Hello members of SDN. I took my last month, and my official scores came out yesterday: 360 in TS and AA. I’m going to try my best to explain my experience with preparing for this difficult exam.
I had to reschedule my OAT two times because I wasn’t feeling ready and didn’t really have any concrete studying methods. I mostly just experimented with a lot of techniques and just found that practice questions and exams on OAT Booster were the best. They had a lot of Quizlet flashcard sets too (the best ones were Biology and General Chemistry).
Biology (400)
This section has the broadest range of topics you can possibly study. Luckily, you don’t have to learn in-depth details about cellular respiration processes. Everything else is fair game. However, you won’t even see half of the topics you studied for on the real OAT. However, you must study everything that Booster goes through because everyone’s exam is different. Booster’s taxonomy videos were super helpful and go over each organ system thoroughly enough. Practice problems match the caliber of the real OAT.
Chemistry (360)
Easiest section to learn, but the hardest to master (in my opinion). Booster made it easy to study and get better at doing practice problems. They have plenty of videos and explanations that will get you through difficult questions and cover the foundations needed for other questions. The real OAT chemistry section is a lot easier math-wise, but you need to know all the concepts.
Organic Chemistry (390)
Ochem was my best subject in college and thus reviewing it wasn’t bad at all for me. People say understanding SN1/SN2 and E1/E2 is the best way to memorize the reactions. YES, it is true. It eventually gets to the point where you just straight memorize everything. Booster did a good job of providing an extensive sheet of all the reactions you need to know for the OAT. There are also plenty of explanations and videos for each practice question. My real OAT experience with Ochem was that it was more conceptual, and less reaction based. There were HNMRs, CNMRs, nomenclature, and ranking acidity. Maybe 10/30 were reaction questions.
Physics (300)
There’s no good resource out there for practice problems. However, Booster and Chad’s videos did a wonderful job of content review that ultimately helped me “pass” the physics section on the real OAT. The real OAT physics is MUCH easier than Booster’s questions, so if you can do that, then you can ace the physics section without a doubt. Be sure you know each unit conceptually so doing the math is easier to figure out.
Reading Comprehension (330)
Booster does a fantastic job of emulating the real OAT in this section. The biggest piece of advice is time management. My last passage is always the worst because I’m on a crunch for time. I would do a lot better if I had utilized more OATBooster passages to practice timing. All in all, be sure to space out your time evenly between the passages.
Quantitative Reasoning (360)
Booster’s formula is all you need to know, as well as practice with word problems. A good mix of everything. Like with reading, make sure you work through these problems fast, so you don’t miss out on the last 4 questions as I did. Booster has the best videos for individual topics.
Final advice
Realistically, give yourself a break when studying because your brain needs it. You will do great if you content review everything, but even better if you do all of Booster’s practice questions (especially for the science sections). The reading section and quantitative reasoning section is all about timing, so practice that as well!
I had to reschedule my OAT two times because I wasn’t feeling ready and didn’t really have any concrete studying methods. I mostly just experimented with a lot of techniques and just found that practice questions and exams on OAT Booster were the best. They had a lot of Quizlet flashcard sets too (the best ones were Biology and General Chemistry).
Biology (400)
This section has the broadest range of topics you can possibly study. Luckily, you don’t have to learn in-depth details about cellular respiration processes. Everything else is fair game. However, you won’t even see half of the topics you studied for on the real OAT. However, you must study everything that Booster goes through because everyone’s exam is different. Booster’s taxonomy videos were super helpful and go over each organ system thoroughly enough. Practice problems match the caliber of the real OAT.
Chemistry (360)
Easiest section to learn, but the hardest to master (in my opinion). Booster made it easy to study and get better at doing practice problems. They have plenty of videos and explanations that will get you through difficult questions and cover the foundations needed for other questions. The real OAT chemistry section is a lot easier math-wise, but you need to know all the concepts.
Organic Chemistry (390)
Ochem was my best subject in college and thus reviewing it wasn’t bad at all for me. People say understanding SN1/SN2 and E1/E2 is the best way to memorize the reactions. YES, it is true. It eventually gets to the point where you just straight memorize everything. Booster did a good job of providing an extensive sheet of all the reactions you need to know for the OAT. There are also plenty of explanations and videos for each practice question. My real OAT experience with Ochem was that it was more conceptual, and less reaction based. There were HNMRs, CNMRs, nomenclature, and ranking acidity. Maybe 10/30 were reaction questions.
Physics (300)
There’s no good resource out there for practice problems. However, Booster and Chad’s videos did a wonderful job of content review that ultimately helped me “pass” the physics section on the real OAT. The real OAT physics is MUCH easier than Booster’s questions, so if you can do that, then you can ace the physics section without a doubt. Be sure you know each unit conceptually so doing the math is easier to figure out.
Reading Comprehension (330)
Booster does a fantastic job of emulating the real OAT in this section. The biggest piece of advice is time management. My last passage is always the worst because I’m on a crunch for time. I would do a lot better if I had utilized more OATBooster passages to practice timing. All in all, be sure to space out your time evenly between the passages.
Quantitative Reasoning (360)
Booster’s formula is all you need to know, as well as practice with word problems. A good mix of everything. Like with reading, make sure you work through these problems fast, so you don’t miss out on the last 4 questions as I did. Booster has the best videos for individual topics.
Final advice
Realistically, give yourself a break when studying because your brain needs it. You will do great if you content review everything, but even better if you do all of Booster’s practice questions (especially for the science sections). The reading section and quantitative reasoning section is all about timing, so practice that as well!
