Been there, Wrote that.

[superjas]

Took the OAT about a month ago! My scores...:

QR 340
RC 300 (ouch)
Bio 380
GC 400
OC 380
PHYS 380
TS 400 =)
AA 360

I found the OAT much easier than I thought it would be. I did the Kaplan tests and was scoring 320-340 in all the sections and about the same with the Top Score CD. I didn't really like the Top Score CD--in my opinion it's pretty outdated. Although I suppose if has the potential to be helpful for the RC section. If I did it again I'd probably get the OAT professor. In terms of difficulty I found the real thing closely paralleled the sample exam posted one the ASCO website. In addition I used Kaplan's MCAT books for all of the sections along with Kaplan's DAT book for some Bio material. I also used the Barron's math for the SAT for QR (I found these problems harder than in the actual test) and finally I used the Barron's DAT book for organic chem and some RC practice. As for the actual sections on the OAT, well:

QR- In this forum I found a lot of people said there were a lot of word problems. When I wrote it there were next to none; I maybe had 10 total. My questions were mostly algebra and equations. Maybe it was just my version of the test....? Also, Kaplan's QR is BRUTAL compared to the actual test. I don't think I was able to finish Kaplan's QR (especially in the "practice problem sets"). I could have probably done better in this section on the OAT--I guess it was nerves. :s

RC- Brutal. I suck at RC. I scored higher on the Top Score and Kaplan practice tests I tried. There were a lot of those stupid "two in one" questions. Where they have two statements and then your options are are both true, both false, first true and second false, or vice versa. Which is sooo annoying because it's like two questions it one!! GAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Bio- A lot of the questions I found I hadn't really studied but I knew them from other courses I had taken....a lot of your basic intro cell bio questions....so if you're in arts and taking the OAT, well, good luck

GC- I thought it was pretty straight forword. Kaplan's GC is much more difficult but excellent practice.

OC- I was actually really worried about this section. When I wrote the OAT I was in the process of taking my first organic chem course. We had just started talking about mechanisms in class. I must have guessed on about half the mechanims. There were espeacially annoying questions where they would show a mechanism and then ask "is this the [insert person's name] process/mechanism." I remember I had one question "what is a lewis acid" and then IMMEDIATELY next the question was "what is a lewis base" ....i mean COME ON! hahahaha! When I was studying for this section at first I was going through the Kaplan MCAT stuff (which goes in crazy detail and will probably guarantee you a 400) but I was short on time so I just studied the OC section in Barron's DAT book which is crazy short comparatively speaking.

PHYS- A lot of my questions were force related problems. I thought I did pretty terrible on this section when I was writing it but I ended up doing alright. Although I do remember one question about rotational motion (I think it was this formula, w = vR...?). Anyways, I just remembered that question because I used the MCAT books to study for physics and they don't have that formula in the books. Albeit it was only the one question...but if you want to be thorough I'd go over your first year physics formulas for that section.

Oh yeah, and what I also found annoying was that instead of scratch paper and a pencil I got this dry erase marker and pad thing. It was sort of annoying cause you had to write really big to compensate for the thickness of the marker which really annoyed me--but I'm just weird that way.... :s

Well, I hope this helps a few people who are going to be writing this thing soon. I remember completely freaking out for this exam but I can honestly say that it wasn't that bad. Definately easier than any of my university exams. It's just the amount of material that can be intimidating. So try not to freak out TOO much--it's not worth it!

Good luck!!!

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[luckyfool]

i like those numbers.

 

[princesspinknes]

wooow AWESOME =)

 

[rani82]

Superjas - great scores!! Can you estimate about how many weeks/months you spent studying for the exam?

Thanks!

 

[superjas]

thanks guys ...haha, I was just happy to have it done!

As for how long I studied...well, technically I started in August and stopped November 26 (lol, I wrote it on the 27th). I reviewed some physics in August, did practically nothing in September (except forget everything from August) and then started taking the studying a bit more seriously in early October. And still I wouldn't have time to study everyday since I had midterms/assignments etc. in school (I had a full course load). I probably studied half the month in October. By this point I had pretty much gone through everything except for half of organic and some bio stuff. Then November I did crazy freak out studying a week before the exam--this is when I taught myself all of the mechanistic material for organic (not fun) and reviewed all of the other material. I think I only had three days to do practice OAT exams. Oh yeah, and starting in October I would do about 20 minutes (minimum) of QR practicing everyday just so I could get comfortable with the math.

Everything put aside, I felt if would definately be possible to study for the entire exam in two weeks. But I don't think it's entirely reasonable because although it's doable, if you're a person who gets stressed out, giving yourself two weeks isn't enough time to build up confidence--which is really important.

lol, whoa, I think I tend to write too much, sorry about the wordiness!

 

[rani82]

Superjas - where did you get that amount of QR practice material? Did you take a Kaplan class?

 

[itek2OD]

was there any organic chem II on the test? i just aced orgo I and most schools don't require orgo II, so i'm not eager to take it and use it for 2 questions on the oat.

 

[aam0050]

was there any organic chem II on the test? i just aced orgo I and most schools don't require orgo II, so i'm not eager to take it and use it for 2 questions on the oat.

Sorry to say but yes there is some ochem II. I don't remember how much my test had on it, but maybe somebody who has taken it more recently can let you know. It'd be best to just study as much as you can.

 

[superjas]

like I said in my first post--I took the OAT while knowing a little more than half of OC 1 and I think I scored pretty well. If the only reason you want to take OC II is because you'll think it will really help w/ the OAT; I'd say don't bother. You need to know aromaticiy which wasn't in my first OC course but that stuff is really easy. OC II will go into super detail which you don't really need to know for the OAT. Although, if you do take it I bet you're guaranteed a really good mark on the OAT but I don't think it's worth all the work that would be put into the course.

as for my QR practice, I just used the Kaplan books and Barron's math for the SATs book. I maybe skimmed through a few other math SAT books I borrowed from the public library but that was all. for QR basically what you need to do is get really really good at these so called "generic" math word problems. Once you start practicing they're easy to pick out and if you just keep on practicing those problems and get really really good at them you should be fine. the OAT doesn't really like to through you curves--the questions are all pretty straight forward.