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- Jul 27, 2010
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Took the OAT finally! I studied for this test for 3 months, with the last month being very very serious studying.
Materials Used:
Chad's Videos - these are a TON of help and teach you and review a LOT of stuff that will possibly be on the exam, and his quizzes help enforce the stuff too. I used him for Orgo, Gen Chem and Physics. I also used his bio quizzes too for practice (bio part is free).
Kaplan - I used the big fat book for Biology and Math only. Their bio is so dense but it does cover the basics you need to know. I'd definitely not skim the bio, but read it and take notes and then reread those notes here and there and make sure you understand it completely. For math, they teach you a lot of what you need to know too.
DAT Destroyer - Used this for practice. It's the same as the OAT destroyer but without physics, but I used it because a friend had already bought it so I bummed off her. The questions here are hard, harder than the real exam, but you learn a TON from it too. Do as many as you can, and note down the concepts you didn't know. I did this for all the sciences and math too.
Princeton Cracking the OAT: I bought this book last minute (literally, i bought it 2 days before my exam) because from taking practice exams, I was so weak in my Physics and thought Chad didn't prepare me enough for the OAT Physics (general consensus is his Physics is more MCAT orientated). However, I did go HAAM on it and read about 150 pages in those 2 days. They do a good job of re-enforcing material. I'd definitely recommend this book for physics WITH Chad's videos.
Practice Exams:
ADA Sample Exam: I took this exam 3 weeks before my real exam, and it was before I reviewed everything once again so I was "not ready". I ended with like a 350 on this exam. A lot of people say it is easier than the real thing, I think the sciences were a little easier for sure, reading was a good practice, physics was a good representative of the real exam, math was a little easier than the actual OAT.
Top Score: For $60 you get 3 practice exams in a software identical to the real OAT. I took all 3 and here's there results:
- Test1 (2 weeks before exam) / Test 2 (1 week before)/ Test 3 (4 days before)
Bio: 360/350/350
Gen Chem: 310/310/310
Orgo: 340/360/350
Reading: 300/300/310 (A big 'wtf' because I was getting 32-34 out of 40 right but still only getting a ~310)
Physics: 280/260/270
QR: 310/310/350
TS: (doesn't generate a score)
AA: 316/315/323
As you can see, I began FREAKING out on physics (hence that last min Princeton buy). Top Score gave some hardcore questions Chad (and I) never explained/saw. It was 70% calculations, 30% concepts. However, disregarding Physics, the practice exams were very valuable representations of the sciences, reading and math of the real exam. The scoring scales are definitely lower than the actual OAT, but I guess it causes you to study hard/not undermine the real exam. But content wise, I recommend this software.
Exam Time
Exam was @ 9am. I did study hard the night before. I knew I was weak in some areas, and used that day to make sure I had all the formulas for Gen chem, physics and math down. Reviewed some reactions too. I know people say to relax the night before, but for me I literally forget stuff quickly. Made sure to get 8 hours of sleep though.
Got to exam room, the staff there were very friendly. Put stuff in locker (phone, wallet, keys, sandwich which I didn't even get to eat), got finger printed, signed in, and provided 2 laminated sheets and 2 very fine markers and assigned a computer and noise reducing headphones, read the tutorial a bit to calm nerves, then just said #!*k it and started.
Biology: Very random, as expected. A lot of questions on Genetics, respiration, division. I was NOT comfortable with this section. A lot of questions I had to re-read a few times to understand what is being asked, and it just wasn't straight forward. I felt demotivated and I was consuming my time in doing so. A lot of questions narrowed down to 2 answer choices, a few I just guessed.
Gen Chem: Gen chem was a subject I knew if given time, but as you see from my practice scores, it's something that I'm slow at. That's the best way to put. I didn't get much calculation based questions, and if they were, they were easy math (Chad and Destroyer had long 3-4 step math problems). But most was conceptual. Again, I felt like some questions I just didn't understand what it was asking for, but combined with the time and pressure, it is probably why. Another section went by, and I wasn't totally happy and time was running low.
Orgo: A lot of reactions! Which is good because it was my strong point. A conceptual question on SN1/Sn2, a enantiomer/identical compound/meso e.t.c. type question. A lot of NMR... i had 4+ questions on NMR surprisingly. Know the NAME of reactions too. I got a question asking what type of reaction is this, and it showed a reaction. Had 1 nomenclature problem, know chair configurations and most/least stable e.t.c. Chad covers most of this section, and destroyer definitely helps. Felt better after this section, but i only had a few mins left to go back to Marked questions, and I def needed more time.
