugs and devices appear in stems, and which management pathway counts as the correct answer. A resident preparing for DNB who drills a US bank spends a large share of their time on material their examiner will not ask about — and, worse, learns conventions that are wrong for their setting.
The comparison below is written by one of the two parties, so the fit guide is deliberately explicit about when you should buy the other one.
Feature comparison
We compare the two on blueprint fit first, then on the things that change day-to-day study: what the explanations do, whether past papers are included, what the free tier unlocks, and whether revision works on a phone.
Question counts are deliberately left out of the headline comparison. A larger bank aimed at the wrong blueprint is not a better bank for you, and raw totals are the easiest number for either side to present favourably.
| Platform | Price | Notes | Past Papers | Mobile | Free Trial | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OphthaMCQ | ₹249–₹1,799 | ✅ Handwritten | ✅ ICO/FICO | ✅ iOS + Android | 200+ free MCQs | Indian + international exams |
| OphthoQuestions | $314.99/6mo | ❌ | ❌ | ⚠️ Web only | Limited demo | Large US question bank |
Prices and feature sets change without notice, and several of these platforms price in different currencies. Treat the table as a starting point and confirm the current figure on each vendor’s own checkout page before you buy.
When each one is the right choice
We publish one of these products. Where a rival is the better buy for your exam, it says so below.
Choose OphthoQuestions when…
Your exam is OKAP or an American board examination. It is the deepest, most established bank written against that blueprint, its question volume is genuinely large, and residents in US programmes have been using it long enough that its coverage is well understood.
The trade-off: Outside the US it is the wrong shape and an expensive one. Six-month dollar pricing is a serious sum in India, there are no handwritten revision notes, no ICO or DNB past papers, and it is a desktop-first product.
Choose OphthaMCQ when…
Your exam is ICO/FICO, FAICO, DNB, MS, DO, PDCET or FRCOphth. You get exam-pattern questions for those blueprints, handwritten notes distilled from Kanski, Ryan, Elkington and BCSC, complete ICO/FICO past papers with explanations, and apps on both iOS and Android — priced in rupees.
The trade-off: We do not cover the American board blueprint and are not trying to. If OKAP is your exam, this is not the bank for you.
Pick by the exam you are sitting
The blueprint decides this more than any feature does.
| Your exam | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| OKAP / US boards | OphthoQuestions | Written against that curriculum. This is not a close call. |
| ICO / FICO | OphthaMCQ | Past papers with full explanations; OphthoQuestions does not cover the ICO blueprint. |
| DNB / MS / DO | OphthaMCQ | Indian exam pattern, practical and viva material, and pricing that fits a resident’s stipend. |
| FAICO | OphthaMCQ | Syllabus-mapped fellowship questions; not something a US bank attempts. |
| FRCOphth | OphthaMCQ | Single-best-answer practice plus notes and mobile revision at a fraction of the cost. |
Questions residents ask before buying
Can I use OphthoQuestions for DNB or ICO?
You can, and some residents do for basic sciences, where the physiology and optics overlap is real. But topic weighting, drug availability and management conventions follow US practice, so a large part of the bank is time spent away from your blueprint.
Is OphthoQuestions worth the price from India?
If you are sitting a US examination, yes — there is no equivalent. If you are not, you are paying a US six-month subscription for a curriculum you will not be examined on, and the same money buys several Indian-blueprint banks plus notes.
Which has better explanations?
They are built differently. OphthoQuestions explanations are written to the American board curriculum and reference BCSC conventions. Ours are written to explain the discriminator in the stem for an Indian or international examiner, and are paired with handwritten notes on the same topic.
Does OphthaMCQ have an app?
Yes, on both Android and iOS, with lifetime access to whatever you buy. OphthoQuestions is a web product, which matters if your study time comes in short gaps rather than long evenings.
Can I try either before paying?
OphthaMCQ publishes 200-plus free MCQs with full explanations on this site, no account needed. OphthoQuestions offers a limited demo. Use both before committing — question style is a personal fit as much as a factual one.
Read the long version
OphthoQuestions for non-US residents
A component-by-component audit of what transfers to a DNB, ICO or FRCOphth blueprint and what does not.
An exam-first buying framework
The long version of this page: how to pick a bank by the exam you are sitting rather than by feature count.
Free vs paid banks: where free runs out
How far a free question bank actually gets you, and the point at which paying starts to buy something real.
Ready when you are
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