NEED advice for OAT! Did bad on my first mock test!

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ocab24

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Hello all,

I'm interested in applying for Nova Southeastern University for the school of Optometry starting next fall 2012. I'm doing great in every aspect of the application EXCEPT the OAT! I have a 4.0 GPA, graduated honors from MDC, was part of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and have shadowed a top class graduate Optometrist from Nova who now owns his own optical. Currently go to Florida International University. I have all my LOR done and everything is great, again, except for my OAT practice! Havnt scheduled it yet, but already paid for it. I took my first Kaplan mock test today and got these horrific scores:

BIO 290
GEN 270
ORG 300
REA 250
PHY 220
MAT 330


AS 277
SS 287

Its 11/14/11 and i take it sometime in december, (deadline for appl. is April 1st, 2012). Im also trying to slide in with 90 credits instead of my bachelors. All i need left is Bio chem, my Bios, and micro Bio. Let me know!

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Hello all,

I'm interested in applying for Nova Southeastern University for the school of Optometry starting next fall 2012. I'm doing great in every aspect of the application EXCEPT the OAT! I have a 4.0 GPA, graduated honors from MDC, was part of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and have shadowed a top class graduate Optometrist from Nova who now owns his own optical. Currently go to Florida International University. I have all my LOR done and everything is great, again, except for my OAT practice! Havnt scheduled it yet, but already paid for it. I took my first Kaplan mock test today and got these horrific scores:

BIO 290
GEN 270
ORG 300
REA 250
PHY 220
MAT 330


AS 277
SS 287

Its 11/14/11 and i take it sometime in december, (deadline for appl. is April 1st, 2012). Im also trying to slide in with 90 credits instead of my bachelors. All i need left is Bio chem, my Bios, and micro Bio. Let me know!

What types of classes have you taken so far? physics 1 or 2? orgo? gen chem? which bios? If you have a 4.0 gpa and got those scores it just seems to me you havent taken the appropriate classes yet. If you have taken them, i think you just need to study a lot more. For someone with your grades, the OAT should not be that difficult.
 
Hello all,

I'm interested in applying for Nova Southeastern University for the school of Optometry starting next fall 2012. I'm doing great in every aspect of the application EXCEPT the OAT! I have a 4.0 GPA, graduated honors from MDC, was part of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and have shadowed a top class graduate Optometrist from Nova who now owns his own optical. Currently go to Florida International University. I have all my LOR done and everything is great, again, except for my OAT practice! Havnt scheduled it yet, but already paid for it. I took my first Kaplan mock test today and got these horrific scores:

BIO 290
GEN 270
ORG 300
REA 250
PHY 220
MAT 330


AS 277
SS 287

Its 11/14/11 and i take it sometime in december, (deadline for appl. is April 1st, 2012). Im also trying to slide in with 90 credits instead of my bachelors. All i need left is Bio chem, my Bios, and micro Bio. Let me know!



Take the one given from the OptomCAS and get back to me.
Kaplan mock test can be a little... off. I have taken many practice tests and I found the official one to be most accurate score-wise.

here is the link

https://www.ada.org/oat/index.html
 
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I think kaplan test are not like the real thing. The practice test from optomcas is a lot closer. Get one of those 1000 kaplan page prep books, review and do practice problems constantly. I also went to the library and find prep books on every subject. Also, one thing you HAVE to work on is timing. It's very different on the computer and you have very limited time to do everything. I used OATachiever for that but it is a lot harder than the real thing so I won't recommend buying it unless you have the $.
 
I took the Kaplan course and it raised my OAT like 100 points - so I know you can do it too! I did the majority of my studying in about 1 month.

If you have full access to their stuff...use their workshops and subject tests (those are harder than what you will have on the actual OAT and may require looking up some answers...but I took each of them multiple times and it helped SO much). I did that mostly just with bio and chem. I also read all the chapters in the Lecture Notes (big book!) for those two sections and memorized the flashcards for them. I got a 400 in both of those sections.

I didn't work as hard on any of the other sections - I memorized the physics flashcards and maybe read one or two chapters about that and that was all. With your score, I would recommend the workshops, flashcards, and book chapters for that section too. I think the thing for physics is just that there are lots of formulas to memorize, which isn't the case with the other sections. So focus on that for there :)

I didn't really study orgo and that was my weakest section. That's one of your stronger scores now, plus most people say they do better on the actual OAT over their Kaplan scores for that section, so I wouldn't spend your time there at this point.

