So I took my OAT today and I promised myself I would do one of these since they've helped me so much.
I was originally supposed to take the exam October 26th but I definitely was not ready and I decided to push it back a week to give myself a little more time, definitely one of the best decisions I made.
I got a subscription to DAT BOOTCAMP and that's basically what I used to study. Since the ADA makes the OAT and DAT this resource was really beneficial to me and I would totally recommend it. They did have practice physics questions too which were great in my opinion.
I kinda studied really on and off for a few months but the last 5-6 weeks was when I really started. I didn't leave my house and just spent 12-15 hours studying/doing practice. I did practice for about 2 and a half weeks after completion of the content review. I would say the best thing you can do is practice. YOU LEARN SO MUCH WHEN YOU PRACTICE. It's literally so so so important. I took only 1 kaplan practice test that I got from the purchase of the big blue book (please don't purchase the kaplan book, it's a huge waste of money. Course saver or bootcamp would be leaps and bounds better than kaplan).
I didn't do any reading practice, this has always been a weak point for me but I just didn't have a lot of time so I just focussed on the math and sciences (this turned out to be a mistake lol). I would definitely say it's worth doing a few practice sections for reading just to get your strategy down.
Also, Theres a ton more DAT practice stuff than OAT so I would just google practice DAT exams sometimes if I needed extra help. 1 free resource that I didn't use too much but would recommend is Defeatthedat.com. It's Chad from the coursaver videos and theres a ton of practice, video explanations, and practice tests for OC/GC/and QR. For QR I watched ORGOMAN's videos on youtube, I strongly recommend doing that if you're struggling with math.
here are my scores
Kaplan/Free ADA/ Real OAT
BIO: 320/380/380
GC: 330/340/350
OC: 300/400/330
QR: 300/350/370
PHY: 260/330/320
RC:330/---/ 290 (lol)
TS for OAT: 350 (85%)
AA for OAT: 340 (82%)
BIO: I found most of the questions weren't too tricky just really testing your knowledge on the content. DAT bootcamp biology notes really have everything you need to know for this section. I skipped plants other than learning basic anatomy of them. For taxonomy I learned the bare minimum. I watched these and just studied the chart for like 20-30 mins a day leading up to the exam DAT Taxonomy Video Miniseries I found the physiology part tho to be way to detailed so I just used cliffs, russel dw notes, and crashcourse/bozeman science videos to learn and reinforce everything.
GC/OC: Really straightforward, know your concepts. Chad on course savor or Mike on bootcamp go over everything you need. Try and go over the orgo rxns at least once a day or a few times a week to really drill them in your head. The rxns are important but they are not everything, make sure to not neglect the rest of orgo.
RC: Like I said I didnt really do anything for this. I wasted alot of time on the first article and it cost me time. Most of it was just basic search and destroy. Just try and do 3-5 practice passages)
PHY: For me this section was definitely more conceptual. I dont think any of the math problems were more than 1-2 steps. Know your vectors, momentum, impulse, electiric field/force, force equations, inclines, centripital force, frictional force, Kinematics, optics. The physics practice on DAT bootcamp is what I found to be the most representative, also its online for FREE! theres alot of problems, and they seem overwhelming but you just need to grasp how to solve those TYPES of problems. the explanations are good and theres alot of conceptual questions I found to be similar to ones I saw. Here is the link: Physics
QR: In my opinion the math was pretty basic, the comparison questions were honestly way easier than any practice I did. For this I just recommend watching the orgoman videos and then doing as much practice as you can. You just need to recognize the types of problems and then it all becomes easier. I did do the math destroyer for this and thought it was pretty good. The geometry/trig on it is definitely excessive. In my opinion Defeatthedat.com was the most similar but it did not include the comparison questions.
I'm so glad thats over lol. As you can see the ADA was the best indicator of my score. Kaplan was really hard. I did also take the 2007, and 2009 dat for BIO/GC/OC as well just for extra practice. (I definitely recommend taking both of these tests)
Bottom line: I would highly highly HIGHLY recommend DAT BOOTCAMP to anyone studying for the oat. THERE ARE SO MANY FREE RESOURCES ON BOOTCAMP. Even if you dont have a subscription check them out!!!!!!!!!
if you have any questions feel free to ask!!!! I would be happy to help 🙂
I was originally supposed to take the exam October 26th but I definitely was not ready and I decided to push it back a week to give myself a little more time, definitely one of the best decisions I made.
