I just finished writing the OAT and thought that I’d share my experience!
I decided to write my OAT the summer after 2nd year rather than the usual student that does it after their 3rd year. There are a few benefits to this, one being that you have more time to potentially retake the exam if needed. I’d personally recommend taking the OAT after you’ve taken Organic Chemistry and Physics in undergrad, mostly because these are the sections that students have a lot of trouble with. Having been exposed to this material prior to the OAT is huge in preparing for the exam. To get a sense of the type of student I am, I’m currently doing Medical Sciences as my major and have about a 3.7 GPA.
Study Materials I used:
Kaplan Prep Book - 9/10
The very first resource that I purchased was the Kaplan Prep Book. The content that this book covers was very representative of the actual OAT. I personally recommend this resource for studying for the Bio section as it covers everything you need to know to the appropriate level. This book has multiple sections (Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Reading Comprehension, Physics, and Quantitative reasoning). Each section has certain chapters regarding a topic, along with practice questions and solutions at the end to test your knowledge. My Prep Book also came with 2 full online exams which I found very helpful. This is a great resource to use!
OAT Booster - 9/10
I personally found out about OAT Booster quite late into my studying but I had heard good things about it so I decided to purchase a membership and try it out. This resource was extremely easy to navigate and was very organized and structured. I personally had trouble studying Organic Chemistry and OAT Booster’s video solutions played a huge role in helping me understand the content a lot better. Their full length practice tests are very representative of the actual OAT and the scores you get on them translate very well to the actual OAT. The only downside is that there were no video solutions for physics and the physics questions were a bit harder than the actual OAT (which I guess for some people helps). Overall it is a great resource that I highly recommend!
Mometrix Flashcards - 4/10
I heard that this was a bit of an older resource but decided to give it a shot anyways. It comes with a lot of flashcards and I mean a LOT. They give you about 500 pages with 6 flashcards on each page that you personally need to fold out (which was tedious but pretty easy). The flashcards are very detailed but ask open-ended questions which can sometimes throw you off. I’d also say that there are some cards that are a bit redundant (talking about the same thing but in a different way). Overall this resource was not that representative of the OAT, at least when it came for the Bio section.
How I prepared:
I spent about 2 hours/day in the first month of studying, about 3 hours/day in my second month of studying, and about 4 hours/day in my last month of studying without taking any days off (even weekends). In total I studied about 3 months.
When it came to how I created my study plan, I didn’t really follow a structured procedure. I started in early May with KAPLAN Bio. My plan was to study about a chapter a day of just Bio. I got about 70% of the way through before I switched to doing Kaplan Gen Chem (still 1 chapter a day). By Mid-June I had finished Bio and Gen Chem for the most part but I decided to change things up and started using OAT Booster, especially for Organic chemistry. I still used KAPLAN to finish up Physics and just briefly skimmed through Reading Comprehension and Quantitative Reasoning strategies. I left about a month to do practice questions and OAT Booster’s practice exams were perfect for that. I made sure I did at least 2 full length practice exams as well. In addition, I made sure I kept reviewing Bio and Orgo Chem since I feel like those need to continuously be revised. For all the other sections, practice made me a lot better. Leading up to the OAT my productivity kind of dropped despite me shutting down my phone for large portions of the day. The day before the OAT I relaxed and took the entire day off without touching notes.
Biology (Scored 400)
Nothing was a real surprise here, especially if you’ve studied from KAPLAN and done OAT Booster exams. They can ask a broad range of topics. A lot of students focus less on taxonomy and I saw at least 3-4 questions on that topic.
General Chemistry (Scored 390)
Again, no surprises. Personally I didn't have many calculation questions but I’ve heard the opposite for other students. I personally only used KAPLAN to study and did practice exams from the OAT booster. I’ve heard Chad’s videos are really helpful too.
Organic Chemistry (Scored 380)
I didn’t have as many reaction-based questions compared to the practice exams that I did. Knowledge of reaction mechanisms and which conditions favor them is really important. OAT Booster videos were perfect for me.
Reading Comprehension (Scored 350)
Exactly what I expected. Practice reading scientific articles is very beneficial. I’d recommend trying to read the passages from the standpoint of the author to understand certain things like their tone, purpose, etc.
Physics (Scored 390)
This was a lot easier than OAT Booster exams. Not many complicated questions. Most are theory based and some do not require any math whatsoever. The ones that do require very easy math skills.
Quantitative Reasoning (Scored 400)
This was very similar to OAT Booster exams. No real surprises at all. I’d personally recommend keeping track of time because if a problem takes too long it's always best to move on. Some problems might require 3 whole minutes while others literally only take 20 seconds.
Final Score vs. Practice Test Scores:
I personally found myself doing a lot better on the actual OAT than the practice tests that I did. For reference, a week prior to my OAT, I did 2 full length exams (1 on OAT booster and 1 with KAPLAN) and got 360 AA on both. My actual OAT ended up being 380AA with 380 TS.