For reading, use the Kaplan strategies. I think the Kaplan tests have 3 relatively hard passages to read and I could never get through all of them on any practice test. Just practice the strategy of writing down keywords by paragraph (only a few), because that will definitely help if you get good at it. On the actual OAT, only the first passage I had was hard (and it was a doozy). The second two passages were fairly easy and I finished with plenty of time left over (even though that had never happened to me on any Kaplan practice tests).

For math, I thought the Kaplan tests were easier than the actual OAT. Maybe it was because my brain just got fried by that section on the real one...not sure. I finished every practice Kaplan test with leftover time on math and got a 400...but then didn't finish on the real thing and got a 360. That was the only section where my score went down from the Kaplan tests - most of them went up substantially (but I took ALL of the practice tests - did one every weekend - and it helped sooo much). There were just lots of multi-step problems on the actual OAT math, so everything took me forever.

Even still, I think my actual OAT scores were maybe 30-40 points higher than my final practice test from Kaplan.

I used that practice test the last person posted too. It's helpful, but I felt like some sections were too easy. I really used the scoring guide at the end though to understand my performance and what I needed in order to score well.

GOOD LUCK!
 
My Kaplan practice tests were so much harder than my actual oat. I think they prepare you for the worst. My diagnostic score was 280 and i got a 340 on test day.
 
Hello all,

I'm interested in applying for Nova Southeastern University for the school of Optometry starting next fall 2012. I'm doing great in every aspect of the application EXCEPT the OAT! I have a 4.0 GPA, graduated honors from MDC, was part of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and have shadowed a top class graduate Optometrist from Nova who now owns his own optical. Currently go to Florida International University. I have all my LOR done and everything is great, again, except for my OAT practice! Havnt scheduled it yet, but already paid for it. I took my first Kaplan mock test today and got these horrific scores:

BIO 290
GEN 270
ORG 300
REA 250
PHY 220
MAT 330


AS 277
SS 287

Its 11/14/11 and i take it sometime in december, (deadline for appl. is April 1st, 2012). Im also trying to slide in with 90 credits instead of my bachelors. All i need left is Bio chem, my Bios, and micro Bio. Let me know!




I would say give yourself a month and really dedicate yourself to it. Make a schedule for yourself so you study everyday (taking one day off a week). To give you some reference my diagnostic score was for the Kaplan test was 290 (two months before the test) and I got a 330 on the actual day scoring well beyond what I scored even a week before the test (I think I got 290-310's for most of my practice tests). I panicked as well, and did some serious hardcore studying. Now, I'm not telling you these horrendous scores to make you feel like this will miraculously happen for you as well. Just remember it really takes a lot of effort!!! And my scores isn't even the most amazing....

For Bio: it's a random assortment of things, make sure you're well accustomed to random facts. I wasn't a Bio major but because I went through many flashcards, and re-read some chapters I didn't know anything about I got a 350 (originally around....250 or something on practice tests).

For G. Chem: Watch these videos they saved my life in gen chem (which i was really rusty on): http://www.***********.com/forumdisplay.php?34-Chad-s-Videos

Organic: I can't really tell you ...b/c I didn't do that great I got a 320 or so. But just practice it.

Reading: Don't read the passages. Learn to skim quickly and efficiently for the most important details ONLY. Make sure you recognize the types of questions they ask and WHAT THEY ARE ACTUALLY ASKING FOR. They do tricky questions all the time. It's not hard, you just have to really pay attention.

Physics: Practice practice practice!!! and watch the videos (above).

Math: Same...practice. It seems like you're doing fine though. But be aware, that you want to make sure you've got this down b/c on the actual day you're going to be exhausted by the time you tackle math.

Good luck! You'll be just fine as long as you commit yourself to doing well and follow through (with a sense of urgency).
 
I agree with the above poster (itscarolinablue) except for the reading comprehension.

For reading comprehension actually read the ENTIRE passage. Take notes on the major points in each paragraph and number your notes according to paragraph so it is easy to refer back to the paragraph to confirm your answer.

