I'm broke... study advice?

[273160]

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I'm going to be taking the OAT in about a month. I really haven't started studying yet, but for the last week, I've been trying to sort through all of the materials and decide which to use. Do people do well without all of the Kaplan etc. review materials (even second hand these usually seem to go for at least $200).

I'm considering purchasing Schaum's outline for Bio and Gen. chem. and then using class notes for physics and organic. Do you guys think this will work?

What would be your tips? Do MCAT materials correlate very well to the OAT(including verbal). Trying to find out how to study without dropping over $100 (I am willing to spend some money if there are good resources for under $100) is pretty overwhelming. Thanks!

 

[thanotoriousfob]

I'm going to be taking the OAT in about a month. I really haven't started studying yet, but for the last week, I've been trying to sort through all of the materials and decide which to use. Do people do well without all of the Kaplan etc. review materials (even second hand these usually seem to go for at least $200).

I'm considering purchasing Schaum's outline for Bio and Gen. chem. and then using class notes for physics and organic. Do you guys think this will work?

What would be your tips? Do MCAT materials correlate very well to the OAT(including verbal). Trying to find out how to study without dropping over $100 (I am willing to spend some money if there are good resources for under $100) is pretty overwhelming. Thanks!

You can do well without kaplan materials.

I've skimmed through schaum's outline. It is very detailed stuff but very good too. I would recommend it if you can absorb lots of information in a month's span.

If you have to spend money on something try the OAT destroyer. It's $160 brand new, but you might be able to find a used one on here, ebay or amazon that fits your budget. Good luck.

 

[mathcod]

Yea, you can study without buying all/any review materials, just use your textbooks that you used in your pre-req classes. However, a must-have purchase I strongly recommend are full-length practice OATs. I bought the Kaplan 2009-2010 book containing (3) tests for $30 retail. Any practice tests will be SUPER helpful. I give the Kaplan practice test book a 5 out of 5.

Using textbooks and practice OATs, I was able to self-review for the OAT in 2 weeks and got a stellar score. The OAT isn't that tough of an exam: the scoring seems very generous (in some sections, you can miss 20-25% of the questions and still get good scores) and the questions are pretty basic for the most part (eg standard punnett square questions at the highschool level). If you want, you can read my previous posts in other topics about tips for the OAT I thought were useful (like not underestimating QR even though it is highschool operations of math because of time constraints (50sec/problem?))

 

[sportsdude00]

Buy an old MCAT prep book online from ebay or something, which runs about $30 bucks. That should give you a good overview of each section and some practice questions as well. As for practice tests, I used the OAT achiever, and that was really good in preparing me for the timing/format of the test. Together those should run you about 100 bucks, and you can get a few extra books for specific subjects for a decent price and still have some money for partying after =]

 

[jymezg]

I bought the 08-09 version of Kaplan on half.com for like 4 bucks with shipping and thus my grand OAT study total was 4 bucks. I also found two MCAT books in the library donation box that I skimmed through. Thats about all you need.

 

[jc812]

Hey, I have the whole Kaplan review set going for 140.

Huge Review book
Lesson Book
Flash Cards
Practice Tests (VERY VERY useful)

 

[KHE]

I'm going to be taking the OAT in about a month. I really haven't started studying yet, but for the last week, I've been trying to sort through all of the materials and decide which to use. Do people do well without all of the Kaplan etc. review materials (even second hand these usually seem to go for at least $200).

I'm considering purchasing Schaum's outline for Bio and Gen. chem. and then using class notes for physics and organic. Do you guys think this will work?

What would be your tips? Do MCAT materials correlate very well to the OAT(including verbal). Trying to find out how to study without dropping over $100 (I am willing to spend some money if there are good resources for under $100) is pretty overwhelming. Thanks!

Just study from your classnotes. When I took the OAT (1994) there wasn't any sort of Kaplan, Princeton review etc. etc. There wasn't ANYTHING. Don't waste time and money with that crap.

You took chemistry, right? You have a textbook and some class notes? Read them!

You book biology, right? You have a textbook and some class notes? Read them!

I mean you probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on your undergraduate education. USE IT!

 

[EricaOD]

OAT Achiever is only 50 bucks and it's the only CBT out there that gives you detailed explanations to all of the questions it tests you on, like many students have said on this forum.

 

[tam2688]

Yes I agree, buy a used Kaplan with the practice tests and use it with your notes. If you get stuck on the Kaplan, go back and study your notes and text books, many people can do well with only their notes, but you have a month and you want to narrow down your studying so do that. Half.com has Kaplans for under $20 and older ones for about $4-5.

best of luck,
Tam

 

[pre-opt]

I took the written OAT back in 2005...so the OAT may be different now. However, what I did was use the inter-library loan system through school (it was a state school) and was able to study for the OAT for free. Check out your university's library and see if they can request books from other universities. Good luck!

 

[273160]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I took my OAT. For anyone else that wants to know, I basically bought an old MCAT Kaplan book which was pretty good for subject reviews. Some classes like organic I thought my class notes were better than the books. Bio and gen chem were very helpful from the kaplan books though because I haven't had those classes and a while and didn't know the scope. I also got books from the library like examkracker mcat books when they were available. The most helpful thing was to take the practice OAT tests that I got from a library kaplan book. It's best if you completely review questions you get wrong and don't feel content if you do well (there is a ton they can test outside of what anyone can put on apractice test).

I did well on the science portion. The reading comp and math caught me off gaurd. The reading seemed especially hard.. I thought I was going to bomb it but did ok. The math I thought I did pretty well but ended up getting a 300. I didn't practice either of those much at all so maybe that was my problem.