Anyone taking the OAT this October?

[r_salis]

Who's taking the OAT this October? What is your study schedule? What types of study guides/resources are you using? Let's share our strategies!

Study Guides/Resources
I just finished up Orgo II in summer session (ick ick ick ), so I plan to start studying next week. I bought the "Complete Preparation for the Optometry Admission Test" and a Kaplan MCAT review (you can get a previous year's book for *much* less than the current year's on half.com, etc.) and am just going to use those. I also have my class notes and textbooks for backups.

Study Schedule
I haven't set up a schedule for studying yet, but I plan to. I want to make up a formal schedule like some of the posters in the pre-allo/pre-osteo forums have done for the MCAT -- a couple hours a day, mixing up the subjects, taking timed tests periodically, etc. I'll post it when I've made it up, if anyone's interested!

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[Eyegirl2007]

hi
I'm taking the OAT in October too.

I've bought that OAT Preparation manual that you have, as well as the TopScore software (looks very helpful). I do need to find an appropriate MCAT review but I haven't found one that I like yet. I don't like Kaplan books' formats very much.

I will begin studying August 1st. I don't have a study schedule yet.

 

[TAL]

Speaking of the OAT, I have a Kaplan MCAT review book that I bought 2 years ago and barely opened. If anyone would like to purchase this book for cheap, email me at [email protected], and we can work something out. Good luck on the test!

Tommy
UHCO 2006

 

[r_salis]

Not to scoop Tommy's offer or anything , but Half.com has excellent deals on old Kaplan MCAT Reviews (1999 and 2000 go for $2.67 and $5.83, respectively). Pound for pound, it's one of the best OAT review materials you can get. I just finished minor surgery on my 2000 guide to make it a little less heavy to carry around -- today is Biology Review day.

Also, if you plan to order anything from Amazon, SDN gets a cut of purchases made via their Amazon link (please correct me if this is wrong, guys): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/bookstore/index.asp

 

[TAL]

Damn! I guess I'm stuck with a Kaplan book now.....thanks r_salis! Just kidding, I don't care. I didn't realize you could find one so cheap, anyway. Well, good luck studying for the biology section, I felt that it was the easiest part of the exam, they seemed to be very general questions.

ex. Biology is the study of ________.


OK, not that general .....but if you are a biology major you probably will be well prepared automatically. The hardest sections for me where organic and, believe it or not, verbal reasoning. Organic because it's the one subject you haven't had an extensive background of growing up (high school, etc.), and verbal because of the clock! My advise to anyone taking the OAT is to practice some verbal sections before-hand and get your timing down. I failed to do this, and I fought the clock the whole time and my verbal score suffered. I'm sure admissions thought that I was illiterate.....haha!

Tommy
UHCO 2006

 

[TAL]

where = were......see I told you....illiterate.

Tommy
UHCO 2006

 

[TAL]

advise???......yeah.

 

[r_salis]

Hahahaha--Tommy, you're not illiterate -- just a bad typist.

I took my franken-book to my volunteer gig at the hospital today thinking that I'd have time to study biology, but instead I got to watch eye surgeries all morning! It was soooo cool. I got to observe 3 strabismus surgeries (one kid had Duane's Syndrome) where the surgeon shortens the muscle that controls eye movement (not sure the name of the muscle) to straighten the eye and leaves sutures attached so that later he can fine-tune the adjustment when the patient is conscious. The surgeon was awesome about showing me what was going on and pointing out parts of the eye's anatomy. It was really cool.

 

[cpw]

That does sound cool.. I'm jealous!!

Today, all I got was to work with people who wouldn't know what they vision insurance was even if you beat them with it. Grrrr. Sorry, big pet peeve there.

 

[r_salis]

Originally posted by cpw
That does sound cool.. I'm jealous!!

Today, all I got was to work with people who wouldn't know what they vision insurance was even if you beat them with it. Grrrr. Sorry, big pet peeve there.

What type of practice are you working in this summer? What are you doing there?

 

[JG777]

i am also taking the oat in october.

i just started my OAT prep course with kaplan today. all we did was take a diagnostic oat exam. i'm not really sure how to construct my daily studying schedule. but the way kaplan seems to set up the sessions is one subject/session. but it jumps around from like ochem to bio to reading to gchem to quantitactive reasoning, then goes back around to ochem to bio to reading, etc. so i'm thinking i will follow the same format of rotating subjects day to day.

does anyone have a good recommendation as to how to increase speed for reading comprehension? when i took the diagnostic, i had only 10 seconds to spare...yikes!

i also have this book called complete preparation for the oat by lippincott williams & wilkins. it's more like cliff notes, not really an extensive review book. i dont' think it's really worth investing in, unless you like that kinda of review.

good luck to all who are studying for the oat's!

~jen

 

[christie]

JG777,

I also took the Kaplan review course. I didn't really go to the classes, but I did utilize all their practice OAT exams..I did their practice questions, and it helped a lot when it came time for the actual OAT.

Awhile back on SDN, someone mentioned a tip about the reading comp, they said to read the question first, and then look for the answer in the paragraph. I did that, and it really gave me a lot more time for that section.

Good luck!

 

[cpw]

That was me with the reading comprehension suggestion. I didn't read a darn thing on the OAT.. just read the question and hunted for the answer. Scored a 380. DON"T READ IT'S A TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!! The answers the questions are in the same order in the paragraphs as they are on the answer sheet. Save yourself a lot of prep time by learned to scan quickly and bubble. You can sit back with your five minutes before time and check answers while everyone else who's reading just turns the page to the third passage. Trust me.. it works! Just practice it with your practice exams and you're good to go!! Good luck!!