DAT vs OAT

[Skogar]

Hi, I recently decided to apply optometry though I previously thought I was going dental. I've taken the DAT and scored a 21 AA and was wondering how different the OAT is from the DAT. I know both are made by the ADA and was wondering if all the sections were the same except for the PAT/Physics sections? Mainly I am wondering if the Quantitative reasoning (math) section was the same.

 

[tresrisque]

I'm not entirely sure. My boyfriend took the DAT, and I took the OAT so I think I know a little bit. The review material is similar. However, I don't think they use the same questions for both tests. I also feel like the DAT is graded more strictly than the OAT, BUT do not underestimate the OAT.

So pretty much, both tests cover Bio, Gen Chem, Org Chem, Reading, and Math. OAT has physics, whereas DAT has the perceptual ability test.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mrseyedoctor]

yeah it shouldn't be that different because I remember taking the Kaplan course to prepare for OAT and they put DAT and OAT class together except for the physics part I think.

 

[Arctic]

Yes, the OAT has Physics instead of Perceptual Ability. Also the grading scale is 200-400 on the OAT, although that isn't a relevant difference. They are extremely similar tests, and they actually do share a common question bank.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Yes, the OAT has Physics instead of Perceptual Ability. Also the grading scale is 200-400 on the OAT, although that isn't a relevant difference. They are extremely similar tests, and they actually do share a common question bank.

Agreed, i have the OAT destroyer and i know a friend who has the DAT destroyer. When i looked through it, a lot of the questions were very similar to eachother though not the same.