Kaplan vs. OPTED Practice Tests

[dylennon]

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I’ve seen a lot of discussion in the previous posts about the similitude between the Kaplan practice tests, the OPTED practice test, and the actual OAT. It seems the breakdown is as so:

2010 and older: Kaplan is true to the real OAT and OPTED is far too easy
2011-2012: OPTED is truer to the OAT and Kaplan is far too easy (in fairness, the posters are usually talking about the QR section of Kaplan. In fact, they say the Physics section was almost overkill… but I’d rather have overkill).

I’m just curious as to whether or not there is any recent input on this topic. It makes sense that different editions of the Kaplan book are going to vary in their ease and the same probably holds true for the OPTED tests. There were some more recent threads created, but with very little input so I’m just hoping to get that conversation going again. I was going to use the OPTED test as my last practice test before I took the real thing, but wanted to get some input before I went ahead with that. Thanks, everyone!

 

[TheMotivator]

Hi,

There is only 1 version of the practice OAT exam on the ADA website, I believe that is dated 2009, correct?

 

[dylennon]

Hi,

There is only 1 version of the practice OAT exam on the ADA website, I believe that is dated 2009, correct?

You are correct. Sorry, I should have been more clear. Using the ADA test as a baseline, the older Kaplan books are considered harder while the newer ones are considered easier. May still be the case, but just wanted to see what everyone's thoughts were. Thanks!

 

[Cafeda]

I just took my OAT this morning, actually. My scores on the Kaplan 5th edition tests were ~320-330 overall, but I ended up scoring a 380 TS and 370 AA on the real thing. In comparison to Kaplan, the biology on my OAT was a bit more random, the chemistry was about the same (maybe a little easier), and the organic chem had a LOT more reactions. RC was about the same, except mine also asked a couple questions about tone. Physics was pleasant and much much easier than Kaplan.

As for OPTED, I only used it for physics and QR. I want to note that the physics was pretty similar to the real test, but the OPTED had an easier QR.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. 🙂

 

[dylennon]

Thank you very much, Cafeda. I appreciate the insight and congratulations on doing so well! I hope you get in to your first choice.

So you found the OPTED QR to be easier than the real thing? Did you think the Kaplan QR was easier than the real thing, too?

 

[Cafeda]

Yes, both OPTED and Kaplan (fifth edition) had easier QR sections. The OAT had more word problems and many many many triangles. The problems themselves were not necessarily difficult though. They just took longer for me to solve compared to OPTED and Kaplan.

However, I actually thought the 2009-2010 Kaplan QR was more difficult than the real QR.

 

[Mankiran]

OPTED definitely more easy. Achiever OAT way harder. Basically I would recommend doing both and expect a score in between.

 

[MonolithSADM]

I've done two practice tests for the online Kaplan class and did pretty terrible.

280 and 300...the 300 was on a full length. I've been doing Math Destroyer problems and the QR section on that full length was nothing like those Destroyer sections. The class and reading material for the Kaplan class for QR was awful...a few of the example problems were simple algebra. There was no trig in the first section of Kaplan's class.