OAT experience

[Optometrydude]

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Hey guys, I recently wrote the OAT and wanted to share my experience of how I prepared for the test in hopes that future students may find this helpful!

Biology: I read through Cliff's notes once and made my own personal notes for things that I didn't really get the first time. Later on, I read the 85 page Feralis Bio notes to solidify my understanding (it also has things that are not in Cliffs notes). Lastly, I read DAT bootcamps taxonomy cheat sheet to nail down the differences between phyla. One thing to note is that IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW EVERYTHING FOR THE BIOLOGY SECTION AS THE QUESTIONS ON THE ACTUAL EXAM WILL BE VERY RANDOM.

Gen Chem, O chem, and Physics: I watched every video from CourseSaver (this will be the best $50 you'll every spend!) Once I finished the majority of the theory, I did a lot of quiz questions that come with CourseSaver. But one thing that was problematic was that there was no thermodynamics section on CourseSaver's website, so I got Kaplan's big book (you might be able to find this in the library) just to make sure that I wasn't missing anything.

Quantitative reasoning: Initially, I used CourseSaver to learn the actual material, but I found that when I did online practice QR tests, I was getting destroyed (like 50%!), so I had to look at other resources. Thankfully, I found a youtube channel known as "Nancy Steen" (I believe these guys are DAT prep organizers). I literally binge watched the 70 videos on this channel and this is what helped me BIG TIME.

RC: Nothing really (besides maybe reading some sports articles).

As for practice questions, I used the OAT Destroyer (which is waaaaaaaaaaaayy harder that what you'll see on the actual exam) as well as Crack the OAT.

Now, as everyone states, practice exams are key. I got the OAT achiever and this is how they compared to my actual OAT score

Ach 1/Ach 2/Ach 3/OAT

Bio: 380/310/320/400
Gen Chem: 340/350/320/360
O chem: 390/350/390/380
RC: 270/310/260/360
Physics: 310/300/300/390
QR: 200/310/320/400

Now let me tell you a little secret, for both the Achiever as well as the actual OAT, there were multiple questions where I had NO idea what the answer was (or how to solve it). But that's the beauty of multiple choice in that you can make educated guesses (and boy did I quite a few of those on my actual OAT). As for the actual exam, I would say that it is SLIGHTLY harder that the ADA practice exam (I also did it but I forgot my scores) but is much easier than the Achiever.

To finish off, the OAT exam really isn't that bad at all, just go into it humble and unassuming and just try your best; treat it like any regular exam and you will be fine! If you guys have any questions, let me know (but don't ask what I saw on the exam because I'm not allowed to answer that!).

 

[deleted958011]

Wow you did great! Congrats on your score!! Did you only use coursesaver and destroyer to prepare for orgo? I'm having trouble bringing up my score for that section 🙁

 

[lanaeyedoc2020]

Hey guys, I recently wrote the OAT and wanted to share my experience of how I prepared for the test in hopes that future students may find this helpful!

Biology: I read through Cliff's notes once and made my own personal notes for things that I didn't really get the first time. Later on, I read the 85 page Feralis Bio notes to solidify my understanding (it also has things that are not in Cliffs notes). Lastly, I read DAT bootcamps taxonomy cheat sheet to nail down the differences between phyla. One thing to note is that IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW EVERYTHING FOR THE BIOLOGY SECTION AS THE QUESTIONS ON THE ACTUAL EXAM WILL BE VERY RANDOM.

Gen Chem, O chem, and Physics: I watched every video from CourseSaver (this will be the best $50 you'll every spend!) Once I finished the majority of the theory, I did a lot of quiz questions that come with CourseSaver. But one thing that was problematic was that there was no thermodynamics section on CourseSaver's website, so I got Kaplan's big book (you might be able to find this in the library) just to make sure that I wasn't missing anything.

Quantitative reasoning: Initially, I used CourseSaver to learn the actual material, but I found that when I did online practice QR tests, I was getting destroyed (like 50%!), so I had to look at other resources. Thankfully, I found a youtube channel known as "Nancy Steen" (I believe these guys are DAT prep organizers). I literally binge watched the 70 videos on this channel and this is what helped me BIG TIME.

RC: Nothing really (besides maybe reading some sports articles).

As for practice questions, I used the OAT Destroyer (which is waaaaaaaaaaaayy harder that what you'll see on the actual exam) as well as Crack the OAT.

Now, as everyone states, practice exams are key. I got the OAT achiever and this is how they compared to my actual OAT score

Ach 1/Ach 2/Ach 3/OAT

Bio: 380/310/320/400
Gen Chem: 340/350/320/360
O chem: 390/350/390/380
RC: 270/310/260/360
Physics: 310/300/300/390
QR: 200/310/320/400

Now let me tell you a little secret, for both the Achiever as well as the actual OAT, there were multiple questions where I had NO idea what the answer was (or how to solve it). But that's the beauty of multiple choice in that you can make educated guesses (and boy did I quite a few of those on my actual OAT). As for the actual exam, I would say that it is SLIGHTLY harder that the ADA practice exam (I also did it but I forgot my scores) but is much easier than the Achiever.

To finish off, the OAT exam really isn't that bad at all, just go into it humble and unassuming and just try your best; treat it like any regular exam and you will be fine! If you guys have any questions, let me know (but don't ask what I saw on the exam because I'm not allowed to answer that!).

