My OAT Experience

[Aristen]

Hey Everyone!
I just got home from writing my OAT and reading other people's experiences really helped me, so I thought I'd post mine.
For preparation for the OAT, I got the Kaplan book once school finished up in the spring and studied that over the summer. I also worked an office job all summer that allowed me to wear headphones, so when I was feeling particularly studious I listened to YouTube videos on material I didn't feel confident about. I listened to all of the Crash Course Biology and Chemistry videos and Khan Academy for physics and anything else I needed further instruction on (metabolism and photosynthesis, specifically).

I showed up to the test centre about 45 minutes before my test time and we got started right away with the check in procedure. I had to show ID, lock my stuff away, sign in, have my picture taken, empty my pockets and pull up my pant legs. They also ran me over with a metal detector. They gave me laminated sheets and markers, a key to my locker, and some ear plugs (which were surprisingly good).

I did the tutorial just to get myself comfortable and into the right mindset for the test.

Bio: Was tough! Significantly harder than I expected. I still did okay on it, but there was stuff I wasn't expecting. Like others have said, it's very random, there's a little bit of everything on it. I was scoring 380-390 on the practise tests so I was sort of expecting it to be easy, but I found it quite tricky.

Chem: I honestly don't remember the chemistry section. I did well on it, and I wasn't expecting to, so it must have been okay.

Organic: I didn't do so well in this section. By far my worst section and I found it tricky while I was doing it. The reactions weren't always straightforward. If I had my time back, I would've done more reaction questions.

Reading Comprehension: Very fair. My scores on practise tests were varied, but I thought this was very fair on the actual OAT. The third passage was tricky, but they were all very do-able. I think I had pre-test questions in this section because if I remember correctly, I had 60 minutes and 50 questions instead of 50 minutes and 40 questions.

Break: I took 10 minutes. Went to the washroom, grabbed a snack and a glass of water. Walked around a bit to stretch my legs, went back inside and wrote out some physics formula.

Physics: I was scoring 280-300 on practise tests and it had me so scared. I spent the last week and a half doing every physics problem I could get my hands on. I re-did the Kaplan physics sections probably 5 times and found some other problems on the internet. I was really happy with it and I felt confident as I was doing it because I knew how to approach almost every question. Know your equations, and pretty much everything from 1st year physics. There was some stuff on the OAT that wasn't in Kaplan but I knew from 1st year physics.

Quantitative Reasoning: As a math major, I didn't do a whole lot of prep for this and I didn't find it too bad. As a Canadian, I found some of the calculations with the imperial system tricky, but overall it was fine. A lot of algebra. I was able to use the keyboard to work the calculator so that was helpful, and I needed the calculator a lot.

I did the post-test survey, my scores showed up, I signed out, got a print out of my scores and then left.

Here are my scores, if you're interested.
I took the Kaplan 1 before I started studying, kaplan 2 after I finished reviewing all the material, ADA after the Kaplan physics scared me so bad I spent all my waking hours studying physics lol (but it paid off! 2 weeks ago, I remember telling somebody 'Even if I can get 300 in physics, I'll be happy'. I'm more than happy with 380!)

Kap1/Kap2/ADA/Actual OAT
Bio: 380/390/380/360
Chem: 310/320/360/400
Organic: 290/350/350/310
Reading: 340/300/400/360
Physics: 260/260/330/380 (Still stunned that this happened)
QR: 350/360/390/360

For the actual OAT, my total science was 380 and AA was 360.
I'm a little bummed about Organic, but pretty pleased overall.

Hope you find this somewhat useful. Let me know if you have any questions or if there's anything I can do to help.
Good luck everyone!

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[Jalam]

Great scores! Congratulations! It seemed that the ADA was much easier than the real oat?? Also can you describe how the reading section is displayed on the exam. Like is it similar to kaplans layout where theres a little scrolling box and the passage restarts everytime you go on to the next question?

 

[Aristen]

Thanks! Yeah, the ADA was easier, but I wouldn't say significantly easier. The reading section is as you said, same layout as Kaplan with the little scrolling box and the passage restarts every time. I used the keys on the keyboard to scroll down. The paragraphs are numbered. I wrote down the important parts of each paragraph as I went and used that as a reference when looking for the answers. You can also highlight the text and right click to strikeout answer choices, things I don't think you can do on the Kaplan tests. I found that really useful.

 

[Jalam]

Thank you! Is the strike through future the same for all subjects? Also can you use the keyboard keys to "next" and "mark" questions?

 

[Aristen]

Thank you! Is the strike through future the same for all subjects? Also can you use the keyboard keys to "next" and "mark" questions?

I never tried to used the keyboard keys for next and mark, and I don't remember reading anything about it in the tutorial.
With regards to the strike though feature, I used it for all subjects, except for Quantitative Reasoning (because it was all calculations and I didn't really need to narrow anything down). It put a line though the whole answer, except for some of the Organic questions, where the options were chemical formulas and diagrams. For those questions, the strikeout went through the letter corresponding to the diagram, but not the diagram itself.