Interview/OAT retake HELP??

[eye see]

Here are my OAT scores:
Bio: 310
Gen Chem: 350
Ochem: 340
RC: 270
Physics: 340
QR: 310

AA: 320
TS: 340

GPA: 3.29

I got an interview invite from ICO and SUNY, haven't heard back from SALUS. And SCCO (RC must be above 300) and NECO said they'll relook at my application after I retake the OATs in January.

I know SUNY prefers scores above 320, so do you think they'll ask me to retake the OATs? I would like to get an interview from SCCO, but will seats be filled up already by late January/early feb? so should I even bother retaking it? I'm just not sure if I can even increase my RC score (my weakness) and if I can even reach those scores again or do better for the other sections on the test....

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DawgOD]

they want you to retake your OATs? Omg.. i wouldnt.

that reading section is all messed up.. I got a 270 too.. And I know I'm not illiterate. lol.

 

[yo gabba gabba]

Ya I wouldn't retake it either. I scored pretty low on my RC section as well (240) but pretty high on the science sections and none of the schools asked me to retake it but they did ask about the score so be prepared to explain yourself. I had interviews from suny, ico and pco. I was accepted to ico and pco but put on hold at suny for my inconsistency in my transcript. So I think just go ahead and do your interviews, if they like you you'll get accepted. If they like you but want you to retake your OATs, then they might accept you conditionally until you retake it or put you on hold. Hope that helps!

 

[blysssful]

SUNY probably will ask you to retake the OAT. It is one of the schools that puts a significant amount of weight on the test. If the RC section was the only section you were weak in, they might let it slide, but you have three sections that are well below SUNY's average scores. If you had a higher GPA it might be different, but study hard for your retake.

To boost your RC score, a good thing to do would be to read scientific journals-- especially in topics that you aren't interested in.

DawgOD: the RC section specifically tests your ability to comprehend technical and scientific literature. Doing poorly on that section doesn't make you illiterate, but it may still reflect on how well you will be able to comprehend optometry-related literature in optometry school.

yo gabba gabba: Your example of being accepted with a very low RC score is an anecdote, and on the whole it is definitely in the OP's best interest to retake the OAT.

 

[jc10101]

i had the same problem!

I got a 280 in RC, but a 340 AA, 350 TS.

SCCo asked me to retake, so i did.

got the same RC score, higher in all other subjects. they refuse to grant me an interview and i refuse to take again. but ive gotten interviews almost everywhere else ive applied. i would retake if you want scco, but i have no idea how to increase RC i thought i did much better, but nothing changed.

 

[eye see]

SUNY probably will ask you to retake the OAT. It is one of the schools that puts a significant amount of weight on the test. If the RC section was the only section you were weak in, they might let it slide, but you have three sections that are well below SUNY's average scores. If you had a higher GPA it might be different, but study hard for your retake.

To boost your RC score, a good thing to do would be to read scientific journals-- especially in topics that you aren't interested in.

Blysssful: i see that your in the SUNY class of 2013! Congrats! I was wondering if you could tell me how you like the school, and what made you decide to attend SUNY. And do you have any interview advice?

And I was also wondering if you could suggest a resource for scientific journals. The only thing i'm worried about with reading journals is that how do I know i'm comprehending the info when I'm not following up the articles with questions? And it's hard to time myself also....

 

[blysssful]

Blysssful: i see that your in the SUNY class of 2013! Congrats! I was wondering if you could tell me how you like the school, and what made you decide to attend SUNY. And do you have any interview advice?

And I was also wondering if you could suggest a resource for scientific journals. The only thing i'm worried about with reading journals is that how do I know i'm comprehending the info when I'm not following up the articles with questions? And it's hard to time myself also....

1) How do I like SUNY?
Maybe now (with finals rapidly approaching) isn't the best time for me to answer that Kidding aside, I am very happy here and I can't even count how many times I've said that I definitely made the right decision for me. The semester started off kind of slow and all I could think was "What is all the fuss about? Optometry school is EASY!"... then I realized what all the fuss was about. Conceptually, the material in general isn't any more difficult than in undergrad (for now, anyway), but there is A LOT of it. Without exaggerating, the amount of material that we'd spend three lectures on in undergrad is gone through in about half a lecture (more so with certain professors than others). The professors are (mostly) brilliant and IMO concerned that we are really understanding the material. My classmates are awesome (except achirum, framecontrol & jagyjen ) and even though we spend every waking moment together during the week, we still choose to see each other all the time outside of school too.

I won't lie, it is stressful as hell, and instead of doing this I should REALLY be studying... but I feel like I've learned more in this past semester than I have in two years of undergrad.

2) What made me decide on SUNY?
A million different reasons. In general, I felt that SUNY has a better program than any other school I was considering. The clinic is full of patients of every socioeconomic type requiring attention from all the specialties you could hope to see. I knew that the caliber of students accepted to SUNY would keep me on my toes and push me towards becoming an excellent doctor.

And, I've always wanted to live in NYC.

3) Interview advice?
Present them with the best version of yourself that you can offer. Use examples from your experiences to answer their questions. If you get thrown off by a question, don't be afraid to say, "hm, let me think about this for a second" rather than having verbal diarrhea and saying something that doesn't make any sense. Check out the link for the interview feedback.

4) Scientific journals & RC
Pubmed is free. Google scholar has a ton of journal papers that are sometimes free. Your school library (if you're still in undergrad) might also grant you access to more. If you have a professor you can talk to who has done research, read things that they have written and ask if you could discuss it with them to make sure you're understanding it. If nothing else, learn how to accurately skim passages for important key words. I wasn't necessarily suggesting that you use the journal papers as a substitute for practicing real RC passages, I just mean to use them as a supplement.
Visit this link for more strategies: http://optometrystudents.com/oat-test-prep-reading-comprehension/

 

[eye see]

thank you very much!

 

[eye see]

I was also wondering... how exactly do you go about explaining a low RC score? If I was really honest I would say that I actually didn't think i did that bad on it but when I got my score, I was a little surprised. But I don't think that's a very good answer haha. Or do I go into depth and possibly say that even though I'm Korean-American, my parents had me speak only Korean to them and at home. But i'm sure that theres other people out there who also speak another language at home and did fine on the RC section... hmm i dunno...

 

[DrTraaan]

removed