I decided to write my OAT the summer after 2nd year rather than the usual student that does it after their 3rd year. There are a few benefits to this, one being that you have more time to potentially retake the exam if needed. I’d personally recommend taking the OAT after you’ve taken Organic Chemistry and Physics in undergrad, mostly because these are the sections that students have a lot of trouble with. Having been exposed to this material prior to the OAT is huge in preparing for the exam. To get a sense of the type of student I am, I’m currently doing Medical Sciences as my major and have about a 3.7 GPA.
Study Materials I used:
Kaplan Prep Book - 9/10
The very first resource that I purchased was the Kaplan Prep Book. The content that this book covers was very representative of the actual OAT. I personally recommend this resource for studying for the Bio section as it covers everything you need to know to the appropriate level. This book has multiple sections (Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Reading Comprehension, Physics, and Quantitative reasoning). Each section has certain chapters regarding a topic, along with practice questions and solutions at the end to test your knowledge. My Prep Book also came with 2 full online exams which I found very helpful. This is a great resource to use!
OAT Booster - 9/10
I personally found out about OAT Booster quite late into my studying but I had heard good things about it so I decided to purchase a membership and try it out. This resource was extremely easy to navigate and was very organized and structured. I personally had trouble studying Organic Chemistry and OAT Booster’s video solutions played a huge role in helping me understand the content a lot better. Their full length practice tests are very representative of the actual OAT and the scores you get on them translate very well to the actual OAT. The only downside is that there were no video solutions for physics and the physics questions were a bit harder than the actual OAT (which I guess for some people helps). Overall it is a great resource that I highly recommend!
Mometrix Flashcards - 4/10
I heard that this was a bit of an older resource but decided to give it a shot anyways. It comes with a lot of flashcards and I mean a LOT. They give you about 500 pages with 6 flashcards on each page that you personally need to fold out (which was tedious but pretty easy). The flashcards are very detailed but ask open-ended questions which can sometimes throw you off. I’d also say that there are some cards that are a bit redundant (talking about the same thing but in a different way). Overall this resource was not that representative of the OAT, at least when it came for the Bio section.
How I prepared:
I spent about 2 hours/day in the first month of studying, about 3 hours/day in my second month of studying, and about 4 hours/day in my last month of studying without taking any days off (even weekends). In total I studied about 3 months.
When it came to how I created my study plan, I didn’t really follow a structured procedure. I started in early May with KAPLAN Bio. My plan was to study about a chapter a day of just Bio. I got about 70% of the way through before I switched to doing Kaplan Gen Chem (still 1 chapter a day). By Mid-June I had finished Bio and Gen Chem for the most part but I decided to change things up and started using OAT Booster, especially for Organic chemistry. I still used KAPLAN to finish up Physics and just briefly skimmed through Reading Comprehension and Quantitative Reasoning strategies. I left about a month to do practice questions and OAT Booster’s practice exams were perfect for that. I made sure I did at least 2 full length practice exams as well. In addition, I made sure I kept reviewing Bio and Orgo Chem since I feel like those need to continuously be revised. For all the other sections, practice made me a lot better. Leading up to the OAT my productivity kind of dropped despite me shutting down my phone for large portions of the day. The day before the OAT I relaxed and took the entire day off without touching notes.
Biology (Scored 400)
Nothing was a real surprise here, especially if you’ve studied from KAPLAN and done OAT Booster exams. They can ask a broad range of topics. A lot of students focus less on taxonomy and I saw at least 3-4 questions on that topic.
General Chemistry (Scored 390)
Again, no surprises. Personally I didn't have many calculation questions but I’ve heard the opposite for other students. I personally only used KAPLAN to study and did practice exams from the OAT booster. I’ve heard Chad’s videos are really helpful too.
Organic Chemistry (Scored 380)
I didn’t have as many reaction-based questions compared to the practice exams that I did. Knowledge of reaction mechanisms and which conditions favor them is really important. OAT Booster videos were perfect for me.
Reading Comprehension (Scored 350)
Exactly what I expected. Practice reading scientific articles is very beneficial. I’d recommend trying to read the passages from the standpoint of the author to understand certain things like their tone, purpose, etc.
Physics (Scored 390)
This was a lot easier than OAT Booster exams. Not many complicated questions. Most are theory based and some do not require any math whatsoever. The ones that do require very easy math skills.
Quantitative Reasoning (Scored 400)
This was very similar to OAT Booster exams. No real surprises at all. I’d personally recommend keeping track of time because if a problem takes too long it's always best to move on. Some problems might require 3 whole minutes while others literally only take 20 seconds.
Final Score vs. Practice Test Scores:
I personally found myself doing a lot better on the actual OAT than the practice tests that I did. For reference, a week prior to my OAT, I did 2 full length exams (1 on OAT booster and 1 with KAPLAN) and got 360 AA on both. My actual OAT ended up being 380AA with 380 TS.
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