Reading: Wasn't as bad as expected. I never really took the time to look up on RC. I just did the practice exams, however, a common technique I and many use is just numbering your paper, and for each paragraph, putting a key point or keyword. No full sentences, just an outline to find what keyword is, and briefly read the article, then go back to questions and work with your notes and see what the thing being asked is where. A few questions that were not straight forward/confusing, but definitely not bad. Just pay attention to time.
Break: Used bathroom, got myself together and relaxed a little. Computer shut down a minute into the break and I was transferred to another one. Exchanged my 2 sheets for 2 clean ones. Wrote down some physics equations and prayed to God physics isn't bad.
Physics: Was very very very conceptual. I've read both ends of the spectrum (mostly conceptual or mostly calculations), but mine was a lot of concepts. Even the calculation based ones required little/simple math. They have a tendency to provide you a lot of JUNK info when all you'd need is like 1 or 2 numbers, so know your stuff. Wasn't a lot of kinematics surprisingly, one unit question, a handful of electricity problems, one of those right hand rule problems and some momentum. There was a few i had no idea how to start/work, and time was running out, so I guessed. But I could tell, even before getting the score, that this section had went a TON better than my practice test and feelings.
QR: Heard of the horror stories with time and long word problems. Time is definitely a big factor, but was super lucky not to get a lot of word problems. I did get a LOT of trig problems. Some easy, some wasted a lot of time unfortunately. A lot of algebra too. Every practice test has those age problems and it was on here too. Know how to solve those! Some probability too. Overall, it wasn't too bad. TIP: A lot of algebra problems, word or number problems, can be solved much easily by back solving with answers. Seriously, half the questions I kind of used test answers and process of elimination. It works, and a lot of the times its faster than writing all that algebra. You CAN use the keyboard to write in the calculator, and that helped a LOT.
Done. Completed survey and heart was coming out of my chest as I clicked submit.
SCORES:
Bio: 350
Gen Chem: 330
Orgo: 360
RC: 350
Physics: 330 (!!)
QR: 350
TS: 350
AA: 350
Was beyond happy and surprised. Especially with the Bio and Physics... I honestly thought I could do a little better with Gen Chem, but I would have bit your hand off for those scores pre-test and survey haha.
Posting my story cause this forum and other stories helped me out tons. Lemme know if you have any questions.! 🙂
Materials Used:
Chad's Videos - these are a TON of help and teach you and review a LOT of stuff that will possibly be on the exam, and his quizzes help enforce the stuff too. I used him for Orgo, Gen Chem and Physics. I also used his bio quizzes too for practice (bio part is free).
Kaplan - I used the big fat book for Biology and Math only. Their bio is so dense but it does cover the basics you need to know. I'd definitely not skim the bio, but read it and take notes and then reread those notes here and there and make sure you understand it completely. For math, they teach you a lot of what you need to know too.
DAT Destroyer - Used this for practice. It's the same as the OAT destroyer but without physics, but I used it because a friend had already bought it so I bummed off her. The questions here are hard, harder than the real exam, but you learn a TON from it too. Do as many as you can, and note down the concepts you didn't know. I did this for all the sciences and math too.
Princeton Cracking the OAT: I bought this book last minute (literally, i bought it 2 days before my exam) because from taking practice exams, I was so weak in my Physics and thought Chad didn't prepare me enough for the OAT Physics (general consensus is his Physics is more MCAT orientated). However, I did go HAAM on it and read about 150 pages in those 2 days. They do a good job of re-enforcing material. I'd definitely recommend this book for physics WITH Chad's videos.
Practice Exams:
ADA Sample Exam: I took this exam 3 weeks before my real exam, and it was before I reviewed everything once again so I was "not ready". I ended with like a 350 on this exam. A lot of people say it is easier than the real thing, I think the sciences were a little easier for sure, reading was a good practice, physics was a good representative of the real exam, math was a little easier than the actual OAT.
Top Score: For $60 you get 3 practice exams in a software identical to the real OAT. I took all 3 and here's there results:
- Test1 (2 weeks before exam) / Test 2 (1 week before)/ Test 3 (4 days before)
Bio: 360/350/350
Gen Chem: 310/310/310
Orgo: 340/360/350
Reading: 300/300/310 (A big 'wtf' because I was getting 32-34 out of 40 right but still only getting a ~310)
Physics: 280/260/270
QR: 310/310/350
TS: (doesn't generate a score)
AA: 316/315/323
As you can see, I began FREAKING out on physics (hence that last min Princeton buy). Top Score gave some hardcore questions Chad (and I) never explained/saw. It was 70% calculations, 30% concepts. However, disregarding Physics, the practice exams were very valuable representations of the sciences, reading and math of the real exam. The scoring scales are definitely lower than the actual OAT, but I guess it causes you to study hard/not undermine the real exam. But content wise, I recommend this software.
