How tough is th OAT?

[MZTCM]

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Hello and happy holidays everyone!

I have yet to take the OAT. Is it as tough as everybody says it is. Honestly, how much do you actually recall from lecture that is even on the exam...mainly the science, biology, and chemistry aspects. How was the reading and the rest of the exam? Did anyone have to guess a lot? I noticed that the OAT is offered online now. Is that an advantage? Is there a time limt per section online? I am really nervous as you can tell. Shouldn't be, since I will be taking it in the comfort of my own home. Any opioins or advice would be greatly appreciated. Later..........................

 

[alferec]

Hello and happy holidays everyone!

I have yet to take the OAT. Is it as tough as everybody says it is. Honestly, how much do you actually recall from lecture that is even on the exam...mainly the science, biology, and chemistry aspects. How was the reading and the rest of the exam? Did anyone have to guess a lot? I noticed that the OAT is offered online now. Is that an advantage? Is there a time limt per section online? I am really nervous as you can tell. Shouldn't be, since I will be taking it in the comfort of my own home. Any opioins or advice would be greatly appreciated. Later..........................

Of course, I forget a lot of stuff from lecture but you'll be surprised as to how much you can recall. But I think for the most part, knowing the bigger concepts from lectures helped out for studying the OAT. I thought the OAT wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, mainly because (1) I took the Kaplan course which gave hard example questions and (2) I expected the worst. I especially recommend going at the OAT based on (2) because you can't go wrong with that approach.

As far as guessing...yeah I did a lot of it...try to narrow down your choices as much as possible. But if you can't, then make sure you consistently guess the same letter (you have a 1:5 shot at getting it right!). Random letters won't do you any good.

Ummm...you're taking it at home??? Last I remember, you have to take it at specified test centers!!!

 

[Dr 330SeeEye OD]

study for a few months and you'll be fine. don't sweat it. i just used the kaplan MCAT AND PCAT books and i was straight... =)

 

[drdonuts27]

Just study for it like any other test. Take the Mcat and see how tough that test is compared to OAT. I took both the MCAT and OAT. After taking the MCAT i thought OAT was a walk in the park. Good luck with studying.

 

[Insomnia23]

Actually you can sign up for the test online but you cannot take the test online. The test is actually done at a designating testing site.

The test was actually simplified compared to the last time I took the test. The test Reading Comp and Quantitative sections were both shortened by 10 questions each.

I was surprised with a few questions on the physics sections but happy overall.

Biology section is very difficult since there is so much information required. Hopefully you have either taken a lot of classes your studied.

The gen chem section is general and not too bad. I thought the inorganic section is much easier after some studying.

The Quantitative reasoning section has some very difficult word problems and (in my opinion) the most difficult.

The best way to get a good score is to practice, practice, practice. The kaplan book is a must.

 

[optometrist123]

There are a couple of exams out there on the net that you can take for practice. There are 3 on my site:

http://www.connateholdings.com/optometry/oat.php My suggestion is to get some used books from Amazon or from the library as well.


optometrist123
http://www.connateholdings.com/optometry/

 

[eyedesire]

I think that you do have to study for the OAT, but it really isn't as difficult as everyone says it is. I studied for 6 weeks strait after work (I worked full time) so it was kinda rough but it turned out good. I think knowing your basic sciences is really important and getting the general main concepts is really impt. I finished all sections early except for the quantitative section.

The OAT Kaplan book is really good. I thought that the MCAT kaplan book was kinda dry and had too much information that you didn't need to know but its a good resource to fall back on. Good luck!

 

[destrin24]

I too used the Kaplan OAT and Kaplan MCAT book to study. I believe if you go over many practice problems and understand the main concepts, you will be fine taking the exam.

 

[mtrlOATgal]

I too used the Kaplan OAT and Kaplan MCAT book to study. I believe if you go over many practice problems and understand the main concepts, you will be fine taking the exam.

so are you saying that if i study with the kaplan oat and mcat to use as background then i;m fine? i;m just afraid the kaplan oat wont be hard enough and its more about getting practice tests online and from kaplan that is good

i found this site with practice tests but i lost it- does anyonek now any more/\

 

[ODduck]

so are you saying that if i study with the kaplan oat and mcat to use as background then i;m fine? i;m just afraid the kaplan oat wont be hard enough and its more about getting practice tests online and from kaplan that is good

i found this site with practice tests but i lost it- does anyonek now any more/\

The Kaplan OAT practice tests are plenty hard enough. I can't speak for others, but the Kaplan tests that I took were way more in-depth and difficult than the real test that I took. I always just tell people that if you are fairly comfortable with the Kaplan material, you probably will score well on the real OAT as long as you don't get nervous and lock-up on test day.

 

[destrin24]

I agree with the post above. Kaplan's practice questions are generally harder than the actual exam.

 

[tgp511]

As far as guessing...yeah I did a lot of it...try to narrow down your choices as much as possible. But if you can't, then make sure you consistently guess the same letter (you have a 1:5 shot at getting it right!). Random letters won't do you any good.

Not to be nitpicky, but randomly guessing any letter will give you a 1:5 chance of guessing the right one. Guessing B repeatedly will give you the same expected value as guessing A B C D E A B C D E etc. because your chances for getting the right answer are 1:5 regardless of what pattern you put them in. Each test question is an independent event, and has no dependence on the previous question.

See gambler's fallacy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy

 

[j-dawg]

I studied using the Kaplan online program and found it to be a great prep. I studied for like 5-6 weeks, did the Kaplan tests, and the sample test on opted.org. The Kaplan tests are waaaayyy harder than the OAT itself (especially the Physics section) but getting used to harder material means that you are set for the test. Also, the strategies are very useful (i.e. learning to use the mouse with your left hand so you can write with your right - if you are right handed of course). I thought it was well worth the money
My sister was studying for the DAT at the same time so I also looked at the orgo section of "DAT destroyer" for a good review. Overall I think it was much more manageable that I thought it would be.

 

[aam0050]

I enrolled in the Kaplan course over the summer then studied on my own for a few months afterwards. I think a couple months of dedicated studying would do the trick. I took the long route.. but I don't care since it worked out in the end!

While I was in the Kaplan course, I was also enrolled in my last undergrad course, and in between graduating and taking the OAT, I got married and honeymooned for a week.. I had too many distractions in between and used up more time than I had originally planned!!

I don't recommend all the little breaks like I had, because I had to go over the same material repeatedly. But, if things do come up, it's not the end of the world. You'll be fine as long as you take the OAT when you feel ready. I kept pushing mine back even though I didn't want to (wanted to get my app completed earlier), because I didn't feel confident yet. I knew it would be better to get it right the first time than re-take it!😱