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- Jul 10, 2012
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- Pre-Optometry
Hey everyone! I just finished taking my OAT literally an hour ago, and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone on here for recommending various study materials. I couldn't have done it without your help.
My exam was at 12:30PM, but I showed up at 11:30AM. Just the regular stuff here, signed in, put my stuff in the locker, blah blah blah. I got my 2 fine point markers, 2 sheets of laminated paper, and 2 pieces of tissue. I asked the guy if I could test the markers, and I noticed that it was kind of difficult to erase my markings (kind of lame).
They let me start earlier than my scheduled time because they had open spots. I read through the tutorial, which helped calmed me down. The sample questions from the tutorial were actually from one of the OAT Achiever practice exams, so I thought it was a promising sign.
Natural Science: 100 questions, 90 minutes
Biology: A random smattering of questions from various biology subjects. The Kaplan DAT book covered pretty much all of the bases here. Some questions popped up that I had no idea on, so I said, "screw it," and just guessed. On these questions I didn't even mark it because I didn't want to waste time later reviewing a question that I knew I didn't know anything about. Chad's videos and quizzes covered a good chunk of the biology materials too, but it wasn't enough and I was glad I read through the Kaplan DAT book.
Chemistry: I'm a biochemistry major, so this section was no problem. Honestly, I watched through Chad's videos once for this section and didn't look at the material again. Nothing surprising, just regular style chemistry homework questions from Gen Chem I and II.
Organic Chemistry: Know your reactions, or at least understand how they work so you can be able to work out anything they throw at you. Conceptual questions showed up as well, so know your trends and such. I watched Chad's videos for Organic once, and worked through his quizzes once, as well as memorized every reaction on his "class notes".
Reading Comprehension: 40 questions, 50 minutes
The passages were 10x easier than the ones on OAT Achiever. I did notice it got harder between passage 1 and 3, with passage 3 being on par with something that might show up on OAT Achiever. Honestly, the questions were much easier than OAT achiever.
Physics: 40 questions, 50 minutes
There were a lot of conceptual questions that I was not prepared for. I was honestly expecting a lot of calculations, but I would say it was maybe 1/3 conceptual, 2/3 calculations. Chad's videos and quizzes were great for this section, but work on understanding concepts, not just knowing how to solve calculations. I honestly felt like I did badly on this section when it was over.
Quantitative Reasoning 40 questions, 45 minutes
Nothing too difficult here honestly. Know your trig identities. The questions were not difficult, but they were time consuming. I was crunched for time at the end and just guessed on the last 5 questions in about 15 seconds, so learn to work quickly.
Other notes: Like I said earlier, the marker was kind of hard to erase off the laminated paper, so I used the break to erase them. If I needed to erase during the actual exam, I honestly had to use my spit to erase more quickly. Kind of gross, but it got the job done so whatever, lol.
My scores:
QR: 340
RC: 380
BIO: 340
CHEM: 400
ORGO: 390
PHYS: 370
TS: 390
AA: 370
My exam was at 12:30PM, but I showed up at 11:30AM. Just the regular stuff here, signed in, put my stuff in the locker, blah blah blah. I got my 2 fine point markers, 2 sheets of laminated paper, and 2 pieces of tissue. I asked the guy if I could test the markers, and I noticed that it was kind of difficult to erase my markings (kind of lame).
They let me start earlier than my scheduled time because they had open spots. I read through the tutorial, which helped calmed me down. The sample questions from the tutorial were actually from one of the OAT Achiever practice exams, so I thought it was a promising sign.
Natural Science: 100 questions, 90 minutes
Biology: A random smattering of questions from various biology subjects. The Kaplan DAT book covered pretty much all of the bases here. Some questions popped up that I had no idea on, so I said, "screw it," and just guessed. On these questions I didn't even mark it because I didn't want to waste time later reviewing a question that I knew I didn't know anything about. Chad's videos and quizzes covered a good chunk of the biology materials too, but it wasn't enough and I was glad I read through the Kaplan DAT book.
Chemistry: I'm a biochemistry major, so this section was no problem. Honestly, I watched through Chad's videos once for this section and didn't look at the material again. Nothing surprising, just regular style chemistry homework questions from Gen Chem I and II.
Organic Chemistry: Know your reactions, or at least understand how they work so you can be able to work out anything they throw at you. Conceptual questions showed up as well, so know your trends and such. I watched Chad's videos for Organic once, and worked through his quizzes once, as well as memorized every reaction on his "class notes".
Reading Comprehension: 40 questions, 50 minutes
The passages were 10x easier than the ones on OAT Achiever. I did notice it got harder between passage 1 and 3, with passage 3 being on par with something that might show up on OAT Achiever. Honestly, the questions were much easier than OAT achiever.
Physics: 40 questions, 50 minutes
There were a lot of conceptual questions that I was not prepared for. I was honestly expecting a lot of calculations, but I would say it was maybe 1/3 conceptual, 2/3 calculations. Chad's videos and quizzes were great for this section, but work on understanding concepts, not just knowing how to solve calculations. I honestly felt like I did badly on this section when it was over.
Quantitative Reasoning 40 questions, 45 minutes
Nothing too difficult here honestly. Know your trig identities. The questions were not difficult, but they were time consuming. I was crunched for time at the end and just guessed on the last 5 questions in about 15 seconds, so learn to work quickly.
Other notes: Like I said earlier, the marker was kind of hard to erase off the laminated paper, so I used the break to erase them. If I needed to erase during the actual exam, I honestly had to use my spit to erase more quickly. Kind of gross, but it got the job done so whatever, lol.
My scores:
QR: 340
RC: 380
BIO: 340
CHEM: 400
ORGO: 390
PHYS: 370
TS: 390
AA: 370