Hi! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and congrats on your score!!
I'm unsure of whether or not I should purchase the Achiever or not-- just because, like you said, it is a lot harder than the actual test. Did you find similar questions on the actual exam? Do you recommend purchasing the exams?

 

[Optometrydude]

Wow you did great! Congrats on your score!! Did you only use coursesaver and destroyer to prepare for orgo? I'm having trouble bringing up my score for that section 🙁

These were what I used to study for orgo. The destroyer has some topics that are not covered in Coursesaver and some of these ended up on my actual exam; however, it was only like 2 questions so I wouldn't stress too much about it.

Also, if you are struggling with orgo, I recommend watching Leah4Sci on youtube. I watched her a lot during undergrad and her tricks make organic chemistry much more simple (her tricks also apply to the OAT!)

Hope that helps, let me know if you got any more questions.

 

[deleted958011]

Thank you for your advice! I appreciate it!

 

[Optometrydude]

Hi! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and congrats on your score!!
I'm unsure of whether or not I should purchase the Achiever or not-- just because, like you said, it is a lot harder than the actual test. Did you find similar questions on the actual exam? Do you recommend purchasing the exams?

Hi there! On my exam, the questions were not that similar at all to the Achiever (both tested the same concepts but just very differently). I would only recommend purchasing the exams if you want the practice (you'll see stuff that won't be covered in Coursesaver -- but none of those showed up on my exam so take that as you will).

 

[Eyedoctora.2]

Congrats on your scores! I'm taking my OAT in a week! Were Chad's quiz questions similar to questions you saw on the exam? I am using those as practice questions as I have heard from some other students that Chad's quizzes are pretty representative of the exam questions. Do you have any advice for QR and physics?

 

[Optometrydude]

Congrats on your scores! I'm taking my OAT in a week! Were Chad's quiz questions similar to questions you saw on the exam? I am using those as practice questions as I have heard from some other students that Chad's quizzes are pretty representative of the exam questions. Do you have any advice for QR and physics?

I'd say Chads quiz questions for O chem are on par with what you'll see on the OAT with respect to how difficult questions may be. His physics and G chem quizzes were slightly more simple than what you'll see but thats okay (his quizzes were also my main practice questions as well and it turned out okay! So if you're using his questions as practice keep going). My advice for physics would be to know when to use what formula (contrary to what a lot of people have said, the majority of my exam [>90% ] was calculation based). Also, I'd highly recommend buying Crack the OAT because it has thermodynamics that I was tested on (I also used Kaplans Big book). If you don't have time to go through the thermodynamics section its okay too, just look at what the question is asking, look at your givens, and try to do unit cancellation to arrive at an answer (that's what I did on my exam). As for QR, Chad's quizzes were too simple (case in point: I was getting destroyed when I was doing practice questions from other sources of practice questions). Thankfully, I found Nancy Steen on Youtube. I took 2 days to binge watch Nancy Steen's 70 Clip Youtube series like a week before my exam (and let me tell you, if I didn't I wouldn't have achieved the score that I got). So since you have a week, I'd fly through them if I were you. Hope that helps!

 

[Eyedoctora.2]

I'd say Chads quiz questions for O chem are on par with what you'll see on the OAT with respect to how difficult questions may be. His physics and G chem quizzes were slightly more simple than what you'll see but thats okay (his quizzes were also my main practice questions as well and it turned out okay! So if you're using his questions as practice keep going). My advice for physics would be to know when to use what formula (contrary to what a lot of people have said, the majority of my exam [>90% ] was calculation based). Also, I'd highly recommend buying Crack the OAT because it has thermodynamics that I was tested on (I also used Kaplans Big book). If you don't have time to go through the thermodynamics section its okay too, just look at what the question is asking, look at your givens, and try to do unit cancellation to arrive at an answer (that's what I did on my exam). As for QR, Chad's quizzes were too simple (case in point: I was getting destroyed when I was doing practice questions from other sources of practice questions). Thankfully, I found Nancy Steen on Youtube. I took 2 days to binge watch Nancy Steen's 70 Clip Youtube series like a week before my exam (and let me tell you, if I didn't I wouldn't have achieved the score that I got). So since you have a week, I'd fly through them if I were you. Hope that helps!

Thank you so much for the reply. It definitely helps!

 

[kln16]

I'd say Chads quiz questions for O chem are on par with what you'll see on the OAT with respect to how difficult questions may be. His physics and G chem quizzes were slightly more simple than what you'll see but thats okay (his quizzes were also my main practice questions as well and it turned out okay! So if you're using his questions as practice keep going). My advice for physics would be to know when to use what formula (contrary to what a lot of people have said, the majority of my exam [>90% ] was calculation based). Also, I'd highly recommend buying Crack the OAT because it has thermodynamics that I was tested on (I also used Kaplans Big book). If you don't have time to go through the thermodynamics section its okay too, just look at what the question is asking, look at your givens, and try to do unit cancellation to arrive at an answer (that's what I did on my exam). As for QR, Chad's quizzes were too simple (case in point: I was getting destroyed when I was doing practice questions from other sources of practice questions). Thankfully, I found Nancy Steen on Youtube. I took 2 days to binge watch Nancy Steen's 70 Clip Youtube series like a week before my exam (and let me tell you, if I didn't I wouldn't have achieved the score that I got). So since you have a week, I'd fly through them if I were you. Hope that helps!

hey! could you link me the Nancy steen videos?
or how I could fine them? Thanks!!

 

[futureODhopeful]

Congratulations on your scores!

Are the "Nancy steen" videos you were talking about this thread???