OAT: My Experience (August 2014)

[IlVolk]

Hello everyone, I am a first time poster on these forums and I would like to share my OAT Exam experience. I just took it today at about 5PM, which lasted until 10PM (2014).

Couple of things to note:

--I am about to go into my senior year of college with a Biology degree, with a cumulative GPA of 3.8
--My studying for the exam consisted of the newest edition of the Kaplan OAT book, and Chad's quizzes (not videos), and that's it
--I roughly spent about 1 and a half months studying almost everyday along with working at my job. The study times varied of course
--I ended up postponing my exam by two weeks because I panicked and I definitely was not ready. The 5-10PM time slot was the only choice left
--I only took one practice OAT and did absolutely terrible
--I crammed info until about 3PM today, before taking the exam(obviously not a good thing to do)

I arrived at Prometric at about 4PM, signed up, signed my name, put my belongings in a locker, got a finger print and picture taken, and was scanned before I was let into my cubicle. The environment was pretty quiet and I was the only one taking the OAT at my center. They give me a pair of on ear headphones but I didn't use them because I wear glasses. The schedule ran just like any other OAT exam, with a 15 minute tutorial, then the Bio->Chem->Ochem->Reading->15 minute break (which I used to write down Physics equations)->Physics->Math->Post-Survey.

OAT SCORE:

BIO-350
CHEM-310
ORG-340
RC-290
PHY-270
QR-260
TS- 320
AA-300

In sum, I studied so many different things and so many different topics, yet most of the exam was something a bit more tricky and oddly specific. As you will realize, this is a running theme for this exam.

If I had any tips about this exam, I would say that getting the big concepts down is the most important. Secondly, if you have money (which I don't), get Chad's videos or OAT Destroyer- I keep hearing that these resources are the best way to get a higher score. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the money for these things so I had to do with what I could get. Chad's quizzes helped me and the only reason I was able to do those was because of the free week trial (which ended pretty quickly). That's all I have. If anyone has any questions about anything else, please let me know.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Salmon]

Thanks for sharing your experience! Stuff like this was really helpful when I took the OAT. However, I'd like to suggest that you post it in this stickied thread on the OAT forum (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/the-complete-oat-experience.774568/). There are a bunch of experiences there that people shared. Posting it there makes it easier for people to reference and compare to the experiences of others.

 

[eyesonme19]

Did end up being interviewed or accepted anywhere?? Please let me know. I am in the same situation in regards to financials and not being able to purchase chads videos.