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- Pre-Optometry
I took the OAT in September and with only two months to prepare, I found many posts on SDN to be super helpful so I thought I'd share my experience for those that are also pressed on time with studying.
Study schedule:
For the first month of studying, I sat down for about 6 hours 4-5 days a week. For the last few weeks I had left, I felt unprepared so I studied 6-8 hours 6 days a week. I found it helpful to focus on one section for a week at a time. During my last week I reviewed all the sections and took practice tests to prepare.
Study materials:
Big Kaplan book, Princeton review (for physics), Chad's videos (only for Gchem & QR), Kaplan practice tests, OAT destroyer. I was thinking about taking a prep course at first but I decided to commit myself to self-studying so I could save $$$ because I knew I had the discipline.
Biology
For this section, I used the big Kaplan book to go over the basics but supplemented my studying with my own notes from taking bio courses. I was not too worried about this section because I am a bio major so the material was like review. The OAT destroyer included some tough questions that I had to guess on and for Kaplan practice tests I scored consistently around 350-360.
Gchem
I was nervous with the two chemistry sections because I did not do great while taking these courses. Using the Kaplan book was definitely not enough because I did horrible on OAT destroyer practice problems. I got a subscription to Chad's videos on coursesaver.com and it helped me tremendously! Chad's explanations are really really good because it really makes the important concepts stick. He went over the hardest problems you can encounter like acid base titrations and kinematics (imo). I had trouble with redox reactions during undergrad but Chad helped me a lot. When taking Kaplan practice tests I scored 320-330.
Ochem
I went over reactions like crazy and the OAT destroyer was VERY helpful because the problems integrated multiple reactions and provided road maps for various reactions a compound could undergo. I scored around 340 on the Kaplan practice tests for this section.
Physics
The Kaplan book was definitely not good enough when it comes to explaining the concepts. I purchased the Princeton OAT book (only physics section review) and it really helped my understand the concepts because the explanations were really helpful. The Princeton book was really easy to get through… I finished the book in a week and a half. Here is the bad part.. when I started to take Kaplan practice tests for the physics section I was scoring around 270 consistently… ): I thought I understood the material but the questions took me too long to calculate and some conceptual questions were confusing to me.
Quantitative Reasoning
I found Chad's videos really helpful. I did not use the Kaplan book.. I only used OAT destroyer problems and took Kaplan practice exams. Because I was running out of time and did not practice my algebra, I scored around 310 on the Kaplan practice tests ):
Reading Comprehension
To be completely honest.. I ran out of time. I did not practice AT ALL (not even practice tests in this section). How do you really practice this section really? Anyway, I was expecting to do really poor because I did not do well in the reading section of the SAT's.
EXAM DAY - you get two dry-erase sheets with a fine tip marker.
Biology: the questions were very similar to what you would get on Kaplan practice tests. I got a lot of genetics questions, which I am not super comfortable with so I know I did not score exceptionally high.
Gchem: to my surprise, there were very very few calculations. Most of the questions were conceptual and they were rather easy compared to what I expected and saw on practice tests. Chad's videos really helped me breeze through the questions. When there were calculations involved, they only required one or two steps and they were easy ones like using Hess's laws. I felt really confident because there weren't too many questions I had to guess on.
Ochem: the reactions were NOT hard. I was expecting the tougher reactions like with enols or claisen condensations but nope.. there were a lot of SN1 SN1 E1 E2 as expected. Aromatic reactions were important to know (i.e. which groups are activating/deactivating). There were very few questions I had to guess on so I felt good about this section.
Reading Comprehension: this section ended up to be a lot easier than I expected! I was expecting excerpts from peer review journal articles. On the actual exam, each reading was about 5-6 paragraphs and were NOT difficult to read. I found it helpful and time-effective to number the paragraphs on my scratch sheets and bullet point the main focus of that paragraph. That way when I came around to answer questions, I can refer to my "cheat sheet" and confirm my answers by checking the appropriate paragraph. I've read from other posts that a good way to look at these readings is just to try and read it out of enjoyment so that you can have a grasp on the content. Sounds silly but it really worked because with interest, I soaked in what I was reading.
Physics: During my break prior to this section, I wrote down all the kinematics equations on my scratch sheets so I could quickly refer to them during the exam.The problems were pretty similar, but a little easier, than Kaplan practice problems. I took a really long time trying to solve calculations so I ended up having to guess on the last 3-4 questions because I ran out of time ): I knew I did bad because I did not fully understand the conceptual questions. I suggest spending more time studying and practicing for this section if you do not do well on Kaplan practice exams.
QR: I got a LOT of algebraic expressions that were difficult to solve (I struggle a bit with algebra). The geometry questions were definitely doable but time consuming because they require multiple steps. There were a few tricky probability questions but Chad's videos helped me get through them. I also ran out of time with this section so I knew I did not do as well as I wanted to.
.. at this point I was pretty anxious to finish the survey because I knew my scores were a few clicks away. I really could not believe my eyes because I ended up doing really well in the chemistry sections when I knew I struggled with these courses in undergrad. These were my scores:
Bio - 350
Gchem - 390
Ochem - 390
RC - 370
Physics - 300 )):
QR - 320 ):
TS - 360
AA - 350
As you can see, I scored a lot higher across all the sections compared to my scores on practice tests. I am happy with my scores since I only had two months to study but if I had to do it all over again, I would have definitely spent more time taking practice tests (I only spent two days doing timed practice tests). It is one thing to be able to solve the problems (esp for physics and QR), it is another thing to do them under a heavy time constraint. I would have also spent more time on watching Chad's videos to reinforce concepts I struggled with. Anyway, GOOD LUCK with studying!! Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
Study schedule:
For the first month of studying, I sat down for about 6 hours 4-5 days a week. For the last few weeks I had left, I felt unprepared so I studied 6-8 hours 6 days a week. I found it helpful to focus on one section for a week at a time. During my last week I reviewed all the sections and took practice tests to prepare.
