I would like to speak about my experience studying for the OAT as reading these breakdowns was helpful to me when I was preparing. I do want to preface this breakdown by saying that I sacrificed a lot this summer for the test, and gave more time to it than I normally even give to schoolwork (3.97 GPA entering fourth year in Biological Sciences.)
Study material that I used:
OATbooster:
I used this source for probably 90% of my preparation. If I were to recommend any one source, it would have to be this one. It gave more than enough learning material and the only thing that I would change is the difficulty of the physics section in the practice tests (it was too difficult, not wholly representative of the real tests.)
Chad’s videos:
These are free and Chad is super great at explaining concepts in an easy-to-understand way, making you feel like you’re really good at physics and chemistry (because you are good, remember that!!)
Chad’s Prep:
Really great for getting extra practice, especially in QR and Physics. A plus that it’s so affordable.
Kaplan big purple book:
I was recommended by someone else to get this, but I did not find it to be very helpful, and only used the practice questions at the end of the physics chapters and the RC for extra practice. Do not really recommend buying this book, it’s a waste of money and paper lol.
OATbootcamp:
I used the OATbootcamp’s daily warmup (10 questions a day of various topics) and did their question of the day just to warmup my brain and do a tiny bit of review and practice. I also read 2 articles on Dailyscience, each with a 4 min timer afterwards to practice reading faster for RC.
My prep schedule:
I began preparing a week after I finished my third-year winter courses in May. I scheduled 15 weeks of preparing while using the OATbooster’s 12-week schedule as I was anticipating being sick/other unforeseeable events. In the learning phase (first 6 weeks), I spent 8-10 hours a day doing everything that was on the to-dos of that day and still had trouble completing all tasks. I would suggest doing the learning phase at your own pace and not to feel like you’re “falling behind” because sometimes it’s just extremely unrealistic. In the second stage, I deviated from the study schedule and just focused on the areas that I knew I was weak on (acid/base chemistry, IUPAC naming, optics, waves.) In the last 3 weeks, I did all the practice tests on booster and reviewed each practice test, writing down everything I didn’t know/not 100% sure on. This would take at least twice as long as actually writing the test. This was the most important step for me and helped the most.
BIO (400)
Know the stomach hormones, I kind of forgot about these and did struggle with one of these questions on my test. The diversity of life stuff was very surface level and not as detailed as the videos on booster.
GEN CHEM (400)
Very similar to the booster practice tests, if you are scoring well on those, you will have no problems here. Nothing extremely complicated, about half required calculations.
OCHEM (400)
I have a very strong Ochem background and most of this was much simpler than I remember it being. Use the anki deck and memorize ~10 reactions a day, reviewing the previous days’ rxns as well. Booster has a consolidated sheet of all the reactions which were enough for the test.
PHYSICS (400)
This section was what I was most worried about as I was barely breaking 300 on most of the practice tests on booster. I felt as if the real test was still quite challenging but not as complicated as the booster practice questions. I purchased Chad’s prep for extra practice, and it helped make me more confident.
RC (360)
I was very surprised by my score here because I did finish with extra time and did not feel like many of the question were tricky. I was scoring around 400 on the practice tests and I thought that those passages were much longer and had more “tone” questions. My strat was to read the first half of the passage, try to answer ALL the questions, read the second half, and then go back to redo the questions, now having read the whole time. Helps with picking up the tone and with reading carefully on the parts where questions are asked.
QR (400)
Getting speed up is the most important thing in this section. The only way to do this is to expose yourself to lots of practice questions and finding ways to cut down on calculation time. Remember the 5/12/13 triangle, I used this in like 3 questions.
Conclusion:
This test is like running a marathon and requires mental fortitude and discipline for an extended period of time. It will help to establish a habit/routine early on, so you don’t let yourself fall behind and end up having to move your test day. Remember that you have done difficult things in the past and this is just another difficult thing you will be able to overcome. Good luck!
Study material that I used:
OATbooster:
I used this source for probably 90% of my preparation. If I were to recommend any one source, it would have to be this one. It gave more than enough learning material and the only thing that I would change is the difficulty of the physics section in the practice tests (it was too difficult, not wholly representative of the real tests.)
Chad’s videos:
These are free and Chad is super great at explaining concepts in an easy-to-understand way, making you feel like you’re really good at physics and chemistry (because you are good, remember that!!)
Chad’s Prep:
Really great for getting extra practice, especially in QR and Physics. A plus that it’s so affordable.
Kaplan big purple book:
I was recommended by someone else to get this, but I did not find it to be very helpful, and only used the practice questions at the end of the physics chapters and the RC for extra practice. Do not really recommend buying this book, it’s a waste of money and paper lol.
OATbootcamp:
I used the OATbootcamp’s daily warmup (10 questions a day of various topics) and did their question of the day just to warmup my brain and do a tiny bit of review and practice. I also read 2 articles on Dailyscience, each with a 4 min timer afterwards to practice reading faster for RC.
My prep schedule:
I began preparing a week after I finished my third-year winter courses in May. I scheduled 15 weeks of preparing while using the OATbooster’s 12-week schedule as I was anticipating being sick/other unforeseeable events. In the learning phase (first 6 weeks), I spent 8-10 hours a day doing everything that was on the to-dos of that day and still had trouble completing all tasks. I would suggest doing the learning phase at your own pace and not to feel like you’re “falling behind” because sometimes it’s just extremely unrealistic. In the second stage, I deviated from the study schedule and just focused on the areas that I knew I was weak on (acid/base chemistry, IUPAC naming, optics, waves.) In the last 3 weeks, I did all the practice tests on booster and reviewed each practice test, writing down everything I didn’t know/not 100% sure on. This would take at least twice as long as actually writing the test. This was the most important step for me and helped the most.
BIO (400)
Know the stomach hormones, I kind of forgot about these and did struggle with one of these questions on my test. The diversity of life stuff was very surface level and not as detailed as the videos on booster.
GEN CHEM (400)
Very similar to the booster practice tests, if you are scoring well on those, you will have no problems here. Nothing extremely complicated, about half required calculations.
OCHEM (400)
I have a very strong Ochem background and most of this was much simpler than I remember it being. Use the anki deck and memorize ~10 reactions a day, reviewing the previous days’ rxns as well. Booster has a consolidated sheet of all the reactions which were enough for the test.
PHYSICS (400)
This section was what I was most worried about as I was barely breaking 300 on most of the practice tests on booster. I felt as if the real test was still quite challenging but not as complicated as the booster practice questions. I purchased Chad’s prep for extra practice, and it helped make me more confident.
RC (360)
I was very surprised by my score here because I did finish with extra time and did not feel like many of the question were tricky. I was scoring around 400 on the practice tests and I thought that those passages were much longer and had more “tone” questions. My strat was to read the first half of the passage, try to answer ALL the questions, read the second half, and then go back to redo the questions, now having read the whole time. Helps with picking up the tone and with reading carefully on the parts where questions are asked.
QR (400)
Getting speed up is the most important thing in this section. The only way to do this is to expose yourself to lots of practice questions and finding ways to cut down on calculation time. Remember the 5/12/13 triangle, I used this in like 3 questions.
Conclusion:
This test is like running a marathon and requires mental fortitude and discipline for an extended period of time. It will help to establish a habit/routine early on, so you don’t let yourself fall behind and end up having to move your test day. Remember that you have done difficult things in the past and this is just another difficult thing you will be able to overcome. Good luck!
