So I took the OAT last fall and didn't do so great. I used Kaplan (which wasn't helpful to me in my opinion), chads videos, crack the OAT, Barrons Bio. I took notes, made flash cards, etc. I need some genuine advice on what study material are the most helpful in achieving a good score on the OAT since I spent a lot of money on resources that didn't help me as much, specifically Kaplan. Do you think the Kaplan big blue book is sufficient to review all the material on the OAT or is it lacking anything? What are some other methods of practice I can get since that is also one of my concerns? Thanks!
Suggestions on study resources for OAT second attempt
- Thread starter o100
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What was your score? Laying out the stats will give us an idea of what needs to be worked on.
You need to focus on the subjects you did the worst on. For example, if you scored lowest in Ochem, study Ochem more... The OAT Destroyer helped me after using Chad's videos to re-learn the material. Honestly, I retook the OAT and studied even harder for it the second time and still felt like I bombed it but somehow did a lot better overall. But in Ochem, I actually scored 10 points lower the second time and I focused studying more on Ochem the second time. I think it's just so random and inconsistent. I was lucky to have done better the second time but I didn't feel like any of my studying helped me for the second time. I think its just something you can't really control...just study hard and hope for the best.
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OAT Destroyer. I used Kaplan blue book the first time and got a 300. I hated it. Used chads videos and oat destroyer and mixed with Kaplan notes I raised it to a 330! Good luck!
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I mostly studied from the Kaplan OAT book, so I can't speak for the other OAT-specific resources. However, I did need some extra practice to review some of the physics concepts and problems, and I actually found that my old physics textbooks from freshman year were quite useful for that! I reviewed the concepts in more detail from the textbooks, and did some of the practice questions that I thought would be relevant to material on the OAT. And for some very specific concepts that I needed some extra help with, I found Khan Academy videos on youtube to be quite useful for clearing things up!
I also reviewed my old textbooks for more detailed studying of organic chem as well!
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The thing that help me the most was to use the Kaplan online workshops. Go through all of them and watch the scores increased dramatically. It helped me take my biology from a 270 to 330 by just doing the workshops online. I did not thoroughly read the book, only did the workshops. When I had questions is when I went to the book or another textbook source. If you paid for the Kaplan course, then it is free for the second time. However, I cannot stress enough...make sure you pay attention to the online workshops req'd and non-req'd. Good luck.