Exam Time
Exam was @ 9am. I did study hard the night before. I knew I was weak in some areas, and used that day to make sure I had all the formulas for Gen chem, physics and math down. Reviewed some reactions too. I know people say to relax the night before, but for me I literally forget stuff quickly. Made sure to get 8 hours of sleep though.
Got to exam room, the staff there were very friendly. Put stuff in locker (phone, wallet, keys, sandwich which I didn't even get to eat), got finger printed, signed in, and provided 2 laminated sheets and 2 very fine markers and assigned a computer and noise reducing headphones, read the tutorial a bit to calm nerves, then just said #!*k it and started.
Biology: Very random, as expected. A lot of questions on Genetics, respiration, division. I was NOT comfortable with this section. A lot of questions I had to re-read a few times to understand what is being asked, and it just wasn't straight forward. I felt demotivated and I was consuming my time in doing so. A lot of questions narrowed down to 2 answer choices, a few I just guessed.
Gen Chem: Gen chem was a subject I knew if given time, but as you see from my practice scores, it's something that I'm slow at. That's the best way to put. I didn't get much calculation based questions, and if they were, they were easy math (Chad and Destroyer had long 3-4 step math problems). But most was conceptual. Again, I felt like some questions I just didn't understand what it was asking for, but combined with the time and pressure, it is probably why. Another section went by, and I wasn't totally happy and time was running low.
Orgo: A lot of reactions! Which is good because it was my strong point. A conceptual question on SN1/Sn2, a enantiomer/identical compound/meso e.t.c. type question. A lot of NMR... i had 4+ questions on NMR surprisingly. Know the NAME of reactions too. I got a question asking what type of reaction is this, and it showed a reaction. Had 1 nomenclature problem, know chair configurations and most/least stable e.t.c. Chad covers most of this section, and destroyer definitely helps. Felt better after this section, but i only had a few mins left to go back to Marked questions, and I def needed more time.
Reading: Wasn't as bad as expected. I never really took the time to look up on RC. I just did the practice exams, however, a common technique I and many use is just numbering your paper, and for each paragraph, putting a key point or keyword. No full sentences, just an outline to find what keyword is, and briefly read the article, then go back to questions and work with your notes and see what the thing being asked is where. A few questions that were not straight forward/confusing, but definitely not bad. Just pay attention to time.
Break: Used bathroom, got myself together and relaxed a little. Computer shut down a minute into the break and I was transferred to another one. Exchanged my 2 sheets for 2 clean ones. Wrote down some physics equations and prayed to God physics isn't bad.
Physics: Was very very very conceptual. I've read both ends of the spectrum (mostly conceptual or mostly calculations), but mine was a lot of concepts. Even the calculation based ones required little/simple math. They have a tendency to provide you a lot of JUNK info when all you'd need is like 1 or 2 numbers, so know your stuff. Wasn't a lot of kinematics surprisingly, one unit question, a handful of electricity problems, one of those right hand rule problems and some momentum. There was a few i had no idea how to start/work, and time was running out, so I guessed. But I could tell, even before getting the score, that this section had went a TON better than my practice test and feelings.
QR: Heard of the horror stories with time and long word problems. Time is definitely a big factor, but was super lucky not to get a lot of word problems. I did get a LOT of trig problems. Some easy, some wasted a lot of time unfortunately. A lot of algebra too. Every practice test has those age problems and it was on here too. Know how to solve those! Some probability too. Overall, it wasn't too bad. TIP: A lot of algebra problems, word or number problems, can be solved much easily by back solving with answers. Seriously, half the questions I kind of used test answers and process of elimination. It works, and a lot of the times its faster than writing all that algebra. You CAN use the keyboard to write in the calculator, and that helped a LOT.
Done. Completed survey and heart was coming out of my chest as I clicked submit.
SCORES:
Bio: 350
Gen Chem: 330
Orgo: 360
RC: 350
Physics: 330 (!!)
QR: 350
TS: 350
AA: 350
Was beyond happy and surprised. Especially with the Bio and Physics... I honestly thought I could do a little better with Gen Chem, but I would have bit your hand off for those scores pre-test and survey haha.
Posting my story cause this forum and other stories helped me out tons. Lemme know if you have any questions.! 🙂
