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- Pre-Optometry
Hey guys!
Reading about other peoples OAT experience definitely made me feel better before taking my exam so I figured I would tell you how mine went!
How I studied:
I took a total of 2 months studying for the OAT. I was also working full time as an opt technician (40-45 hours a week) during this period of time. I would study 2-3 hours a night after work and 5-8 hours a day on my days off.
I started by taking a kaplan practice test blind. I did horrible and it motivated me to study hard.
Before I even opened a book I watched all of chad's videos and took notes. I took gen chem like 3 years ago so I completely forgot everything so I watched that first. I did the quizes at the end of each subject (not at the end of each video) and re watched sections that I did not score over 80%.
Bio: Read the kaplan book once
Gen chem: I spent the most time on this section. After chads videos, I read both the kaplan gen chem section and an old MCAT gen chem book. I did a ton of practice questions and memorized formulas. I refused to re learn all of that molecular geometry garbage because I did not think it was worth the 1 question that would be on the test about it.
Orgo: I did horrible in orgo 1, but really well in orgo 2 in college. I focused on the old stuff that I never really learned completely and just reviewed the organic 2 reactions as well as activating/deactivating aromatic stuff. This was all in the big kaplan book.
RC: Nothing
Physics: I did lots of practice questions from an old MCAT book as well as all of the Kaplan questions. I also read and did all of the Princeton review physics book. I was afraid of physics since I did not do well in physics 1 and the majority of the OAT questions were on physics 1 material.
QR: I only spent a few hours studying this. I just practiced mental math and reviewed high school stuff like combinations/permutations etc
I took the ADA practice OAT and did surprisingly well 2 days before the test so this helped my confidence.
Test day: Did not study the night before, went to sleep early and reviewed physics and chem formulas an hour before the test. I got there an hour early and talked to a guy in his 40s doing his continuing education about gator football which calmed my nerves.
I checked in and the level of security made me feel like I was going through customs at the airport!
Anyways...I did not feel ready for the exam honestly, I knew my gen chem was weak and worried about physics since the kaplan test was so formula based.
So the actual OAT:
BIO: A little bit of everything. Know your plants because everyone knows this knowledge is essential for doing a decent refraction 😉. There is no good way to study for this honestly. Just use your brain! I just relied on my biology degree and HEAVILY relied on process of elimination. At least 2 of the answers for every question are completely irrelevant. I would save studying this for last if you are confident in your college education in bio.
GEN CHEM: I hated this section. If you are good at chemistry, this should be easy for you. There were very few difficult questions, just a wide range of material. KNOW ACIDS/BASES KEQ and PERIODIC TRENDS. I guessed on a lot of these questions
ORGO: Not too bad! Unlike college orgo classes, most questions were the easiest version of a reaction. Most will make sense if you recognize what is going on and have seen the reagents before. Know how different functional groups work and what they react with. Also know what reduces/oxidizes stuff. Just have a solid grasp of most reactions and don't overthink it.
RC: 1 article was kind of hard. The others were about SAT level in my opinion. I did not have a strategy for this section. I just read the article, looked at the questions, and went back to figure out what the answer was. There was only like 2-3 questions that required you to interpret something. Most were strictly comprehension.
BREAK: I stepped outside and took 5 minutes to relax before physics
Physics: Uhh.. I dont know what to say about this really. Mostly conceptual. I just made educated guesses mostly. A lot of the time you could eliminate negative or positive answers based on reading the question and thinking about what is actually going on. If you like using equations, memorize them, it wont hurt. I thought I was going to do better than I did on this section after finishing it...oh well
QR: Confusing, fast, annoying. If you are good at high school level math you will be fine, otherwise I pray for you. I found myself using the calculator for a lot of the questions. Don't be afraid of the calculator, just practice clicking fast!
Here are my practice test scores compared to the OAT
Kaplan1/Princeton1/ADA/OAT
Bio: 340/340/360/400
Gen Chem: 290/300/330/330
Orgo: 300/330/330/360
RC: na/na/na/380
Physics: 240 (lol)/300/340/330
QR: 300/320/330/330
TS: na/na/na/360
AA: na/na/na/360
In conclusion:
The ADA practice test seemed pretty accurate to me. I would save this one for last and it will boost your confidence after taking some of the harder ones like kaplan.
This is a hard test! If I had more time to study I would have. Otherwise, don't stress out! It's just a test. Also for those about to test, realize that most people that want to post about their experience did relatively well. These posts are from a skewed sample so don't worry too much.