Study materials:
Big Kaplan book, Princeton review (for physics), Chad's videos (only for Gchem & QR), Kaplan practice tests, OAT destroyer. I was thinking about taking a prep course at first but I decided to commit myself to self-studying so I could save $$$ because I knew I had the discipline.
Biology
For this section, I used the big Kaplan book to go over the basics but supplemented my studying with my own notes from taking bio courses. I was not too worried about this section because I am a bio major so the material was like review. The OAT destroyer included some tough questions that I had to guess on and for Kaplan practice tests I scored consistently around 350-360.
Gchem
I was nervous with the two chemistry sections because I did not do great while taking these courses. Using the Kaplan book was definitely not enough because I did horrible on OAT destroyer practice problems. I got a subscription to Chad's videos on coursesaver.com and it helped me tremendously! Chad's explanations are really really good because it really makes the important concepts stick. He went over the hardest problems you can encounter like acid base titrations and kinematics (imo). I had trouble with redox reactions during undergrad but Chad helped me a lot. When taking Kaplan practice tests I scored 320-330.
Ochem
I went over reactions like crazy and the OAT destroyer was VERY helpful because the problems integrated multiple reactions and provided road maps for various reactions a compound could undergo. I scored around 340 on the Kaplan practice tests for this section.
Physics
The Kaplan book was definitely not good enough when it comes to explaining the concepts. I purchased the Princeton OAT book (only physics section review) and it really helped my understand the concepts because the explanations were really helpful. The Princeton book was really easy to get through… I finished the book in a week and a half. Here is the bad part.. when I started to take Kaplan practice tests for the physics section I was scoring around 270 consistently… ): I thought I understood the material but the questions took me too long to calculate and some conceptual questions were confusing to me.
Quantitative Reasoning
I found Chad's videos really helpful. I did not use the Kaplan book.. I only used OAT destroyer problems and took Kaplan practice exams. Because I was running out of time and did not practice my algebra, I scored around 310 on the Kaplan practice tests ):
Reading Comprehension
To be completely honest.. I ran out of time. I did not practice AT ALL (not even practice tests in this section). How do you really practice this section really? Anyway, I was expecting to do really poor because I did not do well in the reading section of the SAT's.
EXAM DAY - you get two dry-erase sheets with a fine tip marker.
Biology: the questions were very similar to what you would get on Kaplan practice tests. I got a lot of genetics questions, which I am not super comfortable with so I know I did not score exceptionally high.
Gchem: to my surprise, there were very very few calculations. Most of the questions were conceptual and they were rather easy compared to what I expected and saw on practice tests. Chad's videos really helped me breeze through the questions. When there were calculations involved, they only required one or two steps and they were easy ones like using Hess's laws. I felt really confident because there weren't too many questions I had to guess on.
Ochem: the reactions were NOT hard. I was expecting the tougher reactions like with enols or claisen condensations but nope.. there were a lot of SN1 SN1 E1 E2 as expected. Aromatic reactions were important to know (i.e. which groups are activating/deactivating). There were very few questions I had to guess on so I felt good about this section.
Reading Comprehension: this section ended up to be a lot easier than I expected! I was expecting excerpts from peer review journal articles. On the actual exam, each reading was about 5-6 paragraphs and were NOT difficult to read. I found it helpful and time-effective to number the paragraphs on my scratch sheets and bullet point the main focus of that paragraph. That way when I came around to answer questions, I can refer to my "cheat sheet" and confirm my answers by checking the appropriate paragraph. I've read from other posts that a good way to look at these readings is just to try and read it out of enjoyment so that you can have a grasp on the content. Sounds silly but it really worked because with interest, I soaked in what I was reading.
Physics: During my break prior to this section, I wrote down all the kinematics equations on my scratch sheets so I could quickly refer to them during the exam.The problems were pretty similar, but a little easier, than Kaplan practice problems. I took a really long time trying to solve calculations so I ended up having to guess on the last 3-4 questions because I ran out of time ): I knew I did bad because I did not fully understand the conceptual questions. I suggest spending more time studying and practicing for this section if you do not do well on Kaplan practice exams.
QR: I got a LOT of algebraic expressions that were difficult to solve (I struggle a bit with algebra). The geometry questions were definitely doable but time consuming because they require multiple steps. There were a few tricky probability questions but Chad's videos helped me get through them. I also ran out of time with this section so I knew I did not do as well as I wanted to.
.. at this point I was pretty anxious to finish the survey because I knew my scores were a few clicks away. I really could not believe my eyes because I ended up doing really well in the chemistry sections when I knew I struggled with these courses in undergrad. These were my scores:
Bio - 350
Gchem - 390
Ochem - 390
RC - 370
Physics - 300 )):
QR - 320 ):
TS - 360
AA - 350
As you can see, I scored a lot higher across all the sections compared to my scores on practice tests. I am happy with my scores since I only had two months to study but if I had to do it all over again, I would have definitely spent more time taking practice tests (I only spent two days doing timed practice tests). It is one thing to be able to solve the problems (esp for physics and QR), it is another thing to do them under a heavy time constraint. I would have also spent more time on watching Chad's videos to reinforce concepts I struggled with. Anyway, GOOD LUCK with studying!! Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