I got a subscription to DAT BOOTCAMP and that's basically what I used to study. Since the ADA makes the OAT and DAT this resource was really beneficial to me and I would totally recommend it. They did have practice physics questions too which were great in my opinion.
I kinda studied really on and off for a few months but the last 5-6 weeks was when I really started. I didn't leave my house and just spent 12-15 hours studying/doing practice. I did practice for about 2 and a half weeks after completion of the content review. I would say the best thing you can do is practice. YOU LEARN SO MUCH WHEN YOU PRACTICE. It's literally so so so important. I took only 1 kaplan practice test that I got from the purchase of the big blue book (please don't purchase the kaplan book, it's a huge waste of money. Course saver or bootcamp would be leaps and bounds better than kaplan).
I didn't do any reading practice, this has always been a weak point for me but I just didn't have a lot of time so I just focussed on the math and sciences (this turned out to be a mistake lol). I would definitely say it's worth doing a few practice sections for reading just to get your strategy down.
Also, Theres a ton more DAT practice stuff than OAT so I would just google practice DAT exams sometimes if I needed extra help. 1 free resource that I didn't use too much but would recommend is Defeatthedat.com. It's Chad from the coursaver videos and theres a ton of practice, video explanations, and practice tests for OC/GC/and QR. For QR I watched ORGOMAN's videos on youtube, I strongly recommend doing that if you're struggling with math.
here are my scores
Kaplan/Free ADA/ Real OAT
BIO: 320/380/380
GC: 330/340/350
OC: 300/400/330
QR: 300/350/370
PHY: 260/330/320
RC:330/---/ 290 (lol)
TS for OAT: 350 (85%)
AA for OAT: 340 (82%)
BIO: I found most of the questions weren't too tricky just really testing your knowledge on the content. DAT bootcamp biology notes really have everything you need to know for this section. I skipped plants other than learning basic anatomy of them. For taxonomy I learned the bare minimum. I watched these and just studied the chart for like 20-30 mins a day leading up to the exam DAT Taxonomy Video Miniseries I found the physiology part tho to be way to detailed so I just used cliffs, russel dw notes, and crashcourse/bozeman science videos to learn and reinforce everything.
GC/OC: Really straightforward, know your concepts. Chad on course savor or Mike on bootcamp go over everything you need. Try and go over the orgo rxns at least once a day or a few times a week to really drill them in your head. The rxns are important but they are not everything, make sure to not neglect the rest of orgo.
RC: Like I said I didnt really do anything for this. I wasted alot of time on the first article and it cost me time. Most of it was just basic search and destroy. Just try and do 3-5 practice passages)
PHY: For me this section was definitely more conceptual. I dont think any of the math problems were more than 1-2 steps. Know your vectors, momentum, impulse, electiric field/force, force equations, inclines, centripital force, frictional force, Kinematics, optics. The physics practice on DAT bootcamp is what I found to be the most representative, also its online for FREE! theres alot of problems, and they seem overwhelming but you just need to grasp how to solve those TYPES of problems. the explanations are good and theres alot of conceptual questions I found to be similar to ones I saw. Here is the link: Physics
QR: In my opinion the math was pretty basic, the comparison questions were honestly way easier than any practice I did. For this I just recommend watching the orgoman videos and then doing as much practice as you can. You just need to recognize the types of problems and then it all becomes easier. I did do the math destroyer for this and thought it was pretty good. The geometry/trig on it is definitely excessive. In my opinion Defeatthedat.com was the most similar but it did not include the comparison questions.
I'm so glad thats over lol. As you can see the ADA was the best indicator of my score. Kaplan was really hard. I did also take the 2007, and 2009 dat for BIO/GC/OC as well just for extra practice. (I definitely recommend taking both of these tests)
Bottom line: I would highly highly HIGHLY recommend DAT BOOTCAMP to anyone studying for the oat. THERE ARE SO MANY FREE RESOURCES ON BOOTCAMP. Even if you dont have a subscription check them out!!!!!!!!!
if you have any questions feel free to ask!!!! I would be happy to help 🙂
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