GOODLUCK
Reading about other peoples OAT experience definitely made me feel better before taking my exam so I figured I would tell you how mine went!
How I studied:
I took a total of 2 months studying for the OAT. I was also working full time as an opt technician (40-45 hours a week) during this period of time. I would study 2-3 hours a night after work and 5-8 hours a day on my days off.
I started by taking a kaplan practice test blind. I did horrible and it motivated me to study hard.
Before I even opened a book I watched all of chad's videos and took notes. I took gen chem like 3 years ago so I completely forgot everything so I watched that first. I did the quizes at the end of each subject (not at the end of each video) and re watched sections that I did not score over 80%.
Bio: Read the kaplan book once
Gen chem: I spent the most time on this section. After chads videos, I read both the kaplan gen chem section and an old MCAT gen chem book. I did a ton of practice questions and memorized formulas. I refused to re learn all of that molecular geometry garbage because I did not think it was worth the 1 question that would be on the test about it.
Orgo: I did horrible in orgo 1, but really well in orgo 2 in college. I focused on the old stuff that I never really learned completely and just reviewed the organic 2 reactions as well as activating/deactivating aromatic stuff. This was all in the big kaplan book.
RC: Nothing
Physics: I did lots of practice questions from an old MCAT book as well as all of the Kaplan questions. I also read and did all of the Princeton review physics book. I was afraid of physics since I did not do well in physics 1 and the majority of the OAT questions were on physics 1 material.
QR: I only spent a few hours studying this. I just practiced mental math and reviewed high school stuff like combinations/permutations etc
I took the ADA practice OAT and did surprisingly well 2 days before the test so this helped my confidence.
Test day: Did not study the night before, went to sleep early and reviewed physics and chem formulas an hour before the test. I got there an hour early and talked to a guy in his 40s doing his continuing education about gator football which calmed my nerves.
I checked in and the level of security made me feel like I was going through customs at the airport!
Anyways...I did not feel ready for the exam honestly, I knew my gen chem was weak and worried about physics since the kaplan test was so formula based.
So the actual OAT:
BIO: A little bit of everything. Know your plants because everyone knows this knowledge is essential for doing a decent refraction 😉. There is no good way to study for this honestly. Just use your brain! I just relied on my biology degree and HEAVILY relied on process of elimination. At least 2 of the answers for every question are completely irrelevant. I would save studying this for last if you are confident in your college education in bio.
GEN CHEM: I hated this section. If you are good at chemistry, this should be easy for you. There were very few difficult questions, just a wide range of material. KNOW ACIDS/BASES KEQ and PERIODIC TRENDS. I guessed on a lot of these questions
ORGO: Not too bad! Unlike college orgo classes, most questions were the easiest version of a reaction. Most will make sense if you recognize what is going on and have seen the reagents before. Know how different functional groups work and what they react with. Also know what reduces/oxidizes stuff. Just have a solid grasp of most reactions and don't overthink it.
RC: 1 article was kind of hard. The others were about SAT level in my opinion. I did not have a strategy for this section. I just read the article, looked at the questions, and went back to figure out what the answer was. There was only like 2-3 questions that required you to interpret something. Most were strictly comprehension.
BREAK: I stepped outside and took 5 minutes to relax before physics
Physics: Uhh.. I dont know what to say about this really. Mostly conceptual. I just made educated guesses mostly. A lot of the time you could eliminate negative or positive answers based on reading the question and thinking about what is actually going on. If you like using equations, memorize them, it wont hurt. I thought I was going to do better than I did on this section after finishing it...oh well
QR: Confusing, fast, annoying. If you are good at high school level math you will be fine, otherwise I pray for you. I found myself using the calculator for a lot of the questions. Don't be afraid of the calculator, just practice clicking fast!
Here are my practice test scores compared to the OAT
Kaplan1/Princeton1/ADA/OAT
Bio: 340/340/360/400
Gen Chem: 290/300/330/330
Orgo: 300/330/330/360
RC: na/na/na/380
Physics: 240 (lol)/300/340/330
QR: 300/320/330/330
TS: na/na/na/360
AA: na/na/na/360
In conclusion:
The ADA practice test seemed pretty accurate to me. I would save this one for last and it will boost your confidence after taking some of the harder ones like kaplan.
This is a hard test! If I had more time to study I would have. Otherwise, don't stress out! It's just a test. Also for those about to test, realize that most people that want to post about their experience did relatively well. These posts are from a skewed sample so don't worry too much.
GOODLUCK