On my first practice reading comprehension I got about a 250. I studied just a SAT book to get used to reading comprehension and taking notes and then used MCAT and DAT reading comprehension samples. I did at least 1 practice reading section a day for about a month and a half.

I ended up getting a 380 on the reading comprehension on my actual OAT
 
What types of classes have you taken so far? physics 1 or 2? orgo? gen chem? which bios? If you have a 4.0 gpa and got those scores it just seems to me you havent taken the appropriate classes yet. If you have taken them, i think you just need to study a lot more. For someone with your grades, the OAT should not be that difficult.
I have taken gen chem 1 & 2, college algebra, trig and pre calc, calculus, stats, anatomy and phisiology, physics 1 and currently this semester im tackling orgo 1 and physics 2. Have not taken Bios yet but look atleast at 2 vids from kahnacademy bio section and memorize 20 flash cards daily.
 
My Kaplan practice tests were so much harder than my actual oat. I think they prepare you for the worst. My diagnostic score was 280 and i got a 340 on test day.
Yeah i keep hearing that from everyone. I think im going to keep studying kaplans solutions but keep in mind these tests are more difficult. You got accepted this year to start at Nova in 2012?
 
Take the one given from the OptomCAS and get back to me.
Kaplan mock test can be a little... off. I have taken many practice tests and I found the official one to be most accurate score-wise.

here is the link

https://www.ada.org/oat/index.html
Im going to give that one a try. From what i hear from everyone on this forum and others is that kaplans test are harder. Ima try it out and see
 
I would say give yourself a month and really dedicate yourself to it. Make a schedule for yourself so you study everyday (taking one day off a week). To give you some reference my diagnostic score was for the Kaplan test was 290 (two months before the test) and I got a 330 on the actual day scoring well beyond what I scored even a week before the test (I think I got 290-310's for most of my practice tests). I panicked as well, and did some serious hardcore studying. Now, I'm not telling you these horrendous scores to make you feel like this will miraculously happen for you as well. Just remember it really takes a lot of effort!!! And my scores isn't even the most amazing....

For Bio: it's a random assortment of things, make sure you're well accustomed to random facts. I wasn't a Bio major but because I went through many flashcards, and re-read some chapters I didn't know anything about I got a 350 (originally around....250 or something on practice tests).

For G. Chem: Watch these videos they saved my life in gen chem (which i was really rusty on): http://www.***********.com/forumdisplay.php?34-Chad-s-Videos

Organic: I can't really tell you ...b/c I didn't do that great I got a 320 or so. But just practice it.

Reading: Don't read the passages. Learn to skim quickly and efficiently for the most important details ONLY. Make sure you recognize the types of questions they ask and WHAT THEY ARE ACTUALLY ASKING FOR. They do tricky questions all the time. It's not hard, you just have to really pay attention.

Physics: Practice practice practice!!! and watch the videos (above).

Math: Same...practice. It seems like you're doing fine though. But be aware, that you want to make sure you've got this down b/c on the actual day you're going to be exhausted by the time you tackle math.

Good luck! You'll be just fine as long as you commit yourself to doing well and follow through (with a sense of urgency).
Yeah i think the scheduling daily thing is the hardest. I try to study everyday for it but sometimes i get so caught up with my current classes and then i get lazy. Hardest part fro me is that i havent taken a Bio course! so im constantly watching atleast 2 vids from the bio section in kahns academy and going over flashcards. My anatomy class helps me out there though. But for the most part, its the physics and reading that im scared for! Even though i have amazing grades, i havent had a great physics teacher over the years, its just sorta been "study.memorize.ace.forgetabout" way of thinking which sucks. i still have about a month before test day so i know i have to be more efficient this month and get to it.
 
I agree with the above poster (itscarolinablue) except for the reading comprehension.

For reading comprehension actually read the ENTIRE passage. Take notes on the major points in each paragraph and number your notes according to paragraph so it is easy to refer back to the paragraph to confirm your answer.

On my first practice reading comprehension I got about a 250. I studied just a SAT book to get used to reading comprehension and taking notes and then used MCAT and DAT reading comprehension samples. I did at least 1 practice reading section a day for about a month and a half.

I ended up getting a 380 on the reading comprehension on my actual OAT
would you suggest going to questions first, skimming them to have a good idea of what they want, and then start your reading?
 
