futureOD_04
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- Jul 28, 2023
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Hey y’all! I recently took the OAT and I’m super grateful for my scores! I’ll do my best to give a breakdown of how I prepared and what worked for me! Big thank you to everyone who helped answer my questions throughout this process!
Study materials:
OATBooster 9.5/10
Booster is the only resource I used, and I truly believe it is the only resource you need to succeed on this test. They cover every possible topic you can get tested on and the question banks + practice tests will cover several different variations of questions that might come up on the OAT. The only thing keeping me from giving a 10/10 rating is that I think the Physics videos could have been more comprehensive, but the notes made up for it!
How I studied
I initially had my test scheduled for July 13 and had started studying on May 1st right after final exams but ended up postponing my exam to July 25th as I wanted to go over Physics a few more times. I studied for around 11 weeks (6-7 days a week) and was following OATBooster’s 10 week schedule up until the Phase 3 where I opted to do my own thing and review the topics that I felt I needed more practice in. During this time, I was also working part-time so I’d study around 5-6 hours after work each day. By the end of my studying, I had done every single question from the question banks for all sections + had written all the practice tests for all sections.
Biology (Scored: 400)
I found the Bio section on my test to be way broader than the Booster practice tests. I also didn’t have many Taxonomy questions. Of course, this will vary from test version to test version, so I highly recommend going over all the topics thoroughly. The animated videos were a great way to review the denser topics like Immunology and Embryology near the end of my studying. I think if you’re tight on time, focusing on just the cheat sheets could very well get you a great score! I also did not use any of the flash cards (Quizlet/Anki) as I never found them helpful personally but do what works best for you!
General Chemistry (Scored: 360)
I think Booster was very representative for this section. Not really many questions that surprised me here. I do think Booster will provide a good approximation as to what you’re actual grade will be. I watched all the videos for this section but honestly, I think the notes are more than enough and at times more thorough. Some of the calculation questions I got were odd numbers and I wasted some time here but other than that it wasn’t different than Booster in difficulty.
Organic Chemistry (Scored: 400)
I had no memory of anything OChem related from my undergrad classes, so I chose to make my own reaction sheet and memorize all the reactions. I would go over the reaction sheet every couple of days to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. My exam had less reactions and more HNMR, CNMR, spectroscopy etc. Some reaction questions entailed guessing the reaction based off of solvent (for elimination and substitution reactions). I did not watch any of the videos for this section and relied solely on the notes and I found that to be enough!
Physics (Scored: 370)
I haven’t done Physics since high school, so I really was doing Physics from scratch. It was a slow start, but practice really does make perfect here! I watched all the Physics videos, but I found them to not be the greatest as the information provided in them was kind of surface-level. I opted to just study the notes and that was sufficient. I went over Physics top to bottom a total of 3 times during my studying and of course took every practice test. It is really important to build stamina here.
Reading Comprehension (Scored: 340)
I was a little surprised with the difficulty of this section on the real thing. I was getting 390s on the Booster practice tests but I found that the real thing had a lot more in-depth questions that required a deep understanding of the text, so the method that I had been using in my practice tests did not fair out well. However, I think the passages on Booster are representative of the length/difficulty of passages on the real thing!
Quantitative Reasoning (Scored: 380)
I think this was by far the section Booster was most representative of. I had a couple questions with the exact same wording as Booster! And I also scored exactly what I expected to get. I had a healthy mix of probability questions, geometry, algebra + a couple of unit conversion questions. The practice tests are great study materials for this section so make sure to do all of them if possible! Stamina is also really important here!
Last words
I had read someone else say they wish they had listened to their senior friends when they said the OAT was not as bad as they thought, and I agree! Have faith in the effort you’ve put in! Make sure to get a good night’s sleep, have a good breakfast the day of, and take your Physics and QR formula sheets with you if you’d like as you’ll likely have access to your lockers during your scheduled 30-minute break (which I recommend not skipping!).
Study materials:
OATBooster 9.5/10
Booster is the only resource I used, and I truly believe it is the only resource you need to succeed on this test. They cover every possible topic you can get tested on and the question banks + practice tests will cover several different variations of questions that might come up on the OAT. The only thing keeping me from giving a 10/10 rating is that I think the Physics videos could have been more comprehensive, but the notes made up for it!
How I studied
I initially had my test scheduled for July 13 and had started studying on May 1st right after final exams but ended up postponing my exam to July 25th as I wanted to go over Physics a few more times. I studied for around 11 weeks (6-7 days a week) and was following OATBooster’s 10 week schedule up until the Phase 3 where I opted to do my own thing and review the topics that I felt I needed more practice in. During this time, I was also working part-time so I’d study around 5-6 hours after work each day. By the end of my studying, I had done every single question from the question banks for all sections + had written all the practice tests for all sections.
Biology (Scored: 400)
I found the Bio section on my test to be way broader than the Booster practice tests. I also didn’t have many Taxonomy questions. Of course, this will vary from test version to test version, so I highly recommend going over all the topics thoroughly. The animated videos were a great way to review the denser topics like Immunology and Embryology near the end of my studying. I think if you’re tight on time, focusing on just the cheat sheets could very well get you a great score! I also did not use any of the flash cards (Quizlet/Anki) as I never found them helpful personally but do what works best for you!
General Chemistry (Scored: 360)
I think Booster was very representative for this section. Not really many questions that surprised me here. I do think Booster will provide a good approximation as to what you’re actual grade will be. I watched all the videos for this section but honestly, I think the notes are more than enough and at times more thorough. Some of the calculation questions I got were odd numbers and I wasted some time here but other than that it wasn’t different than Booster in difficulty.
Organic Chemistry (Scored: 400)
I had no memory of anything OChem related from my undergrad classes, so I chose to make my own reaction sheet and memorize all the reactions. I would go over the reaction sheet every couple of days to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. My exam had less reactions and more HNMR, CNMR, spectroscopy etc. Some reaction questions entailed guessing the reaction based off of solvent (for elimination and substitution reactions). I did not watch any of the videos for this section and relied solely on the notes and I found that to be enough!
Physics (Scored: 370)
I haven’t done Physics since high school, so I really was doing Physics from scratch. It was a slow start, but practice really does make perfect here! I watched all the Physics videos, but I found them to not be the greatest as the information provided in them was kind of surface-level. I opted to just study the notes and that was sufficient. I went over Physics top to bottom a total of 3 times during my studying and of course took every practice test. It is really important to build stamina here.
Reading Comprehension (Scored: 340)
I was a little surprised with the difficulty of this section on the real thing. I was getting 390s on the Booster practice tests but I found that the real thing had a lot more in-depth questions that required a deep understanding of the text, so the method that I had been using in my practice tests did not fair out well. However, I think the passages on Booster are representative of the length/difficulty of passages on the real thing!
Quantitative Reasoning (Scored: 380)
I think this was by far the section Booster was most representative of. I had a couple questions with the exact same wording as Booster! And I also scored exactly what I expected to get. I had a healthy mix of probability questions, geometry, algebra + a couple of unit conversion questions. The practice tests are great study materials for this section so make sure to do all of them if possible! Stamina is also really important here!
Last words
I had read someone else say they wish they had listened to their senior friends when they said the OAT was not as bad as they thought, and I agree! Have faith in the effort you’ve put in! Make sure to get a good night’s sleep, have a good breakfast the day of, and take your Physics and QR formula sheets with you if you’d like as you’ll likely have access to your lockers during your scheduled 30-minute break (which I recommend not skipping!).
