kaplan phyiscs and oat physics

[surfer120]

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My friend who took her oat last year told me there were maybe 5 calculation questions out of the 40 physics questions. Kaplan is almost all calculations, how are people studying for this? anyone who already took the test am i wasting my time memorizing every equation?

 

[theblackorchid]

I'm wondering the same thing. I know someone who took it last year and he said he did very few calculations and that it was almost entirely conceptual. I just hope it's not going to be as tricky as the Physics Destroyer problems. Physics has always been my weakest subject and I'm taking the test next Wednesday so I'm really starting to get worried about it.

 

[fastflora]

Same here! Same here! I've written down all of the equations, but most of all, I'm trying to picture & understand every question. If I can see, I'm hoping, I can solve it.

I'm really worried about Physics...then my Science section. I'm taking the OAT on Demand through Kaplan & not happy with the practice test scores at all. My OAT is next week.

 

[mseyes]

Same here!!! My exam is August 31 and I'm struggling with physics destroyer! Im getting so discouraged. How did your exam go?

 

[theblackorchid]

I took it yesterday and physics was pretty bad for me. It didn't help that the power went out right after I got started on that section. They brought the computers back up and mine was the second one up so I had to get back to work with other people chattering about getting their computers going. There were more calculations than I expected. The concepts weren't bad, but I had some weird questions about capacitors and sound interference that really threw me off. I think if you can at least get through some destroyer problems and understand what you're doing you'll be fine. In all fairness I really didn't focus on physics as much as I should have. I spent more time focusing on gen chem than anything else and apparently it paid off because I got a 400 there. I'm just so happy to be done with it!

 

[mseyes]

Good for you!! A 400 is fantastic, you should be so proud of yourself! I saw a tutor today and again on Saturday and then one more time before my OAT in August 31. Im just going to continue doing all the problems I can get through and hope for the best. Sorry to hear about the incidence at the test center that must of been so annoying! Are you from jersey?

 

[theblackorchid]

Nope I'm in Kansas. I had no idea there was going to be a storm because it was bright and sunny when I went in. Oh well, it's a funny story and if they ask me about my low physics score at the interview at least I have an excuse...kind of. Good luck on yours! Let us know how it goes!

 

[mseyes]

Hey Blackorchid,
Thanks! What did you use to study for BIO? any suggestions?

 

[littlelexy]

I recently took the OAT and I studied for it using Kaplan as well. I found the physics questions on the OAT MUCH easier than the Kaplan ones and I scored higher too so I wouldn't worry too much about scoring low on Kaplan. As long as you can consistently score above 300 on Kaplan practice tests you'll be able to at least do decently for the OAT 🙂

I don't think it's a waste of time to memorize the equations. Approximately half of the questions I had on the real thing were problem solving questions (or at least questions that can be answered with the help of the equations) Sometimes knowing the equations will actually help you on the theory questions so I definitely recommend knowing the equations. Also, when you use certain equations a lot, you'll memorize them without even realizing it. As for the equations that aren't so commonly used, you'll find that some of them are quite similar to the other equations.

Hope that getting an additional perspective on it helps! 🙂

And BlackOrchid, congrats on your 400 in genchem! That's an amazing score! Now you can relax and not worry about the OAT anymore.

 

[surfer120]

thanks guys for all the helpful information, my test is soon and i just began worrying a bit. Littlelexy if you dont mind could you possibly tell me what you got on your last two kaplan practice exams and then on your real oat? and also the time in between your last practice exam and the test? if you dont feel comfortable saying it here if you can message it to me that would be great and if your not comfortable with that either then thanks a lot anyways i appreciate it.

 

[littlelexy]

I THINK the last two practice scores for physics were 310 and 320. I ended up scoring a 350 on the real thing. I only had a day or two between the last practice exam and writing the real thing but during those couple of days I read over all my study notes and memorized the equations (which I'm honestly not sure why I didn't do that sooner) so that may account for the difference in my scores especially since I ended up scoring much higher on the real thing for every section.

But given all that, I still think the physics on the real test is much easier than the Kaplan ones. I found the problem solving questions to be more straight forward than the Kaplan ones. I can't really compare theory though because Kaplan doesn't give many of those questions. As long as you can do and understand what you're doing in the Kaplan practice questions, you shouldn't have a huge problem with the OAT problem solving questions.

 

[surfer120]

thats great! thats what i am aiming for as well, 350 is very solid thank you! i was actually wondering about all your scores not just physics, how well did they correlate between your final two exams and the actual test?

 

[sbopt87]

I took the test already, and yes it is easier than the kaplan. I found there to be more math than conceptual questions. The conceptual seemed to be the easier ones like where is the image real or virtual.

The math was Resistance/Magnification and focal length/ Tension/ anything sliding down a slope/ momentum/ KE/ Work/ Fulcrum or torque/ Gravitation. So I would say understand it, just don't memorize the equations, b/c there was only a few straight forward questions.

 

[bluexparadise]

Kaplan Physics was definietly harder than OAT Physics. I did terrible on Kaplan's and it turned out that my physics score was the highest. It was really ironic that the subjects I did best in for Kaplan turned out to be the worst.
However, Kaplan's Physics was great practice. It's probably the reason I ended up doing well on the real OAT