I took the Kaplan course and it raised my OAT like 100 points - so I know you can do it too! I did the majority of my studying in about 1 month.

If you have full access to their stuff...use their workshops and subject tests (those are harder than what you will have on the actual OAT and may require looking up some answers...but I took each of them multiple times and it helped SO much). I did that mostly just with bio and chem. I also read all the chapters in the Lecture Notes (big book!) for those two sections and memorized the flashcards for them. I got a 400 in both of those sections.

I didn't work as hard on any of the other sections - I memorized the physics flashcards and maybe read one or two chapters about that and that was all. With your score, I would recommend the workshops, flashcards, and book chapters for that section too. I think the thing for physics is just that there are lots of formulas to memorize, which isn't the case with the other sections. So focus on that for there :)

I didn't really study orgo and that was my weakest section. That's one of your stronger scores now, plus most people say they do better on the actual OAT over their Kaplan scores for that section, so I wouldn't spend your time there at this point.

For reading, use the Kaplan strategies. I think the Kaplan tests have 3 relatively hard passages to read and I could never get through all of them on any practice test. Just practice the strategy of writing down keywords by paragraph (only a few), because that will definitely help if you get good at it. On the actual OAT, only the first passage I had was hard (and it was a doozy). The second two passages were fairly easy and I finished with plenty of time left over (even though that had never happened to me on any Kaplan practice tests).

For math, I thought the Kaplan tests were easier than the actual OAT. Maybe it was because my brain just got fried by that section on the real one...not sure. I finished every practice Kaplan test with leftover time on math and got a 400...but then didn't finish on the real thing and got a 360. That was the only section where my score went down from the Kaplan tests - most of them went up substantially (but I took ALL of the practice tests - did one every weekend - and it helped sooo much). There were just lots of multi-step problems on the actual OAT math, so everything took me forever.

Even still, I think my actual OAT scores were maybe 30-40 points higher than my final practice test from Kaplan.

I used that practice test the last person posted too. It's helpful, but I felt like some sections were too easy. I really used the scoring guide at the end though to understand my performance and what I needed in order to score well.

GOOD LUCK!
How much did all that prep material cost you? so far i only have the kaplan practice test book. How much were the workshops, and Big book?
Also, i think my biggest weakness is timing. I always finish guessing many questions due to badly pacing myself. I also feel that though i aced all my classes, that material is hard to remember because its been 1 or 2+ semesters since iv covered those types of questions and multi step problems. i feel like i need this last month before the test to be very efficient, BUT im also battling orgo 1 and physics 2 in school so its not like i have alot of free time. How should i scehdule myself this last month?
 
Hey guys, thanks for the advice so far, its really been great help. So far in this semester, i knocked out my orgo 1 lab and physics 1 lab. Starting this monday 11/21/11, i only have classes mondays and wednesdays. I still have my online physics class to also pay attention to, but point is, how should i schedule my last month of study only having to go to class twice a week? SInce i havnt taken any bios (but took anatomy and phisiology), i try to view minimum 2 vids+20 flash cards memorized a day. Im almost done with all 40 vids and 600+ flash cards on Bio, but feel like i need more attention to physics, then gen chem, then reading, and then the rest. I feel like these 3 are my weakest! I like math, its just the timing that messes me up, just gotta work on that and orgo will be pretty easy after i finish my final this semester. MY biggest nightmares are physics, reading, and gen chem. How should i study realistically this last month for the OAT to significantly to do good on test day? (remember, i need to do pretty good since im trying to skip the bachelors degree process, meaning ill be going in with 90 credits).
 
would you suggest going to questions first, skimming them to have a good idea of what they want, and then start your reading?
i also got a 380 on my reading comp section. personally, i think reading the questions first is a waste of time and you probably won't finish the section if you do it. the best advice i can give you is to pretend like the article you are reading is REALLY interesting. it sounds stupid but it helped me. i recalled things that i read much better than i did using any other method.

i tried taking notes on the sections, writing down key words as i went on some practice tests, but it was too time consuming.
 
would you suggest going to questions first, skimming them to have a good idea of what they want, and then start your reading?

I would not read the questions first, that takes up way to much time and I at least didn't get anything out of a pre reading the questions
 
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